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Erin Burnett Outfront
Supreme Court Rejects Attempt By Trump Allies To Block Biden's Pennsylvania Victory; Biden And Trump Lay Out Starkly Different COVID- 19 Messages; Trump Steps Up Attacks On Top Georgia Republicans; Democratic Lawmaker Receives Death Threats Questioning Giuliani's Baseless Election Fraud Claims At Michigan Hearing. Aired 7-8p ET
Aired December 08, 2020 - 19:00 ET
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WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Thanks very much for watching. I'm Wolf Blitzer. Follow me on Twitter and Instagram @WolfBlitzer. Tweet the show @CNNSitRoom.
"ERIN BURNETT OUTFRONT" starts right now.
[19:00:12]
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST, OUTFRONT: OUTFRONT, next, breaking news. A fatal blow. The Supreme Court of the United States rejecting an attempt by Trump and his allies to overturn the results in Pennsylvania.
Plus Joe Biden with a plan tonight to combat the virus in his first 100 days. Is it realistic? The nation's top medical experts here.
And a Michigan lawmaker, she has been receiving racist death threats after publicly calling out Rudy Giuliani from his lies and she speaks out tonight. She's my guest. Let's go OUTFRONT.
And good evening, I'm Erin Burnett. OUTFRONT tonight, the breaking news: a crushing defeat.
The Supreme Court with three justices, President Trump appointed, delivering the final devastating blow to Trump's delusional quest to overturn the results of a free, fair, democratic election that he lost.
This is the order from the Supreme Court, it is one line, one terse line to deny Republican efforts to block the certification of Pennsylvania's presidential election results.
So let me read you the entire Supreme Court decision, quote, "The application for injunctive relief presented to Justice Alito, and by him referred to the court is denied."
So he didn't just respond, right, referred to the court by him the whole court, not a single dissent included in this decision, not a single one. The President so far silent, no doubt, though, upset and livid because he had been counting on the Supreme Court to overturn the will of the people. Today, he retweeted this image of Amy Coney Barrett, this one. She of
course is the latest justice on the court. He had her with lasers coming out of her eyes. And he brought up the court at an event today about coronavirus.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We were rewarded with a victory. Now, let's see whether or not somebody has the courage, whether it's a legislator or legislatures, or whether it's a Justice of the Supreme Court or a number of Justices of the Supreme Court. Let's see if they have the courage to do what everybody in this country knows is right.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Well, they did. I mean, the Supreme Court did what was right, if you call it courage, right? They did the right thing. They shut down Trump's dangerous nonsense once and for all.
Because let's be clear, this talk from a democratically fairly defeated President today is dangerous.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: We're going to have to see who the next administration is because we won in those swing states and there was terrible things that went on. So we're going to have to see who the next administration is.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: We don't -- we're not going to have to see, we know, Trump knows, we have all known since Pennsylvania was called for Trump more than a month ago, and the next administration is the Joe Biden administration.
Now Trump continues to spread such dangerous lies still tonight, aided and abetted by Republicans in Congress 223 of 249 -- 223 of 249 Republicans refusing to call Joe Biden President-elect according to "The Washington Post" and today, Republican leaders also rejecting a resolution that would have declared Biden the President-elect.
Americans tonight were saved by the courage of the third branch of power, saved by the justices on the highest court. Kaitlan Collins is OUTFRONT live outside the White House tonight.
Kaitlan, is there any sign Team Trump is going to admit that the President lost? I mean, this is a crushing defeat. This is something you know, they have referred directly to Justice Alito. The lasers out of Amy Coney Barrett's eyes, Justice Barrett, and this is a big defeat.
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it is. So you've got to wonder what the President's reaction is going to be given that picture of Amy Coney Barrett that he had tweeted today. And you can't exactly argue that this is a court that's stacked against him, given so many of his own appointees are on this Supreme Court.
And so we haven't heard from the President directly yet. There's that picture that the President had tweeted out earlier today. We haven't heard from him. We have heard from his attorney on Twitter, but beyond that, no official statements from the campaign in response to this so far.
But it is the latest blow to their efforts to try to kind of thwart this or muddy the waters when it comes to Joe Biden's win. But Erin, lately, it seems they're focusing more on a public relations aspect of all this because they have not been successful in court anywhere.
They've only won one case and it had nothing to do with the merits of the outcome of the election. It was at a deadline for absentee voters and so they've seen a string of court losses. This is another one though. This was not filed by the Trump Campaign. It was filed by Pennsylvania Republicans.
And the President was making clear where he wanted that to go today, as he was saying he wants anyone to have courage to help him in his efforts to undermine democracy, which is what he is doing by trying to change the results of this election.
And so you can see the President's efforts there are not being successful in court and in lawsuits that they filed either; and so, they continue to push this in this public way, and it actually is affecting the actual day-to-day governing that the President is doing because earlier today, when he was saying, you know, this administration, we don't know what the next administration is going to be and he hopes it's going to be a Trump administration. That was a vaccine Summit where no one from the Biden transition team had been invited to attend that.
[19:05:24]
COLLINS: The President was asked to explain and justify why given that Biden is going to be inaugurated in just a few weeks, and they will be taking over the distribution plan when it comes to vaccines.
And of course, the President is instead continuing on with these efforts, despite everyone else rebuffing the President, at least in a legal and a sense of that maybe not from Republican lawmakers that of course, he has not won this election despite how many times he tries to claim that he did.
BURNETT: Right. That's right. He lost and he lost Pennsylvania as I misspoke a moment ago. Obviously, Joe Biden won that and we have known that now for more than a month as the Supreme Court tonight confirms.
All right, let's go straight to Jeff Zeleny with the President-elect Biden in Wilmington, Delaware. So Jeff, obviously the Supreme Court decision, you know, coming terse one line, you know, no signatories, you know, indicating it is from the court as a whole is a crushing defeat. What is President-elect Biden and his team saying about it?
JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Erin, it is a crushing defeat, but it really is one in a string of defeats that the Biden transition and campaign has watched happen over more than the last month or so.
So they really have been taking these seriously to the degree to which they've had lawyers watching all these cases. But this has been over in their view for a long time. It's why President-elect Joe Biden, he was not at the vaccine meeting at the White House. He was rolling out his new healthcare team here. He was talking about what he's going to do.
But it is another nail in this argument that leads into the decision of the electors on Monday. So take a look at this a quick statement from a Biden spokesman. He sums it up pretty quickly. He says this, "This election is over. Joe Biden won and he will be sworn in as President in January." Period. That is the point here that this election is over.
So the Biden team moving forward. This is not really a big day in their moment. They are trying to get their hands around the virus and other things. So they're just dealing with all of these as they come.
But they know that it's been over. They know that they have 43 days left to get ready to take on dramatically big challenges with coronavirus and the economy. That's what they are focused on.
BURNETT: All right, Jeff, thank you very much. And I want to go straight now to Laurence Tribe, Constitutional Law Professor at Harvard Law School and a member of Al Gore's legal team in Bush v. Gore in the year 2000.
So Professor, let me first get your reaction to the Supreme Court denying a request from Pennsylvania Republicans to block President- elect Biden's victory in Pennsylvania. And you know, this this had been addressed to Justice Alito, right, but it came out as a terse single line, not signed by Alito, it came from the whole court. So not a single known dissent.
So it seems the Supreme Court with essentially one voice has taken a stand here, right?
LAURENCE TRIBE, CONSTITUTIONAL LAW PROFESSOR, HARVARD LAW SCHOOL: That's exactly right, Erin. Mr. Trump, you have lost nine to nothing with all of your appointees agreeing. It's over. You've got to move on.
We have important work to do with the coronavirus, with national security. The Biden team is on track. You have lost. Stop undermining democracy, Mr. President. You're just trying to sow chaos. You're not going to get anywhere with these ludicrous efforts to overturn the election and to engineer a coup. You are a loser.
BURNETT: So, Professor, you know, as recently as today, this afternoon, right, I mean, we showed the retweet of the lasers in Justice Amy Coney Barrett's eyes that the President tweeted out and then you know, him saying, well, this would be taken care of by Congress or the Supreme Court if they had the courage. He was confident of a win, in part because he has handpicked three of
the justices. But that is clearly not how this turned out, and those justices did what was just.
TRIBE: Not only just. They are lawyers, after all. They're not just politicians in robes. Donald Trump seems to think that if he appoints someone, he's got them by the throat. Wrong, Mr. President, they are judges. They are judges, they follow the law.
I don't always agree, I often disagree with their view of the law. But there was no room for disagreement here. This was open and shut.
There was no conceivable basis for this ludicrous motion to overturn the Pennsylvania election and steal the right to vote from the Pennsylvania electorate. This was absolutely predictable.
I predicted it, but I don't claim any special clairvoyance here. Anybody with half a brain would have predicted it.
[20:10:11]
BURNETT: They did, though, you know that terse one line very clear and they wanted to make it clear. I do want to point out, though, you know, to get your perspective on this, it comes on the same day, as you know, what they call the quote-unquote, Safe Harbor Day, which is the deadline for states to certify their election results before the Electoral College meets. Right?
So, you've got all the certifications. How final does this make things?
TRIBE: This is it. Today is Happy Safe Harbor Day. It's the day that is specified by Congress, by which if states resolve their internal disputes, their electoral slates cannot be challenged in the joint session of Congress that meets January 6th.
It's an important date. It goes back to a law passed by Congress in 1887. And it was relied on, of all things, the U.S. Supreme Court to decide Bush v. Gore, when they said, it's over, folks. I didn't like it then because I thought it was not properly applied.
But what was clear is that the court was invoking the applicable Federal law that says that when it's over, it's over. And it's over.
BURNETT: And so, this is the talk out there. Now, I want to give you a chance to make this clear. The Republican Attorney General of Texas now has filed a lawsuit in the U.S. Supreme Court just today to try to invalidate the election results in four key swing states. This is coming out of Texas, but they're suing about four other states: Pennsylvania, Georgia, Wisconsin, and Michigan.
The A.G. claiming the states used the pandemic to illegally change their election rules. Any merit in such a thing coming out of Texas about other states?
TRIBE: It's ludicrous. Texas is the state that supposedly believes in state sovereignty, and now it's going after the states of not only the upper Midwest, but Gosh, Georgia, the Old South, it's claiming that it has a right to tell the other states how to count their electoral votes. It's ridiculous.
They're comparing it to a border dispute and invoking the very rarely applicable original jurisdiction of the Supreme Court. This is the most absurd lawsuit I have seen in many years. It's not going anywhere, is not going to merit any more than a one-line dismissal by the United States Supreme Court and that's exactly what it will get.
BURNETT: Irony knows no shame. All right, Professor, thank you very much for your time. Thank you.
And I want to go now to senior congressional correspondent, Manu Raju. So Manu, you know, we talked about this defeat for Trump in the Supreme Court. And, you know, I pointed out, it was the judicial branch, the third branch of power here had the courage to do what Congress has not.
Republicans still refusing to admit Biden was President-elect, rejecting a resolution today that simply stated that fact. So what now? You get this ruling from the Supreme Court. Does this even gives some of these people cover to say, it is means is?
MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: At this point, it does not appear that way. Erin, I spent the day talking to a number of Republicans about whether they would even accept Monday's vote in which the Electoral College votes to essentially declare that Joe Biden here is the winner, something that has been clear for weeks.
And I asked whether or not the President should concede at that point if they would consider Joe Biden President-elect, they will not say because the President has continued to move forward with this fruitless fight and they don't want to anger the President.
Senators like Joni Ernst of Iowa, who won her race said that -- wouldn't say if the President should concede; neither with Marco Rubio, the Florida Republican or Lindsey Graham, the Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman and close ally of this President.
I had a chance to ask Mitch McConnell, the Senate Republican Leader who is in two consecutive weeks referred to the new administration coming in whether he considers Biden President-elect now or on Monday, he sidestepped the question.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RAJU: This is the second straight week you've referred to a new administration coming in, are you willing to acknowledge that Joe Biden is the President elects or are you willing to do so on Monday when the Electoral College votes?
SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY): This has become a weekly ritual. The Electoral College is going to meet on the 14th and cast a vote, and we're going to have a swearing in of the next President on the 20th of January. Why don't we concentrate on what we have to do the next two weeks?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RAJU: So the big question is what will happen come Monday when that vote occurs when Joe Biden moves over to 270 electoral votes, something that's been, of course clear here. Will they at that point break with this President?
Because Erin, as you know, the President is not showing any signs of dropping this fight even though he has virtually no chance of succeeding and some of house conservatives are pushing him to take this all the way to the House floor on January 6th, when the joint session of Congress essentially counts those votes from each state, some urging to actually have a debate and open up a fight over these electoral results that are coming from the States.
[19:15:23]
RAJU: What will leaders like Mitch McConnell do? Lindsey Graham if do the President refuses to concede? They're not saying yet even though virtually all of them see the writing on the wall privately, publicly a different story -- Erin.
BURNETT: Thank you very much, Manu.
And next, President-elect Joe Biden with a plan to open the nation's schools amid the pandemic.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: My team will work to see that the majority of our schools can be opened by the end of my first 100 days.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Plus, Trump lashing out at a Republican Lieutenant Governor, calling him a Republican in name only and, quote, "too dumb or corrupt" to recognize massive evidence of fraud. Georgia Lieutenant Governor Jeff Duncan responds.
And a Michigan lawmaker called out Rudy Giuliani's voter fraud claims. Now she has been receiving death threats like this one.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You need to be run out of office and hung from a [bleep] tree, you dumb [bleep].
(END AUDIO CLIP)
BURNETT: That lawmaker is OUTFRONT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BURNETT: Tonight, Biden and Trump holding dueling events on the pandemic and their messages could not be more starkly different. Biden rolling out an ambitious plan for the first 100 days in office and the virus.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: We need your help. Wear a mask for just 100 days. This team -- this team will help get at the latest -- at the last 100 million COVID-19 vaccine -- at least 100 million COVID vaccine shots into the arms of the American people.
We will look to have the most schools open that we can possibly in 100 days. We're in a very dark winter. Things may well get worse before they get better.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: So Biden, you know, you heard him, things could get worse before they get better and they will. But the President had you know -- well, he had a Vaccine Summit. That's what he called it today. And for him, there were no warnings like that. It was all about declaring victory today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We're here to discuss a monumental national achievement. Nobody thought this was possible. Nobody thought it was even remotely possible to do what we've done in a period of less than nine months, something that just not even thinkable, and we took a lot of heat when we said this is our goal.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[19:20:20]
BURNETT: He got a point there. He did push vaccines, and while every company and every great scientific mind on this planet was moving at warp speed, no matter what, President Trump was vocal, he pushed and he deserves credit and note for that.
But here's the thing: if President Trump wants to own the good, then he also has to own the bad and the bad is a pandemic that is still out of control.
According to a memo from the President's own taskforce tonight, the administration's current vaccination plans won't, quote, " ... substantially reduce viral spread hospitalizations, or fatalities until the 100 million Americans with comorbidities can be fully immunized, which will take until late spring."
Late spring, as more than 2,000 Americans died today and yesterday and will sadly tomorrow. The death toll now rising towards 300,000 Americans, and yet Trump and his team still won't push things like masks, which even doctors behind the vaccine say are more effective than a vaccine.
So President Trump with 43 days left can save lives now, but he is making no move to do so. He owns that, too.
OUTFRONT now, three of the nation's esteemed experts on this pandemic: William Heseltine, who did pioneering work on cancer and HIV-AIDS; Dr. Jonathan Reiner, who advised White House medical team under President George W. Bush; and Dr. Ashish Jha, Dean of the Brown University School of Public Health. Thank you all.
Professor Haseltine, let me start with you. Late spring, it may be realistic, but it is later than many regular people are banking on, and you know, many people are thinking, look, get through the holidays, get through January and things are going to be a lot better. This is not that timeline.
DR. WILLIAM HASELTINE, CHAIR AND PRESIDENT, ACCESS HEALTH INTERNATIONAL: That's correct. It's not and it's a very realistic timeline. It takes a while for the vaccines to get rolled out, it takes a while for them to get administered, and it takes a while for them to take effect.
In the meantime, there is a light at the end of the tunnel that's a very long tunnel. And it's very dark, especially at the beginning in these next few months. We can expect to see increasing numbers of infections and increasing deaths until we do something to stop it, which is what you've recommended masks, social distancing.
And I would also say, I'd like to see a lot more tests being able to be done at home and at work. There are tests that are developed that could be used. I'd like to see a lot more testing added to that mix so people know that they're infected and know how to protect those around them.
BURNETT: Doctor Jha, in September, you told me 80 to 90 percent of the deaths from coronavirus could have been prevented -- 80 to 90 percent, if we just did basic health measures that other countries did that include obviously masks.
Yet even now, President Trump does not backed the basics, and at his rally in Georgia this weekend, he dropped even the pretense of handing out masks to the people on camera behind them, right? They didn't even have them on right before the election, some of them did.
Now Biden has said he's going to ask Americans to wear masks, right, for a hundred days. But he does not take office for 43 days from now. So just to make this point, Dr. Jha, Trump can do something about it. And by not doing something about it now before this vaccine is fully out there, he is still doing harm.
DR. ASHISH JHA, DIRECTOR, HARVARD GLOBAL HEALTH INSTITUTE: Yes, Erin, thanks for having me on. It's obviously so frustrating that this far into the pandemic with things as bad as they are, we have a President who refuses to do pretty much anything to help save lives of the American people.
Again, I think he deserves credit and his administration deserves credit for the vaccine. They did some very good work there. Ultimately, the vaccine is a product of scientists in America and around the world. But the administration helped.
But this -- you don't fight a pandemic with one tool, you do use all the tools in front of you. The President has refused to really use any other tool beyond the vaccine, and it's just mind boggling even in this very late stage.
Bur It certainly is and, Doctor, I make the point, you know, Dr. Carlos Del Rio behind the Moderna vaccine and others, Dr. Redfield, you know they have all said, masks are more effective than vaccines, at least as effective as a vaccine, right? I mean, we could save lives with this now.
And President Biden has said in addition to universal masks wearing, Dr. Reiner, he wants kids back in schools. Now Trump does, too. But here is how Biden puts his policy.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: It should be a national priority to get our kids back into school and keep them in school. If Congress provides the funding we need to protect students, educators and staff, if states and cities put strong public health measures in place that we all follow, then my team will work to see that a majority of our schools can be open by the end of my first 100 days.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[20:25:07]
BURNETT: That's near the end of April, Dr. Reiner, is that fast enough?
DR. JONATHAN REINER, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: Well, it has to be. It has to be safe to do that, and I think in order to get the majority of schools open in the United States, we're going to have to do a lot of work with our infrastructure, particularly our testing infrastructure.
You know, in order for schools to open safely, we're going to have to test staff and children frequently, and we have the ability to do that with rapid, you know, point of care testing. And that's going to require an intense investment by this administration to get that up and running in the first hundred days, it can be done, it just takes that kind of commitment.
A commitment to keep schools open might also require a commitment to maybe close bars down and restaurants down in some place, prioritizing, you know, the kinds of institutions we want open.
BURNETT: Right. Prioritize the future, and of course, then you need the stimulus to help those impacted by other closures.
Dr. Jha, a source says Trump campaign lawyer Jenna Ellis has contracted the virus. And, you know, obviously, she has worked with Rudy Giuliani, who also has the virus and a White House official confirms Ellis was a guest at a White House Holiday party, where there were a whole lot of people, not masking up. Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner were also at the party. And there
appears to be no social distancing at these White House parties. And, you know, masks not really there either. Are you concerned about this as another outbreak?
JHA: For two reasons, Erin, so yes, I am, and for two reasons. I mean, one, of course, is I'm concerned for the people are getting infected, because obviously we don't want them to get sick, and we don't want them to die. And so we were going to hope and pray that they recover.
But the bigger concern or not the bigger, but another concern is the constant misinformation that this kind of behavior sends, right? Because if they're doing it at the White House, the message to the American people is it's no big deal to do these kinds of things.
And I think most Americans need to know that they are not going to get the kind of VIP care that the administration and its senior leadership get and we're seeing that across the country.
So that part is, to me the most frustrating part, the signal and the modeling it does for what Americans should be doing at this moment.
BURNETT: Right, exactly, when they've said you know, these kind of very small gatherings, small family gatherings are a big part of the spread right now. People look at the White House, well, you can have a big party, surely the small family gathering is fine. But that's exactly where the spread is happening and people are dying.
Dr. Reiner, Biden has said that he has not seen a clear plan to get the vaccine into people's arms. And an official now confirming to CNN that the administration passed -- passed on the opportunity to buy more doses of Pfizer's coronavirus vaccine, which is now the first one out of the gate.
Now, there are concerns because of that that Pfizer may not be able to fulfill more U.S. orders until June and that could be part of this more drawn out timeline that we're seeing. How do you think this happened, Dr. Reiner?
REINER: Well, the administration did something actually that I think is smart. They invested in six or seven vaccines, and have purchased about the option to buy about 800 million doses.
So you're right, they only purchased 100 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine and passed on an additional hundred. They purchased 100 million doses of the Moderna vaccine, and then up to 300 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, which is approaching F.D.A. review.
And then the Novavax vaccine and the Sanofi-GlaxoSmithKline vaccine. So there are a lot of vaccines coming down the line. I'm actually not that worried about the ability of us to get vaccines approved and to the public, it is just going to take a while.
We're going to have several vaccines in the spring. I don't want the public to think that you know, we're going to run out of vaccines. We will have the vaccines come springtime. BURNETT: Professor Haseltine, how though is a regular American to know
which vaccine to get, right? They are different. They are different technologies. They are different -- but we're not going to -- but by the time you're making a decision in the spring, you're not going to have a lot of data on which really do what well, because we haven't had enough time.
HASELTINE: Well, we're going to have that -- we have some data already. And to me, from what I've seen, the most serious side effects and potential side effects come from the adenovirus vectors, whether that will maintain, we don't know yet.
But I would say if I had a choice, I would take one that isn't an adenovirus vector. That's going to be a controversial statement. But I think that's based on the evidence that so far exists.
BURNETT: And which ones are those?
HASELTINE: So there are going to be choices, but it's -- but you know, people have said, in fact, there won't be a choice. In your state, you're going to get this vaccine, at least at the beginning and that's all there is going to be. We're not going to give you a choice. The other state, you may get another vaccine.
So my advice is to take what's available.
BURNETT: Right, but of course, you know, there's a lot of uncertainty in this country, among many people who aren't even vaccine skeptics, but they're just not sure about this one.
Dr. Jha, last month you testified Before the Senate Homeland Security Committee.
[19:30:02]
You were attacked by the Republican chairman for saying hydroxychloroquine is not a cure, and you and I talked about that. Now, that same committee held another hearing today on the same issue. They invited Dr. Jane Orient.
I think I mentioned her to you the other night. She is a vaccine skeptic, broadly a vaccine skeptic, right? Not just specifically let's learn more about these, a general vaccine skeptic.
She brought your name up. Here's what she said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. JANE ORIENT, TESTIFIED BEFORE SENATE HOMELAND SECURITY COMMITTEE TODAY: More than 65 years of experience, hundreds of millions of patients have demonstrated safety. Hydroxychloroquine is safer than most of the over-the-counter drugs, including acetaminophen. However, organized medicine and academic physicians such as Dr. Ashish Jha have stated that the evidence is insufficiently scientific. It doesn't meet the gold standards of the randomized controlled trial. But the fact is that most of the guidelines that we use for most diseases have relied on lower orders of evidence necessarily. And studies with appropriately analyzed data give results identical to our CTs.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: I want to give you a chance to respond, Dr. Jha.
JHA: Yes, I do a couple things that people need to know, very quickly when we don't have much evidence, we go for whatever evidence we've had. That's not what's happening with hydroxychloroquine, we actually have evidence. We've done high quality settings, hydroxychloroquine doesn't work.
So, I -- so these things like this I really just misinformation, trying to confuse the American people. Hydroxychloroquine is not part of the solution right now, we know what is and I wish we would focus on mask-wearing, distancing, testing and getting to vaccines.
BURNETT: All right, thank you all three very.
And next, President Trump stepping up his attacks on Georgia's Republican lieutenant governor, calling too dumb or corrupt, all because he won't support Trump's claims of election fraud. Lieutenant Governor Geoff Duncan is my guest.
And Florida police with guns drawn raid the home of a former coronavirus data scientist who accused the state of a cover-up. What is going on?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:36:02]
BURNETT: President Trump ratcheting up his public assault on the Georgia Republicans who have stood up to his lies that the election was rigged.
His latest target is the Lieutenant Governor Geoff Duncan, who Trump wants replaced, making it clear with his tweet, quote, Georgia Lieutenant Governor Geoff Duncan of Georgia is a RINO, never Trumper, who got himself elected as LG by, lieutenant governor, by falsely claiming to be pro-Trump, too dumb or corrupt to recognize massive evidence of fraud in Georgia, and should be replaced. We need every great Georgian to call him out, exclamation point.
OUTFRONT now, well, the Republican Lieutenant Governor Geoff Duncan.
So, Lieutenant Governor, then a long time since high school and yet here you are being attacked this way. One of two tweets in the president in the space of less than 24 hours. What do you even say to that?
GEOFF DUNCAN (R), GEORGIA LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR: Well, I'm glad to be with you, Erin. Thanks for the opportunity. And we -- I actually replied this morning.
I got a good night sleep last night and got up this morning and thank him for four great conservative years of leadership for this country, I highly encouraged him to help us get Senator Loeffler and Senator Perdue reelected. That's why we've got to do here, it's a distraction.
Quite honestly, I'm not going to reply negatively. I was raised better than that, and more importantly, I'm raising three boys right now, and I want them to watch dad react the way that I'm telling them to react.
BURNETT: So you mention them, you know, I wouldn't once you bring up your family except for I know you have increased security around yourself and your family, because, you know, these things may just be words, but too many people are not words, right? We've heard from many Republican leaders in Georgia talking about, you know, real threats their families have received.
I know you and I have talked before. You said there's people in your inner circle who have been persuaded by this misinformation, you know, and they all sent you a screen grab about Facebook. I think you gave me that example. You could easily debunk it but they just don't want to believe it.
You know, did you ever think it would come to this?
DUNCAN: No, certainly not. But, you know, it is alarming to see the mountains of misinformation that continue to fly in from folks that you know, folks that you trust. But, you know, look, we're going to keep working hard.
My job is to make sure that like senator or like Governor Kemp and Brad Raffensperger, secretary of state, and Attorney General Chris Carr, a fair legal election. That's our job. That's we're doing. That's what we've worked hard for.
BURNETT: And, of course, that's why you did, as I've said repeatedly and I think just given the situation that bears repeating, you know, your election chief has said, this is the most secure election you've ever had. There's a paper trail in every single ballot cast in the state of Georgia, and people should know that.
In that context, the Supreme Court tonight, Lieutenant Governor, denied a request by Pennsylvania Republicans and that request was to block the state's election results from being certified. It's a terse one-line statement, comes from the entire court, unanimous. It appears to be dissents. That delivers a near fatal blow to the president's efforts to invalidate Biden's win.
Do you think though that this will quiet what you're seeing out there? People who just believe some of this made up stuff?
DUNCAN: Well, there's no telling. I can't predict.
I think the Supreme Court ruling today was another data point that continues to drive home the narrative that it's time for us to move on. Unfortunately, the guy I voted for, Erin, did not win. The person I campaigned for didn't win.
But it's time for us as a country and as a party, to move on. You know, short term. We've got the Senate races that we've talked about before that are very important to me as a Republican. But also long term, it's this, you know, I'm very, very worried that this affects our brand of conservatism.
The Republican Party, we've got good days in front of us. And, certainly, we need to keep looking for opportunities to improve. I think one of those big areas that we're going to learn to improve on, kind of with a postgame analysis is we need to communicate better. Two hundred and eighty characters on Twitter is not enough for us to be able to communicate to America, and especially those folks that maybe aren't with us on every single issue.
[19:40:00]
And that's okay. But we want to make sure that they recognize our conservative leadership.
BURNETT: So the president came to your state, you know, last weekend, right, and he said all of these things, you know about you and others these untrue things about the election. And now, he's coming back, he says he's going to come back.
He's going to campaign for the senatorial candidates in your party. But, you know, he's going to say the same things that he said on Saturday.
Do you welcome him if that's what he does?
DUNCAN: Well, certainly, anytime a sitting president comes and campaigns for two senators trying to get through, I think that's a great asset. Certainly, he has got a huge following and the base loves President Trump. And certainly, like I said, his conservative policies are spot.
I hope he doesn't go off into the misinformation route. I don't think it's helpful. I don't think it helps Senator Loeffler and Senator Purdue in any sense, there is no possible way that helps them win reelection.
BURNETT: All right. Well, I appreciate your time as always, Lieutenant Governor. Thank you.
DUNCAN: Yeah. Thanks, Erin.
BURNETT: All right. And next, a black lawmaker, the target of a racist death threats after saying this about Rudy Giuliani parroting those same lies that the president has said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But you're allowing people to come in here and lie, and I know they're lying.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: She is my guest.
And police with guns drawn rating a formal a home of a former data scientists in Florida, who's previously accused the governor there of a cover-up, new details on that very strange story, tonight, just here.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:45:40]
BURNETT: Tonight, why did Florida police with guns drawn raid the home of a former state coronavirus data scientist who previously accused top state officials of trying to cover up the extent of the pandemic?
It comes as the Governor Ron DeSantis faces new accusations of withholding crucial coronavirus information from the public. It's an unbelievably strange story.
So, Drew Griffin is OUTFRONT to get to the bottom of it.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They have a gun out.
DREW GRIFFIN, CNN SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They came with guns drawn, a camera in the hallway showing the moment Florida Department of Law enforcement officers raided Rebekah Jones's Tallahassee home.
POLICE OFFICER: Police, come down now.
GRIFFIN: All of this over an unauthorized text message allegedly sent from an internal system that the Florida Department of Health.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He just pointed a gun at my children.
GRIFFIN: The officers say Jones refused to open the door for 20 minutes. She says she was getting dressed. They did not make an arrest, but seized computers and phones and thumb drives that Jones says contains evidence of corruption at the state level.
REBEKAH JONES, : On my phone is every communication I've ever had with someone who works at this state, who has come to me in confidence and told me things that could get them fired.
GRIFFIN: A search warrant affidavit obtained by CNN says someone accessed a state emergency planning system and sent a group text to more than 1,700 recipients urging state workers to speak out before it's too late. The system uses an app Ready App (ph), and everyone in the department just uses the same username and password.
According to the warrant, investigators traced the IP address of the message to Jones 's house.
CHRIS CUOMO, CNN HOST: Did you send that text on that system?
JONES: No. I have not had access to any systems at DOH for over six months. I'm not a hacker.
GRIFFIN: Last night on CNN, Jones claims the raid, the investigation, was nothing more than Governor Ron DeSantis using police to shut her up.
JONES: This is just a very thinly veiled attempt of the governor to intimidate scientists and get back at me while trying to get to my sources.
GRIFFIN: A spokesman for the governor insists the governor's office had no involvement, no knowledge, no nothing of this investigation.
Jones, who helped build Florida's online coronavirus data dashboard was fired in May in what she argued was retaliation for her refusal to fudge the numbers and minimize the scale of the outbreak. State officials say she was fired back in May for insubordination, making changes to the states COVID-19 dashboard without input or approval.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis at the time said this.
GOV. RON DESANTIS (R), FLORIDA: She was putting data on the portal which the scientists did not believe was valid data.
GRIFFIN: Jones filed a whistleblower complaint and launched her own online dashboard of Florida coronavirus data. The website she says was operated from one of the computers officers seized Monday.
JONES: DeSantis needs to worry less about what I am writing about and more about the people who are sick and dying in his state. And doing this to me will not stop me from reporting the data, ever.
GRIFFIN: Florida just reached a grand milestone of more than 1 million total coronavirus cases, a far cry from the governors boasting back in May.
DESANTIS: We've succeeded, and I think the people just don't want to recognize it.
GRIFFIN: DeSantis has been widely criticized for his handling of the virus, and downplaying the numbers. He failed to hold a press conference for weeks, instead doing pre-recorded videos that ignored the rising cases. He signed an order limiting enforcement of mask mandates across the state and opening bars and restaurants at 100 percent capacity.
And just like President Trump, says anyone who criticizes him is playing politics.
DESANTIS: Obviously, they have an agenda, very partisan. It's an election year. And I think the fact that Florida is considered a key swing state had a lot to do with it.
(END VIDEOTAPE) BURNETT: SO, Drew, I mean, this is an amazing story. When I first saw it, I mean, like many, I said what is -- what happened here? So, you know, it's shocking to see the video of police with guns drawn.
Have they said anything? Are they defending what they did?
GRIFFIN: They are defending their actions. They are basically blaming it on Jones for escalating the situation but not opening up that door promptly. But state elected officials, Democrats in Florida certainly, aren't buying this.
[19:50:03]
Charlie Crist, the congressman, is one of them. He wants an investigation. He says this was way over the top.
And a lawyer who was appointed by Ron DeSantis to a judicial nominating committee quit this afternoon. He resigned in protest over this and over DeSantis's handling of the coronavirus.
So, there is some fallout developing. Still no charges anywhere in this, and not much other explanation from the Florida department of law enforcement -- Erin.
BURNETT: It's just bizarre. As you keep, I know, digging on the bottom of that. Drew, thank you very much.
And next, a Michigan lawmaker who called out Rudy Giuliani's lies says she's now receiving racist death threats, and she is speaking out, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:55:34]
BURNETT: New tonight, President Trump made up election fraud allegations now sparking death threats. Hear voice mails that Michigan State Representative Cynthia Johnson received. And, beware, they are disturbing.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
VOICEMAIL RECEIVED BY MICHIGAN STATE REP. CYNTHIA JOHNSON: I hope you like burning crosses in your front yard. Because I am sure by the time this is all said and done, there will be several.
I hope you are dead by now. You are a piece of (EXPLETIVE DELETED). You need to be run out of office and hung from a (EXPLETIVE DELETED) tree you dumb (EXPLETIVE DELETED).
You're done. You're so (EXPLETIVE DELETED) done. You should be swinging from a (EXPLETIVE DELETED) rope, you Democrat.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
BURNETT: That's awful. And one of the words bleeped from these lynching death threats is the N-word. This stuff is vile. It's deeply upsetting.
Why is Representative Johnson being threatened with lynching? With her political party part of the threat?
Well, in part because she was part of this. A Michigan House Oversight hearing last week where Rudy Giuliani and witnesses pushed President Trump's baseless election fraud claims, and the representative objected to it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You have a point of order?
STATE REP. CYNTHIA JOHNSON (D), MICHIGAN: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What is your point of order?
JOHNSON: Point of order is to have them under oath.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You are out of order, as I've said. This is something that is not done here in this state. It's really only --
JOHNSON: It may not be done under this state, but you are allowing people to come in here and lie. And I know they're lying.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Representative, you are out of order. Given -- I've indulged you, but you're out of order.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Of course, those things were lies. Giuliani knew they were lies.
Representative Johnson is with me now.
And, Representative Johnson, I just want to, you know, on the back of hearing those horrible voice mails. I can't imagine you even having to listen to such awful, upsetting trash. Did you ever think it would come to this?
JOHNSON: It was shocking. But it wasn't surprising. And I say that only because we are living in a time where, although we're in 2020, it reminds me so much of the early fifties and the sixties. It reminds me also of -- this situation reminds me so much of domestic violence. It reminds me of how women are abused and talked down on and demeaned. And many women don't respond to it because they are too afraid.
I'm letting all women know right now, trust and believe. This is a form of domestic violence. And we should not put up with it.
We are talking about people who are saying racist attacks and nasty names, and just unconscionable things that's being perpetrated really on people of color, specifically black people, where I am in the state, the state of Michigan. I'm a Detroiter, a lifelong Detroiter.
We have people who are homeless. We have people who don't even know where they are going to live next month. We have black businesses that are disenfranchised. We have -- we have people who need stimulus checks yet.
And I thank God for you and all of media. But we still have to deal with this ugly, racist thing called human beings -- human beings actually --
BURNETT: I mean --
JOHNSON: -- speaking to one another like this.
BURNETT: It takes a lot of courage for you to speak out about this. I could understand if you would be afraid receiving messages like that. Many would be. Are you afraid anyone will act on those vile threats?
JOHNSON: Absolutely not. I'm not afraid of those threats. But I have found is that many of these cowards are just that, cowards. They speak behind the computer, or they'll call me, and if I happen to pick up, most of them will hang up.
So, you asked me if I'm afraid, I thank you for the question. I appreciate that.
And for all the well-wishers, I am fine. I want to tell you, but God has another plan for all of this country.
BURNETT: Yes.
JOHNSON: And I'm hoping that this will be the time that racism will hopefully be addressed.
BURENTT: Well, you are not afraid and I appreciate that, and I hope that many are inspired by the courage takes to speak out in the face of this.
Representative, thank you so much for your time.
Thanks to all of you for yours.
Anderson starts now.
