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New COVID Variant Seals Off Britain; Navalny Stings Operative Who Poisoned Him; New Strain Of Virus Under Investigation; European Truck Drivers Stranded In U.K.; $900 Billion Stimulus - A Short-Term Fix?; U.S. President-Elect Received Vaccine Monday; Fringe Group Advising President on Election Battle; South Korea Tightens Restrictions During the Holidays; COVID-19 Economic Fallout Driving Up U.S. Food Insecurity; Great Conjunction in the Sky. Aired 1-2a ET
Aired December 22, 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. A potentially more contagious variant of the coronavirus leaves the U.K. cut off as many countries impose travel bans, France closes its border to freight and grocery store shelves left empty by panic buying.
Duped by the man they were trying to kill. A member of the FSB toxin team assigned to follow opposition leader Alexei Navalny blabbed all on the phone -- to Alexey Navalny.
Less than a month left in office and many of Trump's most loyal White House aides now worried about how far he may go to cling to power.
We begin this hour with the very latest on the new variant of the coronavirus which is spreading rapidly across the U.K. A growing number of countries have imposed travel bans to try and prevent the mutation from crossing their borders.
The bans have caused chaos at airports and train stations. many tried to make their holiday travel before the borders were closed.
Pfizer and Moderna are now testing their COVID-19 vaccines to see if they will be effective against this new variant.
Meantime, the coronavirus case numbers in the U.K. are increasingly bleak. There have been 215 deaths and more than 33,000 new infections in the past 24 hours.
But despite stranded freight trucks and empty grocery shelves British officials continue to urge calm. They're trying to reassure the public the supply chain of food and medicine will not break down.
They're also warning though that more areas in England could come under new, tough restrictions. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PATRICK VALLANCE, CHIEF SCIENTIFIC ADVISER, U.K.: The new variant is spread around the country, it's localized in some places but we know it's got -- there are cases everywhere. So it's not as though we can stop this getting into other places, there's some there already.
The message that's been very clear, and I think I want to reinforce it, is stay local.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: For now, the U.S. has not issued a ban on travel from the U.K. Experts say chances are the mutation is already circulating among the American population which is now seeing 18 million confirmed cases.
Here's CNN's Martin Savidge.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Coronavirus chaos. Britain increasingly cut off from Europe and elsewhere after discovering a new variant of coronavirus. The crisis throwing travel and trade into a nightmare before Christmas.
Supermarkets warn of shortages of perishable goods in coming days.
The prime minister urging calm.
BORIS JOHNSON, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: The government's been preparing for a long time for exactly this kind of event.
SAVIDGE: Despite travel bans by other countries, so far the U.S. is not joining them.
The assistant secretary of Health & Human Services says the variant has actually been known about for months.
ADM. BRETT GIROIR, ASST. SECRETARY OF HEALTH, U.S. DEPT. OF HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES: The variant that's being discussed was first identified in September so it's not something that just arose in the last week.
SAVIDGE: At an Operation Warp Speed briefing today, scientists downplaying alarm.
DR. MONCEF SLAOUI, CHIEF SCIENTIFIC ADVISER, OPERATION WARP SPEED: I think scientifically to date there's no hard evidence that this virus is actually more transmissible.
SAVIDGE: And scientists are already said to be studying the new variant to see if it could evade current vaccines.
Meanwhile a second coronavirus vaccine from Moderna joined the fight today. ARLENE RAMIREZ, DIRECTOR, PATIENT CARE EMERGENCY DEPARTMENT, NORTHWELL
HEALTH: This vaccine is hope. It's hope that we will cease this pandemic, it's hope that we will live a better life.
SAVIDGE: Meanwhile, vaccine advisers for the CDC are recommending who should get the potential life-saving injections next.
[01:05:00]
Phase 1-B includes adults 75 and older and frontline essential workers. Phase 1-C, adults 65 to 75 and people ages 16 to 64 with high-risk medical conditions, as well as more essential workers.
The vaccine help is desperately needed with the U.S. on the brink of surpassing 18 million COVID-19 cases.
In just seven days, the country added over one-and-a-half million new infections meaning one in every 217 people across the U.S. tested positive in the last week.
In Tennessee, the governor's message was grim.
GOV. BILL LEE (R-TENN.): We are in a war.
SAVIDGE (On Camera): At Emory University Hospital here in Atlanta and at medical facilities all across the country, they are trying to vaccinate as many front line health care workers as possible. Because they know they face a very grim holiday period.
Martin Savidge, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: This new variant has been identified in Australia, Iceland, Italy, The Netherlands, and Denmark.
A variant has also been found in South Africa but the World Health Organization says it's not the same as the one detected in the U.K.
National consultant for COVID-19 testing, Dr. Scott Miscovich, is with us now from Hawaii.
Doctor, thank you for taking the time to speak with you.
DR. SCOTT MISCOVICH, NATIONAL CONSULTANT FOR COVID-19 TESTING: Thanks for having me, John.
VAUSE: Well, OK. I want you to listen to what the world health organization is saying about this new mutation. What they know. Here they are.
DR. MICHAEL RYAN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION EMERGENCY HEALTH PROGRAMS: There's zero evidence at this point that there's any increase in the severity associated with this disease.
Clearly, work is ongoing to look at transmission and the increased rates of transmission, how much of that is attributable to this particular variant.
VAUSE: So, according to researchers, this variant though is a lot more contagious, it's not just a super spreader event.
They're saying the coronavirus right now has a reproduction number of 1.1 which means ten infected people leads to 11 new infections. This new mutation, it's 1.5, in other words, 10 infections leads to 15.
Given how quickly the current virus has been spreading, especially in the U.S., that alone must be a huge concern right now.
MISCOVICH: Yes, John, it's a huge concern. But again, I want to highlight what we do know.
It has not increased the lethality or the number of people that would die from this due to that specific virus.
What we do know about the mutation is similar to the other mutation we had three or four months ago is that those spikes that you see coming off are finding ways to get more adherent and able to grab on more. And so that is the way it's doing it. But it's not more deadly.
So it is a concern especially at the time that the holidays are around where we're going to be together more and it will spread more.
VAUSE: We're seeing a lot of it in actual travel bans on travelers from the United Kingdom. For now, the United States is not among them.
We'd like you to listen to the governor of New York State. Here he is.
GOV. ANDREW CUOMO (D-N.Y.): Right now this variant in the U.K. is getting on a plane and flying to JFK. Right now, today.
One hundred countries require a test, we don't. Other European countries have done a ban, we haven't. And today, that variant is getting on a plane and landing at JFK.
How many times in a life do you have to make the same mistake before you learn?
VAUSE: Is Governor Cuomo right here, should there be a ban imposed by the United States on U.K. travelers?
MISCOVICH: No, I don't believe there should be a ban though I do believe there's a few points I want to make.
I believe he is correct, similar to what we do in Hawaii. there should be a pre-travel test required.
And then one of the things that we're really concerned about individuals from the U.K. coming to this state (ph), we may want to impose a four-day quarantine and have them have a second test after arrival. And that would give us a lot more certainty. It would reduce us into
the mid-90 percents that they're are not actively carrying the disease.
But I do want to say this to the governor. Unfortunately, that variant has to be already here in our country.
We have tracked the variant back that they found in the southern part of England, it was already starting to spread in September. So the likelihood is once we do the genetic variations, we're probably going to find it is here -- except that we have so much disease.
Where do you start, how do you start to look? But it's in the east coast for sure.
VAUSE: Well, one advantage at the moment, though, it appears that this mutation can be detected using current testing methods.
[01:10:00]
Given that those testing methods are becoming faster, more convenient and easier to use, it seems testing and testing and testing again is one way of controlling this new variant and the pandemic as a whole.
MISCOVICH: Boy, have you said it. That's what I've done with the last eight months of my life.
And I'm very concerned that we're hearing across the country that there's no additional funding coming for testing in the new budgets. And we need to test, we need to take advantage of the new tests which are becoming faster.
But unfortunately too we're still seeing with the spike in the disease, it's going back to where we're not having enough tests and it's taking three to four days to get results back.
That isn't the way we track the disease. You need those tests back in 12 hours, 24; you need to contact trace within 12 hours and you need to isolate and quarantine.
That's the way we're going to stop this. By testing, as you're saying, across the country.
VAUSE: We're out of time, Doctor. But clearly, with the vaccine still -- it's being administered but it's going to take some time. So the testing seems to be the best option right now.
MISCOVICH: Yes.
VAUSE: We appreciate it.
MISCOVICH: Thanks for having me today.
VAUSE: Thousands of truck drivers in Britain have been left stranded on the road after France closed its borders for at least 48 hours.
CNN's Salma Abdelaziz has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN REPORTER: Night has fallen on Dover and hundreds of truck drivers and their trucks are stranded. Take a look around me.
There is truck after truck parked on what is supposed to be a public street. This is supposed to be a public street but it's essentially been turned into a parking lot because these truck drivers are stuck. The border is closed. They can't move any further.
And you're stuck here, you're stuck here tonight?
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Yes. Stuck here tonight.
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Tonight, tomorrow.
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: And maybe tomorrow.
ABDELAZIZ: You don't know when you will go home?
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Yes, we don't know.
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: I don't know.
ABDELAZIZ: Where will you sleep?
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: In the car.
ABDELAZIZ: In your cars. You'll sleep in your cars.
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Yes.
ABDELAZIZ: Do you think you'll be home for Christmas?
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: No.
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: No.
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Hopefully. We wish for it.
ABDELAZIZ: You think not?
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Christmas here.
ABDELAZIZ: Maybe you'll have Christmas here in England?
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Yes.
ABDELAZIZ: The U.K. government says it could resolve the issue in a matter of hours.
Prime minister Boris Johnson saying that he has spoken to French president, Emmanuel Macron, and that they are working on a solution as soon as possible. But there was no timeline given and there was no understanding of what that solution might be.
For the part of the French government, they say they want a safety protocol, a health protocol that would be Europe wide to go into place to allow goods to be traded in a safe way without causing this variant to spread any further.
But the reality is while this politics goes back and forth, there are people caught in the middle, goods caught in the middle -- in a very real sense that this country is being sealed off.
ABDELAZIZ (On Camera): Salma Abdelaziz, CNN, Dover.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: The first vaccines for health care workers in Europe will begin next week.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
URSULA VON DER LEYEN, EUROPEAN COMMISSION PRESIDENT: Today we add an important chapter in our fight against COVID-19.
We took the decision to make available for European citizens the first COVID-19 vaccine. We granted conditional market authorization to the vaccine produced by BioNTech and Pfizer.
The European Medicines Agency assessed this vaccine thoroughly, and it concluded that it is safe and effective against COVID-19.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: The European Commission president says immunization will be available for all E.U. countries at the same time with the same conditions.
A decision on Moderna's vaccine will come January 6th. Health experts are still urging everyone to continue to wear face masks as well as socially distance.
U.S. Congress finally approving another round of COVID financial relief. A 900 billion package includes one-time payments of up to $600 to many Americans.
CNN's Eleni Giokos is following developments for us, she joins us now live.
OK. I was wrong, you were right, they did finally get something done. I didn't think it would happen.
ELENI GIOKOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, look -- I know. It's been months and months of bickering -- of the complete collapse of conversations before the elections. And then time literally came to a standstill because government was
meant to shut down on Friday, they averted that by extending congress hours and, of course, now lawmakers finally making a decision here.
Look, it passed through the house floor, it then went to the senate -- and this is just a few hours ago, by the way -- when it was approved.
The final step here is to get it on President Donald Trump's desk. We're hearing from the White House that he will sign. That is the final signature.
And, of course, congress now has been extended by another seven days to ensure that the legislation is put in place and, of course, money then flows to the most vulnerable of people.
And you remember, the first version of the package there were a lot of glitches in terms of getting money to unemployed Americans. There is a hope now that this will happen much quicker.
[01:15:00]
And you say $600 in terms of direct payments. It is much smaller, it's a watered down version of the initial number that the Democrats were talking about months ago; 2 trillion dollars, now looking at an overall package of 900 billion dollars.
And that is why the direct payment checks have been halved to 600 dollars per adult and child. Three dollars per week in enhanced unemployment benefits have been extended but not for as many weeks as many people had wanted.
Lawmakers have also said that it was take it or leave it. And they had no real option here to make amendments because time, of course, was of the essence.
And John, there's absolutely something to be said here of the urgency of this. This is not going to be a retroactive bill or a package so no back payments are going to be made. It's about looking forward here.
And the damage that has been done to the most vulnerable, to the economy, of course is not reversible. And it's really going to come into effect in the next few months.
Now with this new variant, it just creates a lot more uncertainty. So while this relief bill is absolutely welcomed, it's very late.
And we also just don't know whether the Democrats -- and they say that this is just a starting point -- will be able to increase the number going forward. Because then it really depends on who controls the senate and how quickly they'll be able to pass things through the house floor the and senate floor going forward.
So there's a lot of unknowns. But the good news is that 12 million Americans that would have fallen out of unemployment benefits the day after Christmas have a buffer. And that is the positive here. VAUSE: There are known knowns, there are unknown knowns -- or known
unknowns and there are unknown knowns. So I guess we're in that sort of area right now is how this is going to work -- to quote Donald Rumsfeld.
Eleni Giokos, thank you for being with us. Appreciate it.
GIOKOS: Thank you.
VAUSE: Coming up on CNN NEWSROOM. The next president of the United States receives a vaccination and he does it in front of the television cameras. More on that in a moment.
Also, how the Russian opposition leader, Alexey Navalny, tricked a Russian agent into revealing the assassination plot against him.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ALEXEI NAVALNY, RUSSIAN OPPOSE LEADER: Now we got evidence. Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: How could you do this?
NAVALNY: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: He told the whole story.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VAUSE: The Russian agent who was assigned to follow Alexei Navalny has mistakenly revealed details of the plan to poison the outspoken Kremlin critic.
The agent, a member of an elite toxins team in Russia's FSB security service said the lethal nerve agent, novichok, was planted in Navalny's underwear.
Last week, a CNN Bellingcat investigation revealed that the unit has trailed Navalny for more than three years.
Details now from CNN's Clarissa Ward.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(Phone rings)
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER (Speaking in Foreign Language):
NAVALNY (Speaking in Foreign Language): Konstantin.
CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It is an extraordinary scene.
Russian opposition leader, Alexei Navalny, on the phone with one of the FSB unit he believed poisoned him in August.
[01:20:00] Navalny is pretending to be a senior figure from Russia's national security counsel investigating the attempted assassination. The operative, Konstantin Kudryavtsev, is hesitant at first but then reveals the poison was placed on Navalny's underpants.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NAVALNY (Through Translator): Well, imagine. Underpants. And in what place?
KUDRYAVTSEV (Through Translator, captioned): "The insides, the groin."
NAVALNY (Through Translator): The crotch of the underpants?
KUDRYAVTSEV (Through Translator, captioned): "Well, the so-called flap. There are sub (ph) seams there so across the seams."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WARD: The explosive admission punches a gaping hole in the Kremlin's repeated denials that the Russian government played any role in Navalny's poisoning.
Kudryavtsev was one of an elite team who trailed Navalny for years, as CNN and online investigative outlet Bellingcat reported last week.
The unit was headquartered in this unassuming building in a Moscow suburb. Most of its members were doctors or scientists.
Kudryavtsev graduated from the Russian Academy of Chemical Defense.
When Navalny was poisoned back in August, his flight was suddenly diverted to Omsk.
Flight records show that just five days later, Kudryavtsev flew to that same city, taking possession of Navalny's clothes.
On the 45-minute call with Navalny, he offers an assurance that no trace of novichok would be found on them.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KUDRYAVTSEV (Through Translator, captioned): "Yes, all is clean."
NAVALNY (Through Translator): Visually, it will be visible? They did not remove -- there are no stains on them, nothing?
KUDRYAVTSEV (Through Translator, captioned): "No, no nothing. They're in good condition and clean."
NAVALNY (Through Translator): Pants?
KUDRYAVTSEV (Through Translator, captioned): There's the same inside area, perhaps something was left on it too. We washed it off there also. But this is presumably because there is contact with the pants. Perhaps there was something on there too."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WARD: The FSB toxins team trailed Navalny on more than 30 trips around Russia. Five of its members flew to Siberia around the same time as Navalny during the fateful August trip when he was poisoned.
Toxicologists have told CNN that Navalny is lucky to be alive. And that the intention was almost certainly to kill him.
A point Kudryavtsev himself appears to acknowledge.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KUDRYAVTSEV (Through Translator, captioned): "If he had flown a little longer and perhaps would not have landed so quickly and all, perhaps it would have all gone differently.
That is had it not been for the prompt assistance of doctors or ambulances on the landing strip and so on.
NAVALNY (Speaking in Foreign Language):
KUDRYAVTSEV (Through Translator): The plane landed after 40 minutes. Basically, this should have been taken into account while planning the operation.
It wasn't that the plane landed instantly. They calculated the wrong dose, the probability?
NAVALNY (Through Translator): Why?
KUDRYAVTSEV (Through Translator, captioned): Well, I can't say why. As I understand it, we added a little bit extra. So --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NAVALNY: Now we got evidence. Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: How could you do this?
NAVALNY: Yes, yes.
WARD: At the end of the call, Navalny and his team are elated that their sting operation has worked.
And despite everything he's discovered, he's still determined to return to Russia as soon as possible.
CNN has reached out to the Kremlin for comment. So far we have not heard back.
But Russia's state security services, the FSB, has called the conversation a fake. They've said it was designed to make the state security services look bad and that it could only have been done with the help of foreign special services. This is something they often accuse Navalny of doing, of working with
Western intelligence services.
But one has the suspicion that this story is not going away for them, there will be more questions asked.
Clarissa Ward, CNN, London.
VAUSE: Bob Baer is a CNN intelligence and security analyst. He's a former CIA operative and he joins us this hour from Telluride in Colorado.
Hey, Bob,, good to see you.
ROBERT BAER, CNN INTELLIGENCE &SECURITY ANALYST: Hi, John.
VAUSE: OK. I was looking through this book you wrote a couple of years ago, it's called "The Perfect Kill: 21 Laws For Assassins."
The chapters are titled like "Make it personal," and "Don't shoot everyone in the room." And then there's law number 16, "If you can't control the kill, control the aftermath."
Just wondering if you need to add a line in there which says it's best not to reveal all the details in a telephone call, especially if the person you're talking to is the one you were trying to kill.
BAER: You know, John, I've been around intelligence and worked in the CIA for 21 years and I've studied it ever since and I have never seen worse spy craft in my entire life.
From the flights not using alias passports which they could've covered this up.
[01:25:00]
And then getting on an open line and confessing to attempted murder -- it's just quite astounding. You have to wonder what happened to the FSB.
I understand this guy's a chemist but if that's the best planning they can do, you really have to wonder how bad things are there.
VAUSE: This seems to be the equivalent of the Howard Stern method of punking an unsuspected politician with a phone call claiming to be someone else.
But Navalny managed to get a confession that the plan was firstly, to kill him and secondly, to use an internationally banned chemical weapon, novichok.
Surely that does clear the way now for some kind of sanctions against Russia, as well as Putin?
BAER: Well, absolutely. If we didn't have a pro-Russian president -- they should be immediately put on sanctions like this. And don't let's forget Salisbury a couple years ago. They used a
weapon of mass destruction in Britain, a NATO ally, and we basically did nothing. A few expulsions and that was it.
But clearly, if we don't do something at this point Putin is going to feel -- he's going to be open-ended hunting season on anybody he wants to kill.
BIDEN: Navalny's real phone number, apparently, was masked so that it appeared the call was coming from FSB headquarters or within the FSB.
Here's a part of the statement from the security bureau dealing with that.
"The use of the subscriber number replacement method is a well-known technique of foreign special services previously tested more than once in anti-Russian actions."
It's also a well-known technique for stalkers and comedians who specialize in "gotcha' jokes. It's not exactly high tech.
BAER: Oh, yes. John, you can get an app, a spoof app, that could show the Kremlin's number and use that.
But the rule is in any intelligence service is an open line you discuss anything vaguely classified. At the CIA we used to have a black line and they'd tell us if anybody calls you on this line, just say hello and don't answer any questions.
And, clearly, that's what the KGB, the FSB, used to be like but it is falling apart. Putin has to find a new chief.
BIDEN: What will happen now to Konstantin -- I can't pronounce his last name -- the Russian agent, who basically blabbed all. What price does he pay for this screw up?
BAER: He probably gets sent to Siberia. But it's his bosses that organized this that you really have to worry about.
And the fact the that number was even open and Navalny got a hold of it, it's quite remarkable. I can't tell you, again, just how bad the spy craft is in this instance. It surprises me from the Russians.
And especially they've been caught in two assassinations ; Litvinenko and the ones in Salisbury, Skripal. What's going on?
BIDEN: And given the fact that Putin is a former KGB guy he must be taking this especially hard.
BAER: Well, he never had -- he never dealt with good trade craft. He was assigned to East Germany, we didn't don't have to worry about it. And then he was in Leningrad. So he wasn't, really, a true spy so he doesn't know the difference.
Now if the SVR had been charged with doing something like this, I think they would have done -- that's the external service -- would've done a much better job.
BIDEN: Good to know. Bob, as always, thank you for being with us. We appreciate your expertise and your insights.
BAER: Thanks.
VAUSE: Good to see you.
Well, he was one of Trump's most loyal lieutenants but now, with just days before stepping down, William Barr has broken with Trump. Another blow for a delusional president trying to overturn a decisive election.
Moments -- I'll have more on that in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[01:31:00]
JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back everybody.
This just in to CNN.
Taiwan has reported its first locally-transmitted case of COVID-19 in more than 250 days. The last one was recorded April 12th. With a population of 23 million Taiwan has only reported 770 cases since the pandemic began.
The European Union has authorized the use of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine paving the way for a rollout later this week. First batches will be shipped from Pfizer's manufacturing site in Belgium, vaccination starting within five days.
More than 115,000 Americans are in hospitals across the United States with COVID-19, the most since the pandemic began. It comes as the Moderna vaccine is just starting to get rolled out. The second one authorized for emergency use in the U.S.
Meantime, President-Elect Joe Biden was vaccinated in front of the TV cameras with COVID-19 on Monday, an attempt to reassure nervous Americans that the vaccine is safe.
More details now from CNN's Jeff Zeleny reporting in from Delaware.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'm ready.
JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Tonight, President-Elect Joe Biden receiving the vaccination for COVID-19. The first of two shots that will ensure he's fully inoculated before taking office in just 30 days.
BIDEN: What I want to say is we owe these folks an awful lot. The scientists and the people who put this together, frontline workers, the people who were the ones who actually did the clinical work. It's amazing.
ZELENY: Biden praising the Trump administration for its work overseeing the swift authorization and rollout of the vaccine. And reassuring the nation of its safety.
BIDEN: The administration deserves some credit getting this off the ground with Operation Warp Speed. I also think that it is worth saying that this is a great hope. I'm doing this to demonstrate that people should be prepared when it's available to take the vaccine. There's nothing to worry about.
ZELENY: With the holiday looming Biden urging Americans to take the deadly virus seriously to protect one another.
BIDEN: If you don't have to travel don't travel. Don't travel. It's really important because we're still in the thick of this.
ZELENY: Meanwhile, prospects for Biden reaching a self-imposed goal of fully filling his cabinet by Christmas are dimming tonight.
BIDEN: The Biden-Harris cabinet, it will be historic.
ZELENY: A half dozen spots remain open. Chief among them attorney general.
CNN has learned that top contenders are Judge Merrick Garland and Alabama Senator Doug Jones. He is also yet to formally announce secretaries of Commerce, Education, Labor, along with the CIA director and head of the Small Business Administration.
One month from tonight, the Biden administration will be in power. The transition team is working to have the confirmation process well underway or even completed by then, with nominees holding scores of virtual meetings with members of Congress and outside groups.
New biographical videos from Lloyd Austin, the Secretary of Defense nominee talking about military families.
GENERAL LLOYD AUSTIN, U.S. SECRETARY OF DEFENSE NOMINEE: We can begin to think about how much our spouses and our families sacrificed.
ZELENY: And Xavier Becerra, the Health and Human Services secretary nominee.
XAVIER BECERRA, U.S. HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES SECRETARY NOMINEE: If I do this job right as secretary of Health and Human Services, we'll make sure a lot of doors are open for folks who are looking to make sure their kids have access to great health care.
ZELENY: Tonight, Senate confirmation of all nominees and the scope of the Biden administration's agenda will be dramatically influenced by the outcome of the two Georgia runoff races.
Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris making a campaign stop in the state today, a week after Biden visited. KAMALA HARRIS, U.S. VICE PRESIDENT-ELECT: Let us use these days
leading up to January 5th in the spirit of all that is good and right to make sure everyone we know understands their power, that they understand what is at stake.
ZELENY (on camera): Now with only two more working days before Christmas, President-Elect Biden is likely to allow that attorney general decision to slide back after the holidays, perhaps early in the new year.
[01:34:58]
ZELENY: He is still deciding between those two finalists. And he has fiver other positions yet to fill.
Jeff Zeleny, CNN -- Wilmington, Delaware.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Meantime it seems President Donald Trump has walked away from his day job of actually running the country, spending his final weeks in office contemplating some desperate and extreme measures to cling to power.
Even the most loyal White House aides are concerned about how far Trump might go. He has surrounded himself with fringe group including the disgraced former national security adviser Michael Flynn, his attorney conspiracy theorist Sydney Powell, and one time strategist, Steve Bannon.
They have discussed imposing martial law. Seizing voting machines or appointing special counsels to investigate baseless claims of election fraud.
And with just two days left on the job, Attorney General William Barr -- how about this, took a firm stand against the president.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The president has continued to make the case that there was fraud in the election. Do you believe there's enough evidence to warrant appointing a special counsel to look into it?
WILLIAM BARR, OUTGOING U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: If I thought a special counsel at this stage was the right tool, and was appropriate, I would name one. But I haven't, and I'm not going to.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Ron Brownstein is CNN's senior political analyst and senior editor for "The Atlantic". He is with us this hour from Los Angeles. Ron, as always, good to see you.
RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Hi, John.
VAUSE: I want you to listen to the disgraced former national security adviser, Michael Flynn. I want you to hear the words. This is Thursday. And now he believes Trump can overturn the election results. Here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAEL FLYNN, FORMER NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR TO DONALD TRUMP: He can order the -- within the swing states, if he wanted to he could take military capabilities and he could place them in those states and basically rerun an election in any (INAUDIBLE) state.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: That was Thursday. By Friday, Flynn was in the White House meeting with Trump suggesting a new vote at gunpoint. Is Flynn seriously talking about 8 military coup?
BROWNSTEIN: He's talking about martial law in the Oval Office. And you know, as I said to you before, you don't get to that point in a day and you don't get to that point alone.
You only get to the point of the president in the Oval Office, you know, the place where Franklin Roosevelt worked and Lyndon Johnson and Ronald Reagan, talking about martial law to subvert an American election. You don't get there overnight.
And it took months and months of the president pushing at the boundaries of the rule of law throughout his presidency, starting with the government of Ukraine, weaponizing the Postal Service, intervening in the criminal justice system, tilting the census -- everything he has done since election day.
And Republicans at each step of the way finding a reason either to enable and abet him or to look away. And he has taken their measure and concluded that he can just keep pushing and they will not provide significant resistance.
And that is how we get to this point. We're in the final weeks of this presidency, these disgraceful ideas are being discussed in the Oval Office.
VAUSE: Here's Maggie Haberman from the "New York Times" and her reporting on some of that meeting on Friday. Here she is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAGGIE HABERMAN, "THE NEW YORK TIMES": This meeting was different. It was different in part John, because of what he was saying and in part because a number of people who are typically, you know, in the president's camp, who have been for a long time, who have papered (ph) lot of his loyalty purchase (ph) and so forth were alarmed by what he was talking about.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: What does it say when the loyal faithful, who were ok with kids in cages and Muslim bans and all the other lunatic stuff are now concerned themselves?
BROWNSTEIN: Yes, it says that, you know, this is a president who, as I said, has shredded the rule of law step-by-step over four years, broken all sorts of boundaries and conventions and constraints on the arbitrary exercise of executive power and who believes that he can go -- you know, he can continue to push further in that direction and his party will come with him.
And you know, is it a time for celebration when people around him say, well, we can't have martial law, and we can't -- you know, we can't have a military coup?
I mean, you know, the fact that this is where people are drawing the line is itself pretty ominous.
VAUSE: Congressional Republicans, as you mentioned, they are the ones who could bring Trump to heel, but instead we have reporting of a private meeting on Monday night, House conservatives met with Trump, Vice President Pence. They talked about a doomed last-ditch effort to overturn the election, planned to next months joint session of Congress.
Here's part of the report.
"Lawmakers emerged confident that there would be a contingent of House and Senate Republicans who would join the effort, and prompt a marathon debate on the floor on January 6th would spill into January 7th."
You know, this is all just theatrics. Democrats have launched similar objections before about the 2016 election and others. The big difference though is, the Democrat candidate had long conceded. Trump hasn't. Right?
BROWNSTEIN: Yes. No.
Right. You know, I live in California, and to me what we are watching post election seems like one of these cases where you have an earthquake, the building is still standing, but the damage to the foundation is so immense that the next time it collapses. And I feel like that's what we are watching post election.
[01:40:02]
BROWNSTEIN: The willingness of two-thirds of House Republicans and two-thirds of Republican attorneys general to sign on to this lunatic lawsuit that sought to disenfranchise 20 million voters in four states and have the Republican state legislatures override their votes to send pro Trump electors to congress.
And all everything else that the president has done, all of these lawsuits, all the attacks on elected officials, which have prompted death threats in many cases in states like Arizona and Georgia in Michigan, all of this is just doing enormous damage to the structure, the superstructure of American democracy and perhaps creating an expectation in the Republican Party and among Republican elected officials that this is the new normal, you know.
I mean, someone said to me recently that it may be that in the future refusing to try to subvert an election will be seen as disloyal behavior among Republicans.
So we don't know the full damage of what the president is doing even if it fails, but the fact that three quarters of Republican voters say the election was stolen I think is a very chilling signal of what might be ahead.
VAUSE: Trump did actually turn his attention to that massive cyberattack on the U.S. widely blamed on Russia. In a tweet he accused China. Listen to Adam Schiff from the House Intelligence Committee.
BROWNSTEIN: Yes.
VAUSE: Here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA): Well, I'm sure that he has been briefed which makes what he says just a patent lie. I don't think there's any question that this was Russia. There's certainly no suggestion that I've seen that it was China.
That's just the president going out the same way he came in this administration with falsehoods every day.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: At this point it's no longer shocking. It's no longer surprising that weeks in office, Trump continues to lie for Russia.
BROWNSTEIN: No, that's right. And look, I mean as you were saying, every news happening in the election is shocking, dangerous, and corrosive on its own terms. It is doubly so when you consider that the president is focusing on these crazy conspiracy theories, this corrosive attempt to overturn the election while ignoring the actual crises that are unfolding around him.
A pandemic that is, you know, producing really I think the greatest national security threat the country has faced since World War II. Death tolls that amount to a Pearl Harbor, or a 9/11 a day.
And then this unprecedented -- this cyber attack of unprecedented magnitude that again, as he has throughout his presidency, he is kind brushing off on both fronts.
And I keep coming back to this point. Other than Mitt Romney the other day on "Meet the Press", are there any Republicans who are taking him to task for essentially walking away from his job as these dual crises converge? And instead to focus on his own self preservation -- self preservation at the cost of, as I said, weakening the foundation of American democracy in ways we will not fully understand probably for years to come.
VAUSE: Ron, thank you, as always. It's great to have you with us. Appreciate it.
BROWNSTEIN: Thank you, John.
VAUSE: The U.S. will finally bring charges against the former Libyan intelligence agent who allegedly made the bomb which brought down Pan Am flight 103. 32 years ago, the London to New York flight exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland killing all on board 270 people.
In 2003, then Libyan leader Moammar Qaddafi took responsibility for the attack. And the man convicted of planting the bomb died in 2012. The alleged bombmaker is in Libyan custody and could be sent to the U.S. for trial.
Well, a Christmas nightmare for many Americans struggling with hunger during this pandemic. Just ahead, we'll hear from some of those who are desperate for help during this holiday season.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm very independent, and do not like to ask for help. But sometimes you just have to do or God humbles you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[01:43:38]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VAUSE: South Korea will impose tighter COVID restrictions for Christmas and New Year's calling it a "special quarantine period" to try and contain a growing outbreak.
The country has reported more than 51,000 cases over all. And right now it's dealing with a surge in hospital admissions.
CNN's Paula Hancocks live for us again in Seoul. This increasing caseload, you're seeing ICUs overwhelmed and officials are not finding new ways to make up for a shortfall of beds.
PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's right, John.
And what we are hearing from health officials is that they are hoping that they can get the situation under control by the end of this week. But the last week, week and a half we have seen a real crunch when it comes to ICU beds and also the regular hospital beds which are dedicated for coronavirus patients here, particularly in the capital, Seoul and the surrounding areas which is where most of the outbreaks are happening at this point.
So officials are confident that they are managing to make some headway. But there is still a crunch.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HANCOCKS (voice over): No sooner are new ICU beds finds then they are filled with more coronavirus patients. For days now, the city of Seoul with some 10 million residents has had fewer than half a dozen beds available. At one point last week, there was just one.
SEO JEONG-HYUP, ACTING MAYOR OF SEOUL: Seoul is now in the calm before the storm. If we do not over come this explosion of new cases, Seoul may empty streets and the lockdown like New York and London.
HANCOCKS: A ban on 5 or more gathering from Wednesday until January 3rd has already be announced for Seoul and its surrounding areas.
The scramble is now on to find more beds. Seoul City says it will double the number of ICU beds by the end of the year. Officials say two coronavirus patients have died in the city this month alone while waiting for a bed.
(INAUDIBLE) is a manager at Autech a company that has been making negative pressure ambulances all year and is now focusing on mobile hospital beds.
KWON SUN-HO, MANAGER, AUTECH: The medical carts, the medical supply, oxygen unit parts, and emergency bail.
HANCOCKS: Almost the same as a regular hospital bed.
KWON: A little smaller because this is a very portable unit.
HANCOCKS (on camera): So the plan at this point is to have 24 of these structures built by the end of the month which would effectively give 48 extra hospital beds. They'll all be based here in the car park of this hospital.
And the company making them says they are already in discussions with other places to replicate this elsewhere.
(voice over): Kwon says they are currently in talks with every one of the 17 city and provincial governments in South Korea. Elsewhere in Seoul shipping containers made into makeshift wards are already being used.
Seoul City says they have fewer than 500 regular coronavirus beds left in hospitals. Not a single positive case, even asymptomatic is allowed to recover at home. Everyone is admitted to a hospital or a government facility.
Private and university hospitals are being ordered to secure at least 1 percent of their beds for coronavirus patients. Military hospitals also making room.
Free anonymous testing is also underway at up to 150 temporary testing stations across Seoul, long lines have been seen across the capital. Despite these efforts, house officials warn new daily cases will likely stay above one thousand for least the rest of the week.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HANCOCKS: So what health officials are saying at this point is that they are trying to move patients around. They are relocating non- coronavirus patients, and trying to make full wards into COVID wards, and they are hoping that that will ease this crunch.
So at this point there are 10 ICU beds available in Seoul City. It's not a lot but it's definitely better than it was, John.
VAUSE: Yes. Better than one was for sure. But they're also hoping these new restrictions will slow the spread as well. What are the details?
HANCOCKS: That's right, yes. This is what they're calling the special quarantine period. And it goes from December 24th until January 3rd.
And the prime minister said effectively what they are trying to do is to convince everybody to cancel all year-end gatherings and stay at home.
So what it means is that all religious facilities will be online services only. That is really key because there have been numerous outbreaks within churches in different places in South Korea.
[01:50:02]
HANCOCKS: There will be in restaurants no groups bigger than four people. In fact for the whole of the Greater Seoul area there's no indoor or outdoor gatherings of more than four people. Hotels will have more than 50 percent occupancy and also ski slopes. Winter sports facilities will be shut down during that period.
So they're really trying to convince people to stay at home so that they can try and curtail these outbreaks that the acting Seoul mayor at one point said that if they don't manage to curtail these outbreaks then what we could see is what we saw in New York and London earlier in the year with those lockdowns and deserted streets, John.
VAUSE: Paula, as always. Thank you. Paula Hancocks live for us in Seoul.
In the U.S. the pandemic and high unemployment are compounding a hunger crisis for millions of Americans. And now just days before Christmas many are waiting in long lines for food assistance.
Here is CNN's Rosa Flores reporting in from Palm Beach, Florida.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Before dawn, people waited in at a south Florida mall in the weekend before Christmas. But they are not here holiday shopping. They are in line for free food.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I've always been hesitant about coming because I'm -- I'm sorry. For me to get the last of something. And the person behind me being in a worse position than I am.
FLORES: It's a scene replayed across the country, from Los Angeles, where one food bank says distribution of groceries has doubled since the pandemic began. To the suburbs of Atlanta were 500 cars waited for an hour and a half before distribution started.
MICHAEL THURMOND, DEKALB COUNTY, GEORGIA CEO: This is another indication of the pain and suffering that is being felt all across our nation.
FLORES: Since the pandemic began in March, hunger in the United States has skyrocketed. Feeding America, the nation's largest food bank network, reports a 60 percent increase in the demand over last year.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Merry Christmas. God Bless you guys.
FLORES: In south Florida, one in five people need food assistance and a quarter of children go to bed hungry, according to Feeding South Florida.
Debra Hightower is an accountant.
DEBRA HIGHTOWER, ACCOUNTANT: So this is hard for me.
FLORES: The mother of three teenagers was recently hospitalized and says she has lost her job twice since the pandemic started.
HIGHTOWER: I'm very independent and don't like to ask for help. But sometimes just have to do -- God humbles you.
FLORES: Some people like Larry Batisti (ph) waited for hours not to get food for himself, but for three members of his church who are unemployed or can't leave their homes due to COVID concerns.
LARRY BATISTI, WAITING IN FOOD LINE: You certainly get a lot of smiles. And you can't hug them anymore.
FLORES: Leonard and Julie Thompson delivered the food they receive to seven neighbors and friends.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I appreciate you sharing with me, as usual.
FLORES: As the pandemic surges, demand for food --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Merry Christmas.
FLORES: -- is expected to grow.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I will see you soon.
FLORES: Rosa Flores, CNN -- Palm Beach County, Florida.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Still to come, thousands on alert in Hawaii after a massive eruption of the Kilauea Volcano.
Also ahead, a rare celestial show from two giants of our solar system -- a sight not seen for hundreds of years. [01:53:29]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VAUSE: Hawaii's Kilauea Volcano has erupted, sending hot lava 50 meters into the air. Officials say the eruption was likely caused by a series of earthquakes Sunday night. The volcano has not been this active for more than two years. Nearby residents are being told it's best to stay indoors.
Well, for the next few nights, Jupiter and Saturn will align so closely together they will look like a double planet. Could it be a bright shining star which the gospel of Matthew says inspired three wise men from the East to travel to Bethlehem. Well, maybe not.
CNN's Karen Maginnis joins us now with. But the timing is kind of ironic or coincidental?
KAREN MAGINNIS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: We have to go back to the Middle Ages before we see anything like this. But John, a description that maybe this technical generation can appreciate is that earth, Saturn, and Jupiter are Face-timing each other and this isn't going to happen again for another 60 years.
Now, you go back to the 1600s and the reference was it was a planetary conjunction, meaning that they're all kind of within the same line of sight even though they're orbital rotations are very different.
But in this kind of alignment they are still -- they look like they are close, but actually they are social distancing by tremendous amounts, by 730 million kilometers, or just about 450 million miles.
All right. Over the last several weeks anyway it might have looked like they were far apart, but they were definitely some of the brightest objects in the sky other than the moon.
And then as we gradually made it to December 21st, this is where they look like they're absolutely on top of each other. But as I just mentioned they're hundreds of millions of miles away.
When Galileo was kind of fine-tuning what was happening with Jupiter, people were aware of Jupiter many years before Galileo, but he was fine-tuning some of the moons and a little information with a homemade telescope, and now, John it is so sophisticated, I do a lot of photography, when you see this celestial equipment that people used to photograph these events, it is remarkable.
Maybe in 60 years it will be even more sophisticated, beyond what we can even imagine right now.
VAUSE: Face-timing each other, huh? That is one for modern times. I don't Facetime.
Karen, thank you.
MAGINNIS: Right. VAUSE: Good to see you. Appreciate it.
Thank you for watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm John Vause.
Please stay with us. We are just getting started. Another hour of CNN NEWSROOM right after the break.
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