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Judge Dismisses Lawsuit by Congressman Louie Gohmert to Force Vice President Pence to Overturn Presidential Election Results; Republicans in Congress May Delay Election of President-Elect Joe Biden with Objections to Electors During Certification Process; Coronavirus Cases Rising in States Across U.S.; New Coronavirus Variant Possibly Originating in U.K. Found in U.S.; Campaigning Continues in Georgia for U.S. Senate Runoff Races; Interview with Former National Security Adviser Lieutenant General H.R. McMaster on U.S. Policy Towards Iran; Announcement of Availability of Coronavirus Vaccine for Those Over 65 in Florida on First Come, First Serve Basis Causes Long Wait Lines. Aired 10-11a ET
Aired January 02, 2021 - 10:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[10:00:23]
CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: A critical week is ahead here, big implications for the pandemic and politics. The U.S. topping 20 million coronavirus cases amid worries of a slow vaccine rollout and now virus strains.
JOHN AVLON, CNN ANCHOR: Plus, the final challenge, President Trump makes one last attempt to overturn the Electoral College.
PAUL: All this is happening as Georgia weighs in on a balance of power in Washington, the nation waiting to see if the peach state can turn blue again on Tuesday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JON OSSOFF (D), GEORGIA CANDIDATE FOR SENATE: The whole country is watching us. The whole country is watching you. Georgia has so much power right now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PAUL: I want to wish you a happy New Year, and welcome to this Saturday, January 2nd. I'm Christi Paul. Look at this familiar face with us.
AVLON: Hey, I'm John Avlon, filling in for Victor, and you're in the CNN Newsroom. Happy New Year.
PAUL: We're so glad to have you, John.
So, listen, there are two tough losses for President Trump that we have to talk about. They happened yesterday. A federal judge tossed a lawsuit from a GOP congressman attempting to overthrow the results of the election, and the Senate voted to override President Trump's veto of the Defense Authorization Act.
AVLON: That's right, CNN's Sarah Westwood has the latest from the White House. Sarah, let's start with that lawsuit. Several Arizona Republicans joined GOP Congressman Louie Gohmert in trying to force Vice President Pence to choose Donald Trump as the next president unilaterally. We know the vice president asked the judge to reject the case. What more did the judge say?
SARAH WESTWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, John, the judge in the eastern district of Texas said Gohmert and those other Arizona GOP congressmen did not have standing to bring the case forward, meaning there was evidence, no basis for the lawsuit, which centered on challenging Vice President Pence's role in certifying the Electoral College results, a role that historically is largely ceremonial. It's just a formality because the votes have already been cast.
In the days after that lawsuit was filed, we just had a lot of radio silence from Vice President Pence on that lawsuit. But we did finally hear from him in a filing on that lawsuit in which he asked the court to reject the case, acknowledging that the vice president does not have the authority to discard Electoral College votes. The Department of Justice had given the White House a heads up that they did plan to weigh in on that case, but we know that President Trump in the past few weeks has been furious at what he perceived as DOJ inaction on his baseless claims of election fraud.
And as you guys mentioned, that's not even the only setback that the president suffered yesterday, because the Congress gave the president is first veto override of his term in office when they rejected the president's attempt to veto the defense spending bill. Trump had asked Republicans to include a repeal of some protections for social media companies in that bill. Republicans and Democrats overwhelmingly said no, they wanted that bill to pass anyway.
And I want to read you the president's reaction. He said, "Our Republican Senate just missed the opportunity to give people ravaged by the China virus $600 rather than the $2,000 which they so desperately need. Not fair or smart." So obviously the president's influence over Republicans is waning in the final days of his presidency, even as he pushes them to do his bidding legislatively and in terms of his election challenges.
PAUL: Yes, Sarah, that tweet was a very broad critique of the GOP, but I know he's actually taking aim at several specific GOP senators, yes?
WESTWOOD: That's right, Christi. And one of them is one of the highest-ranking Republicans in the Senate. That's Majority Whip John Thune. The president actually encouraged the pro-Trump governor of South Dakota to primary Thune, essentially advocating for him to be voted out of office because Thune has been one of many senators who have been vocal about opposing their colleagues' attempts to challenge the Electoral College results this week.
Senator Josh Hawley is leading the charge in the Senate for the GOP, saying he will object to the Electoral College votes of at least one state. But there are dozens and dozens of Republicans in the House who plan to do the same. Obviously, it's not going to change the Electoral College results, it's really just a protest vote. But it's setting up a really painful test for Republicans if this becomes not just a ceremonial certification, but members are forced to put their votes on record in favor of or against the results, John and Christi.
AVLON: The surreal scene continues as Donald Trump gets ready to leave the White House. Sarah Westwood, thank you very much.
PAUL: Sarah, thanks.
[10:05:6]
So, you just heard Wednesday's vote to certify Joe Biden's victory won't be quick, nor will it be straightforward.
AVLON: No, but we can make sense of this with CNN's Phil Mattingly as he walks us through the challenges, we could see this week.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: As the 116th Congress comes to an end, the president with a pretty sharp rebuke from both Republicans and Democrats. Now, that doesn't mean the relations with Congress are officially over. In fact, Republicans, more than 140 in the House, at least one in the United States Senate, perhaps more, are lining up behind the president this time around when it comes to trying to overthrow or overturn the U.S. election.
Let's make something very, very clear here. On January 6th when a joint session of Congress convenes to count the electors, Joe Biden will once again be confirmed to be the next president of the United States of America. How long it takes to actually get to that point, well, that's where the current dynamics are officially throwing things into question.
Those Republicans, when paired with the senator, if they raise an objection to any of the slates of electors that are being counted, that would require both chambers to then recess, have a debate of up to two hours, and then have a vote on those objections. The vote will fail, however many times it occurs, however many times it happens, it will fail. Democrats control the House. Democrats have a decent sized minority in the Senate, and a number of Republicans in the Senate are acknowledging reality, that Joe Biden is the next president of the United States.
So tangibly all these objections mean is that it's going to be a very long day. Politically, it's become a big, big issue inside the Republican party, particularly with Republican senators. Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell made very clear this was not a pathway he wanted Republicans to go down. Just think of the dynamics. You either vote for reality, that Joe Biden is the next president of the United States, or you vote for President Trump. Well, that's against reality and obviously there are political implications there and political incentives that Republicans who don't want this fight certainly didn't want to have to vote on. And yet it looks like that's exactly what's going to happen, just another page in these final weeks for President Trump, what it means for the party, what it means for the president himself, what it means for the senators and congressmen that will still be in office when he leaves, everybody trying to figure everything out.
The bottom line is this -- Joe Biden will be inaugurated president of the United States on January 20th. What happens to President Trump and what happens to the party that he currently oversees, that very much remains an open question.
Phil Mattingly, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
AVLON: All right, let's bring in Ellen Weintraub, she's a commissioner on the Federal Election Commission. Ms. Weintraub, it's very good to see you. I want to get your take on this fact that more than 140 lawmakers are expected to object to the Electoral College vote next Wednesday. The FEC is all about strengthening confidence and integrity in our elections. What do you have to say to those Republicans who are taking this step?
ELLEN L. WEINTRAUB, FEDERAL ELECTION COMMISSION: Well, it's not for me to give advice to members of Congress, but I do worry that this is of a piece with a longstanding myth that is out there and that is being propounded about voter fraud. There is no evidence of any kind of substantial voter fraud, either in this election or historically. This has been studied numerous times, and we were really fortunate in this election to have had such a great turnout, the best turnout in 120 years, due to the great work of election officials throughout the country in the middle of a pandemic with overwhelming turnout. We ran a safe and a fair election, and I think we should all be proud of that result, and we should be encouraging the American people to have faith in their democracy, to have faith in their institutions, because when you undermine faith in our very democracy, really it makes it -- it's going to make it a lot harder to govern and go forward, and it's going to create a lot of feelings in this country that really, as I said, have no evidence to back them up.
AVLON: And that's exactly why I wanted to talk to you this morning, because it's these baseless allegations of voter fraud that have led to the excuses of confusion that many of these congressmen are using to take this really unusual, almost unprecedented step to challenge the election results with the backing of a president.
But I want to get your take also on what one of your colleagues, the former federal election chair, Trey Trainor, wrote in a tweet. Here's what he wrote, "Having practiced law for almost two decades as a member of the State Bar of Texas, I've never known fellow Texas lawyer Sidney Powell to be anything but forthright and honest in everything she's ever taken on. If she says there's rampant voter fraud in election 2020, I believe her."
The reason this is significant is at the time he was the chairman of the FEC. Sidney Powell has made dozens of baseless claims. She's even been distanced by the Trump team because of those claims. But here he is, your colleague, essentially saying that massive voter fraud is taking place. What do you say to that? What do you say to him?
[10:10:00]
WEINTRAUB: As I said, there is no evidence of this. And it's not a question of belief. It's not a question of who you like or who your friends are. We live in a nation of laws. There have been 60 lawsuits brought by the president and his allies to try and challenge the election results throughout the country, and in 59 out of 60 of them, they lost. That's a really bad electoral result -- that's a really bad track record in litigation. And it just shows that there is no evidence of this. One Republican election lawyer has described this as the Loch Ness monster, that Republicans keep trying to find proof of electoral fraud, of voter fraud, and it just doesn't exist.
AVLON: To be clear, have you spoken to your colleague Trey Trainor about that tweet and about the misinformation he's promulgating in his role as chairman?
WEINTRAUB: I have not.
AVLON: You have not.
So listen, one of the important things -- with all the focus on election integrity, the FEC arguably more important that ever before, but it has been divided and dysfunctional, really starved of adequate support for a long time. As we look to an incoming administration, what do you hope can be done to strengthen the FEC and to strengthen democracy's guardrails going forward?
WEINTRAUB: For one thing, finally we have a quorum at the FEC. Going back to September of 2019, the FEC basically was functioning without a quorum, which means we really couldn't make most of the important decisions that we need to make in order to protect the transparency and the fairness of our elections, and to be able to give those assurances to the American people. We didn't have a working quorum other than for a few weeks in June, going back to September of 2019.
So during most of this important election year, where $14 billion was spent on this election, unprecedented numbers, the Federal Election Commission, which regulates money in politics, couldn't really do its job. Now, finally, at the end of the year, commissioners were nominated, and for the first time since 2017 we not only have a quorum but a full slate of commissioners. And I hope that that means that we are going to be able to get our job done. We have a huge backlog of enforcement matters that we need to deal with, but there also are rule makings that have been languishing for years, rule makings about social media and Internet communications. We have never had a rule making to address the rule of super PACs in the 10 years that they have existed, and obviously they really have changed the ballgame.
So I am hoping that with this new slate of commissioners we will be able to find some common ground to reach across the aisle and to try and improve our laws for the better of the entire country.
AVLON: Folks say they care about election integrity, strengthen the Federal Elections Commission. Ellen Weintraub, thank you so much for joining us and happy New Year.
WEINTRAUB: Thank you. Same to you.
PAUL: It feels good to say happy New Year. It really does, because we feel like there's going to be change, there's going to be change.
Right now, though, the government is really struggling to get the vaccine, the COVID vaccine to people. Hospitalizations are at an all- time high today. We're going to bring you up to speed next.
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[10:15:53]
PAUL: I hope you were somewhere that you wanted to be on New Year's Eve ringing in the new year, and I say that while we remember where we all were, and to remind you that we have learned more than 125,000 people are starting the new year in the hospital.
AVLON: That's right. That means for 31 days now hospitals in our country have collectively been caring for 100,000 people or more, sick and fighting for their lives from COVID-19.
CNN's Polo Sandoval joins us. Polo, the U.S. is also inching closer to 350,000 lives lost to COVID-19. Just so much uncertainty in the airs with air as we start this new year.
POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And with that uncertainty, John, you also have that prominent IHME model now predicting that it could go up to 115,000 additional deaths in the coming weeks.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
SANDOVAL: Friday brought a new year, and with it another tragic milestone in the COVID-19 pandemic, with the U.S. surpassing 20 million total confirmed infections. It's a reminder that the virus will keep ravaging parts of the country until ongoing vaccine efforts help to slow or stop the spread. And there lies the challenge. Health officials in several states report difficulties in planning the vaccine rollout with no federal mandate in place dictating how to administer the vaccine. The result has been a flawed distribution, leaving vaccination figures far below the Trump administration's goal. Utah Senator Mitt Romney, a Republican critic of the president, called that inexcusable. Texas reports the state has only distributed a third of the vaccine it's received as of Friday, and some hospitals are trying to overcome the logistical challenges of administering the shots, as Michigan ER Doctor Rob Davidson.
DR. ROB DAVIDSON: There have been a few hiccups. They're trying to get as many frontline workers, frontline health care workers vaccinated as possible. We're doing a little bit of a change-up in how they're doing the scheduling so we can get more people. And now reaching out to clinics outside the hospital to get those folks vaccinated and then working with local health departments on the next level, the people over 75. SANDOVAL: Data from the CDC shows New York is overperforming on the
vaccination front. Friday figures showed 32 percent of New York's lauded vaccine doses have already been given. That is well above the national average of 23 percent shots administered. But the real crisis point remains out west in California, which set a new daily record for COVID-19 deaths on Friday. As one state official warned that California is on the brink of catastrophe, this New Year's Eve crowd gathered in L.A. County protesting masks and limits on religious gatherings.
DR. JORGE RODRIGUEZ, INTERNAL MEDICINE AND VIRAL SPECIALIST: It's so disheartening to see some of these people that feel overprivileged having parties when so many people are struggling. I just want to take a moment, though, to thank who I consider the unsung heroes of this pandemic, and these are the average Americans who have sacrificed their family time and their jobs by doing the right thing day in and day out by wearing masks and distancing.
SANDOVAL: Dr. Jorge Rodriguez tells CNN some medical facilities in his region are using hospital gift shops and their chapels to care for their patients. This weekend health officials will be watching for more reported cases of a fast-moving COVID-19 variant.
KRISTIAN G. ANDERSEN, SCRIPPS RESEARCH, DEPARTMENT OF IMMUNOLOGY AND MICROBIOLOGY: It's still the same virus. It's not different in that. It's just that there's new lineage here may be transmitting a little better.
SANDOVAL: Early research suggests the new variant spreads the same way, meaning social distancing and masks offer the best protection.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
SANDOVAL (on camera): And this week the nation's top infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci made clear the U.S. will likely not be following the United Kingdom in it's decision to essentially delay those second doses for the folks who have actually received that first vaccination for the coronavirus. As you recall, the British leaders had said that the U.K. would essentially be prioritizing their doses among some of those most vulnerable, and of course those frontline health care workers, Dr. Fauci saying, reminding us that the Pfizer version, the Moderna version as well, those have been tested and showing high effectiveness within about two or three weeks, so they definitely don't want to wait months before they offer that second dose, John and Christi.
[10:20:00]
PAUL: Polo Sandoval, good to see you. Thank you.
So let's bring Dr. Peter Hotez into this conversation. He's a professor and Dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, and also a co-director of the Texas Children's Hospital Center for Vaccine Development. Dr. Hotez, you are a voice of reason and such knowledge for us. Thank you for coming back here with us. I want to talk to you about the U.K., the variant that we saw in the
coronavirus that popped up in the U.K. a couple of weeks ago. We are now seeing that, we know, in Colorado, California, and Florida. With that said, how long -- is there any way to gauge how long that variant may have been here in the U.S., and how far it may travel at this point?
DR. PETER HOTEZ, DEAN, NATIONAL SCHOOL OF TROPICAL MEDICINE AT BAYLOR COLLEGE OF MEDICINE: Well, Christi, we know that variant probably popped up in the U.K. sometime around September, so late in the summer. So it's been circulating for a while. And our best guess is it's probably been here in the U.S. for a while as well. But remember in the U.S., we've not been doing virus genome surveillance to nearly the same extent as places like Australia, which has done the full genome of half of its virus isolates, or the U.K., 7.4 percent. In the U.S. we've only done fully genome sequences on 0.3 percent of the isolates, so barely touching this. So we only have 50,000 completed virus genomes when we should be on the order of one to 10 million. So we've really fallen behind. So the U.K. variant is probably here in much higher abundance than we realize, maybe the South African variant, and we probably have our own homegrown variants that are also widely circulating that are highly transmissible that we haven't even begun to pick up yet.
PAUL: Are you confident that the vaccines that are currently being administered can tackle all of these variants?
HOTEZ: We're still waiting for the data. We're testing our vaccine as our other groups. I'm basically optimistic, or cautiously optimistic in the sense that the number of mutations that are in the business part of the spike protein, the receptor that binds to our host tissues, which is how all these vaccines operate, there are not that many mutations there. So I think we'll be OK for vaccines this time around, but we'll have to continue to do monitoring and surveillance in future months and future years in case there are some escaped mutants that we have to worry about. But for now I think we'll be OK. But we need to step up our game in terms of virus genome surveillance.
PAUL: I want to ask you for some clarity here. I had read that this latest variant affects younger population, like 20 and under. Is that the case? Do we know? Do we have a good assessment of that?
HOTEZ: The data is still not nearly as robust or strong as we'd like it. There's some evidence that it's in the South African variant, so that's a possibility. But, again, it's so under-studied, especially here in the U.S., that this will have to be a priority in the new administration to step up our program for that whole virus genome surveillance, and then we'll get a better sense of it.
PAUL: Is that what you're waiting for, is this new administration? Is there anything that Joe Biden can do to speed up the lag time that we've seen in the vaccination distribution?
HOTEZ: Yes, absolutely. Sadly, our public health system has come up small every time, whether it's detecting the entry of the virus from southern Europe into New York, the diagnostic testing, the virus genome surveillance. And now we're failing to vaccinate the American people. We have not put an adequate infrastructure in place in order to vaccinate the country. We've got people frantically calling today, they're calling Sam's Club and CVS and Rite Aid to see if they can get vaccine for their father or their other loved ones. And that's not the system we were supposed to have in place. We need a high throughput mechanism.
Christi, if you do some back of the envelope calculations, we have to vaccinate roughly three-quarters of the American population by the fall in order to interrupt virus transmission. That's at least 240 million Americans. That's a million Americans every day starting now until the fall. We're not even close to anything like that. We just don't have the infrastructure in place, and that's where the priority has to be.
So I understand the logic of using pharmacies, but you've got pharmacy deserts in low income neighborhoods, that's one problem. And the pharmacies alone are not going to solve this problem. We're going to have to put in some added infrastructure such as vaccinating large populations and a more high throughput way, maybe using some of the open air football stadiums or mechanisms to do this safely. Otherwise, we're just going to fail again.
PAUL: Dr. Peter Hotez, your expertise is always appreciated here. Thank you.
HOTEZ: Thank you so much.
AVLON: The U.S. and Iran are ratcheting up military activity in the Persian Gulf ahead of the anniversary of a U.S. drone strike that killed a top Iranian commander.
[10:25:00]
Former National Security Adviser Lieutenant General H.R. McMaster, author of the group "Battlegrounds," joins me next to talk about it.
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AVLON: CNN affiliate KGO is reporting that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's home in San Francisco has been vandalized.
PAUL: KGO says -- sorry, John -- KGO says San Francisco police responded to a call early New Year's Day. Police said graffiti had been painted on the garage door and a pig's head had been left on the sidewalk.
AVLON: CNN has reached out to the San Francisco Police Department and to Speaker Pelosi's office for comment. We'll bring you more information as we get it.
But all eyes are on Georgia ahead of Tuesday's Senate runoff elections. A report 3 million absentee mail-in ballots and early votes have already been cast, and hundreds of thousands more expected to vote in person on Election Day. PAUL: We want to go to CNN's Ryan Nobles live in Atlanta this morning.
Both President Trump and President-elect Biden we know are scheduled to campaign in Georgia on Monday. It has been the never-ending election in this state. Even my children, Ryan, are saying enough, and they're 11-years-old. So just walk us through where we are right now, and really, I believe, correct me if I'm wrong, Kamala Harris, is going to be here tomorrow, yes?
RYAN NOBLES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right, Christi, and tell your kids it's almost over. We don't know how long it's going to take to count the votes, but at least those political ads are going to end on Tuesday in Georgia, this never-ending election.
[10:30:02]
And what we're seeing here over the next couple of days is a real push to get voters, those final undecided voters to the polls on January 5th. And that's really a bigger job for Republicans right now than it is for Democrats. The Democrats are very happy with the turnout that they've seen during the early voting portion of this election. As you mentioned, more than 3 million people have already cast their ballots, and it's been already registered Democrats than it is Republicans. So, Republicans are going to try to make up the gap on Election Day. So that's why we see these Republicans out on the stump today.
Right now, we're in Milner, Georgia. We're expecting Kelly Loeffler here in about an hour. She's right now speaking at an even not far from where we are in Cumming, Georgia. She has Senator Ted Cruz as her guest as an example of these big stars that are coming into the state of Georgia in the closing days. You mentioned Kamala Harris will be here tomorrow. She's going to be in Savannah. Then of course Vice President Pence, President Trump, and President-elect Biden will all be in the state on Monday.
Jon Ossoff, one of the Democratic candidates, he talked about the importance of this election and what is at stake earlier this morning. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OSSOFF: Georgia has so much power right now. Georgia voters have so much power right now. And after four years of hatred and racism and division and bigotry, Georgia is going to make a statement about love and decency and compassion and unity, because that's what Georgia stands for.
(APPLAUSE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NOBLES: And we're hearing both Republicans and Democrats try and drive home that point, that this is more than just about who represents the state of Georgia in the United States Senate, but it's also about the control of the United States Senate. It's about, if you're Democrats arguing an opportunity for Joe Biden to implement his agenda, and if you're a Republican arguing that this is a only and last chance you have to keep a Biden administration in check. So, a pretty compelling argument on both sides as they try and get out those base voters, which many believe is really going to be the difference here in Georgia.
Just a couple of days to go before this is all over. January 5th is the day that the runoff takes place on Tuesday, and all eyes on the state of Georgia. Christi and John?
AVLON: Thank you. Ryan, just quickly before we go, this turnout is extraordinary so far. How have you seen the experts to increase minority and youth turnout in this runoff? And also, what has turnout been like in those suburban counts that were so crucial in the general election?
NOBLES: Yes, turnout has been very strong in the suburban counties in particular, especially in the Democratic counties. We're seeing the Democratic counties right now outpace the Republican counties and the Trump counties in particular. But the youth vote so important. Keep in mind, John, there's a whole group of voters who turned 18 after Election Day that now get the chance to participate in this election, and Democrats in particular are making a concerted effort to reach out to them and get them to the polls.
AVLON: Ryan Nobles, live in Georgia, thank you very much.
Right now, the U.S. and Iran are ratcheting up tensions in the Persian Gulf. Tomorrow marks the one-year anniversary of the U.S. drone strike that killed top Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani. U.S. officials say the potential of an attack from Iran is the highest it has been since his death.
Joining me now to talk about this and more is a veteran of the U.S. intelligence community, President Trump's former national security adviser, Lieutenant General H.R. McMaster, author of the great new book "Battlegrounds, The Fight to Defend the Free World." Good morning, General McMaster. It's good to see you. So as both Iran and the U.S. seem to be ramping up tensions in the Persian Gulf, the head of Iran's elite Quds military force suggested Friday that retaliation may come from, quote, people from your own house. Knowing the Iranians, do you consider this a credible threat?
H.R. MCMASTER, FORMER TRUMP NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: John, it is. First of all, it's great to be with you. Happy New Year.
AVLON: You, too.
MCMASTER: We shouldn't be surprised by this. What I write about in "Battlegrounds" is Iran has been waging a four-decade long proxy war against us since the revolution in 1979, since the taking of our hostages, since the bombing of our embassy and Marine barracks in Lebanon in 1983. Its support for terrorist organizations globally, with attacks from Argentina to Panama to Europe, and of course, the main targets, though, are the great Satan, the United States, and the little Satan, Israel, as well as the Arab monarchy. So Iran is a grave threat because it's been able to use these cutouts, these terrorist organizations and militias. But what the strike against Qasem Soleimani almost a year ago
communicated is that we know what the return address is for these attacks now. And I think the effort was important in connection with reestablishing deterrents so that the Iranians know they're going to have to pay a price if they continue this destructive proxy war against us.
[10:35:00]
AVLON: No question about it. And as national security adviser, you opposed leaving the Iran deal despite being very hawkish on Iran in terms of them being bad actors on the stage. Trump, of course, left against your advice. Just now Iran says it plans to enrich uranium to 20 percent purity, up from the current four percent level. And so, it seems clear that abandonment of the deal, however flawed, did reaccelerate Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons. So, what advice would you give the Biden administration on how to handle Iran?
MCMASTER: The first bit of advice I would say is don't try to turn the clock back to 2016. Don't try to rush to get back into this flawed nuclear deal. And John, it was really flawed. It was flawed because how can you trust the Iranians, and the verification regime was not sufficient enough, really, to assure us that they weren't continuing a clandestine nuclear program, which of course now they're saying, hey, we're just going to continue to enrich uranium as kind of the veiled threat to restart a program which they denied they ever even had to begin with.
And then of course a lot of really key aspects of the threat to us lie outside of the deal, especially with missile capabilities. And there was the sunset clause, right. It was just a delay. And what did they get in return? They got sanctions relief, John, and they got a lot of money. And where did that money go? It went to intensifying that four- decade long proxy war against us. It went to perpetuating this sectarian civil war that we see across the Middle East that has caused a humanitarian crisis of colossal scale and allowed Iran essentially to put a proxy army on the border of Israel.
So, the deal was a disaster. I argued to stay in, to sanction their behavior outside of the deal, and to keep Europe and others with us. But once we were out and the sanctions came back in place, I don't think there's - there's no going back to the old flawed deal, I don't think. And I think we ought to keep the pressure on Iran. What I write about in "Battlegrounds," John, is we need to force them to make a choice. You can either be a responsible nation and be treated as such and reap the economic and other benefits of it, or you can continue to be a state sponsor of terrorism and to create this humanitarian catastrophe across the region and continue this four-decade long proxy war against us, and suffer the consequences of economic isolation.
AVLON: But one of the points of your book really is forward looking. It's really a call to return to that idea that partisan politics ought to be left at the water's edge. So as the Biden administration prepares to take office, what advice would you give them on how to deal with China and Russia? MCMASTER: Well, John, I've seen this tendency across multiple
administrations now, to define an administration's foreign policy mainly as an opposition to the administration that came before it. And the Trump foreign policy, like many administration foreign policies, has some profoundly positive aspects to it, and I think some profoundly negative aspects to it. So, let's correct the negative and accentuate the positive.
I would put in the positive column the shift from the strategy of cooperation and engagement with China under the belief that China having been welcomed into the international order would liberalize its economy, would play by the rules and would liberalize its form of governance. We know the exact opposite is the case now under Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party.
So, we need a competitive approach to China. And of course, we have to work with allies, but working with our allies has to be more than just a better atmosphere at cocktail parties with our European allies who just entered into an economic agreement with China I think at exactly the wrong time. So, I think we have to engage our allies purposefully to compete effectively with the Chinese Communist Party and look at that as an element of continuity with the Trump administration.
On Russia, I think that we ought to continue the policies of the Trump administration, but reject this language of apology that President Trump uses with Russia, and this failure to acknowledge, you know, massive cyberattacks like we just experienced, for example. I described it in "Battlegrounds" Russia's approach of disruption, disinformation, and denial. This is Putin's ability to literally get away with murder, and most recently attempted murder of his main political opponent, Mr. Navalny, because he can say I didn't do it. When the leader of the free world doesn't pull the curtain back and show that, it gives Putin maneuver space that he doesn't deserve.
AVLON: Important points, as always. Lieutenant General H.R. McMaster, we're going to have to leave it there for now, my friend. But happy New Year. Thank you very much.
MCMASTER: Happy New Year, John.
AVLON: Thank you.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[10:42:48]
AVLON: There were huge lines in southwest Florida this week after health officials announced that anyone 65 and older could receive a vaccine on a first come, first serve basis.
PAUL: This was an approach that created a scramble for a limited number of doses, hours long wait times at vaccination sites, and it overwhelmed county hotlines and websites. CNN correspondent Dianne Gallagher is following the developments. Dianne, good morning.
DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Christi, John. The theme down here in Florida appears to be confusion and congestion. Now, the state didn't necessarily adhere to these CDC recommendations of the order in which people should be receiving the COVID-19 vaccine. After those frontline health care workers and those who live in long-term health care facilities, it was supposed to be essential workers and people who are over the age of 75.
But the state of Florida decided that anybody over the age of 65 would be next in line, and there wasn't much continuity when it came to how the different counties were distributing it. We're in Lake County, Florida, and you can see behind me they're actually giving the vaccines to people in their cars right now. You see them at the table. They're going to go in. They just pop it in the arm for the people who are in the car and they're done.
But here it's by appointment only. In other places it's been first come, first serve, and we have seen long lines, older Americans who are literally camping out overnight hoping to get a COVID-19 vaccine. The governor says that this is about trying to make his state safer for his population.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. RON DESANTIS (R-FL): So, let me just be very, very clear. Our vaccines are going to be targeted for our elderly pop laying. We've been going through over the last week to do those tips of the spear health care workers, as long as our long-term residents and staff. As we get into the general community, the vaccines are going to be targeted where the risk is the greatest, and that is in our elderly population. We are not going to put young, healthy workers ahead of our elderly, vulnerable population.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[10:45:03]
GALLAGHER: And so, the problem is, though, that there hasn't been, again, much continuity. And so, while some people have been waiting long hours just to get these vaccines, others have had to make appointments. And some of these counties have just been inundated with phone calls, their hotline systems went down, their websites crashed. And so, people were confused. In this particular county, well, they initially had said that it was appointment only. And then they said starting on January 1st, it's going to be first come, first serve. And then they changed their mind and went back to appointment only. This morning when we got here, there were people who had been waiting in line for hours because they thought it was first come, first serve, and they got turned away.
AVLON: Dianne Gallagher live from Lake County, Florida. Thank you very much. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PAUL: I want to take you now to Central Falls. This is one of the hardest hit towns in the state of Rhode Island, and health officials are going door to door to give residents in public housing the vaccine. Dr. Michael fine is with us now. He's chief health strategist for the city of Central Falls. Dr. Fine, so appreciate your time this morning. Thank you so much. Help us understand what this is, because it was highly unusual. You went to these public housing units. Did they sign up for this, did they expect that you were coming?
DR. MICHAEL FINE, CHIEF HEALTH STRATEGIST, CITY OF CENTRAL FALLS: We worked to enroll every single person, first in public housing, and then in Section Eight housing.
PAUL: I know you have another clinic today that is, what, almost 800 people, as I understand it, from Section Eight housing?
[10:50:6]
FINE: There are 800 people in Section Eight housing. I think we're going to be able to vaccinate between 150 and 300 today.
PAUL: OK, so what was it like for you as a doctor to go door to door? We want to really understand what these people are living with, the conditions they're living with, and the risks that they're living with.
FINE: It was really gratifying to go door to door. That's what public health can and should be doing. We should know every single person in the city and the state and in the nation and know how to reach out to them. That's what we were able to do during the course of this week.
PAUL: So, what was their reaction? Was there anybody who declined getting a vaccination?
FINE: There were a couple of people who declined. Because it's public housing, the really pioneering mayor of the city of Central Falls, James Diossa, the mayor elect and I got on the public address system, talked about how we have been vaccinated, and talked about the safety. And I think we were able to increase the vaccination rate to close to 80 to 90 percent.
PAUL: Wow. I know that once people get the shot, they're not actually considered immune until February. How are people who are living in those conditions in the public housing, how confident are you that they can keep from getting the virus even after being vaccinated since there is that lag time?
FINE: It's going to be a struggle. But we've really organized ourselves, mobilized the community. We have about 20 health ambassadors who patrol the streets in beautiful orange costumes so everybody can see them, helping everybody remember to remain masked and social distanced. We have police cruisers using their P.A. systems on the street reminding everybody. We've really gone full out to try to stop the progression of this disease.
PAUL: It is such a coordinated effort by so many entities here. You have said that this can be the thing that gets us to herd immunity, meaning going out to these communities and doing this door-to-door or in the fashion that you're doing it today. Why do you believe that? FINE: I think that's what it's going to take. Remember, in the United
States we have a market, not a health care system. We don't know everybody. In order to get enough of a community vaccinated to have the whole community immune is really to reach out to every single person. We don't have a natural mechanism to do that. In the United States now only about 43 percent of people actually have their own primary care doctor. So we don't know everybody. We have to work extra hard to reach everybody and make sure every single person gets reached and vaccinated.
PAUL: Help me understand the level of gratitude from these people. Were they scared?
FINE: I think there was real variation three weeks ago. Everybody was nervous, and I didn't think we were going to get 1,000 people vaccinated in this city of about 25,000. But our health ambassadors walked the streets, talked to every single person on the street, the mayor-elect, Maria Rivera, went on Facebook Live and talked to people. We talked and talked and talked, told people the vaccine was coming, made sure people understood how it was prepared and that it was safe. And so, we've really seen a huge turn in people being really ready to be vaccinated now.
PAUL: Dr. Michael Fine, thank you so much for your efforts. Thank you for walking us through what you're doing there. And we wish you all the very best.
FINE: Thanks very much.
PAUL: Of course.
AVLON: All right, 2020 may be behind us, but its legacy will live on for at least a little while. For example, did you know the year gave us a brand-new word?
PAUL: I have a feeling there were several new words, but this is just one.
AVLON: This is one we can print.
PAUL: Yes, Vaxxies.
AVLON: We can see it on television.
PAUL: CNN's Jeanne Moos explains.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Famous politicians tend to roll up their sleeves to have their shots shot by the media.
SEN. KAMALA HARRIS (D-CA), VICE PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: That was easy.
(LAUGHTER) MOOS: Not quite as easy, taking a selfie while getting your COVID vaccination. "The New York Times" reported "vaxxies" is the new word for vaccination selfies. Doctors and medical staff in particular are posting them, brandishing their band-aids, even their scars. TB on top, COVID in the center, smallpox underneath. Wrote this doctor, got my "Fauci Ouchie." But Dr. showed no inclination to say "ouch."
[10:55:03]
Dr. Jonathan Tijerino (ph) got his shot at Jackson Memorial in Miami and posted his vaccination photo while joking the injection gave him superpowers.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My left arm is now twice as large as my right one. I can see through walls, and I'm feeling more alive than ever.
MOOS: A group of neurosurgery residents held up their vaccination record cards. Vaccine selfies are the new "I voted" sticker selfies, posted with pride. What's the point?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'd like to hope that it's mostly encouraging.
MOOS: Encouraging others to get the vaccine, though vaxxies can create envy. "Starting to get annoyed by vaccine selfies because all I can think is they can go to a concert now." The hashtag "not throwing away my shot" has been going around the web.
(MUSIC)
MOOS: The words are from a song in the musical "Hamilton." Even wearing a mask, you can tell this Wisconsin doctor is smiling. "Only side effects so far are joy, gratitude, and absolute relief." Who needs a selfie stick when you're getting a needle stick with a life- saving vaccine?
Jeanne Moos CNN.
(MUSIC)
MOOS: New York.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
PAUL: And hopefully that left you with a little bit of a smile this morning.
(LAUGHTER)
AVLON: Absolutely.
PAUL: So glad to have you with us. Good to see you, John. We'll see you again tomorrow morning, of course. We hope that you make good memories today.
AVLON: We do. And next up, Newsroom starts right now.
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