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Trump Holds Call with Pennsylvania House Speaker; Biden Picks Austin for Defense; Mother Dies of COVID after Giving Birth to Son. Aired 9:30-10a
Aired December 08, 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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[09:31:11]
JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: This morning, having failed repeatedly in court, President Trump is ramping up pressure on Republican officials in states to overturn election results. You heard that right, overturn what millions of voters said. The president speaking multiple times over the past week with the speaker of the house in Pennsylvania to do just that.
POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Let's get straight to John Harwood. He joins us at the White House.
What do -- what do we know about these calls?
JOHN HARWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Poppy, it is a crazy situation that we have never seen in the history of American elections, the direct intervention by a president like this.
Now, our colleague, Jim Acosta, spoke last night with the spokesman for the Republican house speaker in Pennsylvania, got a somewhat different story than had been initially reported in "The Washington Post."
What the spokesman said was that the president did not directly pressure the house Republican speaker in Pennsylvania to overturn the results or cede a rival slate of electors. What he did was ask questions about how the supreme court of Pennsylvania had altered election procedures, what the impact of that had been and what was being done about that now.
But set aside directly what the words the president said were, we have seen him now in multiple states, in Georgia, where he called the governor to put pressure on him to do something that had already been done, in Michigan where he invited legislative leaders to Washington, he is pressing states that he lost in the election to try to subvert the will of the people on the basis of lies and lunatic conspiracy theories.
And in the process, he has frozen the entire Republican Party in some combination of simple fear and also -- or complicit in what he is doing. It is not going to bear fruit for him. He's going to leave. Joe Biden's going to be sworn in as president on January 20th, but he's doing a lot of damage to American democracy in the meantime.
Next week is when the slates of electors vote in individual states and Pennsylvania, Michigan, Georgia are going to cast their ballots for Joe Biden because he won those states. But the president continues to try to recruit allies at various stages of the process to interfere with this proper functioning of democracy.
SCIUTTO: It is what it is, John, as you described right there. And the fact is, the vast majority of sitting Republican lawmakers, at least national lawmakers, are remaining silent as he does it. Thanks very much.
Well, one of President-elect Joe Biden's fiercest allies, South Carolina Congressman James Clyburn, is strongly pushing back at President Trump's efforts to overturn the election and slamming South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham for supporting President Trump's repeated attacks on the Democratic process.
Have a listen.
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JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: So Senator Lindsey Graham, your senator, said there's a civil war brewing in the country, promoting what the president is doing. What's your message to Lindsey Graham this morning, Congressman?
REP. JAMES CLYBURN (D-SC): Get a -- get a grip. Get a grip. I think he's lost grip on reality.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARLOW: Pretty clear there.
Joining us now is Richard Pildes, CNN election law analyst.
OK, so all of the things that, from the president's calls, to Lindsey Graham, it's all rhetoric. I want to ask you about actual action and if anything is even possible at this point because you've got Joe Biden winning Pennsylvania by more than 80,000 votes, the Pennsylvania assembly is out of session. So despite all of these phone calls that the president is making, is there anything that the Pennsylvania legislature can even do, you know, to even make this attempt at something that will not happen?
RICHARD PILDES, CNN ELECTION LAW ANALYST: Well, first of all, a number of states amounting to more than 270 electoral votes have already certified Joe Biden as the winner of the election in those states.
[09:35:10]
They have appointed their electors.
Today is what we call Safe Harbor Day, which means Congress is supposed to treat that as final. There are extremely remote possibilities we could speculate about, but none of them are realistic.
There is going to be a fight in Congress in January when the electoral -- the electoral votes arrive. We now have indications some senators and representatives, Republicans, may object to the votes from Pennsylvania, for example. But none of this is going to amount to anything.
The election is clearly over and the electors are going to vote next week and that is the legal end of the matter.
SCIUTTO: Tell us what that looks like on the floor of the House in January. So you already have a number of Republican congressmen who said that they will object. They need at least one senator, I believe, to do the same. If they object, what happens then?
PILDES: Yes, so it's a dramatic moment visually if they do this the way they normally do, which is Congress convenes in a joint session on January 6th. It's the new Congress. The current vice president presides. He opens the votes from states.
He goes down in alphabetical order. And if a representative and a senator jointly object to the vote from a particular state, then the House and the Senate go off to their separate chambers, the objection stops the process, they have to vote by majority vote whether to accept or reject that objection. Then they come back to the joint session and indicate how they voted. And you can't go on to the next state until the objection has been resolved by the House and the Senate.
HARLOW: So Republican Senator Ted Cruz is now offering to argue a case on the president's behalf before the Supreme Court should the high court grant tertiary (ph), which is a big if. Can you explain what they are even considering taking up and if you even think they will?
PILDES: So there's been a flurry of litigation, as you know, in Pennsylvania. In fact, all sorts of new suits just in the last couple of days. There is one case that I think the Supreme Court might take, but it's a case I don't think they'll hear until after the inauguration, and it involves a very small number of ballots.
The case that I believe Senator Cruz has offered to argue is a case that I can't imagine the Supreme Court will actually take. It's a case that has already been rejected consistently by state and federal courts in Pennsylvania.
HARLOW: With prejudice, I think.
PILDES: Again, there are so many of these different lawsuits. But -- but, yes, obviously --
SCIUTTO: Yes.
PILDES: This has been the most litigated post-election process we have had ever. HARLOW: Yes.
PILDES: And you have not seen a state for a federal court, Republican or Democratic judges, accept anything other than one very, very minor claim in all of this litigation.
SCIUTTO: Yes.
HARLOW: That's a really --
SCIUTTO: Any Trump appointees as well.
PILDES: Absolutely. Yes.
HARLOW: Yes, that's a really helpful way to -- way to put it.
Richard Pildes, thanks so much. Good to have you.
PILDES: Thank you.
HARLOW: President-elect Joe Biden officially introducing the health team that will take on this pandemic. He's also picking -- making history, I should say, with another top cabinet choice. We'll have more on that ahead.
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[09:42:52]
SCIUTTO: Welcome back.
Later today President-elect Biden will formally introduce key members of his health team who, come January, will have the job of managing the rollout, the mass rollout, of the coronavirus vaccines.
HARLOW: Let's go to our colleague, Jessica Dean. She's in Wilmington, Delaware, with more on the president-elect's event today and also a big pick that he's going to announce and one that will make history in terms of his selection for defense secretary.
JESSICA DEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Poppy. And we'll start with that one.
Sources are telling us that President-elect Joe Biden intends to nominate retired Army General Lloyd Austin as his secretary of defense. Austin served as commander of U.S. Central Command. He has a long and storied history in the military but is, of course, retired.
Now, he will have to get a waiver to serve in that role because he's only been retired for four years and federal law states seven years you have to be out to serve in this role. That's going to have to work its way through Congress. But if he is confirmed, he would be the first black man to serve in that role.
We're told over the weekend Biden offered that job to Austin. Austin accepted. And that when it really came down to it, it was about Biden's comfort level with the general. It was about them working together and Biden feeling comfortable with him, as has been the case with so many of his picks for his cabinet nominees so far.
And to that end, as you mentioned, we are expecting a formal introduction to key members of his health team later today. We talked a little bit about this earlier this week. Xavier Becerra, the California attorney general tapped to lead the Department of Health and Human Services.
He's a former member of Congress who was there when they passed the Affordable Care Act and has also led the efforts to preserve the Affordable Care Act. Vivek Murthy as surgeon general, Dr. Rochelle Walensky to run the CDC, Dr. Anthony Fauci, a lot of familiar faces there.
So, Poppy and Jim, we do expect to hear from President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris on these picks and to hear more about them and what they plan to do to get the coronavirus pandemic under control. As you guys have laid out, it is an incredible challenge and it is the top priority for the Biden administration as they go into office, Poppy and Jim.
[09:45:08]
HARLOW: OK, Jessica Dean, thank you very much for all that news.
Ahead, just three weeks ago a pregnant mother, Erika Becerra, contracted COVID and then she gave birth to her son and then lost her own fight. Her brother joins us next.
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HARLOW: Well, welcome back.
We're going to take a moment to remember the life of Erika Becerra. She was just 33 years old. There she is. And she was eight months pregnant with her second child when she contracted COVID just three weeks ago.
[09:50:02]
So doctors decided to induce her and she gave birth to a healthy little boy. There he is. His name is Diego.
But on Friday, after spending weeks on a ventilator, Erika's family learned that she would never be coming home.
Her brother, Michael Avilez, joins me now.
I know words can do nothing to ease your pain, but I -- and we are all deeply, deeply sorry.
Can you tell us about Erika?
MICHAEL AVILEZ, PREGNANT SISTER DIED FROM COVID AFTER GIVING BIRTH TO SON: Yes.
Erika, she was the most, you know, wonderful person anybody could ever meet. Like I said before, you know, she -- all she would care about was other people's happiness. You know, her happiness was to see people happy. And, you know, she tried to help out as much as she could and, you know, if you were having a bad day -- if you were having a bad day, you know, she would just randomly call and, you know, she would be there helping you and, you know, tell you everything's going to be OK and, you know, you would just get those phone calls like that (INAUDIBLE) from her and, you know, that's what I'm really going to miss.
HARLOW: Of course.
What -- what did being a mother mean to her, Diego, her newborn, but also a one-year-old, her namesake, a baby girl, Erika?
AVILEZ: For her, being a mother, it really meant a lot because, you know, she helped me out with my twins and she also helped out with my mom, you know, when she had to have our younger sister. And, you know, all she wanted was to start her life and, you know, get married.
You know, try to live that fairy tale. And, you know, she started it, she started with her first baby, Erika, and then they bought their home. She got married. They bought their home and then they came over here and, you know, it's just -- it's sad that she won't be able to see her second son. But I know she's up there watching him forever.
HARLOW: I have no doubt about that.
I know, Michael, it has to be excruciating to be here. And some people might wonder, you know, why -- why even -- why even, you know, talk to us right now. But for you I understand it's really important for people to hear her story. She was 33. She was so young. She was totally healthy. No underlying health conditions, right?
AVILEZ: Yes, that's correct.
HARLOW: So -- and then -- and what happened when she found out she had COVID and she was, you know, almost ready to give birth to her child?
AVILEZ: Well, what happened was, the week before she found out that she had COVID, she had gone to the hospital to -- she was starting to get contractions. So, you know, she went to go -- so they could stop them. And she visited the hospital twice. The second time that's where she found out, you know, she had COVID.
And then after she found out, she came home and on a Monday she called my mom saying, you know, like that she had thought that they had hurt her in the hospital and, you know, that she couldn't breathe, like it was hard for her to breathe. It was hard for her to move. And, yes, she only lasted up until Wednesday night where they had to end up calling the ambulance to come pick her up. And then from there, you know, she just started declining.
HARLOW: Yes. Michael, what is the last thing that you said to her or that she said to you? Because I know you want her -- her life to -- to mean something for anyone who doubts how severe this is.
AVILEZ: Look, all I got to tell you is, hug your loved ones. Tell them you love them. You know, because with me and my sister, when they had gone to L.A., I was working so much and I would have to leave my house around 4:00 in the morning. And the day she had to come back home, the day I had to come back home, she had to come back home, I didn't say bye to her.
And, you know, later on, around 7:00 in the morning, she called and she's like, hey, how come you didn't say bye to me.
HARLOW: Oh.
AVILEZ: And I told her -- I told her, you know, I hate good-byes, not knowing that that will be the last time that I would talk to her.
[09:55:17]
But like I said, you know, hug your loved ones. Tell them you love them.
HARLOW: Yes.
AVILEZ: You know, it's tough, you know. A lot of people don't believe in this pandemic. They say, you know, it's all a hoax. It's not until it happens to them, you know?
HARLOW: Yes. Yes.
AVILEZ: And I want to take time to thank, you know, her godmother, my Aunt Esmay (ph), you know, that they're doing the best they can on their end. And, you know, I want to also thank the doctors at Henry Ford that, you know, were in charge of her because they did the best they could, and the nurses there as well.
And then there's one doctor in particular, that, you know, he was -- he was a total sweetheart. I'm not sure if I'm going to say his name right, but his name is Dr. Delbalio (ph).
HARLOW: OK.
AVILEZ: But that doctor, you know, he walked us through everything. He told us, you know, like, he -- he told us reality (INAUDIBLE).
HARLOW: We will -- Michael, we will reach out to Dr. Delbalio (ph) and -- and make sure that he sees this and he knows how grateful you are. And thank you for this message for -- for everyone.
Again, we're deeply sorry and I just want to put this on the screen as we say good-bye for anyone who wants to help because, of course, Erika and Diego's father now is taking care of them alone, a one year old and an infant. They have a Go Fund Me page, In Loving Memory of Erika Becerra. If you want to help, you can go there. Michael Avilez, thank you.
AVILEZ: Appreciate it.
HARLOW: We'll be right back.
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