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Erin Burnett Outfront
Biden Says He will Ask Americans to Wear Masks for 100 Days as an American is Dying of Coronavirus Every 30 Seconds; Gov. Roy Cooper (D) North Carolina Discusses About the Record Number of Hospitalizations and New Cases in His State; New York Attorney General Says Investigation into Trump Organization Will Continue, Which Isn't Protected by a Trump Pardon; Giuliani Visits Georgia in Desperate Bid to Overturn Election Results; U.S. Census: 26 Million American Adults Not Getting Enough Food. Aired 7-8p ET
Aired December 03, 2020 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: He was an army veteran and the owner of an electrical distribution company. Arnold was known for great sense of humor, for his love of Boston sports teams. He leaves behind two children, three grandchildren and three great grandchildren. And they rest in peace and may their memories be a blessing.
Erin Burnett OUTFRONT starts right now.
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: OUTFRONT next breaking news, President-elect Joe Biden says he will ask all Americans to wear masks during his first 100 days in office. This as the United States hits record deaths, the latest reported numbers. Meaning one American is dying every 30 seconds.
Plus, the White House's liaison to the Justice Department banned from entering that building after trying to access sensitive information about possible election fraud.
And she could be the biggest threat to the President, even a pardon can't protect Trump from what the New York Attorney General is investigating. And tonight, she will be OUTFRONT. Let's go OUTFRONT.
And good evening. I'm Erin Burnett.
OUTFRONT tonight the breaking news, President-elect Joe Biden telling CNN that he will ask all Americans to wear a mask during his first 100 days in office.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'm going to ask the public for 100 days to mask, just 100 days to mask. Not forever, 100 days. And I think we'll see a significant reduction.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: It comes as one American is now dying of COVID-19 every 30 seconds. Every 30 seconds, means two people have died since I began speaking. More than 275,000 Americans have now died from the virus, which is equivalent to losing the entire city of Orlando, Florida.
It wasn't long ago that we reported an American was dying from COVID every 90 seconds and I remember that day, because when we were talking about the number and checking to make sure it was right, we thought it was incomprehensible. We kept checking it and checking it, could that possibly be? That was 35 days ago, 35 days ago. And now someone's dying every 30 seconds.
And what has the President been doing in that time? Well, he has been focused on other things like trying to overturn the election that he lost.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: If you count the legal votes, I easily win.
We won the election easily.
We won an election ...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
TRUMP: ... but they don't like that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Just to be clear, he lost. In the last 35 days, Trump also fired off more than 800 tweets, 800 tweets, almost all of them baselessly claiming the election was rigged. And now as an American is dying every 30 seconds today from COVID, we're learning that there have been multiple White House meetings about pardoning Trump's inner circle, including his adult children, his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and even Kushner's father.
And it's not just overturning the Democratic election that's been occupying Trump's time. Trump making an appearance at White House holiday parties. So far, there are invitations for at least 20 reported parties, indoor, masks not required.
Even as the President's own task force is warning against indoor Christmas celebrations, even as Dr. Fauci has been very explicit to all of us that small family gatherings are responsible for the virus spread right now. Again, spread that even as I speak is causing a record amount of death, nine months into the virus' onslaught.
And in these 35 days, Trump has also spent a lot of time on social media, not talking about COVID. No. Here's an example, on Thanksgiving Day, the day when 1,232 American deaths from COVID were reported, Trump accused Twitter of sending out 'false trends.' So, I remember that, and I said, well, what is he talking about?
Well, guess what was trending at that time, top trend was the #DiaperDon, which I suppose was because he was sitting at this desk, so people did that. So, Trump was upset by something as absurd and silly as Diaper Don trending on Twitter. So upset that he went on to tweet, the Twitter trends were made up and then even by the way threatened to veto a bill including raises for American military troops, to try to repeal an obscure rule applying to Twitter that's in the same bill. That's how upset he was about Diaper Don.
That is how he spent meaningful time during these 35 days and he also spent time recording a 46-minute video. The video filled with what he knows to be lies about the election and a video that he actually had the temerity to say, 'maybe the most important speech I've ever made'. The only time he actually mentioned coronavirus in those 46 minutes was to attack Democrats for encouraging their supporters to vote by mail during the pandemic.
A 46-minute rant released yesterday. In 46 minutes, in those 46 minutes up to 90 Americans died of coronavirus. He calls that the most important speech he's ever made. Now, one of the only things Trump does care about when it comes to the virus seems to be himself getting credit.
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TRUMP: Don't let Joe Biden take credit for the vaccines. You know Joe Biden failed with the swine flu, H1N1, totally failed with the swine flu.
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Don't let him take credit for the vaccines, because the vaccines were me.
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BURNETT: The Vaccines were me and his Press Secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, took it further.
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KAYLEIGH MCENANY, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: It's having a businessman as president. It's the Trump vaccine.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: So as more Americans are dying than ever before from this virus, and just to be really clear here, the vast majority of these deaths at this point, he's record deaths should not be happening and they would not be happening had there been clear national leadership and rules on things like masks.
So as America sets a death record, Trump is silent on anything but the election and on demanding credit for vaccines. Kaitlan Collins is OUTFRONT live outside the White House tonight. And Kaitlan, the President is focusing on anything but the pandemic.
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right. And Erin, for the last several months, the President was not that focused on the pandemic. If you talk to people who are talking to the President about what was important to him in the days leading up to the election.
But in the last month since that election happened and since the President lost that election, sources say he has been so disengaged, more disengaged than ever throughout this entire pandemic, because it is just not something that the President wants to focus on, wants to talk about, has private meetings about. And instead, he's been completely consumed by this election loss and focusing on those efforts that you've seen the President taking, like recording a 46- minute video, which I'm told was recorded here at the White House last week edited.
And then, of course, yesterday was the day that the President decided to release it and was not talking about the number of COVID-19 deaths or what else we're seeing play out throughout the country and instead he's focusing on that. And the closest really that he's gotten to talking about the pandemic in the last few weeks was exactly what you said there, trying to say don't let Joe Biden take credit for the vaccines, something that Joe Biden, from what I've seen, has not attempted to do so far but is the President's fear is that people will start getting vaccinated once Joe Biden has been inaugurated and is in office and is going to get credit for it.
But if you have to look at what the President is saying, what he is focused on in between, his very rare public appearances these days and his trips to the golf course, and his tweets, and you see such a different message coming from his task force to state officials. Because if you look at the reports that we got yesterday, what the task force sent to governors and state officials who are figuring out how to get this under control, they say that the risk to Americans is at an all-time high and that we are an incredibly dangerous place in this country.
But those are words that are in private reports that CNN is having to go through loops and hoops to obtain, but you're not hearing it from the President himself.
BURNETT: All right. Kaitlan, thank you very much.
So, the lack of leadership at the federal level has been putting the burden of fighting the virus on state and local leaders such as North Carolina's governor, Roy Cooper, who is OUTFRONT now. And Governor, so this is what you're dealing with the North Carolina, a record number of hospitalizations and new cases. How bad is it in your state right now, sir?
GOV. ROY COOPER (D-NC): Our numbers are at alarming rates and it's one of the reasons why we put in a mandatory mask mandate, why we have put in - passed restrictions, why we've closed bars, enforced smaller gatherings. But we sure could use some leadership in the White House to help us with this messaging.
When we've had a president that is discouraging mask and encouraging mass gathering, that causes governors problems. We've been on the frontlines here. We're going to be excited about distributing these vaccines. I think there's light at the end of the tunnel. But we have to save lives during these next few months. It's going to be a long, tough winter for all of us and we're going to need that leadership in the White House to help us through this.
BURNETT: So, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced these regional stay-at-home orders. Delaware's Governor announced the stay at home advisory. Do you think you may have to take more restrictive measures than even the mask mandate, which you're saying you've put in place which, of course, the President-elect has said he will also want for at least a hundred days after his inauguration?
COOPER: My current order will run out next week. All of our options are on the table to tighten things down. We know we may need to do that.
Our hospitals have capacity right now. We've been staying in close contact with them, but we're ready to do what we need to do to protect the health and safety of North Carolinians. What would help us if people would obey the rules and when you have a leader in the White House that's encouraging people not to obey the rules that causes significant problems for us.
I'm pleased that our local governments are stepping up enforcement (inaudible) mandates that we put in place and we need to do more of that.
BURNETT: So, you talk about the parties, the mask less parties that the President has appeared at these. In his last day of campaigning, he was actually in your state Governor Cooper and this is what he said. (Inaudible) ...
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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Your governor of North Carolina, you got to open up your state. North Carolina will be opened on November 4th. Right after the election. Because they want us to look bad, they don't care about people. They want us to look bad.
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BURNETT: So, he said you don't care about people, the minute the election is over, you're going to open your state back up. I should say a week after that after the election, you extended your phase three restrictions. So the question is how much is rhetoric like that hurt? When he came down and said this is all just made up to make me look bad, how much did that hurt?
COOPER: It hurts a lot, because it makes people believe that this isn't serious when it is. It's putting people in the hospital. It's costing people's lives. And we have some of the very best tools that don't cost very much, wearing a mask, being socially distant, avoiding gatherings. Those are the kinds of things that we can do between now and the successful vaccines that were going to get out soon. But when you have leaders that people follow who are telling them to
do the opposite, then that puts all of us in danger. And that's why we're looking forward to a White House that's going to work with us to try to get the right messaging out to people about what they need to do to stay safe.
We don't want to give up now. We're at the 10-yard line. We don't want to punt now. We need to get through these next few months wearing the mask, staying socially distant, doing the things that we need to do to protect the public and we need more help from the federal government.
They're going to fly in these vaccines and leave them here in our state and we are going to be responsible for getting it to people. It's going to be complicated logistically. With the Pfizer we've got to give one and then give another one 21 days later. With Moderna one and then another 28 days later with limited doses. So, it's going to be tough for us governors to do that.
BURNETT: All right. Thank you very much, Governor. I appreciate your time.
And OUTFRONT now, I want to go to Dr. Sanjay Gupta and Dr. Jonathan Reiner who advised the White House medical team under President George W. Bush.
So, Sanjay, President-elect Joe Biden says he's going to call on Americans to wear a mask for a hundred days after he takes office. Obviously, you can't mandate this. Governor's like Gov. Cooper are trying to do that on some of the state level. But how significant would that be, having the President of the United States say that and push that from the Presidential podium? He says it will explicitly save lives, won't it?
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. I think the evidence is pretty clear on this. And frankly, even in fewer than a hundred days, you'd probably see the impact of a significant number of people wearing masks.
And you're right about the mandates. It's interesting, it's hard to mandate these things, but if governmental buildings and other institutions start doing it, I was at the White House two weeks ago to do an interview over there and I was sort of shocked in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building inside, cold outside, I'd say about half the people were wearing masks. It's unbelievable to me at the White House that that was still happening.
But the point is, Erin, it would make a difference. We've tried to give countless examples of how well it can work. We've talked about Arizona on your show before, mask mandate sort of brought something under control, Delaware. Let me show you another one, Columbus, Georgia. Just because I like digging hyperlocal on some of these data, I don't know if we have it, but basically, they were having a real surge. They put a mask mandate in. That's at the left side of the screen.
It's that blue line that I think is very interesting. They said, OK, things are fine now. Let's lift the mask mandate and what happens, the numbers go back up. So they work in bringing things down and once you lift them, there's does a lot of viral spread. The numbers go back up. So they really do work, I think it's clear.
BURNETT: It's clear. And, of course, you see Thanksgiving there in those numbers ticking up. It just raises the deep concern that everyone should feel about what we're going to see over the next few weeks in this country after Thanksgiving.
Dr. Reiner, I mentioned briefly stay-at-home orders now in California. Do you think more states are going to do this at this point or do you think people - the popular fatigue is just so severe, despite the record death that that will not happen?
JONATHAN REINER, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: States are going to have to do that whether the population is fatigued or not and they're going to have to do that because hospital capacities are going to be reached. We're starting to worry about that in parts of California where I think I heard today in Los Angeles County only has about a hundred ICU beds left.
And once you exceed your capacity to take care of sick people, you have nothing else to do other than to shut down and put in place a stay at home order. We're going to have to do that.
So, what the public needs to understand is that the way to perhaps flatten the curve and we need to flatten the curve until we have enough vaccine around and that's going to take many weeks to three to four months. The way to do that is to mask up to social distance, but if that's not enough, we're going to have to close down.
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States are going to have to do it whether they want to or not.
BURNETT: You mentioned the hospital beds situation in California and, Sanjay, you've said today, the American health care system is near a breaking point. Those were your words. I mean, the country is tracking just as badly as it was not in April, during the 1918 flu pandemic, when we had nowhere near the medical abilities that we have now in any way, shape or form. That is a really incredible thing to say.
GUPTA: Yes, really it struck me. I've been sort of tracking this for some time. I mean, first of all, with regard to the breaking point, one thing to sort of keep in mind is that 90 percent of hospital systems, according to Dr. Redfield, are now in the red zone, running into the capacity problems that Dr. Reiner is describing. When we saw this back in the spring, it was primarily in the northeast and you did have other regions that you could sort of count on.
There were health care workers going into New York from Texas, from Georgia providing that relief. Patients could go to other places around the country or other parts of the region. You can't do that if the whole country is on fire. I mean, that's a real problem.
But 1918, I think is so interesting, obviously, it's the pandemic that people talk about in relation to this. But if we show the graph, you see what that second wave was like. If you track the numbers, obviously, the population is higher now, but despite the fact we have better hospitals, ICU beds, therapeutics. We understand medicine better overall. We are tracking very closely with what happened in 1918.
And I was just so struck by it, because I think it just speaks to this idea that no matter how good we get medically, no matter how good we get scientifically and both of those things are worth celebrating, human behavior, if it doesn't follow, it trumps that. It still ruins the gains that you make in these other areas.
So, 100 years later, despite all of the modern advances we've made, we may track just as badly as we did in 1918.
BURNETT: Which is just appalling and just shows, obviously, it's all preventable and shouldn't have happened, but that's the law of numbers. You get to a point where there's so many involved that you don't have the capacity.
So, Dr. Reiner, that vein, Mike Pompeo's State Department is inviting about 900 people to a holiday party, 900 people. Now, they say that guests will be required to wear masks and that there will be social distancing guidelines. Not sure what those might be, 900 people is a lot of people. You can't social distance that many people at the same event.
So, would you attend a party like that, if they say, OK, we're some kind of social distancing and masks are there, but come to our party?
REINER: No, absolutely not. So, it's unsafe to gather in numbers anywhere in the United States right now. Actually, in D.C., the D.C. law right now prohibits indoor gatherings of more than 10 people, so that actually violates the law. But think about this way, the kind of gatherings they're having serve food and drink. And in order to enjoy food or drink, you have to take your mask off.
Once you take your mask off, you make yourself available to the virus. So why would you do that? I don't eat in the hospital. Once I'm in the hospital, I leave my mask on, because there's no safe place to eat in a hospital and there's no safe place to eat in a crowded indoor venue anywhere in the United States. So, it's a reckless thing. It's reckless behavior.
When I go to lunch, if I have to eat between cases, I eat in my car in the parking garage and then I go back in, because that's the safest way to do it. The State Department parties are a menace.
BURNETT: Yes. Well, thank you both very much. And as I said right now, an American dying every 30 seconds, 35 days ago that was an American dying every 90 seconds. Thank you both very much.
Coming up tonight, don't miss Jake Tapper's exclusive joint interview with Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. You can see it tonight in full at nine o'clock right here on CNN. And next, Trump now questioning Attorney General Bill Barr's ability
to do the job. He's most loyal lieutenant. Well, Barr has now said he sees no evidence of widespread voter fraud, so that is enough to get you 1915 [00:04:10]. Is he about to get fired?
Plus, New York attorneys general could be Trump's worst nightmare, because a pardon cannot protect him from anything she is investigating. Letitia James is my guest.
And 26 million people, one in 10 adults in this country right now are not getting enough food to eat and that situation is getting worse.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Both of us are not working right now and we have four kids that we have to feed.
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BURNETT: New tonight, CNN learning the White House's liaison to the Justice Department has been barred from entering the DOJ, why? Well, apparently, that individual was trying to access sensitive information about possible election fraud. Now, why would they want to do that?
Maybe because well the President considered firing his Attorney General Bill Barr, according to two White House officials, after Barr did his own investigation to voter fraud at the Department of Justice and said he saw no evidence of any fraud that would change the election outcome. So the President now won't even say whether he still has confidence in Barr.
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TRUMP: Ask me that in a number of weeks from now, they should be looking at all of this fraud.
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BURNETT: So, what's that like he's giving him another chance like, OK, Bill, if you go and find some fraud now, I won't fire you. I mean, OK, John Avlon is OUTFRONT now, CNN Senior Political Analyst, Abby Phillip also is with me, our CNN Political Correspondent.
So, Abby, the President, obviously, says it's rigged and fraud and all of these things he knows to be false. Bill Barr says it's false, so the White House sent some liaison over to, I don't know, get access to the sensitive information. The DOJ bars Trump's person from coming in. I mean, it's almost like this is scripted, so now the President is what, dangling to Bill Barr like, oh, if you go find fraud now, I won't fire you in the next 40 days. What's going on?
ABBY PHILLIP, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it seems that first of all this liaison is someone who has been installed over at the Justice Department to essentially be kind of the eyes and ears of the White House over in that building.
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And this person is clearly searching for something that is, first of all, confidential in nature if they are dealing with ongoing investigations, these are not the types of things where documents ought to be floating around the Justice Department and handed over to political appointees at the White House. So this idea that they can simply just have someone hand over sensitive Justice Department documents is really kind of shocking in a lot of ways.
I mean, I remember four years ago, when then Attorney General Loretta Lynch, under President Obama had a brief tarmac meeting with Bill Clinton and it was the scandal of the year. This is exactly the kind of thing that I think Republicans would have been pulling their hair out about several years ago and they're not now.
The President can fire Bill Barr. The question is, why hasn't he? I think the answer is because he knows that it's over. The President is going to leave office in seven weeks and so will Bill Barr. So there's really no point in him doing that at this point. I think that that's probably why we haven't seen him go that route.
BURNETT: I mean, John, it is incredible. It's sort of like ask me in a few weeks. I mean, giving the guy another chance like, OK, run and grab. Go get the bone this time. I mean, John, Trump has been furious with Barr with for a while now. There's still no public report on the Justice Department investigation into the Russia probe and Barr said that that wasn't going to come out before the election, that made Trump really mad. And here's what Trump said about Barr back in August.
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TRUMP: Bill Barr can go down as the greatest Attorney General the history of our country, or he can go down as just an average guy. It depends on what's going to happen.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: So, John, Bill Barr has gone along with almost everything the President has wanted. The echo is word for word and yet he didn't put that Russia report out before the election and now he says, no fraud that would overturn the election. Does Bill Barr have any chance of going down as a decent Attorney General in the history books?
JOHN AVLON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: No, but this might be his only or last best chance. Look, I mean, Bill Barr has shaded. He has prevaricated. He has act as an attack dog on television. He reframed the Mueller report.
What he can't do is manufacture evidence out of thin air through the Justice Department investigations to back up a presidential political conspiracy theory. That's just not within his power and that's what the President's objecting to.
And it shows, I think, that you cannot accommodate or appease this president. If you want to keep faith with facts or decency or ultimately as we're seeing democracy, that's the line that we're seeing today to the extent that anything still exists other than rank self-interest with this president.
BURNETT: So, Abby, Jake Tapper just sat down with President-elect Joe Biden and vice President-elect Kamala Harris and it was their first joint interview since they won. So just so everyone knows you can see it in full tonight at nine, but I wanted to play a clip, Abby, here it is.
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JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: President Trump is reportedly considering a wave of preemptive pardons for his adult children and for Rudy Giuliani. He's also floated the idea in private conversations, according to our reporting of possibly pardoning himself, which he insists he has the power to do, though that has never been litigated. Does this concern you, all these preemptive bargains?
BIDEN: Well, it concerns me in terms of what kind of precedent it sets and how the rest of the world looks at us as a nation of laws and injustice. But, look, our justice department is going to operate independently on those issues that - how to respond to any of that, I'm not going to be telling them what they have to do and don't have to do. I'm not going to be saying go prosecute A, B or C, I'm not going to be telling them. That's not the role. It's not my Justice Department. It's the people's Justice Department.
So, the person or persons I pick to run that department are going to be people who are going to have the independent capacity to decide who gets prosecuted and who doesn't. Now in terms of the pardons, you're not going to see in our administration that kind of approach to pardons nor you're going to see in our administration the approach to making policy by tweets. It's just going to be totally different way in which we approach the justice system.
TAPPER: During the primary last year, Madam Vice President-elect, you told NPR that the Justice Department 'would have no choice but to prosecute President Trump' and that 'there has to be accountability'. How does that square with what the President-elect just said about not telling the Justice Department to go after individuals?
SEN. KAMALA HARRIS (D-CA), VICE PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: We will not tell the Justice Department how to do its job and we are going to assume, and I say this as a former Attorney General elected in California and I ran the second largest Department of Justice in the United States.
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That any decision coming out of the Justice Department, in particular the United States Department of Justice, should be based on facts.
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It should be based on the law. It should not be influenced by justice, should be based on facts. It should be based on the law. It should not be influenced by politics, period.
BIDEN: I guarantee you, that's how it would be run.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: OK, Abby, so, obviously, you know, they're trying to make a very specific point there, but the point appears to be if you take what the vice president-elect had said before, she's saying the facts, if the facts lead there and she obviously seems to believe that they will, then their Justice Department will do it. They're not going to tell the Justice Department to do it, but it's just -- it just may go there.
PHILLIP: Yes. I mean, you know, Erin. What you just said is probably, I think, what she believes, but I thought it was notable that she did not actually make that connection.
BURNETT: Yes.
PHILLIP: Between the facts being what they are and the Justice Department then acting on it, and I think it's because her position now has to be in line with what Joe Biden's position is which is we're not even going to go there. It's not even going to be close. There is a desire in the incoming Biden administration to really draw a bright line on these issues, and make the contrast unmistakable between what President Trump has been doing for four years and what they are wanting to do and there's really not a lot of room there for her to even suggest that a prosecution would be in the future.
And, in fact, some of the reporting in previous weeks had been that Joe Biden as an incoming administration has been signaling to Democrats and to liberals who want him, or who want his administration to pursue some of these matters that he's not going to go there because doing so, I think, their perception is that it would only continue to create the sense of vitriol and political nature of the Justice Department.
BURNETT: Political vengefulness.
(CROSSTALK)
PHILLIP: Yes, exactly.
BURNETT: Of course, there is the great irony there, rid? If you don't pursue something that you should pursue because you don't want to have that perception. Look, it's complicated.
All right. Thank you both very much.
I do want to say, though, whatever the Biden Justice Department does, even if Trump pardons himself, right? And makes it so there's no federal issue for him, that will not protect him from New York's attorney general. No pardon can protect him from her.
So what is she investigating?
Letitia James is my guest next.
And the demand on food banks in this country growing tonight.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Times are so tough right now. I have a 4-year-old at home and it's horrible.
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BURNETT: Tonight, the woman who may be Trump's biggest threat when he leaves office. I'm talking about the attorney general of New York, Democrat Letitia James.
She is leading a civil probe of the Trump Organization right now which is clearly on Trump's mind. He has singled out the attorney general by name in his 46-minute long rant about election fraud, yesterday saying in part: I hear that the same people that failed to get me in Washington have sent every piece of information to New York so that they can try to get me there. And all it's been is a big investigation in Washington and New York and any place else they can investigate because that's what they want to do and they want to take not me, but us down and we can never let them do that.
Well, the attorney general is OUTFRONT.
Attorney General James, I appreciate your time and thank you very much tonight.
So, we know President Trump has held talks about issuing preemptive pardons for himself and for his family, for his adult children and for his son-in-law. I just want to be clear, though, so everyone understands, that would protect him federally, but it would not protect him from anything you're investigating, correct?
LETITIA JAMES (D), NEW YORK ATTORNEY GENERAL: Well, first, Erin, thank you for having me this evening.
And I want the American people to know that the days of this administration are closely coming to an end, and last year, I introduced a bill to the New York state legislature to close a pardon loophole. And currently, there is nothing in the law in the state of New York that would preclude an investigation by local and state authorities against the Trump Organization, Donald Trump and/or any other member of his family and/or associates or business partners.
There's nothing preventing our investigation from going forward against Donald Trump as a private citizen. BURNETT: OK. So, now, the big question will come. If he goes ahead
with these pardons, does that mean that you need to do even more investigating? Does it influence your decision about whether to pursue, you know, criminal law violations because you're going to be the only one, you know, really who can, right? The feds can't.
JAMES: Well, as you know, there is a criminal investigation that's currently being conducted by the Manhattan district attorney, Mr. Cy Vance. Our investigation for the most part is civil. And so, our investigation will continue when Mr. Trump becomes a private citizen.
Nothing will preclude our investigation going forward and we will continue and continue to investigate, and if, in fact, the facts and the evidence support the law, we will bring in action against the Trump Organization and individuals, as well.
BURNETT: And let me ask you that about individuals. And I know, obviously, as you mentioned it's civil thus far for your investigation. Mr. Vance is criminal.
Is it possible from what you've seen, Attorney General James, that there could be evidence of wrongdoing that would lead to civil or criminal charges for individuals, for President Trump, for his children?
JAMES: What I can say, Erin, is the following -- I mean, this is all public record -- our investigation is based on the testimony of Michael Cohen. Michael Cohen testified before Congress and we at the New York state attorney general has broad investigatory powers over illegality and fraud.
[19:40:05]
And what we are investigating is the fact that the Trump Organization inflated their assets for the purposes of obtaining loans and insurance coverage and deflated their assets for the same assets for the purposes of avoiding and evading tax liability and/or limiting it.
And so, our investigation will be ongoing and at this point in time, because it is an active investigation, I'm limited in all that I can say.
BURNETT: Right, which I understand.
So, let me -- let me ask you, you heard the president. I quoted the president -- claiming that he has been told that all of the evidence that was part of investigations in Washington and to him has now been sent to New York, right? He says with the intent of trying to get him. That's how he sees it.
But is that true? And as part of that, are you and Mr. Vance, you know, communicating regularly and on the same page about what you're doing?
JAMES: So, it would be unethical and illegal to coordinate with the district attorney of Manhattan. There is no coordination. And what we heard yesterday was 46 minutes of ranting, 46 minutes
filled with misinformation, disinformation and outright falsehoods. It represented a complete meltdown, and that's rather unfortunate.
The reality is that our investigations, again, are based on the facts of the evidence and the law, and politics ends and stops at the door.
BURNETT: All right. Attorney General James, I appreciate your time and I thank you tonight.
JAMES: Thank you.
BURNETT: And also, this hour, President Trump's legal team including Rudy Giuliani are in Georgia at a state Senate hearing trying to overturn the election results which have now three times confirmed that Joe Biden won the state.
It comes after Giuliani attended a widely ridiculed house hearing in Michigan where he pushed conspiracy theories to try to undermine the election. Of course, Joe Biden also won Michigan by a margin 14 times greater than that of which President Trump won it by four years ago.
OUTFRONT now, Matthew Travis, he is the former deputy director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. He resigned after President Trump fired Chris Krebs as its director after Krebs said that this election was the most secure in American history and something Krebs felt was important to say and because it is true and the president kept trying to make people believe it wasn't.
Matthew, I appreciate your time.
So, President -- I'm sorry, not President Trump. He's going there for a rally this weekend. Team Trump is there today, Michigan yesterday, Giuliani there trying to undermine the election. You've had recounts. You've had certifications by Democrat and Republicans.
How troubling is it that this sort of stuff is still happening?
MATTHEW TRAVIS, FORMER CIA DEPUTY DIRECTOR, RESIGNED AFTER TRUMP FIRED KREBS: It's troubling not because the president -- Erin, good to be with you this evening. It's not troubling because of the pursuit of the legal process. What's troubling is the volume and the fictional nature of the rhetoric coming from his legal team and frankly, coming from the White House.
You know, this type of -- this really undermines the integrity of the election as it's perceived by anyone who is listening to that seriously. Some years back, I was election observer and an international election monitor in places like Bosnia, Serbia and Armenia where some of these places were literally in a post-war environment with political fragility, I've never heard anything in those countries to the extent that I hear now.
And the president promotes and wants to teach American exceptionalism. That's certainly a sentiment that resonates with me, but we want to be exceptional for the good things. We don't want to be exceptional at the crazy and bad stuff and the way that the entire electoral sector from the secretaries of state on down, to the volunteers, the municipal officials, the election infrastructure industry is being vilified and that is exceptionally bad.
The president and his administration should take pride in how secure the election was. It was an entire poll of government and that's something to be proud of. The election was secure.
BURNETT: Yes. And it is something to be proud of especially given everyone that was targeting it and in part one of the reasons why it was so secure were your efforts and all of these, you know, individual voting from home. It was incredibly safe in so many ways.
So, let me ask you about Rudy Giuliani, specifically. I mentioned Georgia and also Michigan. He attended a Michigan house oversight committee hearing and I wanted to play for you, Matthew, one exchange between one of the GOP lawmakers and one of Giuliani's witnesses who is an I.T. contractor for Dominion voting systems who has made unfounded and now completely disproven claims, right, that thousands of ballots were counted multiple times and not reflected in the poll book.
Here's the exchange.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[19:45:01]
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The poll book is completely off.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Of by 30,000?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'd say that poll book was off by over 100,000. That poll book -- why don't you look at the registered voters on there?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So my question then is if the --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just how many -- wait. What about the turnout rate? A hundred and twenty percent?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's Representative Johnson ask his question.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My question is why -- we're not seeing the poll book off by 30,000 votes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What did you guys do? Take it and do something crazy to it?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: This is like watching some sort of a skit, and then when you start to laugh you realize it's real life.
TRAVIS: Erin, it was certainly compelling testimony, but I don't think it was the type of compelling that Mayor Giuliani was looking for. And let me say that Miss Carrone (ph), I salute everyone who supported the election, we need more election volunteers and I want to thank her for being part of the election.
But if you're -- and she should and everyone else, if they saw fraud we should be identifying that, but when you bring the charges that you need to come a little bit stronger to the hoop, sort to speak. And, you know, the protections that the state of Michigan put in place, you know, they upgraded their voting systems. They have a new auditing system and even the paper ballots in terms of the protections from watermarks and bar codes and even the way the paper -- to do at scale what some of these accusations are asserting is just incredible.
And I think the Wayne County judge deemed that testimony not credible back in November and I would tend to concur with his assessment.
BURNETT: All right. Well, Matthew, I appreciate your time. Thank you so much.
TRAVIS: Thank you, Erin.
BURNETT: OK, next. A crisis across this country, because of the coronavirus now millions of Americans are hungry and they're waiting for hours for something to eat. So just how bad is this right now? We're going to talk to the head of one of the nation's largest food banks.
And in Georgia, the one voting group that Democrats are courting, and it is a group that may really surprise you.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BURNETT: Tonight, one in 10 adults in America not getting enough food to eat. This is according to new numbers from the U.S. Census Bureau. That is 26 million adults.
OUTFRONT visiting a Los Angeles food bank has seen a 145 percent increase in food distribution since the pandemic began. Many of these people are visiting a food bank for the very first time in their lives.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[19:50:03]
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I lost my job recently, so, you know, it's hard to pay for food.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Both of us are not working right now, and we have four kids that we have to feed.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Times are so tough right now. I have a 4-year-old at home and it's horrible. It's -- you know, everything that's going on, thankfully, I still have my job and everything, but it's sometimes still not enough.
(END VIDEO CLIP) BURNETT: Michael Flood is with me now. He is president and CEO of the Los Angeles regional food bank which is running the food distribution that you just saw.
And those -- you know, people who've lost their job, with young children, Michael, coming, more than doubling the demand in the food distribution than you saw before the pandemic. So, today, I know you were prepared for 1,500 people, and then we could see cars lined up for blocks.
These pictures are heart wrenching. Is this as bad as you've seen it, Michael?
MICHAEL FLOOD, PRESIDENT AND CEO, LOS ANGELES REGIONAL FOOD BANK: Oh, definitely. I mean, I've been doing this work for more than 30 years, and it's never been this -- at this level of need, and as your interviews indicated, a lot of people knew, never having sought food assistance from a food bank before and not sure where to turn, and really worried. A lot of anxiety there with regards to just the uncertainty of the -- not just the pandemic, but the economic situation and how that's impacted so many families and individuals.
BURNETT: So, I know you've contributed, like, 140 million pounds of food since the pandemic began, if my numbers are right. And, you know --
FLOOD: Right.
BURNETT: -- when you hear these stories from people in your lines, you know, that it amazes me how calm and graceful they are, right? To lose your job and have four young children at home, I mean, and food insecure is terrifying. What do people need the most? What are the greatest needs of the people who are coming to your bank right now?
FLOOD: Well, food is a symptom of other needs. And there's such a crunch on the budgets for so many families and individuals. People are trying to keep that roof over their heads. You know, we live in an area of very high housing costs going into this pandemic. And those -- those costs continue.
So, you know, really, we're looking for, you know, immediately more food to be able to continue these distributions, but we really are lending our voice to D.C. to get something done because the families we're seeing, they don't see light at the end of the tunnel right now. They are right into the middle of this experiencing great anxiety about feeding themselves, feeding their families, meeting all their bills.
So, we really are leading our voice and lending our voice out there for Congress and the administration to get something done.
BURNETT: So when we spoke to some of the people waiting at your food bank today, you heard some of them. But what you're doing is essential. And I just wanted to play a few more individuals, what they had to say.
FLOOD: Sure.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Food banks are the necessity. I mean, how do we get what we need, you know, unless we have this help?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm so appreciative of the food bank and everything that everybody's doing over here. It's awesome.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: There many people, Michael, around the country, who are wondering what they can do to help, people who are lucky enough to not need to go to the food bank. What can people do?
FLOOD: Well, check out your local food bank through the Feeding America network at FeedingAmerica.org. You can volunteer your time, too, for those who don't have financial resources to contribute right now. But we really are looking for those types of resources. Most of the food and financial resources we receive are private.
And also, USDA's played an important role here, too, and we want that to continue into 2021. Because, again, there's been a lot of surplus food we've all tapped into that we need to keep that flowing also so we can reach as many families and individuals as possible.
BURNETT: Michael, thank you very much.
FLOOD: You're welcome.
BURNETT: And next, a small but powerful voting bloc in the state of Georgia. Their turnout during this run-off coming up could be what decides the control of the entire U.S. Senate.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:56:48]
BURNETT: There's one small but key voting group that could decide who wins the Georgia Senate run-offs and thus control of the U.S. Senate.
Kyung Lah is OUTFRONT.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): What looks like your typical political door knocking sounds very different --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're volunteers with the Asian American Advocacy Fund.
LAH: -- in the Georgia Senate run-offs.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm not good with English.
(SPEAKING KOREAN) LAH: A Korean conversation about the critical contest begins.
(SPEAKING KOREAN)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you so much.
GRACE PAI, VOLUNTEER: There are so many people like that woman who are Asian American voters who have never been asked about their, you know, political beliefs, who have never been asked why voting is important to them. I think this tailored outreach means a lot.
LAH: And it's why these grassroots volunteers are back, targeting Asian-American voters in the Atlanta suburbs. While they are a small share of the total electorate in Georgia, the number of Asian-American voters grew seven times as much as other racial and ethnic groups combined.
SYED HUSSAIN, VOLUNTEER: It's actually counties just like this that, at least in my view, gave Joe Biden that win.
LAH: Georgia turned blue by a thin margin of just over 12,000 Democratic votes.
Activist Stephanie Cho says years of local work is beginning to pay off.
Did the AAPI vote make a difference?
STEPHANIE CHO, ACTIVIST: I'm so happy to say that it made a huge difference. We also -- I'm so proud to say that we had over 30,000 new voters, Asian American voters, for the first time.
ANDREW YANG, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Hello, Georgia. How are you?
LAH: That's now capturing the attention of national Democratic figures like Andrew Yang, a CNN commentator, and the challengers in the Senate races. Democratic Senate candidate Raphael Warnock has targeted Asian- American voters in multiple languages, from Chinese to Korean. The other Democrat running for Senate, Jon Ossoff, is also ratcheting up his appeal to that voting bloc.
YANG: Do you think that will help transform the perception of our community around the country?
CROWD: Yes!
YANG: Yes, it will, and we can make it happen.
LAH: But showing up just a month ahead of an election doesn't work, say local organizers. State Representative Bee Nguyen has spent years organizing in Georgia, many of them without help from national parties.
Does it frustrate you how slow it is?
BEE NGUYEN (D), GEORGIA STATE HOUSE REPRESENTATIVE: It does frustrate me. My message is you have to invest in all voters, and you have to invest early and you have to invest in the ground strategy, on the ground strategies and build these broad-based coalitions.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Would you like it in Korean as well as English or --
LAH: Has the investment here been enough? Volunteers have one month to show it's worth it.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LAH (on camera): Now, these advocates are not blind to the turnout challenge that lies ahead in these run-offs. Not only do they have to do this individual outreach, there's also a good education component that is involved here because some of them aren't even aware of what a run-off is. Here's on example, Erin, there's no direct word translation for runoff in Vietnamese.
So, they've got their work cut out for 'em -- Erin.
BURNETT: Right, to really explain.
All right. Thank you so much, Kyung.
Thank you and thanks to all of you for joining us.
"AC360" begins right now.
