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VP Pence Asks Judge to Dismiss Rep. Gohmert's Lawsuit; 3 Million+ Early Votes Cast Ahead of Tuesday's Elections. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired January 01, 2021 - 14:30   ET

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

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[14:31:38]

JOHN AVLON, CNN HOST: 2020 went out with a fizzle at President Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, because after paying four figures for tickets to the president's annual New Year's Eve party, Trump was a no-show, jetting off to D.C. to fight his election loss to Biden, leaving guests to party with the likes of Rudy Giuliani and Vanilla Ice, cue the sad trombone version of "Ice, Ice, Baby".

I want to bring in CNN's Kate Bennett.

So, Kate, how did last night go at Mar-a-Lago?

KATE BENNETT, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: It was pretty -- even if going back further than Vanilla Ice, Berlin played. I'm old enough to know who Berlin is, but I don't know if the --

(CROSSTALK)

AVLON: A decent one hit wonder but, yes.

BENNETT: Yes, sure. These are guests who are, as you said, paying hundreds of dollars, if not thousands of dollars per ticket to have their New Year's Eve ring in at Mar-a-Lago. And, of course, the big headliner this year being the last year of him being down here would have been the president and the first lady. They typically make a big splash walking a red carpet each year. That just didn't happen because as we know, as we reported, the president and first lady, without explanation, headed back to Washington, ditching their New Year's Eve party. They left on Wednesday.

Guests were surprised that didn't happen. And they had to have instead Eric and Lara Trump, Donald Trump Jr. and Kimberly Guilfoyle, Tiffany Trump was there with her boyfriend as well. And as we saw from some of the pictures on social media, most of the guests were not wearing masks either.

AVLON: What could possibly go wrong? Was any explanation given, any rationalization offered to so many folks who ponied up so much cash?

BENNETT: I don't believe so. From the sources we're talking to, the people who ended up going were sort of the diehard club members, the people who go every single year, who enjoy the Trump wedge salad, the steak and other things on the menu for New Year's Eve, but certainly it was a more subdued party this time for Mar-a-Lago. Without the president there, certainly a lot less to celebration for those members of his club who enjoy seeing him time to time --

AVLON: For sure, Kate Bennett, thank you very much. Take care of that hound.

BENNETT: Thank you.

(LAUGHTER)

AVLON: All right. Vice President Pence is pushing back against a last- ditch effort by Republicans to get him to overturn President-elect Joe Biden's victory. Pence is asking a federal judge to throw out a lawsuit from Texas Republican Congressman Louis Gohmert that threatens to force Pence to ignore the electoral votes of several key states. It all comes to next Wednesday when Congress meets to count those votes.

CNN contributor Michael D'Antonio joins us. He co-authored a book about the vice president titled "The Shadow President: The Truth About Mike Pence". He also wrote, "High Crimes: The Corruption, Impunity and Impeachment of Donald Trump."

Michael, Pence so eager to please Trump, but how does he navigate his role Wednesday?

MICHAEL D'ANTONIO, CN CONTRIBUTOR: You know, now that the Trump manages is in its death throes, we're seeing that Pence and the president are actually closer than we might imagine when it comes to their character. Both men are profoundly interested in their images, they're both profoundly interested in power and not much interested in running the government, as we can see with their handling of the pandemic.

[14:35:06]

So now Pence is facing this choice of, how do I serve Donald Trump, because I'm not really much interested in serving the country, but get out of this mission alive, because he doesn't want to so alienate the rest of country that he can't run for president.

So, I imagine what he's going to do is make a notice about serious irregularities, which we all not is not true, in the counting of the votes in various states, and then he will preside in the way he's supposed to. He does know what he's supposed to do. Unlike Donald Trump, Pence knows what is expected of him and understands how the government works.

AVLON: And reportedly Donald Trump doesn't seem to understand Pence's role in this, setting off a real conflict between the two men. What has that psychological dance been like? You've written about those folks.

D'ANTONIO: Oh, boy. You know, to watch Mike Pence in the last four years, has been to witness the most cringe-worthy display of bootlicking I think we've been forced to witness in American history. Trump has had Pence under his thumb, but at the same time, he's demanded a great deal of him. So, he put him in charge of the coronavirus task force. At the beginning of the administration, he leaned on Pence to help him figure out how to populate the administration, because he didn't know who to appoint to the various offices.

So in this final dance, Pence is going to try to position himself to do what Donald wants one more time, so that maybe, in 2024, he can run for president and claim the front-runner status. That's all assuming that Donald Trump himself doesn't try to jump in.

AVLON: Yes, I'm about to say, is there any reason to believe that loyalty will be rewarded?

(LAUGHTER)

D'ANTONIO: Well, you know, Donald Trump doesn't reward loyalty --

AVLON: Right.

D'ANTONIO: -- unless you're facing a prison term, and then he might hand out a pardon.

Otherwise, I think Mike is going to have a lot to pray for. He's a very devout man. I think he should pray that Donald Trump doesn't decide to run.

Now, I suspect all of Trump's noise about running for president is really just that.

AVLON: Sure.

D'ANTONIO: He's trying to keep alive his base, so they can send him money. So --

AVLON: I want to ask you before we go, though, about that state of mind right now, because you've written deep dives about Donald Trump. You know, the final days of the Nixon administration, you had a president who seemed unhinged, talking to portraits reportedly, drunk dialing associates.

That's certainly not the case with this president. But there does seem to be a flailing quality.

What do you understand about his psychology which leads to this moment, where he seems to be unspooling in private?

D'ANTONIO: Well, he's a ridiculously emotional grown man, isn't he? It's like America is dealing with a colicky baby. Every time he cries, we look to see what terrible thing might happen next.

I think he's going to get worse and worse. I would be absolutely shocked if he shows up at the inauguration, and I think he will start bellowing from the rooftops come January 21st about how incompetent Biden is and how he should still be president. AVLON: Michael D'Antonio, thank you very much and happy New Year.

D'ANTONIO: Thanks, John.

AVLON: All right. Still ahead, we're live in Georgia, as early voting now has surpassed 3 million people. One of the Republican incumbents is in quarantine. A look at how COVID is playing into that crucial election.

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[14:42:59]

AVLON: More than 3 million votes have already been cast in the Georgia Senate runoff elections. CNN is reporting that these numbers are making some Republicans very nervous.

Here to discuss, Patricia Murphy, political report with "The Atlanta Journal-Constitution", and CNN's Kyung Lah.

Kyung, two GOP operatives familiar with the data are telling CNN that Republicans need an impressive turnout on Tuesday, January 5th, in order to overcome the Democratic turnout in the two weeks of early voting, leading up to election day.

So, what are you hearing from Republicans on the ground about this?

KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Republicans are believing in a it is certainly achievable. That's a line we are hearing from Republicans, but here's the thing. They also know that it is upping the pressure on them to get out the vote actually on Election Day among the GOP base. They are hoping that the president's arrival the day before Election Day is going to help sort of juice that turnout, especially in the rural areas where they are really relying on higher turnout.

But that 3 million number you're talking about, John, it is something being interpreted here, especially by someone like Stacey Abrams, who told CNN yesterday that she says that black voters are outperforming where they were in the 2020 general election. So, this is great news for Democrats, but they are not taking it to the bank until they see the turnout on the GOP side on Election Day. So still too early to say, but those are eye-popping numbers, especially that 3 million, John.

AVLON: One hundred percent.

Now, Patricia, Georgia recount reported record-high hospitalizations. Just yesterday, Governor Kemp is reopening some field hospitals, and now we learned that Senator Perdue is in quarantine after coming into, quote, close contact with someone who's tested positive with the virus.

So how is COVID shaping the final days of this race?

PATRICIA MURPHY, POLITICAL REPORTER, THE ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION: Well, it's making it harder obviously for Senator Perdue to campaign at all. The Democrats have made a lot of changes to the way they campaign generally this entire year, and that has not changed.

[14:45:02]

They do drive-in events. They do a lot of virtual events. I've never seen a big Democratic rally throughout this entire campaign season.

The Republicans have really stuck with the plans, same playbook, big rallies, large crowds. The senators always wear their masks at these events, but they do take them off to speak. And so -- but a number of people at the events are not wearing masks and that seems to be more prevalent in rural and conservative areas of the state, where they're campaigning quite a bit more.

So, in any given day, the senators could be in front of hundreds and hundreds of people, and some of them are wearing masks, some aren't. Of course, the state is suffering mightily. We have ERs filling up, ICUs filling up. We don't believe there's going to be a lockdown, because that's not the type of state that Governor Kemp has been running.

But it's a very a real situation here in the state.

AVLON: Patricia, quickly, is it fair to say as COVID rises in people's minds, does it add additional degree of difficulty for Republicans?

MURPHY: I think the things that are creating difficulty for Republicans are -- I have to say it is President Trump. President Trump is creating a difficult situation for these Republicans by talking about the last election they have not had a unified message about the next election, their own election on January, and Kyung was talking about the turnout states, the rural areas are lagging behind even in the early vote before November.

So, we always know Republicans turn out more on election day, but even the ones who did vote early in the last election are not doing it in the same quantity and volume they were before the November election. It's creating quite a problem.

AVLON: And, Kyung, I mean, obviously, typically turnout in a runoff is lower than in a general, but the Senate majority depends on these runoffs, there's no bigger stakes. So, the leaders of both parties, President Trump, President-elect Biden, along with their respective vice presidents, will campaign in the Peach State in the coming days. So, how does that affect the ground game? How significant is it for example that Trump is going to these rural counties?

MURPHY: Well, you know, the GOP is counting on him to juice the turnout among the faithful. That's really been the playbook. Runoff elections are not about persuasion. They are about bringing out the base. And that's why President Trump is such a potent force here.

The pressure, though, and you just heard Patricia talking about that, is what is going to be the effect of what the president says on Monday? This is a race that is a proxy for national politics, so what the president says here is going to be extremely important.

So, what we're seeing from Republicans are a lot of nerves. What is he going to say? Is he just going to talk about the election? Is he going to talk about January 6th?

The emphasis is January 5th. That's what they are hoping the president will talk about, but they're not really sure.

AVLON: It can't help when he's calling for Georgia's Republican governor to resign.

Patricia, you were with Senator Kelly Loeffler yesterday, when she suggested she may join Republican Josh Hawley in his quixotic attempt to derail the results of the election. Why don't you take a listen and respond?

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SEN. KELLY LOEFFLER (R-GA): Everything is on the table right now. I've said that, that I will keep fighting for this president. He's fought for us. He put America first. We're going to keep fighting for him, but I have to win on January 5th.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AVLON: Is that a winning position?

MURPHY: That's the position she's taking. Senator Loeffler has had a completely consistent message this entire campaign season. She's 100 percent President Trump. So, wherever Trump is going, she's going there with him.

She really at this point has no choice. If she's going to be 100 percent Trump, get those base voters that Kyung was talking about, she's got to be with him 100 percent, but I think it complicates it a great deal for people who are more moderate Republican voters, even some persuadable Democrats, who might not be entirely comfortable with 100 percent Democratic control in Washington.

That's what makes it so difficult for Loeffler. She's got to stick with Trump. She can't win without him, but we're going to see if she can win with him as well.

AVLON: Well, obviously, he lost the general election and lost a couple Republican votes in the suburban counties that she presumably is going to need to win back.

Patricia Murphy, thank you very much. Kyung Lah, thank you very much. Happy New Year to both.

OK, next up, a look at the job market heading into 2021, as millions of Americans try to get their lives back on track in this New Year.

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[14:54:00] AVLON: Another 787,000 Americans filed for first-time jobless claims during the week of Christmas. That's more than the entire population in the state of Wyoming. Of course, the vast majority of those job losses are driven by the pandemic, and health experts warn the next few months could be even worse.

So, what does that mean for people who need and want to work?

CNN business correspondent Alison Kosik joins us.

Alison, happy New Year.

What's 2021 looking like for the job market?

ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: John, happy New Year to you.

You know, Wall Street rallied on the vaccine and the stimulus news, but beyond stocks, millions of Americans are struggling. There is a health crisis and there is a job crisis right now.

You look at the economy. It's still down 9.8 million jobs since February. The recovery is stalling and the number of long-term unemployed is growing. The economy is worried we could see job losses in the December jobs report that comes out next week.

The unemployment rate is below 7 percent, but it's still well above its pre-pandemic level.

[14:55:00]

Job losses have hit some harder than others as well and the recovery has not been even. The unemployment rate for White, Asian, and Hispanic Americans is back down to the single digits, but for black workers the unemployment rate is 10.3 percent.

And laid off Americans are facing a grim reality. Millions of jobs are simply never coming back, and the economists are worried rising coronavirus cases could threaten the already fragile recovery. The pandemic has already taken a huge toll on restaurants and airlines and tourism, so jobs will be hard to bring back in those sectors.

So, Americans, John, will be looking to the Biden administration. Once Joe Biden is sworn in to help jump-start the labor market in 2021 -- John.

AVLON: Alison, thank you very much.

All right. Up next, CNN has learned the Trump administration is not planning to change the way it administers doses of the vaccines. Details on that just up ahead.

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