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Georgia Lt. Gov.: Trump Is "Not Helping" GOP in Senate Runoff; Gov. Chris Sununu (R-NH) Discusses Cancelling Inauguration Ceremony over Armed Protests & Vaccine Distribution; South African COVID Variant May Affect Vaccine Efficacy; How COVID-19 Disrupted the Entertainment Industry. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired December 31, 2020 - 13:30   ET

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

[13:30:00]

KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This is a Democratic- leaning county. The line at one of the precincts was three hours long.

So what's happening here, as you mentioned, John, the Republicans, the two Republican Senators, they're going to come on stage. They're going to try to rally their side.

They say they have about 700 people who have indicated they're going to be showing up here.

The message from the Republicans today as we close out 2020 is that Republicans have got to unite, ignore the president's tweets and focus on Tuesday -- John?

JOHN AVLON, CNN HOST: Kyung Lah, thank you very much.

Political heavyweights flocking to the Peach State in the coming days. But there's one powerhouse who may be doing more harm than good. That's President Trump.

Take a listen to what Georgia's Republican lieutenant governor, Geoff Duncan, told CNN this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LT. GOV. GEOFF DUNCAN (R-GA): Unfortunately, the president has committed to the way he's going to act and react to losing the election. At this point, it's not helping us here in Georgia.

It's damaging. Short term here, I'm worried that the side shows and the distractions are causing some disruption around January 5th. But long term, gosh, it's just not helpful. Quite honestly, it is a sideshow.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AVLON: Here to break down the state of the race, CNN senior writer and analyst, Harry Enten, digging into all the data.

Looking at Georgia, Harry, do you think Republicans want this race to be about Trump or not?

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICS WRITER & ANALYST: I don't think so. Look, look at the results from November. I think it gives you a good understanding of why Republicans don't want it to be about President Trump.

Trump lost in the state. He ran behind the Senate Republicans in both the regular election and the special election. Trump was the first Republican to lose statewide in over a decade in Georgia.

Democrats would be more than happy for this race to be about Trump. Republicans don't necessarily want it to be.

AVLON: But that's bizarre a little bit because Republicans have enjoyed an advantage in Georgia runoffs, right?

ENTEN: That's exactly right. You go back since 1992, seven out of eight times Republicans gain more than Democrats in the runoff.

You would think, just on that basis along, and given that Senate Republicans ran ahead of Trump back in November, you'd think they'd be in pretty good shape. But obviously, it's a pretty close race.

AVLON: But past may not be prologue, because the advantage may not be there this time, right?

(CROSSTALK)

ENTEN: That's exactly right.

Look at this. I took an average of the polls. What do we see? We see these races are really, really close. If anything, the Democrats have a slight advantage.

These races, John, really are within the margin of error. They are way too close to call, which is very different than what we might expect historically from the Peach State.

AVLON: So helpful to see that breakdown.

So this also seems to be an unusual runoff from the turnout perspective. You saw the long lines. What does the early data look like?

ENTEN: Look at this, 2.8 million just through Wednesday. Look at the prior runoff record. It was 2.1 million. And that was overall.

I can't stress to you enough, John, how historically large this turnout is. It is going to climb ever higher.

This is not a regular runoff. This is something very distinct. This is something we just have not seen in history down in Georgia.

AVLON: What does it say about Democrats getting their voters to the polls so far?

ENTEN: I think this next slide really gets at it, John. Look at this. Democrats want black voters to show up. They want them to be a larger percentage of the electorate than they were in November.

Look at this. At the same point in time, right now in the Senate runoff, African-American voters are making up 31 percent of the electorate. Back in the November election, it was less than 28 percent.

Given how close, given how close those Senate races were back in November, this type of difference could put Democrats over the line in those Senate runoffs in January, given this difference right now.

It's very good news for Democrats at least so far.

AVLON: That's a number to watch.

But obviously, Democrats would need both Senate seats for Senate control. If they win one, what does history say about the winning vote, or vice versa?

ENTEN: Yes, 86 percent of the time, if one party wins one in what I call these double-barrel Senate elections, when there are two of them, 86 percent of the time, the same party wins both races.

Of course, most of the time, right, these races aren't necessarily that close so you get two blowouts. In this case, maybe history won't hold.

But I do think Democrats have to like their chance. If they win one, they probably will win both and they will get that Senate majority.

AVLON: Now, it's the year-end show. We're talking about polling. You mentioned the margin of error. But let's deal with the reality that polling this year in the general election was off, wasn't it?

ENTEN: Oh, boy, oh, boy. I made this slide.

(CROSSTALK)

ENTEN: I'm still not happy I made this slide, John. Look at this.

In competitive states in the average presidential poll, since 2000, look at this, the largest error was this past year, 5.5 points. That was even worse than the polls were in 2016.

This is something we have to keep in mind. And that's why when the race is within the margin of error, it really is within the margin of error.

This is a race that will be way too close to call in Georgia. I'm not relying on the polls as much as I would normally.

Though, I should point out, in the state of Georgia, the polls were pretty good in November. They suggest that Biden was a small favorite and he did, in fact, win in the Peach State.

[13:35:01]

AVLON: Harry Enten, thank you very much, my friend. Happy New Year.

ENTEN: Happy New Year to you as well.

AVLON: Next up, a Republican governor, pushing a mask mandate in his state, now says he's going to cancel his public inauguration ceremony, but will it stop armed protesters? That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

AVLON: So 2020 showed us how the pandemic scrambles American life every day. But now the pandemic division is already disrupting 2021 plans.

[13:40:02]

New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu canceled his inauguration set for next week, not out of fears of COVID community spread, but because of concerns over armed masked protesters who have been outside his home who have been outside his home for weeks.

Sununu issued a mask mandate in November, which runs through January 15th.

And he joins us now.

Republican governor of New Hampshire, Chris Sununu, thank you for joining us on CNN.

Now you've called --

GOV. CHRIS SUNUNU (R-NH): Absolutely.

AVLON: You've called the armed protesters around your mask mandate aggressive. But there was a disturbing event at your house Monday night. What happened?

SUNUNU: The protesters have been going on for a while. And it's fine. Folks have the right to protest. I wish it would happen at the statehouse or a more public atmosphere.

They've been coming to our house, my wife and young children. They come week after week.

On Monday night, we had an armed individual on my property, in my back yard, that had to be arrested. So that just kind of raises the level of aggression, if you will.

While we were going to have the inaugural outdoors for the first time and be socially distanced and smart about it, there's just no way to safely secure that plaza.

My obligation is to the safety of my family and my citizens. We have to be a little smart about it and make the change.

AVLON: Is that part of -- yourself and other statewide officials, have you seen escalation in death threats against yourself and your family since the election?

SUNUNU: I think that's probably the case for most elected officials across the country.

I mean, 2020 really amped up what was, if you will, the goal post, the line of acceptable behavior when it comes to being aggressive. We saw cities burning. We saw all this sort of thing across the country.

I think, overall, the line has been pushed as to what folks think is acceptable.

And we're in this weird time, just because you disagree with a policy or position -- I don't even like some of the positions I have to take, but they're the things we have to do.

But that doesn't mean you go and you get aggressive on individual's families. And with a wife and small children.

Look, this is New Hampshire. We don't have a governor's mansion. I don't live behind walls. We typically have a very small security team because I believe in that accessibility.

But with that, comes the expectation that folks will at least respect the privacy of your family.

If they want to come to the statehouse, all day long. I work at the statehouse Monday through Friday. Come up there. You can protest on the public grounds there all you want.

But when it comes to a small neighborhood in a small town, with the aggressiveness we're seeing, it's really crossing a line a bit. I think most people understand.

And again, we just have to be smart about what we do so we don't put anyone in harm's way.

AVLON: It's worth reminding folks, you're a Republican, entering your third term.

Do you think President Trump's rhetoric around masks and shutdown is partly to blame for this escalation of armed protesters?

SUNUNU: No. No, look, I don't -- I supported the president. I don't always agree with what he says and how he says it. I kind of call the balls and strikes like I see them.

But I don't think any one individual is to blame for any of this. I think there's a culture -- especially here in New Hampshire. We're the "Live Free or Die" state. Nobody likes an overly oppressive government coming down on them and all that.

But at the same time, these are temporary orders that a lot of us had to put in place. I put our mask order in place about a month ago. That seemed to be the straw that broke the camel's back a little bit with folks.

We have one of the most open economies in the country. We're very proud of that. We're managing our COVID very well.

So I don't think any one individual is to blame. I think 2020, as a whole, saw an escalation across this country of individuals that thought it was OK to be violent, OK to take it to the next level.

And when it comes to firearms, look, I'm as pro Second Amendment as they come. NRA, A-plus.

But when it comes to someone at night walking into my back yard with a loaded gun, you don't have to be the governor to know that's a threat, and that's folks taking it to a whole different level that we just haven't seen before.

AVLON: It is. It's totally unacceptable. We're sorry to the threat for your family.

Now let's turn to vaccines. How is the rollout going in your state? We heard frustrations from Pennsylvania, Governor Wolf, Ohio Governor DeWine.

How are things going in terms of getting the vaccines into the arms and just the logistics of the distribution?

SUNUNU: We're a smaller state. I've got to say it's going very well. It really is.

We would all, as governors, like to see more vaccines come to our state. We all get our fair share, per se.

CVS and Walgreens on a national level and here in New Hampshire are taking care of a lot of the vaccinations having to do with our long- term care facilities. That's where the highest-risk individuals are.

We take half of that vaccine and give it out to hospitals and health care workers.

Overall, it's going very well. These are the initial weeks. I think everyone is trying to figure out how it gets done.

This week, in New Hampshire, we started kind of drive-in clinics for our first responders across the state. That's been rolling out this week and going well.

Right now, it's about getting it a little faster, allowing us to get it out, and putting, if you will, the needles in the arms.

The uptick right now is very good. By that, I mean most people who are offered the vaccine are taking the vaccine.

[13:44:59] And that's a really good sign that overall we're going to have a high

up take here. That gives us security to know, within a few months, we're looking to get out of this COVID issue.

My goal, my kind of marker a little bit is Memorial Day. As we hit the summer, I firmly believe that most Americans will have had the opportunity to get the vaccine, especially those in high-risk areas.

And the economy, as a whole across America, is opening up and we're getting back to normal, whatever that looks like in 2021.

AVLON: Governor Chris Sununu, of New Hampshire, thank you very much for joining us on CNN. Happy New Year.

SUNUNU: Thank you. Happy New Year.

AVLON: Just into CNN, the new highly contagious South African variant of coronavirus, which researchers warn is spreading quickly, may pose a challenge to existing vaccines.

CNN's Elizabeth Cohen is following all of the breaking details.

Elizabeth, researchers are worried this could have an impact on the effectiveness of the vaccine. What are you hearing from this study?

DR. ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: You know what, John, whenever there's a new variant out there, there's a question will the vaccine work.

I spoke with Tulu Arizara (ph). He is the researcher in South Africa who discovered this variant recently.

What he told me is he thinks it could potentially -- he used the word "potentially" -- affect the efficacy of the vaccine. He said maybe it won't. Maybe it will. We need to study it. That's the important part, is that it needs to be studied.

This is a variant that has a pretty high number of changes to it. That's what researchers look at, this new mutation, how many changes does it have.

This one has 22. The U.K. one had 17. Both of those are high numbers. And some of them effect -- if you see that image that we see all the time of the virus with the red spikes? Those red spikes are what's important for the vaccine.

And in both the U.K. and the South African variants, there are some changes to that spike or changes in the genetic that spike. And so -- or changes in the genetic instructions for that spike.

So it's important to know that scientists are looking at it and they hope to have an answer very soon.

AVLON: Just to be clear, the lead researcher of the South African variant is warning that he thinks it should be studied whether or not the current vaccines take care of this new variant. He said it's not a possibility. It's something he's simply concerned

about. It's not a probability, but a possibility, correct?

COHEN: Exactly. It's a possibility. So this is the scientist, the virologist who found the variant to begin with. He's saying we need to study this. We need to find this out.

AVLON: Elizabeth Cohen, thank you very much for the breaking news.

COHEN: Thanks.

AVLON: Next, a look at the ongoing toll the pandemic is taking on the entertainment industry.

Plus, see what books and songs made the top-five list this year. You know it's how we mark time. See it after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:52:17]

AVLON: COVID-19 did a real number on the way we entertained ourselves in 2020. The pandemic closed music venues and theaters and shut down film and TV productions.

Now a labor unity for entertainment professionals is warning its members that the COVID surge in California will keep them off the job even in the weeks ahead.

Let's talk about all of this with CNN contributor and host of "Entertainment Tonight," Nischelle Turner.

Nischelle, it's good to see you.

So what is --

(CROSSTALK)

AVLON: Put this in context for us --

(CROSSTALK)

AVLON: -- the whole deal.

NISCHELLE TURNER, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: You know, it has been a year. And it seems like we've got more coming in the next few months. We keep trying to see light at the end of the tunnel.

But you know, the entertainment industry has definitely taken a shift in this COVID era, like so many other industries have.

As you mentioned, I host "Entertainment Tonight." We, like so many, worked from home seven months, doing our shows from home, trying to do things differently, falling into this new normal.

You saw that all across production in the entertainment industry. So many shows shut down for so long.

Then, when they came back, they had a whole new protocol, you know, less people on the job, more testing. We get tested three times a week at "Entertainment Tonight."

All of these things played into how we tried to recover.

Also, when you watch your favorite shows, you have seen the pandemic story lines play out on some of your favorite stores, whether it's "Bull" or "NCIS," or "Black-ish," "Gray's Anatomy," all of them having brought the pandemic into their story lines.

So Hollywood has really kind of taken what's going on in the world and brought it into the confines of what we now consume.

AVLON: Look, you can't look back on a year without compiling a few lists. Let's begin with some of your top moments of entertainment in 2020.

TURNER: Are we doing our own, like, Anderson/Andy countdown at like 1:55 in the afternoon?

(LAUGHTER)

(CROSSTALK)

AVLON: It's midnight somewhere.

TURNER: Exactly.

Listen, this year, there have been a lot of big cultural moments. Unfortunately, they surrounded death and breakups.

I think two of the biggest cultural moments in 2020 for me was, number one, the death of Kobe Bryant, which happened this year in January.

It's coming up on a year anniversary of that. It was Grammy Sunday when we got the news. I think that just rocked all of us and kind of started this trajectory down 2020.

And then just recently, the death of Chadwick Boseman. I mean, everyone was shook by that. No one expected it. He was battling cancer. We didn't know.

And now we've seen, after his death, him go on to star in two of the biggest and best movies of 2020. "Defy Blood," he was the central figures in, and also now "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom," that was just out. He will definitely be nominated for awards this year.

[13:55:16]

And the third, of course, was what, in the entertainment industry, we call it Megxit, but that's Meghan and Harry stepping away from their royal duties and making a home here in California.

We're all still trying to figure out what happened there. Will they be able to put it back together? It's like our own soap opera playing out right in front of us in real life.

AVLON: There will be more to come.

Nischelle Turner, thank you very much. Happy New Year.

TURNER: Happy New Year to you, my friend. Have a good one.

AVLON: You, too.

Up next, the U.S. hits another devastating COVID milestone as 2020 comes to a close. Hear what officials in charge of the vaccine roll- out say about the delay in getting the shots into people's arms.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)