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U.S. Setting Alarming New Pandemic Records Almost Every Day; President Trump Leaves Florida Vacation Early, Departing Before Annual New Year's Party at Mar-a-Lago; Sen. Josh Hawley Makes Clear That He is Sticking with His Intentions to Challenge the Election Results. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired December 31, 2020 - 11:00   ET

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

[11:00:00]

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: Hello everyone, I'm Jim Sciutto. Welcome to a special edition of "Newsroom." Thanks for joining me.

Today the world celebrates a New Year's Eve like never before bringing in 2021, thankfully you might say, under the shadow, though, of the coronavirus, with scaled down celebrations and limited gatherings.

And in the final days of what has been a trying year at times, the nation is still setting alarming new pandemic records almost every day. For a second day in a row, the nation reported a record number of COVID deaths and hospitalizations on Wednesday.

But as this nation suffers, President Trump seems to be paying little attention. Instead, he remains locked in on his election loss, still refuting the facts, the results, pushing baseless lies, and they are lies, about election fraud that have already been proven false.

President Trump is even leaving his Florida vacation early, departing before his annual New Year's party at Mar-a-Lago where guests have already started arriving.

He's returning to D.C. early not to address the pandemic, not to address the slow rollout of the vaccine, not to address increasing tensions with Iran, but to be back well ahead of January 6th, the day that Congress will certify Joe Biden's win despite a Republican plan to challenge Joe Biden's victory, disrupt what is a ceremonial process.

CNN's Boris Sanchez is in West Palm Beach where President Trump is leaving any minute. Boris, what more can you tell us about the president's plans to leave early? There's certainly a lot on his plate as president, but that doesn't seem to be his focus.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes Jim, we haven't gotten a clear response from the White House as to why the president is leaving West Palm Beach early. He was expected to attend a gala later tonight at his Mar-a-Lago estate with hundreds of people in attendance, the president ditching them to head back to Washington. We had gotten some reporting that indicated that the president was

angry about renovations at the Mar-a-Lago club, what is expected to be his post White House home. It's unclear that that's why he is leaving. In the meantime though, if you look closely at his twitter feed, he is fixated on this idea of overturning the 2020 election when Congress certifies the results of the Electoral College on January 6th.

And the president got news that he was hoping for when Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri announced that he would be objecting during that certification process. The president, of course, campaigning Republicans to go that route even though the Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell had privately been advising lawmakers to avoid this scenario entirely because it could spell disaster for the Republican Party moving forward.

Keep in mind, with this vote that is going to be held on January 6th, Republicans are ultimately going to have to go on the record as to whether they are going to stand with the facts and democracy and the fact that there is no evidence of widespread voter fraud or side with the president's fantasies about election rigging and then have to answer for that later on down the road, Jim.

SCIUTTO: You know, that phrase is remarkable. It's an effort to overturn an election. We can say it repeatedly; it's a fact, a remarkable one. Boris Sanchez, thanks so much.

Well, the Republican senator behind the planned disruption, Josh Hawley, is making clear that he is sticking with his intentions to challenge the election results. CNN's Lauren Fox is on Capitol Hill.

Lauren, Senator Hawley defending this position. I mean listen, it defies the GOP Majority Leader, the Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell. He did not want Republican Senators to do this.

LAUREN FOX, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's right Jim. I mean, you can expect that Josh Hawley is hardly the most popular lawmaker on Capitol Hill right now when it comes to his connection with his colleagues in the Republican conference.

Look, Hawley is defending his decision. He is telling us that essentially he told leadership this is what he was going to do, he gave them a heads up, but he still hasn't said how many states he plans to object to. I mean, this could go on for hours. There could be quite the theatrics on the floor of both the House and the Senate in just a few days. But here's what Hawley said last night on FOX News defending his position.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOSH HAWLEY (R-MO): This is my opportunity to stand up and say something, to stand up and point out that there were irregularities in this election, that there was fraud. Nobody disputes that, by the way, that there needs to be an investigation as to how widespread this fraud was and it needs to be changed.

Our election laws need to be changed. We need election integrity measures, obviously, and yet Congress has done nothing and they won't do anything unless somebody stands up and says something.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOX: And Jim, something to keep an eye on in the next couple of days, you have 21 Republican seats that lawmakers have to defend going into the '22 -- 2022 election. So that's going to be where all eyes are. What are those senators going to do? Are they going to be willing to cross President Trump, even though he's not at the top of the ticket, he's still is going to have an influence in their electoral futures.

SCIUTTO: We should note Hawley lied there when he said no one disputes this. It has been -- it has failed in courts in front of Trump appointed justices, it has failed in the defense -- in the Justice Department run by Bill Barr, the Supreme Court has failed to take it up.

So again, he was lying. Let's talk about outside of theatrics what is happening in terms of legislation, right, because one, the Senate is going to override the president's veto of the Defense Authorization Act, but also this effort for stimulus checks that the president supports as well, $2,000 stimulus checks, that's in effect dead on arrival.

FOX: Well, that's exactly right Jim. Look, we have a couple of days left in the 116th congress, I don't expect that these stimulus checks are going to come up for a straight up or down vote in the Senate. McConnell has said as much. Essentially, the only thing that they could put on the floor at this point is a poison pill bill that includes those $2,000 checks but other unpopular measures that Democrats don't support.

Right now, the only thing you can expect the U.S. Senate to do before the 117th Congress is override the president's veto on that defense bill. That is something that has had bipartisan support for 60 years and it is something that McConnell wants to make sure is finished before the next congress. That's it. No $2,000 stimulus checks coming any time soon. Jim.

SCIUTTO: Lauren Fox on the Hill, always good to have you. Thanks very much.

A dangerous ploy, that is what Republican Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska is calling fellow Republicans efforts to overturn the election. There's that phrase again, overturn it. In a lengthy late night Facebook post, Sasse alleged that his Republican colleagues have entertained claims that the election was fraudulent not because they actually believe it but because they're afraid of political repercussions from the president's base.

He writes "When we talk in private, I haven't heard a single Congressional Republican allege that the election results were fraudulent - not one. Instead, I hear them talk about their worries about how they will "look" to President Trump's most ardent supporters." That poet (ph) is, by the way, is the definition of political cowardice. I want to bring in Charlie Dent, he's CNN Political Commentator, he

himself a former Republican Congressman of Pennsylvania. Charlie, listen, I don't think we can highlight often enough. This is an effort by this president applying pressure to overturn the election after his allegations of widespread fraud have been rejected across the board.

Not by Democrats, although they're included, but by Trump appointed judges, by Republican election officials, by the Supreme Court with a 6-3 majority and three justices appointed by this president. How significant is this? How damaging is it?

CHARLIE DENT, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well Jim, this is very damaging and I would recommend to my former Republican colleagues in the House and the Senate to follow the lead of Adam Kinzinger who has correctly called this out, this nonsense. The president's legal challenges have been defeated at every turn.

His lawyers have been beaten like rented mules. I mean, that's how bad this is, but this is really an assault on representative government, on democracy itself. They all know better. What's happening now with these challenges in the House and now Senator Hawley are -- really are just simply plays to an audience of one, President Trump.

Perhaps senator Hawley is thinking about 2024 president -- GOP primary politics for president.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

DENT: I mean, that could be it, but this is really -- but this is really just certainly terrible for the institution. I went through this, Jim, back in 2005. My first few days in the U.S. House when Stephanie Tubbs Jones and she conscripted I think Barbara Boxer helped her with the challenge to George Bush's reelection over the Ohio count. That went nowhere, it just slowed everything down, but it was annoying and it was seen as a kind of frivolous action at the time.

SCIUTTO: To your point, though, that was different, right. And I'm not defending it; I'm saying that was about one state, Ohio. John Kerry had already conceded his election loss the night after the election, as most presidents do, and when they did that, they explicitly said they were not over -- trying to overturn the election.

This is a different animal because the president continues to claim that this was a fraudulent election, which is bought, sadly, by the majority of Republicans, according to a lot of public polling here. Tell us about that difference and what it means for confidence in our electoral process.

DENT: Yeah, you're right, Jim, it is different that John Kerry had conceded, no question about that.

[11:10:00]

What's different this time, though, what Republican voters need to hear, they need to hear an alternative narrative from -- we -- I mentioned Adam Kinzinger, but there's Denver Riggleman, Paul Mitchell, I can go down a long list of folks who have spoken up, but we need -- we need 100 members of the House and a significant number of Republican senators to stand up and just simply state the truth.

The base can be moved, (technical difficulty) from the president, all these lies and these statements about the election being rigged. And it's all such nonsense, and we all know it but it's destructive, but we need to hear the alternative narrative. And so I encourage them to speak up.

SCIUTTO: It's -- the sad fact is it's a product of the bubbles that we occupy today, right, because many are not hearing an alternative narrative. They're being fed this disinformation, and I call it disinformation because it is deliberate misinformation and therefore they're not being challenged.

I wonder, do you see the president's hold on the party fading at all as the time passes, as he leaves office because, again as I noted with Lauren Fox just before you, in terms of actual legislation, right, Congress is going to override the president's veto on the Defense And Authorization Act, that is real legislation.

Congress is not going to give the president what he wants on this electoral fraud commission and even the $2,000 stimulus checks, right, as McConnell bundles that together. Do you see the parties -- his grip on the party fading over time or is it rock solid?

DENT: Well, I hope that his grip on the party fades over the time -- over time. His relevance is diminishing by the day. And I think part of all these theatrics are really to make him -- he's trying to make himself relevant and he's trying to certainly bring attention toward himself. There is going to be a great debate in this party whether Trumpism survives Trump.

Now I do believe the president is going to use his platform, he's raised a few hundred million dollars there's talk of a digital TV platform for the president so that he can try to remain relevant and influence the debate. So I think he will try to remain engaged, but I do think that this conduct is hurting him.

And as Republicans, you know, I have argued, Jim, repeatedly that the party needs to move away from Trumpism, all this nativism, isolationism, populism, unilateralism, nihilism. I mean, this is not good for the long term prospects of the party and it has to be a more socially tolerant and inclusive party, one that's more constructively engaged on the international stage.

Get away from this crony capitalism and mercantilism and talk about free markets with reasonable modern regulation and address serious issues like climate change and immigration that may be outside the comfort zone of many Republicans, but to come up with real policy solutions simply complaining about the squad excites the base but I think Republicans have to become more serious about the issues and push Trump behind.

SCIUTTO: Well, we'll be watching after January 20th, former Republican Congressman Charlie Dent. Thanks so much for coming on. We wish you and your family the best for the holidays.

DENT: Hey, thanks Jim. Happy New Year.

SCIUTTO: Coming up, the U.S. again breaks its records for coronavirus deaths and hospitalizations. We're going to be live in hard hit Los Angeles where hospitals are just buckling under the strain of so many patients.

Plus should the U.S. focus on giving the first dose, just the first one, of the coronavirus vaccine to as many people as possible, even if it delays administering a second one. I'm going to speak to the former head of Medicaid and Medicare under President Obama about that very question next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:15:00]

It is, of course, the eve of the New Year and health experts are urging people not to gather as COVID related deaths here in the U.S. just reached another record high. More than 3,700 yesterday alone and a grim new CDC projection says more than 80,000 Americans could die of the virus just over the next several weeks.

This all comes as two states have now found the highly infectious new COVID-19 variant that was first identified in the U.K. CNNs Paul Vercammen joins us now from Los Angeles, and Paul, this new strain confirmed in California, a 30-year-old San Diego man. Do they now -- do they know how far and wide this has now spread there?

PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, so far it's just him. And the big question was, Jim, did he travel? The answer to that, no. When did his symptoms show up? That was two days after Christmas. So California keeping a close watch on this concerned with the variant as is the rest of the nation.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

VERCAMMEN (voice-over): The United States sees its deadliest day since the pandemic began. More than 3,700 Americans were reported dead on Wednesday from the coronavirus. And more than 125,000 Americans are currently hospitalized, the highest since the start of the pandemic.

The CDC now projects as many as 424,000 Americans will die from the virus by January 23rd. In California, the state identified its first case of the coronavirus variant after Colorado reported one confirmed case and one suspected case on Tuesday. The case involves a 30-year- old man in San Diego who had no recent travel history and had very few social interactions in the days before becoming symptomatic.

[11:20:00]

NATHAN FLETCHER, SUPERVISOR, SAN DIEGO COUNTY: We believe this is not an isolated case in San Diego County and there are probably other strains, other cases of the same strain, in San Diego County. VERCAMMEN: Dr. Anthony Fauci is not surprised that this variant has

been found in the United States and believes the vaccine will likely protect against this new strain.

FAUCI: The transmissibility of this is more sufficient than the transmissibility of the standard virus.

VERCAMMEN: This new COVID variant comes as California is still struggling to get the pandemic under control. In L.A. County, one person is dying every ten minutes from coronavirus. The county just surpassed 10,000 deaths since the start of the pandemic.

Hospitals are still overwhelmed in the state and ICU capacity is at 0% in much of the state. Meanwhile, some of the nation's top health officials are now admitting the pace of the vaccine rollout is lagging behind expectations.

MONCEF SLAOUI, CHIEF ADVISOR, OPERATION WARP SPEED: We agree that that number is lower than what we hoped for. We know that it should be better.

VERCAMMEN: The United States has distributed 12.4 million doses and administered only 2.7 vaccines only. The administration had promised 20 million vaccinations by the end of the year.

DR. LEANA WEN, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: It's overpromising in the first place. It's also not having a national strategy but instead throwing up our hands and basically saying it's now, the federal government has done their job, it's just with the production and initially distribution to the states.

VERCAMMEN: In Florida, this is what demand for the vaccine looks like, senior citizens lining up for hours, many arriving in the middle of the night and sitting in lawn chairs. Florida's first come, first serve policy for elderly residents leading to a scramble for a limited number of doses.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

And on the ground here in California, when you talk to doctors and nurses, they are exhausted, they are frustrated and they want people this New Year's Eve to stay indoors, not comingle with other families and just make sure that they protect everyone in the state, which is being ravaged by the virus, Jim.

SCIUTTO: Let's hope folks listen. Paul Vercammen, thanks very much.

Let's discuss now with former acting administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Andy Slavitt. Mr. Slavitt, thanks so much for taking the time today.

ANDY SLAVITT, FORMER ACTING ADMINISTRATOR OF THE CENTERS FOR MEDICARE AND MEDICAID SERVICES: Thanks, Jim, good to be here.

SCIUTTO: Let's talk about this new variant. It's confirmed in California and Colorado, but you speak to Fauci and others and they say, listen, it's very likely broadly across the U.S. right now.

A new U.K. study today says not only more transmissible is this variant, but also more -- youth are more susceptible, people under 20 are more susceptible than prior iterations of this. How concerning is that in your view?

SLAVITT: I think it should be concerning to us. The actions we have to take are no different than the actions we had to take before this strain and we just had not been taking them individually. As a country it's very clear we need to be doing a lot more sequencing, a lot more testing.

The entire spring and fall where President Trump said, hey, we're testing too much, these are consequences of what happens when you tell scientists, don't test so much, don't look, don't see where it is, don't see where it sequences and we know this is all over our country, we just don't know where.

SCIUTTO: Can we turn to do that, though? I mean, we're nine months into this, right. We blew it on testing. I mean, just -- and this is part of a consequence of it. It's not just to detect cases but as you know, to sequence so you know that there are new variants and where they turn up and how quickly, et cetera.

I just wonder if we're proving we don't have the capacity or the planning because it seems like a similar pattern is playing out now with the distribution of vaccines, right. I mean, in effect, dump it all on the states, leave it up to them.

SLAVITT: Absolutely right. That's been the strategy from the beginning is to try to make sure that the federal government owned no responsibility.

You know, I get this increasing sense, Jim, that for the Biden/Harris administration, this is going to be like moving into a house that they thought was -- that they knew was in disrepair, but that for the last few months the people living there they just decided to absolutely abandon all hope, all maintenance, let the grass grow, the trash pile up, and they're just making it more and more difficult because of their negligence.

So this can be turned around, but the Biden/Harris team is going to be starting from a much deeper hole than I think they -- anyone thought.

SCIUTTO: OK, I want to talk to -- mention how Dr. Fauci, what his reaction was to his own plan now since there's a shortage in effect -- not a shortage of doses but the doses just aren't getting out there quickly enough, this idea of using one dose now for more people and wait until you produce enough of the second dose, just get some immunity out there in effect for as many people as possible and kind of hope you ramp up production going forward.

Have a listen to Fauci and then I want to get your reaction.

[11:25:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NIAID: That's under consideration. I still think if done properly, you can do a single dose, reserve doses for the second dose and still get the job done. But there's a lot of discussion about whether or not you want to spread out the initial vaccination by getting more people vaccinated on the first round.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: Given how far behind we are at vaccinating, meeting this administration's own goals, a fraction of their goals by the end of this month which is what, 12.5 hours away. Do you agree with Dr. Fauci?

SLAVITT: I do think this needs to be strongly considered, Jim. The situation with the latest drug to be approved in the United Kingdom, the drug that was developed by Oxford and distributed by AstraZeneca is that they are allowing people to take one dose and continue on.

And what they're learning, and they don't have very good studies from this, what they've learned is that the longer the time between the boost actually enhances the immunization power of that particular vaccine. And so it may be that not only is it a better way to get more people some immunity, but it may, in fact, enhance people's immunity.

This is what one would hope the Trump administration would be ahead of the curve. We have the best scientists in the world; we say it all the time, yet other countries are figuring this out before us. I'm glad Dr. Fauci raised this because it is something that needs to be forced into the dialogue.

The other thing that's, quite frankly, appalling, is in most states tell me that we have 25-year-old dental students getting vaccinated while we have people that are at serious risk of hospitalization that are not getting vaccinated.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

SLAVITT: States, again to your point that states have been given the freedom to do what they want, in many cases the vaccinations are just not going to the right people and the hospitalizations continue to climb.

SCIUTTO: Goodness. Let's hope it gets turned around soon. The country needs it. Andy Slavitt, thanks so much.

SLAVITT: Thank you.

SCIUTTO: Still ahead this hour, President Trump remains fixated on getting Republicans not only to challenge next week's electoral count but to upright overturn the election. Well, Senator Bob Casey, Democrat of Pennsylvania, calls Trump's latest strategy "a cheap political move." He's going to join me next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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