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FBI: No Sign Of More Explosive Threats In Nashville; Millions Of Americans Face Imminent Loss Of Key Benefits If Trump Doesn't Sign COVID Relief Bill; CDC Reports 1.9 Million Vaccine Doses Administered In U.S.; Record Cash Pours Into Georgia's Two Senate Runoff Races; Answering Viewers' Legal Questions in CNN's "Cross Exam"; Houston Hospital Struggles To Manage Rising Wave Of COVID Patients. Aired 3-4p ET

Aired December 26, 2020 - 15:00   ET

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

[15:00:00]

AMARA WALKER, CNN HOST: You are live in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Amara Walker in for Ana Cabrera.

The enormous explosion that ripped through Downtown Nashville Christmas morning was no accident. Somebody set it off deliberately and federal officials say they are still working on who that person is.

Here is what we do know. At least three people have been injured, dozens of buildings were damaged when an R.V. motor home blew up at 6:30 in the morning on Christmas day. Police officers acting on a warning coming from that parked R.V. managed to get people to safety before the explosion.

Let's get right now to Nashville and our Crime and Justice Correspondent, Shimon Prokupecz, is there. Shimon, first off, I know that police officials just spoke a short time ago. What do they say about where the investigation stands right now?

SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: So, officially, Amara, they're not saying much in terms of the investigation. They're still going through everything, still trying to officially identify these human remains that they have found here on scene. That may take DNA.

But what we've learned is that the R.V. has been the key piece of evidence, obviously, in all of this. The video, the photo of that, the FBI and police here put out of that R.V. led to several tips. In fact, one of the tips led FBI to another location here in Nashville where they have been all day searching. They believe it is tied to this location and perhaps the person responsible. So the FBI there is on scene in this other location.

So that R.V., the video of the R.V. driving through Downtown Nashville is becoming a key piece of evidence here. The U.S. attorney here spoke. He talked about how this investigation is taking place, calling it sort of like a puzzle and here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD COCHARAN, U.S. ATTORNEY FOR THE MIDDLE DISTRICT OF TENNESSEE: It is quite a challenge, having been up there and seeing that scene, it's like a giant jigsaw puzzle created by a bomb that throws pieces of evidence across multiple city blocks. And they've got to gather it, they've got to catalog it, they've got to put it together and try to find out what the picture of that puzzle looks like.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PROKUPECZ: And that's what we've been seeing out here almost all day here. The FBI with the ATF, which has its national response team, which is on scene here, they've been sifting through evidence going block by block looking for any evidence.

The other thing that I think is important to point out is that there's no manhunt. The FBI, the police here are not searching for anyone in connection with this bombing at this point. They feel there is no threat and, therefore, they are not searching for anyone, which I think is really significant.

And right now, really, their whole purpose here is to collect evidence and also figure out the motive, what prompted this huge explosion here in Downtown Nashville.

WALKER (voice over): This scene is just still stunning. Shimon, stay right there. Let's also bring in former FBI Supervisory Special Agent Peter Licata. He was also the Bureau's lead bomb tech in New York. Peter, good to see you.

I want to start with that information we just got from Shimon, the fact that there is no manhunt under way, according to officials there on the ground. What does that lead you to believe?

PETER LICATA, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, having worked these investigations previously, most recently, the 2016 bombing in New York City, these things do take time. So it's a very methodical process. However, there are multiple things that are going on at the same time. So, just so you know, they're not just waiting to process the crime scene and then move on to the investigation.

Things happen simultaneously as small bits of evidence are recovered out of the crime scene, they're passed back to a command post that generates leads off of that whether it's a SIM card, whether it's a part or component of the suspected device, the switch, all that information is happening simultaneously. They're incorporating it through a laboratory in Quantico to help with forensics. So it does take time.

And the FBI wants to ensure that they are doing it right deliberately and properly in order to find the suspect, the proper suspect, locate that individual and then follow up with the investigation and potentially subsequent arrest of that individual.

WALKER (voice over): Do you believe though perhaps they may know who they're looking for, the location of the person or perhaps they're just not there yet as to figuring out who a suspect -- that suspect might be?

LICATA (voice over): Well, you would hope that they would be getting close based on the information that you recovered from the vehicle itself, the VIN, the license plate number, some of the information that they've tracked down via CCTV, as we talked about yesterday. So you'd hope they'd be getting close and identifying leads that will pinpoint exactly who it is that committed this act, whether it's an individual or a group of individuals.

WALKER (voice over): And, Shimon, to you, because you're there on the ground. Tell us a little bit more about the destruction that you're seeing and also the fact that we also learn this new information. There was an automated message coming from that parked R.V. vehicle where there was that warning which allowed officers to go door to door and pull people out before the explosion took place. Tell us more about that and what we can make of the timing and this warning.

PROKUPECZ (voice over): Yes. So that is something the police chief just talked about again. That is one of the strangest things in all of this, that you have this R.V., right? That's already, in some ways, strange. But then you have these messages, these auto -- what sounded like recorded messages coming from it, warning people to evacuate.

And the police chief said that when the police got to the scene, they had responded there for gunfire, a call for gunfire. When they got there, they started hearing this audio coming from this R.V. 15 minutes, then 14 minutes, and it was playing music and counting down. And that's why they evacuated so many people from the neighborhood, really, saving a lot of lives.

And the police chief is crediting the officers' response to this, saving those lives because of the destruction here. When you look at the video from yesterday morning and those aerial shots of the buildings that were completely destroyed, facades that completely collapsed, steel beams that were knocked to the ground by this explosion and the fact that this explosion went so wide for blocks around Downtown Nashville. I mean, I walked through downtown. There's glass in so many different places. Some 40 buildings, officials here have said, were damaged as a result of this explosion.

And for the people here in Nashville and for this downtown area, the next steps are going to begin within a few days as the FBI is going to start opening some of the streets on the outer perimeter from where the blast occurred to try and get businesses to reopen and to allow people who live in this area back into their homes.

But for now, this investigation, I think it's so important to note, it's still very active. But the fact there isn't this manhunt should give people here certainly in Nashville and, really, people across the country some sense of relief.

WALKER: Yes, absolutely. And the fact that they've secured the scene and they're saying that there are no threats in that immediate area that they know of.

Back to you, Peter, and on that same note, this was a very destructive event, as we can see from the images, as Shimon is reporting. But this happened on Christmas day when no one was really around. Businesses were empty. And there was also that warning being broadcast. So, clearly, the attacker wanted to minimize casualties.

LICATA (voice over): Well, yes, the attacker wants to minimize casualties but we don't want to give the attacker any credit as being benevolent. There are no bombers out there that have ever been benevolent, in my experience, and I've been to a hundred bombing crime scenes throughout the world.

So, all that tells me as an investigator that's taken these events to prosecution is the attacker knew the -- with resolve, how destructive this device would be, that this was not going to be an accident, that they can't go on later during their defense when they're caught and brought to justice.

They can't go on and say, well, we didn't really intend it to be this violent. Clearly, by making a warning, they knew how violent it was going to be and, obviously, by making that warning, they were correct in what we're seeing, that crime scene here correcting that assessment.

WALKER (voice over): You're an expert on bombs. Clearly, there was a lot of material that was needed to create an explosion of this size. Do you think that it would have raised red flags if this person was perhaps purchasing the kinds of material needed to create such a devastating impact?

LICATA (voice over): Well, yes, if the person was trying to acquire commercial or military type of explosives, that would be where the red flags would be raised. So, commercial military explosives are very hard to procure in the United States and very well regulated.

However, our precursor material that make improvise or homemade-type explosives, that's what we refer to. Those individuals can fly underneath the radar by acquiring those over time. Think about your Boston Marathon bombers. They took basically a year to build or acquire enough material to build two pressure cooker devices. They brought commercial consumer-grade pyrotechnics and basically mined them, took the explosive material out to make those devices.

So, bombers just -- they take their time. They've very deliberate. They do a lot of planning. They get a lot of training. So the fact that these -- the materials that were used potentially to make this explosive device, that could have been -- those materials could have been acquired over a series of days, weeks, months, even a year.

[15:10:06]

WALKER (voice over): Yes, allowing him or her to fly under the radar.

LICATA (voice over): Exactly.

WALKER (voice over): Yes. We're running out of time. I appreciate you joining us, Peter Licata, and Shimon Prokupecz there in Nashville, thank you so much. Next, millions of Americans will lose their enhanced unemployment payments and millions more will face eviction if President Trump doesn't sign the newest bipartisan COVID relief bill that is apparently with him in Florida. That's where he is. We're going to take you live where the president has been spending the holiday weekend.

You're live in the CNN Newsroom.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WALKER: A second round of crucial coronavirus relief benefits passed by Congress is set to expire by the end of today if President Trump refuses to sign the latest relief bill. This new bill would send direct payments up to $600 per person, extend pandemic-related unemployment programs and provide eviction protection.

The president originally indicated he would sign this legislation but he's now saying it's not good enough. Instead, he wants each American to receive $2,000, not $600, a move which his party opposes.

The president has given no clue how he plans to proceed. Instead, he's at his Mar-a-Lago estate spreading more baseless claims about the election via Twitter. He spent the holiday golfing and complaining that his wife, Melania, has yet to appear on the cover of a fashion magazine as first lady.

CNN White House Correspondent Jeremy Diamond joining me live from West Palm Beach, Florida. Jeremy, clearly, we know where the president's head is as so many livelihoods are at stake right now. Any signs, any indication as to what the president is going to do?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, the president, as recently as just a few hours ago, was continuing to complain on Twitter about this piece of coronavirus relief legislation continuing to make his demands that those stimulus checks to Americans be more than tripled to $2,000 instead of the $600 in that legislation.

[15:15:16]

But what we are watching unfold right now is truly remarkable. We're in the middle of a holiday season at a time when the coronavirus pandemic is continuing to rage, 20 million plus Americans are unemployed, 8 million Americans have slipped into poverty since the summer and yet the president is offering no clear sign for Americans as to whether or not they can expect this desperately needed aid.

In fact, if the president does not sign that unemployment legislation -- sorry, that coronavirus relief legislation today, supplemental unemployment insurance provided by the federal government for about 14 million Americans, that will lapse tonight if the president does not sign this legislation today.

We know that he has this legislation here with him at Mar-a-Lago, it was flown down from Washington, but no indication from the president or the White House as to whether or not he will sign this. What is clear though is he is making clear to his allies, including Senator Lindsey Graham, that he is continuing to make objections to this.

We saw this tweet from Lindsey Graham just yesterday, who was spending time with the president at his property in Mar-a-Lago, Lindsey Graham tweeted, after spending 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. That is the unrelated provision that the president was objecting to, the national defense authorization bill on.

But, clearly, the president is still in a mood to contest this. Meanwhile, there is some critical deadlines still coming up. Beyond the deadline that I was just talking about that is coming up tonight for that supplemental unemployment insurance, you're also going to face a series of deadlines at the end of this year. Government funding runs out on Tuesday.

So we could face the government shutdown if the president doesn't sign the legislation. And then at the end of the year, December 31st, that is when that eviction moratorium expires. So, again, all of these crucial dates and all of this crucial aid perhaps not coming to Americans at a time when they need it perhaps more than ever.

But, ultimately, while the president continues to say that he's not happy, he wants more aid to Americans, he wants the stimulus checks to be bigger, these are all things that the president could have raised before this legislation was passed. Instead, he did so afterwards.

And so the question, if he really cares about Americans and providing relief, why didn't he act earlier, and perhaps now the only goal that he is really looking for is sowing chaos and, certainly, that is something he is achieving as of now. Amara?

WALKER: You raise good points, Jeremy Diamond, thank you and we'll raise those questions with our panel. With me now, Donald Trump biographer and CNN Contributor Michael D'Antonio, he is the author of High Crimes, The Corruption, Impunity and Impeachment of Donald Trump. Also with me is CNN Political Commentator S.E. Cupp. Welcome to you both.

S.E., let's start with you. So, Jeremy was just mentioning this if the president really wanted to get Americans $2,000, he would have demanded that during the negotiations. And, in fact, this figure of $600 came from the White House. So, what's going on here?

S.E. CUPP, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, once again, Americans did not get the leadership that they really deserved on this issue. That money, as we've been pointing out all day on CNN, is going to people who really need it and they've been sort of white-knuckling through the holidays, waiting on pins and needles to know whether they're going to get it.

And there is nothing wrong with the president saying there's too much pork in this bill or there's too much foreign aid in this bill or $600 isn't enough. That's all true, but he didn't say it until the 11th hour. He handed this project over to Steve Mnuchin and said, you guys figure it out and I'll sign what you come up with. And then now that it's done and everyone is sort of hoping to get it across the goal line, he's saying, well, now I have problems with it.

This was the leadership he should have had through the process because this bill matters so much. Instead, he was golfing and tweeting about election fraud. So, once again, Americans are left in the cold.

WALKER: Yes. As S.E. was mentioning, Michael, this bill was negotiated by President Trump's team. What -- is there a strategy here? Is President Trump deliberately trying to upend this bill to hurt Republicans or what?

MICHAEL D'ANTONIO, CNN CONTRIBURO: Well, I don't think there is any strategy. There's really just Donald Trump's personality. So he's a guy who loves to pick fights. He imagines himself functioning only on the basis of conflict. So he saw an opportunity here when he recognized the $600 payment and said, well, I can pick a fight with everybody in Congress and say, it should be $2,000.

[15:20:06]

He is an incompetent, clueless and, really, heartless in an unrivalled way. I find myself wondering if people who were dying outside of Mar- a-Lago or lining up hungry outside of Mar-a-Lago, would he respond to that? Because, in fact, he could have gone three miles from his luxurious estate to a place in West Palm Beach, where people were lining up for food on Christmas Eve.

So this is a man who recognizes nothing but his own ego and that's what's on display today.

WALKER: Yes. And what's also concerning, of course, the unemployment benefits about to expire. But by the end of the year, if this eviction moratorium is not extended, we're going to see millions of Americans out on the streets as we are dealing with a COVID-19 surge.

S.E., on Thursday, House Republicans rejected an attempt by Democrats to increase the direct payments of $2,000 to Americans, and then Lindsey Graham, on Christmas day, after a round of golf, tweeted this. After spending time with President Trump today, I am convinced he's more determined than ever to increase stimulus payments to $2,000 per person and challenge Section 230 big tech liability protection.

Both are reasonable demands and I hope Congress is listening. The biggest winner would be the American people.

So, S.E., what kind of position does this put Republicans in and will they go along with it?

CUPP: They are reasonable demands. They're demands that should have been made weeks ago when this was being cobbled together, not, again, at the 11th hour, the day this is about to -- the day that some of this -- the week that some of this is about to expire, it's just really unfair. The president didn't want to take the time to put this deal together. Again, he didn't want to spend his time presidenting. So he punted. And now Republicans are left in a very unenviable position of going against the president or doing what they think is right for their own party, for their own constituents, for their state. Again, it's the lack of leadership by the president isn't just over the country, although that's bad enough, it's also over his own party.

There is no interest in preserving a kind of cohesive message, party, policy over the course of his presidency. It's a free for all depending on what the president wants to do that day.

WALKER: And speaking of the president putting his own party members on deciding whether or not they should go against the president, Michael, that the president vetoed the defense bill. He oppose a provision in it that would require the military to rename bases that were named after confederate figures and he also wants the bill to include the repeal of Section 230, which gives internet companies protection from liability. Are these two issues important to him? Does he really care?

D'ANTONIO: I think they are important to him, especially Section 230. So he is very angry at the social media providers because they do have rules that cut off some of the conspiracy theorists and other wild contributors to social media whom they deem beyond the pale and the president wants to make a political point here that he'd like to sue these companies and they're now protected from suits. He cares about that. It's not something that belongs in anything related to a defense bill.

And on the subject of the naming of these bases, there's almost universal agreement in the military that this change should take place and certainly in Congress and in the communities where these bases are located, there's enormous support for taking away the honors given to men who committed treason against the United States by waging war on it.

So, here, this is a culture war reflex by the president. He likes to appeal to certain parts of his base by saying, well, I'm all for keeping confederate figures in a place of honor. In fact, it's just a signal to those he hopes one day will donate to his further cause. So he is lining up donors who will send their $5, $10 a month to him wherever he locates in the future and hopes they'll provide a base of support for whatever activity he has in mind.

WALKER: Michael D'Antonio and S.E. Cupp, many thanks for joining me here. I appreciate it.

D'ANTONIO: Thank you.

[15:25:00]

CUPP: Merry Christmas.

WALKER: The numbers out of California are surreal and heartbreaking, one person dying in Los Angeles County every ten minutes from the coronavirus. We're going to have a live report from the west coast next. You're in the CNN Newsroom.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WALKER (voice over): And this just in to CNN. The CDC says it has administered nearly 2 million coronavirus vaccine doses here in the U.S. So far, nearly 10 million doses have been delivered. This protection can't come soon enough for many though.

California passing a grim milestone this week, it became first state to record 2 million confirmed COVID cases since the pandemic began. The director of L.A. County's public health department saying, on average, one person dies every ten minutes in Los Angeles County from COVID-19.

Governor Gavin Newsom warning California's hospitalizations could soon double if people don't change their behavior for the holidays. 98 percent of the state's residents are under stay at home orders.

I want to bring in CNN's Paul Vercammen standing by in Los Angeles. He's outside Dodgers Stadium, which has turned into a mass testing site.

Paul, give us the lay of the land here and how L.A. is handling this unprecedented surge.

PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Amara, on a couple of different fronts, let's just talk about this testing first. Dodgers Stadium arguably the busiest testing site in the world, they've had days where they've tested 11,000 people. It is (INAUDIBLE) today, people driving up cars six wide, so no one touches anything simultaneously.

[15:30:07]

They're handed their test kit with a long sort of set of tongs through the window and they drop them off in a barrel when they leave.

As for this testing, they're emphasizing over and over again in Los Angeles, it's not just enough to have vaccines but you have to keep testing here.

And the numbers are gruesome in Los Angeles when it comes to hospitalizations. Overall in the state, 19,000 people are hospitalized and 4,000 of them in the ICU.

This means that the hospitals are calling in doctors and nurses on the days off. They're working longer hours. They're also expanding ICUs and E.R.s to accommodate this crush of patients.

As for these heroic testers, many of them have been at it since March, making sure people in their community, many underserved communities get tested.

We were speaking with Crista Campos and she relayed how she saw more people coming on board and getting tested. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CRISTA CAMPOS, CORE COVID-19 COMMUNITY OUTREACH MEMBER: ADMINISTERING TESTS IN LOS ANGELES: I remember when I got tested in July, I was in Simple Heights (ph) and there was no one in line. And now, this past week, I went back to the same intersection in Simple Heights (ph) and there was 200 people waiting in line.

So that just gave me like the feeling of just like, we're doing this. We actually are helping communities and mobilizing them and giving resources.

And it's just an amazing feeling for both of us, we're working together so save our communities and to save our families.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VERCAMMEN: It's remarkable that these people doing the testing don't just keel over. They spend hours and hours, legs heavy, testing. They don't seem to stop.

Some of them have lost family members to the virus but they just keep on testing as you can see right behind me -- Amara?

WALKER: Unfortunately, the demand is quite high, or fortunately. Paul Vercammen, thank you very much.

I want to get to Dr. Peter Hotez. He's a professor and dean of tropical medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.

Dr. Hotez, just moments ago, we learned that one in one thousand Americans have now died from COVID-19.

But starting with what's happening in L.A., because I think a lot of us are left scratching our heads. L.A. or California had its first lockdown. It was the first state to lock down back I think in March 19.

It imposed some of the most stringent restrictions around the country and then see it surge in May and hit two million as of this past week.

What's going on?

DR. PETER HOTEZ, PROFESSOR & DEAN OF TROPICAL MEDICINE, BAYLOR COLLEGE OF MEDICINE: Yes, Amara, there's been a shift in the epidemic. If you remember, earlier this fall, it was really right in the center part of the country, the north central part, the Dakotas, Minnesota, Iowa.

And then it was Texas was hit really hard. And Texas is still going through a huge surge, especially in west Texas and the panhandle.

But what you see is the epidemic is spreading outward. So it's going to the east coast. Rhode Islands has really high rates and now California.

And the numbers in southern California, especially in Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino, look really frightening. And also up in Fresno as well. The whole lower half of the state is just getting hit really hard.

And the thing that worries me is what's going on in the intensive care units because hospital staff, nurses, techs, docs are already exhausted. And this is when the body count can really go up and the mortality rates really skyrocket.

It's not so much the ICU beds. You can convert a regular bed to an ICU bed. It's the exhaustion of having to don PPE day in and day out without a break. This is when things break down and mortality rates skyrocket.

So that's the reason for the aggressive stay-at-home order. I hope Californians are willing to follow it.

WALKER: We're in a holiday week right now, Dr. Hotez. This weekend is supposed to be very busy travel period. The TSA saying it screened seven million people at airports across the country just this past week.

Of course, this is happening at the same time as CDC officials and doctors like you have been pleading with people to please stay home, to avoid traveling.

What are your biggest fears in terms of what we will see in January as many of you doctors and public health officials are warning of a surge upon this current surge?

HOTEZ: Yes, it's the projections that are just nightmarish. We look at 400,000 Americans who will lose their lives around a week around the inauguration. And then those numbers will continue to climb to half a million lives lost. Just a catastrophic staggering loss of life.

[15:35:08]

And most of those lives lost -- we don't have to -- people can still save lives of loved ones by practicing that social distancing and masks. And remember, vaccines around the corner.

In the past, when we've asked people to do this, we didn't really have a bracket on the right-hand side. And now we've got two vaccines, the Pfizer and Moderna vaccine.

And we're hoping the J&J, the Johnson & Johnson vaccine will be out in the new year and AstraZeneca Oxford vaccine. We have a vaccine. Novavax has a vaccine. Half a dozen to vaccinate the American people.

This is really exciting. It's a matter of keeping everyone alive until that period.

So this is why the scientific community is -- you sense a desperation in our voice. It's deliberate. We want people to do everything they can to get to the other side and get their loved ones to the other side for vaccines. WALKER: Dr. Hotez, speaking of which, there's this U.K. variant that

has a lot of people concerned. It's potentially more contagious. Pfizer and Moderna are testing their vaccines against this U.K. variant.

What do we know about how effective or not the vaccines might be against this mutation?

HOTEZ: Right. We're also testing our vaccine. Most of us are pretty optimistic this won't be an issue for the particular variant because of the 17 mutations. And there's also similar ones in the South Africa one.

Most are not in what's called in the receptor binding domain, the part of the virus that docks with our host tissues that cause infections.

The thinking is that the vaccines -- because most are not in the receptor binding domain piece, we might be OK for these vaccines and this variance.

But remember, this virus is continuing to mutate. So message is, in the long term, maybe for now we'll be OK. But in the out years, we may have to think about how we're going to redesign vaccines.

I think the other point that we're learning from public releases from the Centers for Disease Control is that we've not been doing nearly as high a level of genomic surveillance as we should be doing.

So the Brits have completed the complete genome zone, 200,000 virus samples. A much smaller nation than the U.S. It's only around 50,000.

So we need to get up to around a million genomes. And when that happens, who knows what we'll find? We'll likely find the U.K. variant. We may find the South African variant.

And it wouldn't surprise me at all if we saw home-grown variants that also have a number of mutations. So we've got to step up our game in that genomic sequencing. That's really a high priority right now.

WALKER: We sure do.

Dr. Peter Hotez, we'll leave it there. Thank you so much for joining me.

HOTEZ: Thanks for having me.

WALKER: Up next, we have brand-new fundraising numbers out of Georgia where two runoff races will decide the course of Joe Biden's presidency. What the mindboggling numbers are telling us.

But first, a quick programming note. Say so long 2020 and say hello 2021 with Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen live from Times Square, New Year's Eve, starting at 8:00 p.m., on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:41:12]

WALKER: Georgia's two Senate runoff races are attracting plenty of money. The results of Georgia's January 5th runoff elections will determine which party controls the U.S. Senate.

Let's go to CNN's Ryan Nobles in Washington.

Hi, there, Ryan. I understand you have new fundraising numbers for us.

RYAN NOBLES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Amara, these numbers just coming in this week. And they're just baffling. It's is hundreds of millions of dollars just pouring into the state of Georgia ahead of these runoffs.

Look at these numbers, which you have to keep in mind, are only accounting from October 15th until December 15th and they are just eye popping.

More than $100 million for the Democratic candidates, both Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock. Individually, they're each raised more $100 million.

And then the Republican side, David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler are in the $60 million range.

And they're also spending almost all of that money -- almost $500 million has been spent in TV ads since the runoff began.

Amara, living in Atlanta, you can't turn on the television in that state right now without seeing these ads. They're all over the television air waves.

It's important to point out, even though right now the Democrats, at least the candidates individually, are outraising the Republicans in totality, it's much closer.

Because there's also hundreds of millions of dollars being raised through third-party groups either aligned with the Republicans or aligned with the Democrats.

They are also part of this big spending binge, spending money on issue-focused ads and also ads in support of all of the candidates.

The question, Amara, is whether this will have an impact at all.

We haven't had a lot of polling in the race. It's difficult to poll a runoff, especially one like this. But everyone expects it to be very close.

Voters have been casting ballots for the last two weeks. Of course, Election Day is January 5th in Georgia -- Amara?

WALKER: The stakes are high, very high, needless to say.

Ryan Nobles, appreciate you. Thank you. President Trump is taking advantage of his pardon power in the final

weeks of his presidency, pardoning not only major Washington players but his son-in-law's dad. Who's next on his pardon list? We'll answer your legal questions straight ahead.

You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:46:59]

WALKER: President Trump this past week announced a wave of controversial pardons before heading to Florida for the Christmas holiday.

The pardons include long-time Trump ally, Roger Stone, and Trump's former 2016 campaign manager, Paul Manafort. Both were indicted in connection with Special Counsel Robert muller's Russia probe and were convicted of multiple crimes.

The president also pardoned Charles Kushner, the father of Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner.

And this brings us to our weekly "CROSS EXAM" with CNN legal analyst and former federal prosecutor, Elie Honig.

Elie, great to see you.

(CROSSTALK)

WALKER: And, Elie, in pardoning Manafort and Stone, Trump obviously continuing to chip away at the work of the Mueller investigation.

A view named Jordan in Arizona is asking: Can it be a crime for the president to issue a pardon if the purpose was to reward a person for refusing to testify -- Elie?

ELIE HONIG, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: You bet, it can, Amara. The constitutional pardon power is broad but not unlimited.

If a pardon is issued as part of a criminal scheme, the crime absolutely can be charged.

For example, if a pardon is issued in exchange for cash, that would be criminal bribery. Similarly, if a pardon is given to silence a witness, that could be obstruction of justice.

Robert muller already told us in his report a year ago that President Trump publicly dangled pardons, partly to prevent Michael Flynn, Roger Stone and others from testifying. Muller found that could be obstruction.

And now those dangled pardons have actually been delivered and only, only to people those people who refused to cooperate, refused to testify. So the case for obstruction now, if anything, gets even stronger. Now, this will be an important and difficult decision in the Biden

administration and even harder to sort of ignore all the evidence and do nothing.

We'll be watching closely to see what the next attorney general does on this question.

WALKER: For sure.

Kenneth in Tennessee is asking a question I wanted to know the answer to: Can a pardon by one president be reversed or revoked by the next president?

HONIG: A lot of people are asking this one. I think you can see why.

The short answer is we don't exactly know. There's actually a bit of mixed history here.

The Constitution grants the pardon power. It doesn't say anything about whether a president has the power to revoke a pardon.

But believe it or not, there's very limited historical precedent for this. In 2008, George W. Bush issued a pardon and, the very next day, revoked his own pardon when he found out the recipient's father donated to Republican causes.

The rationale there was the pardon, it had not yet been fully delivered and accepted.

And if you go all the way back to 1869, Ulysses S. Grant, in his first days in office, revoked a series of pardons that his predecessor, Andrew Johnson, issued in his final days in office.

[15:50:00]

Again, the rationale was the pardon had not been formally delivered and accepted. That likely would not apply here.

There are real practical problems with the idea of revoking a pardon. What happens if a person is pardoned while serving their jail sentence, gets out, and then the pardon's revoked? Does that person have to go back to jail?

What if a person's pardoned while charges are pending and then the pardon is revoked? Does that person then have to be tried years later?

And the most important practical question is: Does Joe Biden have the political appetite to take on this particular fight? That seems fairly unlikely to me, Amara.

WALKER: One quick follow-up from me Elie, because there's been questions about whether President Trump is going to preemptively pardon his grown children. Is that legal?

HONIG: Amara, as the anchor, you have free rein. You can ask anything you want. Yes, it probably is legal. It would be a historical stain. It would be

outright self-dealing.

But we have seen preemptive pardons before, most famously when Gerald Ford pardoned Richard Nixon.

Remember, though, a pardon from a president can only cover federal crimes, not state crimes. So the ongoing investigations from the New York D.A. and the Manhattan, the New York attorney general's office, they would be unaffected by a presidential pardon.

WALKER: Got it. Got it.

And lastly, Elie, Gary in Canada is asking: Could Dominion or other voting technology companies sue media outlets that have made baseless claims of fraud against them?

HONIG: Yes. So, they absolutely could have a legitimate lawsuit here.

But the First Amendment provides very broad protections to media organizations. That's a key part of our constitutional democracy.

The media is absolutely allowed to be provocative, opinionated, to ask questions, even to make mistakes.

But there's a line. If a media outlet makes false statements that it knows are false, purportedly false statements of fact, or that it should reasonably have known to be false, then there could be civil liability.

It's hard to find any factual basis for these rigged election claims that we have been hearing out of some media outlets, when you have the A.G., the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, and courts all across this country saying, there's just no evidence of widespread election fraud.

And, Amara, there's precedent here. Back in 2017, a major news outlet had to pay $177 million settlement in a defamation suit brought by a food processing company.

So a lot will depend on the specifics here. But ultimately, could there be a legitimate lawsuit? Absolutely.

WALKER: Elie Honig, a great legal mind to have on. Thank you so much.

HONIG: Thanks, Amara.

WALKER: We'll be right back.

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[15:56:20]

WALKER: Breaking news. This afternoon, according to Johns Hopkins University, one in 1,000 Americans have died from COVID-19.

This coming as many hospitals are struggling to cope with rising numbers of COVID-19 patients requiring intensive care.

CNN's Miguel Marquez is revisiting a Houston hospital that has been hit especially hard with a fresh wave of COVID patients.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Houston's United Memorial Medical Center. Patient after patient on a ventilator, their lungs devastated by COVID-19.

DR. JOSEPH VARON, UNITED MEMORIAL MEDICAL CENTER, HOUSTON, TEXAS: This is the COVID (ph) from deep inside the lung.

MARQUEZ (on camera): This is a test?

VARON: This is COVID. This is COVID. This is what COVID looks like inside the lungs. You can see that growth there, the light, you can see a 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 what else might be happening in their lungs.

VARON: The question is: Are they not killed just because of COVID or is it a secondary infection, which is common?

MARQUEZ: We visited the same hospital in late June when two wings of the hospital have been transformed into COVID-19 wards. Today, prepping for what's to come, there are three.

VARON: And the next few weeks are going to be the darkest weeks in modern American medical history.

MARQUEZ (on camera): Even though the vaccine's been rolled out?

VARON: Absolutely, because, think about it, the vaccine will take six and eight weeks to get immunity. We're right during Christmas where people are not listening.

MARQUEZ (voice-over): But 40 percent of the 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 here 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 is on the mend. But when he arrived, he was nearly put on a ventilator.

WALTER CUELLAR, TRUCK DRIVER: I went to the store with my wife. And her and I were the only ones wearing a mask and none of 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, TEACHER: 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 would 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.

MARQUEZ (on camera): What has 2020 been like for you?

TANNA INGRAHAM, ICU NURSE: 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 are nonexistent. And it's like, you do realize that we are still here, taking care of these people, putting my life at risk, putting my kid's life at risk, my mom's life.

I think we have been forgotten. Truly.

MARQUEZ: Something else new from June, says Dr. Varon, patients are coming in sicker, having waited longer before seeking medical care.

[15:59:00]

VARON: Our average patient has spent about 20 days with symptoms before they come to us. So even if I give them holy water, after 20 days of symptoms, it's going to be difficult for them to get better.