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Crucial Elections to Decide Balance of Power in Senate; Trump Slams Stacey Abrams, Mocks Republican Officials; Biden: Georgia the Whole Nation is Looking to You; Trumps Phone Call Could Impact Georgia Runoffs; California Feels the Strain of New Surge in COVID-19 Cases; U.S. Struggling to Deliver on Vaccine Rollout. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired January 05, 2021 - 04:00   ET

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

[04:00:00]

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ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us here in the United States and around the world. You are watching CNN NEWSROOM and I'm Rosemary Church. Just ahead --

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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There's no way we lost Georgia. There's no way. A rigid -- that was a rigged election.

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CHURCH: President Trump keeps peddling falsehoods about an election he lost as Georgia gets ready to decide who will hold the U.S. Senate.

The COVID situation in California gets worse. Now ambulance crews in Los Angeles are being forced to make life and death decisions.

And England returns to lockdown for a third time after cases there skyrocket.

Good to have you with us. Well Georgia is in the spotlight again. In just a few hours, people will head to the polls to vote in crucial elections. Democrats are hoping the state to turned blue for President-elect Joe Biden will do the same again during today's Senate runoffs.

A lot hinges on the vote because the outcome will decide who controls the U.S. Senate and in turn the fate of Biden's first term as president. Already more than 3 million votes have been cast, smashing a 2004 record. U.S. President Donald Trump and Biden spent Monday campaigning in the state despite the controversy over his weekend phone call with Georgia officials, Mr. Trump spent the rally complaining about his election loss again.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I hope Mike Pence comes through for us. I have to tell you. I hope that our great vice president -- our great vice president comes through for us. He's a great guy. Of course if he doesn't come through, I won't like him quite as much. No, Mike is a great guy.

[04:05:00]

He's a -- he's a wonderful man and a smart man and a man that I like a lot. But he's going to have a lot to say about it. And he -- you know one thing with him, you're going get straight shots. He's going to call it straight.

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CHURCH: He also mocked Georgia officials who did not bow down to his pressure tactics to tilt the election in his favor.

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TRUMP: You know, your governor -- your governor and your secretary of state, they're petrified of Stacey Abrams. What's that all about? Did you see this consent decree they signed with signature verification? You can forget about it. They say they're Republicans. I really don't think they are. They can't be. I'm going be here in a year and a half and I'm going to be campaigning against your governor and your crazy secretary of state.

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CHURCH: In stark contrast Biden's message to voters was one of hope and inspiration.

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JOE BIDEN, U.S. PRESIDENT ELECT: We need you to vote again in record numbers. This is not an exaggeration, Georgia, the whole nation is looking to you. The power is literally in your hands unlike any time in my career. One state, one state can chart the course not just for the next four years, but for the next generation.

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CHURCH: Biden's election win is due to be certified on Wednesday, but a number of Republican lawmakers including Georgia Senator Kelly Loeffler who's on the ballot today are planning to object. President Trump's comments about Stacey Abrams did not go unnoticed by the former Georgia gubernatorial candidate. Here was her rebuke to the president's phone call with Georgia officials asking them to find votes and sway the election in his favor.

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STACEY ABRAMS, FORMER DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATE FOR GEORGIA GOVERNOR: He only wants the voters he likes to be heard. He's doing his best to dismantle the system. He's arguing against a system that we fixed through fair fight and through the Democratic party which meant no matter where you lived in the state of Georgia if you filed an absentee ballot and you needed to fix a mistake, you were notified. I'm fighting against voter suppression. Make certain that voter access is always available and he's fighting to make himself the victor by disenfranchising and disallowing voters that he doesn't care for.

CHURCH: Although Abrams was not on the ballot in 2020, much of the credit for rallying the vote for President-elect Joe Biden in Georgia goes to her. And it's not just Democrats that are calling out President Trump over his wild conspiracy theories. Some Republicans in Georgia are doing the same. Take a listen to this top election official as he shoots down Mr. Trump's allegations about the state's voting system.

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GABRIEL STERLING, GEORGIA VOTING SYSTEM IMPLEMENTATION MANAGER: They say that there's 2,423 people who voted without being registered. Let's just be clear about this. You can't do it. Then there's the claim that 66,248 people below the age of 18 voted. The actual number is zero. 4,920 voted past the legal registration deadline, again, it's zero. There is no shredding of ballots going on. That's not real. Not happening. A potential hacking of Dominion equipment during a Senate hearing last week and that did not happen either.

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CHURCH: Ahead of today's critical Georgia runoffs President-elect Joe Biden emphasized the need for a Democratic victory to break political gridlock in Washington. Biden also slammed Senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler for being loyal to the president but not to the people of Georgia and here's what he told the crowd in Atlanta about Mr. Trump.

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BIDEN: The president spends more time whining and complaining than doing something about the problem. I don't know why he still wants the job. He doesn't want to do the work.

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CHURCH: Well was President Trump's phone call even legal? Georgia officials said the matter has been referred to the FBI, and some experts say soliciting election fraud is potentially a crime. High profile Republican election lawyer Ben Ginsburg says it would be a tough case to pursue, but that doesn't make it OK.

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BEN GINSBERG, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Look, what the president did was wrong both legally and morally and as a matter of principle. It would clearly be a crime if the secretary of state or a Georgia election official did what the president asked. But the truth is no act has been committed. So that if a prosecutor were to take a look at that and to put together a case takes weeks if not months and even years, by that point there would probably be prosecutorial discretion to not actually bring criminal charges no matter how wrong what the president did. [04:10:00]

But none of that should take away from the absolute wrong nature of this call and how dismaying it is and how harmful to the country that their commander in chief, their president would ask for votes to be fraudulently taken.

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CHURCH: Evan McMullin is an executive director and Stand Up Republican. He is also the former chief policy director for the House Republican conference. And he joins us now. Good to have you with us.

EVAN MCMULLIN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, STAND UP REPUBLIC: Good to be with you.

CHURCH: So on the eve of the Georgia runoff vote, top state election official and Republican Gabriel Sterling said President Trump's call to the Georgia secretary of state demanding 11,780 votes specifically be found to flip the state in his favor, he called it falsehood and misinformation that was impacting turnout for the vote. And he debunked all Trump's conspiracy theories point by point.

How important is such a methodical fact checking process like this? And what impact could it potentially have on Tuesday's election turnout and efforts Wednesday to overturn free and fair elections?

MCMULLIN: Well it's certainly important just for the health of our democracy for the health of elections in Georgia, and for our elections more broadly in the country. Of course, we have a president who was caught red-handed trying to undermine the results of the presidential election in this cycle.

And you have, you see Georgia officials like Gabriel Sterling today trying to reassure Georgians that their elections are legitimate that they are free and fair, and that every vote has been counted, you know.

And like I said, that's important for our democracy. But also, Gabriel Sterling is a Republican and he's worried also about Republican voters in Georgia and whether they are going to turn out in tomorrow's election. And if they're convinced sufficiently by the president and his allies, that the election, the presidential election was not legitimate then they'll be less inclined to turn out and vote. Because why would they if their votes aren't being counted or at least if that's what they believe.

So that's what -- that's what Gabriel is trying to do. And it's, you know, a smart political move, but it's also good for our democracy.

CHURCH: Yes, and Sterling also said that Trump and his officials intentionally misled the public with his peddled conspiracy theories despite there being no evidence of widespread voter fraud in Georgia. What should the consequences be of Trump's call demanding votes be found to turn his loss into a win? Is it criminal? Is it extortion? Is it a coup? What do you call this behavior? MCMULLIN: Well, it certainly is an attempt to overturn the will of the American people. Which is an attack directly on our democracy and it cannot be tolerated. You know, if the president were going to be in office for a longer period of time, I think that the House would need to look at impeachment again. But that's not the case. The president only has limited number of days left. So, I don't see that as realistic.

I do think that if he broke any laws that whether state or federal, that those should be investigated and considered after he leaves office and it's not to simply, it's not political retribution or retaliation but it's simple -- simply that we have a need in this country to uphold the integrity of our elections and we can't have a president or other politicians putting pressure on officials to quote, find more votes to help them win, and hope to hold on to our democracy.

So, there must be consequences if laws were broken. It seems to me that there may have been. But that will be up for prosecutors and legal experts to decide.

CHURCH: Evan McMullin, thank you so much for being with us. I appreciate it.

MCMULLIN: Thank you.

CHURCH: And CNN is covering this all-important election in Georgia all day on Tuesday. Tune in for special coverage right here on CNN.

Well Police in Washington, D.C. have arrested the leader of the far- right group the Proud Boys after he dared them to do so. In an online post, Henry Enrique Tarrio admitted burning a Black Lives Matter sign taken from a black church last month. He wrote come get me if you feel like what I did was wrong. When police came and got him, they found him with two high capacity gun magazines. He's charged for that as well as destruction of property.

And still ahead, California faces a human disaster. Why ambulance crews are being told to leave the sickest at home. That is next here on CNN NEWSROOM.

[04:15:00]

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CHURCH: Well the post-holiday surge has arrived here in the United States, and it is hitting the most populous state, California, especially hard. The crisis in California begins here with surging case numbers in recent weeks leading to overwhelmed hospitals. It's so bad ambulance crews in Los Angeles have been told not to transport patients with little hope of survival and to conserve oxygen. But the state has had stringent measures in place for months aimed at controlling COVID-19. So why is it being hit so hard now? CNN's Brian Todd explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A grim view from California's frontlines.

GAYANA CHUKLANSEV, SURGICAL INTENSIVE CARE NURSE IN CALIFORNIA: Patients are dying like flies. We're full, we're at max capacity, we have no resources, we have no staff. Our doctors can't even intubate because they have like 40 patients each. It's like a war zone.

TODD (voice-over): The number of people hospitalized in California has reached alarming new levels, straining hospital capacity, and the number of deaths per day has spiked. In L.A. County, the new epicenter of the virus in the United States, hospitals are so overwhelmed they're looking at rationing care.

[04:20:00]

SCOTT BYINGTON, CRITICAL CARE NURSE, ST. FRANCIS MEDICAL CENTER: So we're able to get the equipment because somebody else you know had died. And that sounds gruesome at heart horrific but that's where we are today.

TODD (voice-over): In L.A. County, one person dies of coronavirus as often as every 10 minutes. As for the rates of infection --

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.

TODD (voice-over): The L.A. County Health Services Director who warned that hospitals in her county are being pushed to, quote, the brink of catastrophe said the density of population is one reason for the spikes in the Los Angeles area. She also cited the work patterns of many county residents.

DR. CHRISTINA GHALY, DIRECTOR, LOS ANGELES COUNTY DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH SERVICES: We have a lot out of low income workers, a lot of essential workers who are working outside of their homes.

TODD (voice-over): Experts say in California often, more people are living inside a given home and one expert points to the dynamics of family living among many groups in the state.

DR. JORGE RODRIGUEZ, INTERNAL MEDICINE AND VIRAL SPECIALIST: The Hispanic people have multigenerational living, you know, and what we've seen is that the huge inequity in both healthcare and living in bias is coming to roost. There are people that are having to work multiple jobs.

TODD (voice-over): Early in the pandemic, California's leaders received praise for attacking the surge with stay-at-home orders, closures of bars and restaurants in the biggest cities. Florida, by contrast, allowed many businesses to stay open. Why is California's unraveling now worse than Florida's? One expert points to the ratio of hospital beds per person.

ANNE RIMOIN, EPIDEMIOLOGIST, UCLA FIELDING SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH: California really does have one of the lower rates of hospital beds. That is a good reason why we're seeing our hospitals overwhelmed more quickly than hospitals and other states that have more hospital beds per capita.

TODD (voice-over): And one analyst says Californians living with stay at home orders longer than most of the country have been simply burned out with all the restrictions.

DR. SEEMA YASMIN, FORMER U.S. CDC DISEASE DETECTIVE: I think COVID fatigue is a real factor here where we are 10 months, 11 months into the pandemic and folks haven't had the support to stay at home because they live paycheck to paycheck.

TODD: Two experts we spoke to also point to the problems of homelessness in cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco. Cities where the homeless populations have spiked in recent years. People living in shelters, in tighter spaces they say, have contributed to the surge in California.

Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.

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CHURCH: So, let's bring in Dr. Scott Miscovich. He is a family physician and a national consultant for COVID-19 testing. Thank you, doctor, for being with us and for all that you do.

SCOTT MISCOVICH, NATIONAL CONSULTANT FOR COVID-19 TESTING: Thank you, Rosemary.

CHURCH: So, COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths are record levels in this country. With one person dying of COVID every 33 seconds. And the holiday period of course is expected to make matters worse. All this as vaccinations fall well short of the government goal of 20 million by the end of the year, only 4.5 million people immunized so far. So, why so few and how can this be done better?

MISCOVICH: Well, we are observing this, and I'll admit, I fortunately had my first vaccine shot and I have another one next week, but I am working on this all over the United States. Our group has been working with the vaccine administration and there's a lot of finger pointing going on.

There is a finger pointing by the states at the federal government and then the federal government they're saying well the states, we gave you everything you need. And then at the county level they are looking and saying we need a way for people to just get out of our way.

So, I blame it on the lack of leadership. There are some states who have done a great job, but the federal government really had an obligation to step up and give guidance to the states.

I mean, I'm looking at this and saying why haven't we created a national health service corps extension where we have the federal government step up four months ago and be prepared to do something like this? We have another six to eight months where we are going to be dealing with COVID throughout this country and trying to vaccinate everyone in every corner of America. A lot more has to be done by our federal government.

CHURCH: Yes, I mean, it is a massive challenge, isn't it? And of course, in the U.S. the problem less about supply of the vaccine, more about having enough medical staff available to administer shots, because most are trying to save lives right now. So, why not use FEMA, the National Guard, or the military to get this job done on mass.

MISCOVICH: Exactly. And you know, part of the problem is, like for example, here in Hawaii, and I know other areas across the country the National Guard has been activated and they actually are on the frontlines of trying to assist a lot of the testing efforts that are going on.

The two are exactly correct, I think most of us look to the federal government and say you had your opportunity. There should have been a larger scale mobilization. Look at all the people who are out of work right now.

[04:25:00]

We should have pulled people together and been able to train these individuals and created an effort that could actually go past COVID to help our country.

Because let's face it. We are still just going to be beginning to understand the effects this will have in our country and other areas where we haven't even determined. But I concur completely with you.

CHURCH: And doctor, officials in the U.S. had considered have doses of Moderna for 18 to 55-year-olds in order to try to get as many people vaccinated as possible and worry about the second dose later, a similar thing going on in the U.K. or certainly considering this. But the Food and Drug Administration has rejected that option, insisting everyone must get the full doses. Was that the right call?

MISCOVICH: I completely disagree. I believe that what they have announced in the U.K. is acceptable. When you really look at the data, if we could have a single full dose, a perfect example is Southern California where they have zero ICU beds. If we could take as many vaccine doses as possible and immunize the large portion of the entire population, we might be able to save lives and save beds. That would give you 85 percent immunity.

And what that means is there is enough of that antibody in your body to start fighting infection, where you might not have an infection severe enough that will put you in and use an ICU bed. So, I think we need to be creative. The time to just sit back and say well, the book says to do it this way, it may be different, there may be different regions in our country. We need to step up to save lives.

CHURCH: And my thanks there to Dr. Scott Miscovich.

Just ahead here on CNN, England is entering its third national lockdown as COVID-19 cases soar. We go live to London next.

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