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U.S. Reports 3,019 Deaths Overnight, Third Deadliest Day of Pandemic; Trump Turns on McConnell after Majority Leader Congratulates Biden; More Americans to Receive First Dose of COVID-19 Vaccine Today. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired December 16, 2020 - 10:00   ET

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

[10:00:00]

TERRY YATES, ATTORNEY FOR MARK ANTHONY AGUIRRE: It was an accident. They were surveilling a vehicle. It was an accident. And then a member of the car got out and rushed toward him. And that's where confrontation took place. It's very different than what you're citing in that affidavit.

JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: And it's worth pointing out that he was not acting alone. We're hearing from a spokesperson from Liberty Center who says that this former police captain was part of a group of some 20 investigators who were hired by a Republican activist named Steve Hotze in the Houston area. He became prominent before the election trying to invalidate hundreds of thousands of ballots, that was unsuccessful in the courts.

Prosecutors say that at this hour, this former police captain remains behind bars and he faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted. Jim, Poppy?

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: A reminder, the justice department, as its job, has investigated these claims of widespread fraud under Bill Barr, did not find any evidence. Josh Campbell, great to have you on this story.

CAMPBELL: Thanks.

SCIUTTO: Well, a very good morning to you. I'm Jim Sciutto.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Poppy Harlow.

As more frontline doctors and nurses get vaccinated, thousands of Americans are still dying every single day from COVID. Here is what we know this morning. More than 3,000 deaths were reported from COVID yesterday, the third worst day in this entire pandemic and the death toll here in the United States will undoubtedly keep growing amid record hospitalizations now for a tenth straight day.

There is some potentially encouraging news though very near on the horizon as the Pfizer vaccine rolls out across the country. FDA advisers are set to meet tomorrow to discuss green lighting or giving emergency use authorization to the Moderna vaccine.

SCIUTTO: Now, this would give the U.S. two vaccine options.

On Capitol Hill, congressional leaders are now expressing growing confidence that they will, if you could believe it, reach an agreement to provide much needed financial relief for millions. Many of them will lose it the day after Christmas otherwise. This morning, West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin says the deal could include direct payments, but I spoke to Dick Durbin, he said there's still some disagreements even within the Democratic caucus.

Let's begin though with the vaccination effort under way in Florida, a state hit by this hard. Rosa, what are you seeing there today?

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jim, it's a very emotional and historic day here in the state of Florida. The state of Florida has designated more than 21,000 doses of the vaccine specifically to be administered by strike teams at long-term care facilities. So, in moments, our cameras will be rolling when these very first senior citizens in the state of Florida are getting vaccinated.

Now, we are waiting here in this waiting area because we're going to be escorted in moments to the location where those vaccinations will be happening.

I'm at a place called John Knox Village. This is a residential community for about 1,000 senior citizens. It's the most vulnerable who will be vaccinated today. Those seniors that are in what is called a skilled nursing facility. These are the most vulnerable. They need skilled nurses to be at their aid. And about -- we were just updated, about 90 seniors will get the vaccines today as well as 80 health care professionals will get the vaccine. Again, we're going to be escorted there in moments. We're just waiting for the go.

But I think it's important to note why it is that we're here, here in the state of Florida. If you just look at the numbers, the numbers tell you the story. When you look at the number of senior citizens ages 65 and older who have contracted the coronavirus, they account for about 14 percent of the more than 1.1 million cases in this state but they account for 83 percent of the more than 20,000 cases.

And when you look at the numbers further, you understand why long-term care facilities are at the top of the list. 39 percent of the deaths in this state are linked to long-term care facilities, both residents and also health care workers. That's why we're here in moments, our cameras will be rolling when the vaccine is administered to this very vulnerable population.

It's important to note too though that there is a current surge here in the state of Florida. We saw a summer surge, then a lull and then a surge one more time. If you look at the numbers since Thanksgiving, the number of cases here in the state of Florida have increased by 19 percent, and the number of hospitalizations have increased by 37 percent.

So this is emotional, it's historic, Jim and Poppy, but it's also happening with this backdrop, the surge of cases that are happening right now. And, again, we will be escorted in moments and we will take you those pictures live. Jim and Poppy?

[10:05:00]

SCIUTTO: That's the reality around the country, the good news with the bad. Rosa Flores, thanks very much.

Joining us now, Dr. Paul Sax, he's Clinical Director of Infectious Diseases at Brigham and Women's Hospital. Dr. Sax, great to have you on this morning.

I wonder if you could give us a sense of the rollout here, right, because the science progressed remarkably fast here, right? To be by the end of this year after several months with not one but likely two vaccines getting early approval, now it's the logistical challenge, right, getting it out to millions of people quickly and safely. What is your assessment of that process and the preparation so far?

DR. PAUL SAX, CLINICAL DIRECTOR, DIVISION OF INFECTIOUS DISEASES AT BRIGHAM AND WOMEN'S HOSPITAL: Well, it seems to be going well so far, very limited rollout, going to predominantly health care facilities, the hospitals, the long-term nursing facilities and that's really to target the people who are most really hit by COVID-19, the elderly and the otherwise vulnerable, as well as health care workers.

This particular vaccine, the Pfizer vaccine, has a very demanding cold storage transportation requirement that makes it somewhat more challenging than the Moderna vaccine, which I hope we'll be able to start adding to the vaccine supplies in the coming weeks.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

HARLOW: You've talked about what pregnant women should do with the Pfizer vaccine. I have a handful of pregnant friends, family. One was told don't get it until after the baby comes. The other was told do get it. What do you think knowing that it has not been broadly tested on pregnant woman?

SAX: Well, this is a challenge we frequently face in pregnancy. And, understandably, when a new drug or a new vaccine is researched, there's reluctance to have pregnant women participate in this study because they might be particularly vulnerable or their fetus might be vulnerable.

However, in this particular case where we know that pregnancy is a risk factor for severe COVID-19, I really do think that women should be offered the opportunity to have the vaccine and have them make the decision with their health care provider. It should not be a contraindication.

I should also emphasize there's no scientific reason in particular why the mechanism of this vaccine should be harmful to a mother or her developing baby.

HARLOW: Okay. SCIUTTO: Dr. Sax, this is good news, what we are seeing play out across the country now. And it's in the faces, right, of the health care workers and others who are getting this vaccine now. But every doctor we've had on this broadcast says, great news but stay vigilant, right? You've still got to wear masks, you've still got to social distance, et cetera. Just giving you the opportunity here to explain to our viewers why that's still important.

SAX: The reason it's still important is because, first, the amount of people going to get the vaccine is going to be relatively small, at least at first. Second is that the vaccines were tested during a time when we were advising the participants in the studies still to take precautions, to wear masks in indoor spaces, to social distance.

We actually don't know how effective the vaccine would be in a situation where people are not wearing masks. And then last, as was mentioned just recently, the entire country is experiencing a seasonal surge of cases. This is not the right time to let up on those other important preventive measures.

And so wait until we have enough people vaccinated, until we have enough of what is commonly called herd immunity and then we can start talking about going maskless in certain settings but not right now.

HARLOW: When are we going to know if two shots and you're done for life or if you need to come back every year like we do for the flu shot or maybe even every few years or just the most vulnerable need to -- I guess, are we a few years out from knowing that answer?

SAX: Well, we really aren't going to know until we have the natural experiments. It would be simple if we had a blood test where you could sort of say, oh, look, the antibodies are still there and, therefore, you're still protected, or, look, antibodies are gone, therefore, you're not and you need a booster.

But, actually, the immune system is much more complicated than that. And, probably, what it's going to take is very careful surveillance. And if we can see that the cases are remaining extremely low after a broad vaccine rollout, then we'll have a sense of whether we need to bring it back annually or whether it is something that can last much longer than that.

So even though that's a great question and one that we all receive frequently, we just don't know the answer yet.

HARLOW: Okay, thank you, Dr. Sax, very much.

SAX: You're welcome, happy to help.

SCIUTTO: This just in to CNN, we are learning Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is quarantining after he came into contact with somebody who tested positive for the coronavirus. The State Department says that he himself has tested negative. Interestingly, earlier this week, he did not show at a State Department party for dozens of diplomats. We're going to bring the latest on this as we hear it. Also this, after months of talking, could today be the day congressional lawmakers reach a deal on a new stimulus package? Negotiations set to resume, thank goodness, this morning on Capitol Hill.

HARLOW: That's right. The deal if it holds, Senator Joe Manchin told CNN this morning, could include direct stimulus payments to Americans.

[10:10:03]

Our Manu Raju is back with us this morning on Capitol Hill. I though yesterday that was out the door but it sounds very real now maybe?

MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it is in the deal, according to several sources who I have spoken to this morning, that there will be a round of stimulus checks in this deal. Now, we have to see exactly what the language is, the amount of the threshold because, overall, the package that had been proposed on Capitol Hill for those stimulus checks had been about $350 billion but the overall --

HARLOW: Well, technology, but the news, Jim, that -- the news, Jim, that there are these direct payments in the package, it's a big deal.

SCIUTTO: That is news. And then, of course, the question is, where does state and local aid stand, right, because despite Manchin's hope, Dick Durbin told me soon after that, well, he's insisting on state and local aid.

I think we have Manu. Manu, you went to bars for a moment there. But tell us where those direct payments stand but also, I'm curious, where state and local aid then stands.

RAJU: Well, it appears state and local aid is not going to get into this deal. That had been a big sticking point among Republicans, and there is no agreement there. So that's going to fall by the wayside. Also that's going to fall by the wayside is lawsuit protections, liability protections that Republicans had been demanding. Remember, Mitch McConnell last week suggested putting aside those two issues, agreeing on what they can agree on at a time when Democratic leaders pushed back on that idea but it appears that's exactly where this agreement ultimately will end up.

Overall, this price tag of this proposal is expected to be around $900 billion. That's about twice the amount that Senate Republicans had been pushing about half, less than half of what Democrats have wanted. Remember, before the election, Nancy Pelosi wanted more than $2 trillion in a deal. So this is a fraction of that. But they are getting to a deal that we do expect something to be official, officially announced could be later this morning, and that will be significant and could move through Congress rather quickly.

Now, what we expect this to include is also a new round of unemployment extensions, jobless benefits, of course, that is expiring by the end of the year for millions of Americans. We do expect that. We were looking for more details about exactly the amount of money that people will get. We expect money to be in there for small business loans. We also expect money for vaccine distribution to be part of this deal as well.

But the news, of course, this morning about the checks that will go to Americans, new stimulus checks, had not been what they have been considering but the president had been pushing for. Senators on both sides, House members on both sides had been pushing for it. But, ultimately, we will see how big the package is and how much people will ultimately get. Guys?

HARLOW: Okay. Manu, thank you, really important update there.

As Congress works to reach this deal that Manu just went through for us, a New York state television news anchor has had enough. Her mission to help thousands in her community get the unemployment assistance they need. She will join us live.

SCIUTTO (voice over): Good for her.

Plus, the vaccine cannot stop the pandemic unless we all are -- or vast majority of us take it. But health officials must have to overcome decades of mistrust, particularly in minority communities. Now, one Chicago area doctor has a plan to help change people's minds.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:15:00]

SCIUTTO: Well, President Trump is now going after one of his staunchest allies throughout his term as president, Senator Mitch McConnell, this after the Senate majority leader took the simple step of recognizing Joe Biden won the presidential election. But other GOP leaders, including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, they are not recognizing that fact.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: Now that Joe Biden won the election, is he the president-elect?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: He just won't answer.

Joining me now to talk about this, Ron Brownstein, CNN Senior Political Analyst, Senior Editor for The Atlantic. Good morning.

Listen, this is about fear of the president, it's about fear of the base, et cetera. But I'm curious, does this put an end to the procedural challenges to this election? Because the next chance is, really, a floor fight this January 6th when Congress has to sort of prove and count all of the electoral votes. And you heard McConnell urging his Republican colleagues not to take this up. You just need one senator. Is that dead or might one senator still rise from the ashes here?

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, certainly, House members will attempt to do so, and it's an open question. I think McConnell usually succeeds in marshaling his caucus so he may have squashed it. But if the late great Daniel Patrick Moynihan were still with us, he would certainly be describing this as a defining democracy down.

I mean, the fact Mitch McConnell waited six weeks to acknowledge the obvious, six weeks in which his silence allowed, abetted President Trump's efforts to spread these corrosive and poisonous and baseless fantasies, which have produced death threats against public officials in multiple states, which have helped him convince three quarters of Republican voters that this is illegitimate.

The fact McConnell waited this long and McCarthy is still waiting, I think, is an ominous signal for what's ahead in terms of the willingness of the Republican Party to accept the elections they lose and to support the basic tenets of American democracy that we have assumed were unquestioned in both parties, of course, for most of our history.

[10:20:00]

SCIUTTO: Well, it's Moynihan who also said, right, you are titled to your own opinions but not your own facts, that's where we are.

I always like to look ahead. Because beyond the P.R. campaign and fundraising campaign for a president unwilling to accept the loss but also kind of continue to build his following are genuine legislative steps that Republicans are already pushing for, and that is to restrict the vote in future elections, do things like restrict the use of drop boxes, reduce the use of mail-in ballots, which they see is disadvantaging them. Is that what this is all about here, keeping up this stolen election fiction?

BROWNSTEIN: Absolutely. I mean, look, when you go back starting really in 2010, we have seen a wave of legislation in Republican- controlled states to make it harder to vote, tougher voter I.D. laws, other measures eliminating polling places, and already we are seeing false claims become the basis for a new round of these efforts.

In Georgia, the Republican majority in the state Senate has already said that in the New Year, they intend to pass legislation to repeal on-demand mail balloting for anyone in the state, which has been the law, I understand, for about 15 years.

The speaker of the statehouse wants to go further and eliminate the voter right to elect the secretary of state in the state and instead have it appointed by the legislature. And all of that kind of parallels to what we saw from one of the most incredible things in this entire post-election episode, where the two Republican senators in Georgia, Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, who are running in the runoff, endorsed this litigation from Texas and other states to invalidate all of their state's voters. 5 million votes have been thrown out, disregarded and have the legislature appoint the electors to the Electoral College.

So, yes, I think this is going to be the basis for a new wave of these fights in the states, similar ideas coming forward already in Texas.

SCIUTTO: And maybe take away some of the checks that held this time around.

Final question, Joe Biden ran as a great healer, right, to some degree, healer of the great political divide. Where does that leave that effort when he takes office? And, of course, a big question will be whether the Democrats maintain the Senate. But where does it lead that? Is that pie in the sky?

BROWNSTEIN: Look, that is a great question. And, Jim, you can really see the tension in the two elements of Biden's speech on the night the Electoral College certified him. The first half, he called out the radicalism of the Republicans post-election more aggressively than he ever has before. And he said what we watched was unprecedented, an attempt to overturn the will of the voters. And then in the second half of the speech, he pivoted to this argument that we can turn the page, we can work together, and we can make progress.

Now, obviously, the question is whether the Republican Party that he described in the first half of this speech is capable or willing or interested in the kind of cooperation that he talked about in the second half of the speech. He's certainly going to give it a try.

And the paradox may be he has a better chance of making deals with a handful of Senate Republicans if Democrats have the majority and they know these trains are going to be forward, then if Mitch McConnell has the majority and has the ability to simply stop things all together.

SCIUTTO: No question. That race in Georgia, those races in Georgia, they're a big deal. Ron Brownstein, thanks very much.

BROWNSTEIN: Thank you.

HARLOW: All right, well said. Okay, ahead for us, on a very serious note, there is a long history here of medical experiments on African- Americans that has left many skeptical today of taking the COVID vaccine. We're going to speak with a doctor in Chicago who is working to rebuild that trust in her community one patient at a time.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:25:00]

HARLOW: Well, more good news this morning amid the bleak reality of COVID right now, the highlight is that more doses of Pfizer's vaccine are being delivered across the country.

SCIUTTO: CNN's Adrienne Broaddus is at one of those facilities, Loyola Medical Center in Maywood, Illinois. So, tell us, have the doses arrived there yet? And what's the timeline? How does this play out over the coming days and weeks?

ADRIENNE BROADDUS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Jim, no, they have not received their shipment of the vaccine but the hope is that they will receive it tomorrow. And if they receive the vaccine tomorrow, they will begin the vaccination process on Friday.

Among the eligible employees here at the hospital, about 400 have already signed up to get that shot in the arm. They're expecting to receive 16,000 doses. About two weeks ago, the staff was surveyed and among the staff who responded, at least 70 percent of the staff said they would like to get the vaccine.

Indeed, this is the start of something new and the start of us possibly getting back to normal. But health experts and those here say there are a few things to consider.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. RICHARD FREEMAN, CHIEF CLINICAL OFFICER, LOYOLA MEDICINE: There are two things to keep in mind. Number one, it will take months to get us all vaccinated so we need to continue to wear masks and socially distance. And we need the general population to be patient because it will take several months to get all of the frontline workers and the high-risk people vaccinated before the general population can receive the vaccine.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[10:30:09]