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Dysfunction In D.C.; Interview With Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA); Nashville Explosion; Health Officials Brace For COVID Surge After Holidays; Trump Ignores Multiple Crises, Focuses On Election Loss; Biden Hasn't Announced Nominees For Key Cabinet Positions; COVID-19 Batters The Sports World; 2020 Highs And Lows In Washington Politics. Aired 11a-12p ET
Aired December 26, 2020 - 11:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[10:59:44]
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.
Christmas day destruction. The city of Nashville on edge as new details emerge. Possible human remains found at the explosion site and an eerie audio recording from moments before the blast. We're live from downtown Nashville in minutes.
Plus California in crisis. A desperate situation is unfolding in southern California as ICU beds run out. In L.A. County alone, someone dies of COVID every ten minutes. This, as we're learning more about what the CDC plans to do to combat a new strain of the virus in Europe.
And dysfunction in D.C. The bad news just keeps coming for millions of Americans who are in danger of losing important benefits starting today. But as the physical coronavirus relief bill sits somewhere at Trump's Florida resort, still no word on whether the president will even read it, let alone sign it.
We begin with more than 12 million Americans set to lose key unemployment benefits today unless President Trump signs that $900 billion COVID relief deal. But it's not the only looming deadline. The government would also be forced to shut down on Monday and eviction protections will expire on New Year's Eve if the president does not act.
CNN's Sarah Westwood joins us now. So Sarah, President Trump's $2,000 proposal is getting a new key endorsement from Senator Lindsey Graham, just days after he initially opposed it. So why the flip flop to saying $600 is no longer adequate?
SARAH WESTWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Why, Fred, is the million dollar question here. It's one Republicans themselves are still trying to answer. Because the $600 amount for individual checks is what the White House brought to congressional leaders and said this is what we want to see in the bill. So when Republicans, like Lindsey Graham, voted for that bill earlier this week, they believed they were doing so with the backing of the White House. Trump came out and opposed the amount for the individual stimulus checks after that bill had already passed both chambers of Congress with a veto-proof majority, putting Republicans right now in a really difficult spot.
Many GOP lawmakers were kind of hoping this would blow over and that the president wouldn't bring his opposition to the level of a veto threat. But it's really unclear at this moment what the White House plans to do.
I want to read you what Senator Graham tweeted after he came off the golf course with President Trump because it's really the first insight that we've had into the president's mindset as he engages in this flip flop.
"After spending some time with President Trump today, I am convinced he is more determined than ever to increase stimulus payments to $2,000 per person and challenge Section 230 big tech liability protection."
Now, both of those demands are ones that Congress has overwhelmingly rejected. The latter the section 230 big tech protections -- that was rejected when lawmakers refused to put a repeal of Section 230 in the Defense Spending Bill. Trump already vetoed that.
And the other demand for the higher stimulus checks, that hangs in the balance as the bill sits at Mar-A-Lago, unclear if the president will put his signature on it. We've asked the White House. Will he be signing it today? Will he be vetoing it? Still no direction from those around the president.
But as you mentioned, Fred, there are key deadlines associated with this bill, including today, the expiration of those enhanced unemployment benefits for millions of Americans. On Monday the 28th, as if this wasn't complicated enough, the government will run out of money if the president doesn't sign this bill. So we're looking at the prospect of a government shutdown in just two days.
And then on the 31st, crucially the eviction moratorium will expire if the president doesn't put his signature on this legislation. So a lot riding on this and we're still waiting to hear what the White House might do when it comes to this bill, Fred.
WHITFIELD: All right. Sarah Westwood there in Florida, keep us posted on that. Appreciate that.
All right. Let me bring in now Virginia Congressman Don Beyer, a Democrat and member of the House Ways and Means Committee. He's also vice-chair of the Democrats' Congressional Joint Economic Committee.
Good to see you, Congressman Beyer out of Virginia there.
REP. DON BEYER (D-VA): Good to be with you. WHITFIELD: Merry Christmas. But boy, it is not a Merry Christmas for so many Americans really being hit from all angles of bad stuff. So if you could, help me you know, tackle this bill and the president, whether he's going to read it, sign it, veto it.
And your district is one that is filled with a number of government workers right outside of the nation's capital and they could likely be furloughed on Monday if the government does not -- if president doesn't, you know, sign this bill to keep the government funded. What are your concerns and worries?
BEYER: Oh, Fredricka, it is a perfect storm. There's so many complicated things going on.
[11:04:46]
BEYER: There is a nice glide path out of this. If the president would sign the bill today, which is both the COVID relief package, $900 billion, and $1.4 billion to keep the government running for the rest of the fiscal year, through September 30th, that's a great first step.
That means the people on pandemic unemployment insurance which runs out today get to keep it and it also means that we keep all 12 weeks or something of the $300 unemployment insurance. That ran out, you know, last July 31st.
And if it's not signed today, that we lose one full week. It doesn't get added on in March. And the way forward is if he signs this, on Monday the House will take up his $2,000 check, direct check, which we've been for all along. And I think we'll pass it in the House.
We were less optimistic that Mitch McConnell would take it up. But if Senator Lindsey Graham says let's do it in the Senate, that could pass the Senate, too.
WHITFIELD: All right. So somewhere down the line you may be hopeful about this $2,000 figure. But really in the end what is your thought about why this is happening? The president had ample opportunities to be involved and so many of your colleagues have said he has not been.
And now, you know, on this hour and on this eve of all of these deadlines, he would place this demand of $2,000. Do you believe the president's objective is to get the $2,000 for Americans or is the president's objective simply to disrupt and cause more hardship?
BEYER: They're not even comparable (ph). I don't think he's trying to cause hardship, but he is naturally a great disrupter. But I think he wants the $2,000. I think he was always eager to have another check with his name on it going out to the American people, even if it's just his last gasp as president or if he wants to come back in four years, it won't be a bad thing to have said my last act as president was to give you $2,000.
We think it's needed to lift so many people out of poverty. There's like 11 million people who aren't going to be able to make their rent payments in January. WHITFIELD: It also means more Republicans --
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WHITFIELD: Go ahead. Sorry.
BEYER: Nancy Pelosi was negotiating with Secretary Mnuchin all along. It wasn't clear that the president really was paying attention because he had a lot of other things going on.
WHITFIELD: The president hard and fast on this $2,000. You heard from my colleague, Sarah Westwood, that Republican Senator Lindsey Graham is now calling on Congress, you know, to increase direct stimulus payments to $2,000.
But what about the other Republicans, and namely Mitch McConnell? I mean is the president going to be persuasive enough in these few hours before deadlines are met to be able to negotiate a $2,000 payment to Americans?
BEYER: I suspect not in the Senate. Certainly in the House, yes, we will do it on Monday. I'm pretty confident about that.
But, you know, the Senate requires 60 votes so he's got to move something like 12 senators to the $2,000. I don't know whether the president can do that. I would like him to be able to override his defense veto on Monday too, I think. I don't know what mood that will put him in.
And we may have to pass another continuing resolution sometime late on Monday night, which the Senate would take up Tuesday just to keep the government open if President Trump doesn't sign the big bill today.
WHITFIELD: And are you hopeful that the president would sign today? That even though he's not getting his $2,000 offer for Americans that because so much more is at stake -- I mean, it's a domino effect of so many other things, that will be in trouble as well, that he is likely to sign it? Are you optimistic?
BEYER: I am optimistic. I can't imagine that what he wants as his, you know, final set of acts is to shut down the government and deny all these benefits to people that are deeply in need.
And he can have his cake and eat it, too. We can pass the big bill today, fund the government, do COVID relief and still have another chance to pass the $2,000 on Monday.
WHITFIELD: So Congressman, how do you summarize what 2020 has been like for you and your constituents as we now move ahead to 2021? How do you reflect and then how do you help people also remain hopeful?
BEYER: Well, I think it's been an incredibly difficult year for almost every American. You know, our grandparents who may have lived through World War II or the Great Depression might imagine, remember worse.
But it's been -- you know, with 330,000 deaths, with all of us afraid. But I do think that next year is going to be a lot better. The vaccines -- the first two vaccines, Pfizer and Moderna, seem to work really well. I'm optimistic that as Anthony Fauci says by September the football stadiums will be full, by May or June we'll be beginning to get life back to normal.
[11:09:53]
BEYER: And then as the service industry comes back, specifically the restaurants, we're likely to see 4 percent and 5 percent economic growth next year.
WHITFIELD: All right. Hopeful --
BEYER: I think we have a lot more deaths to come in the next couple of weeks, sadly.
WHITFIELD: Right. I mean it's bittersweet, you know. The immediate forecast is very dire, but it is nice to be able to remain hopeful and I think people will try to be hopeful with you for 2021 and beyond.
Thank you so much, Virginia Congressman Don Beyer. Appreciate it.
BEYER: Thanks, Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: All right. Still ahead, a new strain of the coronavirus in the U.K. is rapidly spreading across the globe. The U.S. now issuing new testing requirements for travelers coming in the country but will that help protect Americans?
Plus, an explosion in downtown Nashville with a warning from a loudspeaker just moments before the blast. Who set it off and why? We're live next.
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WHITFIELD: Welcome back.
Investigators are calling an explosion in Nashville, Tennessee Christmas morning an intentional bombing. An RV parked on a downtown street exploded, shattering windows and sending debris through the air, damaging several buildings.
We also now have sound, a recording that warned people near the RV to evacuate.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If you can hear this message, evacuate now. If you can hear this message, evacuate now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: All right. Natasha Chen joining us live now from Nashville. So Natasha, what is the latest on the investigation?
NATASHA CHEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well Fred, it's still a very active scene. That's why we're all the way back here on 2nd Avenue where the blast happened, but the perimeter is set up several blocks away from us. You can see police cars there flashing their lights and blocking off with tape.
[11:14:58]
CHEN: There's actually a curfew right now to keep people away from this area. That started the afternoon of Christmas Day. That will go into Sunday afternoon.
It means that some of the residents who live right by where the explosion happened, the people who heard the first gunshots, called 911 and then heard that ominous recorded message from the RV.
They evacuated when this happened and they really haven't been able to go back in.
Here's one witness who told CNN just how terrifying those moments were.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BUCK MCCOY, APARTMENT DESTROYED IN EXPLOSION: Today we're starting to look for our animals. I was not able to get my cat out. I barely made it out myself.
There was glass everywhere, there was large objects, there was wood, there was stuff to climb over and I was unable to get my cat.
So today, we've got a little organization together of people that are going to be going to take a walk-through and we're going to see what is left and if they're ok.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHEN: And the reason that we are seeing three people hospitalized, three civilians with nonlife-threatening injuries and we haven't heard of worse injuries or deaths is, because city officials say, of the great work by six officers who responded to the scene, helped people stay away from the area and evacuate.
I think we have the photos of those six officers who, each of them, you know, most of them really haven't been on the force for that many years with Metro Nashville PD. One of them having 11 years of service with the department.
But these are folks obviously working Christmas morning, got the call and really helped to save a lot of lives.
Now, the police chief last night did confirm that tissue which they believe belongs to human remains was found at the scene. I asked where that might have been found, if it could be potentially related to someone perhaps in the RV.
The police chief said it's too early to answer those questions right now. Those human remains are with the medical examiner's office to do some more investigation, keeping in mind that there is a lot of debris there that's scattered about and it's going to take some time to comb through and investigate, Fred.
WHITFIELD: And every little piece of evidence they uncover is going to be potentially impactful in their investigation.
Natasha Chen, thank you so much, in Nashville. We'll check back with you.
All right. Next, experts blast the CDC's new testing requirements for travelers after a new strain of coronavirus is discovered in the U.K. Why experts warn the new requirements are like a, quote, "chain link fence to keep out a mosquito".
[11:17:34]
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WHITFIELD: All right. Despite repeated warnings, the TSA says it screened more than 600,000 travelers passing through security checkpoints on Christmas Day. Nearly 850,000 were screened on Christmas Eve. Holiday travel, again, raising concerns the U.S. is weeks away from another surge in COVID-19 cases.
CNN's Alison Kosik joining us now. So Alison, you know, three weeks after the Thanksgiving holiday, we saw a devastating spike. And there are expectations that the spike could be returning after this Christmas holiday and New Year's celebrations.
ALISON KOSIK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Fredricka, you are right about that.
You know, we are coming off of the holiday, it is a holiday weekend, but the coronavirus obviously not giving us any break any time soon.
We're seeing cases spike from New York to California, and now there's this travel requirement looking to keep a more infectious variant of the virus from coming here to the U.S.
But even Dr. Anthony Fauci believes that variant could already be here.
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KOSIK (voice over): Starting Monday in the U.K., all passengers must have a negative COVID-19 test within three days of boarding a flight to the U.S. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo praised the decision by the CDC for passengers to be tested who are flying from the U.K.
"Testing people for COVID-19 before they get on planes is common sense. We cannot repeat the mistakes of the past and we must continue to do everything we can to keep New Yorkers and Americans safe," Cuomo said in a statement Friday.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced the new testing requirements for travelers, but research by the agency's own scientists shows the rule may have only a small impact on the spread of the new U.K. strain of the coronavirus.
According to researchers on CDC's COVID-19 response team, testing three days before a flight might reduce the risk of spreading the virus by just 5 percent to 9 percent.
Pfizer and Moderna are testing to see whether their vaccines work against the new variant, which thus far has not been detected in the U.S.
Southern California is grappling with surging COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths as the state passes another grim milestone, reporting more than 300 new COVID deaths for a third straight day.
In Los Angeles County, a person dies every ten minutes from COVID-19, the county's public health director says.
DR. CHRIS PERNELL, PUBLIC HEALTH PHYSICIAN: I think people don't think coronavirus will happen to them. They think coronavirus will happen to another family. But there is no safety other than the public health measures that we have been preaching from the mountaintops.
KOSIK: As Christmas comes to an end and we head into the New Year, experts say the safest way to celebrate is at home with the people you live with or online with friends and family.
For those that host a New Year's celebration, the CDC suggests staying outside, limiting the number of guests, wearing and making extra masks available, and keeping background music low to avoid shouting.
ERIN BROMAGE, PROFESSOR OF BIOLOGY, UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS: We've just seen these amplification events and that's what happened at the end of this year in the U.S. We had, you know, Thanksgiving. We had Labor Day. We had Halloween. And each one of those events brought lots of people together and just gave the virus more fuel to move through the population. So Christmas is going to do a similar thing.
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KOSIK: And in the days leading up to Christmas, the TSA says more than one million people passed through security checkpoints at airports across the country. That's stoking concerns from health experts that we could see yet another spike in coronavirus cases on top of the number of cases we already have now, Fredricka.
[11:24:58]
WHITFIELD: All right. Alison Kosik in New York, thanks so much.
All right. I want to discuss this further with Dr. Richina Bicette. She is an emergency medicine physician and medical director at Baylor College of Medicine. Good to see you and happy holidays.
DR. RICHINA BICETTE, MEDICAL DIRECTOR, BAYLOR COLLEGE OF MEDICINE: Hi, Fred, happy holidays.
WHITFIELD: Although it's not that happy, it's pretty scary, isn't it? And now we've got talk of this new variant of this COVID-19.
We now know that it has moved from the U.K. to France, Spain. Pfizer's CEO says he is optimistic that his company's vaccine will work against it. Are you optimistic as well?
DR. BICETTE: I am pretty optimistic. Fred, vaccines mutate by nature. That's what they're designed to do. So there's no surprise that we found this new variant in the U.K. As a matter of fact, back in April there was a variant of coronavirus discovered in India that people thought could potentially hamper the race to develop a vaccine and that hasn't proved to be true.
Vaccine experts and virologists like Dr. Kizzy are not worried about this new variant, and here's why. The vaccines that have been developed thus far attack multiple different places on the spike protein of the coronavirus. So a change in one small space of that protein isn't going to render our vaccines completely useless. It's going to take a lot of genetic diversity for that to happen.
WHITFIELD: Ok. I like your optimism.
All right. So now, you know, because of this new variant, the CDC has just issued some new testing requirements for people coming into the U.S. from the U.K., but then there are some health experts who are comparing these requirements to, and I'm quoting now, "a chain link fence to keep out a mosquito".
What do you think about this?
DR. BICETTE: Well, I think the new requirements depend on what the CDC is trying to protect against. It makes sense that for any place that's experiencing a regional spike in cases that we put new measures in place. But if they're trying to make sure that the virus isn't imported into the United States, these measures are going to have no effect on that whatsoever.
We're hearing that the new variant was discovered back in the U.K. back in September actually, and as of right now almost two-thirds of the cases in London are due to this new variant.
The CDC requirements don't take place until Monday. Until that time, there have been thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of people that have travelled into the U.S. from the U.K. So there's a high probability that the new variant is already in the United States and we just don't know.
WHITFIELD: I understand why you say, I mean, it's already spread. So this, you know, more contagious variant, what do you understand makes it so transmissible?
DR. BICETTE: Well, again, Fred, because of the nature of vaccines (SIC), they mutate in order to become more transmissible. They're trying to cause disease. They're trying to infect humans. So as certain strains discover better ways to do that, those propagate, a little bit faster. The other thing about virus is that as they replicate, sometimes there are mistakes in the DNA and the RNA sequencing and that's what's causing these new variants (INAUDIBLE) strains. We're thinking that they're potentially more transmissible, but that hasn't been officially decided upon just yet. We still have a lot more data to collect.
WHITFIELD: And then on these vaccines, more than a million in the U.S. Have received their first vaccine dose with few reporting any side effects. You got your shot, right? Your first of what will be two.
How did it go, how do you feel? And there you are with your video presentation of your experience. So what do we need to know about your experience?
DR. BICETTE: My experience actually was fantastic. I had to give my nurse kudos after I got my shot, because it hurt a lot less than my flu vaccine.
There have been a lot of people that have been skeptical about getting this vaccine. The only side effects that I experienced was a little bit of arm soreness. So I am very, very happy to say that today I am melanated (ph) and vaccinated. I can't wait to get my second dose of the vaccine so that I can be fully protected.
WHITFIELD: Ok. And then depending on which vaccine you got, are you about 28 days out or less than for your second?
DR. BICETTE: I got my first dose of vaccine on December 15th, so 21 days from that will be the first week of January when I should be expecting my second dose.
WHITFIELD: All right. Good luck. Dr. Richina Bicette, thank you so much for being with us and happy holidays.
DR. BICETTE: Thank you for having me, Fred. Good to see you.
WHITFIELD: All right. You as well.
All right. A nation in crisis, COVID relief checks for Americans on hold, hospitals overwhelmed, and there was an intentional explosion in downtown Nashville, Tennessee. So where is the president on all of this?
[11:29:42]
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WHITFIELD: President Trump continues to hold off signing a desperately needed COVID relief bill that would help millions facing a financial crisis. But as he waits on signing the bill, the president spent the morning tweeting more about his unsubstantiated election fraud and also complaining that first lady Melania Trump hadn't been featured on the cover of a fashion magazine as the first lady.
With me now, Tim Naftali. He is a CNN presidential historian and the former director of the Nixon Presidential Library. So good to see you, Tim, and happy holidays. Happy New Year upcoming.
Boy, there's a lot to tackle here. I mean, you know, the president has been silent for the past few weeks, really, on COVID, on the relief bill, he has talked a lot and tweeted about the election fraud that he, you know, maintains.
But, you know, how do you assess this here? And then on the heels of pardoning more than 40?
TIM NAFTALI, CNN PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: Well, first of all, happy holidays, Fred, and Merry Christmas to all.
The president stopped being the president in all but one sense after election day. I mean, he kept being the losing candidate.
But the president stopped talking to us about COVID. He mentioned the vaccines but only as a way of giving himself a pat on the back.
We've heard nothing from him on Russia's cyberattack. And we've heard nothing from him about the bomb in downtown Nashville.
So with the exception of pardons, this president has stopped being president and has just been an unhappy losing candidate. And that just shows selfishness.
Right now the American people need the COVID relief bill. If he would like Americans to receive $2,000 each, which is a great idea, push for it. Don't just tweet about it. Go and talk to McConnell. Talk to Pelosi. Get these people together in one room.
He's not doing that. It's a show for him. He's on an "I still matter" tour and that's about it.
WHITFIELD: You wrote in "The Atlantic", you know, while these pardons that the president has just, you know, carried out recently you said, "They are disturbing, but they're hardly novel." So, you know, we've seen it before with some presidents, but not of this magnitude.
NAFTALI: Right. Look, there are bad pardons associated with some of our modern presidents, but we're talking about unique moments.
[11:34:47]
NAFTALI: Rough back of the envelope calculation, I find about at least 25 percent of President Trump's pardons have gone to tax cheats, have gone to people engaged in fraud, people who have done dirty tricks in campaigns, or people who have obstructed justice in one or two different ways.
That is a pattern of showing quote/unquote mercy to cheats that we've never seen on this scale before.
As I said, some presidents have had bad pardons. The famous Mark Rich pardon by Bill Clinton. George Herbert Walker Bush's Iran contra pardons at the very end of his administration. John F. Kennedy's pardon of a cheat who had worked for Harry s. Truman. Yes, those have happened, but never on this kind of scale. It's as if Donald Trump is retaliating against the entire Justice Department and the entire justice system.
WHITFIELD: Retaliating against the entire justice system in your view, but at the same time, rewarding those who have been loyal, perhaps that's how he's interpreting these people. You call them cheats, but these people mostly, especially as it relates to the Russia investigation, they showed their loyalty to the president. They didn't -- you know, using the words of the president -- they didn't rat him out and so he's rewarding them.
NAFTALI: Fred, think about this. Most everyone plays by the rules. They may hurt at times. It may make you angry. But you play by the rules. You play by the rules as an ordinary citizen, and we're all ordinary citizens. You play by the rules if you participate in professional sports.
Donald Trump is rewarding people who didn't play by the rules because he doesn't like to play by the rules. He doesn't like to play by the rules of the constitution. Right now he would like to be re-elected even though the votes aren't there.
(CROSSTALK)
WHITFIELD: And even though he says -- he's the law and order -- that in contrast to, you know, it's the antithesis of what he is professing that he's the law and order president.
NAFTALI: No. He's the law -- he's "my law and disorder". That's his presidency.
WHITFIELD: So Tim, how do you assess the legacy of this president? Because while in the end he is saying $2,000 for Americans, perhaps he is trying to cement what he would hope to be a legacy that says he's fighting for the people in the midst of this pandemic. But in the totality of four years and his actions in these last couple of months post his defeat, what has he cemented about his legacy in your view?
NAFTALI: He launched an assault on our institutions and on our constitution. He decided to divide us. He had an opportunity to unite us as a sort of nonpolitical leader. He could have united us.
He decided to go AWOL on the worst public health crisis in this country in a century. I think his legacy are those deaths that didn't have to happen regarding COVID -- as a result of COVID. It's the economic despair that this country is suffering because the federal government didn't want to work with states as they could have.
It's the fact that we are -- we're not respected anymore around the world. We're not feared, we're not respected. In fact, we're laughed at.
And it's the fact that we're a more divided country. His response to the issue of racial injustice was insensitive this summer and he furthered the pain and suffering and anger in this country. That's his legacy.
WHITFIELD: Tim Naftali, thank you so much. Good to see you. Happy New Year.
NAFTALI: Happy New Year, Fred.
WHITFIELD: Thank you.
All right. Onto the incoming Biden administration, we're hearing more names of possible nominees of positions in President-Elect Joe Biden's cabinet.
Rebecca Buck is in Washington for us with the latest. Rebecca, what do you have?
REBECCA BUCK, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: Well, good morning, Fred. Or good afternoon almost.
The Biden cabinet is filling up quickly. The vast majority of these positions have been filled, but there are a number, roughly half a dozen significant positions that we're going to be looking for over the coming days and weeks as Biden is set to make those announcements in early January, according to him and his campaign.
One of the big ones that we will be watching is his attorney general. This, of course, a significant position in any administration, but Biden says that he's particularly focused on it because he wants to restore credibility to the Department of Justice after the Trump administration. Democrats, of course, believe that Trump has used the DOJ for his own political and personal purposes.
Biden saying he wants to turn a page with the Department of Justice and his pick for attorney general. So what do we know about this very significant pick?
Well, as I said, timeline we're looking at potentially early January for an announcement from the Biden transition. And we have a few frontrunners as well that we will be watching.
[11:39:51]
BUCK: The first is former Alabama Senator Doug Jones. He's a loyalist to Biden and a long-time ally of the president-elect, someone who Biden would trust very much on a personal relationship sort of level.
We're also looking at Judge Garland, who of course was named by President Obama to serve on the Supreme Court, but then never got a hearing from Senate Republicans, so that nomination fizzled.
So these will be the two frontrunners that we're keeping an eye for this position.
Of course, we're also looking at some of these other roles -- Labor Secretary, Commerce Secretary are among those nominations Biden has yet to make or announce. And then one thing to note of significance here is we don't know yet
whether Republicans or Democrats will control the Senate when it comes time to confirm these nominees of Biden's.
And Biden says that he's not letting that influence his process of selecting these people. He's picking the people he wants and he'll see where the chips fall, Fred.
WHITFIELD: All right. Hence why I guess we're going to be hearing about that early January, because it's January 5th, which is when the runoff election for those two U.S. Senate races in Georgia take place that could certainly change the balance or maintain the balance in the U.S. Senate.
Thanks so much, Rebecca Buck. Appreciate it.
BUCK: Thank you.
WHITFIELD: All right. Straight ahead, concerns about COVID put an end to the season for one of the country's best women's basketball teams.
[11:41:19]
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WHITFIELD: COVID-19 continues to battle the world of sports. On Friday, Duke University's women's basketball team announced it will cancel the remainder of its season due to concerns over the health and safety of its players. Meanwhile, after the NBA postponed the Houston Rockets game against Oklahoma City this week due to COVID issues, the big question now is will the Rockets face off against Portland tonight.
CNN Sports anchor Coy Wire is in Atlanta.
COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Hey there, Fred.
As of right now the Rockets/Blazers game in Portland is scheduled to go on tonight. Their game Wednesday was called off because they didn't have the required eight players available to play. James Harden is slotted to go just days after being fined $50,000 for breaking NBA protocol by attending a party on Monday indoors and without a mask. He was cleared after testing negative every day since.
And while Harden will play, Houston still has six players unavailable due to positive coronavirus tests and contact tracing including fellow stars John Wall and DeMarcus Cousins.
Also, a huge Saturday of NFL. Three games today, all of them with playoff implications. Headlined by the Raiders and Dolphins in primetime, Miami is 9-5 and on the cusp of making the playoffs for just a third time since the 2000, setting up a showdown against the AFC East champion, Buffalo Bills in the regular season finale.
The raiders are fighting for their playoff lives, needing a win tonight and next week just to have a chance to make the postseason. Tom Brady and the Bucs, they'll start the day off against the Lions, pushing the ramps for the number five spot in the NFC which would put them in line to play a 6-8 Washington team instead of the Seahawks.
And in one of the most bizarre headlines in this bizarre season, the Arizona cardinals play a divisional game hosting the 49ers today. But the 9ers have been using the Cardinals Stadium to play their home games for the last month due to a ban on contact sports in Santa Clara County.
Fred, I've talked with 49ers players who say it's been the longest road trip of their career. It will feel like a house divided for some today. Big game as the Cardinals are just one game up on the Bears for the seventh and final playoff seed.
WHITFIELD: All right. Thanks so much, Coy Wire.
This year has been like an endless road trip, I think, for a lot of people too.
All right. Still ahead, from impeachment to the coronavirus, President Trump's final year in the White House was like none other.
The 2020 highs and lows in Washington politics next.
[11:47:34]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: 2020 has been dominated by at least two things: politics and the pandemic. CNN's Abby Phillip has a look at Washington's most unforgettable moments.
ABBY PHILLIP, CNN CORRESPONDENT: 2020 was a presidential election year for the history books. An unpredictable Democratic primary, a pandemic, and a president refusing to concede.
Here are Washington's most unforgettable stories of 2020.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIP (voice over): A brazen assassination within days of the New Year.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Iran is vowing harsh revenge after the U.S. killed its top general, Qasem Soleimani.
PHILLIP: The operation carried out after an order from a president under siege in a different way.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The clerk will call the roll.
PHILLIP: President Trump had already become one of just three U.S. Presidents ever to be impeached.
And during his reelection fight under a cloud.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If 67 Senators, two-thirds of the U.S. Senate vote to convict, he will be removed from office.
PHILLIP: Meantime, a quiet killer had already arrived on American shores.
LAURA JARRETT, CNN HOST: The first case of the fast-spreading coronavirus confirmed in the United States.
PHILLIP: By late January, Trump moved to establish a White House COVID-19 task force and suspend most travel to and from China.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Foreign nationals who have traveled in China will be denied entry into the United States.
PHILLIP: Meanwhile, for the Democrats, a crowded primary contest was winnowing down in the frigid flat lands of Iowa. But caucus night would end with a cliff hanger.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Right now zero percent of the precincts have reported the results.
PHILLIP: Back in Washington, after Senate Republicans largely resist new witnesses, Trump was quickly acquitted.
The 2020 presidential race already under way in earnest but assumed front-runner former vice president Joe Biden languished at the back of the pack.
DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Looks like he's headed towards not even placing in the top 4.
PHILLIP: Until a key endorsement from South Carolina Congressman Jim Clyburn helped to turn the tide.
BLITZER: CNN projects that Joe Biden is the winner in South Carolina.
VAN JONES, CNN COMMENTATOR: We've seen in a 72-hour period Joe Biden going from being a joke to a juggernaut.
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE U.S.: I guess we can say hi, right.
PHILLIPS: As Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders plotted his land stand, the reality of COVID-19 hit.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: Abby, Senator Sanders is canceling a rally tonight, correct.
PHILLIP: Anderson, it is the first time we have heard of a campaign event being canceled due to coronavirus concerns.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We were just hearing from the deputy campaign manager Kate Bedingfield that they are also canceling their rally here in Cleveland tonight.
PHILLIP: The next day, a rare Oval Office address --
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: My fellow Americans -- PHILLIP: -- as the threat of the virus became impossible to ignore.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Trading had to be halted for 15 minutes so as to prevent a free fall.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The NBA overnight suspending its entire season.
PHILLIP: President Trump continued to doubt the severity of the virus in public, second guessing the science.
TRUMP: By April, you know, in theory when it gets a little warmer, it miraculously goes away. I hope that's true.
PHILLIP: And pushing unfounded cures culminating in this unforgettable moment he later claimed was sarcasm.
TRUMP: But I see the disinfectant where it knocks it out in a minute, one minute. And is there a way we can do something like that by injection inside or almost a cleaning as you see it gets in the lungs?
[11:54:52]
PHILLIP: As most of the nation grappled with shutdowns and the push to contain the virus, the country erupted in protests over racial injustice and into flames.
CROWD: Black lives matter.
PHILLIP: President Trump seizing an opportunity to make the unrest an election issue.
TRUMP: I will deploy the United States military and quickly solve the problem.
PHILLIP: A president with a penchant for drama staging his own dramatic march.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Now he's standing there looking around after what was frankly a pretty undignified approach to St. John's Episcopal Church.
PHILLIP: After months of isolation in the White House due to the pandemic, the president eager to escape hatches a plan to return to the campaign trail.
TRUMP: The event in Oklahoma is unbelievable. The crowds are unbelievable. They haven't seen anything like it.
PHILLIP: But those expectations didn't become reality.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This event has fallen well short of the Trump campaign's own expectations.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I've been watching this space all afternoon. It is virtually empty.
PHILLIP: Back in Wilmington, Delaware, the Democratic primary came to a quiet, virtual end.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: CNN is projecting Joe Biden now has the number of delegates needed to officially secure the Democratic presidential nomination.
PHILLIP: And Democrats and the nation lose a civil rights hero.
BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I, like so many Americans, owe a great debt to John Lewis.
PHILLIP: after a drawn-out primary fight and in a year of racial strife, Biden chose to make history with his vice presidential pick.
BIDEN: Your next vice president of the United States, Kamala Harris.
PHILLIP: As both political parties barreled toward election day with their virtual conventions, a sudden loss of another icon, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, set off a political earthquake within weeks of election day.
TRUMP: Thank you very much. Thank you.
PHILLIP: In days, Trump selected circuit court judge Amy Coney Barrett as Ginsburg's replacement, an ideological opposite.
Announcing his pick in a Rose Garden ceremony designed to evoke a scene from another era. That scene would soon take on a different significance.
DON LEMON, CNN HOST: The president of the United States now confirming to the world that he and the first lady of the United States have both tested positive.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The announcement of the formal nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett seems to have been a super spreader event.
PHILLIP: Despite multiple Republican senators testing positive for COVID-19, the Senate moved quickly to confirm Barrett, solidifying a 6-3 conservative majority and reshaping the Supreme Court for generations.
(on camera): By election night a record number of Americans cast their ballot by mail or in person. But it would be days before a result would be clear.
BLITZER: CNN projects Joseph R. Biden Jr. Is elected the 46th president of the United States.
PHILLIP (voice over): The election was over for everyone but President Trump and many of his supporters.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The Trump administration is still refusing to say that Joe Biden is president-elect.
PHILLIP: As Biden moved forward building a diverse cabinet, President Trump launched a failed bid to overturn the results of the election and moved to purge disloyal officials. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The president fired a key official at the
Department of Homeland Security.
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: The Supreme Court moments ago speaking and flat-out rejecting President Trump's last-ditch effort to steal the election from Joe Biden.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The jig is up. The president of the United States has no other recourse.
PHILLIP: On Monday, December 14th, the Electoral College met to make Biden's victory official.
Though Democrats nationwide lost seats in the House and control of the Senate now hinges on two January runoffs.
In the last days of the year, a chaotic president issuing and threatening vetoes and announcing controversial pardons.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The president uses his final days in office to throw Washington into turmoil.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: 24 hours after pardoning corrupt congressmen, Medicaid scammers and war criminals, the president is at it again. This time the big three are his disgraced campaign chair Paul Manafort, his campaign operative and self-described dirty trickster Roger Stone, and real estate tycoon Charles Kushner.
PHILLIP: American democracy ended the year intact, but damaged.
BIDEN: Good evening, my fellow Americans.
PHILLIP (on camera): In the new year, there will be a new president leading a divided nation.
In 2021, can anything restore Americans' shaken faith in our democratic process and institutions?
Abby Phillip, CNN -- Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: What a year indeed it's been. Say so long, however 2020, and hello 2021 with Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen life from Times Square, New Year's Eve starting at 8:00 right here on CNN.
Hello again, everyone. Thank you so much for joining me.
I'm Fredricka Whitfield.
We start this hour following an explosion investigators are calling an intentional bombing. The city of Nashville, Tennessee on edge after a parked RV exploded on a historic street early on Christmas morning.
[11:59:59] WHITFIELD: Officials say possible human remains were found at the blast site after an eerie audio recording warned of an imminent explosion.
