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Pfizer Expects Vaccine Shipments To Begin Rolling Out Sunday; Frontline Staff Provide Care, Compassion Amid Unfathomable Pain; CDC Vaccine Advisers Vote To Recommend Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine In The U.S.; Georgia's Senate Runoffs To Decide Course Of Biden's Presidency; GA Republicans Battling Their Own Misinformation In Senate Runoffs; Fourteen Million Americans Face Eviction As Protections Expire. Aired 6-7p ET

Aired December 12, 2020 - 18:00   ET

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

[18:00:22]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

ANA CABRERA, CNN HOST: You are in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Ana Cabrera in New York. Thanks for being with us.

The coronavirus vaccine is now just one step away from being distributed here in the U.S. All that's left to clear the way is C.D.C. Director Dr. Robert Redfield sign off, which could happen at any moment. This comes after the C.D.C. vaccine advisers just hours ago voted to recommend the Pfizer and BioNTech coronavirus vaccine following the F.D.A. issuing an Emergency Use Authorization for it.

So this is the fastest that a safe effective vaccine has ever been developed, but all of this is unfolding on the same day the U.S. surpassed 16 million cases. It's only been four days since we reached 15 million cases. This global pandemic just ravaging the U.S. unlike any other country.

For perspective, compare Canada and the U.S. More people died from COVID in the last week here in the U.S. that have died in Canada through the entire pandemic. In fact, more people died just yesterday in the U.S. than in Japan and South Korea combined since the pandemic began.

Remember the U.S. and South Korea reported their first cases on the same day. More than 108,000 Americans are in hospitals. And Friday, the deaths of another 3,300 Americans were reported, a single day record, 2,000 more deaths have already been reported today with hours still to go. Officials warn Christmas travel and gatherings will cause another surge.

But back to the much needed light at the end of this long tunnel, the vaccine distribution process is gearing up and tomorrow, we should see doses being transported to America's most vulnerable. We're following all the latest developments. CNN's national correspondent Dianne Gallagher is joining us now from Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Dianne, tell us how the airport there where you are is gearing up to play a critical role in the vaccine distribution process.

DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And so, Ana, here's the thing, this airport for about a month now has been being prepared figuring out how they're going to accommodate vaccine distribution. Now, the airport officials say that they have been in talks with at least four global carriers as far as distributing this vaccine, not just around the country, but potentially around the world and say that they're able to eventually handle the distribution of up to a billion doses of that Pfizer vaccine.

Now that is being manufactured just about 45 minutes down the road at Pfizer facilities in Kalamazoo. And the proximity to that Kalamazoo Pfizer facility makes this Ford Airport ideal for getting that vaccine out to people.

Now we know that FedEx and UPS are going to be pushing that vaccine to the East Coast and the West Coast of the United States. And in all likelihood, a good part of that's going to come from this airport. We'll see the trucks most likely come in, we'll see the planes take off and take it out to the rest of the country.

Now there's big parts here that they have to pay attention to, and this very complex logistical process, timing. They've got to do this quickly. And so both UPS and FedEx have talked about using these sensors, Bluetooth technology to monitor the vaccine shipments throughout the entire process to make sure everything is adequate and is going on time.

If there's weather that causes a delay, if there's traffic that's causing a delay, they will know in real time.

The other big important factor is temperature. We've talked about the fact that these vaccines have to be stored at around, you know, under negative 100 degrees Fahrenheit, and that is difficult, requires a lot of precision, and it must stay that way.

And so keeping an eye on these packages, making sure they are tracking them is extremely important. Now, initially, my colleague Pete Muntean had reported that Pfizer was expecting to see, FedEx they were expecting to see these roll out about 24 hours after the Emergency Use Authorization was granted.

We're almost at that point, and we still haven't seen those shipments rollout. Instead, we're expecting that to happen sometime tomorrow.

This was the reason that was given.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RICHARD SMITH, REGIONAL PRESIDENT OF THE AMERICAS AND EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, FEDEX: We could deliver it within 24 hours, but the decision was made by the team that because there are hundreds of administration sites that are going to be receiving these, they thought it best that we wait until Monday to deliver them to ensure they're all open and ready to receive, so a weekday, a normal business day seemed like the optimal time to send out those first shipments rather than try to get them delivered on a Sunday when some of these administrative sites might be short staffed or not open.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[18:05:08]

GALLAGHER: And Ana, it's just so interesting all of the thought process that has gone into the nuances of logistics, everything from weather patterns to traffic patterns, to whether or not an airport can handle the width of these cargo planes as part of a reason, again, Ford Airport is being considered for this, and that's because of this 10,000-foot runway that they have. And they handle these cargo and freight capacity that they have here.

And so, Ana, this isn't going to be the only airport. The F.A.A. has told all airports even if they haven't been alerted that they may have vaccine shipments to be prepared, to make sure that traffic doesn't hold anything up and be prepared for the potential that they may have to be involved in some way.

CABRERA: That is going to be an incredible process and the confidence that we're hearing from officials who are part of the process is encouraging. Dianne Gallagher, thank you for that.

Let's bring in Dr. Jonathan Reiner. He is a CNN medical analyst and Professor of Medicine at George Washington University. Dr. Reiner, good to see you. What's your reaction first to this historic moment that we have a vaccine that is literally hours potentially away from going into Americans arms and potentially saving lives?

DR. JONATHAN REINER, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: Hi, Ana. Well, how great to go on offense finally. You know, for the last 10 months, we've been on defense. We've been talking about how we can limit the damage. Now, we have an offensive tool to finally start to put this pandemic down.

So it's a thrilling moment. It's a triumph for science. It's really an international collaboration. This vaccine comes from a German company in partnership with Pfizer. So it's a thrilling moment and I'm glad finally to go on offense. But this is not the end. It maybe the beginning of the end, but it's certainly not the end.

CABRERA: And it can't come soon enough this vaccine, we passed another horrible milestone just today, 60 million coronavirus cases, just here in the United States alone and tell us when you expect to see the effectiveness of this vaccine reflected in the numbers of cases and deaths. So we're talking weeks, months, longer?

REINER: Probably months, I think probably at least two months. I think until we start to get a core group of maybe 50 or 100 million people vaccinated, we're not going to see the vaccine start to bite away at the pandemic, which is why we need to do what we can do with conventional weapons, particularly with masking and social distancing and targeted closures until the vaccine and vaccines come online and we can get enough of people inoculated in this country, but probably towards the beginning of spring.

But then as we start to get the vaccine into really large numbers of people in this country, not just the first responders or the most vulnerable, we start to get it even to young people, then we'll really start to see the numbers of new infections drop dramatically, hopefully through the spring and into the early summer.

So there's a way to go, but the skies look bright on the horizon.

CABRERA: I'm curious as a former medical adviser to the Bush administration, when do you think President-elect Biden should get this vaccine and should it be public?

REINER: It should absolutely be public, and I would vaccinate the incoming President on Monday. That's what I would do, and the incoming Vice President as well.

Let's think about this, it takes about a month for the full effect of this vaccine to take hold until you're truly immune, about a week after the second dose. The second dose is at three weeks. So a week after that would be a month.

We are now about 39 days out from the inauguration. I want the incoming President immune to this virus when he takes office. And it's going to take almost all the time to do that.

This is a key part of presidential protection. This is no different than his Secret Service or his armored car, or the physical protections around the White House. This is biological protection. I would vaccinate him on Monday and I love the fact of doing this in public. Maybe even have some first responders getting their vaccines also.

But this will go a long way to show the public that this is a safe vaccine. That's really the concern. That's where the reluctance is. People who are reluctant to take the vaccine are worried that, is it safe? And if the incoming President is taking it, that'll go a long way to assuage any concerns.

CABRERA: Right. It just happened so quickly. And so that has, I think, some people wondering, should we take it? The F.D.A. says that the Pfizer vaccine trial volunteers are going to have a choice to know whether they received a placebo, but that doesn't necessarily mean the people who received the placebo automatically get the vaccine now, does it?

[18:10:00]

REINER: Well, it depends on the trial. I think that the -- well, Moderna, I think is going to do something very interesting. They're going to try and maintain the blind in their trial and give everyone in the trial, either placebo or a vaccine going forward so that everyone can get the vaccine, but not know whether they've had the vaccine. I am unsure what Pfizer is going to do in their trial.

There's a lot of value in getting the data blinded out to two years understanding safety of this vaccine, as well as efficacy. So anything that the trials can do to a preserve the blind I think is great. But I completely support giving the folks in these trials who received placebo vaccine.

The patients who enrolled or the citizens who enrolled in these clinical trials are heroes, they agreed to take an unproven vaccine with unknown safety for the good of all. And I absolutely would put them at the front of the line to get a vaccine if they got -- if they received placebo.

CABRERA: Can you explain the difference between the Emergency Use Authorization versus full on approval, because I'm assuming timing has to do with that, and so we have this idea that, you know, the trial must continue, the research must continue. And you know, if the people in the placebo group were to opt out, that would, I would think be a setback, no?

REINER: It would be a setback. So an Emergency Use Authorization is issued by the F.D.A. in circumstances where no effective therapeutic or vaccine is available, and when a new agent, where the existing data suggests that it may be effective, whether ponderings of data suggests that it may be effective and that's what we have now.

Full approval comes with longer term studies, with larger bodies of evidence where the data set is much stronger. And I think, you know, we're going to need to continue to accrue data from all these vaccines, not just to understand the safety in this initial group of patients, but also to see how this vaccine works in children and other at-risk groups, pregnant women, people with immune deficiencies. So there's a lot of work yet to be done.

CABRERA: Another doctor told our colleague here that each dose needs to be put in the freezer within 90 seconds from the time it's taken from the box. That sounds like there's not a lot of room for mistakes.

REINER: Yes, that might be a little bit over overdramatic. So actually, I think the Pfizer vaccine, even though it has these very stringent ultra-cold chain requirements, has some flexible storage option. So it comes in a storage in a transport container that sites actually can use to store the vaccine for up to a month if they change out the dry ice every five days.

The vaccine can be stored in an ultra-cold freezer that many hospitals have at minus 94 degrees Fahrenheit for six months, and once the vaccine is thawed, it can be stored in a standard refrigerator for up to five days. So there are all kinds of options.

We're going to learn as we go forward. This is a new day.

CABRERA: Another quick question for you, in the U.S., we know states have their own vaccine rollout plans, which is different than in the U.K., for example, which has a National Health Service in charge of coordinating all of that. What challenges does a decentralized system like in the U.S. pose to a vaccine rollout?

REINER: Yes, I mean, every state, every region is reinventing the wheel. Now it would be great if we had more coordination from the beginning. You know, states have had to figure out testing on their own, states I've literally had to figure out opening on their own, had to source ventilators and testing equipment like swabs on their own and N-95 masks. So we faced this from the beginning.

I think as we -- there will be a time for us to understand where the major mistakes were made during this pandemic and I think one of them is so decentralizing everything we've done.

Going forward, I think we need much more of a coordinated Federal approach to this.

CABRERA: Dr. Jonathan Reiner, we always learn so much from you. Thank you.

REINER: My pleasure.

CABRERA: They are the people who are seeing the tragic toll of the coronavirus firsthand day in and day out. I'll speak to two ICU nurses next.

You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:18:40]

CABRERA: Of all the ways that this terrible disease destroys human lives, the most cruel thing the coronavirus does is that it keeps infected people physically apart from their loved ones.

COVID patients who die in hospitals far too often pass away without family members at their side or holding their hand. No opportunity to provide that kind of comfort, no way to give that one last hug or kiss. No in-person goodbyes.

That role, that unimaginably heavy act of compassion falls on nurses and medical staff who right now are watching their hospitals and intensive care units fill to absolute capacity with record numbers of new cases and new patients coming in.

I want to get two women in here who are literally on the frontlines of this battle and have been for nearly a year now. Kori Albi, a COVID unit ICU nurse in Boise, Idaho joins us and Catie Carrigan, an ICU nurse in Jackson, Mississippi.

Thank you both for being with us. Thank you both so much for all you do. You know, Kori, nobody outside of your profession, can honestly imagine what it must be like to witness the weeks and months of this pandemic and to care for the people who are gravely ill. Tell us, how do you do it? And help us understand what you've been going through.

[18:20:01]

KORI ALBI, ICU NURSE, SAINT ALPHONSUS REGIONAL MEDICAL CENTER: You know, I was one that always knew I wanted to be a nurse. I wanted to help people. I think the hardest part of this pandemic and this virus is that feeling of isolation.

Like you spoke, you know, we put these patients in isolation, we isolate them from their families, and us, as nursing staff, we have to gown and glove and mask and double mask. And, you know, we lose that personal touch of nursing, which I feel like is why most of us got into healthcare is to have that personal touch and it's very depersonalized now.

Like you said, you know, we have strict visitation policies and there aren't visitors in our COVID unit, unless it's end of life. And unfortunately, sometimes we don't have the time to get families there. And that is that emotional burden on healthcare is what is going to stick with all of us forever. And I think that's what's the most difficult for me personally, to deal with through all of this.

CABRERA: Catie, what about you? You work in an ICU caring for COVID patients in the worst condition, tell us what you see there on a daily basis? And are cases, you know, rising or falling where you are?

CATIE CARRIGAN, ICU NURSE, UNIVERSITY OF MISSISSIPPI MEDICAL CENTER: So my perspective is a little bit different, I feel like the most because when the pandemic first started, I was working in the emergency room. So you know, we still have on top of our COVID patient load, we still had patients coming in, you know, your trauma patients, your patients who are having heart attacks, your stroke patients, those were also coming in. They didn't stop coming in because a pandemic was here.

So now, we're in a situation where the ER is overwhelmed. We are holding 20 plus ICU patients in the ER. They're treating patients in the hallway. And now most recently, I've transferred to the ICU. And now we're caring for these, you know, overwhelming amount of critically ill patients who die in such a short amount of time.

And, you know, the rapid progression, and the complexity of this virus is really unlike anything any of us in healthcare have ever seen. We have watched patients go from completely stable to dying in a matter of a 12-hour shift.

You know, I was recently caring for a patient who was dying from COVID. And, you know, her husband told me, he said, you know, we recently celebrated our 49th wedding anniversary, and we won't make it to 50 because COVID has taken her away from me.

And you know, we just feel like we are in this never ending fight, you know, against this invisible enemy. And we just need people to mask up and to fight with us.

CABRERA: Yes. And Kori, when you talked about earlier, the awful fact that people hospitalized with COVID cannot physically, you know, be with their loved ones, they can't have people come and visit. I know you're trying to make sure that isn't all lost. Can you speak to the power of human connection? Even if it is just a video chat or a phone call? Is there a real healing or therapeutic quality to that connection?

ALBI: Absolutely. I mean, I think that's what's hard to get families to understand because I had a patient a couple weeks ago who was prone on the ventilator, sedated and paralyzed which his wife couldn't really wrap her mind around what that looks like or what that meant. And we got several minutes on the phone to kind of encourage her, explain to her because she kept telling me, I don't want to do it. I don't know what to say.

You know, and after explaining to her that even us as nurses, these patients are paralyzed, they're sedated, that you know, they're lying on their face. You know, we still talk to them. They are still human. There is still a person there.

She was ultimately glad she did. But it was an awkward conversation to try to get her to just be able to talk to her husband. It's a different dynamic. We encourage, you know, our physicians, our families, our patients to keep that connection, you know, that personal connection with their family is key to their success in recovery.

CABRERA: I think it's so important for our viewers to hear that because so many of us feel powerless or, you know, unable to help, especially when you can't be there. And so I think it's great for people to know that that's one way that they can potentially make a difference for their loved one who is battling even if it isn't the first choice.

Catie, you're just 28 years old. You work in both the emergency department and in the intensive care unit, as we've discussed. You say coronavirus cases and people around your own age, you're seeing those and that those are some of the most difficult to treat. Explain that.

CARRIGAN: Well, you know, I think you know, a very common misconception is that it's just the older generation who is getting very sick with COVID and that's simply not true. Now, I've watched patients in their young 20s battling this on a ventilator fighting for their life, you know, they're supposed to be getting married. They're supposed to be having children, they are supposed to be starting college and here they are, fighting for their life. And that is just something that's been very hard, very difficult for all of us to cope with.

CABRERA: Kori, you've been forced by these terrible circumstances to see death on a scale that you probably could not have been prepared for when you became a nurse and Idaho's governor, you know, said this week in multiple counties, the morgues are full.

They're starting to ask for refrigerated trailers to hold bodies. What has bearing witness to all these months of suffering and death done to you personally as a nurse and as a person?

[18:25:00]

ALBI: I think again, I mean, that just the deep personal thing. I think it makes the rest of us want to step up again, like Catie said, you know, masking is key. But I think for healthcare workers that makes us want to work that much harder. Because it is, it's this kind of barren desert of isolation. I mean, community spread is rampant around here. You know, the hospital honestly, for me is a safe haven. I know who's got coronavirus, we have the equipment. It's when you go

to the grocery store and you see the people that don't wear masks or those who are still recreating you know, in large groups and gatherings. That's what's terrifying.

I mean, like I said, I feel safer at work than I do out in the community.

CABRERA: Nurses Kori Albi and Catie Carrigan, thank you so much for all you do, sending you both so much strength and courage going through these next, you know, few weeks and months.

Coming up, the F.D.A. has issued an Emergency Use Authorization for the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID vaccine in the U.S., so there is some hope, there is some light we can all be grateful for today.

We'll take a look at all the challenges still ahead for making sure this vaccine is distributed safely and efficiently.

Don't go anywhere. You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:30:41]

CABRERA: It could happen literally at any minute now, a signature at the CDC that will formally clear the way for the first authorized coronavirus vaccine to fly out across the country to people who needed first and need it most. CNN's Brian Todd reports on the enormous distribution effort that's just waiting to begin.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Operation warp speed is about to have its name put to the test again. Pfizer shipping its coronavirus vaccine from this production center in Michigan to hospitals and hubs all over the country. A highly choreographed process with potential pitfalls.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There are so many small steps where things could go wrong because this is such a decentralized process. That's going to be up to the states. That's going to be up local jurisdictions.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TODD (voice over): UPS and FedEx will transport the Pfizer vaccine under escort by U.S. Marshals. The FAA will tell air traffic controllers those flights will have priority. The crates each have radios and GPS devices on them, plus a temperature probe to make sure the vaccines stay at more than 90 degrees below zero.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In the bottom there's dry ice. In the middle there's the payload and on top is more dry ice.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TODD (voice over): Once the vaccine shipments arrive at hospitals or other hubs, a race against the clock.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Each of the doses needs to be put within the freezer within 90 seconds from the time it's unloaded from the box.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TODD (voice over): From the ultra cold freezer to the shot in your arm, it's not immediate.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Frozen suspension, so we need to be able to bring those up to the room temperature that'll take about three hours.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TODD (voice over): Hospitals and nursing home facilities are ramping up their staffs, hiring more people to administer the vaccines. CVS and Walgreens are sending vaccination teams into nursing homes to give the shots.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We'll be putting 9,000 pharmacists, technicians and nurses on the road that will actually go the facilities to administer the vaccines and we're ready to get going.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TODD (voice over): States are alerting hospitals how many doses they can expect. With 21 million health workers in the U.S. and 3 million nursing home residents, states will have to tell some of them to wait.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We don't think that we will be getting vaccine for all of those people in the first allotment, the first week that it comes out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TODD (voice over): Hospitals are setting up makeshift clinics in lobbies, cafeterias and gyms to vaccinate their workers.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We'll have a group of staff ready to go within a day or two of receiving that vaccine and the following week we should be full-court press. (END VIDEO CLIP)

TODD (voice over): Some will prioritize the most at risk personnel. Others are considering a lottery or pulling staffers to see who wants to go first. Some hope within weeks to finish vaccinating frontline staffers. Still any number of hiccups could complicate the rollout.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There may be some surprise events that may occur as well. For example, if individuals end up having side effects. There may be somebody who has a severe allergic reaction. There's so many contingencies that must be planned for.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TODD (on camera): For that reason, experts caution hospitals not to vaccinate all of their staffers at once in case some of them are sidelined with side effects from the vaccine after they get it. They're going to need to stagger the vaccinations of their frontline workers.

Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CABRERA: Up next, Trump's false rhetoric about a stolen election is now trickling down to Republican voters in Georgia and it could have an impact on GOP turnout in the State's Senate runoff next month. Hear what they're saying next.

I'm Ana Cabrera. You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:38:19]

CABRERA: The focus of the U.S. political universe on the State of Georgia now where early voting begins Monday in two Senate runoff races that will determine control in the U.S. Senate. Republican Kelly Loeffler facing Democratic challenger Rev. Raphael Warnock. The Republican Senator, David Perdue, squaring off against Democrat Jon Ossoff.

Now, President Trump spoke out in support of Loeffler and Perdue last weekend in Georgia, while insisting that the election he lost more than a month ago was rigged. CNN's Donie O'Sullivan spoke to several Trump supporters in Georgia about the President's claims.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONIE O'SULLIVAN, CNN REPORTER: Are you going to vote?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't know yet. If it's going to be the same counters and the same Dominion machines, I may not. And if I don't see the Republicans thumping for Trump, I'm not voting for them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'SULLIVAN (voice over): Two critical runoff elections in Georgia next month will decide what party controls the U.S. Senate. But some Trump supporters here still falsely believe Trump didn't lose this stage in the presidential election and they don't think Georgian Republican Senate candidates are standing up for Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

O'SULLIVAN (on camera): Some folks were saying they're not going to show up.

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

O'SULLIVAN: Did you vote, sir, in the presidential election here in Georgia?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I did.

O'SULLIVAN: Who did you vote for, if you don't mind me asking.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Greatest president we've ever had, Donald J. Trump.

O'SULLIVAN: And he lost.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He didn't lose.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's going to win.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you kidding me? He ain't going to lose.

O'SULLIVAN: Do you plan on voting in the Senate runoffs next month?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I do plan on voting in the Senate runoff.

O'SULLIVAN: For a Republican, I take it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't know at this point.

O'SULLIVAN: So you might not vote Republican in January.

[18:40:00]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't vote for a party, OK. As far as I'm concerned, the Democrats and Republicans can all go to hell.

O'SULLIVAN: You guys want a hand?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'SULLIVAN (voice over): Trump supporters are stuck in the murky, muddy world of misinformation. Viral videos claiming the election here was rigged or circulating all over the internet. Lin Wood, a Trump- supporting lawyer in Georgia who is now challenging the results of November's election even told Republicans they shouldn't vote in January's runoffs if the senators do not challenge the November results.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LIN WOOD, TRUMP ATTORNEY: If Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue do not do it, they have not earned your vote. Don't you give it to them.

HUGHES: Give the Republican people and the base of reason to 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 we're having yours?

O'SULLIVAN (on camera): I were the chair of the Republican Party and I hear you, a Georgia voter, a conservative, a Trump supporter, a Republican saying they might not vote, I would be freaking out. I would say, "Oh, my god, are we going to lose this to the Democrats?"

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, that's the point. That's the point. Those two Republican senators need to get their asses out of their office and start thumping on the street and demanding a real recount, not a fake recount.

O'SULLIVAN: Do you trust that next month's election, the runoffs are going to be fair?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Not a hundred, but I'm still encouraging people to vote because if they don't vote, there will absolutely be nothing to sort out and we will have gifted the election to the Democrats.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'SULLIVAN (voice over): Gabriel Sterling is a Republican election official in Georgia who has called out Trump's bogus election claims.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

O'SULLIVAN: A lot of folks, look, just don't believe that there was a free and fair election here in Georgia for the presidential race. And some of them don't think that what is going to happen here in January in the Senate runoffs is going to be fair either. What's your message to people who believe this?

GABRIEL STERLING, VOTING SYSTEM IMPLEMENTATION MANAGER, GEORGIA: Well, first of all, we've shown with math, we've shown with everything we can. I know in their heart of hearts, in their gut there's no evidence they're going to ever see that's going to make them believe this because everybody they know voted for Trump. They don't know anybody that voted for Biden.

And we've been talking about this for months. We had an entire ad campaign on this information that we did in the state to explain to people a lot of what you're going to hear is not going to be real. The problem is we're having to combat it from the President of the United States, which makes it much more difficult. (END VIDEO CLIP)

O'SULLIVAN (voice over): Donie O'Sullivan, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CABRERA: Joining us now, CNN Political Analyst, Astead Herndon. He is a National Political Reporter for The New York Times. Astead, oh, it's good to have you with us. You've been to Georgia recently to cover this crucial runoff. Do you have a sense of whether members of the President's loyal base who believe his false election claims are prepared to come out and vote in Georgia for the State's two Republican senators on January 5th?

ASTEAD HERNDON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, what we do know is that they are holding the Republican candidates to a very high bar. They want Kelly Loeffler, they want David Perdue to show the utmost loyalty to President Trump, even if that means following him down this unproven path of talking about election fraud and talking about these baseless claims in which he has done over the last a month since the election.

But I was in Valdosta when the President was there over last week and it was interesting when the candidates came to speak. The crowd shouted them down saying fight for Trump, stand for Trump. That was a message to them saying, oh, we will vote for you but we are holding you to a standard. That means that you have to follow the president all the way down this path even if it does not have any evidence.

So we know that the Republican base is purely thinking about this in relationship to Trump, whereas the Democratic base is also seeing a backlash for this and seeing it as a reason to have a unified both House, Senate and White House.

CABRERA: Historically, Georgia has been reliably red and yet Joe Biden changed that this year in the presidential contest. What's your sense of which party has the momentum currently?

HERNDON: It's hard because what we do know is that Georgia is changing and so Georgia has been put into play on a clearly purple basis, because of multiple things. One is the demographic changes that are happening in the state. It is true for the region in the south largely, but it's happening most quickly throughout Georgia.

So that means an influx of non-white voters, an influx of younger voters, of Latino, API (ph) and other folks throughout the state that had changed the makeup of both city and suburb in that State. What we also know is that President Trump has accelerated the way that college educated white Republicans and conservatives have really drifted away from him.

And so both of those things in combination have sped up the path in which George has become a state that has gone Democratic way faster than the party was expecting.

[18:45:06] But what we don't know is that that translates to the runoff, partly

because they're expected to have lower turnout in the state in January and we also just don't know which party is going to be most chiefly motivated for that. And so it's a real turnout game, it's a real grassroots game and we expect the turnout to be lower. The question is whose base drops off more.

It's hard to say where that is. What we do know is that both sides expect it to be within one or two percentage points, a close race. Who's up in that is something that is anyone's guess.

CABRERA: So let's talk about what's at stake here. Because earlier, I interviewed former 2020 presidential candidate, Julian Castro, who's been to Georgia recently also to try to rally the Democratic base there. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JULIAN CASTRO, (D) FORMER 2020 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: If we keep Mitch McConnell in charge, what you're going to see is a couple more years of what we were seeing right now. We see a lot of people in long lines at food banks. We see millions of Americans who are on the brink of eviction. We see a lot of small businesses that are either still shuttered or only doing 40 percent, 50 percent of the business that they normally do. We see a lot of folks who need help, that are still unemployed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: You talked about turnout. How's that message going to resonate? Is that going to motivate Democrats or perhaps even Republicans who are disenchanted with President Trump and his administration, is that going to motivate them to turn out for Democrats?

HERNDON: I think that's the big question. I mean, what you have is both sides saying, hey, if this becomes a unified White House and Congress, then big change is on the way. What the Democrats are saying is that that change is good. That means Coronavirus relief that means a kind of checks in your pocket and to respond to the economic devastation that we've seen from this pandemic.

They're saying that that means action on climate change, of voting rights and the like. What Republicans are saying is that that means a kind of path down socialism. That means a kind of far left agenda that that just strike fear in you about the unified House and Congress not inspire you.

And so it's actually a kind of parallel message that we're seeing from both parties right here, but what's the difference is where they're pitching is the kind of positive or negative impact. But what the impact of President Trump right now is that Republicans cannot give the message that's the most obvious one.

It would be the easiest to say for Kelly Loeffler and for David Perdue that, hey, President Trump loss which is why you should keep this Senate Republican, so you have a check on President Biden.

They cannot say those words, because that requires an admission that the President will not allow them and that is the kind of funny thing of this race is that they are hinting at that prospect, but they cannot give their clearest message because the President just simply a finds that disloyal and the base does also.

CABRERA: And the President of course was there last weekend and this upcoming week we'll see President-elect Joe Biden visiting Georgia in hopes of boosting support. Thank you, Astead Herndon, for joining us.

Up next, we'll bring you the story of one of the millions of Americans who are now facing eviction as protections expire. You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:52:53]

CABRERA: The CDC has temporarily halted evictions, but that order is now set to expire December 31st. And because of that 14 million Americans are at risk of being homeless. CNN's Rosa Flores has one man's desperate story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Since his wife died in 2012, John Ayers counts his blessings, like Bella and Bear.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN AYERS, FACING EVICTION: He's such a goof-off.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FLORES (voice over): And his job as an insurance agent.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FLORES (on camera): You were earning good money.

AYERS: I was making a salary.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FLORES (voice over): Enough to pay $2,000 rent on a house in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FAST ICE, UBER DRIVER: Good morning, Mr. Young (ph). We're here for your ...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FLORES (voice over): And because of his severe arthritis and diabetes ...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AYERS: Let me catch my breath for a second.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FLORES (voice over): ... an Uber driver known as Fast Ice to get around.

But a few months after the pandemic broke, John lost his job. Exhausted his savings on rent, medicines, and utilities and was slapped with an eviction notice.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AYERS: I need help. It's the first time I've said it. I need help because I'm about to be homeless.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FLORES (voice over): Like millions of Americans, John could be homeless on New Year's Day when the CDC's order halting evictions expires.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AYERS: And right now, I can't.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FLORES (voice over): While he can't afford his medications, he's not worried about himself.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AYERS: It's the thought of being out there with a dog, because I'm not putting my dog down.

ROBERT LEE, JUDGE, 17TH JUDICIAL CIRCUIT OF FLORIDA: This is a residential eviction for non-payment of rent ...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FLORES (voice over): County Judge Robert Lee says evictions in Broward County could triple in the first three months of 2021, from 5,000 to 15,000.

And in the case of some landlords ...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LEE: They are almost in the same desperate position as the tenant is.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FLORES (voice over): To meet skyrocketing demand, the court has moved judges who try crimes, medical and insurance claims to evictions.

[18:55:01]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm with Coast to Coast Legal Aid.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FLORES (voice over): Pro bono attorneys are going where the need is great, food lines, to help tenants fight to stay in their homes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So you're looking for a shelter?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FLORES (voice over): But the call volume at this homeless shelter in Miami-Dade County increased from 800 calls a month, on average, to 1,200 last month. And the homeless population is already growing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RON BOOK, CHAIRMAN, MIAMI-DADE HOMELESS TRUST: The fear of that turning into thousands upon thousands drives me completely crazy. I cannot almost have a conversation without breaking down over what it means.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FLORES (voice over): As for John, he's looking for a job.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AYERS: Upload my resume to these places.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FLORES (voice over): And counting a new blessing. Fast Ice now drives him free of charge.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FAST ICE: You're a good man, my brother. You are a good man.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FLORES (voice over): A man desperate for a miracle.

Rosa Flores, CNN, Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CABRERA: We have a heartwarming update to John's story. He started the day yesterday before Rosa's story first aired with just $100 in a GoFundMe account. And by the end of the day yesterday, so many people responded trying to help john that his GoFundMe account now has over $100,000. So another example of the worst situations come the best of humanity and that's what's shining today.

I'm Ana Cabrera in New York. "THE SITUATION ROOM" with Wolf Blitzer starts after a quick break. Thanks for joining us.