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California Hospitals Near Capacity as Cases and Deaths Spike; FDA Authorizes Moderna Vaccine for Emergency Use; Mexico City Imposing New Three-Week Lockdown; U.S. Officials Found Early, Inconclusive Signs of Cyberattack; Large-scale Evictions Loom in U.S. as Relief Deadline Approaches; India Prepares to Vaccinate over 1.3 Billion; Trump's Tweets Fixated on Election Loss. Aired 2-2:45a ET

Aired December 19, 2020 - 02:00   ET

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

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ANNA COREN, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Welcome to our viewers around the world, live from Hong Kong, I'm Anna Coren.

Ahead on CNN NEWSROOM, with almost no ICU beds left and record- breaking case numbers, southern California is close to the brink. A live interview with a doctor in Los Angeles.

Italy, the latest country to announce a holiday lockdown, as countries throughout the region double down on COVID restrictions.

We are getting late-breaking details on what's being called the biggest hack in American history. Mike Pompeo reveals who he thinks is behind the attack.

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COREN: On the same day the United States reported a record number of new coronavirus cases, the nation is a major step closer to rolling out its second coronavirus vaccine. The Food and Drug Administration has granted Moderna's vaccine emergency use authorization.

It's now up to the CDC to sign off. But millions of doses could be deployed by early next week. And that relief is badly needed. Nearly 250,000 new coronavirus cases were reported Friday alone. Hospitalizations are at an all-time high.

One influential model says that more Americans could die than previously thought. It predicts the U.S. death toll could top 560,000 by April 1st. That is 60,000 more deaths than predicted just one week ago.

Scientists say, one reason for the increase is the unprecedented surge of new infections and deaths in California, the latest epicenter in the U.S. More than 41,000 new cases, reported Friday, across the state. Right now, hospitals are overrun. Health care workers, exhausted and, as Lucy Kafanov reports, some fear that the worst is yet to come. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LUCY KAFANOV, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In southern California, our hospitals are at their breaking point. Too many coronavirus patients and, as of Thursday, no ICU beds left.

Just outside of Los Angeles, the Arrowhead Regional Medical Center in San Bernardino, so overwhelmed, they've had to treat COVID-19 patients inside these surge tents.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Look around. This is not ideal.

KAFANOV (voice-over): All 48 ICU beds full; the majority, COVID patients. The relentless pace, the deaths, the suffering taking a toll.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's probably the hardest year I've had as a nurse. As nurses, we still have our families and our loved ones to worry about.

KAFANOV (voice-over): Dr. Rodney Borger, who oversees the emergency department, says this is the worst crisis he has faced in his 25-year career.

DR. RODNEY BORGER, ARROWHEAD REGIONAL MEDICAL CENTER: The thing that keeps me up is when there is a time where we have to decide who gets something and who does not.

KAFANOV: So if things don't change, you are concerned?

BORGER: If things don't change, we probably will ration care. And that is something that's very concerning.

KAFANOV: That's a decision no doctor wants to make.

BORGER: A decision no one wants to make.

KAFANOV (voice-over): The state reporting more than 147,000 new coronavirus cases in just three days, activating its mass fatality plan, ordering 5,000 body bags, 60 refrigerated trailers on standby as makeshift morgues.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This means we expect to have more dead bodies than we have spaces in morgues for them. That frightens me. And it should frighten you.

KAFANOV (voice-over): In Los Angeles, where the mayor is in quarantine after his 9-year old tested positive, officials say an average of two people die every hour. The number of patients hospitalized across L.A. County, tripling over the past month, to more than 5,000.

DR. BRAD SPELLBERG, LAUSC MEDICAL CENTER: We are getting crushed. I'm not going to sugarcoat this. We are getting crushed.

KAFANOV (voice-over): In some areas, emergency rooms so crowded that ambulances had to wait hours to offload patients, some on gurneys outdoors, waiting. The entire San Francisco Bay Area is now effectively locked down, 98 percent of the state's population ordered to stay at home.

Colleen Cirrillo is a traveling nurse who arrived in California in May. She's exhausted from all of the deaths and wants people to take the virus seriously.

COLLEEN CIRRILLO, TRAVELING REGISTERED NURSE: It's really frustrating because today I lost my patient. So that was someone's family member. And for people to still believe that this isn't real, I don't know, I take offense to it. And I would take greater offense if that was my family member.

KAFANOV: The doctors, the nurses here tell us they've never seen anything like this before.

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KAFANOV: Yes, vaccines are being distributed. There is hope on the horizon but there's also the holidays coming up. And if people let their guards down, during this critical time, the next two months, these doctors say will be bleak. We have not yet turned the corner on this pandemic -- Lucy Kafanov, CNN, San Bernardino, California.

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COREN: Dr. Jorge Rodriguez joining me now, live from Los Angeles, He an internal medicine and viral specialist and receiving the Pfizer vaccine this week.

Doctor, great to see you. There has been an explosive surge in the number of cases in California, obviously, where you are, a state which had some of the most stringent pandemic restrictions in the country.

What has led to California, now, one of the epicenters of the pandemic?

DR. JORGE RODRIGUEZ, INTERNAL MEDICINE AND VIRAL SPECIALIST: I think many things have led to it. First of all, California was always tinder wood for a big fire. There are so many people in the state. It's the most populous state.

So we have a combination of the fact that people here are very mobile. The same thing that kept us protected, freeways, is also creating the fact that they've gone to visit, very easily in cars, other areas of the country that had more cases than we did.

The fact that there is a very large Hispanic population here, of which I am one, but also we tend to be with our families, tend live in groups. And there's a large percentage of people who are undocumented, who don't want to be treated.

However, I think it is time to stop being so polite. There have been many factions, in California, which is a liberal state, that have refused to follow recommendations. And we don't have to go far. You can go to Orange County, to Riverside, where people have raised this flag, as if it is just their freedom that is important.

So I urge anybody, because the majority of the people are law-abiding people that are concerned about others But now the time to be polite is over and we must all defend our right to stay healthy. So if we see someone who's not wearing a mask, I think we should ask them to respect our health as well as their freedom.

So it's multifactorial. And quite honestly, following mask mandates is what is going to change things now, as opposed to a couple of months from now when the vaccines actually make a difference.

COREN: L.A. County officials say two people on average dying each hour. One in 80 people are thought to be infected with COVID in California. We are getting reports of a critical shortage of ICU beds and talks of setting up field hospitals. Tell us about what you are seeing and witnessing every day.

RODRIGUEZ: First of all, in my practice, which is a general internal medicine practice and I don't do hospital emergency room, last week we saw probably five times more people with COVID than we had ever seen before.

People that thought they just had the sniffles, we are seeing that. Yesterday I went to the hospital. I was lucky enough to be able to qualify to get the Pfizer vaccine. The emergency room was packed. The nurses were, really, at the brink. They are taking care of more people than they should.

You can hear ambulances now all the time. Let me remind people, this is not just about people with COVID-19 dying and not being able to get into the hospital. People with heart attack, people with broken bones, women that are pregnant that are having complications, they are going to have trouble getting into an emergency room.

This is something that affects everyone in our city and in our state.

COREN: Obviously the good news is that the green light has been given to the Moderna vaccine. Millions of more doses will soon out there. But even with the two vaccines available, there won't be enough for all of the health care workers and nursing home staff or residents in those facilities.

Unfortunately, there are dark days ahead as COVID continues to ravage the United States.

RODRIGUEZ: Absolutely. And the message -- listen, we've been sending sometimes a false message to people. When the surges went down, everyone thought we could come out and just be as free as we wanted to. I think that was a big mistake.

This virus has always been lurking and you're right. We are not going to see the effect of these vaccines until late February or early March. In the meantime, this virus will continue affecting and infecting people. What needs to be done now is to follow the triumvirate of health care,

masks, distancing and hand washing. That can make almost an immediate difference. And I just can't reiterate that enough.

Yes, people must heed that advice. Great to hear that you got the vaccine and hopefully many more front line health workers will get it in the coming days.

RODRIGUEZ: It was very humbling.

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COREN: I bet. I bet. Dr. Jorge Rodriguez, great to see you. Many thanks for joining us.

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COREN: Just an hour ago, a strict new lockdown came into effect for millions of people in Mexico City and the surrounding area. It will last for at least three weeks. With an alarming spike in cases and people flooding streets in shopping districts ahead of Christmas, officials say they have no choice. Matt Rivers reports from Mexico City.

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MATT RIVERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: For weeks now, health officials here in Mexico City have been warning the general public that if the situation with COVID-19 did not get better, that they would be forced to close down sections of the city, to take more drastic measures.

Over the past few days, we have seen record numbers of hospitalizations here. We've seen a record number of new cases being added on a day-to-day basis. Because of that, officials are following through on that threat.

As of midnight Saturday, all nonessential businesses, both in Mexico City and in the surrounding state of Mexico, which, combined, make up one of the largest metropolitan areas in the world, all those nonessential businesses will be forced to close until at least January 10th.

Health officials say it could go on longer, depending on the status of the pandemic. Make no mistake: health officials tried not to do this. In fact, they faced criticism over recent weeks, as we've seen this disease trending in the wrong direction in terms of new hospitalizations and new cases.

Some of them calling for businesses like these to be closed earlier. But health officials resisted that, at least in part because of the economic pain that this is going to cause. Mexico City, the state of Mexico, huge economic drivers for the country overall.

And this will be an economic hit to an economy that is already struggling during this pandemic. But officials are saying they didn't have a choice here. They were forced to make what they are calling, quote, "extraordinary actions" to try and get the pandemic more under control.

And, of course, they are going to be looking at the upcoming holiday season. We're in it right now and just like other countries around the world, Mexican families gather during this time of the year. That poses a risk. Mexican health officials are urging people to stay home.

There's no mandatory stay-at-home order. But we know that these businesses are being closed. That's is the play by the Mexican government right down, to try and get the case numbers and hospitalizations moving in a different direction -- Matt Rivers, CNN, Mexico City.

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COREN: More European countries tightening restrictions and hoping to avoid another wave of COVID-19 infections after the holidays. Italy will go into a nationwide lockdown for much of Christmas and New Year's. People will only be able to travel for work, health or emergency reasons on certain days.

Millions more people are now under tier 3 restrictions in London and other parts of England. That is the toughest level. Infections are spiking and there are fears a new variant of the virus is accelerating the spread.

Sweden is dropping its controversial strategy of avoiding lockdowns and face masks. The prime minister is now recommending face coverings on public transportation.

Coming up on CNN NEWSROOM, we are learning more about the far-reaching cyberattack against U.S. targets. The country's top diplomat is ready to point fingers.

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COREN: Welcome back.

U.S. secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, now going public with Washington's suspicions of who was behind the massive cyberattack on U.S. targets.

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MIKE POMPEO, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: There was a significant effort to use a piece of third party software to, essentially, embed code inside of U.S. government systems and it now appears systems of private companies and countries and governments across the world as well. This is a very significant effort.

And I think it's the case that now we can say pretty clearly that it was the Russians that engaged in this activity.

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COREN: Meanwhile, we learn more about when U.S. officials first started noticing something was wrong. Alex Marquardt has the latest.

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ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): We are getting new information about what was known and when. It was several months ago that American officials, who monitor for threats to critical infrastructure, when they first noticed suspicious activity, according to three sources speaking to CNN.

That suspicious activity, we now know, was linked to what we are now reporting as one of the largest hacking operations in history. At the time, those officials were not able to tie what they were seeing to the software, which we know the hackers used to get inside.

The activity they saw was classified and did not provide conclusive evidence that the networks had been compromised. Still, it worried top cybersecurity officials that there were potential vulnerabilities in the systems.

Then, fast forward to 10 days ago. The top cybersecurity firm FireEye revealed that it had been hacked. Then followed several days later by the U.S. government, admitting, it, too, had been targeted in what we now know is the biggest breach the U.S. government has ever seen.

We are learning more every day about what the hackers, who are believed to be connected to the Russian intelligence services, what they had access to. But given the sophistication, there is still so much that needs to be learned.

What data was accessed?

What was done with it?

18,000 customers use the software that the hackers rode into these networks on. It's from a company called SolarWinds. All of those clients, including many in the U.S. government, they all need to do a forensic analysis. That could take months or longer and we may never know the full extent of what these hackers did.

The U.S. cyber agency, known as CISA, has also said in a statement that there were other methods used to get in and techniques that have not yet been discovered. The scale and sophistication of this operation that has been going on since March cannot be overstated -- Alex Marquardt, CNN, Washington.

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COREN: The U.S. House and Senate passing a two-day funding extension to avoid a government shutdown. This gives them more time to negotiate an economic relief bill, to help millions of struggling Americans. For days, Republican and Democrat leaders have said they were close to reaching a deal on the $900 billion relief package. But there are still several outstanding issues in the way.

More people could lose their homes if those talks fail come January. It'll be time for renters to pay up as the nationwide hold on evictions expires. And minority families face the biggest risk. Nick Valencia has this story from Atlanta.

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MONICA DELANCY, ACTIVIST: I gave him your case number.

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Like so many others behind on their rent, Jasmine Cruz says she's living on borrowed time. A federal halt on evictions is set to expire December 31st.

Cruz, a single mother who owes her landlord two months of rent, was recently issued a warrant to pay it. Every day, she wakes up expecting to be evicted.

JASMINE CRUZ, TENANT FACING EVICTION: I'm 25 years old, I'm a single mother and I try on my own. Off of, like, one income, it's not easy. I've been struggling.

VALENCIA (voice-over): Now, with a 2-month-old son, no job and unable to pay for child care during the pandemic, she looks after her son full-time. With nowhere else to go and no one to count on, Cruz came here, to the THRIVE Resource Center.

Operated out of a makeshift office in an apartment complex, Monica DeLancy helps those in Atlanta who are at risk of being evicted. All are either black or Latino. And DeLancy knows their story well.

DELANCY: They put me out last year, year to the day, with the Christmas tree on a cold day like this, with the Christmas tree. We don't want you to get to that point. If you have to move, we want you to move with dignity. We want you to move and pack your things up and we'll find you a place.

But we don't want you to be forced out because kids do not know how to get over that.

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Adults can, kids don't know how to.

VALENCIA (voice-over): Kids like nine-year-old Fantasia (ph), who lives with her grandma, Garnell Hodge. Hodge lost her job in the service industry because of COVID.

VALENCIA (on camera): You got this on your door --

VALENCIA (voice-over): Last week, Hodge says Fantasia (ph) started to realize how bad things were when the family got an eviction notice.

GARNELL HODGE, TENANT FACING EVICTION: I thought, I don't have anywhere to go because places are so high and I don't have much income. VALENCIA (voice-over): Black and Latino families consistently report low confidence in the ability to pay rent during the pandemic.

According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, communities of color are the hardest hit by the eviction crisis and represent 80 percent of people facing eviction. In Atlanta, the United Way says 95 percent of the families they help who are facing eviction are black.

PROTIP BISWAS, VICE PRESIDENT FOR HOMELESSNESS, UNITED WAY OF GREATER ATLANTA: There's, like I said, 2,500 applications in process and there's thousands more

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VALENCIA (on camera): And yet you're getting to the point where you can't accept -- you can't help everybody that needs help.

BISWAS: Not really, cannot help. This -- the funding expires end of December. That is the biggest plea we have. If there's some way we can extend it so that we can keep helping families.

VALENCIA: And it's not just the renters. It's also, in some cases, blue-collar landlords who are dependent on that income. The sad reality is, not everyone will get the help they need.

Here at the United Way, they are only able to help those who live within the city limits. The director here says they turned away thousands who are looking for help. That's thousands who are either unable or unaware of resources, expecting to be out on the streets when the moratorium ends -- Nick Valencia, CNN, Atlanta.

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COREN: Coming up on CNN NEWSROOM, India is preparing for the monumental task vaccinating the world's second largest population as it passes a terrible COVID milestone.

And this --

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DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Is it in?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's done.

GUPTA: It's done. You are really good.

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COREN: A relatively painless way to end the world's pain. CNN chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta gives us a first-hand look at what it's like to get a COVID shot. Please stay with us.

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COREN: Public health officials in India are concerned about big gatherings. The country just surpassing 10 million confirmed coronavirus cases. Vaccines expecting to roll out in the coming weeks. But as CNN's Vedika Sud explains, there will be challenges vaccinating India's more than 1.3 billion people.

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VEDIKA SUD, CNN PRODUCER (voice-over): There could soon be light at the end of the tunnel for India. Three vaccine developers, applying for an emergency use authorization with the country's drug control authority.

Oxford AstraZeneca, partnering with vaccine manufacturers Serum Institute of India to produce the Covishield vaccine, which could be sold to the Indian government for around $3 and later, $6 to $8 on the private market.

ADAR POONAWALLA, SERUM INSTITUTE OF INDIA: I think everyone is aware, the ministry of health wants 300 million to 400 million doses by July of 2021 so we are trying to get that done.

SUD: Covaxin, India's first indigenous vaccine manufactured by Bharat Biotech International Limited, in collaboration with the government run Indian Council of Medical Research, has also sought emergency use authorization.

The Pfizer BioNTech vaccine is already approved in the U.K. and U.S.

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SUD: The company's Indian arm is now waiting for approval from the country's drug regulator.

However, speaking to Reuters, the man leading the India's vaccine initiative says that Pfizer's limited stockpiles and extreme storage condition requirements could limit its use in India.

SUD: The government's priority will be, to first, vaccinate about 300 million people. This includes health care workers, frontline workers and citizens above the age of 50.

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PROF. K. SRINATH REDDY, PUBLIC HEALTH FOUNDATION OF INDIA: To get adequate health workforce of people who can administer the injections, monitor the side effects and then, ensure that people come back for the second injection as well, I think that will be the challenge we have to meet.

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SUD (voice-over): Pull (ph) chains have been lined up to stock vaccines between a temperature range of 2 to 8 degrees Celsius. But some rich companies are racing against time to increase supplies.

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RAJIV NATH, HINDUSTAN SYRINGES AND MEDICAL DEVICES: Current we are making around 700 million pieces per annum capacity. We plan to increase this production rate to a billion pieces per annum capacity by the second quarter of next year.

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SUD (voice-over): While the Indian government says a vaccine will soon be made available, inoculating a significant percentage of the world's second most populated country will be a colossal task -- Vedika Sud, CNN, New Delhi.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COREN: In the U.S., health care workers are among the first in line to get the COVID vaccine shot. CNN medical correspondent and practicing neurosurgeon, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, is one of them. He received the shot live on CNN Friday.

Why was it so important to him to get vaccinated in such a public way?

Dr. Gupta explains.

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GUPTA: It was quite an extraordinary moment, I must tell you, to get the vaccine and a real collision of my worlds. As a health care worker, they are vaccinating people at the hospital where I work. And when my turn came, I did not hesitate.

But also, as a journalist, who's been covering the story of COVID for so long, I had really seen the beginnings of this vaccine development. I followed the clinical trials, interviewed people like the FDA commissioner, Stephen Hahn, looked at the results of those trials and then made an educated decision for myself.

I can tell you, I was very comfortable with the idea of getting this vaccine. I did not hesitate, because I know it is safe and effective, based on the data I've looked at.

But I was surprised to learn, for example, there is still significant hesitancy, even among health care workers at my own hospital. Take a look there. About a third, a third, a third; a third of people say they would go ahead and get the vaccine, a third say they would not get the vaccine roughly and a third say they need more information.

It's part of the reason, again, we decided to do this on camera and try and provide some of that information. Along with me was the dean of the Morehouse School of Medicine, Dr. Valerie Montgomery Rice, an obstetrician, herself a surgeon. I asked her, specifically, about what made her comfortable getting this vaccine.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DR. VALERIE MONTGOMERY RICE, MOREHOUSE SCHOOL OF MEDICINE: There are Black scientists in the room, where decisions are being made. So we, clearly, are not going to go against ourselves, right?

Because we understand how critical this is for Black America and Latinx America, who has been disproportionately targeted by the virus. I would not actually recommend anything if I did not believe it was safe.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GUPTA: As you heard Dr. Rice talk about how there has been representation through all these various aspects of the vaccine development and the trials, I want to give you a we numbers to put in the back of your mind as well.

When you look at the representation within these trials, for the Pfizer trial and the Moderna trial, you can see just how many trial participants were Black or African Americans.

Now there will continue to be a fair amount of vaccine hesitancy; this we know although, it is improving, there are fewer who are hesitant now is compared to September. Even more so, as compared to the summer.

But unless enough people get vaccinated, we are not going to reach that herd immunity that you heard so much about. It is part of the reason I did it. And I have to tell, you I feel fine. I am looking forward to getting my second shot, about three weeks from now.

Hope this helps provide a little bit more information that people definitely want and need right now. And as we get more details about these trials and what is happening with these vaccines, we will certainly bring it to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COREN: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, reporting there.

Coming up, for a president who loves the spotlight, we sure aren't seeing a whole lot of Donald Trump these days. We are talking about what he's saying and what he isn't. That is next.

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COREN: Welcome back to our viewers, all around the world, I'm Anna Coren, live from Hong Kong, you are watching CNN NEWSROOM.

The U.S. president has been staying mostly out of sight lately. He has been tweeting and he did sign a stopgap funding bill to keep government lights on, while lawmakers work on an economic rescue package.

But on issues like the historic hacking attack against the U.S. government and the U.S. passing 300,000 coronavirus deaths, radio silence. Kaitlan Collins, reports from the White House.

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KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): With the stick of a needle in his left shoulder, vice president Mike Pence, became the most high-profile member of the Trump administration to receive a coronavirus vaccine today.

MIKE PENCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I didn't feel a thing. Well done.

COLLINS (voice-over): President Trump hasn't gotten the vaccine out and was noticeably absent as his V.P. did. Minutes before Pence received the injection, Trump was tweeting about the Russia hoax, on the one-year anniversary of his impeachment.

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), HOUSE SPEAKER: Article 2 is adopted.

COLLINS (voice-over): Instead of taking a major role in his own administration's campaign to build confidence and reduce skepticism in the vaccine, Trump has instead been almost entirely consumed by his election loss.

BRIAN MORGENSTERN, WHITE HOUSE DEPUTY PRESS SECRETARY: President Trump is working very hard, there's a lot of work that goes on that isn't, necessarily, public.

COLLINS (voice-over): He spent the morning lavishing praise on Alabama's newest senator-elect, Tommy Tuberville, after he refused to rule out objecting to the election results when Congress meets to ratify them next month.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have got to fight for this country and our kids.

COLLINS (voice-over): Trump hailed the Republican and former Auburn football coach as a great champion and man of courage. He said, more Republican senators should follow his lead.

But that is the opposite of what Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell is telling his party after warning them, in a private call this week, to not object on January 6th. Trump tweeted, McConnell should get tougher or you won't have a Republican Party anymore.

One thing the president hasn't tweeted about, is the suspected Russian hack of the U.S. government and private companies, even though a White House official told CNN he was briefed on it yesterday.

JASON CROW, U.S. HOUSE DEMOCRATIC IMPEACHMENT MANAGER: The president is not just not leading on this but he is actually creating barriers and standing in the way of dealing with this in the way a commander in chief should. COLLINS (voice-over): Lawmakers were also briefed by intelligence

officials over the phone today but said afterward they did not get sufficient answers.

REP. STEVE LYNCH (D-MA): No. No. Quite frankly, I think the level of specificity that I find in "The New York Times," or "The Washington Post," or "The Journal" is much better than what they brought this morning. Very disappointing.

COLLINS: As the president is tweeting and encouraging people like Tommy Tuberville to object to the results of the election.

[02:35:00]

COLLINS: There are also concerns about confusion happening within the transition, that is supposed to be happening across federal government, after the Pentagon canceled several meetings that were supposed to happen with the Biden transition team, saying they were just postponing for the holidays and that it was mutually agreed upon.

Though, later, the Biden team pushed back on that and said that was not something they agreed to. They actually believe that these meetings were critical to be happening, right now.

So of course, the concern is whether or not the president's tweets are having influence over these federal agencies and their decisions to help the new administration that will be in in less than five weeks from now -- Kaitlan Collins, CNN, the White House.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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COREN: Let's bring in political analyst Michael Genovese, he's the president of the Global Policy Institute at Loyola Marymount University and the author of "How Trump Governs."

Michael, great to have you with us. America, as you know, is facing possibly the worst hack in its history. And the president of the United States hasn't said a word.

What is your read on this?

MICHAEL GENOVESE, POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, you know, I am old enough to remember what it was like to have an actual President in the White House, someone who was on the job, who was doing the job.

Right now, we have a "where is Waldo" white house. We have a president who -- just to go down the list of crises, if it's not Russian hacking, it's the COVID crisis, it's the stimulus, it's the economy -- all have one thing in common in that Donald Trump is missing in action.

So what is he focused on?

He is focused on trying to overturn a democratic election. And so he is out there, campaigning for himself, not the country. And he is out there trying to get a job that he already has, that he won't do, that he's still trying to get. It makes no sense at all.

On the Russian hacking thing, I don't think we should be surprised that Donald Trump is unwilling to criticize Putin or Russia. That's been his history for four years. He may give them a little slap on the wrist now and then but the Russians know that they can act without any fear.

And with Donald Trump, basically, in a cone of silence, it is basically an open door to do anything that they want, within reason.

COREN: Michael, the U.S. secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, obviously the first U.S. official to speak out on the hacking, has confirmed that the Russians are behind this.

What does it say about U.S. cybersecurity?

Do we know the scope of the breach?

GENOVESE: We are just learning how bad it is. We know it is bad; it may even be terrible. And what they are probably doing is embedding themselves within the United States' both national security and corporate infrastructure, so that they can, if need be, go back and, in effect, have a sleeper cell that they can wake up if they really need it.

So we're really clearly very vulnerable. This has gone on for months. It's an act of war and again, Donald Trump is silent on all these things. He's, in effect, he is allowing our enemy, who is his friend, to run roughshod over the United States' national security and our interests.

He is stubbornly persisting in turning a blind eye to Russian crimes against the United States. And so Russia doesn't fear the United States and doesn't fear reprisal.

COREN: Do we know the extent of the threat to America's national security?

GENOVESE: That is just coming out. In fact, it is probably not fully known yet. But the spread of it has been so extensive. So widespread is this invasion of American cybersecurity, that the Russians now have their tentacles all over American interests, both corporate, private and also governmental, especially.

So we are already compromised in our national security.

The question is, how deep is that and how can we get out of it and protect ourselves?

COREN: Michael, this has been going on for months, since March. And that in itself, is extremely alarming.

GENOVESE: That's right, it took a while to discover it. And it wasn't discovered by the government. It was discovered by some outside corporate sources. So it went undetected for a long time.

That's not supposed to happen. We are supposed to be better protected. Really, the reality is, we now know we are not protected. We are not safe.

We also know the Russians will continue to do this. They've done it since 2016 election. They will do it again and they will continue to do it. This places a tremendous problem on the desk and in the inbox of Joe Biden. He has to act and he has to act quickly.

That doesn't mean you do a tit-for-tat; you invade us, our cybersecurity system, we'll invade yours.

[02:40:00]

GENOVESE: It might require -- in fact, it might be beneficial to have some kind of asymmetrical response. Don't hit them where they expect; hit them where they don't expect. Hit them on something that could be more sanctions. There could be all kinds of different things, that they are more vulnerable on.

You don't have to hit them directly, one on one. But you do really have to respond. And we've not been responding with anything more than a slap on the wrist.

COREN: Michael, let's move on to the $900 billion stimulus package, yet to be approved.

What are you hearing about the holdup?

GENOVESE: Well, there is no pressure from the White House. All you have are Democrats and Republicans playing a kind of mutual blame game, where, at the 11th hour, people are going hungry in America.

This rich, advanced, industrialized nation and there are people who are in food insecurity across the nation. There are people who can't pay their mortgages. They can't -- they don't have jobs. They're scared, they are concerned, they're worried for their families.

And what do they see?

They see the Democrats and Republicans playing the blame game.

And where is Donald Trump?

Where Donald Trump is not pushing either side, because he's so worried about going out and trying to overturn an election, that he is not dealing with the problems at hand. So you have the two parties -- and I think they are equally to blame. I know Democrats say, we passed something months ago and that is true.

And Mitch McConnell is obstructing, which is also true. But both sides are to blame in this. And I think what we don't need is a government shutdown in the midst of all the other crises we're having. You can't juggle that many balls in the air at the same time. COREN: The fact that America is on the verge of the American

government shutdown in the midst of a crisis really says so much about the state of affairs in the United States. Michael Genovese great to get your insight, thank you so much for joining us.

GENOVESE: Thank you, happy holidays.

COREN: You, too.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COREN: Five years ago, Justin Bieber and the National Health Service choir were locked in a friendly competition for the coveted Christmas number one in the U.K. Now they joined forces for a good cause. You might call it a "Holy" alliance.

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(MUSIC PLAYING)

COREN (voice-over): The choir has teamed up with the Canadian pop star for a special version of his hit, "Holy." Proceeds from the new single, benefiting NHS workers on the front lines of the pandemic.

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COREN: I'm Anna Coren, I'll be back at the top of the hour with more CNN NEWSROOM. "MARKETPLACE AFRICA," is next.