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Jobless Numbers for Last Week; Millions Struggle as Congress Fails to Reach a Deal; Raffensperger on Election Attacks; Iran Boosts Uranium Enrichment; Temporary Withdrawal of Baghdad Embassy. Aired 9:30-10a

Aired December 03, 2020 - 09:30   ET

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

[09:30:00]

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN ANCHOR: But taking a look at California overall, a record number of new cases yesterday. That number, 200,759 cases. To put this into perspective, over the last seven days, California has added more than 104,000 cases according to Johns Hopkins University data on this. And that is up about 8 percent from last week. Our positivity rate at 6.9 percent over the last two weeks. And that is up nearly 2 percent from 14 days ago.

So, obviously, these numbers going in the wrong direction, and that is why you hear the mayor of Los Angeles last night saying cancel everything, stay home, avoid congregating. This is a very dangerous time to be out, Jim.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: Well, a lot of us might be hearing those same recommendations in the coming weeks.

Stephanie Elam, thanks very much.

Well now to the other devastating crisis, a result of this, the economy. Millions right now are facing food and housing insecurity. What does that mean? That means fear of losing their jobs and their homes. And as the holidays approach, job growth simply not coming fast enough.

Christine Romans joins me now.

You know, these latest job figures, when you and I talk about this, Christine, you know, folks are like, ah, it's another 700,000 people. It's down a little bit. I mean but just to put a finer point on it, this is more than any week even in the financial crisis in 2008. I mean any week in history. Isn't that right?

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: You're absolutely right. I mean if you just looked at this week alone, 712,000 people filing for the first time for unemployment benefits. Before this pandemic, that would have been history making. History making.

SCIUTTO: Yes. ROMANS: We've had 37 weeks in a row like that. Thirty-seven weeks in a row of making history in the wrong direction. So many people losing jobs and filing for the first time for unemployment claims.

Now, we've also got pandemic unemployment insurance program people in there, too. You add that in and last week it was a million people filing for unemployment.

So what happens next? Well, these programs are running out and people have been out of work for so long they're going to start rolling out of these programs unless Congress does something. This is, you know, a four-alarm fire. Def con one. I mean mix your metaphors however you want. You have a real serious job crisis in America with 20 million people getting some sort of jobless benefits and those are going to start expiring, Jim.

SCIUTTO: And, I mean, the -- I mean as if 2020 could get any worse, but some of this can happen the day after Christmas, is it not, the expiration of these benefits.

ROMANS: Yes. Yes. About 12 million people are going to start rolling off those benefits just the very day after Christmas. So imagine a paycheck stopping or a jobless check stopping for some 12 million people.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

ROMANS: To add insult to injury, earlier this week we heard from the Government Accountability Office that a majority of states have been paying the bare minimum in those pandemic unemployment, the gig worker jobless checks, instead of what they were really owed. So there's a whole bunch of back accounting and short changing that's been going on here, too.

SCIUTTO: Wow.

ROMANS: So the whole thing is such a huge number of people thrown out of the labor market at once that it's an unholy mess here trying to figure out how to make people whole and Congress has been just back and forth, round and round for months on this.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

ROMANS: Americans are standing on the edge of a financial aid cliff right now at the end of the year.

SCIUTTO: Listen, let's hope that message gets through.

Christine Romans, thanks very much.

ROMANS: You're welcome.

SCIUTTO: All right, so you hear the data there, and perhaps you're in this category, about to lose your benefits. Millions of Americans are. So Congress still debating what they're going to do about it.

Sunlen Serfaty is on Capitol Hill this morning.

And, Sunlen, you know, Democrats have come down significantly from their demands early on of more than $2 trillion, so accepting, in effect, this $900 million or so plan. Any sign Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans willing to move up closer to that?

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Not yet, Jim, is the most blunt answer to that. And you mentioned that Speaker Pelosi and Chuck Schumer came out yesterday and did make this huge concession, backing that bipartisan, bicameral proposal that many moderate senators sat down and kind of hashed out in the last few days and weeks.

That was seen as a way essentially that these talks might get revived, the fact that Pelosi and Schumer came out and abandoned their plan that they had long held firm on and backed this plan that's being put together by Senator Manchin, Senator Collins and a few other moderate senators. That, a huge step forward.

But then, on the other side, you have Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and his own plan, a largely scaled back plan, much smaller plan, and he has said yesterday up here on Capitol Hill, he said, look, the president is not going to sign any other plan than my plan.

But then you also have some other Republican leaders, like the Senate Majority Whip John Thune, he said yesterday, look, where we may end up might be just merging McConnell's plan and this bipartisan plan.

So the path forward seems like it's potentially starting to be plotted out up here on Capitol Hill, but, of course, as always, the devil is in the details. And right now this $908 billion plan, it's just a framework.

[09:35:03]

There's no text behind it. So, so much has to happen between now and then to get people across the finish line. And you have, of course, the huge road blocks that have always been present in this negotiating process over the price tag, over state and local funding. All of that needs to be worked out. So, still, a long way to go.

Jim.

SCIUTTO: Lord, while people are waiting, you know, people are waiting.

Sunlen Serfaty, thanks for keeping us up to date.

Georgia's secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger is turning to his faith amid repeating attacks from the president of his own party. We're going to speak to him about how he is navigating this difficult and at times dangerous election season.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:40:04]

SCIUTTO: Well, this just into CNN. Dr. Fauci, of course the nation's infectious disease specialist with the National Institute of -- for Allergies and Infectious Diseases, he's going to have his first meeting with the Biden transition team today. That will take place at 2:00 this afternoon eastern time virtually, of course, given the circumstances.

This is something that a number of people involved in responding to this pandemic have been waiting for, for some time, when will the Biden transition be able to meet with Dr. Fauci. And I just confirmed with him now that that will happen this afternoon. Steps in the right direction as we head towards inauguration in January next year.

Well, in other news this morning, President Trump is heading to Georgia this weekend to rally for the two Senate runoff races there, but Georgia Republicans are worried about his visit. They want to make sure that he separates his attacks, his ongoing false attacks, we should note, on the presidential election, and the Georgia Senate runoffs. The unease among Republicans comes as some pro-Trump supporters are urging Republican voters not to vote at all in January.

Earlier this morning, Georgia's election manager said controversy over the vote is what he calls, quote, fever dreams.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GABRIEL STERLING (R), GEORGIA ELECTION IMPLEMENTATION MANAGER: This all comes out of fever dreams. I mean there's just no basis in any reality whatsoever. But there are people who are emotionally tied to the president and the president is taking advantage of that. And one of the other things is, people like Lynn Wood and Sidney Powell are taking advantage of people not understanding the ins and outs of a relatively complex system.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: Well, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger says there are no substantial changes in the state's second election recount, the second, and he expects to recertify President-elect Joe Biden as the winner. Still, President Trump continues to make baseless claims, dangerous ones, about widespread voter fraud in that state. Raffensperger and his family have received death threats for not overturning that outcome. Death threats.

CNN correspondent Amara Walker joins us now in Atlanta.

You sat down with him today. How is he handling these threats in the midst of all this?

AMARA WALKER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jim, if there's one word or way to describe Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, it's that he is defined by his Christian faith. He values integrity, decency, sticking to his principles. And that is why we have never seen him waiver, even in the face of attacks from President Trump and fellow Republicans. Even when he faced the worst tragedy any parent could, he clung to his faith, and that's what he's doing right now.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) BRAD RAFFENSPERGER (R), GEORGIA SECRETARY OF STATE: My faith really is part of me. It's part of who I am. I guess it becomes part of your character.

WALKER (voice over): Character, faith, and family. They've lit the way for Georgia's secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, in his darkest times.

RAFFENSPERGER: You know, we've been through an awful lot. Losing your -- a child, I think Tricia said it best, it doesn't matter how old they are. You know, you can be, you know, halfway, you know, carrying a child and lose that child in a miscarriage, they could be six weeks old, and they could be six years old or 60 years old, it will always be your child, and it's an incredible hurt.

WALKER: The hurt is still evident in Raffensperger's eyes. He lost his 40-year-old son almost three years ago after a fentanyl overdose.

RAFFENSPERGER: When he was 25 years old, he was hit with cancer, stage 3B Hodgkin's lymphoma. This is the same child, right? Then he would be clean and sober and then, you know, maybe some incarceration, then clean and sober and then -- and -- and things like that. So it was a struggle throughout his life. But every one of those times that we had, you know, that he struggled, you know, God was there for us.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Secretary of State-elect Raffensperger.

WALKER: And he says that God is watching over him, his wife Tricia, their two grown sons and three grandchildren right now, even as the death threats and vulgar messages continue to pour in from many who are buying into President Trump's repeated and baseless attacks on Raffensperger, and false claims of widespread voter fraud in Georgia during the presidential election.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: He's an enemy of the people, the secretary of state.

RAFFENSPERGER: Tricia got the first ones. For some reason they targeted her. I think, you know, the first one was like, tell Brad to step down, you know, and that type of thing. But then they just really, you know, ramped up. And I think that's what's been so much disheartening, and the language that they use and threats that they use. It's just really unpatriotic.

WALKER: Despite the unsettling threats and the incessant incoming fire from fellow Republicans and the president, for whom he voted, Raffensperger says the hard times he's endured helped prepare him for this moment.

RAFFENSPERGER: I do lean into the Lord because I know what he calls us to be, in all things, is to be honest and treat people with dignity.

WALKER: Raffensperger succeeded now Governor Brian Kemp as secretary of state in 2019. He describes himself as a conservative Republican and insists that he still supports President Trump.

[09:45:05]

But in an editorial published by "USA Today" last week, Raffensperger wrote, my family voted for him, donated to him, and are now being thrown under the bus by him.

WALKER (on camera): But do you think the president shares your values of civility and compassion and understanding and truth and integrity?

RAFFENSPERGER: Well, I really don't know. I just know that, at the end of the day, my job is managing myself. A lot of times it's bigger than the person. It's really a philosophy. And so Republicans, we have a philosophy of -- I hope we still do -- of small, limited, effective government.

WALKER: Do you feel abandoned, though, in any way, by other Republicans and more influential ones who haven't come out and spoke out to stop this kind of rhetoric and false, baseless claims of fraud?

RAFFENSPERGER: Well, I know that some people maybe think it's not their fight or also they realize that someone has 50 million Twitter followers, maybe more, and they have, likely me, 50, and so they're thinking, why would I want to join that fray?

So if you all would just bow your head for a moment of silence.

WALKER (voice over): Raffensperger says that in all the chaos lately he finds comfort in reading the Bible, and at the end of the day it's what his family thinks about him that matters the most.

RAFFENSPERGER: They're proud of where I stand and they're just -- they understand it's a tough spot that I'm in right now, but that's really important that they see my integrity and they're grateful for it.

WALKER: And despite it all, he hopes that there will be many more elections for him in the future.

WALKER (on camera): Will you be doing that again in a couple of years?

RAFFENSPERGER: Yes, absolutely, because I'll be on the ballot.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALKER: So that's a confirmation he will indeed run for re-election for secretary of state in 2022.

And, Jim, I do want to mention something interesting. I asked the secretary of state if there were any Bible passages that really spoke to him during this time and he mentions Psalms 37, which ends that chapter by saying, the Lord helps them and delivers them. He delivers them from the wicked and saves them because they take refuge in him.

Back to you.

SCIUTTO: Is he, Amara, getting protection for himself and his family as a result of these threats? WALKER: Yes, Jim, it's no secret that his life has changed

dramatically in just the last few weeks. And, yes, he does have protection 24 hours a day, seven days a week, at home and here also at work.

SCIUTTO: It's just disturbing that that's necessary.

Amara Walker, thanks so much for bringing us that interview.

Well, you can watch Reverend Raphael Warnock and Senator Kelly Loeffler face on in the Georgia Senate debate. That debate will air Sunday night, 7:00 Eastern Time, right here on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:52:20]

SCIUTTO: Less than a week after the assassinations of one of Iran's top nuclear scientists, the country approved a bill to boost its uranium enrichment and block nuclear inspections if international sanctions on its economy are not lifted. The bill allows Iran to beginning enriching uranium at 20 percent. That figure important because it brings them closer to weapons grade and it is much higher than the cap set in the Iran nuclear deal. Trump, of course, withdrew from that deal in 2018.

We're following all these developments. CNN's Nick Paton Walsh is in Tehran. CNN's Ryan Browne is at the Pentagon.

Nick, begin with you. The importance of this -- of Iran's parliament backing this bill and these changes. What happens next?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL SECURITY EDITOR: Yes, I mean essentially the headline thing you need to worry about here is this bill is the 20 percent figure. That is essentially what this bill points Iran's enrichment towards and what many experts say is a dangerous level because you're a pretty quick jump then to weapons grade enrichment if you want to do that.

But none of this happens now. And President Hassan Rouhani, who calls the shots here in terms of diplomacy, is against what this bill says. He thinks diplomacy needs more of a chance. He's got about three to four days left to sign it, to make it law. But the bill itself takes about two months to come into effect, which is obviously key because at the end of that two-month period is when the Biden administration will be in power and they want diplomacy as well.

The bill is also staged so the first thing would be to prevent new inspections and it would end with pulling out of the non-proliferation treaty. So it's a lot of escalatory measures here. But what it essentially does is put the hawks here in a position where they're laying a timetable for those who are more pro-diplomacy with the United States. So they essentially want to see sanctions lifted quickly and things underway fast.

SCIUTTO: Yes. WALSH: So the Biden administration has to move quickly themselves.

But increased tension here. Sanctions having an enormous toll on both the economy and the fight against coronavirus here. Nearly a million Iranians, as of today, have had positive tests for coronavirus. So a lot of pressure for results and a lot of tension still in the air after the assassination of nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh. That timetable, though, the key point here to get diplomacy moving.

Jim.

SCIUTTO: Yes, to leave a window open for the incoming Biden administration, as you note.

Ryan, the U.S., though, in the midst of this, withdrawing personnel from Baghdad. Concerns about a threat from Iran?

RYAN BROWNE, CNN PENTAGON REPORTER: Well, that's right, Jim. U.S. officials telling our colleague, Kylie Atwood, that some embassy staff have been withdrawn from Baghdad due to this perceived threat. Now the threat is tied to the anniversary of the U.S. military's killing of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani on January 3rd of last -- of this year.

[09:55:02]

And so there's -- there's some concern that the Iranian factions in -- Iranian-backed factions in Iraq might use the anniversary to attack U.S. personnel. They have attacked the embassy before with rockets that they have attacked the compound.

Now, drawing down some of its embassy staff, we're being told. Now, those staff are expected to return once the anniversary passes later on in January. But there is this concern about these Iranian backed factions and militias in Iraq potentially carrying out some kind of retaliatory attack. No changes to the U.S. military's posture in Iraq, we're being told. But, again, some embassy staff being drawn down due to this perceived threat.

SCIUTTO: Nick Paton Walsh, Ryan Browne, thanks very much to both of you.

BROWNE: You bet.

SCIUTTO: Well, think about this, Wednesday saw more coronavirus deaths reported here in the U.S. than the number of people who died in New York on September 11th. And yet the president not saying a word about it.

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