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Historical All-Female White House Communication Team; Trump's False Claims in Fox News Interview; U.S. Health Officials Warns Surge in COVID-19 Cases in December; Iran's Top Nuclear Scientist Assassinated; Iran Vows Revenge For Killing Of Top Nuclear Scientist; Iran's Parliament Met To Discuss Killing Of Nuclear Scientist; U.S. Futures Fall As Historic Month Wraps Up. Aired 2-3a ET

Aired November 30, 2020 - 02:00   ET

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

[02:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN HOST (on camera): Hello and welcome to our viewers here in the United States and all around the world. I am Michael Holmes. You are watching "CNN Newsroom."

Coming up here on the program, President-elect Biden making history as he announces more members of his team. Who they are and what's expected to follow.

Also, there are record numbers of Americans in hospital right now with coronavirus. We look at where the new restrictions might finally control spread, and --

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UNKNOWN: The child or husband or their wife is dead. That's what we're doing.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: The highs, the lows, and what they are thankful for. Three doctors tell us what they've see on the front lines of this pandemic. Welcome everyone. The Biden transmission is in full swing. President-

elect Joe Biden will get his first presidential daily briefing on Monday. He is also building, as promised during the campaign, a government as diverse as America.

The senior White House communications team will be a big break from tradition, all posts filled by women. CNN has also learned he is set to name some key members of his economic team on Monday including the long expected announcement of Janet Yellen as treasury secretary and two other women in top roles to help him navigate the country's economic recovery.

But there has been a slight issue, a slight health issue for Mr. Biden on Saturday, suffering hairline fractures in his foot after slipping while playing with his dog. CNN's M.J. Lee with the details. M.J. LEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: President-elect Joe Biden, paying a

visit to the doctor's office on Sunday. The transition office, announcing on Sunday that on Saturday, he had an incident where he was playing with his dog, Major, slipped and twisted his ankle so he visited an orthopedist.

The Biden transition team also making a slew of announcements on Sunday as well including key women who will be serving in his White House communications team. Some names worth mentioning include Kate Bedingfield, who is being named the White House communications director.

Jen Psaki who will be standing behind the podium as press secretary. We also have Symone Sanders who will be the chief spokesperson for Vice President-elect Kamala Harris. And also Karine Jean-Pierre who is being named the principal deputy press secretary.

Now, looking ahead to what else to expect on Monday, the Biden transition team is expected to formally announce some key members of Biden's future economic team including Janet Yellen who is expected to be named his treasury secretary. She would be the first woman to serve in that role if she is confirmed.

Two other names worth mentioning, Neera Tanden who is currently the head of The Center for American Progress. She is going to be named Biden's head of the Office of Management and Budget. And we also have Cecilia Rouse who will be named a head of Council of Economic Advisers.

Of course, it is worth noting that this is a group of women who will have their work cut out for them because they will be spearheading the economic recovery effort in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. M.J. Lee, CNN, Delaware.

HOLMES: Joe Biden's victory in Wisconsin was reaffirmed after a recount was completed in one of the state's largest county, but that didn't stop Mr. Trump from ranting about nonexistent election fraud on Fox News. Here is just a little.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES (via telephone): The whole world is watching and nobody can believe what they are saying. And you have leaders of countries that call me and say that's the most messed up election we've ever seen.

(END AUIDO CLIP)

HOLMES (on camera): CNN's Jeremy Diamond, following that story and details of the interview.

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, it was a stunning 45 minutes of lies, delusion, and disbelief from the president of the United States on Sunday as he phoned into a Fox News program for something that really didn't resemble an interview, but more of a conversation with the host of the show, Maria Bartoromo, even encouraging the president as he made these false claims and conspiracy theories about the 2020 election.

[02:04:58]

The president, continuing to make these baseless claims even in the face of the mounting evidence against his case -- 30-plus lawsuits brought forward by the president's campaign and their allies have been dismissed or withdrawn by those legal teams in state and federal court, in key battleground states across the country.

One of the latest blows to the president's attempts to claim voter fraud, coming in a series of federal cases in the state of Pennsylvania with one particularly strong review from a Trump appointed judge, Stephanos Bibas. He wrote this. "Calling an election unfair does not make it so. Charges require specific allegations and then proof.

We have neither here. The campaign's claims have no merit. And so that goes to pushback against all of the claims of thrown out ballots that the president was making, election observers not being allowed in the room, all of that debunked by these legal cases.

The president also continued to make this conspiracy theory, share this conspiracy theory about voting systems deleting or switching votes that were intended for him to President-elect Joe Biden.

That was somewhere that even Ronna McDaniel, the chairwoman of the Republican Party, she even wasn't willing to go that far this weekend as she campaigned in Georgia. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNKNOWN: Machines are switching the votes, and we go there in crazy numbers, and they should have won, but, then it's still --

RONNA MCDANIEL, CHAIRWOMAN, REPUBLICAN PARTY: Yes. We have to -- we didn't see that in the audit, so we've got to just -- that evidence, I haven't seen. So, we'll wait and see on that.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DIAMOND (on camera): And the president's efforts to call this election rigged also running into roadblocks as it relates to recounts and audits in key states like the audit in the state of Georgia that confirmed the results of that victory for Joe Biden.

Where the two recounts in two key counties in the state of Wisconsin, paid for by Donald Trump's campaign, $3 million recounts, that sends more votes, a minimal number, to Joe Biden, confirming the results of Joe Biden's victory over there.

Now, the president on Sunday did made clear this. Even as he said earlier this week that he would leave the White House on January 20th if the Electoral College does indeed confirm Joe Biden's victory in the 2020 election. He also said that he's not going to abandon this notion that this election was rigged. As false and as baseless as it may be, the president saying that even

six months from now, he will still maintain that this election was stolen from him. Jeremy Diamond, CNN, the White House.

HOLMES: And joining me now, Ron Brownstein, CNN senior political analyst, senior editor at "The Atlantic." Good to see you, Ron.

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Hi Michael.

HOLMES: Before we --yes, but I want to talk about the bewildering presidential rant on Fox News. Before we do, what do you make of the appointments announced by the incoming Biden administration?

BROWNSTEIN: Well, he's beginning to get to his promise of the campaign, to lead the transition to the next generation of leadership. I mean, his initial appointments were well respected, experienced, familiar, but familiar.

And they were, you know, the sort of people you would expect in any democratic administration. I think today when you get these announcements of so many female nominees, people of color, he begins to turn the page towards the next generation of democratic officials and leaders, which is something the party needs given how many septuagenarians right now are kind of running things between Pelosi, Schumer, Biden, and so forth.

HOLMES: Fairly good point. Okay, to the stunning nonsense from the president on Fox News ranting, rambling, lying, it's pointless of course, the election is decided. But the thing is there is still millions of supporters out there who believe what he says. What are the dangers in that?

BROWNSTEIN: It is extraordinarily disruptive. I mean, we have never seen anything like this, obviously, from a defeated president. And, you know, it is a continuation of kind of the separation of red and blue America. Not only the separate media ecosystems as we often say, but into fundamentally separate realities.

And this is not a kind of symmetrical divergence. I mean, you have red America retreating in effect from reality. The president making these baseless claims, astonishingly few Republican elected officials challenging him on it, even though they are producing death threats against the secretary of state in Georgia, in Arizona.

They are poisoning the nation's bloodstream. They are widening our divisions and yet, Mitch McConnell, Kevin McCarthy and virtually every senior Republican leader cannot find the words to simply say this is baseless, this is false, and this is destructive.

HOLMES: Yes. And you and I have talked about this often and it's still a major issue in the country. The congressional Republicans, by and large silent as the lies continue. And in fact, you tweeted on this. You said the silence of Mitch McConnell and McCarthy as well, becomes even more egregious as Trump widens his conspiracy, so immense as you put it. And even mentioning the FBI, the DOJ, trashing institutions that stand

in his way. You talk about the lasting damage, but what about the damage to the party as well?

[02:09:56]

BROWNSTEIN: Well, first, I mean, I think as the president's conspiracy theory which started at a racist core. I mean, you know, he is accusing Philadelphia and Detroit and Milwaukee and Atlanta, cities with large African-American populations, of stealing the election.

He's not accusing Montgomery and Delaware counties outside of Philadelphia, where he declined by more from 16 to 20, than he get inside Philadelphia, or the wild counties outside of Milwaukee or Cobb and Gwinnett, outside of Atlanta, or Oakley County out of Michigan.

He's focusing on heavily black cities and saying that's where the fraud was committed. But as he kind of starts from that base and expands now, as you point out, to include the Justice Department and the FBI and a conspiracy so immense. That language I cited for a specific reason.

It was Joe McCarthy's language in the early 1950's. And I think what we are seeing for Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy and the other Republican leaders will be remembered as equivalent to the cowering of the GOP leaders in the early 1950's as McCarthy raged with his baseless, you know, charges of vast communist infiltration of the government.

I mean, they are doing comparable damage. Now, will they damage themselves inside of the Republican core? Probably not because, you know, you are seeing the allegiance of so many of the voters to this line of argument, but I do think it kind of reaffirms the view of those very suburbs that I just mentioned, that the Republican Party is kind of moving in kind of an extremist direction at this point particularly as long as Trump is defining it.

HOLMES: Yes. Acquiescence to the absurd or the obscene is quite worrying.

BROWNSTEIN: Of the obscene, even better. Yes.

HOLMES: Yes. The president, as you said, calling the Georgia secretary of state an enemy of the people. The man now has round the clock security because of dead threats. He struck out at the Georgia governor, Brian Kemp, a firm supporter of his, saying that the governor has done nothing, I'm ashamed I endorse him. I mean, you know, is he risking harming Republican efforts to win those two crucial Georgia senate seats with that and his other comments on Georgia?

BROWNSTEIN: That is a really good question. I mean, you saw over the weekend there were Trump voters who confronted the RNC, a chairwoman when she was down there saying why should we go vote if our votes are being stolen? So there is a risk of that, but I think that pales next to the risk to

the country. And the extraordinary cynicism, I think, in particular of Mitch McConnell to allow this to go on either because he thinks it will hurt Biden, make it tougher for Biden to get a second look from Republican voters, and thus, have less leverage to try to pressure Republicans in Congress to work with him, or simply because he thinks it will kneecap the administration coming out of the gate and improve the GOP odds in 2022.

All of this happening as you know, Michael, while we are facing the greatest national security threat in the United States, I believe, since World War II. And, you know, when -- the day after Pearl Harbor, the Republican leader in the Senate, Charles McNary, stood directly behind Franklin Roosevelt as he signed the declaration of war.

Here, we are seeing Republicans kind of organize themselves to inhibit Biden's ability to respond to the greatest threat, I believe, that we have faced in 80 years. And just the contrast is extraordinary and I think extraordinarily damning in the eyes of history for the way McConnell is conducting himself in these critical weeks after the election.

HOLMES: Yes. Always a fascinating discussion, Ron. Good to see you my friend. Thank you so much.

BROWNSTEIN: Thanks for having me.

HOLMES (on camera): A leading COVID expert says vaccines are coming and the world will change. But how much worse could the pandemic get before then? We'll have the latest numbers and warnings. Also -

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UNKNOWN: The airport of itself, everything is really nice and safe and everybody is keeping their distances. I feel like it's safe.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES (on camera): Millions of Americans ignored public health officials and went through U.S. airports last week. Was it worth it? We'll get a report from the world's busiest airport when we come back.

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[02:15:00]

HOLMES (on camera): The United States is now smashing new coronavirus records on a daily basis. For 27 consecutive days, the country has recorded more than 100,000 new coronavirus cases. That is basically the whole month of November.

And all those new infections raised the total from the start of the pandemic to well over 13 million, nearly 267,000 deaths. America's hospitals are beyond strapped in many cases. More people are hospitalized with COVID than ever before. Some 93,000, right now. And experts warn the situation could grow even worse next month. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASE: What we expect, unfortunately, as we go for the next couple of weeks into December that we may see a surge superimposed upon that surge that we are already in.

You know, and when I give that message, I don't want to frighten people, except to say it is not too late at all for us to do something about this.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: Meanwhile, all those American travelers who ignored expert's advice and gathered over the Thanksgiving holiday, well, they are, of course, returning home. And many of them will be bringing new infections with them.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DEBORAH BIRX, WHITE HOUSE CORONAVIRUS TASK FORCE: We know people may have made mistakes over the Thanksgiving time period. So, if you are young and you gathered, you need to be tested about 5 to 10 days later, but you need to assume that you are infected and not go near your grandparents and aunts and others without a mask.

We are really asking families to even mask indoors if they chose to gather during Thanksgiving, and others who went across the country or even into the next state.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES (on camera): Around 6 million Americans travelled through U.S. airports last week despite the COVID concerns. CNN's Natasha Chen with more from the world's busiest airport, on the busiest travel day of this year.

NATASHA CHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I talked to some people, arriving home to Atlanta after traveling for the holidays, and their experience is varied depending on which airports they came from around the country.

[02:20:00]

Sunday was the busiest travel day of the entire Thanksgiving week at the Atlanta airport that officials here estimated 190,000 people coming through on Sunday. That is still about a third of the travelers they saw this time last year.

I talked to someone who was traveling for the very first time since the pandemic began.

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UNKNOWN: I was a little nervous because it was my first time going out and out of the state. Charleston was really, really (inaudible). And to this morning, the airport and Atlanta is always busy so, you know, it was just very different for us to just have this (inaudible). We're very crowded, but the airport itself, everything is really nice and safe and everyone is just keeping their distances. I feel like it is safe.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHEN (on camera): People did describe how tough it was to make the decision with their family on whether to travel for the holidays. Those who did travel tell me that they do plan on getting tested after they get home. In one case, someone said they would self-quarantine for 14 days.

The TSA says they screened more than 1 million passengers on at least three separate days during the Thanksgiving week, starting from the Friday before the holiday. That's a sharp increase in passenger traffic, but that record was only hit one other time since the pandemic began. Back to you.

HOLMES: Dr. Carlos Del Rio is an executive associate dean at the Emory University School of Medicine, also a special adviser for infectious diseases with Delta Air Lines, and the good doctor joins me now from Atlanta.

Doctor, great to see you. Sunday was like a hugely busy travel day, millions gathered for Thanksgiving, and Dr. Fauci said, Sunday, he was not very optimistic predicting Christmas we'll see a surge imposed upon another surge. Are you worried to the same degree?

CARLOS DEL RIO, PROFESSOR OF MEDICINE, GLOBAL HEALTH AND EPIDEMIOLOGY, EMORY UNOVERSITY: If you're going to gather with people, you know, try to gather in small groups, try to gather with people that are part of your bubble. Try to gather ideally, outside instead of indoors and, you know, many places in the country you really can do that.

But again, try to stay as safe as possible because the reality is, you know, you bring a lot of people indoor, the chances of having somebody infected in that group is going to go up.

HOLMES: You know, I was reading El Paso just as an example. It's being getting slammed, of course, with cases in recent weeks. The mayor on Sunday said -- this he said about almost six weeks ago, we started spiking significantly. I think people, -- the consensus is that people just had COVID fatigue. I guess, I see that in my world. I mean, how dangerous is that, that complacency?

DEL RIO: You know, the complacency or the fatigue is real. I think everybody is tired of this, but I will also tell people, you need to hang on. You need to wear you mask. You need to social distance. You need to avoid getting infected just for a few more weeks.

I mean, you know, maybe 12 weeks or so, you know, 2 or 3 months. There will be vaccines. Vaccines are coming. And I think the world is going to change when we start vaccinating people.

HOLMES: Yes, exactly. I mean, in Europe, a lot of countries have had some pretty tight restrictions in place for a month or more. I mean, some are not quite lockdown, but restrictions, they are being reduced now with the holidays coming in in many places. And, you know, do you think that they have worked and with the holidays coming up, should those things be relaxed?

DEL RIO: You know, they clearly have worked, but I would tell you that I don't we're -- at this point, it's about lockdowns. It's about public health. We need to do very targeted interventions, you know, enforcing masks, enforcing gatherings of small groups of people, you know, closing bars, closing restaurants. I think those are the kinds of things we need to do. And if you do that, I think we can control this transmission.

HOLMES: You mentioned vaccines and development moves ahead -- is moving ahead. The priorities we know will be the elderly frontline workers and so on. What do you say to regular folks? It will be a while before the general population has meaningful protection. Is that right?

DEL RIO: Yes, but it won't be that long. Maybe somewhere between April, and July, there will be vaccines for the general population.

HOLMES: In the same context about the impact of the president continuing to push what is a false narrative that the U.S. is rounding the corner on the pandemic. Do you see it that way?

DEL RIO: We are nowhere close to rounding the corner. You know, it took us from April to October to have 9 million cases. In November alone, we had 4 million cases. We are not rounding a corner. We are having the worst outbreak ever in our country.

Close to 200,000 cases per day, over 2,000 deaths per day. We are in a difficult situation right now in our country and we need to recognize it. And across the country, I talked to colleagues that are just -- over their hospital is overwhelmed, the workers are overwhelmed. I mean, this is really bad.

HOLMES: If there is that surge that Dr. Fauci talks about and you're hearing from colleagues being overwhelmed now, I'm trying to imagine what a month or two will look like.

[02:25:03]

DEL RIO: Oh, I think it would look terrible. I think, you know, hospitals are already, many places are overwhelmed. Health care workers are tired. There are not enough of them.

I think it's really bad. I think as the situation going forward, not only for COVID, but for many diseases. I mean, if we have a heart attack, a stroke, cancer, it may be tough to get care.

HOLMES: That is depressing. At least the vaccines are on the horizon. Dr. Carlos Del Rio, thank you so much.

DEL RIO: Pleasure talking to you, Michael. HOLMES: A funeral is happening right now for a slain Iranian nuclear

scientist and Iran is vowing revenge for his killing. We'll hear from a former U.S. commander who helped kill Osama Bin Laden, why he says Iran will retaliate.

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HOLMES: And welcome back to "CNN Newsroom" everyone. I am Michael Holmes. Appreciate your company. A funeral is happening right now for Iran's top nuclear scientist who was assassinated on Friday. Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was killed just east of Tehran in an apparent ambush over the weekend.

His body taken to several revered Muslim shrines for prayers and blessings. He was considered one of the masterminds of Iran's controversial nuclear program. The semi-official Fars News Agency says Fakhrizadeh was shot outside of his car by an automatic remote- controlled machine gun fired from another car nearby. And then that car exploded.

That's what Fars says. CNN has not been independently able to confirm that series of events. Iran has accused Israel of orchestrating the attack and its intelligence ministry says it has several leads.

[02:30:00]

Iranian officials vowing revenge. No comment so far from the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Now the attackers put Iran's nuclear capability back in the global spotlight.

Iran's parliament actually met on Sunday to discuss the assassination and the possible withdrawal from the nuclear deal signed with Western powers in 2015 and that the U.S. pulled out of. While some world leaders are pleading for calm, analysts say Iran could seek retribution.

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ADM. WILLIAM MCRAVEN, FORMER U.S. SPECIAL OPERATIONS COMMANDER: The Iranians are going to be in a position where they have to retaliate. I don't see any way around it but they're going to have to save face and so now the issue becomes what does that retaliation look like. Does that then began to escalate the problems in the region? And that's not going to be good for anybody.

The Iranians don't want to go to war with us. We don't want to go to war with Iran so everybody needs to do the best they can to kind of lower the temperature.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Joining me now Jeffrey Lewis, an expert on nuclear non- proliferation. He's a professor at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies and also host of 'The Deal' podcast. He joins me now from California. Good to get you on. I mean let's face it, this was an embarrassing intelligence failure,

another one actually but the retaliation carries big risks right now especially before the U.S. inauguration. What do you see as Iran's options right now?

JEFFREY LEWIS, PROFESSOR, MIDDLEBURY INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL STUDIES: Well, Iran has a lot of options. It's really just a question of how they want to play it? Do they want to run certain risks with the Trump administration? Do they want to risk poisoning the well with the Biden administration? It's very tough to tell but one thing I would say though is you know, this is a very dangerous moment.

I think we really dodged a bullet earlier this year when we saw Iran respond to the killing of Qassem Soleimani with a missile strike against U. S. military base in Iraq. There was a very large missile strike. It resulted in large numbers of casualties but no one was killed. I hope we are as lucky this time as we were then.

HOLMES: Very good point. I mean speak to that risk versus reward factor when it comes to the assassination itself. If it was Israel, I mean in some ways can be seen as a win-win calculus for Benjamin Netanyahu to take out a prominent figure in the nuclear program but also if Iran retaliates, it gives Israel or the U.S. a reason to strike back militarily?

LEWIS: Yes, I really think it depends on how one looks at Israel's strategic goals. If the goal is to poison the well for diplomacy, I think the strike is extremely successful. I mean they - they kill the scientist but what they've - what they've really done is try to assassinate the possibility of returning to the nuclear deal with Iran.

If Iran retaliates, that will make it much harder and frankly if Iran does nothing, I just think support for the deal in Iran will drop.

HOLMES: I know you've been tweeting lot on this sort of issue too but when one presumes Fakhrizadeh had a line of succession. Will his death slow his work? I mean past killings would suggest perhaps not too much.

LEWIS: Yes, we've actually run this experiment. In 2011, all of Iran's solid propellant long range missile team was killed in an explosion including the head of that program and it delayed the program by a few years but pretty quickly after that we saw Iran reconstitute the team, rebuild all of the facilities and recently, they've been launching missiles designed by that very team.

So you know I think our experience is maybe for the Israelis at the moment, it feels good to conduct an assassination like this but there isn't any evidence that it slows the Iranians down and if anything it probably incites them to go faster.

HOLMES: Yes, yes and some suggest that actually encourages interest in the nuclear program by young scientists as well. I've seen that. If the time between now and January 20 is let's say, uneventful, what chance for a revived U.S.- Iran involvement in the nuclear deal. What would Iran wants in return? What might a Biden administration demand of Iran?

LEWIS: Well, you know I think that a Biden administration is going to want Iran to return to compliance with the agreement which is something Iran has said it will do if sanctions come off and so I think the big challenge for them in the short term is just going to be sequencing that.

Can you find right series of steps where sanctions come off, Iran comes back into compliance and we get sort of back to where we were. The challenge is going to come that it's been several years now. Iran has made a lot of progress and there are a lot of other issues such as Iran's support for proxies around the region and Iran's missile program that are going to make the political environment for an agreement much tougher.

But you know we just finished a documentary on Iran nuclear deal called 'The Deal' and the thing that we really learned from that which I think is the most important thing to keep in mind is if there is political will, we will find technical solutions.

HOLMES: Yes, yes, exactly. Yes, that documentary is fascinating by the way and not all Iran aligned groups within the country without the country have the same calculations of course. I mean how does this potentially change the dynamic between Iran's hard liners and moderates, many would say that the hardliners have the upper hand now anyway?

[02:35:00]

LEWIS: Well, you know I can't see how it would help the moderates. I mean if you're someone in Iran who's been arguing for restraint, if you're someone who's been arguing that there always is the possibility of using diplomacy to solve these problems, the fact that there has been this deal that the Trump administration has come out, withdrawn from it and then you've seen this incredible level of violence, whether it's assassinations or buildings blowing up in Iran.

You know if you imagine yourself sitting in that room, I think the people making the case for building the bomb have just an easier time of it because they can point to this kind of unremitting hostility so you know, I think we can get to a point again where diplomacy is viable but stuff like this doesn't make it easy.

HOLMES: Real quick, you did sort of stuff for a living, what do - what do you see coming in the next couple of months?

LEWIS: Well, I think the Iranians are probably going to try to play it cool for at least a little bit but I can't rule out that there will be more assassinations, more buildings exploding and in the end things getting a little out of hand. So my fingers are crossed. I always try to remain optimistic but I also try to be realistic.

HOLMES: Yes and worth a follow on Twitter. Jeffrey Lewis, thank so much, appreciate it.

LEWIS: It was a pleasure. HOLMES: We'll take a quick break here on CNN Newsroom. When we come

back, France lifting some of its lock down measures will look at where else in Europe, they're taking some small steps back to normal and where it's still too soon.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Several European countries are re-evaluating lockdown measures after making progress in fighting the virus. Now this comes of course just in time for the Christmas shopping season but while some are easing restrictions, others say it's not safe just yet. Jim Bittermann reports.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIM BITTERMANN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Here in France and several other European countries, lockdown restrictions which have been in place for a month or more are starting to be gradually - very gradually reduced.

[02:40:00]

Christmas shopping in stores and boutiques, we started here this weekend although social distancing rules apply with the rate of hospitalizations in COVID patients and ICU beds on the decline, places of worship and hair salons were permitted to reopen but it will be at least December 15 before the government will consider further relaxing the rules.

In Germany most likely be no change in restrictions until at least December 20. In Italy, authorities are easing up on restrictions in five regions where the numbers are improving. Still those throughout Europe, governments are grappling with how to slowly bring back something resembling normal life without creating the third wave of the infections and lockdowns from holiday socializing.

Jim Bittermann, CNN, Gilles, France.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: I'm Michael Holmes. Appreciate the company for our international viewers. You've got World Sports coming up next. If you are here with me in the U.S., I'll be right back with more of CNN Newsroom.

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[02:45:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: And welcome back to our viewers here in the United States. I'm Michael Holmes. You're watching CNN Newsroom. It has been nearly a month now since the presidential election. It feels a little bit longer, doesn't it? Donald Trump still unable or unwilling to accept that he was indeed

defeated by Joe Biden. Now on Sunday, he spent 45 minutes airing grievances and peddling baseless election fraud conspiracies to millions of viewers on Fox news. His part of his phone interview with anchor Maria Bartiromo.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD J. TRUMP, 45TH U.S. PRESIDENT: This is total fraud and how the FBI and Department of Justice, I don't know maybe they're involved but how people are allowed to get away from this - with this stuff is unbelievable. This election was rigged.

This is the essence of our country. This is the whole ball game and they cheated. Joe Biden did not get 80 million votes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Again zero evidence. Fox news has been facing criticism for failing to challenge and often encouraging those baseless claims of widespread election fraud. Some Republicans also under fire, a lot of them for not standing up to the president or speaking out. Here's CNN Chief Media Correspondent Brian Stelter.

BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: There is real tension inside Fox about the president and his conduct. It is so sad to see that this president on the way out of office is willing to let the house burn down, willing to add fuel, willing to let it burn down, willing to leave nothing but ashes for Biden to take over in January.

And what is even more troubling are all the people standing around letting him, let it ablaze, letting him add fuel to the fire and those are the Bartiromos of the world, those are the Murdochs who control Fox news. Those are the Mitch McConnell and other GOP leaders who apparently approve of all of this crazy stuff because if they didn't approve, they could call into your show Boris. They could call in right now.

They could speak out. They could tweet. They could issue a statement but instead 26 days after the election, they seem to be OK with all of this madman behavior. It is an astonishing way for the presidency to end, the Trump presidency to end because for four years, it's been about who enables him and who's complicit.

It's about leaders who don't show leadership and that includes people like Maria Bartiromo, who just tee up lies of the president but it also includes political leaders who are willing to let all of this go on without intervening.

HOLMES: Brian Stelter there. And now the stock markets. Well, they're taking a bit of a breather from the record setting runs while investors are still hopeful, a COVID vaccine will help economies bounce back. They're also weighing the immediate concerns of the rising case numbers.

Have a look there. Right now U.S. futures are down with Wall Street's massive month coming to a close, over three-quarters of a percentage point down and the Asian markets, they're lower as well. The Hang Seng just crossing into 2 percent negative territory.

John Defterios is in Abu Dhabi with more on this. Good to see you John. It was in November that we - we weren't expecting in terms of a rally. Our investors more cautious as we wind down the month.

JOHN DEFTERIOS, CNN EMERGING MARKETS EDITOR: Yes, it's a huge question mark as we close out 2020, which has been a terrible year but not for the stock market who are anticipating recovery next year. Michael, it's been a one way bet so far in November so it makes sense to hit the pause button.

There's a couple of factors that you noted here. The developments on the vaccines particularly in the western world for Europe and the United States and the second one despite all the tweets that we've been seeing over the weekend from Donald Trump in the interview with Fox business, the transition looks like a smooth one to Joe Biden.

And I would add here that Joe Biden's been making some sensible choices for his new cabinet led by in the financial side at least, his choice for U.S. Treasury Secretary being Janet Yellen and her ability to work with Jerome Powell who's the Chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve.

They used to work in the same apparatus. Yellen was at the Federal Reserve and the White House said before this stint and there is this thought, you can get herd immunity by this time next year, Michael.

I think that's going to be a tough sell to see the take up, the distribution throughout the G20 countries but it's helped all global markets, not just Wall Street. Let's take a look. You see the S&P 500 hit a record on Friday, up 11 percent in the month alone.

Global markets up 13 percent and now we have European stock markets catching up with Paris up 21 percent and we have the Milan stock exchange, up 25 percent. So there's kind of this widely held view Michael that the major economies of the world, the G20 can drive through this with lower interest rates and more stimulus and not worry about the roadblocks ahead.

That's a tough sell I think but that's the pervasive view at this stage.

HOLMES: One of one of the key things John, is that you know global distribution of vaccines. It's such an enormous challenge. Is that a hurdle not baked in to the markets at this stage?

[02:50:00]

DEFTERIOS: I think you're absolutely correct Michael. We have a couple of real case studies at this stage, the two largest emerging markets for example. We have India has a huge challenge to try to get 1.3 billion people vaccines. People I've talked to here is in the financial markets all the way stretching to Asia, we'll take the Chinese example. They're starting to push through the vaccine and the evidence was out

today. Their factory activities at a 3-year high with a spurt up of 6.6 percent. The services sector is strong as well but that's a very different model, Michael. They have a lot more control. They have the data collection. They can do a lock down when they need to.

India cannot and then this is going to be put to the test in Europe and the United States with brand new vaccines in the United States as well serving as a challenge. We'll get a better indication for the United States on Friday. We have the jobless report coming out, it's supposed to inch down to 6.8 percent.

So if you kind of lift the hood and look at the numbers, we have 13 million Americans still taking jobless benefits and the U.S. dollar showing some weakness so we're not out of the woods yet but the markets making the bet, we can be this time next year.

HOLMES: And politically no sign of that long awaited stimulus for some of those people who are suffering out there as well. John, great to see you as always. Thanks so much there in sunny Abu Dhabi.

DEFTERIOS: Thank. You take care.

HOLMES: You too. Well, the U.S. saw its most COVID hospitalizations ever on Sunday. We're talking about 93,000 - more than 93,000 people in the hospital right now with COVID and staff are bracing for that number to grow since they have been more than 4 million new coronavirus cases so far this month and the hospitalizations lag.

CNN spoke to emergency room physicians about the early days of the pandemic, the strain on hospital systems and what they're most thankful for.

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DR. CLEAVON GIMAN, YUMA, ARIZONA EMERGENCY ROOM PHYSICIAN: We've had tens of patients who have been hypoxic, we had a patient who had cardiac arrest. It's insane.

When I talk about the pandemic and the amount of death healthcare providers here are seeing who're not even trained - who're not even trained for that. You know I've been in Boot camp in the military and I trained - trained for war and they're in a war. Make no mistake, this is a war. There's no general helping us. There's no plan. And people in this country just continue to get affected. I hate calling family members and to tell them that their child or their husband or their wife is dead.

That's what we're doing all across this nation. My 27-year old cousin, Simon Press, healthy as hell died from COVID-19. I've lost three colleagues to this virus. Last Sunday, I was working in my shift here in Yuma, Arizona. No mask mandates.

No ICU beds to transfer a patient but everything is open. Makes no sense to me. DR. LAKSHMAN SWAMY, MASSACHUSETTS CLINICAL CARE PHYSICIAN, BOSTON: I

remember it was this this eerie feeling of getting everything ready. The hospital's quiet. The ICU was so quiet and we knew what was coming and it was like standing on the beach and watching like a 40-foot tidal waves come at you and only after it hit you, did you realize that it wasn't 40-feet, it was 80 feet and it wasn't the only one.

I just saw myself, my family, my loved ones, my community in my ICU in a way I never had before and that was really - that was really kind of profound for me. I think we know a lot more now than we did then.

I think we're going to do - we're going to better than we did then but at the same time, once the volume of patients just hits a certain amount, there's only so much we can - we can do. So I'm worried - I'm worried for that.

DR. MARINA DEL RIOS, CHICAGO EMERGENCY ROOM PHYSICIAN: It's getting very busy. It's getting very stressful to work in the emergency department. I've worked shifts where we've had patients waiting for eight to ten hours to be seen, where we've had you know dozens of patients sitting in the emergency department, waiting for a hospital bed because our hospital with full.

This year was the first time that I broke down crying. I am most thankful for having a healthy husband and healthy two boys, ages 13 and 10 who have not yet gotten sick.

[02:55:00]

I'm most thankful for not having one absent from my table. And I know that not only a lot of my patient's families but a lot of my friends can't say the same thing this year. My greatest fear going into this holiday season are that people are getting tired. They - I understand how difficult it is to remain isolated from your friends and family.

You know for myself Christmas is always a big deal. I always almost every year, I'll travel to Puerto Pico which is where I'm from and visit my mom who's 80-year old now. We're not doing that this year. I worry that there's not enough people making that decision.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Well, the world's loneliest elephant finally has a new home largely thanks to one of the world's biggest pop stars.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHER, SINGER: [SINGING]

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HOLMES: You might recognize that voice. Cher serenading Kaavan, the elephant who's spent decades at a zoo in Islamabad, much of that time alone and also mistreated badly at times but he's getting a new lease on life now at an Elephant Sanctuary in Cambodia. Cher behind organizing a lot of that. All right, thanks for watching

CNN Newsroom, spending part of your day with me. I'm Michael Holmes. Another Australian, Rosemary Church with more news in a moment.

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