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GOP Becomes Trump's Co-Conspirators for "Humoring" Him; Biden, Trump Campaign in Georgia Ahead of Vote to Decide Senate; GOP Nervous Over Trump Campaigning in Georgia Today; Hospitals Overflowing in California in "Dire" COVID Surge. Aired 1:30-2p ET
Aired January 04, 2021 - 13:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[13:31:38]
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: As the president blatantly abuses his power, threatens democracy, keep this quote in mind from an anonymously sourced senior Republican official to "The Washington Post," a week after the election, as they sought to explain why it was OK that Republicans weren't admitting Joe Biden won the election.
Quote, "What is the downside for humoring him for this little bit of time? No one seriously thinks the results will change," the official said.
"He went golfing this weekend. It's not like he is plotting how to prevent Joe Biden from taking power January 20th. He is tweeting about filing some lawsuits. Those will fail. Then he will tweet more about how the election was stolen and then he will leave."
Republicans have been so off in their estimates about how far Trump will take things. When he crosses one red line after another, their responses usually range from standing idly by to cheerleading.
Take Susan Collins, for example. Days after she voted against impeaching the president for pressuring the Ukrainian president to dig up dirt on his political rival, Joe Biden.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. SUSAN COLLINS (R-ME): I believe that the president has learned from this case.
The president has been impeached. That's a pretty big lesson. He was impeached. And there has been criticism by both Republican and democratic Senators of his call.
I believe that he will be much more cautious in the future.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: He learned a lesson all right. She said he learned a lesson. But it wasn't the lesson Collins thought he would.
The president learned that there are no boundaries. He can do what he wants without consequence or scorn from his party, with maybe the exception of Mitt Romney or former Republican officials, usually ones that see their political career only in their rearview mirror.
It is a year later and, again, he is caught on tape, during a phone call, pressuring officials to do his bidding, this time asking them to break the law and throw the election in Georgia for him.
Mick Mulvaney is on the list of Republicans whose quotes will live in infamy. Trump's former chief of staff wrote this on November 7th:
Quote, "I have been asked the same question at least 100 times in the past week. If the president loses, will he participate in peaceful transition of power."
He goes on, "I am happy to answer yes. I have every expectation Mr. Trump will be, act and speak like a great president should, win or lose."
Mulvaney declined our invitation to come on the show today. But clearly his wishful thinking about the president behaving in the interest of the country falls on Trump's deaf ears about as much as it did when Mulvaney was his chief of staff.
As Republicans keep catering to the president's ego, they seem to be the farthest thing from the president's mind, judging by the phone call with election officials where he talked about runoff elections there that will determine the balance of power in the Senate.
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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: 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 are going to vote negative because they hate what you did to the president. OK? They hate it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: On Wednesday, 13 Republican Senators say they'll challenge Biden's win. Many of them have ambitions for a White House run in 2024.
Like Josh Hawley, the ringleader of this caucus, that is treading all over states' rights that Republicans usually hold so dear.
Here he is a year ago.
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SEN. JOSH HAWLEY (R-MO): The consequences to the republic of overturning a democratic election because you don't like the result and because you believe the election was somehow corrupted, when, in fact, the evidence shows that it was not.
[13:35:07]
Talking about our elections can't be trusted, that's an interesting approach. I think it is crazy, frankly.
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KEILAR: Hawley's posse also includes Senator Ted Cruz. You will recall President Trump called Cruz's wife ugly, falsely said Cruz's father was involved in JFK's assassination.
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SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX): You mess with my wife, you mess with my kids, that will do it every time. Donald, you're a sniffling coward. And leave Heidi the hell alone.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: But Cruz is set to undermine democracy for one man's ego and support of his base in what will be the most infamous stunt on the floor since reciting Dr. Seuss.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CRUZ: Do you like green eggs and ham? I do not like them, Sam I am. I do not like green eggs and ham.
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KEILAR: There are some Republicans that are opposing this move to block the electoral college count either on principle or as political calculation, Senators Tom Cotton of Arkansas, Mitt Romney of Utah, Rob Portman of Ohio, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and, yes, Susan Collins of Maine.
If you listened to Vice President Pence yesterday read the oath that new Senators take, it is worth noting, the president is leaving in 16 days. Republicans like Cruz are not.
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MIKE PENCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Do you solemnly swear that you'll support and defend the Constitution of the United States and allegiance to the same?
Do you take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation, that you well and faithfully discharge duties of the office upon which you enter, so help you God?
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KEILAR: Said, seemingly, without irony, as his running mate, President Trump, takes aim at the Constitution from the Oval Office, aided by some of the very Senators that Pence swore in.
I want to talk with Dana Bash. She's our CNN chief political correspondent.
Up until now, Dana, we have seen the Republican Party largely humoring the president in his quest to overturn the election. Fair to say he's taken it farther than a lot of them thought he would, also didn't put lines down.
I wonder if this call with Georgia election officials changes anything about what's going to happen Wednesday.
DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: I was just talking to a Senate Republican source, who said flatly the call doesn't change anything, that people on the side of the president and, frankly, people who are uncomfortable with the president, they're not swayed by it.
Because a lot of people heard this in private. If you are an elected Republican, especially somebody with a line to the president, this is the kinds of thing he says.
It is totally different when he's actually talking to the election official and pressuring him, begging him, threatening him in a way that's totally inappropriate, possibly, probably illegal.
When it comes to the politics of this, and more importantly, what will happen Wednesday, unlikely it will change anything.
What we do know and what we have seen fully over the weekend, even more so because of the moves from Ted Cruz, as you just pointed out, and Josh Hawley, is a real rift within the Republican Party, more than we've seen in quite some time.
It is not something that will be healed anytime soon. It is a rift that goes to the fundamentals of what they stand for or don't stand for and how craven people are willing to be to put politics ahead of the basics when it comes to their constitutional obligations.
KEILAR: You can hear that in what Senator Hawley said a year ago and what he is saying now. He is clearly -- listening to what he said, he is violating his own principles.
We know that when we look at what some of the Republicans are doing.
There are people, you mention the rift. There's Tom Cotton, one of the folks who is not going to support the contesting of the Electoral College count.
It's not just one of the president's staunchest defenders. He's a likely 2024 presidential candidate. And he's being attacked by the president for not joining his colleagues.
But what is his calculation here? We can see the political calculation for some folks. Has he just come to a different conclusion on what's good politics? Is this a matter of principle? What is it?
BASH: Listen, for Tom Cotton, a Republican, a young Republican from Arkansas, somebody whose base is Donald Trump's base, full stop, coming out and saying what the president is doing, what his colleagues are going to do, by objecting and saying they're going to start a commission, that's bad politics for Tom Cotton.
Tom Cotton, I will say, even in talking to some of his colleagues, is being intellectually honest. He is a very, very smart guy.
[13:40:00]
Not to say Ted Cruz is not smart. Not to say Josh Hawley is not a smart guy. These are all Ivy League-educated lawyers before they came to the United States Senate.
But what Tom Cotton is doing, he is putting the Constitution before his party. There's no way that saying what he is saying is going to benefit him in the short term politically.
But someone like him -- and, frankly, Lindsey Graham, he tweeted out that what Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley, but particularly Ted Cruz is saying that he wants with this commission that would last 10 days, basing it on what happened in 1876, he said that is ridiculous.
That things have already gone through the courts. Judges all up and down from state to federal to the Supreme Court have said we don't see any evidence.
And it is hard to imagine somebody who is closer than Lindsey Graham to President Trump and the fact that he is standing up, saying this is a bad idea.
Object, fine, that's your right, but it is not your right to bring the whole process to a screeching halt.
It is quite noteworthy and does, again, speak to the real rift within the Republican Party about this.
KEILAR: It is a big thing we'll see Wednesday. A lot of Republicans wagering a lot of political capital, maybe political futures. We'll see if the bets pay off or not.
Dana, thanks so much for being here.
BASH: Thanks, Bri.
KEILAR: Happy New Year as well to you.
One day until those crucial Senate runoff races and President Trump is going to be in Georgia today, campaigning there. This has the GOP nervous over what he will do next. We take you there live.
How a staff member's inflatable Christmas tree costume is linked to a COVID-19 outbreak and one death at a California hospital.
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[13:46:23] KEILAR: It is the eve of the Georgia Senate runoff elections and the political power players are headed to the state. Both President Trump and President-Elect Biden will be there today in this final push of campaigning.
The stakes couldn't be higher. Tomorrow's votes will determine control of the U.S. Senate.
Both sides, combined, has spent more than a half billion dollars on campaign advertising. And three million ballots have already been cast in early voting.
Kyung Lah is in Atlanta for us tracking this.
Are there voters who can be persuaded today, Kyung?
KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I don't even know if this was ever a persuasion event. It was really always about getting out the base here in Georgia.
And what they're trying to do, by bringing top of the ticket into the state, is to make a final push to get everybody out of houses and get to the polls on Tuesday.
In just a couple hours, we are expecting President-Elect Joe Biden to take the stage. He'll be making that push. It is control of the U.S. Senate but it is also his legislative agenda at stake.
So the president-elect here to encourage Democrats to get out.
We're also seeing the Democratic challengers crisscrossing the state, Jon Ossoff and Reverend Raphael Warnock, talking to voters.
And also bringing up directly that phone call the president had with the Georgia secretary of state and blasting that call.
All eyes, though, the big event today will be what happens 9:00 tonight when President Trump takes the stage in his own rally in Dalton, Georgia.
This will be the very first time we see the president making any sort of public response since the call was recorded and released. It is making Republicans here very nervous.
One said to CNN, if the disaster is avoided tonight, it will be, quote, "sheer dumb luck."
Already in the state, Vice President Mike Pence. He just didn't even mention it -- Brianna?
KEILAR: All right, Kyung, thank you so much for that report from Atlanta. Happy New Year to you.
Coming up, I'll be talking to a former aide to three former Republican presidents about why he describes the GOP party as weak and rotten now. [13:48:34]
Plus, live in California, where hospitals are at record levels treating the coronavirus. And new fears that this could collapse the health system.
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[13:53:24]
KEILAR: The strain on California's hospitals and their exhausted staffs just got worse.
COVID hospitalizations are at their highest rate since the pandemic began, prompting one hospital official in southern California to warn that the state's hospital system could collapse if there's another spike.
The state just reported more 45,000 new cases in L.A. County. The virus now claiming one life every 10 minutes. California's National Guard is going to start helping coroners with the bodies.
CNN's Stephanie Elam is in Los Angeles.
It sounds dire, Stephanie. Set the scene for us.
STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. One note there, that that 45,000 number is for the entire state of California, not just for L.A. County, just to clarify.
But this is still a dire situation. When you look, for example, at what has happened in San Jose, Silicon Valley, there's one hospital there and 44 employees have tested positive for the coronavirus between December 27th and January 1st.
We now know that one of these medical workers, who worked on Christmas Day, has now passed away.
The reason why this is important. They're thinking this outbreak here could be traced back to an inflatable costume that was air powered that one of the staff members wore to lift spirits in Christmas. They're thinking that could have been the force behind that.
This is obviously noteworthy because anyone who has tested positive can't work.
What we're seeing here in California is the fact you may have other hospitals that could be opened, other places to put patients is great and all.
But it doesn't matter if you don't have the nurses, the doctors, the medical personnel to man them. And that is what we're seeing right now.
[13:55:02]
I spoke to one nurse who told me they're working eight to one, eight patients to one nurse. These ratios are all over the place.
And the fact they're looking to have help, that they need help with all of the bodies that they are inundated with here in L.A. County shows you that this is a problem.
I also want to paint the picture based on numbers, which Los Angeles County put out to really make it clear.
January 26, 2020, is when we saw the first positive test of coronavirus in Los Angeles County. It took 10 months to get to 400,000 cases. And then, Brianna, it took one more month to add another 400,000 cases. Now we're above 818,000 cases here in Los Angeles.
January is likely going to be worse than December based on what I'm learning from talking to officials here.
KEILAR: That's awful.
Stephanie, thank you so much. It's so important to keep an eye on what's going on there in California. We appreciate it.
We do have more on our breaking new. The Atlanta district attorney weighing in on a potential investigation of the president's call with Georgia election officials, in which he's trying to pull off a coup and overturn the election. Stand by.
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