Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Newsroom
U.S. Attorney General William Barr; U.K. and E.U. Remain Far Apart on Several Key Issues; Germany Set to Enter a Hard National Lockdown; How Abu Dhabi Uses Safe Bubbles to Protect Events; CNN Exclusive: Navalny, Novichok And Moscow; First U.S. Healthcare Workers Get COVID-19 Shots; U.S. Tops 300,000 Deaths On Vaccine Roll Out Day; Electoral College Cements Biden Victory; Biden: The People Have Voted, It's Time To Turn The Page; A Word With The Doctor Who Got New York's Second COVID-19 Vaccine. Aired 1-2a ET
Aired December 15, 2020 - 01:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[01:00:00]
JOHN VAUSE, ANCHOR, CNN NEWSROOM: Hello, everyone. I'm John Vause. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM live from CNN's world headquarters in Atlanta.
Ahead this hour. Hiding in the shadows. A CNN investigation uncovers evidence linking Russia's security service to the assassination attempt on outspoken Kremlin critic, Alexey Navalny.
Basta. On the same day his election win is confirmed by the electoral college, Joe Biden delivers his harshest remarks yet telling Donald Trump and his allies stop the assault on democracy.
And in the U.S., let the vaccinations begin. A scientific miracle against the backdrop of a soaring coronavirus death toll.
And we begin with exclusive reporting about the poisoning of Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny.
The investigative group Bellingcat and CNN have uncovered evidence that Russia's security service, the FSB, formed a an elite team specializing in nerve agents and this team followed Navalny for years.
The man known as Putin's loudest critics came close to death when he was poisoned with a lethal toxin back in August.
CNN's chief international correspondent, Clarissa Ward, and her team have been working the story for months.
And Clarissa spoke with Navalny as he recovers in a German military hospital. And here's our exclusive report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: August 20th, on a flight to Moscow, a passenger captures the awful wails of Alexey Navalny. The Russian opposition leader has suddenly fallen ill and he knows
exactly why.
ALEXEY NAVALNY, RUSSIAN OPPOSITION LEADER: I get out of this bathroom, turn over to the flight attendant and said him, "I was poisoned, I'm going to die." Then I laid down under his feet to die.
WARD: You knew in that moment that you'd been poisoned?
NAVALNY: Yes, yes.
WARD: Quick thinking from the pilot saves his life. instead of flying on to Moscow, still three hours away, the plane diverts to Omsk.
Two days later, Navalny is flown to Berlin where the German government announces he has been poisoned with a nerve agent, novichok.
Now an exclusive investigation can reveal a top secret mission tracking Navalny involving experts in chemical weapons who worked for the FSB, the Russian successor to the Soviet KGB
This nondescript thing on the outskirts of Moscow was the headquarters of the operation.
We're staying in the car because we don't want to attract any attention. But this compound is part of the institute of criminalistics of the FSB, Russia's security service. And beyond that fence an elite team of operatives has been tracking Navalny's every move for more than three years.
CNN has examined hundreds of pages of phone records and flight manifests that reveal the backgrounds, communications and travel of the group.
The documents were obtained by online investigative outlet, Bellingcat, which two years ago identified the Russian intelligence agents allegedly sent to England to poison former Russian spy, Sergei Skripal.
NAVALNY (In foreign language)
WARD: The FSB toxins team was activated in 2017, just days after Navalny announced he would run for president in the election the next year.
The team's leader, Stanislav Makshakov, an expert in chemical weapons; several of the teams are doctors but they weren't recruited to save lives.
I just wanted to show you some photographs here and ask you if you recognize -- if you've ever seen any of the men in those photographs?
NAVALNY: No.
WARD: You don't recognize them? NAVALNY: I don't recognize any of them.
WARD: Would it surprise you to learn that some of these men went on more than 30 trips with you over the course of three years?
NAVALNY: This is absolutely terrifying -- I don't know if terrifying is a good word.
WARD: I think it's a pretty good word.
NAVALNY: Yes. But -- well, I understand how system work in Russia, I understand that Putin hates me. And I understand that these people who are sitting in the Kremlin, they are ready to kill me.
WARD: Is it your contention that Vladimir Putin must have been aware of this?
NAVALNY: Of course, 100 percent. It could have not been happened without direct order of Putin because it's big scale.
[01:05:00]
WARD: In the weeks before he was poisoned, Navalny out of his wife, Yulia, took a short vacation to a resort in Kaliningrad. Our investigation has uncovered that the FSB team followed.
According to Bellingcat, the security cameras inside the hotel were mysteriously turned off while they were there.
Navalny says Yulia felt uncomfortable. She took videos and photos of men she believed were following them.
YULIA NAVALNY, ALEXEY NAVALNY'S WIFE (In Foreign Language)
WARD: "This man I also don't recognize," she says.
Hours after the FSB's toxin's team left Kaliningrad, Yulia suddenly felt sick.
NAVALNY: She said well, I feel really, really bad. Do you need ambulance? No. Do you have something -- is it heart? No. Is it stomach? No. Is it head? No. Could you describe it? No.
And then we approach restaurant and she said well, I feel worse in my life, I've never felt it before. But unfortunately -- and of course, I couldn't connect the dots. Now I realize how bad she was.
WARD: Yulia recovered but the FSB unit was apparently not done with the Navalnys.
In the days after Kaliningrad, cellphone data shows that several senior FSB officials were in regular contact with a lab in this compound. It's called the Signal Institute. And CNN and Bellingcat have established that it is been involved with researching and developing novichok. In mid-August, Navalny and his team traveled to Siberia. At least
five members of the FSB unit make the same journey on different flights.
In Tomsk, Navalny and his colleagues say at the Xander Hotel. We travelled to the Siberian city to retrace his steps on the night he was poisoned.
So this is the room that Alexey Navalny was staying in and it looks like my room here is right next door.
According to Navalny, he went to bed around midnight after drinking a cocktail with his team. The FSB's toxins unit was not far away.
Using a ping from a cell phone, we've been able to place one of the FSB operatives in this area, just blocks from the Xander Hotel on the night of August 19th, the night that the nerve agent, novichok, made its way into room 239.
Navalny left the hotel early the next morning. He boarded the Moscow flight feeling fine. Three hours later, he was close to death.
Back in Tomsk, Navalny's team frantically collect any evidence they can from his hotel room including water and shampoo bottles, a toothbrush and a towel.
As they did, there was a surge in communications among the FSB unit and their bosses. If it was suspected that Navalny would die on the flight, they were now scrambling to deal with a very different situation.
After much back and forth, Russian authorities allow Navalny to be transported to Berlin. What they don't know is that the items recovered from his Tomsk hotel room were also on board. Some later tested positive for novichok.
Back in Moscow, we went in search of the FSB's toxins team.
So we're here now at the home of one of the FSB team and we're going to go see if he has anything to say to us.
We enter a rundown apartment building on the outskirts of Moscow where operative Oleg Tayakin lives.
WARD: (Speaking in Foreign Language) My name's Clarissa Ward, I work for CNN. Can I ask you a couple of questions? (Speaking in Foreign Language). Was it your team that poisoned Navalny, please? Do you have any comment?
He doesn't seem to want to talk to us.
Toxicologists tell CNN that Navalny is incredibly lucky to be alive and that the attention was undoubtedly to kill him.
So you've said that you want to go back to Russia?
NAVALNY: And I will do.
WARD: You're aware of the risks of going back?
NAVALNY: Yes, but I'm Russian politician. And even when I was not just in hospital, I was in intense therapy, and I said publicly, I will go back. And I will go back because I'm a Russian politician, I belong to this country.
And definitely, which I -- especially now when this actually crime is cracked open, revealed. I understand the whole operation. I would never give Putin such a gift.
[01:10:00]
WARD (On Camera): CNN has not established that the FSB toxins team were, in fact, the individuals who actually poisoned Navalny.
We have, of course, reached out for comment from the Kremlin, also the FSB, who told us we might be able to expect a response in nine days. We also reached out to members of the team, as you saw in our report. But so far, we have not heard anything back.
And it should come as no surprise that Russian officials have not yet opened any criminal investigation into the poisoning of Alexey Navalny.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Clarissa Ward there. CNN's Clarissa Ward, reporting from Moscow.
Under U.S. election law, the electors of the electoral college shall meet and vote after the Monday after the second Wednesday in December of presidential election years. In case you're wondering, that was this past Monday.
Now in years past, it's been mostly procedural, kind of a symbolic day. Not this election.
When California's 55 electors voted for Joe Biden, it became official he had won the presidency.
We have more now from CNN's M.J. Lee.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
M.J. LEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The electoral college here in the United States officially a voting on Monday to declare Joe Biden the president elect. And Biden really seizing that moment, to deliver what was a really a remarkable speech.
Talking about how American democracy had been tested this year in ways that we had never seen before.
But he also said that even despite the pandemic, even despite some abuses of power that we have seen in this country, that the American --democratic system rather, could not be extinguished.
And it was very clear that the former vice president wanted to send a clear message to the sitting president, President Trump. Essentially saying it is time for us to turn the page and move on.
Here's what he said.
JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: In this battle for the soul of America, democracy prevailed. We, the people, voted. Faith in our institutions held. The integrity of our elections remains intact.
And now it's time to turn the page, as we've done throughout our history. To unite, to heal.
LEE: Now, of course, so much of turning the page will have to do with how the president elect deals with the COVID-19 pandemic, something that he talked about in this speech as well.
And getting the economy back on track, dealing with the vaccine distribution and also a big part of the challenge for him going forward, will simply be about politics.
And this is why we are going to see him travel on Tuesday to Atlanta, Georgia where he's going to be campaigning for the two Democratic candidates who are going to be in senate runoff races.
The outcome of those races will determine so much of what he can do politically and legislatively with members of congress come next year.
Back to you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Ron Brownstein is a CNN senior political analyst and senior editor for "The Atlantic." He joins us from Los Angeles.
Ron, thanks for taking the time to be with us. Appreciate it.
RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SNR. POLITICAL ANALYST: Hi, John.
BIDEN: Well, for months, Biden has downplayed the lawsuits and the lies of Trump and his allies. But on Monday he put it very bluntly. He accused him of launching this assault on democracy, he said it had to end. Here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: Time and again, President Trump's lawyers presented to state officials, state legislators, state and federal courts and ultimately to the United States Supreme Court twice. They were heard by more than 80 judges across this country and in every case, no cause or evidence was found to reverse or question or dispute the results.
(END VIDEO CLIP) VAUSE: Yes. I think it's an important point. Not only have Republican judges rules against the Trump Campaign but Trump appointed judges have as well.
BROWNSTEIN: Yes. Essentially the quote, "evidence," unquote has been laughed out of courts really from coast to coast from Republican appointees, from Democratic appointees in the hearings that Rudolph Giuliani helped engineer in states around the country with sympathetic Republican audiences. It was laughable, the claims.
And yet, it is striking that despite this unbroken record, of courts finding no 'there there,' three quarters of Republican voters believe, according to polls, the election was stolen from Donald Trump.
And his success at convincing so many Republican voters and by magnetic poll drawing in so many Republican elected officials into this starkly undemocratic effort to subvert the election results really is kind of an ominous warning for what may be ahead. Not only for the Biden presidency but for America in the decades to come.
VAUSE: Well, part of that sort of farce, if you like, the Trump team organized his own electoral college event on Monday.
BROWNSTEIN: Yes.
[01:15:00]
VAUSE: Listen to White House adviser and architect of the kids in cages policy, Stephen Miller, to explain why.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEPHEN MILLER, SENIOR ADVISER TO PRESIDENT TRUMP: The only date in the constitution is January 20th. So we have more than enough time to right the wrong of this fraudulent election result and certify Donald Trump as the winner of the election.
As we speak, today an ultimate slate of electors in the contested states is going to vote and we're going to send those results up to congress.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Given this administration came in with alternative facts, it could be fitting that it ends with ultimate electors. But apart from some kind of pity party for Trump, what's the point?
BROWNSTEIN: Well, not begins and ends with alternate facts, begins and ends with a racist conspiracy theory.
Donald Trump's political career began with the racist conspiracy theory that Barack Obama was not eligible to be president, the birtherism argument. It ends with a racist conspiracy theory that this election was stolen from him in cities with large African- American populations. If you look at his tweets, his comments, the legal filings by Texas
and the Republican states, they focus on Detroit, Philadelphia, Milwaukee, Atlanta. Even though as we discussed before, Trump declined more relative from 16 to 20 in the mostly white suburban counties outside of those major cities.
But you don't hear them arguing that there was fraud in Montgomery and Delaware counties outside Philadelphia or Oakland, outside of Detroit or Cobb and Gwinnett, outside of Atlanta or even the (inaudible) counties outside of Milwaukee.
This points to kind of the real argument here. In in essence, the democratic coalition, those voters, are stealing the election in the same way they are stealing your America.
And that is, I think, the stab in the back argument that Trump wants to nurture for the next four years.
VAUSE: Biden won the electoral college, 306 to 232. Although as Donald Trump describes that margin --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Electoral college as you know, Congressman, we had a landslide.
They lost an election and they lost it big. It was really a landslide from the electoral college standpoint.
We had a massive landslide victory as you know, in the electoral college.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: A landslide. And only now, as some Republican lawmakers recognizing Biden as president elect, Lamar Alexander of Tennessee actually had this message for Trump. Here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. LAMAR ALEXANDER (R-TENN): I hope that he puts the country first -- I mean the president. That he takes pride in his considerable accomplishments and congratulates the president-elect and helps him get off to a good start. Especially in the middle of this pandemic.
We need to not lose one day in the transition in getting the vaccine out to everybody who needs it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Unfortunately, Trump is not going to do that, it seems, especially while he's raking in hundreds of millions of dollars from donors.
BROWNSTEIN: Well, the fact that we're still reporting on the Republicans who are acknowledging Biden's victory as opposed to those who are not is an indication of just how far this has gone.
I don't think people are surprised that Donald Trump contested and refused to accept the results of the election even though he lost by 7 million in the popular vote, I think the surprise has been just how many Republicans have gone along for this ride with him.
Two-thirds, roughly, of the House Republicans, two-thirds of the Republican attorneys general signing on to this lawsuit that the supreme court dismissed in the state of Texas, to invalidate 20 million voters in four states.
And the fact that so many Republicans went along with this really shows you the kind of the clang between the two elements of Joe Biden's speech night.
On the one hand, calling out the Republican willingness to engage in this kind of broad scale attack on the tenets of American democracy; on the other saying OK, now we can turn the page, we can work together. It's not clear to me that a party that was willing to do the first is really open to doing the second.
But that's we're going to find, out in the first months of the Biden Administration.
VAUSE: Yes. Ron, thank you. Interesting days, as we always say, still to come. Ron Brownstein in L.A., thanks.
BROWNSTEIN: Thank you.
VAUSE: Well, the biggest and most complicated national vaccination is underway in the U.S. bringing hope to millions. But it's too late for the hundreds of thousands who have and will lose their lives to COVID.
Also, just in time for Christmas. The attorney general who defended the president and not the presidency resigns.
Yet another senior Trump official who it seems ultimately failed the loyalty test.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[01:20:00]
VAUSE: The first vaccinations for the coronavirus now underway in the U.S.
Health care workers are the first to be immunized with the Pfizer vaccine, which was developed in record time.
Despite that it comes too late for more than 300,000 dead in the U.S. Experts predict thousands more will die during the northern winter.
We get details now from CNN's Sara Sidner.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This moment could not come soon enough.
CROWD: (Applause)
SIDNER: ICU nurse, Sandra Lindsay, is one of the first people in the United States to get the COVID-19 vaccine outside of a clinical trial.
So was emergency medicine doctor, Yves Duroseau.
DR. YVES DUROSEAU, CHAIRMAN OF EMERGENCY MEDICINE, LENOX HILL HOSPITAL: It felt great. Didn't feel any difference than receiving any other vaccination that I've received in the past.
SIDNER: Today workers loaded boxes of Pfizer and BioNTech's vaccine onto trucks by forklift for shipping to medical facilities and hospitals around the country.
A historic day that arrived in record time.
CNN was there the moment University of Michigan Medical Center staff got the vaccine.
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER (Captioned): This is like the best Christmas ever.
SIDNER: A box filled with dry ice and 390 vials, each vial has five doses inside.
Once thawed and mixed with saline, it was administered to healthcare workers who have exhausted themselves taking care of coronavirus patients while putting themselves in danger.
MARK SCHISSEL, PRESIDENT, UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN: The really important thing is that we can now see the horizon. We can see how this is going to end.
SIDNER: From Michigan Medicine to Tampa General Hospital in Florida, something to cheer about finally.
CROWD: (Applause)
SIDNER: After a year of devastating loss, more than 300,000 COVID deaths in America. To medical staff at Ohio State University --
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Three, two, one; vaccinate.
CROWD: (Applause)
DR. THOMAS POWELL, EMERGENCY MEDICINE, OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY: It's momentous. I feel honored to receive it, humbled to receive it. It's a really wonderful day.
SIDNER: The complex task of figuring out how to store and ship the vaccine has been underway for months. The vaccine needs to be kept at ultra cold temperatures.
UPS and FedEx are helping to deliver the vaccine nationwide using a complex package designed by Pfizer called a thermal shipper.
Now after so many months of uncertainty, there is renewed hope this vaccine can start us down what's to be a long road to recovery.
DR. LENA NAPOLITANO, DIRECTOR, SURGICAL INTENSIVE CARE, UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN: We are exposed to it every minute of every day. So I can't tell you how much this means to me. I feel like I won a million dollar lottery getting this vaccine.
SIDNER (On Camera): You can hear in Dr. Napolitano's voice the exhaustion that she is experiencing but also the immense gratitude and even joy for being able to be one of the first to get this vaccine.
At the end of the day, she and the other health care workers who got this, all five of them, are saying look, we can help save patients as we always have but this will also help us save ourselves and our families.
Sara Sidner, CNN. Ann Arbor, Michigan.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: And Dr. Yves Duroseau, who you saw briefly at Sara's report joins us now.
Not only is he the second person in the U.S. to be vaccinated for COVID-19, he's also the chair of emergency medicine at New York's Lenox Hill Hospital.
Doctor, it's good to see you. Thank you for being with us.
DUROSEAU: Thank you very, much thank you for having me.
VAUSE: OK. Well, it's been many hours now since you had that injection, how do you feel? Any side effects?
[01:25:00]
DUROSEAU: I feel great. The typical injection site discomfort you may feel but otherwise feel fantastic. Nothing to report.
VAUSE: OK. That's good news. The U.S. surgeon general, he talked about what many are saying will be the next big challenge. Here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JEROME ADAMS, U.S. SURGEON GENERAL: We must now move from vaccines to vaccinations. And it would be a great tragedy if disparities actually worsened because the people who could most benefit from this vaccine won't take it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: It's called vaccine hesitation or hesitancy. And as someone who specializes in emergency medicine as you do and you've seen the worst of this pandemic since the very beginning, I'm just wondering, right now is it sort of a sense of relief that this vaccine is here? But maybe mixed with concern that some people may avoid it or delay getting it?
DUROSEAU: Absolutely, this is a concern. And this is why I thank you for this opportunity to get the message out that the vaccine is in fact safe. Based on the science.
And that we've researched it, we've read it, it's been validated by the FDA, New York State has done its own independent look at this. And by all accounts it's very safe.
We typically see with the flu, which is safe, only about 50 percent of the population that qualifies for it actually takes it.
So we need to do better, we need to do better with COVID. Because we need to get to about 75 percent or more to have what we call herd immunity to really protect ourselves and get away from this terrible situation that we're in.
VAUSE: And that terrible situation is going to get a lot worse in the coming weeks as winter sets in. When do you think the vaccine will actually have some kind of impact on what you see in the ER?
DUROSEAU: So thank you for that question. It is critically important that as we roll it out, it will be done incrementally.
We will start with certain groups of folks who are most vulnerable and then slowly gradually give it to the general population.
So in the interim, we still need to take protective measures such as wearing our masks, distancing, washing our hands and please, please avoid gatherings indoors.
So until all of those things happen and everyone, 75 percent plus of patients are vaccinated, we won't truly see significant change. But it will happen gradually, if we take these measures.
VAUSE: The vaccination process involves two steps. You're scheduled to receive another dose in about three weeks from now.
I'd like you to listen to Dr. Peter Marks from the FDA explaining why it's important to get both shots. Here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. PETER MARKS, U.S. FOOD & DRUG ADMINISTRATION: The way the regimen was studied was that everyone ultimately or almost everyone received two doses of the vaccine. So we only know how people were protected with two doses of vaccine.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Here's the thing. The Pfizer's research suggests that just one dose can have about a 50 percent maybe a little more efficacy. But are you concerned that some people maybe down the line after getting that first injection if they suffer side effects or whatever, they just might not come back for that second dose?
DUROSEAU: It is a concern. And we, as health care professionals, have to have those conversations with the patients of the importance.
The first dose gets you a certain amount of protection but it's really truly the second dose that got us up to 95 percent efficacy. So we have to have those conversations with our patients and we have to discuss and be open about what to expect.
For me, as I mentioned, I have some mild soreness of the arm. And some patients may actually get mild aches and fevers which actually means that the vaccination is working, it doesn't mean you contracted COVID. As an matter of fact, you cannot contract COVID from taking this vaccination.
So it's a lot of education that we need to continue to have and dialog.
VAUSE: Dr. Yves Duroseau, thank you so much for being with us. And best of luck for the coming weeks; some tough days ahead. Thank you for being with us.
DUROSEAU: Thank you. Be well, stay safe. Thank you.
VAUSE: Thank you, sir.
Donald Trump announces on Twitter, farewell to one of the most loyal members of his Cabinet. It seems even Bill Barr wasn't loyal enough. His crime? Possibly a refusal to shred the Constitution.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[01:31:44]
JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: (Inaudible) have uncovered evidence of a Russian government operation which tracked opposition leader Alexey Navalny four years. Navalny was poisoned in August, he says, on orders from Vladimir Putin. The Kremlin is yet to comment on CNN's reporting.
U.S. health care workers were the first to get the coronavirus vaccine on Monday. This comes as the country passed 300,000 deaths. The Pfizer vaccine is being distributed in all 50 states, at a time when new COVID-19 infections and deaths are increasing at unprecedented rates.
Electors for all U.S. 50 States and the District of Columbia voted Monday to affirm Joe Biden's presidential win. In a speech following that vote President Elect Biden praised the strength of American democracy.
He condemned the unprecedented attempts by President Trump and his allies to overturn the will of the people.
Now maybe the timing was just coincidence. But moments after Joe Biden crossed the electoral college threshold, Donald Trump tweeted the resignation of Attorney General William Barr, who's been on thin ice ever since he admitted there was no evidence of widespread election fraud.
CNN's Kaitlan Collins has more now on Biden's win and Barr's resignation.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is a process that President Trump has tried to subvert every step of the way since he lost this election to Joe Biden. But you saw yesterday, the electoral college did affirm Biden's win. He gave a short speech afterward talking about it. And talking about what has gone on with the President and his Republican allies' desperate efforts to try to overturn the results of this election by taking matters like what you saw last week with the Supreme Court in that swift rejection of the lawsuit that attorney general of Texas is trying to bring.
But despite the fact that we have seen the electoral college affirm Biden's win we are still told by sources that the president does not expect to concede this election. At least certainly not anytime soon. And he has said publicly as well that he plans to continue to fight it.
And claims that there are more legal steps his team can taken even though if you speak with people close to the president's campaign and close to the legal team, they just believe they're running out of options after that Supreme Court rejection and they're not sure where they're going to go next.
One tactic the president may try to pursue over the next few weeks, as we wait for the end of his presidency and for Joe Biden to be inaugurated, is a distraction technique. And that was in part what you saw yesterday, as the last states were certifying their votes. That's when the president chose to announce on Twitter that the Attorney General Bill Barr is resigning in the next few days. His last day at the White House will be December 23rd. He said in a resignation later that he did to the president.
And if you looked at them tweeting from the President announcing this and look at Bill Barr's letter you would that this is an amicable departure between these two individuals. But it is certainly anything but that.
And sources who we spoke to in recent weeks said the relationship between the president and once one of his most favorite cabinet members had deteriorated so greatly after Bill Barr undercut the president's claims about voter fraud.
And then even more so over the weekend after it was revealed that Barr did work to follow DOJ protocol, by stopping that Biden investigation from becoming public. Something the president criticized him over, and said he should have done the opposite.
[01:34:52]
COLLINS: But that is not what the president mentioned in his, tweet announcing that Bill Barr will be stepping down. And his deputy Jeffrey Rosen will be taking over as the attorney general just for a few more weeks.
Kaitlan Collins, CNN -- the White House.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Live to Los Angeles and CNN legal analyst Areva Martin joins us. Areva it's good to see you and it's been a long time. So thanks for being with us.
AREVA MARTIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Hi John.
VAUSE: Ok, it is the case that something is coming next from a desperate Donald Trump that even Bill Barr refuses to be part of?
Or is it Barr, like everyone else close to Trump ultimately failing a loyalty test?
MARTIN: You know, you never know with Donald Trump, John. He's always trying to find out how to control the narrative, control the new story.
So just on today when Joe Biden's victory as president is being confirmed by the electoral college, of course, he tweets about Bill Barr resigning. So anything he can do to distract, anything he can do to control the narrative, we should expect from this president.
But we do know, that he has been completely unhappy with Bill Barr, after two things that Bill Barr did. One was confirmed that there was no widespread voter fraud that had been uncovered, no evidence that would suggest that this election was unfair.
We know that Donald Trump was very angry, very upset with Bill Barr for making that very public statement.
And we also know that he was very angry about Barr's refusal to make public the criminal investigation that is happening with respect to Hunter Biden.
So we know that these are two men who have been privately feuding, even though this love letter, his love letter of a resignation letter has been, you know, presented to the public as if this is an amicable parting of the ways.
VAUSE: Funny you should mention that because "The Washington Post" noted that Barr's resignation letter contained 18 uses of the word "you" or "your" to refer to Trump as in "Your record is all the more historic because you accomplished it in the face relentless, implacable resistance. And you have restored American military strength by brokering historic peace deals in the Middle East. You have achieves what most thought impossible."
David (INAUDIBLE), a former officials at the Justice Department as a little more direct, tweeting this. "Even in the act of resigning, Barr soils his tenure as attorney general further."
You know, if you look at this letter, it does sound like, you know, someone may need a presidential pardon down the line. This big picture. How much damage has Barr done to the Department of Justice?
MARTIN: He's done a tremendous job of decimating that department. He has called prosecutors in the Department of Justice "children". He has caused many career prosecutors to resign because of the tactics that he's engaged in, everything from trying to seek reduced sentence for Roger Stone, requesting that the criminal lawsuits or actions against Michael Flynn be dismissed.
And really doing everything that he could do to show his loyalty to Donald Trump while undermining, you know, the rule of law, and acting more as a personal attorney for Donald Trump rather than the attorney general for the people of the United States.
I think he has sullied his reputation in such a way that it's impossible for him to do anything that, you know, could really cause him to be viewed as anything other than probably one of the worst attorney generals in the history of the country.
VAUSE: You know, the deputy attorney general, Jeff Rosen will take over. There's 36 days until the inauguration, how much damage could be done in that time? And is this the beginning of pardon-palooza for Trump and his family and everyone he's ever spoken to?
MARTIN: Well you know, John, we've been hearing for weeks now about this long list of potential individuals who will be pardoned by Donald Trump including him possibly trying to pardon himself, his children, his son-in-law and other friends.
So we should expect to see this, you know, revolving door of pardons. And also something I'm concerned about is the appointment of special counsel. We saw that even with William Barr, appointing a special counsel to investigate those federal agents, federal officials who were involved in the Russia investigation.
So we may see this new acting attorney general Rosen, try to appoint other special counsel to engage and again, these kind of baseless investigations.
Fortunately, we are down to less than 40 days. So not, I think that he can do any kind of lasting damage in the several weeks that are left, but I think we should continue to watch very closely happens with the Department of Justice.
VAUSE: On the issue of pardons, this is a bit of a double-edged sword it seems for the president. Because yes he can pardon people for federal crimes, but once they are pardoned, they lose the right to plead the fifth because they can incriminate themselves, because they've been pardoned. So that actually sets up quite a few witnesses potentially, at least.
MARTIN: Oh absolutely John, And we shouldn't, you know, forget -- and I will be remiss without mentioning that these pardons, or potential pardons are only applicable to potential federal crimes. They have nothing to do with state crimes.
[01:39:58] MARTIN: And that's a really big issue. Because when you look at what's
happening in New York, both with the district attorney in Manhattan as well as the attorney general in the state of New York, we know that Trump and his children, potentially his associates are being investigated for, you know, a variety of potential criminal actions.
So any pardon maybe a short term, you know, band-aid or solution to some problems that Trump and his associates have. But in the long run, not likely to cause any of them that have engaged in any criminal conduct to, you know, shield themselves from potential accountability for other prosecutions that can happen, outside of a federal prosecution.
VAUSE: Areva, thank you. Also I should say, you're looking very festive there in Los Angeles. Good to see you. Take care.
MARTIN: Thanks John.
VAUSE: Well, the European Union and the United Kingdom appear no closer to a post Brexit trade agreement and the British Prime Minister again warning there is a good chance no deal will be reached in the 16 days left until the deadline.
CNN's Nic Robertson has more now from London.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Well, negotiations are continuing, precisely what they are focusing on in the nuance and detail, we don't know.
Michel Barnier, the E.U. chief negotiator briefed E.U. diplomats on Monday morning. He also briefed the European parliament. They want to have a vote on whatever comes out, whatever agreement is found at the end of this.
They want to have a vote on it. Their the deadline for that would be the 27th of December, around that sort of timeframe. The deadline to get a deal is actually right at the end of the year.
But what progress is being made at the moment really isn't clear. Going into talks this weekend, it really felt like it was a gloomy scenario. Invigorated gloom I think is where we're at right now, dark clouds still. Boris Johnson saying, look both sides recognize that there are big gaps. But he is saying prepare for the possibility of a no deal. A huge amount of pressure and concern from both sides about what that could mean.
But where they are making progress, if they are making progress, really that remains absolutely in the dark at the moment.
Nic Robertson, CNN -- London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Still to come on CNN NEWSROOM, Europe heading for a very COVID Christmas with some of the toughest emergency restrictions in place since the pandemic began.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VAUSE: More than 300 students are missing, most likely kidnapped after an all boys' school in northern Nigeria was attacked by gunmen riding motorbikes.
Officials say it may be a kidnapping for ransom plot, with the attackers reportedly making the demands known through a teacher. The government does not know how many students were able to escape Friday's ambush. The U.N. has called for the immediate release of all the children.
[01:45:06]
VAUSE: A new wave of the coronavirus infections is spreading across parts of east Asia. Hong Kong seeing record high numbers, while South Korea and Japan have deployed their militaries' much needed help for exhausted health care workers, CNN's Paula Hancocks is live in Seoul for us this hour.
So Paula, I man at the start of last month, South Korea was recording these confirmed cases around 100 each day, it's now a thousand in one day for the first time? How do this all go so wrong?
PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well John it really does seem to have happened very quickly doesn't it? And what we're being told by officials is the main issue is that they're not dealing as they were in the first two waves with one or tow major outbreaks, which are far easier to contact trace.
What they're dealing with now is much smaller outbreaks, but much more frequent outbreaks. The vast majority in the capital Seoul but also around the rest of the country as well. So it's far more difficult to try and track and stop and contain those kinds of outbreaks.
And this is really what they're trying to deal with at the moment. So almost 900 new cases for the past 24 hours. They have confirmed now and officials are trying to figure out if they should raise the social distancing level to the highest level it can be here in the capital, it's just one below that now.
Officials though saying they don't want to miss the window, but they also know that that does have a significant impact on the economy. No one goes to work, everyone works from home apart from essential personnel. Churches, schools are all online as well.
And then when you look at Japan, they are also having this same issue. Today, they have just reported the highest number of intensive care patients, since the beginning of this pandemic, 588 in serious condition in intensive care.
And that of course, raises concerns of what happens if you do start to run out of these intensive care beds. We also know the Prime Minister Suga has actually canceled the internal travel program that they were having in Japan to try and boost domestic travel so that they could boost the economy. That's now on hold as well because these numbers are so worrying, John.
VAUSE: Paula, thank you. Paula Hancocks in Seoul with the very latest.
Well, for at least the next fives weeks the Netherlands will be under a strict lockdown because of a dramatic spread of the coronavirus.
Schools and universities will close for the most part, along with nonessential retail shops and all public gathering places.
In a rare addressed from his office in The Hague, the Dutch prime minister announced what are the toughest emergency measures since the pandemic began.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARK RUTTE, NETHERLANDS PRIME MINISTER (through translator): The Netherlands is closing down. This means that we will close all places where people gather in groups with the few exceptions that are necessary to keep society running or to protect vulnerable people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: The prime minister says at home gatherings should be limited to just two guests at any time. The only exception will be Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day, the 26th. That's when the limit increases to three guests.
The Czech Republic also heading for stricter measures just two weeks after restaurants, hotels and indoor sports venues reopened.
Coronavirus cases have been surging since September to the point where hospitals have suspended non urgent care. There will also be a curfew from 11:00 p.m. to 5:00 a.m. and an early start to end of year school holidays.
On Wednesday, London and some surrounding areas will return to a strict lockdown as well. Confirmation came from the U.K. Health Secretary. He also announced a new variant of the virus which may be linked to the faster rate of spread in southeast England.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MATT HANCOCK, U.K. HEALTH SECRETARY: Initial analysis suggests that this variant is growing faster than the existing variant.
Mister Speaker, I must stress at this point that there is currently nothing to suggest that this variant is more likely to cause serious disease. And the latest clinical advice is that it's highly unlikely that this mutation would fail to respond to a vaccine.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Matt Hancock also says similar variants of the coronavirus have been identified in other countries recently. U.K. authorities have notified the WHO about the mutation they discovered. Germany will impose a nationwide hard lockdown on Wednesday to try and slow an alarming spread of the coronavirus as well. Just days ago, officials reported the number of new daily infections and deaths had hit a record.
CNN's Fred Pleitgen has our report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Germany remains in a dire situation, with high numbers of new coronavirus infections, pretty much every day. And so the German government has now decided that this country is going to go into what's called a hard lockdown come Wednesday.
Angela Merkel and state governors have decided that all nonessential shops are going to have to close and also schools are going to shut down and go to distance learning.
[01:49:52]
PLEITGEN: Now of course, all of this comes only about a week before Christmas. And for a lot of these shop owners, that will be one of the main times for their business. So a lot of them are extremely concerned about their financial situation.
And the German government has said it will pay compensation, but of course there is still a lot of worry for a lot of these especially small business owners in this time of what would normally be very busy times for Christmas shopping.
But the big thing Angela Merkel says is to at least try to give people some semblance of Christmas when that time comes around. They say that no more than five people are going to be allowed to come together also for Christmas. And they're only allowed to be from two households.
Also Christmas church services are only going to be allowed if they're registered beforehand and approved by authorities. And the people who go to those services are not allowed to sing and they all have to wear masks.
Fred Pleitgen, CNN -- Berlin.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: We'll take a short break. When we come back, the unique way Abu Dhabi is making its biggest sporting event safe during a global pandemic.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VAUSE: Well, it will be life in a bubble for Abu Dhabi in this year's Formula 1 Grand Prix, from country of origin two touchdown on the Emirates, thousands involved will be kept in their own coronavirus free environment.
Becky Anderson reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BECKY ANDERSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): The battle for the Formula 1 world championship took place both on and off the track this year. The global pandemic almost forced F1 to scrap the entire season. And champion Lewis Hamilton narrowly made into Abu Dhabi's season finale after contracting COVID-19.
(on camera): In order for the event to go ahead, this year, officials have created a biosphere. A secure bubble into which only those who are critical to the event and that is about 3,000 people are allowed in.
We are on a boat in (INAUDIBLE) Marina and you can see behind me the paddocks and between here and the hotels for example, there is a secure route.
Simply getting the racing teams from the previous Grand Prix in Bahrain, was a complex challenge. Their travel corridor was created to move everyone in a bubble across the Gulf.
SAIF AL-NOAIMI, CEO, ABU DHABI MOTORSPORTS MANAGEMENT: We safeguarded the entire journey from the airport in Bahrain, the personnel boarded on 10 Etihad Airways chartered flights, they arrived into Terminal 3. We conducted another test upon arrival into the airport, and then we transferred them safely into the island biosphere.
ANDERSON: It was a massive operation, alongside with these private planes, 600 trucks were needed to move the equipment to the circuit. And 400 people, needed to unload them.
AL-NOAIMI: We conducted somewhere in the range of 12,000 COVID-19 tests within the biosphere. We have 15 different stations within the zone to conduct all of these tests. It includes 1,100 hotel staff to cater to everybody staying over here.
ANDERSON: The Grand Prix rounds off as a series of sporting events, hosted by Abu Dhabi this year. All made possible by the creation of these secure bubbles.
[01:54:59]
ANDERSON: Between July and October, the Ultimate Fighting Championship or UFC also held tournaments on Yaz Island inside a safe zone. UFC president Dana White, took to Instagram afterwards, thanking officials here for literally moving mountains to make the event happen.
And in August, the Indian cricket board announced the Indian Premier League or IPL will be moved to the United Arab Emirates after deeming the risks from COVID-19 to grades for these tournaments to be held on a home turf.
And for organizers, it was a race against time to shift the event.
MATT BOUCHER, CEO, ABU DHABI CRICKET: Really seven to ten working days to put everything in, place. We then opened an air bridge which was essentially an extension or quarantine from the hotel to Abu Dhabi Cricket. And then that allowed the players under police escort from surveillance to move between the hotel and the training venue and practice.
ANDERSON: These events have all taken place behind closed doors without paying spectators. That's a blow to Abu Dhabi's economy, but the U.A.E. is looking at the longer game.
BOUCHER: Having a lot of international interest from teams so we can keep their players safe and play cricket.
ANDERSON: By getting these events over the finish line safely, the UAE is banking on these events being here in the future and the fans they will bring back.
Becky Anderson, CNN -- Abu Dhabi.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Well as the coronavirus death toll surges worldwide, there are some moments to celebrate, some victories over COVID.
Like 104-year-old Atlanta, released from hospital after contracting the virus and pneumonia. The staff cheered as she was wheeled out after two weeks of treatment. Saying plans to start vaccination as early as the beginning of January that's if a vaccine is approve by Europe's top medical agency.
Thank you for watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm John Vause.
The news continues after a short break with my colleague and friend, Robyn Curnow.
You're watching CNN.
[01:57:03]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
