Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

U.S. Eclipses 20 Million COVID-19 Cases with New Year; Slow Start Hinders U.S. COVID-19 Vaccine Rollout; U.S. Congress Meets Wednesday to Certify Biden Victory; Illegal New Year's Party in France; U.K. to Administer Oxford AstraZeneca Vaccine Monday; Wuhan Bounces Back from Pandemic's Ground Zero; Fast-Spreading Virus Variant Cases Found Worldwide; Georgia Senate Showdown; Violence Spikes in Some U.S. States. Aired 5-6a ET

Aired January 02, 2021 - 05:00   ET

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

[05:00:00]

(MUSIC PLAYING)

ROBYN CURNOW, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and all around the world. I'm Robyn Curnow.

Coming up on the show, the U.S. surpasses 20 million COVID cases as a highly contagious virus variant is now found in at least three different U.S. states.

Field hospitals are getting ready to go in the U.K., where the health service is straining under immense pressure. We'll have a live report from London.

And a blow to outgoing president Donald Trump as the Senate overrides his veto of a massive defense bill.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Live from CNN Center, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Robyn Curnow.

CURNOW: Great to have you along this hour.

The arrival of the new year has brought a grim new statistic in the U.S. for the coronavirus. Just hours after flipping the calendar to 2021, the U.S. hit 20 million total infections. All indications are, of course, that it will keep on rising.

In fact, the coronavirus is racing so quickly through the U.S. population that another 1 million new cases are being added every five or six days. And there's a more contagious variant that could certainly greatly complicate the global crisis. It was recently detected in the U.K. but has now been found in at least 30 countries, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Turkey is suspending flights from Britain after finding 15 cases in passengers arriving from the U.K. The CDC says it's been in the U.S. earlier than first believed after the variant was found in a Florida man in mid-December. For the latest on the pandemic here in the U.S., Nick Watt is in Los Angeles --Nick.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICK WATT, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): From Wuhan, where all this began, to New York, not much fondness in the farewell to a terrible year.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: And 2020 is gone.

(CROSSTALK)

ANDY COHEN, CNN HOST: 2020 is freaking gone.

WATT (voice-over): 2020 was tough but:

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are still going to have our toughest and darkest days.

WATT (voice-over): A L.A. County official says hospitals are, quote, "on the brink of catastrophe."

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's like treading water from 100 feet below the surface. You're already drowning but you just have to keep trying because that's what you can do.

WATT (voice-over): In Atlanta, a field hospital reopens for business at the Georgia World Congress Center. Meanwhile:

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In many parts of rural Georgia, both in the north and the south, there is vaccine available and literally sitting in freezers. That's unacceptable. We have -- we have lives to save.

WATT (voice-over): They're just not getting the hoped-for uptake from medical workers. In West Virginia, 42 people were given antibodies, not the vaccine, by mistake. In Wisconsin, a pharmacist now in custody after destroying 500 doses, taking them out of refrigeration.

The administration projected 20 million would have had vaccine dose number one by now.

The reality?

Not even 2.8 million reported.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: States and localities need resources. They need funding. I expected that we would see bumps in the road, but I didn't expect that we'd see this lack of consistency across the states.

WATT (voice-over): And that new faster spreading coronavirus variant now detected in Colorado, California and maybe Florida.

DR. SAJU MATHEW, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: I think we have to assume that this strain has been in the U.S. for a long time.

WATT (voice-over): December, by the numbers, was the worst month of the pandemic, the most confirmed cases, the most deaths, 10,000 lives lost in the last three days alone.

MATHEW: We do have these vaccines. We just need to hunker down and get there.

WATT (voice-over): In 2020, 345,737 people confirmed killed by COVID- 19 in America.

In 2021, how many more?

WATT: And here in California, a grim start to 2021, a record death toll reported New Year's Day, 585 lives lost, beating the previous record, which was set on New Year's Eve -- Nick Watt, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CURNOW: Republican senator Mitt Romney is slamming the slow rollout of vaccines in the U.S. as inexcusable. About 12,5 million doses have been shipped nationwide yet fewer than 3 million shots have actually been administered. To help explain why, here's Kristen Holmes.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: State officials say the rollout of the coronavirus vaccine has been an incredible undertaking. They are stretched thin responding to coronavirus as a whole. We want to point out why this could be so difficult.

One is that states are now in charge of not only actually administering the vaccine, they are in charge of choosing who gets the vaccine and when.

[05:05:00]

HOLMES: They also are in charge of storing the vaccine, which is a complicated drug. Many states don't have the infrastructure to do that. They had to put those in place and train people on the vaccine.

Now we are seeing incidents within several states that really show how wrong things can go in a complicated rollout.

In West Virginia, we know 42 people went in and thought they were getting the vaccine. Instead, it turns out got COVID antibodies. Officials say they don't believe there is risk of harm to the individuals. But they could not or would not say how a mix up could occur.

In terms of human error or interference, Safe Way, in D.C., threw out two doses of the vaccine after vaccinating 28 people. There were two doses left and threw them out. Now they are trying to figure out how to handle remaining doses.

When it comes to human interfere interference, in Wisconsin, a pharmacist is accused of taking 500-plus doses of the Moderna vaccine out of the pharmacy refrigerator, knowing it would render them useless. Heartbreaking there when you realize how many doses there were there. He has been arrested and charged with three felonies.

To end on a positive note, health experts I'm talking to say they believe the next couple of weeks a lot of the kinks will be worked out and more and more people will get the vaccine. Of course, that is something we will watch closely.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CURNOW: Kristen Holmes there.

The U.S. Senate delivered a rare bipartisan rebuke to President Trump on Friday, voting to override his veto of the National Defense Authorization Act. This is the first veto override of Trump's presidency. Phil Mattingly has more on that and what to watch for when Congress certifies the election next week.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN U.S. CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: As the 116th Congress comes to an end, the president, with a pretty sharp rebuke from Republicans and Democrats. That doesn't mean the relations with Congress are officially over. The Republicans are more than 140 in the House and one in the 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. On January 6th, when the joint session convenes to count the electors, Joe Biden will be confirmed to be the next President of the United States of America.

How long it takes to get to that point?

Those Republicans, when paired with the senator, if they raise an objection to the electors counted, that requires both chambers to recess and have a debate and then a vote on the objections.

That vote will fail. However, many time it is happens, it will fail. Democrats control the House. Democrats have a decent size 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.

[05:10:00]

MATTINGLY: So tangibly, all these objections mean is it will mean be a very long day. Politically, it is a big issue inside the Republican Party, particularly with senators. Mitch McConnell made, clear this was not a pathway he wanted Republicans to go down. Think of the dynamics. You vote for reality, that 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 incentives that Republicans don't want to fight and vote on. Yet it looks like that is what's going to happen.

Just another page in the final weeks for President Trump. What it means for the party and the president himself and senators and Congress members still in office when he leaves, they will try to figure it all out.

The bottom line is this, Joe Biden will be inaugurated President of the United States on January 20th.

What happens to the party Trump oversees?

That is an open question -- Phil Mattingly, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CURNOW: Meantime a Trump appointed federal judge has thrown out a lawsuit bent on forcing Vice President Mike Pence to overturn the election results. Texas representative Louie Gohmert and several Arizona Republicans want to the court to affirm that Pence can discard votes in several key states when Congress certifies the presidential electoral vote count.

But the judge said Gohmert lacks the standing to sue. Gohmert has just appealed to a higher court.

Iran says it plans to enrich uranium to 20 percent purity. That's up from the current 4 percent level and far above the cap imposed in the 2015 nuclear deal. Iran told the International Atomic Energy Agency about its decision on Thursday.

The new enrichment level is far below the 90 percent considered weapons grade and Iran has repeatedly denied plans to build nuclear bombs. Last month the Iranian parliament called for the increased levels following the killing of its top nuclear scientist in November.

And the U.S. and Iran have been rattling sabers with implied threats in the Persian Gulf recently as well. Sunday marks the first anniversary of the death of general Qasem Soleimani in a U.S. drone strike and U.S. officials say the potential of an attack from Iran is the highest since his death.

The U.S. has flown nuclear-capable B-52 bombers to the Middle East twice in the past month as a show of force.

Still ahead on CNN, field hospitals are on standby in England as the nation struggles to contain the new variant of the coronavirus. A live report from London, that's next.

Also, the Chinese city of Wuhan was ground zero at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. Now we'll look at how far it has come since -- when we return.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:15:00]

(MUSIC PLAYING) CURNOW: So, despite the global pandemic, this is how more than 2,500 people in France rang in the new year. They attended an illegal rave, ignoring local restrictions and a nationwide curfew. Police say they were met with violent hostility when they tried to break up the party.

Similar scenes in London; police responding to 58 unlicensed parties and events across the city. More than 200 people were fined for breaking social distancing restrictions and four people were arrested.

Meantime, the U.K. is struggling to curb a new surge of the virus. A spokesperson for the National Health Service says the Nightingale Hospital in London is preparing to reopen field hospitals if needed.

Let's go straight to London. Salma Abdelaziz joins me with more on that.

What can you tell us about these field hospitals being readied?

SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN PRODUCER: Well, Robyn, to reopen this hospital, a top director at the NHS says this is something that is a last resort and an insurance policy. You have to understand that things have to get pretty dire in order for them to open up this extra hospital capacity.

But there is some controversy around it because, even if you can open up the space, the question is, who staffs it?

Where do you get the equipment?

National Health Service staff are already at their brink. They're completely stretched. Ventilators and other critical equipment is already being stretched as well at hospitals. There's reports the military will have to step in to staff this location.

And you can see why people are so overwhelmed. I'm just going to run you through the scene here, paint you a picture with the latest figures. You have four days in a row, every day getting 50,000 new coronavirus cases in this country.

There were infection rate records broken just this past week. There are now more patients with COVID-19 in hospital than at any point before. So, a truly bleak picture.

Yes, in some ways, this extra hospital capacity will help but what medical experts and doctors are calling for is a complete shutdown of the country. And they say, unless we turn the taps off, the hospitals will be overwhelmed, will be stretched to the limit this month -- Robyn.

CURNOW: Let's talk about vaccines. The AstraZeneca vaccine coming online soon. In the last hour I spoke to an epidemiologist and he seemed to also think the suggestion that the U.K. could mix and match different vaccines, depending on where you were, was OK, that it was pragmatic health policy.

What are folks saying there on the ground? ABDELAZIZ: Well, I mean, the strategy for the vaccinations in this country has been very bold. It was the first country to approve the vaccine and, of course, just a couple of days ago, the announcement by authorities they'll delay the second injection of the two-part vaccination program.

The idea is you'd get your first dose and you could wait up to three months to get that second dose. And the country's chief medical officers say that's because that first injection should be able to give people a relative amount of protection, keep them out of the hospitals, prevent them from getting seriously ill and then it allows them to inject more people, give more people the vaccine and keep that health care system from being overwhelmed.

Again, this is all due to the variant, which, of course, is overwhelming this country. There's been a new study by the Imperial College of London that says that new variant tripled during lockdown in November. So a bold strategy, really uncharted territory but I think the authorities will tell you, you need a bold battle plan to beat this virus.

[05:20:00]

CURNOW: Certainly. Thank you, Salma Abdelaziz in London.

The British government is taking this mix and match approach to vaccines, saying it's responsible to use a different vaccine for the second dose if the first vaccine is not available or known.

Here's a little bit of that interview, that I was telling Salma about, with infectious disease physician Keith Neal. And I asked him if his approach was just mixed messaging. This is what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KEITH NEAL, UNIVERSITY OF NOTTINGHAM: I think it is a highly pragmatic policy. The first line in the guidance is what you do with somebody when you don't know which vaccine they've had. You know they've had a vaccine but don't know which one it is.

Do you send them away or do you give them a vaccine that is almost certainly going to have an effect?

We have not done mixed trials. There's little evidence about other vaccines that, if you present the antigen, your body doesn't know, and it responds appropriately.

CURNOW: The U.S. taking a different take on that but no doubt the vaccine rollout is still good news. It is slow. It is hesitant. We are hearing AstraZeneca coming online soon.

How quickly do you think the U.K. and U.S. and other places can catch up with the virus, so the vaccine starts overtaking new infections?

NEAL: We have vaccinated over 1 million people in the United Kingdom with at least one dose. That will give them 80 percent protection. That is the 1 million people most at risk. We have only got 65 million people in the country, of which about 30 million in the target age group of over 50 or with risk factors.

I think the main thing is we keep getting the vaccine rolled out to the highest risk groups, which have the most impact on the deaths and hospitalizations. We will be coming into the warmer months, where we saw the benefits last year in 2020.

By the time the winter comes around again, we will be thinking have we got the right flu vaccine and we should have vaccinated those at risk and possibly gone down further.

CURNOW: That is potentially the end of this year. We are hearing about the new U.K. variant. What more can you tell us about the mutation?

There's research is coming from Imperial saying it is a significant change. It tripled infections during lockdown.

What kind of mutation more do you expect?

NEAL: These viruses always mutate. That is the way they are put together. Viruses tend to mutate in two ways, one to become more infectious. If you got one virus better at spreading than the other, it will spread further and quicker through the population.

They also have a tendency to become less dangerous. You are not very good at spreading it if you are stuck at home or in a bed. Fortunately, we have not seen an increase in the virulence or ability to produce serious illness in this new strain.

The main concern is it was spreading in southeast of England during lockdown. So we might need very tight restrictions to interfere with its spread in parts of the country.

CURNOW: OK. It is great to have your perspective. Thank you, Professor Keith Neal at the University of Nottingham. Thank you for your expertise.

NEAL: Thank you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CURNOW: Current coronavirus levels are not what many countries across the globe were hoping for in the new year. According to Johns Hopkins University, there are more than 84 million cases around the world.

South Korea is banning gatherings of five people or more nationwide. It's also keeping social distancing measures in place until at least January the 17th. The ministry of health says daily cases there are in the high hundreds.

Japan, with a much larger population, is reporting daily cases in the thousands. The ministry of health confirms 716 patients were in serious condition due to COVID on Friday, a new record there.

In Australia, authorities are making the wearing of face masks mandatory in public indoor spaces. They're also imposing additional restrictions on New South Wales after a virus cluster expanded by seven new cases there.

The city where scientists say the coronavirus pandemic began looks far different than it did a year ago. Wuhan was a ghost town, thanks to a strict COVID crackdown by Chinese authorities. But on Friday at midnight, the city was packed with crowds, as you can see here, ringing in the new year. Steven Jiang has more on how Wuhan is bouncing back.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

STEVEN JIANG, CNN SENIOR PRODUCER, BEIJING BUREAU: After seeing thousands of COVID deaths and going through a brutal lockdown, the city has largely come back to life in recent months, which is why the Communist leadership under president Xi Jinping now wants to showcase it to highlight their success in containing this virus within its borders.

[05:25:00]

JIANG: In contrast to what is going on in the U.S.

Many people, though, remember a very different storyline about Wuhan in 2020, including a whistleblowing doctor being silenced by local police last January and he later died of COVID.

Also, during the last week of 2020, a citizen journalist was sentenced to four years in prison for basically documenting the harsh reality in Wuhan in the height of the pandemic.

And the city itself may soon be under a global spotlight again with a WHO team expected to arrive in the city later this month to investigate the origins of the COVID virus -- Steven Jiang, CNN, Beijing.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CURNOW: Coming up after a short break, Atlanta, Georgia, converts a convention facility into a field hospital to handle a sharp new rise in infections. That's near where the CNN Center is. The details on that straight ahead.

Plus, Georgia voters will determine who controls the Senate this week.

And just a day later, Congress is set to certify the election. It's all part of a big week in American politics. That's also ahead.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(MUSIC PLAYING)

CURNOW: Welcome back to our viewers here in the United States and all around the world. It's 30 minutes past the hour. I'm Robyn Curnow. You're watching CNN.

The U.S. is beginning the new year with more than 20 million total cases of COVID since the pandemic began. That's far more than any other country. And the U.S. death toll is now approaching a mind- boggling 350,000 Americans. A more contagious variant of the virus has now been detected in at least 30 countries, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

[05:30:00]

CURNOW: It was first confirmed in the U.S. just before Christmas in the U.S. state of Colorado. The governor spoke to CNN about the challenge it presents.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. JARED POLIS (D-CO): We are screening more and more samples for this strain, but the good news is the same exact techniques work to control the spread of this strain than the already very transmissible strain.

The normal form of COVID-19 is extremely contagious. That's why we're in the grips of this global pandemic.

So wear a mask. Avoid socializing with people outside of your household and keep a distance of at least six feet with others. All very important, tried and true. They might not work quite as well against the new variant but those are the most effective weapons we have.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CURNOW: Meanwhile, here in Georgia, there's certainly been an alarming spike in COVID infections. The state reported more than 8,700 new cases on Friday. That is a daily record.

Right across the street from the CNN Center, where we are right now, a facility that is normally used for trade shows and conventions is being converted into a COVID ward to handle the influx of new patients. We get the details on that from Nick Valencia -- Nick.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: 2020 has come and gone but the latest numbers from Johns Hopkins University shows that the pandemic is still, very much so, raging. Johns Hopkins says, in the last three days of 2020, over 10,000 Americans died as a result of being infected by the coronavirus.

As it stands right now, California seems to be the center of the pandemic. But things here in Georgia aren't faring much better.

Governor Brian Kemp, so concerned with the latest winter numbers of the -- of coronavirus, that he's opened up the Georgia World Congress Center to act as a makeshift field hospital, where there will be 60 temporary beds, acting as a overflow center for the health systems that have just been overwhelmed by the rising cases. The governor addressed his concerns about the rising numbers.

GOV. BRIAN KEMP (R-GA): And if the people of Georgia will hunker down for a little bit longer, stay vigilant and do the things we've been talking about -- wearing a mask, washing your hands, socially distancing themselves and following the health guidance in our executive orders -- we can all have a safe, happy new year.

VALENCIA: This field hospital is expected to be open until at least the end of January. And earlier, when I spoke to the governor's office, they said they are admitting patients as of today. Just a quick note here on hospitalizations in Georgia, about 5,000 Georgians woke up in the hospital; numbers here, continuing to spike.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CURNOW: Nick Valencia there.

A Virginia state senator has now died after contracting COVID according to a statement from his office. Senator Ben Chafin Jr. died on Friday from complications after being in a medical center for two weeks.

His office remembers the Republican as an advocate for jobs in his district. And Virginia's governor described him as kind and gracious. He was 60 years old. In his honor, the state flag will fly at half- staff atop Virginia's capital until his interment.

And a judge appointed by President Trump has thrown out a lawsuit aiming to give vice president Pence the ability to reverse the election result. But Texas representative Louie Gohmert already has appealed to a higher court.

The lawsuit sought to affirm that Pence has the authority to discard votes in several key states when Congress certifies the electoral votes next week, as Kaitlan Collins now reports from Washington.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: President Trump skipped his annual New Year's Eve party in Mar-a-Lago to cut his Florida vacation short and come back to Washington early. Though the White House never publicly explained exactly why the president was doing that.

But many sources believed it was ahead of that showdown that's expected on Capitol Hill next week, when the House and the Senate do meet to certify Joe Biden's win as the next President of the United States, something that we know that the outcome will not be any different.

But how we get there might, given that several of the president's Republican allies are preparing to dispute that. But of course, as that is coming, the president is also looking to his vice president, Mike Pence, and what his role is going to be in that because, typically, it's just procedural, ceremonial, largely. But of course, now the vice president has found himself at odds with

some of the president's allies, including congress man Louie Gohmert, who filed that lawsuit against the vice president, that many thought was frivolous and not going to go anywhere because it was basically arguing Pence had the authority to change the votes, which he does not.

So we're still waiting for the president himself to weigh in on that though it does come as he was at the White House and we did not see him on New Year's Day. But of course, what happened on Capitol Hill was that massive rebuke of the president coming from Senate Republicans during his final days of office as they voted to override the veto that he had administered of the defense bill -- Kaitlan Collins, CNN, the White House.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CURNOW: President Trump and President-Elect Biden both plan to campaign in Georgia on Monday, the day before Tuesday's high-stakes Senate runoff elections. Now the pressure appears to be on Republicans to turn out on Tuesday.

[05:35:00]

CURNOW: Because registered Georgia Democrats have voted earlier and faster than expected apace, as Kyung Lah now reports from Atlanta.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR U.S. CORRESPONDENT: We're getting new numbers from the secretary of state here in Georgia that shows as early vote is closing, more than 3 million Georgians have already voted, and this is all before Election Day on Tuesday.

Democrats are welcoming the news. Stacey Abrams, the well-known Democrat here, who ran for governor in Georgia, says it is an early sign that Democrats are doing well.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STACEY ABRAMS, FORMER GEORGIA GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE: I wouldn't say that it's better. I would say that it's incredibly gratifying to see so many turning out. We are pleased with the level of energy and excitement, especially given how often pundits were discounting the likelihood of Democrats performing in a runoff.

According to current analysis, we are running at or ahead of where we were in 2000 in 28 November election, but we know that this is just the beginning. We still have to get to Election Day, and I don't count anything until it's done.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAH: That early vote number is adding pressure on the GOP, who also believes Democrats are outperforming what they did in November 2020. They need to bring out more of their voters on Election Day. And a lot of GOP are pinning their hopes that President Trump, when

he's here the day before the election, will be able to increase enthusiasm as long as he stays on message -- Kyung Lah, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CURNOW: So I spoke to James Davis, a political science professor and the director of The Institute of Political Science at the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland and I asked him whether visits to Georgia by the president or the president-elect will make a difference.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JAMES DAVIS, UNIVERSITY OF ST. GALLEN: It sounds like the Democrats are doing well enough as it is. I think, you know, President-Elect Joe Biden will come in and try to close the deal. I think where there needs to be momentum for Republicans is -- they need the momentum. They seem to be lagging behind.

The president has to stay on message. But he isn't able to do that. He has been tweeting overnight that these special elections or runoff elections are illegitimate and illegal. It seems hard for me to understand how, on the one hand, you are championing democracy and, on the other hand, trying to undermine the legitimacy of the elections.

So I think Republicans have to be nervous today.

CURNOW: We also are hearing about the lawsuit, trying to compel the vice president to help Mr. Trump override the election results. We are hearing it is being appealed.

What is the strategy behind this?

It is not legal, is it?

DAVIS: No, I would encourage all Americans to pull out a copy of the Constitution or Google it and read Article I. Excuse me, Article II, which makes clear what the job of the vice president is. It is to open the envelopes and tally the results from the states.

There is no constitutional basis for this suit to go forward. I think what is going on is you have upwards of two-thirds of the Republican House caucus joining a losing effort for a variety of reasons.

Some of them are under the cult of personality, devoted to Trump and, whatever Trump wants, they are giving him. And for some it is a cheap vote to curry favor with the party. As Senator Sasse said already, there are a few people looking ahead four years and thinking about how they will run for president.

So getting on the bandwagon and making a stand may cost them nothing, maybe helps then with the base when they decide to run. The problem is it erodes the norms of democracy and our status worldwide.

CURNOW: It does for many people watching this. What we also see is this continued effort on various levels to undermine the election results.

What we are expecting and talking about in Congress in the coming week, do you see it more of a loyalty test to Trump by Republicans?

And in trying to get Republicans to be stretching either way, what does that mean for the party after Mr. Trump leaves?

DAVIS: That's the big question. The Republican Party is going to have to do soul-searching after President Biden is inaugurated.

Are they the party that stands for small government and free trade, the party that stands for strong American presence, or are they the party of Trump, a party that follows the whims of someone who doesn't understand the Constitution and doesn't understand the norms of democracy.

[05:40:00]

DAVIS: And basically, is focused on whatever gets him in the paper or press on a daily basis.

I think that is an interesting thing that we have to watch.

CURNOW: What do you make of the Senate breaking with Mr. Trump and overriding the National Defense Authorization Act?

It's the first time in four years.

Does that signal anything?

DAVIS: It signals a number of senators are not too worried about Trump in any retribution that he will mete out on them, should he ever come back into the political fray.

It may be a positive sign for some kind of reform in the Republican Party. But it certainly is a slap in the face for the president in really his last few weeks of office, this override of the veto. It can't make him very happy.

CURNOW: Professor James Davis, thank you very much for your expertise.

DAVIS: Thanks, Robyn.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CURNOW: So, violence is spiking in Chicago. After the break, we'll head to the Windy City where experts are linking the brutality to the pandemic.

Plus, a wintertime tornado here in Georgia flips a house on its side. We'll have the latest on the storms that have ripped through the South and the Midwest.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) (MUSIC PLAYING)

CURNOW: A U.S. federal appeals court is reinstating the execution date for the only woman on federal death row, Lisa Montgomery. She's been scheduled for execution in December, but a judge postponed it when her lawyer said she'd been diagnosed with COVID.

On Friday, the Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., reversed that lower court ruling. Montgomery's execution is scheduled for later on this month. She was convicted in 2004 of strangling a pregnant woman in Missouri, then removing the unborn baby from the victim's body.

[05:45:00]

CURNOW: So of course, the pandemic has brought tremendous hardship to many people and, in some U.S. states, it seems to have contributed to a dramatic rise in violence. Adrian Broaddus reports from Chicago on this troubling link between coronavirus and depression and substance abuse.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ADRIENNE BROADDUS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: As the pandemic rages, we have seen crime spike across the country, including here in Chicago. Devastating: that's how one top law enforcement official describes the latest number of homicides, as well as a former gang member.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I normally don't talk about it.

BROADDUS (voice-over): Sometimes, talking about a painful past lead to healing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've been shot 10 times at one time, multiple times, and left for dead.

ROBERT WHITE, CHICAGO CRED: You got to do something with this second chance.

BROADDUS (voice-over): Mentoring from the bed of a pickup truck is Robert White, a former gang leader with the Black P. Stone Rangers in Chicago.

WHITE: The average shooter who really get down in this city, age is from 14 to 19.

BROADDUS (voice-over): Fifty-year-old White now works with Chicago CRED, an anti-gun violence organization.

White said the latest homicide numbers are troubling. Of the country's largest cities, New York, Los Angeles, Houston and Phoenix, all saw homicide increases of greater than 30 percent compared to the same time last year. But Chicago had an increase of 55 percent, from 491 to 762 homicides through December 27th.

JOHN LAUSCH, U.S. ATTORNEY, NORTHERN DISTRICT OF ILLINOIS: 2020's been a really tough year, nationwide, for violent crime. In particular, in Chicago. We've seen homicides and shootings get really at a staggering number.

BROADDUS (voice-over): John Lausch is the United States attorney for the Northern District of Illinois.

LAUSCH: The shootings and the homicides are up significantly. And if we look, just anecdotally, at what we are seeing, the offenders just seem to be emboldened.

BROADDUS (voice-over): Jens Ludwig runs the University of Chicago's crime lab. He helps people understand what the data doesn't show.

JENS LUDWIG, UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO: If you look at the gun violence problem, that's usually concentrated among young people, say, 18 to 24. And if you look at the CDC data on mental health, something like 70 percent to 75 percent of people 18 to 24 are showing signs of anxiety, depression, increase in substance use in response to the pandemic.

And I think one of the things that people haven't maybe fully appreciated is how much the social service sector does to help control crime as well. And everything that the social service sector does has also been turned upside down by the pandemic as well, starting with the public schools as well as after-school programs, weekend programs, job training, mental health services, everything.

LAUSCH: And this has been a challenging year, in that regard. So I think, for a lot of reasons. You know, one, people are walking around wearing masks. You know, that -- that -- that has an impact.

BROADDUS (voice-over): As White and his mentee, John, pledge to help, tears fall faster than both can wipe away.

WHITE: It's not tears of sadness. These are good tears. I want to be able to, like, help other folks get through the pain and suffering because it's -- you know, life is too short.

BROADDUS: And remember, some people shot in 2020 will die in 2021 or later. And those numbers aren't captured in this most recent data -- Adrienne Broaddus, CNN, Chicago.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CURNOW: Thousands of homes in central U.S. have no electricity after powerful winter storms and a record snowfall. Derek will have the chilly details. That's next.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:50:00]

(MUSIC PLAYING) CURNOW: A powerful winter storm has left more than 100,000 homes and

businesses without power across the central U.S. Snowfall ranging from 5 to 14 inches or about 12 to 35 centimeters with a daily record set in Oklahoma City, which got about half a foot of snow.

Ice accumulations have downed trees and power lines, leaving tens of thousands of people in the dark in Missouri, Illinois and Indiana. Here in the South, at least two tornadoes hit east central Georgia. One person was injured after a manufactured home was flipped, as you can see here.

(WEATHER REPORT)

[05:55:00]

CURNOW: U.S. college football's national championship game is set. Number one Alabama is facing off against number three Ohio State. The Buckeyes pulled off an upset win against the number two Clemson Tigers at the Sugar Bowl on Friday.

Alabama trounced the number 14 Notre Dame. The Tide will take on the Buckeyes on January 11th.

Want to take you to Hawaii. where Australian surfer Mikey Wright was in the right place at the right time. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, my God.

CURNOW (voice-over): He saw a woman getting swept away in the current and dove into action. Although they were submerged multiple times under these enormous crashing waves, they did make it to shore safely eventually. Now the dramatic rescue was posted on his Instagram account with the humorous caption, "Hold my beer."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CURNOW: So, thanks for watching CNN. I'm Robyn Curnow. "NEW DAY" is next. You're watching CNN. Enjoy.