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Trump Still Refusing to Concede Election; Biden Names Economic Team; COVID Surge Expected. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired November 30, 2020 - 15:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[15:00:25]

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN HOST: Hi there. You're watching CNN on this Monday. I'm Brooke Baldwin. Thank you for being here.

A second vaccine maker is now applying for emergency use authorization today, just as the U.S. health secretary is making a prediction on how soon those shots could be rolled out.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALEX AZAR, U.S. HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES SECRETARY: General Perna has said from Operation Warp Speed that we will ship within 24 hours of FDA authorization. So we could be seeing both of these vaccines out and getting into people's arms before Christmas.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: To be clear, Secretary Alex Azar is talking about the first round of vaccines, which are expected to be prioritized for health care workers and the elderly, absolutely welcome news, nonetheless.

Hospitals across the country are bracing for a post-Thanksgiving surge as well. But before enough time passes for those new COVID cases to even register, the numbers are already catastrophic. Yesterday marked the 27th consecutive day that the U.S. topped 100,000 new infections.

And we now know that over 30 percent of all COVID cases happened in November. Despite just the staggering numbers here, the president had one thing on his schedule today, a weekly lunch with Vice President Mike Pence. Otherwise, he is continuing to keep his focus on pushing outright lies about the election on Twitter.

But while Trump is stuck in the past, president-elect Joe Biden and his V.P.-elect, Kamala Harris, they are pushing forward. They are finally receiving their first daily intelligence briefings today, after President Trump held up the transition for weeks and weeks.

They are also announcing some crucial new economic positions within his administration. And we will get into how those folks could help the country out of this pandemic.

But I want to begin with my colleague Erica Hill, who has more on just where this country stands today.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ERICA HILL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): New freezers at hospitals, planes at the ready, pharmacies gearing up, as a coronavirus vaccine gets closer.

ADM. BRETT GIROIR, U.S. ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES: And we should have enough vaccine by the end of the year to immunize 20 million Americans.

HILL: Moderna now says its vaccine is 100 percent effective at preventing severe cases of the virus. Health care workers will likely be the first to receive an approved vaccine. The CDC is meeting on that tomorrow.

And then, once it's widely available:

DR. LEANA WEN, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: We can get back to normal. Kids can be back in school. We can be working, and, very importantly, we can see our loved ones again.

HILL: To do that, we need less of this:

DR. JONATHAN REINER, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: If you have traveled on Thanksgiving, on the Thanksgiving holiday, you should assume you have been infected or exposed to the virus.

HILL: And more of this:

DR. JEROME ADAMS, SURGEON GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES: It's going to get worse over the next several weeks.

HILL: New cases added in November, more than 4.2 five million, now account for 30 percent of all confirmed cases since the pandemic began.

COVID-19 hospitalizations have never been higher, the U.S. now averaging nearly 90,000 a day.

CARRIE SAIA, CEO, HOLTON COMMUNITY HOSPITAL: Over 50 percent of our patients now are COVID-positive patients.

HILL: Dr. Joseph Varon has been on the job for the last 256 days straight.

DR. JOSEPH VARON, UNITED MEMORIAL MEDICAL CENTER: I do this day in and day out. And people are out there doing the wrong thing. People are out there in bars, restaurants, malls. I mean, it is crazy. It's like, we work, work, work, work, work, and people don't listen, and then they end up in my ICU.

HILL: Hospitalizations in California just surpassed the state's high set back in July, Los Angeles County now under a strict three week stay-at-home order.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This virus is not going to go away.

HILL: Hospitals in Rhode Island just hit capacity on the first day of the state's two-week pause, gyms, bar areas and indoor entertainment closed, but schools remain open. New York City's youngest students will return for in-person learning next week.

BILL DE BLASIO (D), MAYOR OF NEW YORK: We had to reset the equation to create something that would be sustainable for the long haul.

HILL: As hospitals brace for a post-Thanksgiving surge, the message is clear: Now is not the time to let down your guard.

DR. DEBORAH BIRX, WHITE HOUSE CORONAVIRUS RESPONSE COORDINATOR: If your governor or your mayor isn't doing the policies that we know are critical, masking, physical distancing, avoiding bars, avoiding crowded indoor areas, if those restrictions don't exist in your state, you need to take it upon yourself to be restrictive.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HILL: And, Brooke, speaking of restrictions, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who hasn't been seen for some time taking press questions at pressers from reporters, was just asked today about that asked, about mask mandates.

[15:05:00]

He's doubling down at this point. He said he does not have any plans to issue one. He said that it hasn't worked in other states. I should point out cases continuing to rise there in Florida, doctors that we have spoken with concerned about hospitals. And the state is now just shy of a million cumulative cases.

It would be the third state to hit that mark.

BALDWIN: Which is frustrating for so many mayors in Florida, who want to implement those mask mandates, and the governor is keeping them from doing so.

Erica Hill, thank you so much for the broader look.

I want to focus in now on those two coronavirus vaccines that are the closest to distribution.

CNN senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen is with me now on that.

And so, Elizabeth, Secretary Azar says the first doses could be rolled out by Christmas. Obviously, health care workers are priority number one, but when can more regular folks like us get the vaccine?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: OK, so, Brooke, if by us, you mean we're under 65, we're not health care workers, we don't have any big underlying medical issues, we're not essential workers, we're not police officers or firefighters, likely, we won't be able to get a vaccine until the end of April, at the earliest. First, they have to give it to all those groups that I just mentioned.

If you're not one of those high-risk groups, again, probably starting to be able to get vaccinated at the end of April, but it might not be until May, June, July.

BALDWIN: And how will it be distributed?

COHEN: So, this vaccine is being distributed to sites in every state.

And so the way that it's going to work with this first batch from Pfizer and Moderna is that it goes out to specific points, and then it can be given to people. The one from Pfizer needs to be kept at a super, super low temperature. So, that one will likely be given, not in doctor's offices or pharmacies, because those don't have the right freezers, but rather at research universities, which do have the right freezers.

BALDWIN: And then, with both Moderna and Pfizer, it's two vaccines in total, correct? And how far apart do we need to get those vaccines?

COHEN: Right.

So, it's two doses. You get one dose. And then between three and four weeks later, you get a second dose. This is a very big deal, because it means that every person needs two doses, so you need to make more of it. Also, people need to remember to show up for their second dose. Sometimes, these vaccines make people feel a little bit sick, a little bit of body aches, a little bit of fatigue.

There's some concern that people are going to get the first dose, feel a little bit yicky, and not so what for the second. That would really be a problem.

BALDWIN: And how much will the vaccine cost us?

COHEN: For -- it should be -- in the United States, it should be free.

And, Brooke, that's because we already paid for it. Taxpayer dollars went to buy this vaccine and in some cases to even just develop this vaccine. So, when it comes on the market, we're supposed to be able to just walk in and get it for free.

BALDWIN: Great.

Elizabeth, thank you very much.

COHEN: Thanks.

BALDWIN: I have got more questions for my doctor waiting in the wings here, Dr. Amy Compton-Phillips. She's the chief clinical officer at Providence Health System in Seattle.

So, Dr. Compton-Phillips, welcome to you. Great to have you on.

DR. AMY COMPTON-PHILLIPS, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: Thank you so much. BALDWIN: What do you think? Do you think health care workers can

count on getting this vaccine in 25 days?

COMPTON-PHILLIPS: Well, I definitely think there's a whole lot of health care workers that are hoping we can make it happen within 25 days.

The need for the vaccine is enormous right now. We have people that are putting themselves on the line daily. We still have, believe it or not -- 10 months into this crisis, we still have limitations on PPE.

And so, every day, we have exhausted health care workers that are doing their best to care for the public. And that's why they're first in line. There's a lot of individuals who are thinking that give it to the people at highest risk first.

Well, health care workers are at the highest risk. And we won't have anybody to take care of everybody else that comes to the hospital unless we can get them immunized. So we're making sure we can get those details done and get these shots in people's arms.

BALDWIN: Of course.

What is the plan at your hospital for administering the vaccine? Like, how deep into the planning process are you?

COMPTON-PHILLIPS: Very deep into the planning process.

We have been going now with our plans for about three months, trying to make sure we know all the individual roles of every person we have across our health care system, so -- because we're not going to have every single high-risk person has availability on day one.

So, we have got to start rolling this out in a cadence that feels fair, that feels equitable, and that feels achievable. And so we have been planning for a long time, because of all the challenging logistics that you have been hearing about, that we knew we were going to have to have things ready to go on the day that the vaccine is available.

BALDWIN: And we talk about these two vaccines in particular, Pfizer and Moderna.

What is the biggest difference between the two? And then how are people and doctors supposed to determine which vaccine to get, if they even have a choice?

COMPTON-PHILLIPS: They're very, very similar. They're both mRNA-type vaccines, messenger RNA vaccines, that code for a protein that makes you much more immune to coronavirus. And so they're very similar.

[15:10:01]

One, you get the -- both require a primer shot and then a booster shot, so shots. And, one, you get the booster at three weeks, one at four weeks. One is kept at colder temperatures. But both are highly effective. And they are reasonably interchangeable, unless you -- they're not interchangeable in the point that, if you get the primer shot for one, you need to get the booster shot for that same one.

So, you can't get the--

BALDWIN: You need to follow through, get the two doses with the -- make up your mind.

COMPTON-PHILLIPS: Yes. Yes. You have got to get the same one.

BALDWIN: Sure.

COMPTON-PHILLIPS: Right. Exactly, one or the other.

BALDWIN: Here's something else I was wondering about, because after health care workers get it, presumably, the elderly are next in line. And I know a lot of us are thinking about our parents or our grandparents.

You know, what's the cutoff age for that group? And how soon can they get it?

COMPTON-PHILLIPS: We will be hearing that when we get the recommendations from the ACIP, the group that advises the CDC on who and how.

And so they're supposed to be issuing their recommendations some time around December 11.

BALDWIN: Great.

COMPTON-PHILLIPS: And so we will be able to get all the specifics on how, when, and in what order.

BALDWIN: If someone has already had COVID, should they get the vaccine?

COMPTON-PHILLIPS: They should still get the vaccine right now. We're not planning on testing for antibodies prior to vaccinating people.

BALDWIN: OK.

And then, last question, how soon after getting both doses of the vaccine is it effective, like, immediately or what?

COMPTON-PHILLIPS: Your risk should be lowered almost right away, because, again, with that booster shot, you have been given that booster shot, your immune system is revved up and ready to go.

BALDWIN: Wonderful.

Dr. Amy Compton-Phillips, thank you so much for all of that.

COMPTON-PHILLIPS: Thank you.

BALDWIN: We will get you back to all the COVID news, but I want to talk about the transition, the Biden transition.

It's picking up speed today, president-elect Joe Biden getting his first presidential daily briefing and naming several new members of his team, all the while he suffered a fracture in his foot. We have all the details for you on that ahead.

And President Trump continues, as we mentioned, to make these baseless claims about the election. How long will Republican leaders, like the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, stay silent?

And New York City scrapping a key threshold to reopen schools. Why the big reversal?

You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

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[15:16:31]

BALDWIN: We're back. You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

President-elect Joe Biden is making more transition moves today. After weeks of delay, Biden and vice president-elect Kamala Harris are getting their first presidential daily briefings today. They also announced some new team members.

The big announcement today, the economic team. Biden made history again, naming the first women and people of color to these key positions. And CNN has learned Biden has narrowed down his choice for defense secretary.

So, for all of that, let's go to CNN political correspondent M.J. Lee

And so, M.J., who did he announce today as part of his team?

M.J. LEE, CNN NATIONAL POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brooke, this is such a critical team, because this is the team that will be spearheading Biden's efforts on the economic recovery in the middle of this ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

A couple of names worth mentioning. Janet Yellen is being chosen as his Treasury secretary pick. We have been reporting this name for a while. She would be making history, if she is confirmed, serving as the first woman in that role. We also have Neera Tanden, who is currently the head of the Center for American Progress. She has been chosen to lead the Office of Management and Budget.

And we also have Cecilia Rouse. She is a Princeton economist who has been chosen to be Biden's head of the Council of Economic Advisers. All three of those roles I just mentioned, I should note, will require congressional approval.

Now, while the announcement came today, we also expect an in-person event tomorrow introducing some of these folks. So that should be taking place tomorrow here in Wilmington, Delaware -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: What about secretary of defense? We haven't had an announcement just yet. Who are names being floated around?

LEE: That's right.

It's interesting. Last week, we saw Biden announce some members of his national security team, but there were some omissions, including who he is going to choose as his CIA director and defense secretary as well, as you said.

A couple of names that have been out there as some of the leading contenders for this role include Michele Flournoy. This is a veteran Pentagon official. We also have Jeh Johnson, who formally served as the secretary of homeland security. We also have Lloyd Austin, a retired Army general.

Obviously, we know -- and Biden has talked about this a lot -- diversity in some of these top roles is very, very important to him, whether it is appointing women to senior roles, whether it is racial diversity, ideological diversity. So, we know that this is some of -- some of the things that Biden and his team are thinking through, as they wait to make these big announcements in some of these key Cabinet positions in the coming weeks.

BALDWIN: We will talk more later in the show about the diversity and how -- what sort of message it's sending to America.

M.J., thank you.

As for the current administration, as many Americans celebrated Thanksgiving weekend as best they could in the middle of a pandemic, President Trump gave his first TV air -- quote -- "interview" since losing the election.

Instead of discussing how families are plagued by loss of life or loss of health, loss of financial security, President Trump's interview was riddled with lies and conspiracy theories. And he was allowed to speak on TV with no pushback, no pushback from the person who conducted the interview, and no major pushback from Republicans in Congress, Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy.

So, let's be clear. President Trump lost the election. His legal defeats are piling up. And Joe Biden will become the next president of the United States in 51 days.

With me now, our White House correspondent, Kaitlan Collins.

And, Kaitlan, what is on the president's scheduled today?

[15:20:03]

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Not much Brooke. We actually haven't seen the president hold that many public appearances since he lost that election.

And he's only held probably a handful in the last few weeks. And, today, the only thing on his schedule was a lunch with the vice president, which he does weekly. But, other than that, he was not slated to appear in front of cameras. We only saw him this weekend when he went golfing and on his return from Camp David, where he was with his family.

But, of course, we have continued to hear from the president in that interview, which was this really -- amounted to this airing of grievances that you have heard from the president, as he is continuing to lash out over the results of this election.

And what you're seeing today play out and something that's started to play out over the last few days is, the president is taking his anger out on people who were once considered to be his allies, people like the governor of Georgia, Brian Kemp, who the president went after yesterday, saying he was ashamed to have endorsed him, when he did, of course, in that governor's race.

And then he was tweeting him today, telling him he needed to use these nonexistent emergency powers to overrule the secretary of state there in Georgia. And the secretary of state pushed back on that, saying what the president was asking for, another matching of ballot signatures and what was on the envelope, it's just impractical, because they verify them once they arrive. Then they separate them.

But then Brian Kemp, who normally does not push back on the president, Brooke, put out his own statement from his office, saying that he can't interfere in the election, and that he does not have the authority that the president is saying that he does in his tweet.

But seeing the president go after people like Brian Kemp, to see him go after people like the official that he installed as the person in charge of securing the election, who, of course, he later fired, is just really this effort by the president to continue to push back on these results and say that, obviously, he does not like the way they turned out.

But whether or not it's changing the outcome, we know it's not. No audit or recount or any legal challenge that you have seen on behalf of the president and his team has changed any of this. So, he's going to continue to lash out, but, of course, materially, nothing is changing.

BALDWIN: Listen, if you're in Georgia, and you are a fan of this president, and you're a Republican, and you have this president saying, essentially, I don't trust the secretary of state, why am I going to go vote in that special election run-off?

I'm just wondering what Republicans are thinking on all of that.

Kaitlan, thank you.

I want to pick up on that point in a couple others. Let's dive into conversation.

Gloria Borger is with me and Sabrina Siddiqui.

So, Gloria, first to you.

Just let's big-picture this first. When it comes to the current president, where are Mitch McConnell and other Senate leaders?

GLORIA BORGER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Somewhere sitting under a rock, I think. They refuse to acknowledge the obvious, at least not publicly and not out in the open.

And that's because they are looking in the short term. They're not thinking about the president undermining democracy. I would bet that a lot of these people, most of these people, if not all of these people, believe that the election was free and fair, maybe save for one or two. But they don't want to poke the bear because they're worried about Georgia.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: The bear lost.

BORGER: Huh?

BALDWIN: The bear lost.

BORGER: The bear--

(LAUGHTER)

BORGER: The bear lost and refuses to come out of hibernation. OK, that's enough of that metaphor. But the bear did lose.

And so -- but they're not going to say it because they don't want to anger him, because he did win more than 70 million votes. And they need him in Georgia if they're going to win these run-offs. And so they don't want to do anything, they don't want to do anything, where he's going to say, you know what, guys, I don't really care. Go on without me.

BALDWIN: Listen, I get that they need him in Georgia.

BORGER: Yes.

BALDWIN: And we were reporting over the holiday weekend that he said he is going to go to Georgia.

Sabrina, this is for you. But to Kaitlan's point a second ago, the president spent this morning railing against the election officials there in Georgia. The secretary of state, who is a Republican, in a rare moment put out this statement saying that Trump is misleading his supporters with these false claims and half-truths.

My question is, how much might Trump be hurting the Republicans in this race, Sabrina, as he continues to call the election process into question?

SABRINA SIDDIQUI, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, that's a concern that I'm hearing from a number of Republicans I have spoken with, who have expressed concern that President Trump's criticism of Georgia and its process and repeated efforts to undermine the integrity of the outcome in Georgia might dissuade some Republican voters from showing up at the polls.

And control of the Senate very much hangs in the balance and hinges on these two run-off elections on January 5. And if you think about the 2020 election more broadly, one of the reasons that President Trump lost was because his campaign simply was not able to overcome the amount, the number of mail-in ballots that were cast in favor of president-elect Joe Biden.

And it may be that the president's attacks on absentee ballots and mail-in ballots may have caused his own supporters to -- not to trust the integrity of the electoral process going into the November general election.

[15:25:11]

We already have seen that scenario play out to some extent. And that's something that Republicans are very concerned about as they head into those all important run-off elections in Georgia. And, just more broadly, it's not a good look when you have infighting within the Republican Party in the state that will very much determine control of the Senate, including from the two incumbent Republicans, who, as we know, called for Georgia's Republican secretary of state to resign.

BALDWIN: Yes. Yes. Again, it's controlling the U.S. Senate. And that's why this matters so much.

Gloria, is it incumbent upon other Republicans in the Senate to jump in here? I mean, Senate Republicans have a choice. Whether or not they speak up will have a direct impact, as Sabrina said, on the fate of the U.S. Senate.

What should those Republican senators be saying?

BORGER: They have a choice, but it's not like it's a Sophie's Choice. It's an easy choice to me.

The choice is to say, let's move on. This election was not rigged. The one in Georgia is going to be fair and not rigged. And you need to vote for, if you're a Republican saying this, the Republican candidate.

And they're hoist on their own petard, because if they refuse to say that the presidential election was safe, what happens to them when they now try and say, oh, that was the presidential, but Georgia will be safe?

BALDWIN: Exactly.

BORGER: And that's why, as Sabrina says, these people are asking the chairman of the RNC, well, shouldn't we stay home? And so they have created this situation, with Donald Trump leading the way on this situation.

I'm sure Mitch McConnell is nervous about it and unhappy about it. But because they have refused to speak prior to this, it's hard to see that they get any more courage or decency now. And I think they have got themselves in a pickle, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Speaking of courage, last quick question to you, Sabrina.

Will Congress get back to work this week and do something for the American people and get this stimulus plan done?

SIDDIQUI: Well, that's been the hope.

I think it's striking that, even as we are seeing record numbers of new coronavirus cases across the country, and, of course, the economic impact of this ongoing pandemic, there still has not been another COVID relief package that has been sent to the president's desk, the two parties still, of course, very much at odds over not only what a package might look like, but whether there will be one by the year's end at all.

And so, look, I think that the president, as we're noting, is missing in action himself. He has not, in this now lame-duck session, tried to use his influence or the bully pulpit to urge Congress to pass some kind of relief for the American people.

And so that may very well fall on the incoming administration. But there are still talks going on, on Capitol Hill. And, certainly, people are holding out hope, as we have a record number of cases across the country, that perhaps they might get something done by the end of the year or -- whether it falls in the new administration, that remains to be seen.

BALDWIN: We didn't need a reminder of how bad it is. But I was talking to the mayor of Houston on Friday. He had helped hand out 20,000 meals with a wonderful organization down there in Texas.

And he was saying to me, Brooke, the hardest part was all the people who passed up the free turkeys because they no longer have roofs over their heads. They no longer have the ovens, the kitchens in which to cook the turkeys. That is how bad it is. And that is how much people need assistance.

Sabrina and Gloria, ladies, thank you both so much.

BORGER: Thanks, Brooke.

BALDWIN: The nation's largest school district, New York City, is revealing its plan to reopen some schools, which includes scrapping a key threshold and starting weekly testing for students.

Should all schools follow suit? President Obama's former education secretary will join me live next.

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