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GOP Lawmakers Set To Challenge Electoral College Vote On Wednesday; California Hospitals Stretched Thin As COVID Cases Surge; Today: Trump And Biden Campaign In GA Before Runoff Elections. Aired 11:30a-12p ET

Aired January 04, 2021 - 11:30   ET

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

[11:30:00]

JOHN KASICH, CNN SENIOR COMMENTATOR: And what this does, Kate, is it begins to undermine -- democracy requires consent of the govern. Now we have 30 percent of the country that don't believe that this election was legitimate. This will reinforce that. And it also requires faith in our basic institutions, one of them being elections.

And so, what's happening is, it is a serious undermining of the democracy in our country. And why are they doing it? Purely self- interest. They have calculated that if they're going to run for president in 2024, they need to be on the right side of Donald Trump. That's what this is all about.

And what we have seen, Kate, what has been amazing to me as I watched things over the last five years, really, with his nomination, election and then governing, is we've lost -- we've lost the ability for people to put country first. That to me is what's going on. It's about what's in it for me, how do I take care of myself, how do I square myself with the base so I can stay in power.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Do you think --

KASICH: Kate, it's very serious.

BOLDUAN: It is very serious. There's clearly no doubt anymore that this is a cynical political move by Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz who would like to run. Does this help them run for president, do you believe?

KASICH: I sure hope not. I sure hope not. I mean there's 13 of them in the Senate. There's a majority of the conference in the House. Now, you know, understand that the Democrats put some crazy rules in yesterday that you know it becomes a cultural thing. And Republicans have been able to play on the extremist position of Democrats to try to put themselves in the center reflecting what are traditional values.

So, on one hand, the Republicans tend to gain when Republicans are out to lunch. Joe Biden never went out to lunch, that's why he became president. But for these people to do this, they're calculating that you know the Trump will still be powerful and that they'll be rewarded for this. I hope not, Kate. I mean it would be a terrible thing to be rewarding politicians who work only in their self-interest. Every politician, every person on earth at times you know is concerned about their own self-interest but there's a point in which we need to say to ourselves, what is our basic morality because life is short. And I will tell you, my opinion, we will all be judged for what we've been given. And it isn't necessarily going to be here.

BOLDUAN: But it also, just the simple fact that you have members of Congress who are going to be challenging the Electoral College, they are members of Congress from the very same battleground states where they were elected, but they are not questioning the legitimacy of their victories in these same elections. It is --

KASICH: Oh, no. It's hypocrisy.

(CROSSTALK)

BOLDUAN: It's baffling and sad. It just doesn't -- saying it doesn't make sense is like captain obvious at this point.

KASICH: Kate, here's -- here's the way we need to think about it. We do a calculation with people who surround us, who reinforce this selfishness and they make excuses for it and justify it. We've seen it. We've seen things like this throughout the history of mankind. This is nothing new. It's about me, me, me.

And we're in a new year, and I hate to come on the show and start in the new year but at the end of the day all of us have to dig down deep to figure out what is it we're supposed to do as a person. And if it's all about me and what's in it for me, you know where that leads us, Kate, to a very, very dark place. That's what these people are doing. They'll justify anything, and so will their staffs. And they're excited.

And they're -- OK, look at the publicity we got today and I was on television. It's a joke because it has no meaning. I used to be there. Now, I'm not. I'm not there anymore. But you know what, I'm proud of what I've done over the last five years and standing up on the basis the way in which my mother and father raised many me. I'm not perfect by any stretch.

BOLDUAN: You're definitely not, but you're on the right side of history on this one. Can I -- leaning on your experience as the governor of Ohio. You've got the president who spends an hour on this phone call and there are 18 calls between his office and the secretary of state's office in if Georgia to set up this call. You think about how much effort went in for him to focus on this one state. And you know it's not -- that's not the only case.

It's so very clear that he's not focused where he should be which is on the pandemic. We have these stats now that an American is dying every 33 seconds from coronavirus in the country. As someone who has been entrusted with the health and safety of millions of Americans when you were governor, can you understand that choice?

[11:35:03]

KASICH: Well, no. It's irresponsible. We need national leadership. But Kate, I don't see any leadership at the state level. I see a lot of incompetence. But this is a logistical issue. And this is about breaking some glass. This is not about checking every detail and having 100,000 lawyers in there trying to figure out.

This is in the middle of a crisis where the hospitals are filled and people are dying, go give people the vaccine. Yes, I don't like what Trump has done and what he's done has been irresponsible from the beginning. But what is going on with these governors? Why have they not planned effectively for the distribution of this vaccine? What are they doing?

I mean, if I were governor I would sitting there thinking about, OK, I got to be prepared and I got to get this vaccine out there because every time I vaccinate somebody I save them from potentially being sick or from dying.

It's -- it is a -- it's incompetence of government, which is so serious because it undermines peoples' faith in our institutions. I hope they get on the ball. The governors will get on the ball and get this done and get it done now. Not in a couple weeks, now.

BOLDUAN: Governor, thank you for coming on. Let's talk about this and see what happens with the Electoral College. I'm interested in seeing your take on the other side of this. Thank you.

KASICH: All right, Kate. Thank you.

BOLDUAN: Coming up for us, an American, as I mentioned, is now dying of coronavirus every 33 seconds and in Los Angeles the mayor there now says one person is infected every six seconds.

Next, we're going to speak to a critical care nurse on the frontlines.

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[11:41:15]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR ERIC GARCETTI (D), LOS ANGELES: We're seeing a person every six seconds contract COVID-19 here in Los Angeles County. The nation's largest county, 10 million people. My message to everybody is this is not only going to come for somebody that you love. This is going to possibly come for you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: That is a warning from Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti as the city has become the new epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic in the United States. Hospitals in Southern California are buckling under the unprecedented surge of patients. Right now, there are more people hospitalized with COVID in California than at any point during the pandemic. More than 21,500 people, according to state data. The flood of COVID patients is forcing hospitals to make decisions that they should never have to like rationing care for their patients.

My next guest is someone who knows this too well at this point. A critical care nurse at St. Francis Medical Center in Los Angeles.

Scott Byington is joining me right now. Thank you for being here.

Can you lay out what you are seeing in your hospitals right now?

SCOTT BYINGTON, NURSE, ST. FRANCIS MEDICAL CENTER: It's really rough. You know, we're at max capacity most of the time. We have patients in the hallways. Not that we want it that way in the emergency room. The emergency room staff does everything they can to accommodate people. It's just that when we are on diversion for -- we have too many patients in house. The next hospital may also be suffering the same. So, the patient goes to the nearest hospital. And so, we have to care for them the best we can.

It's really trying. We haven't been trained for a pandemic. You don't go to nursing school and train for a pandemic. Everything is trial and error. And I thank God I work with a great group of people because we deal with this on a daily basis right now and then we come back to work the next day and start over again.

We have dedicated people to do such a thing. And I haven't seen anything like this. This is so far from the flu. I know some people believe -- it's so far from the flu. I can't even articulate it.

BOLDUAN: I know that you spoke to the "L.A. Times" about how you are all at the point where that rationing care is making these choices is something that you're having to face. I mean, you're talking about, we're having -- people are in the hallways. Can you talk to me about those -- what are those choices that you're having to make?

BYINGTON: Well, for example, sometimes recently as many other hospitals we ran out of certain equipment, such as high flow nasal cannula, which is a treatment for COVID patients, trying to prevent them from you know becoming intubated and going on life support. And when everybody requires it and you're full of COVID patients, you know you don't have that much equipment.

And it's true, as of everywhere else, one night I experienced where we needed a high flow oxygen and we were able to obtain it because a patient recently died in the E.R. And so, we're able to get the equipment because somebody else, you know, had died. That sounds gruesome and horrific. But that's where we are today. This is -- I mean, a year ago, who would have thought we were where we are now.

But all those stories and those, you know, statements made early by scientists that we're going to have to make those decisions down the road about rationing equipment, they're here. Those days are here right now. It's not that we want to do this, we don't have a choice. You have to choose the most viable patient, you know, many times.

[11:45:02] The physicians have a really hard time with this. This is not what we went into training for. We didn't become physicians and nurses and respiratory therapists to make decisions on who should and should not receive treatment. We still provide the compassionate care to the best we can.

You know our hospital serves a large community. And we do the best we can there. But it's -- we're at maximum capacity most of the time. And I'm not -- this is not new to -- this is -- this is new -- this is something that is common throughout all of Los Angeles. It's just that I feel sometimes things are being sugar coated and we really need to depict what's going on inside, you know, to the community so they understand. I mean we want to take care of our patients. It's just that we are limited with what we have because of this pandemic.

BOLDUAN: Scott, thank you very much.

BYINGTON: You're welcome.

BOLDUAN: Coming up for us, the final day of the Georgia Senate runoff is tomorrow. President Trump is headed there tonight and he's making clear that he is bringing his false claims about the state's presidential vote along with him.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:50:52]

BOLDUAN: Tomorrow is the big day in Georgia. Both President Trump and President-elect Joe Biden are heading there today to make their final pitch. Behind the scenes though, Republicans are growing more and more concerned about what President Trump is going to say when he hits the trail after his astonishing call with Georgia's secretary of state. And let's be honest, they have reason to be worried.

President Trump is laying it out essentially in a tweet of what is coming. Inaccurately claiming that the presidential vote totals in the state are wrong and promising you will see the real numbers tonight during my speech.

Let me bring in CNN political director David Chalian for more on this. David, you're going to see the real numbers tonight during my speech is what Trump is promising. What is that going to do to the Senate race?

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: We have already seen the real numbers. We've seen them multiple times. They were counted. They were recounted. They were recounted again. And they have been certified. Those are the real numbers. Donald Trump lost Georgia.

This is just insanity at this point and Donald Trump as you said on the phone call, Kate, he said he's going to go through all of that -- all of that ridiculous conspiracy theory stuff that he went through on the call with the secretary of state. He is going to present that at the rally tonight. And so, you say what impact will that have. I don't know that we'll know the actual impact of that to the Senate race. It is not desirable. It is not about getting people out to vote for David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler.

But I will note this, Kate. Donald Trump has a proven ability to go in, in these last minute, last 24 hours of a campaign and campaign and drive out Republican turnout. He has proven successful with that not only for his own election in 2020 where he got a lot of people out but in other elections.

And so, I don't -- just because the content is going to be false and conspiracy theory based doesn't necessarily mean that we can assume it won't actually -- his visit won't still help drive turnout among his core supporters.

BOLDUAN: 3 million early votes cast. What does that say about who's voting and who benefits, David?

CHALIAN: Well, one thing, Kate. It says that we are not seeing the massive drop off that we normally see --

BOLDUAN: Right.

CHALIAN: -- between a general election and a runoff because there were 4 million early votes cast prior to the November 3rd election in Georgia. So, the fact that you're at 3 million, Kate, shows that this is still a very engaged, enthusiastic electorate.

Obviously, there's some drop off there we would expect but not nearly as precipitous as we thought. And what we have seen is there's been higher participation in early vote with African Americans, higher participation in the early vote among young voters.

Those are two Democratic constituencies that give the Democrats some belief that they may have banked a sufficient number of early votes here in the pre-election period with in person and mail voting that maybe they have such a lead that Republicans won't be able to make it up tomorrow with the Election Day vote where their voters tend to go out in greater numbers.

BOLDUAN: I am so fascinated with this concept of you know we've heard Donie O'Sullivan has been on the ground talking to a lot of folks about you know the misinformation and disinformation that they have heard and how it soured them in terms of believing that their vote would matter in this runoff. Because they don't believe -- they believe that their vote was stolen in the presidential.

It is fascinating to me that the president is going down there to continue pushing this. I mean, I guess, maybe it is just further evidence. He does not necessarily care who actually wins in the Senate race.

CHALIAN: Well, I think that's certainly true. I mean, I think one of the definitional characteristics of Donald Trump throughout the four years of his presidency is it has been about Donald Trump first, no matter what, in any area.

And so, there's no doubt he cares a lot more about fighting this absurd battle about the presidential election in Georgia that he lost there instead of actually really leaning into and doing everything in his power in the most positive way possible to get Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue back to the United States Senate.

BOLDUAN: And real quick, David, with so much early voting, when do you expect a result? I mean, what are the chances that we're going to know the result of the election tomorrow night?

[11:55:00]

CHALIAN: You know Stacey Abrams was on "State of the Union" with Jake Tapper yesterday. She said she doesn't expect results for possibly two days. It took us I think 10 days to actually get a winner in the presidential election. We know this is a singular race. We're going to take a look at the ballots as they come in. Those mailed ballots are going to be counted.

It may not be tomorrow night, Kate. It is a close race. But I don't think it will be days and days and days like it was in November.

BOLDUAN: Stick with us, folks. Just listen to David Chalian. It's good to see you, David. Thank you very much.

CHALIAN: Thanks, Kate.

BOLDUAN: A programming note for all of you. Special coverage of Georgia Senate runoffs begins tomorrow at 4:00 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN.

And coming up, a slow vaccine rollout and missed milestone, and now the FDA is concerning cutting the Moderna vaccine to half doses. What does that strategy look like?

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