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Trump Calls PA House Speaker Amid Effort to Overturn Election; GOP Leadership Rejects Resolution Acknowledging Biden's Win; GOP Invites Discredited Vaccine Critic to Testify at Senate Hearing; Florida Police Raid Home of Former State COVID-19 Data Scientist; President-Elect Biden Announces Key Members of Health Team. Aired 1:30-2p ET
Aired December 08, 2020 - 13:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[13:33:50]
BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN HOST: More signs President Trump is fighting to overturn the election. Many of his Republican defenders are more than willing to help.
Pennsylvania is the third state where Trump reached out to Republican officials. CNN confirms the president made multiple calls to Pennsylvania's House speaker inquiring about their election results.
Let's go to gloria Borger, CNN chief political analyst.
Gloria, as the president is making these phone calls, we know the Pennsylvania Supreme Court is calling a legal challenge, quote, unquote, "fundamentally frivolous."
Is this just evidence that no amount of phone calls to state officials is going to undo this election?
GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: I think it is. And let me quote a Republican here, Senator Pat Toomey, who is not running for re-election. He says these phone calls are completely unacceptable.
While some people are characterizing these phone calls as informational from the president, give me a break.
When the president of the United States calls you and wants to find out what's going on in your state and how you might be able to overturn the vote of the American people, I would say that's applying pressure.
[13:35:02]
What the president is clearly doing is election tampering. And you can't do that. And elected officials or nonelected officials, anyone, the American
public, should not stand for it.
But that's exactly what he has been doing from the White House. It is remarkable.
BALDWIN: Pennsylvania is the first state he tried to do it in. He's called up Michigan. He's called up people in Georgia.
BORGER: Georgia.
BALDWIN: Railing against, of all people, Governor Kemp, who has been long time royal to the president.
But let's talk about Trump strategy, assuming there's a strategy, gloria. Fight relentlessly and don't concede.
If he says he wants to run in 2024, what's he playing to here? And do you think it will work?
BORGER: Well, it depends what the meaning of work is.
(LAUGHTER)
BORGER: And that is, look, if this is a president who is going for the long-term political win here, whether it is for 2024, or to be the king maker for Republicans without being the king, he has about 50 percent of Republicans believing that the election was rigged.
So in a way, politically, you could argue that it might be working for him in the long term. He is undermining American democracy in the process.
Legally, it is not working for him. He is not going to be reelected. He is not going to be sworn in on January 20th.
But he may be playing a different game here. And he doesn't care whether the Democratic process is undermined as a result.
That's not what he is thinking about. As usual, Donald Trump is thinking about his own future and what it will hold for him.
And the more people he can gather behind him as he tries to finish the fight, one way or another -- that's why he won't concede -- is really what he wants.
BALDWIN: Yes. As you point out, there are a number of Republicans in Washington who refuse to accept the election results who are on team Trump.
BORGER: Yes.
BALDWIN: Today, the congressional Republican leaders have rejected this resolution asserting Joe Biden is even the president-elect.
My question is just, you know, we're going to have a new president January 20th. How long can they keep this up?
BORGER: I think they can keep it up until January 19th, if they want to. December 14th, the electors meet and vote. And that should be the end of it. And I believe that that's probably going to be the end of it.
But just imagine this. You have a meeting of top congressional leaders, Democrats, Republicans, I believe, three and three, they're planning the inauguration. And they won't even vote. The Republicans won't even vote to say this is Joe Biden's inauguration.
Now, the Republicans say -- Roy Blunt said that's not our job, that's not what we're here for, we are here to plan inauguration. It's not our job to ascertain who is the next president.
But it is kind of ridiculous that Mitch McConnell, Roy Blunt, et cetera, won't say that.
And that is because, as we all know, they're worried about January 5th. They're worried about who is going to win in the Georgia runoff because that means control of the Senate.
And they don't want to anger Donald Trump because he has 74 million supporters out there. And they need him to be on their side so they can win Georgia. That's what this is about.
BALDWIN: That is the money election, January 5th.
(CROSSTALK)
BORGER: You bet.
BALDWIN: Gloria Borger, we wait to see who controls the Senate.
BORGER: Oh, yes.
BALDWIN: And we wait to see if some of these members of Congress grow up.
Gloria, thank you.
BORGER: Eventually.
Thanks.
BALDWIN: Thank you. Thank you.
Any moment now, we should be hearing from President-Elect Joe Biden. We'll bring that to you live as he introduces his health team to all of us.
[13:39:00]
Also ahead, she's a known vaccine skeptic and her ideas have been discredited. Why did Republican Senators invite her to testify on how to combat the COVID pandemic? We get those answers, next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: Let's get a sneak peek. There he is. The president-elect arriving in Wilmington, Delaware, for this event, where he'll be introducing his health care team, who will be battling the pandemic, helping with distribution of vaccines, mitigating the spread.
We're about to see that. We will take you there live momentarily.
On Capitol Hill today, a much different scene. A controversial physician who has questioned the use of vaccines testifying before the Senate Homeland Security Committee about the pandemic.
Republicans invited vaccine critic, Dr. Jane Orient, to the hearing on COVID solutions and early out-patient treatment.
Sunlen Serfaty is our CNN congressional correspondent, live on Capitol Hill for us.
Sunlen, tell us more about who Dr. Orient is why Republican Senators wanted her.
SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Brooke, it certainly was a controversial pick by Republicans up here on Capitol Hill today.
And Democrats are calling her testimony dangerous, especially given the point we are, where we are as a nation as everyone is trying to get educated, learn about vaccines in the works.
[13:45:05]
Dr. Jane Orient is someone widely seen as a vaccine skeptic. She heads up a right-wing advocacy group that's opposed to government involvement in health care.
She's someone who has spoken at length about use of Hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID patients, something that the FDA is not in support of.
Those are things she echoed in her testimony again.
Democrats are enraged on the committee and they all but boycotted essentially. Some were in the committee room but didn't ask questions of her today.
We only heard from the top Democrat on the committee, Senator Gary Peters, and he blasted Republicans for essentially giving what he calls a conspiracy theorist a platform today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. GARY PETERS (D-MI): The minority was not consulted about the scope of this hearing before it was noticed.
The panelists have been selected for their political, not medical views. And for that reason, the composition of the panel creates a false and terribly harmful impression of the scientific and medical consensus.
I certainly welcome diverse perspectives, but we have a responsibility to follow science and to follow facts, not conspiracy theories, and not disinformation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SERFATY: Very notably, it's not just the Democrats on the committee are opposed to her testifying today.
Senator Mitt Romney, a Republican here in the Senate, someone who sits on that committee, he did not attend the committee hearing today.
When he caught up with reporters a short time ago, Brooke, he talked about her testimony and said, quote, "I think it's nuts to bring that into the Senate" -- Brooke?
BALDWIN: Sunlen, thank you.
Some breaking news in the world of sports. One of the biggest rivalries in all of college sports.
According to statement from University of Michigan, the Wolverines are cancelling Sunday's game at Ohio State University because of increasing number of COVID cases and student athletes in quarantine on the Michigan side. So, game off.
In Florida, there's new video of a dramatic police raid at the home of this COVID data scientist who had been fired. She says she's being targeted by the governor.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER: Police. Come down now. Come down the stairs.
(SHOUTING)
REBEKAH JONES, FIRED COVID-19 DATA SCIENTIST WHO CLAIMS SHE'S BEING TARGETED BY FLORIDA GOVERNOR: You just pointed a gun at my children.
(CROSSTALK)
JONES: He just pointed a gun at my children.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
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[13:51:55]
BALDWIN: Florida law enforcement officers raided the home of Rebekah Jones. She is the state's former top COVID-19 data scientist. She has accused the governor and other officials of trying to cover up the extent of the pandemic.
By the way, she was fired back in May.
And her home security video captured the Monday morning confrontation she then shared with CNN.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER: Come outside. Outside.
UNIDENTIFIED LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER: Who else is in the house, Ma'am?
JONES: My two children and my husband.
UNIDENTIFIED LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER: Where is your husband at?
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER: Calm down. Calm down.
JONES: You want the children now?
UNIDENTIFIED LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER: Call them all down.
Mr. Jones, come down the stairs. Now!
UNIDENTIFIED LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER: Police, come down now!
UNIDENTIFIED LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER: Search warrant. Come down the stairs.
(CROSSTALK)
JONES: You're pointing a gun at my children! He just pointed a gun at my children.
UNIDENTIFIED LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER: Search warrant. Come down the stairs, sir.
(CROSSTALK)
JONES: There are children up there.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER: It's a baby.
UNIDENTIFIED LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER: Mr. Jones, please come downstairs now.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER: Come down. We've given you guys every opportunity to come down.
(CROSSTALK)
(END VIDEO CLIP) BALDWIN: Drew Griffin is our CNN senior investigative correspondent. He's been digging on all of this today.
Drew, why did this happen? And it's my understanding she actually doesn't believe she's the real target here?
DREW GRIFFIN, CNN SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: Yes. The video certainly makes it seem like this was overkill by the police. They claim that she didn't answer the door for 20 minutes and wouldn't answer the phone or hung up the phone.
But be that as it may, no one arrested. They left with a computer, her phone, her hard drive.
Rebekah Jones, this goes back to a feud having the state of Florida and Ron DeSantis. She was fired in May after she says she blew the whistle on the state officials she claimed were covering up deaths in Florida related to coronavirus.
The governor said she was fired basically for insubordination.
This current investigation is focusing, according to an affidavit, on whether or not an alert messaging e-mail inside the state was broken into and used to solicit information.
As she told Chris Cuomo last night, Rebekah Jones believes this is not only an attempt to silence but silence any of her sources who are still inside the government.
Here's what she said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JONES: They took my phone and they took the computer I used to run my companies.
And on my phone is every communication I've ever had with someone who works at state who has come to me in confidence and told me things that could get them fired, or in trouble like this.
And I just want to say to all of those people right now, if he doesn't know already, DeSantis will know soon enough you've been talking to me. So be careful.
DeSantis needs to worry less about what I'm writing about and more about the people sick and dies in his state. And doing this to me will not stop me from reporting the data, ever.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRIFFIN: What she is doing, Brooke, she runs her own COVID tracking site now, independent of Florida government, as she filed a whistle- blower complaint and now she's facing potential legal troubles with the state of Florida -- Brooke?
[13:55:05] BALDWIN: What's DeSantis saying?
GRIFFIN: Interestingly enough, his spokesperson said he had nothing to do with this.
I'll give you a quote. "The governor's office had no involvement, no knowledge, no nothing, of this investigation."
That's from DeSantis' spokesperson.
So right now, we're just waiting to see what will happen as far as this investigation.
Again, nobody arrested. Just her electronic material taken away.
BALDWIN: Keep following if for us. We'll want an update.
Drew Griffin, appreciate you.
GRIFFIN: Yes.
BALDWIN: A reminder to all of you. Just moments from now, we will be seeing these dueling events, one from President-Elect Joe Biden in Wilmington and, of course, President Trump from the White House.
A really stark contrast to their approaches to this COVID pandemic, which is now the worst it has ever been.
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ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.
BALDWIN: All right. Top of the hour. You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin.
And here is the president-elect, Joe Biden.
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: -- one of the toughest years we've faced as a nation. More than 285,000 dead Americans, because of COVID-19, and counting.
Last week, COVID-19 was the number-one cause of death in America. For black, Latino and Native Americans, nearly three times as likely to die from it.
COVID-19 is a mass casualty.
For families and friends left behind, there's a gaping hole in your heart that will never be fully healed.
As a country, we've been living with this pandemic for so long, we're at risk of becoming numb to its toll on all of us.
You know, we're resigned to feel that there's nothing we can do. We can't trust one another. That we must accept death, pain and sorrow. We're in the midst of this deadly pandemic that has infected almost 15
million Americans, one out of every 22 people in our country, often with devastating consequences on health.
And at this very moment, what is the outgoing administration asking the Supreme Court to do in the United States Supreme Court? To repeal the entirety of the Affordable Care Act when we need it most.
[13:59:57]
A law on the front lines against the pandemic. Protects more than 100 million Americans who live with pre-existing conditions, which will increase now, including those with lung scarring and heart damage as a consequence of COVID-19.
