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President-Elect Biden Announces Key Members Of Health Team; Trump Repeats Election Falsehoods During Pandemic Briefing. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired December 08, 2020 - 14:30   ET

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

[14:30:00]

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DR. VIVEK MURTHY, SURGEON GENERAL NOMINEE: That is a testament to the promise of America, one that I will seek to fulfill every day as surgeon general.

Thank you so much.

And thank you, again, Mr. President-Elect and Madam Vice President- Elect, for this opportunity to serve.

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: Thank you.

DR. ROCHELLE WALENSKY, INCOMING CDC DIRECTOR: Mr. President-Elect, Madam Vice President-Elect, I am honored by the trust you've placed in me to serve the American people during this critical time.

I want to thank my amazing husband and our three wonderful sons for answering this call along with me.

As all doctors and public servants know, these jobs ask a great deal not only of us but of our families.

The pandemic that brought me here today is one that struck America and the world more than 30 years ago.

Because my medical training happened to coincide with some of the more harrowing years of the HIV/AIDS crisis. As a medical student, I saw firsthand how the virus ravaged bodies and communities.

Inside the hospital, I witnessed people lose strength and hope. While outside the hospital, I witnessed those same patients, mostly gay men and members of vulnerable communities, be stigmatized and marginalized by their nation and many of its leaders.

A scientific breakthrough came in 1995 when the FDA approved the first AIDS cocktail, and we saw the first glimmers of hope.

I've dedicated my career ever since to researching and treating infectious diseases, and to ending the HIV/AIDS crisis for good.

Now a new virus is ravaging us. It's striking hardest once again at the most vulnerable, the marginalized, the underserved.

Nearly 15 million Americans have been infected. Over 280 million loved ones are gone.

The pain is accelerating. Our defenses have worn down. We are losing life and hope at an alarming rate.

I never anticipated I would take on a role helping lead our national response. And government service was never part of my plan.

But every doctor knows that when a patient is coding, your plans don't matter. You answer the code.

And when the nation is coding, if you are called to serve, you serve. You run to take care of people, to stop the bleeding, to stabilize, to give them hope and a fighting chance to come back stronger. That's what doctors do.

I'm honored to work with an administration that understands that leading with science is only way to deliver breakthroughs, deliver hope, and bring our nation back to full strength.

To the American people, and to each and every one of you at the CDC, I promise to work with you, to harness the power of American science, to fight this virus and prevent unnecessary illness and deaths so that we can all get back to our lives.

Mr. President-Elect, Madam Vice President-Elect, I thank you for this opportunity.

BIDEN: Thank you.

DR. MARCELLA NUNEZ-SMITH, COVID-19 EQUITY TASK FORCE CHAIR: Mr. President-Elect, Madam Vice President-Elect thank you for this opportunity to serve the American people.

I'm proud to go to work with leaders who are deeply committed to science, and to centering equity in our response to this pandemic.

And not as a secondary concern, not to as a box to check but as a shared value woven into all the work we do and prioritized of every member of the Biden-Harris team.

I'm enormously thankful to my research team and colleagues, to President Soladay (ph) and other leadership here at Yale for supporting me in this work.

And I'm grateful to all of the researchers and advocates who blazed the trail, whose work on health equity and racial justice too often went unbelieved or overlooked across the generations.

[14:35:02]

Most of all I'm thankful for my family, to Jesse (ph) and our three children, for their unwavering support and humor.

And to my mother and her mother, for modeling kindness, generosity and courageous leadership through service.

I have wanted to be a doctor since I was 6 years old. And I'm a proud general internal medicine physician today.

But as I grew up, I came to understand that there were deeper dimensions to health beyond what I saw in the human biology textbooks I borrowed from my mother's book shelves.

I grew up on Saint Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands, a place people too often die too young from preventable conditions. My own father had his first stroke his 40s and was left paralyzed.

I learned there was a term for what were, an underserved community marginalized by place and by race.

In my medical training, I saw countless patients whose conditions were shaped by factors having nothing to do with science and everything to do with broader social inequity.

And now the COVID-19 crisis has laid those inequities bare.

It is not a coincidence and not a matter of genetics that more than 70 percent of African-Americans and more than 60 percent of Latinx Americans personally know someone who has been hospitalized or died from COVID-19.

The same disparities ingrained in our economy, our housing system, food system, our justice system, and so many other areas of our society, have conspired in this moment to create a grief gap that we cannot ignore.

It is our societal obligation to ensure equitable access to testing, treatments and vaccines. Equitable support for those who are hurting. And equitable pathways to opportunity as we emerge from this crisis and rebuild.

Including for those most marginalized communities, the undocumented, the incarcerated, the homeless.

I'm grateful for this chance to continue this work, to earn trust, and to find success through genuine partnerships with the people and communities who have been hit the hardest during and before the crisis.

On this team, you will be heard, you will be counted, and you will be valued.

Thank you.

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY & INFECTIOUS DISEASES & SELECTED AS CHIEF MEDICAL ADVISER ON CORONAVIRUS: President-Elect Biden and Vice President-Elect Harris, thank you so much for asking plea to be part of this COVID response team.

I hope that you don't mind that the reason I am sending this video is because a close friend and colleague at the NIH, Dr. Harvey Alter, is receiving the Nobel Prize in medicine at the same time and we wanted to attended ceremony at the NIH to show our support.

Such an achievement is a reminder of the incredible public servants we have at the NIH and at America's place a as a pioneer in science and medicine.

I believe, as you do, that in the fight against this pandemic, we must lead with science. And that a key piece of our ongoing work is communicating consistently with the American people.

Whether it's maintaining social distancing and not congregating indoors or the 100-day challenge you described on masking or to get as many people vaccinated as possible.

These actions are bold but they are doable and essential to help the public avoid unnecessary risks, to help us save lives, reopen schools and businesses, and eventually beat the pandemic.

I look forward to advising you on these most urgent priorities, and to work with this team of world-class experts, whom I have known for many years and deeply respect.

I have been through many public health crises before, but this is the toughest one we have ever faced as a nation.

[14:40:00]

The road ahead will not be easy. We have got a lot of hard and demanding work to do in the next year.

But as we have done during previous crises, I also know we can get through this pandemic together as a nation.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to be part of this effort.

JEFF ZIENTS, COVID-19 COORDINATOR: President-Elect Biden and Vice President-Elect Harris, I'm honored by your trust in me and humbled by the task at hand. And I am hopeful, because of your leadership.

As it is for both of you, everything starts with family for me. And I am forever grateful for the love and support of my wife, our children and our parents.

Mr. President-Elect, we've known each other for a long time. And our relationship has been forged under immense pressure, the severity of the Great Recession, the challenge of implementing the Affordable Care Act, and the daily decisions a White House makes that affect the lives of millions of Americans.

You and President Obama knew how to build a team with the right diversity of backgrounds in views. A team to make progress on difficult situations and capture enormous opportunities.

That's what I've tried to do throughout my career.

I'm not a doctor, or a public health expert. In fact, we've got the best ones in the world on this team.

But I do know management and execution. In the key part of the role you've asked me to take on is the last part, coordinator. It's about empowering experts, developing a culture of teamwork, and maintaining a focus on strategy and execution.

It's knowing that leadership requires expertise, transparency and prioritization. It also requires trust, truth and integrity.

To the American people, that's what this team will provide. We will utilize the full capacity of the federal government to get this pandemic under control.

We'll harness and examine the date to expand testing, to deliver equipment and PPE to those on the front lines, to provide resources for schools and businesses, to operate safely, to address the racial disparities and inequities of this pandemic, to rejoin the global fight against COVID-19.

Because no one is safe until everyone is safe.

And with our collective expertise, we will oversee the rollout of the vaccine, which, as the president-elect said, will be one of the greatest operational challenges our country has ever faced.

And we'll also pull the country together across governments of the federal, state and local levels and across the private sector.

And as we begin this work, Mr. President-Elect, I remember what you told me when we were implementing the Affordable Care Act.

Your message was, I know this is no small task. I know you and the team are feeling tremendous pressure to succeed. And we want and need the team to pull this off.

You then said, I know you and the team can do this, but I need to promise -- promise me one thing, that you will always, always give it to us straight. Because we have to understand the challenge we're facing.

Because most of all, we're in this together, and together we can do this.

President-Elect Biden, vice president-elect Harris, and the American people, this team will always give it to you straight.

[14:45:01]

The work ahead will not be easy. But we know what needs to be done. And we will get it done together.

Thank you.

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, congratulations, Mr. President-Elect, on nominating and appointing a most outstanding team to get this pandemic under control. Thank you to these accomplished physicians and experts and public

servants for answering the call to serve the American people in this critical hour of need.

Over Thanksgiving, the president-elect and I called health care workers who are on the front lines of this pandemic just to thank them.

We wanted to express our gratitude and our nation's gratitude for everything they had been doing, for every sacrifice they have made.

That day, I spoke with two registered nurses, Maureen (ph) in Pennsylvania and Tolisa (ph) in Illinois, they shared stories that we've all heard.

We've all heard the stories about grandmothers and grandfathers, loved ones and friends spending their last moments alone.

We've all heard about nurses and physicians who are physically and mentally exhausted, trying to keep up with ever-increasing caseloads.

Those on the front lines that say to each other, it's not a matter not of when -- it's a matter not of when, but when they will get the virus.

So it is a matter of when and not if they get the virus. This is what they're saying to each other every day.

We've all heard about health care workers without the supplies and equipment they need to care for patients and save lives.

So today, we have a message for Tolisa (ph), Maureen (ph), and all Americans, help is on the way. And it is long overdue.

The scale of this pandemic is heartbreaking. As you know, and have heard, almost 15 million cases, more than 2,800 deaths in a single day.

And then there's the economic devastation, the lost jobs, the small businesses shuttered.

Not to mention what's happening to our schools. The parents and teachers who are being stretched to their limits. And the toll it's taking on the mental health and well-being of our children who risk each day falling behind.

Opening our schools and economies safely and responsibly, getting this virus under control, all of it starts with listening to experts and leaders like these, Americans who reflect the very best of our nation.

They are top physicians, public health experts, and public servants.

And they are the team that the American people need and deserve to make sure testing and treatment are free for everyone.

To make sure vaccines are safe, free, and equitably distributed. To make sure we are better prepared for future pandemics and other health threats.

And to make sure quality, affordable health care is available to all.

From an early age, I saw the life-saving work that our health care professionals provide, especially for the most vulnerable among us.

You see, my mother was a breast cancer researcher. And my sister and I spent many hours roaming hallways of the hospital where she worked.

I'm sure your kids have, too.

And it's why I actually later co-founded an auxiliary group to help patients at the county hospital in Oakland, California, more than 20 years ago.

It's why we need to protect and expand the Affordable Care Act. And it's why we have to listen to frontline health care workers, like Maureen (ph) and Tolisa (ph).

In fact, during our conversation. Tolisa (ph) said, we wouldn't send our soldiers to battle without the gear they need and we shouldn't, then, leave these doctors and nurses to fight this pandemic without the gear they need.

Of course, she's right.

President-Elect Biden and I, along with this world class team, will make sure we're doing everything we can to save lives and contain this pandemic once and for all.

[14:50:06]

Getting this virus under control is one of the defining challenges of our time.

And we will do what the American people have always done in the what the American people have always done in the face of a great challenge. We will stand together and we will defeat it.

Thank you.

BIDEN: Thank you, Kamala.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN HOST: All right, so you heard it, help is on the way.

You just saw the Biden-Harris administration rolling out their choices to lead in terms of fighting this pandemic, mitigating the spread, distributing the vaccines.

That those are the choices for a Health and Human Services' team, including Xavier Becerra at the top, the first Latino to hold that post.

But I want to begin, Sanjay Gupta, with you, sir, because I think it's important, before we get into the who, to get into the what.

The three objectives that President-Elect Biden said he had developed alongside Dr. Tony Fauci are as follows, the three tings.

In his first 100 days, as he said in the Jake interview, everyone must wear a mask wherever possible.

Number two, in the first 100 days, he said this team will get at least 100 million vaccines in the hands of people.

And number three, in the first 100 days, he will have most schools open if Congress provides the funding, as he said, that we need.

What do you make of those objectives and are they attainable?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I think they are very attainable.

There are nuances around all of them, first of all, with the 100 days of masking.

He talks about the fact that government buildings are places where he can influence and mandate these masks to be worn.

I got to tell you I was at the White House just a couple weeks ago. I mentioned that I was interviewing Ambassador Birx. And I was stuck by how many people within the White House complex were still not wearing masks.

It can go a long way toward setting an example in those types of buildings, as well as trains, planes and buses and things like that.

The 100 million doses, I believe he said, of vaccine, within 100 days, also seems very doable.

We've shown this timeline, Brooke, many times in terms of how the rollout is looking. I'm not sure we have it now.

But we talked about the fact of 40 million doses possibly by end of the year. And then ramping up in January, February and March. That's the timeframe that President-Elect Biden is talking about.

There may be other vaccines that come online in the next couple of months, including Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca. So potentially doable.

And schools, the final one. I admit, I was a skeptic that you could keep schools open as well.

I have kids. They tend to be big spreaders of respiratory viruses. But positivity rates among schools has stayed relatively low with respect to the communities in which those schools are located.

So keeping them open obviously crucial toward opening up other parts of our society. So, you know, very doable, very evidence-based. There's other things in there. Testing, still, we're woefully behind

on testing. The idea that people could test themselves at home regularly to know whether or not they are contagious, critical point.

And also therapeutics. I's still going to be a while for the vaccines.

We heard about the president of the United States getting monoclonal antibodies. We heard about Secretary Carson getting monoclonal antibodies when they were sick.

How available is that going to be for the rest of the country? Those are still some questions.

But as far as what he laid out, his big three plans sound very do doable with those nuances.

BALDWIN: So those are the three objectives that he laid out.

The other thing that I jotted down -- Abby Phillip, good to see you, political correspondent here there in Washington.

The word I kept hearing over and over is "equity." Biden referred to the COVID-19 Equity Task Force. Xavier Becerra referred to equity.

Dr. Nunez-Smith talked about being marginalized and marginalized societies when it comes to public health in this country.

Lastly, you heard the vice president-elect talk about equity in terms of vaccine distribution.

Why does that matter so much?

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Brooke, I know this is something that you've talked a lot about on your show.

But it's a real problem in the United States that you've seen play out, firsthand, that this virus has affected communities of color at disproportionate rates.

And that will roll into a second problem, which is, how do we make sure that the vaccine is distributed to the people who need it the most, and that also those people want to receive the vaccine.

[14:55:05]

So those are clearly twin problems.

And they're complex because, as several of the speakers laid out or alluded to, you know, identifying the people who are at the most risk of this virus, which might correspond with their race, there has to be a way to get -- to identify who needs it the most.

Making sure that black and Latino and Native American populations are receiving the virus at rates that are commiserate with their level of risk for both infections, for serious illness, and also for death. I think there's a recognition within this group that is inextricably linked to the policy problem here that they have. But also that they have long histories of doing this work in the science background that many of them have as well.

BALDWIN: I was talking yesterday to Dr. Reed Tuckson. He is part of this coalition of black Americans fighting COVID-19.

He was reminding all of us of what happened with Tuskegee and a lot of black Americans who ended up with syphilis, and there was treatment, and they weren't given it. Instead, they were studied.

Understandably, there's a phobia, as we've heard from a number of people in these black and brown communities. And the education is so important.

All of that said, also such an interesting afternoon, Gloria, because talk about a juxtaposition, right, we've been watching all this news being made by the Biden-Harris team.

All the while, over at the White House, President Trump has been signing this executive order to prioritize vaccines to Americans and fast.

One of the things that was missing -- and I'll get to the sound in a second -- is anyone from the Biden transition team is part of this executive order.

So the president was asked about this. I want everyone to pay extra attention to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, we're going to have to see who the next administration is, because we won in the swing states.

And there was terrible things that went on. So we'll have to see who the next administration is.

But whichever the next administration is will really benefit by what we've been able to do with this incredible science, the doctors, all of the people that came up, the lab technicians.

The work that's been done is incredible and will be incredible for the next administration.

And hopefully, the next administration will be the Trump administration because you can't steal hundreds of thousands of votes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: OK, Gloria.

Hold up. No, Mr. President, you did not win. We are in the worst part of this pandemic. Americans are dying. It is time for him to stop the charade.

What is going on?

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Right.

Well, it's just Donald Trump, same old, same old, taking a victory lap when he shouldn't take a victory lap on his election.

He does deserve some credit, of course, for Operation Warp Speed, as do the scientists and everybody else he mentioned for getting this done.

What was striking to me, while the president was over there saying out loud, yes, the legislatures and maybe the Supreme Court can rescue me somehow, what we saw in the Biden press conference was anything but a victory lap. The tone of it was very somber.

Biden talked about the dark winter yet to come, talked about what our goals are as a country, saying he needs money from the Congress to get these things done.

And he said, you know, I'm going to give it to you straight from the shoulder.

Saying, you know, I'm always going to tell you the truth and here's where we are. This is dangerous right now. This maybe will take longer to get people vaccinated than we would like.

So while, on the one hand, on the split screen, I guess, you have a president lying about whether he won the election.

On the other hand, you have a president-elect trying to tell the public, we're going to work as fast as we can to get you everything we can.

But I'm not going to sugarcoat it. And I'm not going to tell you that everybody is going to be vaccinated tomorrow and it's all going to go swimmingly. Because these are the things that we need before we can do that. And these are the professionals that I've put in place to get it done.

So two very different kinds of pictures there -- Brooke?

BALDWIN: You heard the president-elect saying, you know, we have to persuade Americans to take the vaccine.

BORGER: Yes.

BALDWIN: We saw the extraordinary pictures coming out of the U.K. today with elderly English men and women being the first in this world to take the vaccine.

BORGER: Yes.

BALDWIN: One nurse referring to it as an injection of hope. We need the hope ahead of this dark winter. And as Biden said, we can do this. [14:59:58]

Thank you all so very much for being with me, each and every one of you.

Sanjay, Gloria, Abby, thank you for being with me.

I'm Brooke Baldwin. We'll see you tomorrow.

"THE LEAD" with Jake Tapper starts right now.