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Pfizer CEO Says COVID-19 Vaccine Is More Than 90 Percent Effective; Joe Biden Plans Executive Actions To Undo Trump Policies; Many World Leaders Congratulate Biden On Victory; Source: Trump To Go On Offense Over Election Results; Trump Reversed Obama's Policies, Biden Set To Reverse Trump's. Aired 11a-12p ET
Aired November 09, 2020 - 11:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[11:00:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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ANNOUNCER: Live from CNN Abu Dhabi, this is CONNECT THE WORLD with Becky Anderson.
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BECKY ANDERSON, CNN HOST: The greatest medical advancement in 100 years that is how Pfizer's CEO is now touting their COVID-19 vaccine, telling CNN
that it's more than 90 percent effective. This just days after Joe Biden was announced as U.S. President-Elect.
This hour Joe Biden planning for his transition to the White House with the current occupant still refusing to concede, but that is not stopping Biden
from getting to work and focusing on his top priority which is the Coronavirus pandemic.
He and his Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris have already named experts their COVID-19 Advisory Board their first meeting happening now. The
biggest challenge, the distribution of a viable vaccine, but today we are hearing about what could be a massive breakthrough.
Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer says early data shows it vaccine, as I say, is more than 90 percent effective, and the CEO telling CNN that he expects it
will be free to all Americans and that the company should be able to distribute 1.3 billion doses globally next year.
The president and president-elect had two very different reactions. Donald Trump focused on the rising stock market and, indeed, the stock market has
been rising today while Biden expressed optimism but urged caution.
On the news comes on a day when Coronavirus cases are surging in the United States with more than 40 states seeing increases, and the death toll
closing in on 240,000. We're expecting to hear from President-Elect Joe Biden very soon, and we will get to that when it happens.
First, let's bring in CNN's Sanjay Gupta in Atlanta for more on what we are hearing today, and this Pfizer news is making headlines, Sanjay. What are
the real implications here?
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I mean, the real implications are that if in fact this data holds up and that we have a
vaccine that is 90 percent effective in preventing infections in people exposed to the virus, I mean, that would be quite significant in terms of
changing the trajectory of this pandemic.
There are a lot of steps in between, Becky, as you well know, but it's potentially good news. The data is interesting to look at, Becky, and first
of all, I should point out that even the Pfizer CEO who I spoke to hasn't seen the complete data, nobody has except for this Independent Data
Monitoring Board, but some 44,000 people in the trial that's been going on for a few months, 94 people became infected.
Not a lot of people became infected, but of those 94 the people were significantly more likely to have been in the placebo group, not having
received the vaccine versus in the vaccinated group. I hope that makes sense. That's how they basically get to this idea that there's 90 percent
effectiveness of this vaccine.
There are unanswered questions, how well does it actually prevent disease in people who did become infected? We still have to see the full safety
data which will probably be out somewhere near the end of this month, and then as you point out, Becky, huge distribution sort of logistics here.
[11:05:00]
DR. GUPTA: This will be one of the largest vaccine projects we've ever seen in our lifetime. I mean, typically you think a vaccine is for kids, adult
vaccination project, you know, Becky, like Polio that's one that we've been talking about for decade, small pox, many decades ago. This is going to be
on par with those.
ANDERSON: It is absolutely remarkable, and, you know, done a lot of work on this, and vaccines can take years, of course. How soon can we expect people
to be vaccinated, Sanjay?
DR. GUPTA: Yes. I mean, that is the question, and, you know, it's funny how many e-mails and texts I've just received this morning from friends and
family, you know. We don't know, but I did ask, you know, the CEO of Pfizer specifically about that point, not only for the United States, but as you
knows it's important that the entire world have access to this. Here's how he responded.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ALBERT BOURLA, CEO, PFIZER: We believe that we are in - in good situation to have up to 50 million doses this year globally, and I believe we are in
a very, very good situation to have 1.3 billion doses globally.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DR. GUPTA: So what does that mean, 1.3 billion dozes globally by next year? Two shots, Becky, right? So 1.3 billion doses means 650 million people--
ANDERSON: True.
DR. GUPTA: It's not enough obviously to get to that point, but there are other manufacturers of vaccines as well, you know, that we're going to be
reporting on hearing about over the next couple of months that may be able to start making up that shortfall.
It is also looking increasingly liking that this would be a yearly sort of vaccine, you know, the immunity may last a year or several months so, you
know, we'll see. So those are some of the questions that people still have, but next year sometime probably spring/summer, you know, for many more
people around the world to be able to have access to this.
ANDERSON: Yes, this is absolutely fascinating. It's a conversation that we've been having. We've been sort, you know, champing at the bit really to
find out exactly when it is that, you know, that - that enough people around the world and you've noted we're as strong as our weakest point,
right?
Doesn't matter whether those in America get a vaccine, if we don't get this around the world this thing can carry on, this vaccine race and the entire
COVID-19 pandemic has been so politicized. The timing of these results, of course, after the election despite all that we had previously heard from
President Trump that a vaccine could potentially be authorized by Election Day, Sanjay.
DR. GUPTA: Right, right. Well, I've got to tell you, Becky. Sometime in the future I would love to get your perspective on how the politicalization of
this in the United States, how you've seen it, you know, living in where you live and other places around the world?
ANDERSON: Happy to have that conversation.
DR. GUPTA: Yes. I did ask the Mr. Bourla CEO of Pfizer about this timing, you know, a week after the election. Here's what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. GUPTA: Should we read anything in the fact that this got announced right after the elects?
BOURLA: Yes. The science brought it exactly this time. We announced the moment we learned about it, and I said multiple times that the elections -
is an artificial timeline. I was predicting that this would happen before the end of October; eventually it's happened a week later because this is
when science brought it to us.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DR. GUPTA: So there you go, Becky, I mean. I will say it's a surprising process for a lot of people although this is the way these types of drugs
development and authorizations happen, this independent board un-blinded the data yesterday on Sunday at 11:00 in the morning east coast time, and
2:00 is when Mr. Bourla got a call.
Up until then he didn't know he tells me what the data showed, and then they told him it appears to be 90 percent effective at that point. That's
just the way the timing worked out, he says, Becky.
ANDERSON: Yes, this is fascinating. I'm going to do more work this week on the - on where the UAE is at with its Phase III trials for Sinopharm's
vaccine that's going on here with 31,000 volunteers from the UAE and around this region. There are 120 nationalities here so it's a really good scope
of nationality for this trial to be run on.
DR. GUPTA: Yes.
ANDERSON: They are very confident about what's going on here? They already have this vaccine with emergency approval and 29,000 people in the UAE have
already taken it. They are talking about manufacturing and distributing 75 million to 100 million doses of that vaccine here and around the region by
the end of the year, beginning of next, so I'll do some more work on that, get more detail on that.
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ANDERSON: And Sanjay, if you'll come back this week, we can discuss that and others because as you rightly point out this Pfizer news today just
sort of reveals that there's so much else going on around the world, and the W.H.O. of course today warning that the countries may be monopolizing
these vaccines, not ensuring that there's equitable distribution going forward.
Also a very, very good thread to this conversation as we move forward, so I hope you will accept the invitation, sir. Come back as we get more.
DR. GUPTA: I would love that. Thank you.
ANDERSON: Thank you Sanjay Gupta in the house always a pleasure. While there's finally good news regarding COVID-19, we still, of course, have got
an awfully long way to go. Remember this no country is safe and healthy until all countries are safe and healthy.
Those words from the United Nations Secretary-General at the beginning of this pandemic sage words a viable vaccine will require international
cooperation, cooperation that we have not yet seen, an after four years of Donald Trump's America first rhetoric, the President-Elect Joe Biden must
now establish global leadership in the world's battle against the Coronavirus, not just for the virus battle, but, of course, for climate
change and other key foreign policy issues that affect you and me wherever you are watching in the world.
Now the announcement of a new U.S. President saw a giant collective relief, a sigh of relief around the world. I'm not suggesting that that's for all
of you, so, please, don't tweet and message me to tell me that I'm not talking on your behalf.
I get it. It's not everybody around the world, but I - I will report there was a huge sigh of relief from many quarters around the world, and for the
U.S. it was summed up no better way than by CNN's Van Jones.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VAN JONES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: If you're Muslim in this country, you don't have to worry that the president doesn't want you here. If you're an
immigrant, you don't have to worry if the president is going to be happier to have babies snatched away or send dreamers back for no reason.
This is vindication for a lot of people who have really suffered, you know, I can't breathe. That wasn't just Floyd. That's a lot of people that felt
that they can't breathe.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: Van Jones joining us now from Los Angeles. I was watching that reaction. Van, it was viewed by millions around the world really resonated
with so many, both in America and in places all over the world. When you reflect now, I mean, you must be exhausted by not just the -- the last
week's worth of coverage that you've been involved in but clearly exhausted by the last four years. Is what we're seeing a step forward or a step back
to so-called normal?
JONES: Well, it remains to be seen. I was surprised myself my own reaction. Obviously in those situations you're trying to keep it together. You're
trying to be professional. They wound up cutting back on us more quickly than I knew they were going to, and Anderson asked me what I thought and I
- I kind of blacked out and just started this stream of this.
But it's been very difficult, especially for people of color in this country, people who are Muslim in this country. Every day it's getting
worse and worse in terms of just the way - the way that a president sets a tone for a country, are you know.
When JFK was President everybody wanted to be in the Peace Corps, when Ronald Reagan was President People wanted to go to Wall Street, when Obama
was President we got marriage equality and with Trump as President you know people take those keys and you have had just nastiness after nastiness.
Everybody as a family member will have their own experience of people to saying and doing crazy stuff and we were afraid it was going to get worse
and how do you raise your kids here? And so before you get to the policies and all that kind of stuff, just at a personal level, you had tens of
millions of people in this country who were voting for their lives. They weren't voting for policy. We were voting for our lives so that's--
ANDERSON: You also talked about - yes. Go on. I just wanted you talked about, you know, how - how you talk to your kids and so many of us say, you
know, it's not what you say, kids, it's what you do, but in this instance it is what you say, right, and you've talked about that on rare.
[11:15:00]
ANDERSON: It is about what you're doing and how you're saying it, and that's been your criticism of Donald Trump as much as what he does, right?
It's how he goes about it, tone.
JONES: Absolutely, because, you know, I was one of the few, national liberals, national progressives who was willing to work with the Trump
Administration on criminal justice reform. I was very proud to work with them on that, some of the addiction stuff they were doing.
They had opportunity zones, kind of a tax scheme to help the poor so that stuff actually worked with them and got a lot of grief from liberals. But
the thing about it the number of people who were affected by the criminal justice reform, just by definition, a smaller number, the people who are
affected by the black college stuff is smaller number.
People in the black community were affected by his rhetoric every day was 100 percent of the black community and 100 percent of the world and so even
though he was doing some things I think he did not get enough credit for Donald Trump on the policy side, it was always wiped out, you know, every
hour by some outrageous, you know, tweet or some statement or some, you know, conduct that busted our numbs norms.
And so the African-American community came out in massive numbers to say no. We - we want to be - it would be like if I gave you a beautiful dinner
and then called you a name. Like you would forget the dinner you just remember the name and that's kind of the situation the Trump Administration
wounded up in.
ANDERSON: Yes, and it's fascinating. Look, Joe Biden is President-Elect, a man who ran on character and policy, but policy, let be quite frank here,
is going to be hard to achieve without the majority in the Senate, and, you know, we clearly saw this sort of - this problem of what's the called down
the ballot with the Democrats in the House losing their seats. Have a listen to what U.S. House Republican Kevin McCarthy had to say, Van.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY (R-CA): We didn't lose one incumbent. We won every seat except one open. We didn't lose the Senate. We didn't lose one control of
any legislature. Actually Republicans gained three new legislatures of control of. We'll have more women in congress as Republicans than in the
history of congress. That says something about what President Trump has been able to do to expand this party.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: Many Republicans sticking with their party for congress but also choosing to vote Trump out. What challenges does that provide for a Joe
Biden Administration going forward, Van?
JONES: Well, you know, Mitch McConnell runs the Senate. He's a Republican. He's - the way our Senate works, no bill can pass unless it goes through
both House and the Senate and no bill can pass through the Senate unless the Majority Leader calls it for a vote, so he has all power. He's
basically God now.
He can stop anything that Biden wants to do legislatively so luckily Biden and McConnell do have a personal relationship. They are both old-school
deal-makers, old-school horse traders. If anybody can get McConnell to do something it would be Biden, but we expect nothing but obstruction -
McConnell is the one who famously said his number one agenda when Obama was elected was making sure that Obama was a one-term president.
He said it publicly. He was only going to try to obstruct Obama. We fear that it will be a similar thing with Biden. Biden has a lot of power. As
president he can put us back in the climate accord. He can put us back in the World Health Organization. He can do a lot when it comes to
immigration.
He can stop this brutal policy of snatching babies from their mothers at the border. He can reinstate the dreamers. He is going to stop sending
people who came here as babies back to countries that they don't remember. There are lots that he can do.
He can change the tone and he can make sure that the Department of Justice is going after these white nationalists, terrorist organizations that are
growing like wildfire across the country so there's a lot that he can do. There's a lot he will not be able to do which is why the election in
Georgia, the special election runoff in January where there are two seats which almost never happens, two Senate seats in one state that will
determine the control of the Senate.
Everybody is going to be working on that. If Democrats can win those two states the way we just won Georgia, then - then Biden can govern. If not,
he's going to have to just try to manage.
ANDERSON: Yes, fascinating. I know you've applauded the grass roots campaign which got out there and supported the campaign for Joe Biden. It
was a really odd time, wasn't it? Nothing like you would normally see with this pandemic and people not being able to get out and it has to be said,
you know, I've been listening to you all week, you know.
You've supported those grass roots campaigns and being involved in a number of them and I'm sure they will want attention.
[11:20:00]
ANDERSON: There are issues that the Democratic Party will need to get its head around also, an issue for Joe Biden, but, look, with that we're going
to leave it there. Good having you on. I'm glad you've had some time to sort of recover. But amazing, listen amazing work last week. Thank you very
much indeed on behalf of all of your colleagues, internationally. It was - it was fantastic stuff. Thank you.
JONES: Thank you. Have you back--
ANDERSON: The world can't get enough of this - good to have you. Can't get enough of this U.S. election it's glued to every move. I'm told. I'm not
saying that because I just want to say out loud. I'm told that by so many people, of course.
Up next, world leaders react to the Biden/Harris victory. We're going to have a look at what the next administration could mean for Middle East
security that after this?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANDERSON: Right. The world it seems is watching U.S. President-Elect Joe Biden planning his transition to power as we speak even as President Trump
is digging in and refusing to concede, but that isn't stopping many of the world's leaders from sending their best wishes to the next U.S.
Administration.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson out of the gates rushing to congratulate the President-Elect even though Mr. Johnson has, of course,
courted Donald Trump. Leaders across Europe are also offering their best wishes. Here in the Middle East the Saudi King congratulating Joe Biden
even though the President-Elect has been vocal in his criticism of the Kingdom.
That did come a little late, it has to be said, that - that congratulatory remark from the Saudis, but it's come. No word of congratulations so far
from either Beijing or Moscow. Both say they are waiting for the legal issues to be resolved.
Well, there's no one better to look at what a Biden Administration will mean for the rest of the world than our very own Christiane Amanpour.
Thanks for joining us. Let's begin, shall we, in the Middle East.
Saudi, Turkey and Iran all under the spotlight, of course, for a Biden Administration you know, at this point is it clear what we can expect from
Joe Biden and his team? And what impact their decisions, their policy will have on this region?
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Yes. You know that you could expect one fundamental change, and that is the one that animates your
region and it's about Iran. Joe Biden has indicated that he wants to get the United States back into the Iran Nuclear Deal which, as you know, the
European allies have signed off on, the U.N. has signed off on, it's a major security deal that President Trump pulled the U.S. out of without
having an alternative.
So Biden wants to somehow get back into that and get that back on the rails. But this, of course, was what shaped President Trump's entire Middle
East strategy throughout the last four years. He was so close with Saudi Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, the Gulf Arab Nations, obviously every American
support always close to Israel.
[11:25:00]
AMANPOUR: But he was also so close that he pretty much gave Israel just about everything that Israel wanted. So I think the Middle East rulers, if
you like, including Israel's current prime minister, will feel a little bit, you know, tentative about Joe Biden, although Joe Biden is so well
known to them all.
He's not just been vice president for eight years before that have he was Head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. They know him very, very
well. He's got really decades of experience. Some of what they might be a little bit afraid of is not just going back into the Iran Nuclear Deal, but
they might be a little bit afraid of the United States kind of pulling back anyway.
You know, this started under President Obama and the Middle East countries have noticed and the gulf countries, the United States pulling back a
little bit, so, you know, they are going to be really waiting to see exactly what a President Biden does?
ANDERSON: Yes, fascinating. Fight your own wars has been the sort of narrative coming out of Washington to the Middle East over the past few
years. The U.S. been in regions fighting wars for 20 years and not winning, the Chinese in region for 20 years and fighting no wars is what a lot of
people are saying here.
So it will be interesting to see how that plays out as we perhaps see more of a retraction as it were from the region? Heading to Europe, allies who
were rubbed up the wrong way, let be frank, by Donald Trump, ready to cooperate with a Biden Administration, do you think?
AMANPOUR: I would say 1,000 percent. You just heard what Van Jones was saying about the words and demeanor of the United States President at home,
but the same was true abroad. You know, this was a might makes right president. This was a transactional president.
This was a president that operated in ethics-free zone, human rights free zone even denigrating democracy around the world. So what you have is all
the autocrats in the eastern part of Europe very close to him, all the autocratic populist, nationalist opposition parties really liked President
Trump because he gave them license to contract the idea of what democracy and human rights are.
The opposite is true of our traditional democratic European allies, who are literally over the moon, and there's - there's no other word to say about
it. They are really ecstatic about the idea of a return to normalcy, a return to respect for multilateralism, a return to the United States
playing its traditional role which is not a power role but a role in convening and a role in building coalitions, not just on the health and the
pandemic.
And you heard when the W.H.O. leader said, that we must all now cooperate if we really want to get it done. But, look, this is what even a very key
German politician told me, potential successor to Chancellor Merkel Norbert Rottgen.
He told me even before the result but after they saw Trump questioning the democracy stop the count went down really badly in the Germany and around
the democratic alliance and this is what he told me about what they expect now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NORBERT ROTTGEN, CHAIRMAN, BUNDESTAG FOREIGN AFFAIRS COMMITTEE: Just looking through the angle and eyes of German and European interest, we have
experienced the last four years. We have seen the unpredictability. We have seen that from the White House China equally to Germany is treated as an
economic opponent, an enemy - morals as an enemy.
We've seen the withdrawal of troops from Germany as a - as an instrument of punishment of Germany for none compliance with American wishes and so honor
that had we have seen the behavior of tonight.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
AMANPOUR: So the behavior of tonight was the stop the count. This was just after the election, but, you know, they are hoping and vice president, now
President-Elect Biden has said his first action will be to write to the United Nations and get the United States back into the Paris Climate
Accord. This is huge.
Here where I'm sitting, Becky in Britain, this government of Boris Johnson has a lot of digging to do to get out of mess that he's created between
himself and whether it was President Obama and Vice President Biden.
They are pretty angry, and you've seen comments come out from that team. They believe that when he was Mayor Boris Johnson used racist tropes to
describe Obama and they know that he was very close in his populist nationalist way to Trump and they know that Trump was all about denigrating
Europe and, you know.
Biden is very, very close to wanting to have European alliances strong and also not to allow Boris Johnson and co to denigrate and damage the Northern
Ireland Peace Accords. So that is going to be very tough for the British to pull themselves out of this, and it's pretty unlikely that the British will
be the first to call Biden, you know to try to congratulate him first.
[11:30:00]
AMANPOUR: Speculation it will be France, Germany and the like.
ANDERSON: Yes. It will be interesting to see who those calls are made to. Norbert Rottgen, by the way, I thought was refreshingly honest.
AMANPOUR: Yes.
ANDERSON: That was a good interview to get. Important that we get to hear this sort of non-diplomatic speak we need to know what's going on - that
was great.
AMANPOUR: You know, Becky--
ANDERSON: Christiane go ahead.
AMANPOUR: that I was just so surprised, so much they had to tolerate for the last four years that they actually came out as you said in that non-
diplomatic way in terms of really expressing what they hope to see from the next President of the United States.
ANDERSON: Frederica Mulvareni (ph) is on your show in a couple hours from now. That will be a good chat an, important discussion. Thank you,
Christiane Amanpour in the house.
AMANPOUR: Thank you.
ANDERSON: It is time for us to take a very short break back after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANDERSON: Welcome back. I'm Becky Anderson. This is CONNECT THE WORLD. U.S. President-Elect Joe Biden beginning his transition into the White House.
The current President Donald Trump is shouting not so fast. He insists he's true winner of last week's controversial election.
Well, sources tell CNN the Trump Campaign is planning a so-called messaging blitz to fuel allegations of fraud. One of their tactics is to saw
obituaries of people who they blame will vote in the election. Here's the problem. There is no evidence to support that or any argument of a rigged
election.
That doesn't seem to be an issue for some Trump supporters across the country. Many are declaring the race is still not over. CNN's Donie
O'Sullivan spoke to voters in Pennsylvania who insist the election was stolen from Donald Trump. Have a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stop the steal!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's legal for them to count votes in Pennsylvania two days after the election on November 3rd?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You're wrong. Go. I don't even want to talk to you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I believe that Donald Trump won the election. I believe that they tried to steal the election.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stop the steal, a movement of Trump supporters that gained hundreds of thousands of followers online in the hours after the
election has inspired protests across the country.
[11:35:00]
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ballots that you said you saw are lying around the place or in trash cans or whatever where are you hearing that from?
ANDREW WALKER, TRUMP SUPPORTER: I mean, the videos are going viral everywhere. I've seen them on Tik Tok. I've seen them on Facebook. I've
seen them on Fox News. I've seen them on the local news around my area.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I've seen too much pieces of different evidence so far that shows that at this point I would be OK with a revote.
DONIE O'SULLIVAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Really?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, absolutely. When you have video footage of people taking bags of ballots and showing that they are for Donald Trump and
lighting them on fire--
O'SULLIVAN: I helped write a fact check on CNN on that particular video, the election officials said that video has been going around for a few days
and they are printout ballots. They are not real ballots.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So you use the information of the election officials.
O'SULLIVAN: Somebody like me comes along and tries to research it and fact check it and then I fact-check did and you'll come back and say well, the
election officials would say that.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, wouldn't they though? That's the thing though. Question everything, right?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They are not going to steal this election.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'SULLIVAN: The video showed sample ballots, not real ballots. The video's assertion is false, but even the president's son tweeted it to his millions
of followers. Election officials in Virginia where the sample ballots were from told CNN they had spent days trying to correct the online
misinformation.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When we went to bed on election night they told us they stopped counting, we woke up and there was a vertical spike right for
Biden, is 130,000 votes approximately, that's when I knew there was a problem.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Now as my buddy Steve Bannon says, if you're going to lie, be believe and about it because you do not have 138,000 votes coming
in and 135,000 of them come in for Biden.
O'SULLIVAN: This is what I think you guys might have been talking about on election night, Michigan, 138,000. This was from a website called Decision
Desk HQ. They came out and said we messed up. There was an error in how votes were come back and reported and that's why there was a spike in the
map.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
O'SULLIVAN: But, you know, the election officials in Michigan then all confirmed to say, yes, there was an error. They are not real ballots. Those
ballots never existed.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'SULLIVAN: President Trump himself even shared a post about the Michigan error Twitter labeled his post as misinformation.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
O'SULLIVAN: Are you concerned that as how people on the left can fall for misinformation or may be sometimes?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, I'm sure yes. I'm very thorough with the information I look at. I have my opinions obviously, but I'm not just going to go
around re-tweeting blaming false information or things that I believe are just - I look at things that are suspicious.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: Donie O'Sullivan reporting for you. Well, the Trump Campaign reportedly plans to feed the sentiment you just saw in that report, sources
telling CNN that the campaign plans to go on a public relations offensive to promote, "Stolen election" argument that includes possible campaign-
style rallies but so far the litigation put forward by Trump's team has failed to prove widespread fraud.
Well, my next guest believes the election showed a systematic problem in the U.S. electoral system, specifically that the vote is still being
suppressed and some voters disenfranchised. She wrote in the "Los Angeles Times" and I quote here all the blame game does is gloss over the key
structural failure in our system of elections.
To explain that Franita Tolson joins us now from Los Angeles she is a Professor at the University of Southern California's Gould School of Law,
probably forgotten more about election and constitutional law than any of us will ever know, she is a CNN Election Law Analyst. By which you meant
what in your writings?
FRANITA TOLSON, LAW PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA: Yes. So this past election was historic turnout, right, north of 145 million people
will have cast ballots, and my concern is that that historic turnout means that the voters who were left behind will get lost in the narrative.
So there were many efforts to keep people from voting leading up to Election Day, right? The states trying to make it more difficult to vote
some states refused to allow voters to vote absentee if they were under 65 others refused to allow voters to vote if they wanted to use the fear of
getting COVID as an excuse to vote absentee.
So you had a number of states who made it more difficult to vote. Let me just point out listening to some of the - the excerpts from the Trump
supporters. Part of the reason why we didn't know what happened in Pennsylvania on election night is the that Republican officials there would
not let election officials to pre-process the absentee ballot which we would have known or had a clearer sense of who was ahead in Pennsylvania at
the end of the night and that was another effort to delay the vote and make voting more difficult for people.
[11:40:00]
TOLSON: So you really did have many states that deliberately made it more difficult for people to vote. Another example that I love to give is Texas
because they reduced drop boxes in counties down to one, including Harris County which is the size of Rhode Island and has four times as many people.
So you just really had instances in which a lot of voters faced barriers to vote in and could not vote even though some voters were able to overcome
the artificial barriers that were put up in front of them. I don't want us to look at that and say we succeeded. We are a democracy and democracy
worked. Democracy did not work for everybody and that matters.
ANDERSON: Yes. You're making a very important point. Donald Trump continues to cast doubt. Many will say sow disinformation over this mail-in ballot
voting and you heard some of his supporters talking to Donie O'Sullivan. How are these legal cases playing out?
TOLSON: So, the Trump Campaign has not had a lot of success in court, and part of it is that they don't really have a clear legal strategy. The
problem is that you have a close vote in a number of states, but the margins are just way too big, right, for the Trump Campaign to bring any
litigation that could possibly make had a difference to the outcome.
This does not mean that some of the claims aren't plausible, so the Trump - the Trump Campaign, for example, brought a lawsuit claiming that the
observers could not get close enough to oversee the vote.
That's possible, but it's not the type of litigation that will make a difference in the outcome, so even if they are right, it's the old - it's
the end result that Biden is ahead in Michigan. He's ahead in Pennsylvania and he is ahead in Nevada so they - they just aren't in a position of
bringing litigation that could really affect the outcome and switch the trajectory of this race.
ANDERSON: Fascinating times. Thank you. It makes it so much easier for us to work through guests like yourself and get our head around exactly what
is going on. Look. Messy times and we're expecting them to continue as we move through what is the next ten-week period. The president-elect will, of
course, become president back end of January.
TOLSON: Right.
ANDERSON: Thank you. Just ahead on "Connect the World"--
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, U.S. PRESIDENT-ELECT: --climate denier, four more years in the White House. Why would anyone be surprised when more of America is under
water?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: On the campaign trail Joe Biden made the case that he is the one who can tackle the climate crisis. Well, now he's going to have to do just
that. Plus, Biden's plan to undo some of the most controversial policies from the Trump Administration what will most likely happen on Biden's very
first day in office?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[11:45:00]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: Americans have called upon us to marshal the forces of decency, the forces of fairness, to marshal the forces of science and the forces of hope
in the great battles of our time. The battle to control the virus, the battle to build prosperity, the battle to secure your family's health care,
the battle to achieve racial justice and root out systemic racism in this country.
(APPLAUSE)
BIDEN: And the battle to save our planet by getting climate under control.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: The climate cries is the greatest battle of our time, not just in America, but around the world. President-Elect Joe Biden seized the danger.
We are learning that one of his first moves after he's sworn in will be to rejoin the rest of the world in the Paris Climate Agreement.
CNN's Chief Climate Correspondent Bill Weir lays out some of the incoming president's plans. Bill, quick refresh what is the Paris Climate Accord and
what will it mean for the U.S. and the rest of the world, of course, by America re-entering it?
BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT: Well, this was the 2016 agreement the land really shaking, land-breaking. Something no one ever
thought could pull off with all the countries around the world, 190 countries agreeing to mitigate their carbon use and trying to hold global
temperatures below 2.0 degrees Celsius above industrial levels but closer to 1.5 if we can.
That would have been impossible, of course, without the biggest economy in the world, the United States. Donald Trump famously said I'm the President
of Pittsburgh, not Paris, not realizing that, you know, global climate is all connected and has just been disdainful towards this and something of an
Obama era overreach, but joining it again would be massive.
So far we have China, the EU, South Korea and Japan all making these zero carbon pledges by the middle of the century to de-carbonize our economy
which would be huge. I mean, it would be the biggest undertaking by humanity since the industrial revolution and much more complicated this
time around.
And so Biden's plan while not as ambitious as some of the left of them and the Democratic Party would spend $1.7 on greener infrastructure and
incentives with the Department of Energy behind renewable and subsidies for fossil fuel companies but there's just so much you can do without a
Democratic lead in the Senate.
So all of these ambitions and really the fate of whether the Paris Accords can be implemented on a grand scale may come down to two runoff elections
in January in Georgia.
ANDERSON: Yes. I mean, there's so many people around the world thought it was all over when this result was effectively called after a weekend and of
course it's not over because in January as you rightly point out we have got these two runoff elections that's so critical to the decision-making
process and the mandate that Joe Biden will or will not have when he becomes president, of course, and is inaugurated on January the 20th?
This is fascinating stuff, the pandemic, of course, overriding most voter issues. You were on the road last week during the election. How much of a
voter issue was climate, Bill?
WEIR: It was - well, it really depends on the demographic. For the youth vote which came out in record numbers, it was huge, and it was really for
those who have watched this story for years kind of stunning to see the Biden/Harris Campaign really triple down on message towards the end, really
connecting both novel viruses and the kind of flooding that's happening right now in South Florida, neighborhoods in Miami are seeing a surge from
record numbers of hurricanes down there.
Just connecting all of the pain right happening right now to the need to control this problem and people responded to that in a very big way. But as
you say now the troubling part is that Trump has built this base of 50 million, 60 million, 70 million, you don't know how many of those deny the
climate science.
But if we can't convince these folks that Coronavirus is real and that they should sacrifice by wearing a mask it's really troubling when you try to
game out how do you win these folks over to help mitigate? You know this threat to life as we know it which is going to take sacrifice and
adjustment by everybody on the planet in some way. That's the big question right now.
[11:50:00]
ANDERSON: Bill Weir is on the story. He's on the beat. Your job couldn't be more important at this stage. It will be amazing to see, quite amazing to
see the U.S. back in the Paris Climate Accord. Sounds very partisan of me to say that, but I believe it because I think the rest us around the world
get it.
Wherever you are living and living here in the Middle East, you feel the ravages of climate change more than in so many other parts of the world.
Bill, always a pleasure thank you, sir. You're watching "Connect the World." Still ahead, the looming change at the top in the White House means
a reversal of some of President Donald Trump's most controversial policies.
We've just been talking about one, haven't we, pulling out of the Paris Climate Accord. May be the biggest hot button issue of them all, the Iran
Nuclear Deal that is up for discussion up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Today the world has officially crossed the threshold for the Paris Agreement to take effect.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: As of today the United States will cease all implementation of the non-binding Paris Accord.
OBAMA: Today the United States, together with our allies and partners, has reached historic understanding with Iran.
TRUMP: I'm announcing today that the United States will withdraw from the Iran Nuclear Deal.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: That yo-yo of United States foreign policy about to get another swirl. Joe Biden expected to use his first day as president, in fact as I'm
talking, he's speaking, so let's have a listen to President-Elect Joe Biden.
BIDEN: -- reopen our businesses safely and sustainably, resume our lives, put this pandemic behind us, and we just received positive news in this
fight with the announcement that there's been progress made towards a successful vaccine.
Soon, the expectation is that the FDA will run a process rigorous reviews and approvals, and the process must also be grounded in science and fully
transparent so the American people can have every confidence that any approved vaccine is safe and effective.
At the same time, it's clear that this vaccine, even if approved, will not be widely available for many months yet to come. The challenge before us
right now is still immense and growing, and although we're not in office yet, I'm just laying out what we expect to do and hope can be done, some of
it, between now and the time we're sworn in.
But - so the purpose of this is to let you know what we're going to do once sworn in, and so there's a need for bold action to fight this pandemic.
We're still facing a very dark winter. There are now nearly 10 million COVID cases in the United States and last week we topped 120,000 new cases
on multiple successive days.
Infection rates are going up. Hospitalizations are going up. Deaths are going up. This crisis claimed nearly 1,000 Americans lives a day, nearly
240,000 deaths so far.
[11:55:00]
BIDEN: The projections still indicate we could lose 200,000 more lives in the coming months before a vaccine can be made widely available. So we
can't forgo the important work that needs to be done between now and then to get our country through the worst wave yet in this pandemic.
To reduce the spread, to save lives, so that's why today I've named a COVID-19 Transition Advisory Board comprised of distinguished public health
experts to help our transition team translate the Biden/Harris COVID-19 plan into action, a blueprint that we can put into place as soon as kamala
and I are sworn into office on January 20th, 2021.
And we'll seek to add other members to this board during this - with additional important perspectives on public health and expertise throughout
the transition this. This group will advise on detailed plans, built on a bedrock of science and keep compassion, empathy and care for every American
at its core making rapid testing widely available, more widely available, much more widely available.
And building a core of contact tracers who will track and curb this disease while we prioritize getting vaccines first to the most at-risk populations
developing clear and detailed guidance and providing the necessary resources for small businesses, schools, child care centers, to reopen and
operate safely and effectively during the pandemic, protecting both workers and the public.
Scaling up productive life-saving treatments and therapeutics and when it's ready making sure an approved vaccine is distributed equitably and
efficiently and free for every American. With cases rising once more, it's imperative that we ramp up our production of personal protective equipment,
to make sure that our brave health care workers have what they need to do battle safely against this virus.
We're going to get states, cities and tribes the tests and the supplies they need. We're going to protect vulnerable populations who are at risk,
most at risk from this virus, older Americans and those with pre-existing conditions.
We're going to address the health and economic disparities that means this virus is hitting the black, Latino, Asian-American, pacific islanders,
Native American communities harder than white communities, focusing on these communities is one of our priorities, not an afterthought.
The bottom line, I will spare no effort to turn this pandemic around once we're sworn in, in January 20th. To get our kids back to school safely, our
businesses growing and our economy running at full speed again, and to get an approved vaccine manufactured and distributed as quickly as possible to
as many - to as many Americans as possible free of charge.
We'll follow the science. We'll follow the science. Let me say that again, and we'll adjust to new data when it comes in, and we'll listen and work in
cooperation with Governors and local leaders of both parties who are fighting this virus in their communities this very day.
There's so much good work happening at state and local levels across the country, Governors, Mayors. They are stepping up. The advisory board will
listen and learn lessons from their experience and because we know that we won't fully defeat COVID-19 until we defeat it everywhere, my advisory
council also includes experts on global health security so that we can restore the U.S. global leadership to fight this pandemic.
This is a crisis that affects everyone. As I've said throughout this campaign, I will be a president for every American. This election is over.
It's time to put aside partisanship and the rhetoric that - designed to demonize one another.
It's time to end the politicization of basic responsible public health steps like mask-wearing and social distancing. We have to come together to
heal the soul of this country so that we can effectively address thESE cries as one country where hard working Americans have each other's backs
and we're united in our shared goal defeating this virus.
As we work towards a safe and effective vaccine. We know the single most effective thing that we can do to stop the spread of COVID is wear a mask.
The Head of the CDC warned us this fall that for a fear seeable future the mask remains the most potent weapon against the virus.
Today's news does not change that urgent reality. I won't be president until January 20th. But my message today is to everyone.
END
