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Trump Turns to Allies in Last-Ditch Bid to Overturn Election; Growing Anxiety in Pentagon About Trump's Remaining Days; House Republican Says, I Worry How Military Has Been Politicized; Texas Hospital Pushed to the Brink as Admissions Soar; What We're Learning About New COVID-19 Variant; Millions Traveling During Holiday's Despite Warnings. Aired 4:30-5a ET
Aired December 23, 2020 - 04:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[04:30:00]
ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: U.S. President Donald Trump is looking for support from his inner circle in his final weeks in office. CNN's Jeremy Diamond reports the president's remaining advisers are falsely telling him exactly what he wants to hear, that he can still overturn the election.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): President Trump burrowing deeper into denial. Holed up at the White House Trump is surrounding himself with sycophants selling false hope about overturning the election and lashing out at those who dare to acknowledge reality.
The conspiracy theorist attorney Sidney Powell is shuttling in and out of the White House. And yesterday, Trump huddled with pro-Trump lawmakers plotting to object to Congress's certification of Electoral College results on January 6. With the House in Democratic hands and Senate Republican leadership opposed, the effort is dead on arrival, but Vice President Mike Pence who attended parts of that meeting and is expected to preside over that joint session of Congress is still indulging Trump's fantasies.
MIKE PENCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: As our election contest continues, I'll make your promise. We're going to keep fighting until every legal vote is counted.
We're going to keep fighting until every illegal vote is thrown out.
DIAMOND: Meanwhile, Trump lashing out at Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who last week acknowledged Joe Biden's election as president.
Trump's sending this slide to Republican Senators falsely claiming credit for McConnell's easy reelection and accusing him of disloyalty, writing, "Sadly, Mitch forgot he was the first one off the ship."
But McConnell isn't alone after dozens of failed court cases and the Electoral College vote. Even the televangelist Pat Robertson is telling Trump it's time to move on.
PAT ROBERTSON, TELEVANGELIST, THE 700 CLUB: I think it's all over. I think the Electoral College has spoken.
With all his talent and the ability to raise money and draw large crowds, the president still lives in an alternate reality. He really does. People say, well, he lies about this that and the other. But no, he isn't lying. To him that's the truth.
DIAMOND: Trump's delusional efforts to stay in power now alarming some top Trump advisors, as well as senior military officials. Nearly a dozen military officers telling CNN there is growing anxiety in the ranks about what Trump might do in his last 29 days in office. Topping the list of concerns Trump's Oval Office discussions about martial law and the prospect of unexpected military action abroad.
And President Trump on Tuesday also signaling that he will not sign that massive $900 billion coronavirus relief bill. The president issuing a video that was filmed inside the White House without the press in attendance, saying quote, send me a suitable bill or else the next administration will have to deliver a COVID relief package. And then he says, and maybe that administration will be me and we will get it done.
The president is demanding, among other things, that Congress amend this legislation to increase that -- those payments to Americans from $600 to $2,000. But, again, the president is making these demands despite having been completely hands off in the negotiations leading up to the passage of this bill. You should also note that this bill did pass in both Houses of Congress with strong veto proof majorities.
Jeremy Diamond, CNN, the White House.
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CHURCH: More now on that fear of President Trump's next move. Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr has the details on anxiety within the U.S. military.
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BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Talking to several military officers around the Pentagon, the general climate is summed up something like this, we don't know what he might do. With less than 30 days to go in the Trump administration, there is anxiety at the Pentagon about what plans the president could potentially have to bring the military into his efforts to overturn the election.
I mean, first of all, it would have to be a legal order. There is no legal role for the U.S. military in domestic elections in the United States. It simply doesn't exist. So if the president were to order something and it wasn't a legal order, the military couldn't follow it.
But that doesn't mean that they're not concerned about some of the president's language, some of the language coming out from people who are close to him.
[04:35:00]
Retired Lieutenant General Michael Flynn, the fired national security advisor of course, is speaking out publicly talking about using military capabilities to change election results, to rerun the election in swing states. Not even at all clear how that could possibly work.
And even now the U.S. Army leadership, the chief of staff of the Army, the four star general and the army secretary, the top civilians, who's actually of course, a Trump appointee, both of them have put out a statement saying that there is no role for the U.S. military in domestic elections. General Mark Milley, the chairman of the joint chief of staff, hasn't spoken about -- out about this in particular but he has repeatedly said about what the U.S. military does not do in this country. What they do, do is they follow the Constitution.
Barbara Starr, CNN, the Pentagon.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: So let's got some Republican reaction to Barbara Starr's reporting there. Congressman Adam Kinzinger sits on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. He has perspective that's very rare right now in the Republican Party.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
REP. ADAM KINZINGER (R-IL): I agree with Barbara, but I don't think it's going to happen. But what I worry about in the bigger term is, how the military has been politicized. I mean if you -- I actually was thinking about it the other day. Every one of the institutions of government have been delegitimized. The CIA now is political, the FBI now is political in people's minds, the Supreme Court is political. All of these institutions. The last one that enjoys widespread bipartisan support is the military. And this is like the last straw trying to politicize the military.
I mean, you know Twitter is not real life, but I have seen on there, people saying things like, you know, people are in -- the Pentagon must be in the pocket of the Chinese. And the Pentagon has been planning this overthrow with Trump for a long time. And it's really, really frightening I think in the long term for this country.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: Well up next on CNN NEWSROOM --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The next weeks are going to be the darkest weeks in modern American medical history.
(END VIDEO CLIP) CHURCH: Desperation in hospitals across the U.S. as the pandemic only intensifies. We will take you inside one COVID unit in Texas and speak to the doctors and patients suffering there.
[04:40:00]
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CHURCH: You are looking at a snapshot of the pandemic in Florida. Dark red represents counties with more than 6,000 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents. And you can see some of that red in the bottom right of the state, Broward County. Now Broward is imposing a holiday curfew to try to curtail the spike. The mayor announced Tuesday that the nine day curfew will begin Christmas day from midnight to 5 a.m. New Year's Eve is an exception. The curfew will start at 1 a.m. on that day.
Well, as the U.S. passes 18 million COVID cases in total, let's take a closer look at another state, Texas. It is seeing record cases surpassing the summer surge and hospitals are feeling that pressure. Miguel Marquez made a return visit to a hospital that was already struggling during the first wave.
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MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Houston's United Memorial Medical Center, patient after patient on a ventilator. Their lungs devastated by COVID-19.
DR. JOSEPH VARON, CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER, UNITED MEMORIAL MEDICAL CENTER: This is fill with cup, it's from deep inside the lungs.
MARQUEZ (on camera): This is your test?
VARON: This is -- this is -- this is COVID. This is COVID. This is what COVID looks inside the lung. You can see that grows there, the lights you can see lot of mucus and some cells.
MARQUEZ (voice-over): The lungs swollen and red in this elderly patient. The sample will be sent to a lab to find out what else might be happening in their lungs.
VARON: The question is, are they not healthy just because of COVID or is there a secondary infection, which is common.
MARQUEZ: We visited this same hospital in late June, then two wings of the hospital had been transformed into COVID-19 wards. Today, prepping for what's to come, there are three.
VARON: The next six weeks are going to be the darkest weeks in modern American medical history.
MARQUEZ (on camera): Even though the vaccine is being rolled out?
VARON: Absolutely, because people are -- the vaccine is now taking between six and eight weeks to get immunity. I mean we're right during Christmas where people are not listening.
MARQUEZ (voice-over): About 40 percent of patients at this Houston hospital are from other parts of the state, reeling from overwhelming illness.
Across the Lone Star State, cases exploding. The seven-day average of positive cases hitting records far above where they were in June.
Walter Cuellar was transferred from West Texas, about 500 miles away. He thinks he and his wife picked up the virus at the supermarket. She had mild symptoms. Today, he's on the mend but when he arrived, he was nearly put on a ventilator.
WALTER CUELLAR, TRUCK DRIVER: I went to the store with wife and actually her and I were the only ones that were wearing the mask. The rest of the people they're not wearing a mask at all.
MARQUEZ: Bri Smith works with foreign exchange students and recently moved to Columbus, Texas, west of Houston.
BRI SMITH, COVID-19 PATIENT: It is the worst I've ever felt in my life.
MARQUEZ: She too thinks she got the virus while shopping. She has a husband and three kids. She wasn't sure she'd see them again.
SMITH: I love you very much. And I miss you so much. I can't wait to come home.
MARQUEZ: The staff here from Dr. Varon, to nurses, to those who clean up are tired and stressed.
What has 2020 been like for you?
TANNA INGRAHAM, ICU NURSE WHO GOT COVID-19: It's like hell and back. It's hard. I'm stressed.
MARQUEZ (voice-over): We met ICU nurse Tanna Ingraham in June. Then she was a patient having picked up COVID-19, she thinks, while performing CPR on a patient. She got COVID a second time. She's not sure how. After nine months of dealing with sickness and death, she's back at work with a message.
INGRAHAM: It's like we're nonexistent. And it's like you do realize that we're still here taking care of these people, putting my life at risk, putting my kids' life at risk, my mom's life. I think we've -- we've been forgotten, truly.
MARQUEZ: Something else new from June, says Dr. Varon. Patients are coming in sicker, having waited longer before seeking medical care.
VARON: Our average patient has spent about 20 days with symptoms before they come to us.
[04:45:00]
So, I mean even if I give them holy water, after 20 days of symptoms, it's going to be difficult for them to get better.
MARQUEZ: Richard Gonzales has a wife and five kids. He works two jobs and isn't sure how he got it. He thought he could tough it out.
RICHARD GONZALES, RESISTED GOING TO THE HOSPITAL: I kind of like messed up for those symptoms that I got when I got it. I should have went to the ER room or the hospital right away but I didn't. I laid in bed thinking it was going to go away.
MARQUEZ: For how long?
GONZALES: For about a week.
MARQUEZ: Luis Martinez' father, uncle and cousin died of COVID-19. The last thing he wanted to do was go to a hospital.
LUIS MARTINEZ, LOST THREE FAMILY MEMBERS: Because I didn't want to do it because you know how it is. Whenever they put you in a hospital, sometimes you never make it.
MARQUEZ: To listen to Juana Corona trying to breathe is to understand everything one needs to know about COVID-19. She's pretty certain she got it from her daughter at a birthday party. Several other family members got it. Her 26-year-old niece died.
She says she's scared. Like everyone we spoke to. Those who could speak, they all hope for one thing, to be home for Christmas.
Margaret Evans says ten members of her family got COVID-19. She thinks at a birthday party.
How tough is it to be away from family like this?
MARGARET EVANS-RANGE, 10 FAMILY MEMBERS GOT CORONAVIRUS: It's hard. It's hard. It's very, very, very, very hard.
MARQUEZ (voice-over): She has nine grandchildren she'd really like to see.
But this is a fairly small hospital. About 117 beds total, 88 of them are now COVID beds. About 65 or so are filled. That can change very quickly. But it's not so much the bed spaces at hospitals like this and others, it's the staff -- the doctors, the nurses and even those who clean up. They have been working themselves to the bone for nine months now. They are stressed, overworked, tired. They've had it. And the worst is yet to come. Back to you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: Joining me now is Dr. Saju Mathew, a primary care physician and public health specialist and. Thank you doctor for talking with us and for all that you do.
DR. SAJU MATHEW, PRIMARY CARE PHYSICIAN: Thank you, Rosemary.
CHURCH: So Dr. Anthony Fauci says the new U.K. variant of the coronavirus is probably already here in the United States, and he says that's what these types of viruses do, they mutate. But he also says there's not any indication this is more lethal than the original and no indication the vaccines won't be able to fight this new variant. Do you agree with him on all points?
MATHEW: Yes, I do. I do, Rosemary. I definitely agree with Dr. Fauci. You know, his is an RNA virus. Which means that it is, believe it or not, unstable. It will mutate and divide and duplicate. The question is, does it make it more dangerous? We have no reason to believe that it's going to be more dangerous. It might be more transmissible. And we also have no reason to believe that the vaccines won't work which is good news, right? Everybody wants these vaccines to work. And also this virus has been in the U.K. since September. That's three months ago so most likely it is probably in the U.S. already.
CHURCH: Right. And how long will it take, do you think, to know if the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines are definitely able to fight all of the variants of this coronavirus? And when might we know if the vaccines can also ensure we don't pass the infection along even though we might be protected because we've been vaccinated?
MATHEW: Right, so two good questions, Rosemary. I think for the first question we should know in the next two to three weeks. The good news is we actually have the genetic structure of this strain. There are 23 mutations. They're actually doing the studies as we speak. So I think we'll find out in the next two or three weeks. It's going to be relatively easy to do that.
The second question is, we know that vaccines work to prevent disease, but will it prevent transmission? Moderna has some data on that. So I'm hoping that this vaccine actually does both. Not only am I protecting myself, I'm also protecting people around me from transmitting the virus.
And, doctor, the TSA has already seen record high travelers since the pandemic started. More than 4 million passengers screened in the last few days and this is just days before Christmas, of course. How worried are you about this? And why is the message not getting through to so many people that staying home for the holidays, wearing a mask and social distancing is what will conquer COVID-19 along with all of the various mutations?
Yes, you know I think that we need to change the message and not really talk about strict measures like, you know, don't do this, don't do that. It never worked with the HIV, you know, pandemic. I think what we need to do is talk about risk reduction. It doesn't necessarily mean that Christmas is canceled, it means that if you must travel, I don't encourage that you travel.
[04:50:00]
But if you do, make sure you are not gathering in large crowds. And in addition to watching the three "Ws," which is watching your distance, wearing a mask, and washing your hands. I'm adding two more "Vs," which is ventilation and getting ready for that vaccine when it's your turn. CHURCH: Right, and of course we're all waiting eagerly -- well most of
us -- to see when it is out. And of course we'll have to wait and see what decisions are made on that. Dr. Saju Mathew thank you so much for talking with us.
MATHEW: Thank you.
CHURCH: Well, the pandemic isn't stopping holiday travel. U.S. airlines are seeing dramatic increases as Christmas approaches. And we will hear from some travelers when we return.
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CHURCH: Well despite warnings from top health officials, air travel in the U.S. is setting new pandemic records. CNN's Pete Muntean spoke with travelers heading out for the holidays.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Plenty of people are still traveling even in spite of the CDC telling them not to and they're breaking records of the pandemic.
[04:55:00]
The TSA says more than a million people passed the security at America's airports on Friday, on Saturday and then again on Sunday. Nearly a million people on Monday. And we will have to see what the numbers will be on Tuesday. But it's that the three day million passenger streak that is so interesting. We have not seen that before during the pandemic, not even during the Thanksgiving rush. These numbers still about 40 percent of what they were a year ago. So plenty of people are staying home, but the travelers we talked to say they are taking every precaution they can to stay safe.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Been reading a bit and they're essentially saying with the ventilation it's not really going to -- you're probably safer a little bit because it is filtered air and whatnot. The only thing I worry about is like maybe the person next to me sits a little too close. And then how do you politely move over. I always like aisle seats but I'm not doing that. Just taking precautions.
MUNTEAN (on camera): Holiday travelers from the United Kingdom can still come here even in spite of that new coronavirus strain. No new restrictions from the federal government. The federal aviation says it's monitoring the situation. Delta Airlines says it will soon test passengers for coronavirus as they arrive here from the United Kingdom.
Pete Muntean, CNN Dulles International Airport.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: Well a hospital in Rome is giving some of its patients an early Christmas present, the opportunity to hug their loved ones. The San Raffaele Rehabilitation Hospital installed a hugging curtain with sets of long plastic gloves that allow their child patients to hug visitors they haven't seen in months. The hospital's director says the children's most requested wish from Santa Claus was for some way to see their families. The curtain helped make that wish come true. That's lovely.
Thank you so much for your company. I'm Rosemary Church. "EARLY START" is up next. You're watching CNN. Have yourselves a wonderful day.
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