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Loeffler Dodges Questions; Doug Heye is Interviewed about the Georgia Elections; United Kingdom Prepares for Vaccinations; Congress Races to Pass Bills. Aired 9:30-10a

Aired December 07, 2020 - 09:30   ET

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

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[09:31:55]

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back.

Only 29 days until the critical runoff elections. That, of course, is the Georgia Senate race, and it's heating up. Last night Republican Senator Kelly Loeffler and Democrat Raphael Warnock traded sharp attacks on the debate stage.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: The other Senate runoff debate began and ended like this with the Democratic candidate, John Ossoff, standing alone on the stage. That because Senator David Purdue, current sitting senator, refused to show up.

CNN's Ryan Young is in Atlanta this morning.

Ryan, of course we only saw one debate last night, both of the candidates in that debate on the offensive.

RYAN YOUNG, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, good morning, guys. You think about this -- these two races. Really so much money is being spent and all eyes on Georgia. $350 million so far, flooding the air waves here. If you turn on the television, turn on your radio, you can't escape these two races. Of course a lot of people remember that Jon Ossoff was standing there by himself.

But the other battle, of course, had Kelly Loeffler facing Raphael Warnock. They sort of went back and forth but it was weird because they both seemed constrained. Oftentimes not even looking at each other while they were speaking about the topics they were going through.

Over and over, Kelly Loeffler was asked about Donald Trump's assertion that something was wrong with the Georgia election. In fact, take a listen to one of the direct questions she was asked about the elections here in the state of Georgia.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SEN. KELLY LOEFFLER (R-GA): The president has every right to every legal recourse, and that's what's taking place. But I've called for investigations. And now there's 250 investigations open here in Georgia.

But the president was also clear that Georgians need to come out and vote for David Purdue and myself because of what's at stake in this election.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YOUNG: Look, this answer really matters because this election is so huge when you think about it, you have a Republican governor, you have a Republican secretary of state, both of them have done several counts, who have them saying that the election here was run very smoothly but at the same time you have someone who's in the Senate who's basically not saying whether or not Donald Trump should say that he lost the election here in the state of Georgia. So that was a back- and-forth conversation throughout the night.

And, of course, the (INAUDIBLE) moved over to Raphael Warnock and the question was about packing the Supreme Court and whether or not he would support those efforts. We didn't get a straight answer there either. In fact, take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REV. RAPHAEL WARNOCK (D), GEORGIA SENATE CANDIDATE: And as I move all across the state, Greg, people aren't asking me about the courts and whether we should expand the courts. I know that's an interesting question for people inside the beltway to discuss. But they're wondering, when in the world are they going to get some COVID-19 relief. They haven't gotten any from Kelly Loeffler in months.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I am wondering, if you can answer the question, do you support expanding the Supreme Court?

WARNOCK: I'm really not focused on it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YOUNG: You know, a lot of conversation not only about those two answers, but some of the back and forth that was going on here. But you're also talking about a place that's dealing with the pandemic, COVID-19, and you think about that $350 million being spent in this area, think about all those small businesses that people could definitely use some of this money, an infusion, that's what some people wanted to hear more about, what would happen in terms of dealing with the pandemic.

[09:35:08]

And, of course, today, in the state of Georgia, this is the last day to register to vote in that January 5th runoff. So the stakes remain very high guys, but the conversation has to be about regular people and not Washington, and that's what we've been hearing all over the radio today as well. It will be interesting how this race moves forward, especially after last night's performances at the debate.

HARLOW: Register to vote. Today's your last day there. And bravo to the moderators. I thought the journalists were just phenomenal last night asking the questions, following up.

YOUNG: Absolutely.

HARLOW: I would have like to see more direct answers.

Ryan Young, thank you.

Well, Georgia's Republican leadership is pushing back, as Ryan just said, against the president and his repeated attempts to try to overturn the election in Georgia. Listen to this from senior Georgia election official Gabriel Sterling, who is a Republican.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GABRIEL STERLING (R), GEORGIA VOTING SYSTEMS MANAGER: The president's statements are false. They're misinformation. They are stoking anger and fear among supporters and, hell, I voted for him, but it's undermining democracy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Well, CNN learned that just on Saturday the president tried to do it again by calling Governor Brian Kemp and trying to push him to convene state legislators to try to overturn the President-elect Joe Biden's win. Governor Kemp and Lieutenant Governor Geoff Duncan issued a joint statement on Sunday saying, state and federal law prohibits it.

With us now, Republican strategist and former RNC communications director Doug Heye.

Doug, it's very good to have you. Good morning.

DOUG HEYE, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Good morning. Thank you.

HARLOW: I was struck not only with what I just played from Gabriel Sterling but also with this from Georgia's again Republican Lieutenant Governor Geoff Duncan.

Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LT. GOV. GEOFF DUNCAN (R-GA): I worry that this continues, you know, fanning of the flames around misinformation, puts us in a negative position with regards to the January 5th runoff. You know, the mountains of misinformation are not helping the process. They're only hurting it.

And, Jake, I worry that it's -- we're handing off a playbook to the Democrats for January 5th. And certainly I can't think of a worse playbook to hand off over the last four -- you know, four or five weeks to the Democrats.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: In that interview with Jake Tapper, Doug, he's almost begging the president to stop. Is the president hurting Senator Loeffler and Senator Purdue's chances in a significant way of holding onto their seats?

HEYE: Yes, without question. We can obviously have a broader discussion on what this means as the secretary of state was talking about for American democracy, the message that we hold true to ourselves and send across the world.

But if we're focusing specifically on January 5th and for Senate Republicans if they want to keep the Senate, this is the worst possible messaging that we could have because essentially what we're doing is what the president is doing is telling voters, your vote can be stolen from you, your vote doesn't matter. And I can tell you, I've worked a lot of Senate races, including a Georgia runoff way back when I was still in college --

HARLOW: Yes.

HEYE: And the message of your vote essentially doesn't count is not a motivating message to get your voters out there. And essentially what you're doing is it's a bit like Klevon Little (ph) pulling a gun on himself in "Blazing Saddles," you're taking yourself hostage and ultimately with a Senate Republican majority in the balance. It's why -- it's why Republicans throughout the country, especially here in Washington, are very concerned with the messaging that they're -- that they're hearing from the president.

HARLOW: I mean your piece last week, laying it out, calling what the president's doing the biggest threat to Republicans. Right now you want to hold onto those seats. You want everyone to get out to vote in your party, not to think, you know, that their vote doesn't count or there's some sort of made up fraud.

I was really struck last night listening to Loeffler over and over again. I think it was 12 times she described Warnock as a radical liberal. And it was almost robotic. She did over and over again.

But then she brought up something that Senator Schumer has said and I wonder if you think this was effective. Let's roll the tape.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. KELLY LOEFFLER (R-GA): Chuck Schumer said, now we take Georgia, then we change America. We all know what that change would be. They've been very clear. They want to raise taxes on hard-working Georgians. They want to defund the police. They want to open our borders. They want to implement the green new deal.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: OK, so she doesn't have all the facts straight there on what she laid out in terms of Warnock, but you wrote that Republican and the GOP strategy presenting themselves as a check on Biden is the winning argument for them.

Is that effective, what she's doing, by saying Schumer's going to change America if they get these seats?

HEYE: It is effective, but it's only partially effective because what she's doing is she's laying out the importance of a Republican Senate versus a Democratic Senate and having Bernie Sanders run a committee or Elizabeth Warren run a committee as a chair as opposed to Republicans.

But it also leaves out that second part of the argument, which is the Biden-Harris administration. That's the more compelling argument for voters. Running against Chuck Schumer is the best messaging she's capable of doing. But that's the problem when you have President Trump, right now, out there saying you can't acknowledge reality.

[09:40:01]

You can't acknowledge that there's a President-elect Biden that you should be running against. And the challenge for Republicans, this is what we saw also in the elections is -- and over the past four years is just an un -- a lack of ability to be completely honest because you're trying to constantly score points with President Trump and Donald Trump does not give points.

He only takes them away one at a time. And that's what we're seeing right now with Brian Kemp, that's what we're seeing with the secretary of state, they have soldiers for the Trump administration up until they're counting their votes in Georgia and now they haven't done the duty for -- for President Trump and that's why we're seeing the attacks coming from him right now.

HARLOW: Yes, but they've done their job for the American people and ultimately that's what matters.

HEYE: Absolutely.

HARLOW: Doug Heye, good to have you. Thank you.

HEYE: Thank you.

SCIUTTO: Well, the U.K. is rolling out the corona vaccine tomorrow. We're going to be live in London for an update.

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[09:45:16]

HARLOW: Some good news finally in the middle of this crisis. Less than a week after approving the Pfizer COVID vaccine, dozens of hospitals in the United Kingdom are preparing to begin actually immunizing people starting as early as tomorrow.

SCIUTTO: Yes. It's good news. We're going to see this rolling out in a major country, sizeable.

Let's go to CNN's Cyril Vanier in London for more on this.

So Cyril, vaccine first available to groups, kind of like we're considering here, those over 80, as well as home health aides and high-risk government health workers. So how big a portion of the population is that?

CYRIL VANIER, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Well, look, it's just going to be a small part of the population to begin with and then it's going to expand and get bigger and bigger. This is not only the biggest immunization campaign in the U.K.'s history, it is by far the most complex. This vaccine was approved less than a week ago.

The first doses arrived in country four days ago. They were checked to make sure the quality of the vaccine, their integrity wasn't compromised, and then they were rushed to vaccination hubs. That's to say 50 hospitals here in England and other vaccination centers in Wales, northern Ireland, Scotland.

The first jabs are going to be delivered tomorrow. Of course, there's a lot of excitement about that, which is not to say, by the way, just to remind viewers, that tomorrow evening some people here in this country will be immunized against the vaccine, against the coronavirus, because, as you know, it takes two jabs to be immunized three weeks apart.

So, as you said, priority patients, they were supposed to be here in England, the residents of care homes. It's not going to happen that way in the end just because of the logistical difficulties involved in moving around this vaccine. Remember the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine is the one that needs to be kept at minus 70 degrees Celsius. That makes it very hard to ship around and to take inside care homes, right?

So they're going to first immunize the people who are the 80 years old and above who are actually in the hospitals that have been designated as vaccination centers. After that, those hospitals will be inviting the staff of care homes, as well as at-risk members of the public and members of the -- and front line health care workers. That's all the first phase and then it is set to expand to the rest of the population.

Jim. Poppy.

HARLOW: It is such good news and it's so nice to bring people some good news in the middle of this pandemic.

Cyril, thank you for the update.

Congress right now racing to fund the military, fund the government, and pass finally maybe desperately needed stimulus aid for millions of Americans. Where all three of those negotiations stand, next.

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[09:52:22] SCIUTTO: There's not one but three high stakes negotiations happening right now just down the street from us on Capitol Hill, one to fund the military, one just to keep the government open and then one, many of you I'm sure are following, to help millions of Americans who are set to lose their unemployment benefits right after Christmas.

Poppy, with the dysfunction, the gridlock, do they get through any of them?

HARLOW: They should. It's their job.

Sunlen Serfaty is following all three fronts on Capitol Hill.

Good morning to you, Sunlen.

So let's begin with the defense bill because it's obviously critical and it's something that the president has threatened to veto, but it's expected to get through despite that threat?

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Poppy, it is expected to pass, most notably first in the House likely tomorrow and then the Senate shortly thereafter. And, of course, the key here will not be if it passes, by how -- but by how much it passes.

Will they have enough support in this NDAA bill to get a veto proof majority because you do have that presidential veto threat. He has threatened to veto it because it does not include a repeal of the legal protections for social media companies, of course an unrelated matter to this defense funding bill.

Now, of course, when they post their numbers, the key to be watching there is, do they have two-thirds majority? Will they be able to break the presidential veto when it gets passed through up here on Capitol Hill? That will be the big thing to watch.

And, of course, that would be a huge rebuke for the outgoing president and from early indications up here on Capitol Hill, Jim and Poppy, they may be moving towards that direction given the indications we've seen about how Republicans feel about this bill.

HARLOW: OK. And what about a government shutdown? Are we going to avoid that and the $908 billion stimulus bill if it -- if it makes it through? What does that mean for average folks?

SERFATY: Yes, a lot going up here on Capitol Hill. Important, consequential things. There is that government funding deadline, midnight on Friday night the government is set to run out of money. Most likely they will not be able to get a new bill passed, though they likely will have to pass just a one week stop gap funding measure basically to buy them some more time to keep the government up and running.

Of course they are trying to tie that to COVID relief. You have some new momentum, some new energy around that $900 billion relief package, that bicameral, bipartisan bill. Some new optimism there, but negotiators were working over the weekend. They are right now behind the scenes trying to put pen to paper, actually write the legislative text, all the while you have this major deadline looming and a lot of Americans, Jim and Poppy, waiting for their relief.

HARLOW: Yes, they've been waiting months too long. They could have made a deal this summer.

SERFATY: That's right.

HARLOW: Sunlen, thanks for that reporting.

SCIUTTO: Many folks could lose their benefits the day after Christmas.

[09:55:01]

HARLOW: Yes.

SCIUTTO: Well, hospitalizations and deaths from COVID-19, they're surging, sadly, across the country. And as new infections skyrocket, millions of people in the state of California are now under new stay- at-home orders. We'll have the latest.

Stay with us.

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SCIUTTO: A very good Monday morning to you. I'm Jim Sciutto.

HARLOW: And I'm Poppy Harlow. Good to be with you.

A critical time in this nation's fight against the coronavirus. New cases, deaths, hospitalizations unfortunately all surging across the country and we have not even seen the expected surge in cases from Thanksgiving yet. On top of that, Dr. Anthony Fauci says the Christmas holiday worries him even more.

SCIUTTO: Yes, the numbers, they're daunting. Things are so bad in the state of California that 33 million people there are now under a strict new lockdown.

[10:00:04]

And this morning President-elect Joe Biden is revealing key players in the fight against this pandemic.