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Audio: Trump Tries To Bully GA Official Into Subverting 2020 Election; Source: White House Attempted To Phone GA Secretary Of State's Office 18 Times; Senator Collins On Trump's GA Call: The Election In Georgia And All The States Is Over, It Is Too Late To Find Votes; Trump & Biden Head To Georgia For Final Senate Runoffs Push. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired January 04, 2021 - 12:00   ET

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

[12:00:00]

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JOHN KING, CNN HOST: Hello to our viewers in the United States and around the world. I am John King in Washington. Thank you for sharing your day as we begin a very, very consequential work week.

There are some signs of global progress in the fight against the virus. The UK rolling out its third vaccine, even as the Prime Minister Boris Johnson says additional restrictions are needed to tame the rising case load there.

Here in the states, take a look the first nurse to receive the vaccine in California gets her second dose and hopefully immunity. But the U.S. vaccine rollout is moving at a glacial pace well behind what the Trump White House promised us. And the New Year already includes a question asked way too many times in 2020, why and how did we screw this up more on that ahead?

But first, the president today lashing out what he calls the Surrender Caucus, by that he means Republicans who won't back up his baseless election fraud challenge. The fresh attack is the president's day after response to a simply stunning tape that exposes the depth of the president's election obsession and frankly the depth of his corruption.

After weeks of trying the president finally got Georgia's top election official on the phone on Saturday. The call ran about an hour. The president did most of the talking the leader of the free world, calling from the White House threatening Georgia Secretary of State and asking him to disregard democracy, asking him to cheat. Listen.

The president right here in his own words asking the Secretary of State to find enough fake votes to make him the winner.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, 45TH U.S. PRESIDENT: The people of Georgia are angry, the people of the country are angry. And there's nothing wrong with saying that you've recalculated. So look. All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have, because we won the state. So what are we going to do here, folks? I only need 11,000 votes. Fellows, I need 11,000 votes. Give me a break.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Finding votes and flipping outcomes is the stuff of third world autocrats. It is illegal. Yet there are still Republicans who plan to stand with this president on Wednesday that is the day congress certifies Joe Biden's win and when at least 12 Republican Senators at least right now say, they plan to object to the results. There is no doubt about the math here.

Court after court after court determined the president's claims of massive fraud have zero merit. He thinks if he keeps repeating lies, they become truths, and too many Republicans go along with this dangerous fantasy. But this morning Georgia's Republican Secretary of State pushed back again just as he did on that phone call with the president.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRAD RAFFENSPERGER (R-GA), SECRETARY OF STATE: We took the call and we had a conversation. He did most of the talking we did most of the listening. But I do wanted to make my points that the data that he has is just plain wrong. He had hundreds and hundreds of people he said that were dead that voted. We found two. That's an example, but just - he has bad data.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: With me this hour to share the reporting and their insights, Julie Pace of "The Associated Press", Seung Min Kim of the "The Washington Post" ladies Happy New Year to you both. I've been gone for a while. It's great to see you. So Julie, let me start with you.

When you hear the President of the United States say, I need you to find votes that are like watching a mob movie when they say I need you to lose somebody. There's no secret to what the president is asking for there, and the Republican Secretary of Georgia saying, Mr. President we've recounted these votes three times, you lost.

JULIE PACE, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, ASSOCIATED PRESS: And I think we need to be pretty plain spoken about what is going on here, this is an undemocratic act. This is an attempt to overturn the outcome of a free and fair election and the will of the majority of voters. And these are not Democratic officials in Georgia who are pushing back; these are Republican officials who are pushing back on the president who are saying we did check. Your data is inaccurate.

Our data is correct; it has been verified multiple times and the fact that the president continues to push for this, again, it is simply an undemocratic act by a sitting American president and I think it's quite jarring to hear it in the president's own words.

KING: It is quite jarring and as equally as jarring, Seung Min is look, this is Trump. He has been this way his entire life and the entire four years as president. He is selfish he is about him, he is narcissistic and he believes he can rewrite truth and facts and evidence.

More alarming in many ways is the fact that so many Republicans that we can show you, at least 12, who plan to stand with him in the United States Senate in challenging these results, even though again the president has had weeks and he has lost in every court in Georgia, in Michigan, in Pennsylvania, in Arizona, at the Supreme Court.

They plan to stand with him, even though there's no evidence of this and listen here to Senator David Perdue. He is one of the Republicans in Georgia on the ballot tomorrow in the consequential runoff elections.

[12:05:00]

KING: The President of the United States calls his State Secretary of State tries to get him to illegally bend the will of the people and listen to what David Perdue finds to be disgusting here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. DAVID PERDUE (R-GA): I don't think it's really going to affect tire election. I am still shocked that a member of the Republican Party would tape the sitting president and then leak that is disgusting in my view. But what the president says is exactly what he has been saying the last few months, and that is that the last two months anyway. We've had some irregularities in the election in November and he wants some answers.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: There are no proven massive irregularities, number one. Number two, Senator Perdue essentially saying there if the president keeps repeating the same lies it's OK. And it's disgusting to release a recording not disgusting for the leader of the American democracy to say hey, let's cheat.

SEUNG MIN KIM, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER, THE WASHINGTON POST: There is a couple things going on there, one, especially referring to the 12 Republican Senators who have said they would object to the counting and the tallying of the electoral results.

It shows just how such a simple Performa task, something that is done every four years has become like so many other things in the Trump era, a Trump loyalty test when it should not be, it's just certifying the results of a free and fair election.

And as it comes to David Perdue I think it is just another thing that the president has done in the last several weeks to make the life for Republicans in Georgia and the broader Republican Party who is scrambling to save the majority in the Senate just really difficult as they try to win these fair of runoffs. You've had the president undermine Perdue and Senator Kelly Loeffler on the stimulus checks.

You've had the president veto a military bill that is very important to the military community in Georgia and now this. Perdue and Loeffler have just been put in a very difficult position trying not to distance themselves from the president while this civil war within the GOP in Georgia and the broader Republican Party has just been raging.

And that is what Republicans are really nervous about as they head into those runoffs tomorrow morning. How much of that civil war is really going to affect the results? And there are yes, a lot of nervous Republicans right now about the results tomorrow.

KING: Right. And the president is heading to Georgia tonight we're going to talk more about that a bit later in the program. But he says he will talk about the real numbers tonight, which means he wants to talk about him, not about the Senate candidate which is dangerous for the Senate candidates. Here's how the phone call played in Atlanta.

This is the journal constitution here, a great reporting by the journal constitution to first break the story about this recording here. It's very critical and I want to show you here, ladies, and the drudge report.

Not normally a Trump ally, but as you know there's a big debate now in the Republican Party about what to do and who to stand with? Whether to stand with the president at this moment, commander in thief is how Matt Drudge puts it?

And Julie Pace that does make this a moment of choosing. I showed the 12 Republican Senators who say, they'll stand with the president that will gum things up, it will slow things down, Joe Biden will be President at the end of the day.

But there are others like even Tom Cotton, a Republican Senator from Arkansas, who's believed to have presidential ambitions of his own saying what the constitution tells me I can't do this.

PACE: It's actually really fascinating to watch this civil war in the Republican Party play out. We knew that this was going to happen if Trump lost the election which he did. It's just that we're seeing it happen earlier because of the president's actions here.

But you are seeing really for the first time in a robust way Republicans have laid down a marker and say this is a bridge too far which has been a lot of conversation in Washington over the last four years about when that moment would happen? When Trump would try to push it too far?

And I think we have hit that place for a lot of Republicans. And I think the next couple of days as we get closer to the action on the floor on the 6th, is going to be about what that looks like, how aggressive are these 12 Republican Senators? We know there are a lot of house members who are willing to jump in and object to the results as well.

But do some of these more establishment leadership Republicans try to wield their influence, and try to convince some of these Republicans who are on Trump's side that really being aggressive and objecting to state after state after state on Wednesday is just bad for the party long term.

KING: Right. That's the long term as the key part. Do they do it consistently even after they get through the procedure on Wednesday, they get through the inauguration? Do they do it consistently as the president from retirement, semi-retirement or at least temporary retirement tries every day to say he was cheated out of this?

And to that point, Seung Min we all laughed about it at the time or rolled our eyes at the outrage of it. But remember back after the impeachment, Susan Collins, Republican of Maine who won her reelection battle this year said the president is going to learn a lesson here. He is not going to say these things, these outrageous things on phone calls any more.

She just felt compelled to put out a statement saying the election in Georgia and in all the states is over. The people have voted. The electors have voted and the congress will formally count the votes on January 6th.

A new Congress was sworn in yesterday, a new president will be inaugurated on January 20th. It is too late to find votes. Yes, it is too late to find votes but the fact that Republican Senators feel compelled to say that it's remarkable.

[12:10:00]

KIM: It is remarkable. And it all just serves as a reminder that Trump didn't learn his lesson, it has always been about Donald Trump. And Trumpologists and trump watchers have been watching the president for much longer than we in the politics round have told you it's always been about Donald Trump first and foremost.

And that's why he is kind of burning down the Republican Party on his way out. I'm not sure whether he cares really deeply about keeping the Senate in Republican hands, because he is not going to be around to reap the benefits of a Republican Senate.

And yes, it's going to be really interesting to see tonight how much he focuses on just the importance of holding the line holding the majority for Republicans in the Senate versus talking about the baseless claims of voting fraud?

KING: Seung Min Kim and Julie Pace grateful for the reporting and insights as we start a very important week here in Washington. Ladies, thank you very much. And we want to bring this to you as well a dramatic reversal by the Trump White House on Sunday that will complicate how the new Biden Administration will wage foreign policy?

President Trump directing his Pentagon Chief to change course and to keep an aircraft carrier parked in the Middle East, that decision on unwinds an attempt to ease tensions with Iran. And it caught commanders by surprise sources tell CNN, last week we reported to you there have been conflicting messages across the Pentagon that reflect divisions over just how high of a threat Iran currently poses to U.S. national security? Up next for us, the president is back on the trail today as we noted

the President-Elect, too. It is the final day before Georgia voters settle two runoffs, and determine which party controls the United States Senate?

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[12:15:00]

KING: President Trump and President-Elect Biden will hold dueling rallies in Georgia today. All the proof he need of how much Tuesday's to Senate runoffs mean? If Democrats win them both, they would claim the Senate majority, and Biden's path to governing gets a lot easier. But if Republicans hold one or both, then the GOP keeps the majority.

So the stakes are enormous even before you add in the Trump factor meaning his stewing, open anger over losing the state in November and his demand the Georgia Secretary of State help him somehow find enough votes to reverse results, and if already been subject to three recounts.

CNN's Ryan Nobles is on the ground, he joins us now from Milner, Georgia where the vice president is about to speak this hour. Ryan, the stakes cannot be overstated here a very busy last day?

RYAN NOBLES, CNN WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Yes, no doubt about that, John. And you know I've kept in contact with a pretty wide collection of GOP operatives since this runoff kicked off right after Election Day.

And for the most part, they found a way to put a positive spin on President Trump's contribution to this race insisting that his passionate supporters will ultimately come out and support David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler on January 5th.

But yesterday after this phone call with the Secretary of State they basically were just throwing their hands up in the air saying, they don't know how to handle this? And they're particularly concerned about how the president will act tonight at this big rally that is planned for later tonight?

They're very worried that he's going to spend all of his energy talking about his baseless claims about election fraud instead of the task at hand, and that's winning the Senate runoff. Listen to what one Georgian Republican said to me. He said "No one has any rational reason to believe it will go well. The likelihood of a total complete absolute S show is off the charts. If disaster is avoided, it will be sheer dumb luck".

They are putting it in very stark terms, and that's the Republicans that are talking to me behind the scenes. Republicans that are able to and are talking in front of the cameras are echoing that same sentiment. Listen to what the Lieutenant Governor Geoff Duncan said on CNN this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) LT. GOV. GEOFF DUNCAN (R-GA): That phone call did absolutely nothing to help drive turnout for Republicans here in Georgia for Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue. I was disappointed. And quite honestly I can't imagine anybody on his staff encouraging that call or not giving him the advice to hang up and move on to the next subject.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NOBLES: So basically, what Republicans here are hoping John, is that the president, and the way that he acts is basically baked into the cake already here in this Georgia runoff. They're hoping that this all just becomes white noise. But in a very close election which this is expected to be that is a very risky proposition. John?

KING: Ryan Nobles, grateful to have you on the ground on this final day. Appreciate the reporting there. We will keep an eye on it and again the math underscores the Georgia stakes. Republicans have 50 Senators right now Democrats have 48 votes that include two independents who caucus with the Democrats.

So if Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock both win in Georgia the Senate would be split 50/50 and the Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris will then get to break the tie. Joining me now is Alice Stewart, a Republican Strategist and Tharon Johnson, a Former Southern Regional Director for President Obama's 2012th Campaign.

Grateful that you're both here on this consequential final day Alice, I want to start with you. Because as Ryan just noted, one of the big questions is, how will the president's open anger at the Secretary of State, at the Governor, at the Georgia Republican Establishment impact republican turnout here? And I understand not long ago, you had a conversation with that same Secretary of State.

ALICE STEWART, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: I did, John. And he is hoping that Republicans look at what's the most important thing and that is putting a fire wall between Joe Biden and his policies. And the Secretary of State told me that the conversation they had over the weekend and the president's frustration with the numbers.

And they urge for pulling 12,000 votes out of thin air was nothing more than the fact that he has not been able to come to terms and acknowledge the fact that he lost this election. He is not going to get the numbers that he wants because he has lost this race. Look, I hate to say it. I voted for him. I wish he had won.

[12:20:00]

STEWART: And quite frankly the Secretary of State, Raffensperger voted for him and wishes he had won, but the numbers do not add up. And the fact remains that the numbers that the president is using and touting are based on baseless conspiracy theories. The Secretary of State office is very confident the numbers have been counted, recounted, and counted again, and they are ready to go with the fact that Joe Biden has won.

And the important thing is for Republicans to have a come to Jesus moment between now and tomorrow and realize they need to step up to the plate in order to be a fire wall with full Democrat leadership in the White House, House, and the Senate.

KING: Well, Tharon Democrats certainly see this as a come to Jesus moment tomorrow Alice's words there as well in the sense that this is essentially 2020's last verdict, carrying over into 2021. Democrats do not have a good history in Georgia runoff elections but we've never had anything like this before.

Two races that are nationalized because if Democrats can win them both the Democrats will have the - it will be 50/50, but Kamala Harris, the Vice President would then get to break the tie and the Democrats organize the Senate. Help me understand from your perspective of understanding the state so well.

If you look at the early voting in the runoff as of today in the Georgia runoff as of today, 3.04 million votes cast early, that compares to 4 million votes back just a few weeks ago in the general election. Now I can look at these two ways, for a runoff election for three million early votes in a runoff that's extraordinary.

But we also know that Joe Biden won by 11,000 plus votes and he needed every one of those early votes, especially those mail-in votes. That's how he came back to win in Georgia. When you look at the metrics of early voting are you confident for the Democrats or do you see perhaps weakness?

THARON JOHNSON, FORMER SOUTH REGIONAL DIRECTOR, OBAMA 2012 CAMPAIGN: I'm very confident. And most recently, I had an opportunity to serve as one of the senior advisers for the Georgia, Biden/Harris campaign. And what we were able to do is that, we knew we had to basically build is what we called a Biden coalition - first demographically.

But a coalition is very - geographically and so, when I look at these numbers, 3 million plus people have voted, I also look at the numbers that you have roughly about 45,000 African-Americans that for whatever reason did not vote in November, they've actually come back--

KING: Having some trouble with Tharon's logistics there. Alice, let's continue the conversation by sticking with - coming back to the president a little bit if we can re-establish. With that, we'll get back to him. But I want you to listen a little bit more of the call here because you mentioned it's a Republican Secretary of State he himself said just as you said, he wishes Trump had won, but he is not going to cook the books.

The numbers are what the numbers are from November. But listen to how the president sees this and again we're going to see the president there tonight, on the night before, if you haven't voted and you are Republican, or a Republican leaning vote, you have to decide do I want to play in this election, listen to the president's anger.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: You know the people of Georgia know that this was a scam and because of what you've done to the president, a lot of people aren't going out to vote and a lot of Republicans, they are going to vote negative because they hate what you did to the president. OK? They hate it and they're going to vote.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: You can hear it there. So I have a question, number one is, how does it impact Georgia, but what about people in Washington? If Republicans lose both of these seats, will it make Republicans here in Washington less likely to stand with the president on this continued fantasy that he somehow won the election, which I'm sorry, he's had every opportunity in court to prove otherwise and he has failed?

STEWART: John, it appears those that are in the Trump boat on this, we are going to continue to row all the way down the river and that's certainly their prerogative to do so. But I happen to have a lot of faith and confidence in the integrity of our elections and the election process and the same with the Secretary of State in Georgia.

I've been Deputy Secretary of State in Arkansas and I think those that carried out the elections in all 50 states did a tremendous job. And as the Secretary of State said, he is there to run an election and he will call balls and strikes, and let the chips fall where they may.

And I think it's really important for people across this country to put the focus on the integrity of our elections, and making sure people know their vote is counted, every legal and legitimate vote certainly will be counted. And look, this should be tomorrow in Georgia, should be about the next four years in a Biden Administration not the election grievances of President Trump.

And I hope tonight when he goes to Georgia and speaks he gets out the vote and encourages people to vote their values and vote for conservative principles and not make it about him. And that's going to be interesting to watch how he rallies the vote in Georgia?

But this certainly should be about our election process and moving forward, so that the people can have confidence in their vote.

KING: I'm going to use the last four years of experience and say the safer bet is that to put your money in the - it will be all about him or mostly about him but Alice Stewart, appreciate your hopes and your aspirations there and Tharon Johnson great to see you as well.

[12:25:00]

KING: We'll get a better connection next time and special CNN programming begins at 4:00 p.m. tomorrow. Stay with us. We're going to count every vote in those races down there. And up next for us, the COVID vaccine rollout is behind schedule and there's a new debate about cutting doses in half, so that more people get shots.

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