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Erin Burnett Outfront
Wisconsin Certifies Biden's Win After Recount That Trump Campaign Requested And Paid $3 Million For; McConnell Silent On Biden's Victory; Senators Thune, Blunt Say They're Waiting For Electoral College To Certify; Trump's Coronavirus Adviser Dr. Scott Atlas Has Resigned; More Than 267,000 Coronavirus Deaths In The U.S.; FDA Schedules Dec. 17 Meeting On Moderna Vaccine; Congress Stalls On Additional Relief As COVID Cases Surge. Aired 7-8p ET
Aired November 30, 2020 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: May they rest in peace and may their memories be a blessing. Thanks very much for watching.
"ERIN BURNETT OUTFRONT" starts right now.
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: OUTFRONT next, Wisconsin certifying the results of its election affirming Joe Biden won after a recount that cost $3 million netted Biden more votes. A top Republicans tonight still won't call Biden the President-elect. Why?
Plus, one American dying of COVID now every minute. The vaccine cannot come too soon. The chief scientist leading Operation Warp Speed is OUTFRONT.
And the CNN exclusive tonight leaked documents from inside China reveal what China knew about the deadly pandemic and hid from the world. Let's go OUTFRONT.
Good evening. I'm Erin Burnett.
OUTFRONT tonight, Trump found more votes for Biden. The Wisconsin Governor tonight making it formal, certifying the state's election results. The state's Election Commission Chairwoman writing Biden 'received' the greatest number of votes, hence the facts.
Trump forced to recount paying $3 million or at least $3 million of his donor dollars for the honor and Trump's recount netted Biden 87 additional votes. It was a recount though that Trump was betting a lot on. One that he assured everyone would turn around 20,000 votes and make him the winner.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'm 17 points down in Wisconsin, and then end up really, effectively, winning. They tried to take it away. We'll see what happens with Wisconsin, but essentially winning.
(END VIDEO CLIP) BURNETT: So Trump lost Wisconsin again by more than 20,000 votes.
Tonight certification was just an inevitable formality and it comes after Arizona also certified its results, 11 more Electoral Votes in Biden's column. No matter how much Trump tries to say he was cheated, it is simply not true because this is about math and the facts which makes it all the more impossible to understand why top Republican leaders like Mitch McConnell still refuse to acknowledge Biden's win.
Instead, to be honest, they're cowering to, paying obeisance to Trump. Today the most senior Republican in the Senate, McConnell was silent, refusing to answer reporter questions when asked if he considers Biden the President-elect of the United States. And then there's this excuse from Republican Senator, John Thune, our Hill reporting team asked a very simple question. "Hey, is Joe Biden the President-elect?"
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN THUNE (R-SD): Well, I mean, I don't agree. I don't think that gets decided until, whenever that is, the 14th of December.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: OK. Thune, like many of his colleagues, are hiding behind the Electoral College like Sen. Roy Blunt of Missouri.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DANA BASH, CNN HOST: So, is it safe to say that you do consider Joe Biden the President-elect?
SEN. ROY BLUNT (R-MO): Well, the President-elect will be the President-elect when the electors vote for him.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: OK. So Blunt and Thune are basically saying, well, it's not over till it's over. No formal result until the Electoral College votes next month.
Here's the thing, look at their statements from the day after Trump won in 2016. The day after blunt congratulates President-elect Donald Trump, that's on his website. And Thune, quote, "Congratulations to President-elect Trump for his election to serve as president of this great country."
Trump won then fair and square by the rules, just like Biden has won now. And it is time for Republicans like Thune and Blunt to stop playing games with democracy and stop hiding behind Trump's refusal to concede. It's time for them to lead, to give Biden the same respect that they gave Trump in 2016.
Instead, they're leaving it to, well, Mitt Romney, every day the guy tries and now the Republican Secretary of State in Georgia to call out Trump for the damage he's doing.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) BRAD RAFFENSPERGER, (R) GEORGIA SECRETARY OF STATE: There are those
who are exploiting the emotions of many Trump supporters with fantastic claims, half truths, misinformation and frankly, they are misleading the President as well, apparently.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: He's being generous to give Trump the space to blame someone else for the fantastic claims that he's peddling, misleading people. Trump is doing very poorly by his supporters. He is lying to them, even down to telling them that this is about them, not him.
Today, tweeting, quote, "I'm not fighting for me, I'm fighting for the 74 million people (not including the many Trump ballots that were 'tossed'), a record for a sitting president, who voted for me.
The perfect example of a half truth, well, not even half truth, a little teeny shard of one that is deeply misleading. Both Biden and Trump have record votes and every loser in a presidential election has had millions. In fact, up to 60 million plus supporters who lost.
Hillary Clinton got 65.8 million votes. She did not try to undermine our democracy, because of those supporters. That is because a winner is a winner and a loser is a loser and that is American democracy, the rules, and Republicans need to stand up and say that.
Manu Raju is OUTFRONT live on Capitol Hill. And Manu, you just talked to these Republican senators about what the President is doing and they're willingness to go along with it. What do they say to you?
[19:05:07]
MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, most of them do not believe they have a role or believe it's their role to push back against the President. I asked a number of these Republican senators, shouldn't you push back against these unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud, considering the President is not presenting the evidence that he has been saying that this election was stolen, that there were thousands and thousands of ballots that were taken away from him?
That's not even being something that is being alleged in court. Shouldn't they, as Republican senators, leaders here say that's not correct and that the election was done fairly safely and securely as many election officials, Republican and Democrats have been saying across the country.
But a number of Republicans said it's not their role. They want to wait for the Electoral College to be certified. And they want to let the President have his chance to continue to make these claims in court, including two Republican senators; Senators John Cornyn and Josh Hawley.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN CORNYN (R-TX): It really don't feel the need to comment anymore on this. I realize you guys feel like you have to file something on this, but I don't think that's very productive.
SEN. JOSH HAWLEY (R-MO): The President has every right to present this case in every court that he wants to go to and has every right to be heard. And I think we are going to need to look at the effect of mail- in balloting.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RAJU: So there were a couple of outliers on Capitol Hill today. One; Mitt Romney a usual critic of this President when the President oversteps and he says that his attacks against democracy are dangerous. Sen. Lisa Murkowski told me that she believes that the President should concede going much further than most Republicans on Capitol Hill.
She would not say even if she voted for the President in the November election, but there are Republicans who are egging on the President, including Lindsey Graham.
He said he spoke to the President this weekend. The President said that he wants to fight for every vote and Lindsey Graham said he should keep doing it. And then when I asked whether Trump should go to Biden's inauguration, he says I hope he does. But he also added, Erin, that Biden goes to the President's inauguration. Erin.
BURNETT: It's just pathetic. It's pathetic and he knows better and should do better. Manu, thank you very much. I want to bring in Michael Smerconish, host of CNN' "SMERCONISH," Amanda Carpenter, former Communications Director for Senator Ted Cruz. She did vote for Joe Biden. And David Gergen, former Presidential Adviser to Four Presidents of both parties.
So Amanda, let me start with you. Lindsey Graham, I know, it's insulting. McConnell, again, today refusing to acknowledge Biden as President-elect as well though, just refusing to answer the question. So when you look at folks like this, McConnell and Thune and Graham, if the Senate remains in Republican control, this could be really bad. Certainly, McConnell and Biden, this could be really bad. Why is McConnell doing this?
AMANDA CARPENTER, FMR. COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR FOR SEN. TED CRUZ: Well, I think McConnell would love to keep Senate control, but McConnell refuses to acknowledge the reality that Joe Biden is going to be the next president because that would require confronting Donald Trump's election trutherism.
This has been a constant problem with the Republican Party when it comes to Donald Trump's conspiracies. You can start with birtherism, you can take it to his COVID denialism and now we have election trutherism.
Conspiracies are ruling the party and there's always been this misguided belief, I think, among a lot of Republican figures like Mitch McConnell, that if we just let Donald Trump go and do his thing, eventually he'll burn out like it won't work and to win the Senate, it did. Donald Trump didn't win the election. But this is so misguided, Erin, because what they're doing is that
they are giving Donald Trump - look at the calendar from, say, when the election was called until Joe Biden was inaugurated, call it, two months. Two months for Donald Trump to convince a big part of his base, that somehow Joe Biden is not the rightful president.
Man, if you thought the country was divided under Donald Trump, I am worried about what it will look like when a significant part of the country doesn't except Biden as the incoming president.
BURNETT: And that's what they're doing by doing this, David. I mean, McConnell says he hasn't even spoken with President-elect Biden yet. And every single time he's been asked about working with Biden, which he's going to have to do if he's the Majority Leader and Biden, of course, will be the President, we know that. We don't know about McConnell yet, because there's an election still happening in Georgia. He just dodged the question. Here you go, listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY): We're going to have an orderly transfer from this administration to the next one. I will swear in an extra administration on January 20th.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: So let me ask you, David, he won't say the words.
[19:10:00]
He hasn't been direct about it. Lindsey Graham tonight to Manu, I'm sorry it's dumbfounding to me that people still take someone seriously who says maybe Joe Biden will show up at Donald Trump's inauguration. It's wrong and it's a problem. Why the lack of leadership here, David?
DAVID GERGEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, I think there's a short-term reason called Georgia and that is they really don't want to have a split with Trump or the votes occur in Georgia (inaudible) December. Now those two seats are so (inaudible) many thing that McConnell or the Republicans want to do and indeed the Democrats. So both sides have a real interest, close fight down there, there are a lot of interest squabbling going on within the Republican Party. They just couldn't lose both and (inaudible) our return over the Democrats.
But I don't think that's the end of it. I think that's the short-term reason why they're being very careful. But I truly think they have bought into the poisonous argument that Trump is making (inaudible) anchorage to the country.
I was really struck today, Erin, if I may go on for a second, there's a group of political scientists who gather around the country (inaudible) and they take a survey of political scientists. They just published one today. And the political scientists who agreed among themselves the single most important event of Donald Trump's presidency has occurred over this issue and trying to poison the water. (Inaudible) more abnormal than anything else he's done and also working groups.
BURNETT: Which just shows you the power of that, Michael. People can look over past four years and say whatever they want to say, but that they would come to that conclusion, history will show if that is indeed the case but there is so much risk right now. And yet the numbers here so obvious, I just gave the Wisconsin certification formality that just occurred. Arizona certified its election results today as well, so that's 21 Electoral College votes before them.
And yet President Trump goes on Fox News yesterday, where an anchor asks him for the facts, which is hilarious, shocking and so in really 15 minutes with no pushback whatsoever, we hear stuff like this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: This is the greatest fraud in the history of our country from an electrical standpoint. There are a lot of dead people that so- called voted in this election. There was tremendous cheating here.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: No pushback. That is just all lies. There was a tremendous voting by dead people, Michael. I mean, this are the horrible lies. How can Biden govern in an atmosphere where you have mainstream Republicans still allowing this to be said and acting as if it deserves a hearing in the court of law?
MICHAEL SMERCONISH, CNN ANCHOR: So I watched that interview yesterday and what occurred to me is that the President, the longer that he takes to concede, is denying Republicans the best argument that they have to energize their base in Georgia in that important election as David points out, because that argument is to say that we, Senators Perdue and Loeffler, are the last things standing in the way of complete Democratic control of the White House, the House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate.
But if the President doesn't concede that he's lost the election to Joe Biden, then they're not able, they want his support, but they're not able to go out to their constituency and make that case. That's the thing about it that I find mind boggling. Now, arguably in the next 15 days, it'll all become clear and the Electoral College will do what it will do, but why waste those two weeks from a fundraising perspective, instead of being able to make that case, assert that case right now. That's the problem for Republicans that the President has created.
BURNETT: It is David and yet there are some who are standing up. You've got the Republican Secretary of State in Georgia, calling these fantastic claims saying stop it. Republican Governor of Georgia saying stay out of an election, I'm not interfering in election, it's a fair election. You have Mitt Romney daily stepping up and saying this is dangerous and wrong.
There are some but they are still too few and far between.
GERGEN: Too far between and far more making the argument that this is fraudulent. He's going to be an illegitimate president. There are far too many the Republicans taking this other extent, it's the cowardly extent, but I'll tell you this has enormous implications for the Republican Party over time. The public is watching us with great interest and the Republican Party is not exactly covering up the glory.
BURNETT: Amanda, let me give you the final word. A piece today you wrote getting a lot of buzz where you compare the GOP and conservative media in the Trump era to a parasite and this was a picture of your column that is getting so much pickup. So that's it, that's the fish and the parasite.
But what's your response to the fact that this is literally getting the buzz that it is, because it's been significant today?
CARPENTER: Well, it plays into this conversation here is why aren't Republicans standing up and making better arguments.
[19:15:02]
And what I argue in this piece is that there are no institutional Republican elites calling the shots. The Republican Party in its current form is a media-run party. People like the Primetime lineup at Fox News have far more power and influence over Republican voters than Mitch McConnell or Kevin McCarthy.
They are the ones who vet candidates. They are the ones that give candidates access to their platforms to fundraise every single day. They are the wardroom day in and day out and so this is why you see a struggle about like what's the big narrative, election rigging or this better argument that would be better from a nuts and bolts perspective.
Well, of course, we're going to go with the conspiracies, because that gets better ratings, because they are a media-run party and that's something that will only continue as Donald Trump becomes a civilian and just chooses what network he is going to appear on or licenses name to or maybe even buy.
BURNETT: Alright, thank you all very much. I appreciate your time.
And next breaking news about the President's controversial advisor on the Coronavirus Task Force, Scott Atlas. We have learned a big development tonight on Atlas' fate. We're going to go live to the White House with the latest.
Plus, Congress pointing fingers while millions of Americans suffer. Is there any chance of a stimulus package before the end of the year?
And the longtime Georgia Republican warns his party that if they keep talking about voter fraud, there'll be handing over Senate control to Chuck Schumer. Georgia's Republican Lieutenant Governor response.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:20:12] BURNETT: Breaking news, President Trump's controversial coronavirus
adviser, Dr. Scott Atlas is gone, resigning. Now, of course, Atlas' voice controversial views clashing with other members of the Coronavirus Task Force, he wasn't even supportive of things like masks, he talked about herd immunity achieved through infection.
Dr. Deborah Birx even refused to sit in meetings with Atlas. And the news is coming as right now one American is dying from coronavirus about every single minute. One person dying every single minute in this country, 28 straight days where new cases have topped 100,000 record for hospitalizations. And somehow the President is still congratulating himself about the handling here.
Kaitlan Collins is OUTFRONT. She's near the White House. Kaitlan, what more are you learning tonight about Dr. Atlas' resignation as we just find out this news?
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Erin, this is notable in the sense that Dr. Scott Atlas is one of the few people on the task force that President Trump was still listening to. At the beginning of the pandemic, you saw that Dr. Fauci was often present with Donald Trump, so was Dr. Deborah Birx.
But as you got closer to the end of his time in office, we have now seen that Dr. Scott Atlas was the one that the President was really listening to the most, meeting with the most because the President, of course, had not attended an official taskforce meeting and still hasn't in several months. And now Dr. Scott Atlas has resigned, we're told. He turned that resignation letter into President Trump, but it's not clear that the task force was aware that Dr. Atlas had planned on resigning, so we're still waiting to effort more details on that.
But it could be welcome news for several members of that task force, Erin, because of course, they often clashed with him or did not agree with him on the policies that he pushed and often it became incredibly argumentative. And there was a lot of tension in some of those meetings, where they were going back and forth on mask policies and whatnot.
But the one person who did listen to him was President Trump, who often echoed his unscientific views. That's why he got hired in this position, because the President watched him on Fox News at a time when he had started clashing with people like Dr. Anthony Fauci and so he brought him on. Remember at the beginning, they wouldn't even officially say that Dr. Atlas was on the taskforce.
He was just a coronavirus adviser to the President, a special advisor and, of course, he later was attending those meetings. So that's what we know so far that he has resigned.
BURNETT: All right. Thank you very much, Kaitlan.
And OUTFRONT now, the man in charge of the U.S. vaccine push, Dr. Moncef Slaoui. He is the scientific leader of Operation Warp Speed. And I appreciate your time, Doctor. I do want to start with this news that we just have about Dr. Atlas though and give you a chance to respond. What's your reaction? Is this news to you?
MONCEF SLAOUI, CHIEF SCIENTIFIC ADVISER, OPERATION WARP SPEED: Well, listen, yes and I had very, very limited interaction with him, so I have no comments to make.
BURNETT: OK. All right. I understand but obviously you're learning it as we are learning it, which is important.
SLAOUI: Yes.
BURNETT: So let me ask you about the vaccine status, Moderna now becoming the second coronavirus vaccine maker to apply for a formal emergency use authorization from the FDA. FDA will decide on that later this month, but a week even before that it needs to decide on Pfizer's EUA, that'll be December 10.
So if that gets approved by the FDA, the Pfizer vaccine on December 10th, how soon after do Americans start getting the vaccine?
SLAOUI: So as soon as the approval is granted, it's an authorization, then we have to wait the ACIP, which is a CDC Advisory Committee on immunization practices recommendation in terms of prioritization for immunization, which we hope will take place almost simultaneously to the authorization by the FDA. Then immediately shipments can start within 24 hours. The vaccines will be at the addresses that each state health agency will have indicated to us to ship a certain amount of vaccine doses there.
And I assume that day or the next day, the first immunization can take place. So it will be very fast, what's important to note is the number of those, the amount of vaccine that we have is still limited in comparison to the needs. There is about 100 and 20 million at risk in the U.S., we will have by the end of the month of December about 14 million doses of vaccine.
So it's going to take a while for all Americans who need it on a priority level to get it, but over probably two or two and a half months they will all get it.
BURNETT: All right. And so you're saying that 120 million, you're defining that, your kind of frontline workers, vulnerable people, you're obviously not giving a full population there.
SLAOUI: Obviously, so it's really older than 65 healthcare workers first line workers principally.
BURNETT: OK. So you recently when you were talking to my colleague, Jake, on CNN, you said herd immunity could happen by May of 2021.
[19:25:06]
So when you said that, I actually had Dr. Rick Bright, a member Biden's Coronavirus advisory board, former Director of the Federal Office, which oversees vaccines about that prediction specifically, and I wanted to play his answer to you with the context. Here he is, Doctor. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RICK BRIGHT, BIDEN COVID-19 ADVISORY BOARD MEMBER: I haven't seen the math that he's using to make that prediction about herd immunity by May or June. I really think it's going to take a long time. I think through most of next year, I think it's going to take that long to probably get everyone vaccinated. Even though the vaccines will become available, it still takes a lot to distribute it and roll those out and administer that many doses of vaccine in a broad population.
And then we're going to have to really see how long the immunity is and last after we receive those vaccines, and start to collect those data before we can make any bold projections about any level of herd immunity.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: So Doctor, there's his context. Do you stick by your prediction, though, that you think it is possible we could reach that herd immunity by May of next year?
SLAOUI: Yes. I think the level of immunity induced 95 percent is exceptionally high and I think the projection is based on the fact that we are planning to have produce vaccine doses to immunize 70 percent to 80 percent of the population by that time.
Obviously, it would be more cautious to say it will take longer. Our focus in the operation from day one has been to make sure as safely as possible to go as fast as possible, because it's a matter of life for that. And that's the reason that we started six months ago saying we will have vaccines by the end of the year and the likes of the person who just spoke said it's impossible.
I'm really happy we showed that it was possible and I look forward, I hope to be able to have herd immunity also achieved in May or June.
BURNETT: So he though, of course, does - he's on the Biden Coronavirus Task Force, so have you had any contact? Well, I would assume not with him, given what you just said but with anyone on President-elect Biden's team about what you're doing and why you're coming to such a very different conclusion than he appears to be?
SLAOUI: No. There have been no contacts. Personally, I know that there have been a first introductory meeting with the HSS organization. I have had no contact. I'll be happy to discuss. These are all plans, people need to understand. And of course, they may fail but we put them to ourself as an objective and we strive to achieve it. I hope we can achieve it.
I'm sure there will be people around sitting on the spectators' view saying it may not be achievable, but we'll do our best. It's a matter of life or death, again.
BURNETT: It is as we said, one American die now about every single minute from coronavirus.
SLAOUI: Exactly.
BURNETT: There are still some questions, one of the main doctors behind the Moderna vaccine, Dr. Carlos del Rio was saying, look, there's still a lot of things we don't know, whether you can transmit the virus even if you have a vaccine, even though you yourself don't get symptoms, whether it prevents you from getting symptoms, but you're still affected by the virus, there's still a lot of things we don't know and among them are also side effects.
So one volunteer in the Moderna trial actually spoke about some of the side effects he experienced. Here's what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAEL ROUSE, MODERNA VACCINE TRIAL VOLUNTEER: The side effects were nausea, body aches, muscle aches, headaches, fatigue, chills, it's like diarrhea. The first shot, the side effects lasted about 12 hours. The second shot, the side effects lasts a little bit longer, about 24 hours and a little bit more intense. But after the side effects passed, I felt normal.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: So is that what most people should expect and is that the worst of it to get what you believe is full protection?
SLAOUI: So I think those side effects are somewhat common. I would classify them as maybe 10 percent, 15 percent of the subjects immunized have quite noticeable side effects that usually lasts no more than 24 or 36 hours and resolve. Most people will have much less noticeable side effects.
That frankly in comparison to a 95 percent protection against an infection that can be deadly or significantly debilitating, I think is an appropriate balance. What is more important than the short-term side effects are the long-term side effects and their actually importantly.
While we know that the predictable 90 percent, 95 percent of side effects that happen within two months of immunization are actually really good for the two vaccines that have been filed now, the Moderna and the Pfizer vaccine, we don't have the experience for a year or two years.
[19:30:18]
BURNETT: Yeah.
SLAOUI: And we're going to learn as we go. That's why we put together with the FDA and the CDC very active pharmacovigilance systems to assess those longer-term side effects. We predict they will be very, very infrequent, but they may exist, and we'll learn as we go.
BURNETT: All right. Well, Dr. Slaoui, I appreciate your time. Thank you very much tonight.
SLAOUI: My pleasure. Thank you.
BURNETT: Well, next is one of Biden's nominees for his economic team already in jeopardy with Republican senators? And President Trump calling Georgia's election a scam. But now, he's urging people to vote in the state's runoff state elections, the Senate elections. Will the mixed messages backfire on Republicans?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BURNETT: Tonight, Congress is back. Still no stimulus. A stimulus bill that would directly impact hundreds of millions of Americans.
And, of course, it didn't have to be this way.
[19:35:01]
Congress has had months to agree on a stimulus package. But instead of working together, they have been busy pointing fingers, leaving Americans like these hanging out to dry.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Some of my employees are still behind on rent. Some of them are living paycheck to paycheck. And again, there's no federal relief. Every time they close us down they need to make sure there's relief to help aid us through this time, because we can't keep taking on this burden.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm looking for a job really hard and mostly just worrying about what I'm going to do and trying to find ways that there's help available.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: OUTFRONT now, Kevin Hassett, former chair of the Council of Economic Advisers under President Trump, and Austan Goolsbee, former chair of the Council of Economic Advisers under President Obama.
So, Austan, what goes through your mind when you hear people's stories of struggling because Congress has just failed to get a relief bill done?
AUSTAN GOOLSBEE, FORMER CHAIRMAN, COUNCIL OF ECONOMIC ADVISERS UNDER PRESIDENT OBAMA: Look, it's awful. And you can look at the individuals who are out of their jobs. We've got tens of millions of people out of their jobs. We're about to have millions of people get evicted from their homes. And there are millions of small businesses that are about to close down permanently, all of which is unnecessary.
We have vaccines on the horizon. We just need to get enough relief and rescue money to not have permanent damage from this. So I think this is a mess. And if we're not going to address this, the economy is definitely going to suffer because the virus is raging out of control and the virus is the boss.
BURNETT: And a person is dying every single minute, as we were saying today, Kevin. So there may be a vaccine on the horizon but people are dying now.
Trump's trade adviser Peter Navarro has urged Congress to pass the stimulus bill. He calls it a bridge, right, to get people through this. And I just wanted to play exactly how he said it because I thought it was really interesting. Here he is, Kevin.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PETER NAVARRO, WHITE HOUSE TRADE ADVISER: Unless we provide that bridge -- we should have done it two months ago, to be honest. And there's a lot of people who have already fallen through the cracks, a lot of small businesses have fallen through the cracks. And once they fall through the cracks, it's hard to get them back up.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: So he went on to say that part of the reason if the economy suffers even more of a downturn in 2021 part of the reason will be because they failed to pass stimulus now. Obviously, now and the past two months, Kevin, are all during the Trump administration, right? So that's where he's saying the blame would lie, is during the time of the Trump administration. Do you agree with that?
KEVIN HASSETT, CNN ECONOMICS COMMENTATOR: Well, you know, what happened, I think, Erin, it was probably on Poppy Harlow's show when I was still in the White House last summer, early last summer, I said I was sure we were about to pass the stimulus and it was because I was involved in the negotiations and I thought that basically a deals with close.
And I think if Austan and I sat down by tomorrow morning we'd definitely have a stimulus -- you know, he might pick some stuff that I don't like. And we would make it law right away because Peter's right and Austan's right, we desperately need a stimulus.
And the key point, Erin, to put some pressure on everybody is it's about to get a lot worse, not only because of what Austan said, which is that the cases are really skyrocketing but also because there's a vaccine, say, a lot of us will be able to get it in, say, February or March.
Your previous segment talked about that. Then it's really, really prudent to be more aggressive for individuals right now, staying at home, staying away from places where you might catch it because the other side is in sight now. You just have to make it to, say, February or March and you're going to get a vaccine.
And so I think that all economists expect that first quarter GDP is going to be not as bad as it was last year in the second quarter when we really shut down but it's going to be a really big negative number. And so, it's absolutely important that Congress pass probably a bridge that gets us to March. And so then a new administration potentially could then do a longer-term stimulus bill.
But to do nothing between now and march is really economic misconduct because there is about to be more of a shutdown, even if the government doesn't do it, rational people are going to slow down because they expect we're almost at the vaccine and so they should stay home more.
BURNETT: Right, right. Well, that's exactly it. Because the tragic thing about right now is when you're seeing deaths approach a record and maybe far surpassing that if the numbers continue as they have, none of these people had to die, absolutely none of them. That is the great tragedy, especially with a vaccine coming. So, you all might be able to agree on something, you know, a little bit of, this a little bit of that.
But the politics, you talk about last summer when you told Poppy there was a deal. Here we are six months later.
HASSETT: Yeah, I was surprised. I was shocked.
BURNETT: Mitch McConnell specifically cited comments from you in a speech today when he was saying --
GOOLSBEE: Yeah, he did.
BURNETT: -- it's Democrats' fault and Democrats need to do the compromising. Here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY), MAJORITY LEADER: Over the weekend, Professor Austan Goolsbee, who chaired the Council of Economic Advisers under President Obama, called on Democrats to finally play ball. Quote, here's what he said: There are a lot of people really hurting.
[19:40:05]
I hope Congress can agree on something soon. If they have to accept half a loaf, then they have to accept half a loaf.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: I guess the logic being he should get the whole loaf or one side should get 100 percent, the other side get zero. I don't know.
What do you say to him?
GOOLSBEE: Well, first, somebody tell me that he had quoted me and I was going to applaud him for good taste in who he was listening to. But then I saw what he was quoting and he left off the critical part of the sentence where I said start with half a loaf, then get another half a loaf. And I highlighted that I think the reason we haven't been able to get anything is that he, Mitch McConnell, is blocking it.
I think he's decided that he would do better and the Republicans would do better in the Georgia Senate elections if they don't have anything that demoralizes the base. And I think that's a big problem.
BURNETT: Interesting. He left the operative part out. So, Kevin, this comes as President-elect Joe Biden announced his
economic team today. Janet Yellen, treasury secretary, Neera Tanden to head the OMB, Cecilia Rouse to be the Council of Economic Advisers chair, the job that you and Austan both held. They will all need to face Senate approval.
Do you support these picks? Do you think these are -- these should be approved?
HASSETT: Yeah, you know, the backdrop is that there's actually a problem to solve, which is that when President Obama started setting nominees up in his first four years the Senate proceeded quickly with all of them. Only 17 were exposed to what they called cloture, which means you have to have like a week-long vote before you can push the person forward. And if the Democrats in the Senate did that 347 times to Trump nominees then there's still 200 people waiting for a vote right now.
And if it were me, Erin, I would have stopped all that right in the beginning. I went through it myself, you may recall.
BURNETT: Yeah.
HASSETT: In fact, I got confirmed with 83 votes in part because of Austan's help. Thank you, Austan, for that. I know you probably regret it because of some of my policy positions.
But I think that help that Austan and Jason gave me when I was going through was because I think they recognize that it's important to have people who are willing to serve the country and it's important for the Senate to speedily respond to the nominations of the president.
BURNETT: Right.
HASSETT: And I had that position too.
I think that Ceci Rouse and Janet Yellen and also you know, Heather, Heather Boushey and Jared Bernstein, that they're all really, really top-rate people. That actually stick out to me because they're -- they have policy views that are quite a bit different from mine but they're such nice people. Each and every one of them is so easy to deal with.
I think the commitment that Vice President Biden made that he was going to try to work with Republicans is confirmed by those nominees who are some of the easiest to get along with people you're ever going to meet.
So, you -- absolutely, if it were me I would recommend that people vote for them. But the problem, actually, I'd love to hear what Austan's ideas are to deal with this, is like what do Republican senators do who watched Trump people get stretched out forever. There's 200 still waiting for a vote, 347 clotures. What do you do to make sure they think the next time they're in the White House that doesn't happen again?
I think that's going to be a challenge for Vice President Biden to solve as his nominees go forward. Otherwise, they're going to see similar obstruction.
BURNETT: Well, I think that's a really important conversation. I hope you'll both come back to have it with me. Thank you.
HASSETT: Thank you.
BURNETT: And next, Trump says the election in Georgia was a fraud. So the Republican governor is now firing back.
Plus, exclusive comments -- documents, I'm sorry -- leaked from inside China now revealing what China knew about the coronavirus, when they knew it, and what they kept from the world.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:46:34]
BURNETT: Tonight, a rare public rejection by Republicans. GOP officials rebuking President Trump's calls to overturn election results in Georgia. In a statement, the governor's office writing, quote, Georgia law prohibits the governor from interfering in elections." this after weeks of Trump blasting the state for what he called a fraudulent election.
But the president is trying to have it both ways, asking voters to show up for Senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, who face two Senate runoff elections in January, tweeting, quote, the 2020 election was a total scam. We won by a lot. And we'll hopefully turn over the fraudulent result. But we must get out and help David and Kelly, two great people.
Are the mixed messages hurting the GOP cause?
OUTFRONT now, Geoff Duncan, Georgia's Republican lieutenant governor.
Good to have you back, Lieutenant Governor.
So there has been a lot of mixed messaging for the president on the issue of voting in your state, right? You know, he -- this weekend, Trump supporters in your state were asking the RNC why they should even bother voting. Eric Erickson, conservative talk show host, Georgia native, says, quote, we could be handing Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer control of the Senate by the Republican disarray.
And he went on to say this.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
ERICK ERICKSON, RADIO HOST, ERICK ERICKSON SHOW/WSB RADIO: The president's got a choice. He can either continue this nonsense, and it is nonsense, or he can accept defeat and try to save the Senate to save his legacy.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
BURNETT: Lieutenant Governor, do you agree with Erick Erickson? LT. GOV. GEOFF DUNCAN (R-GA): Well, I think the honest answer here is
not a lot's changed in Georgia over the last few weeks. We're still in the process of finalizing every legal vote and making sure we follow the letter of the law.
I do think the president and Republicans in general need to refine their approach to how we handle this post-election process. I think there's two parts that really are concerning to me. One is the short term in the Senate election and making sure we don't alienate any voters that we need to show up for Senator Loeffler and Senator Perdue.
And I think secondly, we run the risk of alienating voters longer term, you know? As we talked about last week, GOP 2.0, what do we do to improve from this position? How do we play on the fact that President Trump validated for us that an outsider can make a difference in D.C.? But how can we learn from some things like messaging?
I think those folks that were really concerned about, really want to be inspired when their leaders talk to them and not talked down to in certain ways. And so, certainly, I think we're in the midst of that process here in Georgia.
BURNETT: So, you know, look, the governor -- your governor, obviously your partner Brian Kemp, and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger have been pushing back against the, quote, "massive spigot of election misinformation" that is being spread, right, by Trump and some of his allies. But it -- does it appear this has taken hold?
I mean, here's what some Georgia voters have said, you know, to our reporters over the past few days. Here they are.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That this whole election is a farce.
REPORTER: Do you believe the election results?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No.
REPORTER: Who do you believe? On the election?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm not sure what to believe, honestly.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: So, will statements like the one coming from your governor tonight help or from the secretary of state, right, where they said this is not right, or are you worried, Lieutenant Governor, that people may just believe this was rigged even though obviously that's not true?
DUNCAN: Yeah, I'm very concerned about the amount of misinformation that continues to fly around. I mean, folks in my inner circle that, you know, are very educated, very successful individuals, sending you a screenshot of a Facebook post or a Twitter post that, you know, takes 30 seconds to debunk.
[19:50:03]
I mean, that's concerning to me, you know?
And certainly, you know, it troubles me that some folks are willing just for the sole intent of flipping an election, of spreading misinformation.
And I think we're better than this. My hope is that we move past this here in Georgia, and as a country. Certainly, there are some better days ahead of us than what we're in right now.
BURNETT: I sure hope you're right about that. I mean, the president, though, of course, you know, came out and he attacked, you know, Governor Kemp. He called him hapless today, and yesterday, he said this.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And they had electoral officials making deals, like this character in Georgia who's a disaster. And the governor has done nothing, He's done absolutely nothing. I'm ashamed that I endorsed him.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
BURNETT: How do you even react to that?
DUNCAN: Well, I go back -- I get to work with these folks every, day I get to work with Governor Kemp and watch how steadfast he is and how focused he is on 11 million Georgians and continuing to work with us. With all the challenges that we face with coronavirus and with our economy, he continues to be steadfast and strong, leading us through this.
Brad Raffensperger was a former colleague of mine in the state of House of Representatives. He is a rock star conservative. This guy is a solid individual who's extremely successful in the private sector. And he comes to work every day and does the right thing.
And certainly, just because the guy that we all three voted for isn't in a lead doesn't change any of our job descriptions. We are focused on representing 11 million Georgians. And the 5 million people who voted deserve the right for their votes to be counted, that's what our job is to make sure it happens.
BURNETT: All right. I appreciate your time, Lieutenant Governor. Thank you.
DUNCAN: Absolutely.
And next, CNN obtaining never before seen documents from inside China. They reveal what China knew, when China knew it about that outbreak that turned into a deadly global pandemic.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BURNETT: Tonight, CNN has obtained exclusive documents from inside China that reveal the missteps and chaos of its early response to the coronavirus pandemic. The documents also show some of the numbers of cases and deaths that the government publicly announced were highly misleading.
Nick Paton Walsh is OUTFRONT.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL SECURITY EDITOR (voice- over): An unprecedented leak of internal Chinese documents to CNN reveals for the first time what China knew in the opening weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic, but did not tell the world.
A whistle-blower who said they worked inside the Chinese health care system shared the documents with CNN online, which show a chaotic local response from the start.
YANZHONG HUANG, COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS: This lack of transparency sort of also contributed to the crisis.
DR. WILLIAM SCHAFFNER, DEPARTMENT OF PREVENTIVE MEDICINE CHAIRMAN, VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY: Seeing information in black and white was very revealing and instructive.
WALSH: CNN has verified them with half-a-dozen experts, a European security official, and using complex digital forensic analysis looking at their source code.
[19:55:10]
The documents provide a number of key revelations about the province of Hubei, home to the epicenter city of Wuhan.
Firstly, some of the death tolls were off. The worst day in these reports is February the 17th, where these say 196 people who were confirmed cases died. But, that day, they only announced 93.
China was also circulating internally bigger, more detailed totals for new cases in Hubei for one day in February, recording internally nearly 6,000 new cases, some diagnosed by tests, others clinically by doctors and some suspected because of symptoms and contact but all pretty serious.
Yet, publicly that day, China reported nationwide about 2,500 new confirmed cases. The rest were downplayed and ongoing tally of suspected cases. That meant patients that doctors diagnosed as being seriously ill sounded like they were in doubt. They did later improve the criteria.
DALI YANG, PROFESSOR OF POLITICAL SCIENCE, UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO: If China had been more transparent and also more aggressive in responding, clearly, there would have had an impact on how much the virus spread in Wuhan, in Hubei in China and perhaps to the rest of the world as well.
WALSH: Strikingly, the documents reveal one possible reason behind the discrepancy in the numbers. A report from early March says it took a staggering 23 days on average from when someone showed COVID-19 symptoms to when they got a confirmed diagnosis. That's three weeks to officially catch each case.
HUANG: As the information seems very surprising to me because normally, it would take just a couple of days.
SCHAFFNER: You're making policy today based on information that already is three weeks old.
WALSH: Perhaps the most remarkable revelation concerns early December, the moments when COVID-19 first emerged in China.
Starkingly, these documents reveal there was an enormous spike in influenza cases in Hubei, right when studies have shown the very first known patients were infected with COVID-19, 20 times the number of flu cases compared to the same week the year before.
Experts said it could have flooded the hospital system with patients sick from flu-like symptoms, making it harder to spot the first cases of COVID-19. The documents don't link the outbreak to coronavirus origins directly but they show flu patients were regularly screened and many did not have a known flu virus strain, leaving open the possibility they were sick with COVID-19.
HUANG: The spike, right, in Wuhan was very unusual, like compared to previous years, so that would raise a red flag.
SCHAFFNER: It was very, very sizeable. It's clear that the Chinese virologists can make precise diagnosis of influenza, but in retrospect, you have to wonder, was there some COVID in there masquerading as influenza?
WALSH: The documents also show the flu outbreak was biggest that first week in December, not in Wuhan but in two other cities nearby in Hubei, all valuable information in the hunt for where the disease came from.
Chinese officials have said the outbreak began here, the Huanan seafood market in Wuhan in mid-December. And despite Western accusations that it has limited its cooperation with WHO investigation into the virus's origins, China has insisted it has been as transparent as possible over the coronavirus.
Sometime now, in order to shift the blame, she said, some U.S. politicians have constantly used the pandemic and other issues as a pretext to smear and demonize China and sow lies and misinformation about China. This will, of course, seriously mislead citizens of the United States and some other Western countries understanding of the truth of China's fight against the epidemic.
China's foreign ministry and health officials in Beijing and Wuhan have not responded to our requests for comment. This disease has killed nearly 1.5 million people, about a fifth of
known deaths in America. These documents are rare, clear, an open window into what China knew all along, trying to appear in control, while a local outbreak turned into a global pandemic.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BURNETT: So, Nick, could this be the tip of the iceberg?
WALSH: Well, these documents show just a part of a picture, and certainly the world health organization investigating the origins of the virus need to know as much as they can to stop this from happening again.
But, Erin, there is a wider picture here. China's trying to sell an image of success. There is an authoritarian system was fast, was efficient, shut things down, and now, they're in a better place than the rest of the world.
But these documents show frankly, they had miscounting, misinforming, misdiagnoses, all the problems everybody else faced in time at the very start. The issue China really faces areas it is pretty clear they did not share the full extent of their mistakes, not giving other countries the benefit of the things they had learned when they first tackle this virus.
A bit of a troubled out for them to some degree, and a lot in here which would have helped so many countries had they known it in real- time as it happened -- Erin.
BURNETT: The question is to why, why they did not.
Thank you very much, Nick.
"AC360" starts now.
