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Twelve GOP Senators Now Plan To Oppose Certification Of Biden's Win; U.S. Tops 20 Million COVID-19 Cases As New Year Begins; Three- Million-Plus Early Votes Cast Ahead Of Georgia Senate Elections; GA Secretary Of State Says 20,000 GOP Voters Just Skipped Presidential Race; Officials Say L.A. County Hospitals On "Brink Of Catastrophe"; Rock-And-Roll Helped Put Jimmy Carter In White House. Aired 4-5p ET
Aired January 02, 2021 - 16:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[16:00:51]
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.
ANA CABRERA, CNN HOST: You are live in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Ana Cabrera in New York.
Breaking news: a constitutional formality is on track to become a full-blown political spectacle on Wednesday when a joint session of Congress meets to formalize the results of the 2020 election. And breaking this afternoon, 11 sitting and incoming Republican senators now say they will join Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri in an unprecedented and unwarranted effort objecting to the certification of Joe Biden's electoral victory.
Here they are: Ted Cruz of Texas, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, James Lankford of Oklahoma, Steve Daines of Montana, John Kennedy of Louisiana, Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, Mike Braun of Indiana, and Senators-elect Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming, Roger Marshall of Kansas, Bill Haggerty of Tennessee, and Tommy Tuberville of Alabama.
Let's be clear here, there is no credible evidence suggesting major issues with the election. In fact, multiple court cases, dozens of court cases have been thrown out for lack of evidence, and these lawmakers aren't even claiming they have evidence. This is just one more vain attempt to thwart the free and fair election of Joe Biden as the 46th president of the United States. It's undemocratic. It's un- American. And it will fail.
CNN's Suzanne Malveaux is on Capitol Hill. CNN's Boris Sanchez is at the White House.
Suzanne, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has already acknowledged Biden's victory and has urged GOP senators not to force this vote. What's the point here?
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it certainly is a different point for each one of these senators. Some of them, simply to satisfy Trump's request and his demand. He says over and over that this was some sort of rigged, stolen election and he wants them to do everything in their power to reject it. That is the motivation of some of these senators as well as those members of the House.
Others, they say it is because their own constituents, their voters are calling for the same thing. Again, they are hearing the president again and again calling this a fraud. And therefore, they, too, are suspicious in some way, although, as you had mentioned, as you had pointed out, that there is no evidence of any such fraud.
And then for some, it's a political -- raw political calculation that they do not want to be faced with some sort of challenger, a pro-Trump challenger two years, four years, six years down the line where they might lose their election. And there are some even in the statement acknowledging the futility of the exercise because they say they're not naive. They know they don't have the numbers to actually reject the outcome of this election. Nevertheless, they will go forward with this objection.
I want to read part of the statement. It says: The election of 2020, like the election of 2016, was hard fought and in many swing states narrowly decided. The 2020 election, however, featured unprecedented allegations of voter fraud, violations and lacks enforcement of election law and other voting irregularities.
You have Senator Josh Hawley, who is the first senator to say he would join with those House Republicans in objecting the Electoral College vote, saying this, tweeting, glad to see more senators joining the fight on January 6th. I hope many more will listen to their constituents and act.
It is notable, Ana, to see this statement that it's unprecedented allegations. They do not say unprecedented evidence. They actually don't mention any evidence at all, so they are, in a way, acknowledging that this is allegations behind this, that they will continue to question the credibility of this election and the integrity of this election.
This has caused the ire of many other Republicans. As you had noted, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell who believes this is the most significant vote of his history, of his life, as well as some of the others. Senator John Thune, the number two Republican, who considers this a waste of time and unnecessary exercise.
But then you have other Republicans much harsher. Senator Ben Sasse in his Facebook page to his colleagues saying this is a dangerous move to actually go ahead and play with the Electoral College results.
[16:05:05]
And finally, House lawmaker Adam Kinzinger, who says that this is a sad scam. This is a scam, calling his colleagues congressional grifters for simply pursuing this and getting something in return, in his opinion. For pursuing something that really has very little basis -- Ana.
CABRERA: And we just got this statement from Lisa Murkowski, Republican senator from Alaska, following the statement and these developments this afternoon among other Republican senators now saying they're going to join Hawley.
She says: I will vote to affirm the 2020 presidential election. The courts and state legislatures have all honored their duty to hear legal allegations and have found nothing to warrant overturning the results. I urge my colleagues from both parties to recognize this and to join me in maintaining confidence in the Electoral College and our election so that we can ensure we have the continued trust of the American people.
Meantime, the president, Boris, is sending out tweets urging his supporters into the streets in Washington on January 6th.
BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, that's right, Ana. The president not letting up on this idea that the 2020 election can be overturned by Congress, even though sources indicate that here at the White House, he has had aides explain what is going to happen on January 6th over and over to him, and they have pointed out that he simply does not have the numbers. He would need a majority of lawmakers on both sides of Congress to want to overturn this election.
Democrats control the House. That's it right there. Even the lawmakers who put forth this objection realize this is a futile exercise, largely just symbolic, really for their own political futures. They do not want to be primaried in two years or later. Many of them want to run for president and they understand that the president now, President Trump, holds the reins of the Republican Party.
He's also been listening to others in his circle, people like Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell, who have spun nonsense that is not worth repeating on CNN about fraud in the electoral process.
It's unclear exactly how the president feels about what is going to happen on the 6th, if he actually believes things are going to be overturned, but it is simply too profitable for him to go quietly. He is not only obviously wrangling Republicans in a manner that suits him, he's also generating headlines, remaining the center of attention, and we cannot fail to point this out, fund-raising on this effort.
The president and his campaign sending out more than 500 emails since Election Day asking for money from supporters to support his legal effort. It clearly has not paid off. Close to 60 losses in court for the Trump team, unable to prove widespread fraud, but the majority of that money is actually going into a slush fund, and the president can spend those dollars in his post-White House life however he likes -- Ana.
CABRERA: Boris Sanchez, Suzanne Malveaux, thank you both.
Just to reiterate, a dozen Republican senators and at least 140 House Republicans plan to dispute next week's Electoral College certification.
My next guest is one of the few House Republicans speaking out against this plan. In fact, he calls this whole effort to overturn the election a grift and a frightening road to go down. His new book is called "Bigfoot: It's Complicated, A Congressman and Former Intelligence Officer Explores the Politics of True Believers, Bigfoot and Otherwise", Virginia Congressman Denver Riggleman.
Thanks so much for joining us.
Congressman, I just want to start by first getting your reaction to this breaking news.
REP. DENVER RIGGLEMAN (R-VA): You know, I think the number -- I thought the number was going to be larger than people were talking about a couple weeks ago. You know, you've heard the number 140 on the House side. You see the new Republicans coming in are a big part of that.
Now, you see it on the Senate side and I'm wondering if it's not the largest class of incoming senators and congressional representatives that either are completely hypocritical politically or they believe in fantasy. And that's what worries me about this. It just seems like we have a caucus that's all in on fund-raising, on grift, but really on pulling the wool over people's eyes.
And you said something earlier and I just want to talk about this. Josh Hawley said that the constituents are demanding it. Now, I'm wondering if one of the largest disinformation campaigns, maybe in political history, might be a reason that the constituents are demanding a recount since they've been told so many ridiculous things.
CABRERA: Exactly, because I want to -- I want to read a part of the statement released by these Senate Republicans. It says, the 2000 or the election of 2020, like the election of 2016, was hard fought and in many swing states narrowly decided. The 2020 election, however, featured unprecedented allegations of voter fraud, violations of lax enforcement of election law and other voting irregularities.
Allegations are not evidence, no matter how many times the president and his allies repeats them. The president's team of lawyers, Republican Party, they lost dozens of court cases because they have failed to provide actual evidence of any of this. Many of these senators and lawyers -- are lawyers themselves.
It strikes me the way they're framing this, making it all about the allegations and how many people believe these allegations, that's their basis here. Yes, there are a lot of allegations, most of them starting from the president and his allies.
Do these lawmakers actually believe these allegations?
RIGGLEMAN: No. And, by the way, Ana, let's just -- what do those allegations lead to? What, a 1-61 court record?
Let's think about this disinformation. You talk about these allegations. Where'd it start?
I have this picture of everybody sitting in Rudy Giuliani's basement going, how crazy can we make this? Sidney Powell says, well, I have an idea. We're going to use a QAnon individual. We're going to say Hugo Chavez had something to do with it.
Great job, Sidney, that's fantastic. What about you, Rudy? Rudy, you know what, I'm going to say there's white vans pulling up and we're burning ballots. That's a good one.
How about you, Mike Flynn? I'm going to say we need martial law because of what you guys have said. Oh my goodness, that's great.
And all of a sudden, Louie Gohmert goes, hold my beer. I know what I'm going to do, I'm going to put in a lawsuit and I'm going to call for violence.
This is like the hold my beer caucus and I go to tell you, it's unbelievable because that gets very dangerous. And I -- that's the -- that's the allegations you're talking about, Ana. That's exactly what you're talking about.
McEnany saying that NSA infiltrated the voting machines -- I mean, that's ludicrous. We're saying that, you know, the U.S. Army attacked a barracks or a building in Germany. Fantasy.
I just feel like this is, you know, this is not about alien abductions. We're talking about the United States of America and we're talking about the Constitution.
And I think -- if we keep doing this, if we keep saying, hold my beer, what's the Republican Party going to be at the end of all this? I don't know where it goes from here. What do we do next time?
And tat's what scares me about this. And I'm sick of false equivalencies. I'm sick of people saying there's some evidence of this somewhere. My goodness, there's some of the evidence I've seen has been a few people who voted illegally for Donald Trump.
So, what are we going to do here? Are we going to start standing up and saying facts matter or are we going down this rabbit hole of fantasy-based conspiracy theories, that was a coordinated grift that was perpetrated by people in power. And I think that's the thing that we have to worry about right now.
CABRERA: In their statements, they claim this is about building trust in the country's electoral process.
RIGGLEMAN: It's destroying trust in the country's electoral process. It's that simple. They're destroying trust.
Is it going to be 140? Is it going to be 150 on the House side? The other senators going to join?
And these are people that I know and I have talked to. And, Ana, I'm just going to say it straight out, they don't really think this is true, many of them. They just think that their base is going to revolt if they don't do this and the thing is, they've stayed quiet so long that their base believes the ridiculousness.
It is an absolutely just violent circle, and how do you get out of it? It's very difficult once you allow it. Now that you perpetrated it, or now that you let it keep going, you've perpetuated this issue, now what do you do?
How do you get out of it? You just go along to get along? Yeah, for fund-raising, it seems like that's what they're going to do.
And again, I've talked to my friends and I say, listen, if I was there, I'd be fighting on the floor, and they say, we know. We know you would.
CABRERA: But if this really is about building trust in the system, and I think it is true that there are a lot of people, a lot of Americans who have doubts in the system right now, even if their reasoning, you know, doesn't make sense to some of us, I guess what would you say to them? What could they be doing to build trust if that's what's important?
RIGGLEMAN: There's nothing here building trust. And again, Ana, I don't have -- I wish I had a cogent answer for you on some kind of philosophical means of them doing this or what the reasoning is.
The reasoning is simple. It's re-election. It's not building trust in our system. It's re-election. It's fund-raising. It's making sure you get those small dollar donors.
I had somebody tell me the other day and it's a great guy, I respect him a lot. He said, you know, the crazier language we use, the more provocative we are in our mailers, or our digital, the more money we get. You know, Denver, we just fund raise -- we just fund raise better.
Like, so, let me get this straight. This is what we're doing this for at this point? It's just better fund-raising? And we're having a tough time. We know Democrats, ActBlue. How do we win?
And, you know, provocative language is the way to go to fund-raise. I think we've got to talk to our voters also and say, listen, you can't buy into this. We have to have a fact-based solution.
And I'm sorry, I'm taking some time on this, Ana, but at some point, we got -- we got to call "facts" facts, and we got to say that these cracking based, you know, conspiracy theories are ludicrous, that there's people out there saying that Vice President Pence is treasonous.
I mean, this is absolutely insane. It's incredible. It's insane. And I don't know what else to say about it.
Looking from the outside now, I'm not going to be a congressman tomorrow after 11:59 and you know what? They're going to be very afraid because they've released me into the wild and my life has been fighting disinformation and terrorism. So if this is what they want me, going after them outside the system, this is where I do my best work.
[16:15:01] And I think that's where I'm tired of, Ana, is I'm tired of people not able to tell the truth or doing things out -- doing things out of hypocrisy so they can raise money.
CABRERA: What is next for you? Are you potentially going to run for governor? Will you get back into politics?
RIGGLEMAN: You know, right now, if I told you on CNN, Ana, right now, if I was getting into politics, my wife would burst through that door and tackle me on television.
(LAUGHTER)
RIGGLEMAN: So, I got to make sure that -- she's outside the door right now. So I'm being very careful.
So -- but I want to get back in to try and help but right now from the outside, you know, I've joined the board of the Network Contagion Research Institute. We're fighting disinformation.
We just released one of the most extensive QAnon studies ever done, tracking hashtags and message traffic analysis, which I'm very proud. We just released an anti-Semitism report.
We're going to continue to hit on these people that are spreading disinformation. I've been approached which I can't talk too much with the intelligence community, Department of Defense companies that want me to help with domestic terrorism based on my counterterrorism background. The thing is, it's freed me up to go after this. And I wondered what I would be doing right now.
And I think right now, I would be on an island with Adam Kinzinger and there would be ships coming in on us. You know, I just think that that's where we're at.
I want to say I'm proud of Adam. I know he's really the last elected that's been speaking out on this, on the congressional floor. I wish I was with him. And, you know, I don't get it. I just don't get it.
CABRERA: I just want to say, we appreciate your passion for facts, the truth, and your fight against disinformation. Thank you so much for joining us. Best of luck to you in that next chapter --
RIGGLEMAN: Thanks, Ana.
CABRERA: -- of your journey.
RIGGLEMAN: Thank you.
CABRERA: Congressman Denver Riggleman.
So, as the spectacle of attempting to overturn the results of the election continues on Capitol Hill, the nation is struggling to get a handle on the surging coronavirus pandemic. More Americans are dying than ever before. More Americans are fighting for their lives in hospitals than ever before. Vaccinations continue but not at the pace that many had hoped.
You'll bring you the very latest next. Stay with us. You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.
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CABRERA: The U.S. has now topped 20 million total cases of COVID-19, with more people dying of the disease than in any other country in the world. December was America's deadliest month of the pandemic. More than 77,000 people lost their lives just in December.
CNN's Dianne Gallagher joins us now from Lake County, Florida.
Dianne, health officials there have a new concern, this mysterious variant of the coronavirus has now been detected there in Florida.
[16:20:05]
DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Ana. And this is a 23-year-old man down in Martin County, Florida. That's in South Florida. I believe on December 19th.
So this is the earliest instance that we know of at this point, at least, of this new variant that was first discovered in the U.K.
Now, the state representative from that area did a press conference today where he said that the 23-year-old man still had not experienced any sort of symptoms related to COVID-19. But, of course, experts have said that this potential -- this particular variant is a bit more contagious than the COVID-19 that we have seen spread across so quickly in this country, and he noted that that's why we need to get these vaccines out faster and faster here in the state of Florida. And I can tell you there is no shortage of demand here.
Now, the governor here, Ron DeSantis, decided that he was going to go a little different way than what the CDC has recommended when it comes to who gets the vaccine and this sort of next phase of people. According to the CDC recommendation, it should be Americans who are age 75 and older as well as these essential frontline workers. Well, in Florida, the governor has said it's anybody over the age of 65, and there hasn't really been a lot of collaboration when it comes to how the counties are distributing them.
So everyone's kind of doing their own thing here. In some counties, it is a first come, first serve basis, which has led to extremely long lines, a lot of confusion. In some cases, elderly people literally camping out overnight just for a shot at, well, the shot in their arm.
Other counties, though, are experiencing extreme delays because they're trying to do appointments, so they've seen their Internet, their websites shut down, their phone lines shut down, and I talked to a woman today who was lined up here for hours because she thought it was first come, first serve in Lake County. Well, it turned out, because they were low on vaccines and still waiting for another shipment, they were going to do the appointments only, and she had to leave without getting a vaccine after hours. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LINDA HEEDEN: The first thing is to make it darn clear, you know? Don't have the right hand doing something the left hand doesn't know what they're doing, because that's causing a lot of confusion. We're all here in the same boat. We're all anxious about this COVID, and it just needs to be -- if the officials have to get together, whatever. Everybody get on the same page.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GALLAGHER: And I think that's what everybody here in Florida wants. Again, there's no shortage of demand, Ana. We've had people driving here to this parking lot all day, turning around asking us for instructions on what it is they need to do, saying they've been calling or emailing, just looking for a vaccine, because they so want to get it now to get ahead of it before that second vaccine is needed in the series here next -- a little bit later next week.
They should be getting that second shipment in, Ana, and at that point, here in Lake County, be on a first come, first serve basis.
CABRERA: It is a desperate situation all across the country right now. Dianne Gallagher, thank you.
Dr. Celine Gounder is an infectious disease specialist and a member of the Biden COVID-19 transition advisory board.
And, Dr. Gounder, we just got numbers from the CDC. It's breaking this hour. 13 million doses of the vaccine have been districted but only 4.2 million doses have been administered. As you've pointed out, at this rate, it will take years for enough Americans to get vaccinated to achieve herd immunity. Why isn't this going according to plan?
CELINE GOUNDER, MEMBER, BIDEN TRANSITION COVID-19 ADVISORY BOARD: Well, Ana, as we were just hearing from Florida, there are multiple bottle necks at every step of the way. And this is why the absence of a national, federal plan is a real problem. This is the source of the confusion, is the lack of a plan.
So, of course, states are confused about how best to distribute the vaccine, whether through appointments, whether it's through "first come, first served" long lines. People who are hoping to get vaccinated are confused if they're eligible to get the vaccine right now or not, and how to go about that. And so, this is why we absolutely need to have a plan from the top on down, the federal government working with the states and providing the states with the funding to then enact that plan.
CABRERA: President-elect Biden takes office in just 18 days from now. You're on his advisory team. Given the trajectory that we're on right now with more than 3,000 Americans dying almost every day, is the administration considering a full lockdown to get this crisis under control?
GOUNDER: I wouldn't say we're considering a full lockdown at this time, but at the same time, we do need to keep all options on the table and see where we are come end of January.
[16:25:02]
I don't think there's any sugarcoating the situation. This is going to be -- the month of January is going to be the grimmest month in the nation's history, even beyond public health as a public health crisis.
So, you know, we really do need to be preparing ourselves. There are a lot of things, you know, we could, would, have really do need to be preparing ourselves. There are a lot of things, you know, we could have, would have, should have, but we didn't and so now we find ourselves having to deal with the situation at hand.
CABRERA: Is there a point in which you would recommend to the president-elect, soon to be President Biden, to enact or recommend a full nationwide lockdown?
GOUNDER: I think the number one priority, frankly, is for Congress to give us the resources to get the job done. And the Congress has been very stingy in the amount of funding it has allocated to state and local health departments. They have been pleading -- those state governments have been pleading for extra funding to combat the coronavirus pandemic.
And without that funding, it is impossible to hire and train the staff necessary to identify the spaces, the supplies to get the job done, and unfortunately, these are health departments that have been -- seen their budgets slashed since the 2008/2009 recession, about 50,000 public health workers have been lost to those cuts across the country since that recession.
And so, to try to be rebuilding that capacity now in the 11th hour is going to be very challenging without those added resources.
CABRERA: I do have to ask about this new development in the U.K. This was a big headline this week. Health officials saying, you can wait up to 12 weeks to get the second dose of the Pfizer vaccine.
And Dr. Fauci has said the U.S. will not follow their lead because the vaccine was only tested with a three-week interval between doses during the trials, but the U.K. is defending this plan today, saying this. Quote: It is clear, looking at the data, that the protection from the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine after one dose, after 14 days, is 90 percent.
Dr. Gounder, is that what the data shows?
GOUNDER: Ana, that is not what the data shows, and that is something of a misinterpretation of the data, and I think one of the things that we have made it very clear is the Biden advisory board is that the new administration will be leading based on the data.
And I think, you know, backing up a little bit, if you look at where the bottlenecks are, is the bottleneck the manufacturer of the vaccine, the distribution of the vaccine, is it getting the vaccine in people's arms? And right now, some of the biggest bottlenecks are at that very last final mile. Not -- it's not about the vaccine manufacturing.
And so, you know, I think it makes more sense to follow the science and address the obstacles that are really preventing more people from getting vaccinated right now.
CABRERA: 2020 was obviously a tough year for our whole country. I know for you and other healthcare workers, it must have been extra painful. Just on a personal note, I wonder what it felt like when the ball dropped to put this awful year in the past.
GOUNDER: I did not stay up until midnight. I really just wanted to get the year over with, so my husband and I went to bed around 10:00, and I can tell you, we probably spent about a half hour just crying before we went to bed because I just was sort of, you know, thinking back on the year behind us and everything that had happened and it was pretty overwhelming just to think about that.
CABRERA: No kidding. And we have so much more ahead of us, obviously, in the New Year, but hopefully it's a fresh start and hopefully a much brighter future for the country.
Dr. Celine Gounder, we appreciate it, as always. Thank you for being with us.
It's the final push for the Georgia Senate candidates. What are their closing messages as the balance of the Senate hinges on Tuesday's election?
We'll take you live to the Peach State next.
Stay with us. You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[16:32:29]
CABRERA: It's the final countdown. We are now just three days from the Georgia runoff elections that will determine the balance of power in the Senate.
The candidates are crisscrossing the state, except Senator David Perdue. He is quarantining after being exposed to the coronavirus.
And as we reach the final days, President Trump continues to sow doubt on Georgia's voting process and the election results.
Add to that a list of Senators who just agreed to object to certifying Joe Biden's win in the presidential election.
Kyung Lah is joining us from Peachtree City, Georgia, outside of Atlanta.
And Republican Senator Kelly Loeffler is holding an event this afternoon, Kyung.
We know Loeffler was campaigning alongside Senator Ted Cruz. He is leading this coalition of Senators planning to reject the count and joining Senator Hawley. But Senator Loeffler isn't on this list.
Is she taking a position? And how is she handling this division within the party just days ahead of this critical election?
KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, very simply, Ana, she's ignoring it. What they're trying to do is focus on delivering the message to the base and trying to get them to turn out for this election on Tuesday.
And here's why. Because they need President Trump to inspire the base to come out. The president is a powerful force among supporters who will potentially vote.
I'm at a Loeffler event. And over here you can see some people wearing red hats. The other side, throughout this crowd, there are red hats. They all say, "Trump."
And then over here, you can see that's a Trump flag that's waving. They are not showing up in Loeffler or Perdue shirts.
And it's a difficult dance as the president continues to focus more on January 6th than January 5th.
That's why you're hearing this from the Republican secretary of state here in Georgia.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRAD RAFFENSPERGER, (R), GEORGIA SECRETARY OF STATE: Here's the facts, 20,000 Republican voters, traditional Republican voters, just skipped the presidential race.
Senator David Perdue got 19,000 more votes in the metro region than President Trump did. And in our Republican congressional areas, they got 33,000 more votes than President Trump did.
And so that's really what happened is that Republicans, probably many of those would be the more moderate Republicans, just stayed away from that race or voted for the other side.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LAH: So, what you're hearing there is this Republican urging members of his party to focus on the facts, to face reality, because what is at stake on Tuesday is balance of power in the Senate. And so you're hearing that from the Republicans.
[16:35:06]
But there's concern about what the president is going to say on Monday, Ana. He is scheduled to be here.
He has, again, been focusing more on what happens after this election, even saying -- even tweeting that Tuesday's election was illegal and not legitimate.
So, these are really big concerns for Republicans here.
CABRERA: What about voter turnout? We know more than three million voters there in Georgia voted early, either absentee or early in person.
And Democrats were encouraged by what they saw in that early voter turnout.
Are Republicans concerned?
LAH: Republicans are absolutely concerned, because the early data is showing that Democrats are outperforming where they were in the 2020 election in November.
So, if the Democrats come out to vote early, that makes it a taller order for Republicans to vote on Election Day.
Is it achievable? Republican sources are telling CNN that it is, indeed, achievable.
But they have poured hundreds of millions of dollars into this "get out the vote" effort. And they do believe they can do it.
But it's certainly makes that task much more difficult on Tuesday -- Ana?
CABRERA: All right, Kyung Lah, in Peachtree, Georgia, Peachtree City, thank you.
I want to bring in our polling guru, Harry Enten, CNN political writer and analyst.
Good to see you. Happy New Year, Harry.
Republicans got more votes in the Senate contest back in November. They just didn't reach that 50 percent threshold.
Are they looking at a similar result Tuesday?
HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL WRITER & ANALYST: Well, historically speaking, runoffs have been quite kind to Republicans in the state of Georgia.
Seven out of eight times, since 1992, Republicans have improved upon their first-round performance in the runoffs.
But here's the keep thing to keep in mind. The key thing to keep in mind is that if you look at the polling averages, you're not, in fact, seeing that.
What you're seeing is that, in fact, the Democrats have perhaps a very, very slight advantage in the polls, but it's well within the margin of error at this point.
So truthfully, Ana, it's way too close to call at this point, even with just three days to go. CABRERA: It was record turnout for the presidential election, the
general election back in November. How's it looking for the runoff?
ENTEN: Three million folks already come out to vote. But it's more than that. It's not just how many. It's who has been coming out to vote.
If you look at this point, African-American turnout is quite high as compared to where we were in the runoff -- where we were in the November election. And 31 percent, the ballots cast as of Saturday morning.
And in the November election at this point, it was just 27.6 percent. So that's a good sign for Democrats.
Additionally, take a look at where the voters are, in fact, coming out, and this gives you a really good understanding.
In the places and congressional districts where Biden won by 30-plus points, on average in those districts, 83 percent of the turnout that we saw relative to the November elections, while in the congressional districts where Trump won, on average, just 73 percent.
So that gives you sort of the ground lay that those Republicans in the state of Georgia are seeing and why they definitely need a very, very strong turnout operation on Tuesday in order to overcome what is so far a deficit for them in the early vote.
CABRERA: I want to turn to the Electoral College. Congress will tally the votes on Wednesday. And as we've been reporting, there will be Republican objections, many of them.
Set the table for us. How the us this play out?
ENTEN: Sure. Look, there's going to be a joint session of Congress that meets on Tuesday. And they're going to try and declare a winner.
Challenges are allowed. You can challenge any state's electors that you particularly wanted to. Obviously, we believe that's going to happen.
And then if there are those challenges, then the House and Senate meet individually in order to debate those challenges.
CABRERA: And what happens when they meet to debate a challenge?
ENTEN: Sure. So, here's what essentially happens. For each state challenge, there can be up to two hours of debate. OK?: And this gives -- this could go on forever if they challenge more than just one particular state.
But here's the key, Ana. A majority of both bodies must agree to overturn any state's results. And I can tell you, that, simply put, is very, very unlikely to happen.
I say they very likely won't. But you can pretty much take it to the bank at this point. There will be challenges, but they won't succeed.
CABRERA: Nearly a dozen Republican Senators and about 140 Congress members are expected to vote against the Electoral College count and certifying Biden as the winner.
Put that into some historical context, because we hear from some of these Republicans, it's been done before, Democrats have done this, too.
ENTEN: Yes. They've done it before. They did it in 2004, for example.
But take a look at the vote tally back then from 2004. It was 31 House members who agreed to the objection. It was just one Senator, Barbara Boxer, who agreed to the objection, it my memory holds.
This year, we're talking about a dozen Senators. We're talking about 140 House members. This is nuts. This is insane.
[16:40:09]
It was a fringe movement back in 2004. This year, if you'd look at the numbers, it's going to be anything but that. It's going to be a sizable portion of the Republican Senators and House members. This is very different than 2004.
There's no real historical, relevant comparison, at least during either of our lifetimes. This is very, very much outside of the norm, looking historically -- Ana?
CABRERA: And as everything else, it seems, in the last four years.
ENTEN: Oh, my goodness, yes.
CABRERA: Harry Enten, good to have you. Thank you for joining us.
ENTEN: Thank you for having me again.
CABRERA: So, with the balance of power in the Senate at stake, CNN will have special coverage of the Georgia Senate runoffs starting Tuesday at 4:00 p.m., right here on CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CABRERA: The crisis in California is going from grim to catastrophic. The state just recorded more than -- more coronavirus deaths than ever before, 585 new deaths reported just yesterday.
Right now, California is the only state with more than two million confirmed coronavirus cases.
And it comes as hospitals see demand like never before. Intensive care admissions across that state are at an all-time high. And in southern California, ICUs are at zero-percent capacity.
Just a few days ago, in Los Angeles County, health officials revealed a very sobering new statistic. Someone is dying from coronavirus every 10 minutes in that county.
And to make thing even worse, officials say hospitals are running out of ambulances. And 911 response times are getting longer and longer.
I want to bring in Dr. Jorge Rodriguez. He is an internal medicine and viral specialist, and a CNN medical analyst.
Dr. Rodriguez, you're joining us from Los Angeles. How did California, once a model to the nation, get to the point where, in Los Angeles County, one person was dying every ten minutes?
[16:45:06]
DR. JORGE RODRIGUEZ, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: That's the million-dollar question, isn't it, Ana? I think that we are not immune from some of the fatigue that the whole country has been seeing.
But California is, first of all, the most populous state in the country. It is so diverse that we have so many different communities that are being affected.
And you know, as a Hispanic, I know that, you know, our Hispanic people have multigenerational living, you know. And what we've seen is that the huge inequity in both health care and living and bias is coming to roost.
There are people that are having to work multiple jobs. And then you see, you know, other people that are more privileged having parties and, you know, going to visit -- to party in Puerto Vallarta. It's so diverse.
But also I wouldn't be surprised if, a few weeks from now, we find out this much more contagious variant of the virus is also here.
So I don't think anyone knows the answer as to really what is causing this here in southern California.
CABRERA: The number of COVID hospitalizations in California is at an all-time high. About 21,000 people are in hospital beds, 4,500 of them in intensive care.
Doctors, we're learning, are treating ICU patients in emergency rooms. Also having to use gift shops and conference rooms as space to treat patients.
It sounds, you know, just like a disaster movie, but this is all very real.
Tell us what has to happen, urgently, for your hospitals to be able to manage this demand.
RODRIGUEZ: Well, the first thing that has to happen is that everyone really needs to start doing what we've been asking them to do for ages.
The most -- the quickest response we're going to see is by people staying home, by people wearing their masks and by people socially distancing.
What needs to be done is perhaps we need more hospital beds. And I know that that -- what is it, the U.S. ship has been asked to come here to Los Angeles. And I think that would help.
But the first and foremost thing that needs to be done is, if you have symptoms, you need to isolate yourself. If you've been in contact, you need to isolate yourself. And if you're going out, you need to start wearing masks.
The spread needs to be stopped. The vaccine is not going to show a blip of anything useful for a couple of months.
CABRERA: You mentioned this new variant of the coronavirus that was first identified in the U.K. It has now been detected in several states, including California.
How alarming is this to you? And do you have any concern that the current vaccines available won't be effective against it?
RODRIGUEZ: First of all, I don't have concerns that the vaccine will not be effective against it. This has been shown.
Even though it's a mutation in what's called the spike protein, where the two major vaccines that are out affect, it doesn't affect antibodies or T-cell memory to that.
What it makes, is it makes is virus a little bit healthier in infecting other people.
I'm concerned because what it's going to do is it's going to have more people that are ill, more people that are going to be contagious, and therefore, it is going to burden our health care system even more than it is right now.
Mind you, this is not just going to affect people that are COVID positive. This is going to affect people that have heart attacks, women that are having trouble with their pregnancy, diabetics that have to go to the hospital.
It affects the whole community.
CABRERA: I know you received the COVID vaccine yourself. You posted a video about it on your Web site, saying you're happy that you got it, that you experienced no side effects. So that's good news.
But there's reporting that some of your fellow first responders and health care workers feel differently. They are choosing not to be vaccinated. Does that concern you?
RODRIGUEZ: It does concern me. It concerns me, anyone that doesn't get vaccinated.
Listen, getting the vaccine was both exciting and very humbling. But here's an interesting statistic. In the hospital where I got it, 40 percent of the people before the vaccine arrived said they weren't going to get it.
By the end of the day, by the end of the week, 70 percent of the people had gotten it.
Doctors, health care workers, we were people before we were physicians or nurses. We are, you know, sort of succumb to the same prejudices and to the same influence as both political and religious as anybody else.
So, I think, with time, everyone will come around and will want to take the vaccine.
CABRERA: OK. Well, we just got to keep getting all the information out there for people so that they --
RODRIGUEZ: Absolutely.
CABRERA: -- feel more and more confident in its safety and efficacy.
Dr. Jorge Rodriguez, really appreciate you taking the time. Thank you for all you do. Best of luck.
RODRIGUEZ Thank you. Happy New Year.
CABRERA: Back to our breaking news now. A dozen GOP Senators planning to oppose certification of Joe Biden's win. Yet, there's no, and I repeat no credible evidence suggesting widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election. So, what are they basing their decision on?
[16:49:55]
That's ahead, live, in the CNN NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CABRERA: Music and politics have a long history but it was Jimmy Carter who rode a rock-and-roll wave straight to the White House.
CNN's Bill Weir gives us a preview of the new CNN film, "JIMMY CARTER: ROCK AND ROLL PRESIDENT."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(SINGING)
BILL WEIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Is popular music downstream of politics?
JIMMY CARTER, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I listened to all the big Bob Dylan's records before I was governor.
WEIR: Or is it the other way around?
BOB DYLAN, SINGER/SONGWRITER: When I first met Jimmy, first thing he did was quote my songs back to me. And it was the first time that I realized my songs had reached into -- basically into the establishment.
WEIR: Or maybe music is just a soul detector for any leader of the moment.
(MUSIC)
WEIR: Friends of Lincoln say he held equal love for the "Blue Tail Fly" and opera --
(MUSIC)
WEIR: -- that certain songs would mist his eyes and throw him into a melancholy.
(MUSIC)
WEIR: In the modern era, Nixon played classical piano and Kennedy played along with Frank Sinatra.
(SINGING)
WEIR: But it wasn't until Jimmy Carter that the White House held a true fan of country, rock, blues and soul.
CARTER: There was some people who didn't like my being deeply involved with Willy Nelson and Bob Dylan, and these disreputable, you know, rock and rollers.
But I didn't care about that because I was doing what I really believed. And the response I think from the followers of those musicians was much more influential.
(MUSIC)
[16:55:03]
WEIR: Since then, Bill Clinton blew some Elvis sax and reunited Fleetwood Mac, briefly.
(SINGING)
WEIR: George Bush filled his iPod with George Jones and John Fogerty.
BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'm pretty sure I'm still the only president to listen to Jay-Z's music in the Oval Office.
WEIR: And Barack Obama showed his cool-dad range from Jay-Z to James Taylor.
JAMES TAYLOR, SINGER: This is my favorite president, bar none.
WEIR: As for the latest, well --
UNIDENTIFIED ANCHOR: Front man, Steven Tyler, is now asking President Trump to stop using the band's songs at political rallies. WEIR: The Trump years brought more cease-and-desist letters from
musicians than memorable White House performances.
(SINGING)
WEIR: But as Bob says --
(SINGING)
WEIR: Bill Weir, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CABRERA: Be sure to tune in. CNN's film, "JIMMY CARTER: ROCK AND ROLL PRESIDENT," premiers tomorrow night at 9:00 right here on CNN.
We're back after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.
CABRERA: You are live in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Ana Cabrera in New York.
[16:59:57]
Our breaking news this afternoon, 18 days until the inauguration of soon-to-be President Joe Biden. And yet we are learning of more and more Republicans signing onto what can only be described as a sad and shameful example of trying to overturn America's fair and free election.
