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U.K. in Day 2 of Vaccinating Elderly, Health Care Workers; Challenging Months ahead in the U.S., Officials Warn People to Stay Home for Holidays; China Blaming Frozen Food for COVID-19 Outbreak; Mexico Details COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution Program; Trump Holds Vaccine Event in the White House; U.S. Supreme Court Denies Request to Overturn Results; Cybersecurity Firm FireEye Hit by "State-Sponsored" Hack. Aired 2-3a ET
Aired December 09, 2020 - 02:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us from all around the world. I'm Rosemary Church.
Ahead on CNN NEWSROOM, could there be a glimpse of light after the pandemic?
The U.K. begins vaccinations with the world watching, as global COVID- 19 infections surge.
Chinese officials point to frozen food as the source of a recent coronavirus outbreak. A live report from Beijing.
And the U.S. Supreme Court delivers another blow to the Trump campaign, hoping to overturn election results.
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CHURCH: It's good to have you with us.
Within days, the U.S. is expected to follow the U.K.'s lead and give the green light to start vaccinating Americans against the coronavirus. U.S. President-Elect Joe Biden is promising 100 million vaccine doses in the first 100 days of his administration.
Health care workers in the U.K. and the elderly are already getting injected with the COVID vaccine made by Pfizer and BioNTech.
Pfizer clearing another hurdle in the U.S. FDA briefing documents ahead of a critical meeting Thursday confirmed the vaccine is 95 percent effective with two doses and even appears to offer some protection with a single dose.
CNN's Cyril Vanier is live for us from London.
Good to see you, Cyril. The whole world, of course, was watching as the U.K. rolled out its COVID vaccination program.
What is being said about that first day, how it went and what's expected on day 2?
CYRIL VANIER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yesterday, I think, was deemed a huge success across the board. Frankly, the bar for it to be deemed a success was not very high. I think as long as we saw people yesterday in all four corners of the U.K. -- England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales -- actually receive the very first doses of this Pfizer vaccine and feel fine and be happy about it and have nothing but positive reports, I think the government was always going to take that as a win, which it did; the British population as well.
Quite possibly, all the other Western countries that have preordered the Pfizer vaccine. So the bar was not set very high for yesterday. Still, it was the beginning of the end, as it has been termed by the government.
The bar now is going to be set higher going forward because there are tens of millions of people that need to be vaccinated. The government has not been able to give anybody a precise timeline. They hope that, by spring, all the priority, vulnerable groups within the population will have been vaccinated.
And they will be able to move on to a less priority, less vulnerable groups within the population.
We have no numbers. I cannot report to you how many people were vaccinated across the U.K. yesterday, how many people will be vaccinated today and how many people may be in a week. The NHS is not giving those numbers.
And I think that speaks to the fact that all of this is happening with some degree of improvisation, which is not to minimize the immensity of this task; the vaccine was approved less than a week ago.
Suddenly, they are finding themselves having to immunize millions of people. One example, yesterday, we met an elderly man here, 91 years old, Martin Kenyon, who just walked out of the hospital and he had received the vaccine. We were curious to know how.
The NHS guideline is, we will reach out to you and for the moment we're only doing patients who are already in hospital. He had cold called the hospital in the morning and they just too him. That, frankly, that's not how we had been told it would work.
But they also had the instruction to not waste any doses of the vaccine and any appointments. If they have any free appointments, they will go and give those jabs.
CHURCH: The other thing, it seems a little haphazard, amid the concern here that having had the first dose, will they all come back in three weeks to get the second dose?
But it's critical. VANIER: It is absolutely critical. You do not get full immunity
unless you come back for a booster shot. It's 2 doses, 21 days apart. The same grandfather we spoke to yesterday walked out with a card. Everyone gets a card, reminding you of your next appointment.
Just having it written down on a card may not always be enough. The gentleman perhaps didn't have a clear sense of the timeline when we spoke to him. He said they told me to come back in 10 days.
It's 21 days. That speaks to your question of, is everybody really going to be back when they are supposed to be and will everyone get the second dose?
In theory, the NHS should call that gentleman and everyone who got the first dose today or yesterday.
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VANIER: They should call them back and book them to second appointments. Otherwise, all of this will have been for nothing.
But this is all in theory and there is so much of this, in terms of the logistics and how it's going to work in this mass rollout, that, at this stage, we simply hope it's going to work. But we can't prove to you that it's going to work.
CHURCH: The other big concern for experts is that some of the side effects may have some people decide, I am not going back for that again. We will see what happens.
This is a great start. We don't want to criticize that. But we will just see what happens on the administrative side of all of this. Cyril Vanier, joining live from London, many thanks as always.
Lucky, relieved, excited, grateful, that is how many people in the U.K. say they feel after being among the first in the world to get injected with the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine. CNN's Phil Black has the details.
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PHIL BLACK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Vaccinations are usually routine, boring. Not today.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's very, very exciting.
MICHAEL TIBBS, COVID-19 VACCINE RECIPIENT: Are you clapping her or me?
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BLACK: World War II veteran Michael Tibbs says he didn't even feel the needle.
TIBBS: I'm very lucky, really. I hope that everybody will afford it and have it because it's really no problem at all. BLACK: Someone had to go first.
The honor went to Maggie Keenan. The almost 91-year old grandmother says the vaccine is a wonderful early birthday present.
MAGGIE KEENAN, FIRST COVID-19 VACCINE RECIPIENT: I say go for it, go for it because it's free. And it's the best thing that's ever happened at the moment. So do, please, go for it. That's all I say. If I can do it, well, so can you.
BLACK: Our winter of discontent made gloriously hopeful by science.
But no poetry from this William Shakespere or plain Bill to his friends, just awe for an historic medical achievement.
WILLIAM SHAKESPERE, SECOND COVID-19 VACCINE RECIPIENT: Groundbreaking, I think. It could make a difference to our lives from now on, couldn't it?
BLACK: Across the U.K., the first jabs inspired one overwhelming feeling among those receiving them: gratitude.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Congratulations.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ah, thank you. Thank you.
BLACK: And another emotion for the staff of Britain's already venerated National Health Service.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm so very proud to be part of the NHS right now.
BLACK: In Edinburgh, Dr. Linda Watson was among the first medical staff to receive the vaccine. Her message --
DR. LINDA WATSON, NATIONAL HEALTH SERVICE: To be hopeful for next year but don't change behaviors yet. This is why I'm still wearing a mask.
It's important to keep social distancing, doing all the safety behaviors for a few good months yet. But we're turning a corner now.
BLACK: There is still so much work to do. But day one of Britain's mass vaccination program was emotional and inspiring, an extraordinary scientific and logistical effort mobilized to protect the country's most vulnerable.
And it means Martin Kenyon will get to hug the people he loves once again.
MARTIN KENYON, COVID-19 VACCINE RECIPIENT: I hope I'm not going to have the bloody bug now. I don't intend to have it because I've got granddaughters and I want to live a long time to enjoy their lives.
BLACK: Phil Black, CNN, Edinburgh.
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CHURCH: The U.S. surpassed 15 million COVID-19 cases on Tuesday. That means one in 22 people tested positive for the virus. Hospitalizations are also soaring with more than 104,000 COVID patients across the country. That's the highest figure of the pandemic.
Health care workers say they are being crushed with numbers so terrible you might wonder why president Donald Trump chose this moment to make an empty, symbolic gesture. He signed an executive order to prioritize vaccine shipments for Americans before other nations. The White House vaccine chief seemed confused about it himself.
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GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS, ABC HOST: Can you explain this executive order the president's going to be putting it out?
I don't quite understand. He's saying that foreign countries aren't going to be able to get the vaccine until everybody here in the United States gets it.
It sounds like the problem's the opposite right now. Pfizer's made deals with other countries that are going to limit the supply here?
DR. MONCEF SLAOUI, CHIEF SCIENTIFIC ADVISER, OPERATION WARP SPEED: Frankly, I don't know. And frankly, I'm staying out of this so I can't comment.
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STEPHANOPOULOS: You don't know?
SLAOUI: I literally don't know.
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CHURCH: Even with vaccines on the horizon, experts in the U.S. are warning things will likely get worse, possibly much worse, before they get better. Leaders are begging people to follow prevention guidelines. Nick Watt has our report.
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GOV. TOM WOLF (D-PA): If the worst happens, hospitals will not be able to treat all sick Pennsylvanians. They'll be forced to turn away people who need treatment.
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NICK WATT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): More Americans in the hospital with COVID now than ever. And that means more death.
GOV. JIM JUSTICE (R-WV): The number of deaths is escalating in our state now with leaps and bounds.
WATT: Because virus spread is accelerating. In September, it took 25 days to log 1 million new cases. This latest million, the 15th, took just five. Five days.
GOV. TIM WALZ (D-MN): The good news is we're close. But the challenging news is this; the hardest weeks I think are still ahead of us.
WATT: More than 30 million Californians ordered once again to stay home.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're experiencing a surge like we've never seen.
WATT: The global vaccine rollout is now underway, started in England.
MARTIN KENYON, COVID-19 VACCINE RECIPIENT: Of course, I couldn't damn well find anywhere to park my car so I was late.
WATT: Minor hiccup aside.
KENYON: Except I hope I'm not going to have the bloody bug now.
WATT: The U.S. waiting on FDA authorization, likely just days behind.
MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO (D-NY), NEW YORK CITY: The vaccine is coming next week, the vaccine will be here in New York City.
WATT: But supply is tight, logistics challenging.
DR. RACHEL LEVINE, PENNSYLVANIA HEALTH SECRETARY: We anticipate the rollout of the vaccine to take six, nine -- could even be twelve months before everyone is immunized.
WATT: Pfizer will work to increase capacity. Moderna's vaccine is nearing rollout, Johnson & Johnson now in late stage trials.
DR. PAUL STOFFELS, CHIEF SCIENTIFIC OFFICER, JOHNSON & JOHNSON: I think we might have results sooner than expected but we target for results in the month of January.
WATT: And the federal government still says they'll have --
SLAOUI: -- the volume of vaccines we need to immunize the U.S. population as we promised. All of it by the middle of the year 2021 and that's still on track.
WATT: Here in California, the state just passed 20,000 COVID-19 dead and many Californians received an emergency alert on their cellphones -- "Covid-19 is spreading rapidly, stay home except for essential activity."
Sure, the vaccine is on the way but the White House coronavirus task force is warning the states that the current vaccination plan isn't going to have a big impact on the spread of this virus until the spring -- Nick Watt, CNN, Los Angeles.
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(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) CHURCH: Let's bring in CNN medical analyst Dr. Jorge Rodriguez in Los Angeles. He is an internal medicine and virus specialist and joins us now. Thank you, doctor, for being with us.
DR. JORGE RODRIGUEZ, INTERNAL MEDICINE AND VIRAL SPECIALIST: My pleasure, Rosemary.
CHURCH: So day one of the Pfizer rollout went very well in the United Kingdom as the world watch on very eagerly. Here in the U.S., of course, the FDA is expected to get authorization for the Pfizer vaccine on Thursday and then 100 million Americans will be vaccinated by the end of February. That's according to Admiral Brett Giroir.
So how achievable is that with Pfizer, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson and maybe AstraZeneca eventually in the mix there?
RODRIGUEZ: I think that's very achievable. I think the one bottleneck is the American public and whether they are going to step up and take the vaccines.
Yes, we know that Pfizer does not have as many vaccines as we thought they were going to be bringing up. They still have a very large number but Moderna is right in their heels and so are other vaccines. So I think it is highly achievable but like we just saw with the
U.K., there are probably going to be a lot of hiccups until, you know, that happens. But I have full confidence that we can achieve the goal of mass vaccinations in this country.
CHURCH: And doctor, I wanted to ask you this. Because Pfizer board member Dr. Scott Gottlieb has revealed that the Trump administration declined an offer from the vaccine makers six months ago to purchase additional doses of the vaccine for 2021. And now Pfizer has committed those doses to other nations.
So what did you make of President Trump's signed executive order Tuesday proclaiming Americans will get Pfizer vaccine doses first? And what impact could this have on a U.S. vaccine rollout going forward?
RODRIGUEZ: First of all, I don't think the, quote-unquote, "executive order" really has much teeth behind it. I don't think that you can force a company not to, you know, sell what it's already promised to other countries. And again, this is not just a U.S. problem. This is a world problem. And until the world is vaccinated, nobody is truly safe.
Listen, I think it is what it is, you know, to quote the president. I think other companies like Moderna are going to be stepping up. I think it was supposed to be 100 million from Pfizer, 100 million maybe from Moderna and then perhaps Johnson & Johnson and others are going to fill up the vacuum.
And in a couple of weeks, Moderna is going to be right here with their vaccine and probably another three or four weeks later and other companies. So I don't think it's going to make a big difference. [02:15:00]
RODRIGUEZ: The fact that Pfizer does not have all that it has promised. And who could have predicted in July, A, whether the vaccine would have work and, B, how many doses we were going to need.
CHURCH: Right.
So you think Joe Biden, he vowed, of course, to have 100 million doses for the first 100 days of his time in office. So you see that as a very realistic goal there?
RODRIGUEZ: I think -- I think it is a realistic goal but I think it all has to do, obviously, with planning.
And the best part of President-Elect Biden's plan is the fact that it is a plan. It isn't just wishful thinking. It isn't just pie in the sky. If nothing else, there's a leader saying this is what we are going to do and this is how we're going to do it and it's going to be implemented.
So is it achievable? Absolutely.
CHURCH: Yes. We like plans. And of course, meantime, COVID cases, hospitalizations and deaths are exploding across the United States and will likely get worse. The fear is that hospitals and staff will become overwhelmed.
So what needs to be done to help them in terms of states working out which healthcare professionals get the first vaccine doses made available and what the rest of the population needs to be doing before they get vaccinated?
RODRIGUEZ: Well, the first thing that needs to be done is that the healthcare workers that are truly on the frontline, meaning those that are in emergency rooms, working ICU and that are hospital-based need to get the first vaccine. I don't think there's any question about that.
Even then, there's still going to be overworked and tired because there is minimal manpower. Even in California and other states, they're trying to recruit physicians like myself who don't have that hands-on experience in ICU to perhaps volunteer.
But definitely, those are the frontline workers that need to be protected because we are going to need them for the long haul.
CHURCH: Yes. They are our superheroes. They need that recognition. They need that help. And they need that vaccine. So Dr. Jorge Rodriguez, many thanks as always.
RODRIGUEZ: Likewise.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: China says COVID-19 is being imported into the country via frozen food. And it's taking extraordinary measures to restrict it.
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DAVID CULVER, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This is one of the cold chambers here in a cargo wing of Shenzhen International Airport. The concern with the frozen foods has gotten so sensitive that, if I were to walk in just like this, I would have to do two weeks of quarantine as soon as I walked out.
CHURCH (voice-over): We will get a live report from Beijing.
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CHURCH (voice-over): Plus, Mexico is expected to get one of the coronavirus vaccines later this month.
But who will get the first doses?
A look at its distribution plan. That's next.
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CHURCH: China has been trying for months to completely eliminate COVID-19 after largely containing its initial outbreak. But small, sporadic clusters have continued to resurface.
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CHURCH: Officials there claim imports of frozen food are partly to blame, contradicting guidance from international health authorities, including the World Health Organization. David Culver has more.
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CULVER (voice-over): Health officials in China blaming imported cases of COVID-19 for recent cluster outbreaks. They warned that it has been carried in not only by some human travelers but also and, perhaps more alarming, on goods imported from other countries.
As CNN saw firsthand, it has sparked immediate changes in the handling of international cargo that now entered China.
You'll notice the crew members behind me are in full PPE from head to toe. We have been told strictly not to go within a certain distance of them. And we've also been told not to touch any of the cargo.
The reason is there's growing concern here in China that the imports from other countries might be carrying the virus; particularly, frozen foods. And so those who are handling that cargo, as it is coming in or going out, now have to undergo these new measures.
While both the World Health Organization and the U.S. CDC insist there is no evidence that people can contract COVID-19 from food or food packaging, Chinese media is airing images of the strict precautions now being taken.
Food transport trucks sprayed down with disinfectant, frozen seafood like shrimp and salmon along with the surfaces of all types of packaging, all frequently tested for COVID-19.
This is one of the cold chambers here in the cargo wing of Shenzhen International Airport. Now the concern with the frozen food has gotten so sensitive, that, if I were to walk in just like this, I would have to do two weeks of quarantine as soon as I walked out.
Full body suits now required for those working in these facilities.
China's ministry of transport warning that, before and after transporting the cold chain products, one should disinfect the used transportation means and body parts that may have touched the containers.
Chinese health officials believe recent confirmed coronavirus cases might have been caused by contaminated imported goods. Last month, two Shanghai airport cargo handlers tested positive for COVID-19.
In September, two dock workers in Qingdao, handling imported frozen seafood, also contracted the virus. And back in June, a massive Beijing market shutdown, state media reported more than 300 people tested positive. Some have suggested that cluster outbreak might have been linked to imported salmon.
Health experts say COVID-19 is tough enough to last for long periods on surfaces but they warn --
SRIDHAR SIDDHARTH, DEPARTMENT OF MICROBIOLOGY, UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG: this is not the most common way by which COVID-19 spreads. In most situations, COVID-19 spreads from person to person, directly by (INAUDIBLE) particles in which the virus is present (ph) through the air.
CULVER: Still Chinese state media are using the imported case fears to repeatedly put into question the actual origins of the virus, stressing that, "Wuhan is the place the disease was first identified, but probably not the place where the virus originated from," sowing seeds of doubt ahead of a WHO field team's upcoming trip to China.
They will investigate the origins of COVID-19 as China works to keep new cases of the virus from seeping in through its borders.
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CHURCH: All right. Now to Latin America, a region feeling the strain of the coronavirus. For a time, the area seemed to be slowing the spread of the virus but infections are back on the rise, according to Johns Hopkins University.
With an increase of new cases over the past month, Mexico is detailing its vaccination rollout plan. The country is expected to get hundreds of thousands of doses of the Pfizer vaccine this month. They say health care workers will be first in line. CNN's Matt Rivers has more.
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MATT RIVERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we know that vaccines are big news all across the world right now. And the same thing applies here in Mexico, especially after what we heard from the government on Tuesday morning.
Officials announced part of their strategy for their vaccine distribution program, announcing that some 250,000 doses of Pfizer's vaccine will arrive here in Mexico this month.
After that, 1 million doses of that same vaccine will arrive each month from January to March. And then in April, some 12 million additional doses of Pfizer's vaccine will arrive here in Mexico.
The government says that it is prioritizing health care workers. They will be the first group to get access to this first round of vaccines, followed by those people who are aged 60 and higher. But I think it's worth talking about the timing of all of this, in a reality check sort of way.
Consider that those doses will be roughly enough to vaccinate only about 7.6 million Mexicans out of a total population of roughly 130 million Mexicans.
Also, the government is saying that it hopes to vaccinate roughly 75 percent of its population aged 16 and higher by the first quarter not of next year but of 2022.
[02:25:00]
Now of course, the option exists for Mexico's government to try and bring in more vaccines from sources apart from Pfizer. It's something they are actively working on. But at least what has been officially announced so far, enough to vaccinate roughly 7.6 million Mexicans to start -- Matt Rivers, CNN, Mexico City.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: And in Panama, a nightly curfew is now in effect for the capital as the country tries to regain control of the virus. The country has surpassed 180,000 confirmed cases. That's according to Johns Hopkins University. CNN's Patrick Oppmann has more.
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PATRICK OPPMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Panamanian health officials on Tuesday put into place a series of measures that they say they hope will prevent a resurgence of the coronavirus here in the capital city and the surrounding province.
Starting on Tuesday, people will have to stay in their homes. There will be a curfew from 9 pm until 5 am. There will be a ban on alcohol sales. These new restrictions are on top of existing measures that prevented people from holding large gatherings in their homes. At the beginning of the pandemic, Panama put into place some of the
toughest restrictions in the region. People were not allowed to leave their homes for days. Borders were closed.
But since reopening, Panama has seen a steady uptick in the number of cases. In the last several days, we've seen more than 1,000 new cases each day. So officials hope this will do the job. They will not have to revert to those tougher measures. But they also have not said how long these new restrictions will be in place -- Patrick Oppmann, CNN, Panama City, Panama.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: A quick break now. But still to come, a major legal defeat for President Trump and his latest long-shot bid to overturn the election results. Back in a moment.
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CHURCH: In a single sentence, the U.S. Supreme Court shot down President Trump's hopes he could rely on the justices to give him an election victory. The court rejected the campaign's request to overturn the election results in Pennsylvania. There were no noted dissents.
A spokesman for President-Elect Joe Biden reacted to the ruling, saying, "This election is over. Joe Biden won and he will be sworn in as president in January."
President Trump's team has lost about 50 legal challenges in courts across the country in the past five weeks. The election remains uppermost in the president's mind, even as he briefly turned attention to the pandemic. Kaitlan Collins reports.
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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Any questions, please?
[02:30:00]
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A White House summit meant to tout progress on coronavirus vaccines quickly went off the rails today, as President Trump wrongly implied he may still be in office next year.
TRUMP: Well, we're going to have to see who the next administration is, because we won in those swing states.
COLLINS: Trump was asked why no members of president-elect Joe Biden's transition team were invited, given Biden will be inaugurated soon and his administration will take over the distribution. TRUMP: Hopefully, the next administration will be the Trump administration, because you can't steal hundreds of thousands of votes. You can have fraud and deception and all of the things that they did.
COLLINS: Despite a string of court losses and recounts that have affirmed Biden's win, Trump called on state legislators or even the Supreme Court to help him overturn the election results.
TRUMP: Let's see if they have the courage to do what everybody in this country knows is right.
COLLINS: The president didn't mention how the federal government is now facing new scrutiny for passing up a chance to lock in more doses of Pfizer's vaccine.
TRUMP: We're very hopeful that the FDA will authorize the Pfizer vaccine within days. COLLINS (voice-over): Federal officials turned down an opportunity to buy millions of more doses of the vaccine this summer, before it was proven to be highly successful in clinical trials, which the head of Operation Warp Speed defended today.
DR. MONCEF SLAOUI, CHIEF ADVISER, OPERATION WARP SPEED: No one reasonably would buy more from any one of those vaccines, because we didn't know which one would work and which one may be better than the other.
COLLINS: But Moncef Slaoui said he couldn't explain the executive order Trump signed today that would prioritize vaccines for Americans, then distribute it to other countries.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS, ABC NEWS: It sounds like the problem is the opposite right now. Pfizer has made deals with other countries that are going to limit the supply here.
SLAOUI: Frankly, I don't know. And, frankly, I'm staying out of this. I can't comment that. I don't know.
COLLINS: Scott Gottlieb, the former FDA commissioner who is now on the board of Pfizer, said Pfizer's doses have been promised to other countries.
DR. SCOTT GOTTLIEB, FORMER FDA COMMISSIONER: Some of it was promised to other countries after it was offered multiple times to the United States.
COLLINS: On top of that, we've learned the president's other attorney, Jenna Ellis, has tested positive for coronavirus. That's on top of Rudy Giuliani, still in the hospital after he tested positive for coronavirus of the weekend.
He did tell a radio interviewer in New York that he believes he is going to be discharged from the hospital tomorrow -- Kaitlan Collins, CNN, the White House.
(END VIDEOTAPE) (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: Caroline Heldman is a political analyst and an associate professor of politics at Occidental College and she joins us now from L.A. Thank you so much for being with us.
CAROLINE HELDMAN, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Good to be with you, Rosemary.
CHURCH: So Donald Trump and his team received a crushing defeat from the U.S. Supreme Court when it dismissed their Pennsylvania case.
This may be the end of Donald Trump's legal efforts to overturn a free and fair election but could he still try to fight this on the House floor?
HELDMAN: He certainly can. So he has tried to put pressure on election officials. That did not work. He put pressure on legislatures. That has not been effective.
He, as you noted, has filed almost 50 lawsuits in his camp has and then they now, you know, got a really big blow with the Supreme Court dismissing the case, not ruling in the Trump camp's favor.
And beyond that there is no dissents, right. There none even -- none of his appointees spoke up.
So Gorsuch, Amy Coney Barrett, Brett Kavanaugh, none of the folks that he appointed in the Supreme Court who I think a lot of Trump supporters were relying on even had a dissent in this.
I don't think it will stop the frivolous lawsuits, because, you know Donald Trump to date has made $170 million his camp has off of running this campaign that they have to say that the free and fair election was something else.
So I expect that they will continue to do that and Rosemary, you should point out, they will definitely try to stop this on the floor of the House as they are counting the electoral votes.
CHURCH: Right, of course, most Republicans in Congress have shown their true colors going along with President Trump's false claims of election fraud. Only a few have actually dared to speak out.
How dangerous is this for U.S. democracy?
And how much longer can these Republicans keep supporting Trump's lie?
HELDMAN: Well, I think they are very afraid of him, right. Because he uses social media as a bully pulpit. And I have some sympathy for Republicans who had put in this tight position.
But as you point out, you know, this is -- I think a real threat to democracy. If you have a leader who is refusing to accept the outcome of a free and fair election. In any other country we would call that a Democratic coup. So I choose to call it, what it is here in the U.S.
[02:35:00]
And what we have seen is while Donald Trump is raking in this money and putting out these false claims. He is also inciting a lot of violent rhetoric and violent action.
So you saw armed protesters gathered outside of the secretary of state's house in Michigan while she is, you know, putting -- watching the Grinch and decorating a tree with her 4-year old.
You see death threats to election officials. And at the end of the day looking at public opinion polls, 52 percent of Republicans believe that Donald Trump won this election. That is a majority.
And so we are in a crisis here. The question is whether Republicans will really step up and put an end to this before January 20th. Before Joe Biden is sworn in.
CHURCH: Yeah, it is a real concern that someone will get hurt in the midst of all of this. And of course, while Donald Trump continues to ignore the pandemic and pushes false claims of a rigged election, his successor, President-Elect Biden, is getting on the business naming his team and vowing to offer 100 million vaccine doses in his first 100 days in office and asking all Americans to wear masks during that period.
It is, of course, a stark contrast in leadership style. Isn't it?
So how might Trumps action impact what Biden is able to achieve going forward?
And how is all of this playing politically?
HELDMAN: Well, we already know that Donald Trump passed up an opportunity to get vaccinations from Pfizer. He has slowed the transition so we know that Joe Biden will not hit the ground running when it comes to a distribution plan. But Joe Biden is doing what he can without having the resources and access that he needs.
I think over the weekend it became very clear that Donald Trump does not have the distribution plan in place that he needs to have. Joe Biden has nominated Javier Becerra for Health and Human Services. And he is not a medical expert but what he is an operation on political expert.
And so he's put him in a place I think in order to get the vaccines out quickly. It is definitely night and day, right. You see Donald Trump waiting 71 days to respond to the pandemic.
You see him politicizing and feminizing basic safety procedures like wearing masks. And so, in some sense it is a breath of fresh air because it is science based for Joe Biden's to say, look, 100 days, wear the masks. Scientists have been, you know, screaming at the top of their lungs that this is the way to really stop this virus. And we are nowhere near being out of the woods, right?
It's going to take six months to get this vaccine out. And so, at least we will be in science based hands starting January 20th.
CHURCH: Yes, they're certainly polar opposites. Caroline Heldman, many thanks as always. I appreciate it.
HELDMAN: Thank you.
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CHURCH: China and Nepal have joined forces to discover the true height of Mt. Everest. What their new survey revealed about the world's tallest peak, when we return.
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CHURCH: One of the top cybersecurity firms in the United States has been targeted by hackers. FireEye says highly sophisticated hackers stole tools used to test customer security. In response, the company has developed hundreds of countermeasures. Their CEO says this attack was likely by a nation state with top tier offensive capabilities.
This is part of his statement, "We have found that the attacker targeted and accessed certain Red Team assessment tools that we use to test our customer security. Consistent with a nation-state cyber espionage effort, the attacker primarily sought information related to certain government customers."
Mt. Everest's true height has been debated for years. But now Nepal and China have overcome their mountain of differences to settle the matter once and for all. Paula Newton reports on what their new joint survey revealed about the world's highest point.
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WANG YI, CHINESE FOREIGN MINISTER: Today, I am pleased to make a joint announcement with you, on behalf of China and Nepal to the world that the new height of Mount Chomolungma Sagarmatha is 8,848.86 meters.
PAULA NEWTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's official. The world's tallest mountain has been taken to new heights, after a joint Chinese Nepal agreement. The size of Mount Everest, a controversy that has endured for decades between the two countries, finally comes to an end.
The new measurement, just shy of a meter taller than the commonly-used height dating back to an Indian survey done in 1955.
The height of Mount Everest, was first calculated in 1856, by the surveyor general of India, led by Britain's Sir George Everest, the man the mountain is named after. It measured 8,840 meters then.
A Chinese survey done in 2005 found that the mountain stood at 8,844 meters, but Nepal refused to recognize that number.
Then in 2015, several scientific studies suggested the elevation may have changed after a 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit Nepal. Two years later, the Nepali government said they would send their surveyors to try and determine the height.
When Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Nepal in 2019, the countries agreed to call a truce. As a symbol of friendship, they decided to jointly announce the updated measurements which would be compiled in a collaborative effort.
China then started its assessment from the Tibetan side of the mountain. Determining the precise dimensions of the world's highest peak, proved to be a long and grueling mission. Surveyors used geodetic data they received from a leveling instrument, a gravity meter and a GPS.
Nepal and China jointly calculated the data and came up with a result. The effort brought a sense of honor for Nepal, according to the country's survey department. As it was the first time, conducting their own measurements.
TSHERING PANDE BHOTE, CLIMBER: Our mountains are known as young mountains internationally. And it is a matter of pride to hear that the height has increased.
NEWTON: The majestic beauty and wonder of Mount Everest, is unmistakable. Now, so is its proper height -- Paula Newton, CNN.
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CHURCH: And thank you so much for joining us, I'm Rosemary Church. I will be back with more news at the top of the hour, "WORLD SPORT" is next.
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