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Vaccine Chief: Right Time To Order More Doses Is Once Vaccine's Performance Becomes Known; FDA: Pfizer Vaccine Is 95 Percent Effective 7 Days After Second Dose; Texas Files Longshot Bid With The Supreme Court Asking Justices To Allow Lawsuit Against Battleground States; Wisconsin Dismisses Voting Machine Conspiracy Leveled In Lawsuit; GOP Leadership Rejects Resolution Saying Biden Is President-Elect. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired December 08, 2020 - 12:30   ET

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

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[12:30:00]

THERESA, RECEIVED COVID-19 VACCINE: -- I think people should be afraid of the vaccine. They should go for it. There's absolutely nothing to it. It's been such an exciting day.

MAX FOSTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Do you feel like you're part of history.

JONATHAN HOLMAN, RECEIVED COVID-19 VACCINE: Yes.

FOSTER: Are you excited by that?

HOLMAN: Yes. Yes.

FOSTER: Why is that?

HOLMAN: New sort of possibility and possibility to not pass on infection to patients.

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FOSTER: Speaking there, John, to someone in the vaccination center here in Cardiff in Wales. Those locations being kept secret because they're concern that people might turn up in cue to try and get vaccinations, but it's strictly on an invitation-only basis. Interesting to see that more than half of people in the U.K. trust this new vaccine, just 16 percent don't trust it.

There's a huge amount of excitement about it. And it feels as if the whole system's working, but the big challenge will be the next stage which is getting out to local areas, and that's the big technical challenge. There are so many issues here at the moment, it's just that these hospitals with so far, pretty positive news, John.

JOHN KING, CNN HOST: Max Foster for us in Wales. I love the love the angst (ph) of the attitude, go for it. Just go for it for those (INAUDIBLE). That's awesome.

Max, thanks so much for the live report.

Movement here in the United States, it could come relatively quickly as well. And FDA Advisory Committee meeting on Thursday to discuss Pfizer's vaccine and the request for emergency authorization. Today, we're getting a peek at the data they will discuss. The briefing document confirms the vaccine does offer some protection after the first dose and is 95 percent effective seven days after the second dose. Up to 4.6 percent of trial participants did have severe adverse reactions. And during trials, six of the more than 43,000 participants died.

We're also getting a look at AstraZeneca's vaccine candidate. An interim analysis of its phase 3 trial published for the first time today in a peer-reviewed journal confirms that vaccine from AstraZeneca is 70 percent effective. Just moments ago, the FDA Commissioner talked to our Dr. Sanjay Gupta about what he called the rigorous authorization process that still lies ahead for a vaccine. But Dr. Stephen Hahn, listen here, does seem optimistic. Good news is coming soon beginning with this Pfizer vaccine.

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DR. STEPHEN HAHN, FDA COMMISSIONER: Our team has done their initial analysis and we do feel that, preliminarily, that the success criteria have been met that's been reported in the press today. We have public documents out there but we very much depend upon the outside experts from the vaccine advisory committee. That will happen on Thursday. And then we expect shortly thereafter to make a decision.

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KING: Let's bring in Dr. Amesh Adalja, he's a senior scholar at Johns Hopkins University for Health Security. Dr. Adalja, it's good to see you. Help us understand the context of this moment. It's just a punishing time when you look at the day to day new infections, the day to day hospitalizations, the day to day death toll. And yet you see those remarkable scenes out of the U.K. You hear Dr. Hahn there thinking that the Pfizer vaccine should get at least Emergency Use Authorization from the advisory committee pretty quickly. Where are we?

DR. AMESH ADALJA, SENIOR SCHOLAR, JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY CENTER FOR HEALTH SECURITY: We're in a very bad place when it comes to cases in the United States, hospitalizations in the United States and deaths in the United States. And I think it's appropriate to be very enthusiastic and excited about this vaccine. I wish I could get my vaccine today. But we do have a lot of work to do, and there is going to be a lot of people who get infected and die between now and when that vaccine rollout is available to the general public. So there is still a lot of effort that needs to be put on to the basics of testing, tracing, isolating, getting people to follow common sense recommendations, because we are really looking at hospitals on a day to day basis or worrying about their capacity. KING: And so, let's listen here, the Trump administration, for all of its mistakes, does appear to have had some success in this Operation Warp Speed in encouraging and supporting the companies who are trying to develop out in the private sector of vaccine and then being ready to mass produce and distribute. We'll see. The proof is about to be put into the pudding, if you will. But listen to Dr. Slaoui here talking about there's been -- there was an opportunity to buy more Pfizer vaccine last summer. They said no, because they were spreading the money, the resources between a number of providers. He says that was the right way to go.

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DR. MONCEF SLAOUI, CHIEF SCIENTIFIC ADVISER, OPERATION WARP SPEED: Once the vaccines performance becomes known is the right time given the strategy we've taken to go and order more vaccine doses which we may be doing. And, frankly, the constructive things to do if one of the supplier has challenges producing enough vaccine doses is to roll our sleeves and help ensure that capacity can be increased and have more vaccine doses. That being said, I'm very comfortable as is the operation.

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KING: So back at the beginning, Dr. Adalja, they didn't know would Pfizer be ready first, would Moderna be ready first, would AstraZeneca be ready first, would anybody be ready first. So here's what they did. They ordered 300 million doses from AstraZeneca, 100 million doses from Novavax 100, million from Pfizer, 100 million from Sanofi, 100 million from Johnson & Johnson, 100 million from Moderna. That was the approach when you didn't know who would get to the finish line first or if anybody would get to the finish line.

[12:35:01]

Do you think they should change the approach now that you have two vaccines that have 90 percent plus efficacy, the AstraZeneca data, maybe we need a little bit more show 70 percent plus efficacy? Is it time to stick with the plan or change the plan because of what we know?

ADALJA: I think that in the beginning of lent (ph), a lot of sense to have a portfolio approach and a kind of a layered approach, not knowing which candidate would end up crossing the finish line first, what the data would show because many things don't make it through phase 3. Now, I do think we can down select some, but I do think that there has to be some funding for second generation vaccines, because we may find a vaccine that is better that can be given in one dose that doesn't have cold storage. And it's going to be very hard to decide how to do that because we're in the middle of a public health emergency. And the quicker we can get vaccine into people, the quicker this public health emergency.

And so this is a hard decision and not an easy -- not something I can give an easy answer to. But I do think we need to put more resources into the ability to deliver the Pfizer vaccine and probably the Moderna vaccine, which are going to be the first two to get Emergency Use Authorization. So we can at least get our vulnerable populations protected, give hospitals some breathing room and get some semblance of normalcy back.

KING: Dr. Adalja, grateful as always for your time and your expertise as we go through this. Again, the challenge of the moment, and then some hope out on the horizon. Grateful for your time, sir. Thank you.

Up next, the President and his allies keep losing in their effort to reverse America's 2020 choice. But another new effort today suggests they will, yes, keep trying.

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[12:40:50]

KING: Today, one month after Election Day, the President is getting some new help in his bid to defy math and to defy democracy. Ken Paxton, the Republican Texas Attorney General now asking the Supreme Court of the United States to take up a lawsuit with the intended goal of tossing the election results. Paxton argues four battleground states carried by President-elect Joe Biden. Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin ignored state and federal election law when they adopted new coronavirus voting rules.

Let's discuss this now with our CNN Contributor and Veteran Republican Election Lawyer, Ben Ginsberg. Ben, I want to read a little bit from the Paxton statement about this. He says, 'Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin destroyed that trust and compromise the security of the 2020 election. The states violated statutes enacted by their duly elected legislators, thereby violating the Constitution. By ignoring both state and federal law, these states have not only tainted the integrity of their own citizens' vote, but of Texas in every other state that had lawful elections".

That last part, I guess, is his way of trying to say, I have standing, that what he thinks was bad in those states reflects badly on Texas. I see this as a guy who's trying to establish himself as a Trumpy Republican. Do you see any legal merits to it?

BEN GINSBERG, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Absolutely none. The notion that a Texas Attorney General is going to try and disenfranchise the voters from four other states for laws that were in effect on Election Day is just not meritorious in the least. And, you know, Ken Paxton, sort of an interesting case, John, because he's the subject of securities -- federal securities violation investigation since 2015. He had bribery investigation started because of some -- people in his office said he acted improperly with a donor. And this kind of feels like an addition for the celebrity Trump pardon list.

KING: OK, that's a perspective I hadn't quite thought of there, Ben, but that's why you're here. You're smarter than I am when it comes to these things. Look, we're at 40 something losses I think, there was one modest victory for team Trump in a one of the particulars of a Pennsylvania in identification, but they've been losing and losing and losing and losing. And sometimes there's a reason you stepped away from this. And you're here with us because you didn't want any part of this is the most accomplished Republican election lawyer of the last 25 years.

This is -- well this is the response from the Wisconsin State, the Governor and his team to a complaint filed by an -- in another Trump lawsuit. Dominion voting machines, there's been this conspiracy that somehow somebody hacked into or cook the machines to help Biden win. "Dominion voting machines, the subject of endless pages of allegations and affidavits and plaintiffs submission are not used in the relevant counties. The complaint alleges egregious conduct involving these machines in eight Wisconsin counties. But materials sourced from the WEC website and included in Plaintiff's own exhibits show the Dominion machines are used only in two of those counties. And those two counties, Ozaukee and Washington are both places where President Trump won."

So, not only are they losing because they can't prove fraud. Ben, this is just bad. I'm sorry. This is like a journalism intern --

GINSBERG: Yes.

KING: -- would get kicked out of work, or you'd flunk your college, one on one class, facts are simply wrong.

GINSBERG: And that's absolutely right. The law is wrong. The facts are wrong. You know, interestingly, the U.S. Supreme Court now has the Paxton case and case brought by a congressman from Pennsylvania, both trying to invalidate the results in their state. The U.S. Supreme Court jumped into Bush versus Gore in 2000 to end the chaos. The Supreme Court could jump in, reject both the Texas and Pennsylvania cases now and stop a little bit of the chaos that seems to be brewing.

KING: And you don't see the loosest thread that the Supreme Court could jump in and do anything other than that, do you?

GINSBERG: No. And I think as sort of evidence of that, you can look at what the lower courts have said about the Trump lawsuits. And that's been true of judges appointed by Trump and all other courts that have looked at it.

[12:45:02]

KING: Ben Ginsberg, grateful for your time and your expertise. Again, we're -- I think we're almost to the end of this, I think. We shall see, we shall see.

Up next for us, the misinformation campaign in Georgia's Senate races.

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KING: There's new concern in the Trump West Wing this hour over the possibility of another White House coronavirus outbreak.

[12:50:01]

Jared Kushner, President's son-in-law, Ivanka Trump, his daughter, both attended the White House holiday reception on Friday. Also in attendance that night, Jenna Ellis, the Trump campaign lawyer whose sources tell us has since tested positive for COVID-19. Ivanka Trump, you see them there, posted several photos from that event on her social media accounts. CNN asked Ivanka Trump's spokesperson today if she and her husband came in contact with Ellis, or if the couple intended quarantine, as of this moment, no response.

All eyes, of course, on the two Senate run offs down in Georgia. They would impact the balance of power, could impact the balance of power in the United States Senate. With all that high profile attention, also comes a surge in misinformation.

CNN's Donie O'Sullivan is on the ground for us live in Georgia. Donie, two campaigns getting a lot of attention, and with a lot of attention comes a lot of mischief.

DONIE O'SULLIVAN, CNN BUSINESS REPORTER: Absolutely, John. And as Georgia takes, you know, center stage in the political universe, so too those misinformation here in the state. And I'll tell you, some of Trump's supporters a bit like the President himself are living in a parallel universe here. They do not believe that Trump lost the election. They do not accept that he lost the state of Georgia. And they believe that despite all the evidence, elections in this stage are rigged.

The President was here at a rally on Saturday and I spoke to some supporters. Have a listen.

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O'SULLIVAN: Republicans who are supporters of President Trump, who believe that Trump didn't lose the election here, who believed the election in Georgia has been rigged. Some folks are saying they're not going to show up.

LUCRETIA HUGHES, TRUMP SUPPORTER: I understand them, because we're pissed.

O'SULLIVAN: So Lin Wood sort of told voters in Georgia the other day, you know, if you don't believe the election's fair here, don't show up and vote. Newt Gingrich, another Georgia Republican, said that's going to destroy the Republican Party, that's going to give Democrats control of the Senate.

HUGHES: (INAUDIBLE) of the Republican people and the base of reason they get up off our tails and go vote for you. Because if you don't stop this fraud of an election, you don't have our back, so why are we having yours.

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O'SULLIVAN: And, John, that's the story there. I mean, really, you can see how misinformation being peddled by the President could really, really backfire here in the state of Georgia with those critical Senate runoff elections. Some Republicans considering not showing up to vote or not voting Republican at all in a way to try and punish these Republican Senate candidates for, in their view, not standing by the President. John?

KING: It's just remarkable. Truth and fact should matter. Donie O'Sullivan, grateful to have you on the ground. That important -- those important races at this important moment. Donie, thanks so much.

Up next for us, the House Republican leader on Capitol Hill says he will not go against the President in a big fight over defense spending.

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[12:57:17]

KING: The top House Republican Congressman Kevin McCarthy saying today he would not vote to override a presidential veto of the National Defense Authorization bill. That legislation sets policy for defense spending and it would give troops a big race.

CNN's Manu Raju live on Capitol Hill for us now. Manu, most Republicans disagree with this veto on the policy. But it sounds like on the politics, they're not ready to defy the president.

MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, this is the House Republican conference has been mostly loyal to this President from day one. And as we add, to the end of the Trump presidency, it's clear that most Republicans are uneasy concerned and don't plan to defy the President here, even though they agree with the overall policy. This is a $740 billion defense bill. It authorizes projects all around the country, in districts around the country so it's why it's done every single year has been done so for more than half a century.

Congress is expected to approve it, but because of the President's opposition over unrelated issues, he's going to veto this bill and a lot of Republicans plan to side with them. The President in particular is concerned that this bill does not attack social media companies and wants to roll back protections for Twitter, for Facebook, and others. That is something that the Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Jim Inhofe just told me does not belong on this bill in hospitals (ph). He told me he spoke with President Trump last night for 30 minutes. He said that he told the President how significant of abilities and he said he's disappointed with the President's decision to veto this bill over this issue.

But Kevin McCarthy, the House Republican Leader, just told reporters that he would signed with the President on the ultimate veto override. So that means, John, that it's appears that it's going to be difficult to get the two-thirds majority in the House Chamber to override the veto. House Democratic leaders are uncertain they'll have the votes there. It's likely in the Senate, they would have that two-thirds majority, but the House unlikely to so they may have to wait to the new President comes in to get this major bill through, John.

KING: I think that may be a clue to the question, the answer to the question I'm about to ask you, which is the election was one month ago, we knew the winner just shy of that. Our House Republicans, you know, are they any closer to the idea that it is a President Biden they will be dealing with in 43 days?

RAJU: And certainly not at this point. They're not saying so publicly in a closed door meeting just earlier this morning, top congressional Republicans, including Senator McConnell, Senator -- and Congressman McCarthy, both joined an effort to reject a resolution essentially affirming that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will be sworn in on January 20th, as part of this Inaugural Committee discussions. So, a sign, John, they're not ready to accept the President-elect Joe Biden just yet.

KING: Yes, and that's -- that means not ready to accept facts, not ready to accept math, not ready to respect democracy. It means a lot. Manu Raju live on the hill for us. We appreciate that. Appreciate your time today. Hope to see you back here this time tomorrow. Don't go anywhere, busy day.

Brooke Baldwin picks up our coverage right now. Have a good day.

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