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Erin Burnett Outfront
Supreme Court Rejects Texas, Trump Bid to Block Millions of Votes in Battleground States Biden Won; Gov. Chris Sununu (R-NH) Discusses About His Take on the Supreme Court's Rejection of Trump Campaign Lawsuit to Overturn the Election; U.S. Hits Record Hospitalizations for 6th Day in a Row; Any Moment: FDA Could Authorize First COVID Vaccine in U.S.; Source: WH Told FDA Chief to Authorize Vaccine Today or Resign; Palin and Q-Anon Supporter Join Trump Allies, Make False Claims; SCOTUS Rejects Texas, Trump Bid to Overturn Election Results. Aired 7-8p ET
Aired December 11, 2020 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: We shall see what the next steps are. We're going to have a special live coverage. We'll continue on all these historic moments unfolding right now.
Erin Burnett OUTFRONT picks up our coverage.
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: OUTFRONT next, the Supreme Court rejects Trump's desperate attempt to overturn the votes of millions of Americans. Does the slap from the highest court in the land finally put the President's nonsense to rest?
Plus, also expected a major decision by the FDA as soon as tonight authorizing the first COVID vaccine in the United States as we learn tonight about a threat from the White House to the Chief of the FDA.
And one Georgia lawmakers single handedly debunked a Trump campaign lie about voter fraud. How did she do it? Well, she's our guest. Let's go OUTFRONT.
And good evening. I'm Erin Burnett.
OUTFRONT tonight the breaking news this hour, the Supreme Court moments ago speaking and flat out rejecting President Trump's last- ditch effort to steal the election from Joe Biden. The court rejecting the lawsuit from the Attorney General of Texas, which challenged the election results in Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
The Supreme Court tonight saying, "The State of Texas' motion for leave to file a bill of complaint is denied for lack of standing under Article III of the Constitution. Texas has not demonstrated a judicially cognizable interest in the manner in which another State conducts its elections. All other pending motions are dismissed as moot." No standing.
Again, just like the other day, a court completely on the same page with this verdict three lines from all justices as a group, no known dissents even after the President tried to intimidate the Supreme Court today tweeting, "If the Supreme Court shows great wisdom and courage, the American people will win perhaps the most important case in history, and our electoral process will be respected again."
Well, it is respected now after the free and fair election that we just completed. The court did show wisdom and courage in upholding that election and its results. It is the second time this week that the court has tersely rebuked a totally manufactured attempt with no basis in law to undo the free and fair election. All attempts put through by Republicans to pull a coup through the courts to undo democracy.
The suit from Texas was supported by 18 other state attorney generals, all Republican allies of Trump. There are plenty of Republicans who didn't support it, but the 18 who did were allies of the President. And it was supported by 126 Republican House members, including a late signee, the House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, he just signed on today.
All of them backing what they know to be complete BS because they want Trump to approve of them and to back them. They think it is going to help their career or maybe the Attorney General of Texas who was accused of serious crimes wants a pardon. All of them though unified in putting themselves before their country and before truth.
Jessica Schneider is OUTFRONT in Washington. And Jessica, look, they put this out on a Friday night. They didn't mince words and they didn't waste time. What are you learning about the court's decision here and what happens next?
JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Yes. This is it, game over for what was a long shot lawsuit anyway. It's a lawsuit, like you said, that gain support from more than 100 Republicans in Congress, nearly two dozen Republican attorneys general. But the justices tonight have spoken for the second time this week shutting down these Republican efforts to stop Joe Biden from becoming president.
So the Supreme Court putting it this way in this one page order tonight. Texas has no right to even file this lawsuit at the high court because Texas has no right to legally challenge how another state conducts its elections. And in this case, of course, Texas was challenging the election procedures for four crucial battleground states.
And in this order, two of the most conservative justices, Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas, they said that they did believe the Supreme Court should have let Texas at least file the case, but then these two justices said that even if that had happened, they too would have rejected it. So, this is the complete rejection of the Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, his efforts to stop the electors in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Georgia, stop them from voting for Joe Biden when they meet on Monday. They cannot stop them at this point.
So, this was a short order, just one page and just a few sentences. But, Erin, this is a major defeat for Republicans tonight. And of course, it's a victory to all of those states and officials who blasted this effort by Texas. In fact, officials in Pennsylvania, they called it a cacophony of bogus claims that called for a seditious abuse of the judicial process that was in their court filing. And tonight, the Supreme Court really seeming to agree when they
issued this order that kept a weak of two Supreme Court rejections of Republican efforts. And of course, Erin, we have seen repeated cases where they have shut down Republican efforts all over the country by state and federal judges.
[19:05:07]
Now we're seeing it twice in one week from the Supreme Court, Erin.
BURNETT: All right. Thank you very much, Jessica. And as we said, unified.
Kaitlan Collins is OUTFRONT at the White House. And Kaitlan, that has got to be something that the President simply cannot understand. I mean, what are you hearing? I mean, when we said this comes out from the justices as a whole as it did earlier this week with Pennsylvania, but now with this Texas case, he got all of the Republican politicians, not all but all of his friends to sign on. But his Supreme Court justices, the ones he nominated and put on there, they were onboard with saying they'd have none of this.
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes. And so far since this decision has come down, it's been completely silenced here from the White House and from the President's campaign. We've reached out to them to ask for their response. But Erin, a lot of the people who were talking about this behind the scenes knew this is likely how this was going to end up.
They weren't living in some different reality where they thought that the Supreme Court could actually take this case up. They knew it was a long shot. And I heard from several Republicans who put their names on that amicus brief yesterday to join this lawsuit that they believe the Supreme Court was going to shut it down pretty quickly. But they viewed it as a loyalty test to the President and they know how powerful he's going to be, so that's why they signed it.
However, the President, I'm told, actually thought that he had a chance of prevailing here. He kept bringing this case up all week. He talked about it at length, I'm told yesterday during that lunch with those Republican attorneys general. And so the question here is what is the President say about this, because you are right, he has those three Supreme Court appointees that he made clear he wanted to get the latest one, Amy Coney Barrett on the court in case something like this happen, because the President did predict that the results of the election could wind up in the Supreme Court.
I don't think this is the way he thought it would go. And so while Jessica noted this was an unsigned response, there is no dissent from any of the people that the President put on the Supreme Court here. And so the question ultimately is they knew this is where this was going to go behind the scenes when you talk to campaign officials, but what do they do next because they have been rejected by the Supreme Court twice in a week. So how long can they keep a charade like this up. Because as we noted earlier, the campaign has said they are going to
be putting out ads about stopping the steal of the vote, that kind of thing they've been pushing at all of these rallies. But, of course, what are they going to be telling their supporters now to convince them that this election is theirs.
BURNETT: All right. Kaitlan, thank you very much. It's amazing when you think about those 126 people and Kaitlan says she spoke to some of them those Republicans, telling her that well they were assuming the Supreme Court would stop this, that they put their names on it because they thought wanted to curry favor with the President admitting it.
It's a sad truth when you hear that sort of thing. You remember that state senator in Georgia last night who told all of us that he thought that this was an important moment in history and would go down in history. He wanted to be on the side of truth. And he was saying Biden won Georgia. Those are the facts. These are 126 Republicans not having that courage.
In a moment I'm going to speak to Republican Governor Chris Sununu of New Hampshire. His state did not backed the Texas lawsuit. Biden won his state. He has been loud and clear about that. But first, I want to get some legal analysis from Nick Ackerman. He is former Assistant Special Watergate prosecutor and a former Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York.
Nick, my mouth getting ahead of myself. So let me just ask you where we are here, two cases shut down by a unanimous court in a week. So you got the Electoral College on Monday, is this really game over here for the President or does he have any chance left to try (inaudible) ...
NICK ACKERMAN, FMR. ASSISTANT SPECIAL WATERGATE PROSECUTOR: He's got zero chance left. This was supposed to be the culmination of his return to the White House. This is something he's been plotting for months. It started months ago when he basically got all of his supporters to stay away from absentee ballots. He got the legislators in Pennsylvania and Michigan to ensure that votes from absentee ballots couldn't be counted until after the Election Day.
And then he used that, he used that in these papers before the Supreme Court to argue that the votes that were counted after 3 am on election night somehow had to be fraudulent and phony votes from dead people because they just suddenly came in. Well, everybody knew where they came in. They came in from the absentee ballots that had to be counted after the election.
This he thought would get him into the Supreme Court because he thinks that by appointing three people to the Supreme Court and having a so- called Republican or conservative majority on the court that was going to do it for him and that would keep him in because his view was he took care of them. He rubbed their backs. They're going to rub his back.
The U.S. Supreme Court does not work that way. This is exactly what people thought was going to happen during Watergate when Nixon was contesting his tapes.
[19:10:01]
There were members of the Supreme Court, most of whom were appointed by Republicans as a conservative majority. It was unanimous again. They ordered him to turn over those tapes. The fact is that Supreme Court justices have a duty to the Constitution. They abide by the rule of law and that's what happened then and that's what happened now.
BURNETT: And I just want to make it clear, so you have no surprise that the court ruled as it did tonight and earlier this week unanimous.
ACKERMAN: None whatsoever. None whatsoever. This is precisely what I assumed they were going to do, what everybody predicted they would do.
BURNETT: Yes.
ACKERMAN: I mean, if you read those briefs that were just full of lies and conspiracy theories, and nonsense, you wouldn't have a fifth grader submit that kind of material to dog license appeals, never mind the Supreme Court.
BURNETT: All right. Nick, I appreciate your time. Thank you very much.
ACKERMAN: Thank you.
BURNETT: And I want to go now to the Republican Governor of New Hampshire, Chris Sununu. And Governor, I really appreciate your time tonight. Thanks.
So obviously, Nick is laying out that this is what he expected, and others expected. It is unanimous from the court. Are you surprised at all that the court flat out rejected Texas' challenge?
GOV. CHRIS SUNUNU (R) NEW HAMPSHIRE: No, not really. I mean, I support the President. Joe Biden won here in New Hampshire. So our Attorney General is pretty clear early on that we really didn't have standing. Our electors really didn't have standing in this.
I'm also a Tenth Amendment guy. Anytime a state try to infringe on what other states are doing, I always get a little hesitant on that. And I support the President's ability to challenge if he didn't see something in the voting in other states. He has every right to challenge that and it appears now he's exhausted those challenges. Joe Biden is the President-elect. He's very likely going to be sworn in on January 20th.
And as Governor, we just got to move on. I got a job to do. I got vaccine coming next week. We got budgets, we got to handle. We have a lot of issues.
BURNETT: Yes.
SUNUNU: COVID is still very much here, so as governors we got a job to do and we got to stick to it. BURNETT: So, I do want to give you a chance, though, to respond to
this point about 126 House Republicans signed on to this, to a brief that supported what was happening here. The Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy joined them, and you heard a few of them, our reporter Kaitlan was saying, saying, look, well, we did it because we thought the Supreme Court would shoot it down. But we need the President. We were doing it essentially for our own careers.
That's not something that you did. It's not something on your state did, what's your reaction when you hear that sort of thing? The stakes are really high here.
SUNUNU: Well, yes, well, they are high. I mean, I'm not going to fault anyone for making the choices that they make. I can tell you (inaudible) talking about loyalty test. Look, in this world as a governor, I have loyalty to the citizens of New Hampshire. That's it. I mean, it really starts and stops right there.
So, I can't speak for what other folks did and why they did it, their motives behind doing it. And I support their right to do it. That was their right. I think we all knew it was probably a long shot at best. It was unanimous. Even Trump's own appointees to the Supreme Court shot this down.
So, it was pretty clear, but he had every right to do it. States had the right at least try it. On Monday, the Electoral College goes into play and my sense is that it's going to move as smoothly as someone can expect at this point and Joe Biden will get the electorate.
BURNETT: So, Governor, OK, so what do you say, though, to some of the - well, there's a lot of Republicans in Congress who have refused to call Joe Biden the President-elect. What do you say to them? Electoral College happens Monday. We all have to hope they're going to really change their tune, because there's a lot of Americans who need to understand the truth and what really happened here, and they need their Republican elected leaders to speak that truth. What do you say to some of those Republicans on Monday? How do they turn it around and say, OK, we're onboard? Joe Biden is going to be the President.
SUNUNU: I got to be frank, I don't care what Congress says or does going forward concerning the election. It's a done deal. What I care is that they actually do something for the American people surrounding the vaccine, surrounding COVID. They've sat on their butts for eight months, done absolutely nothing.
I've said it many times before. I don't think any of them deserve their jobs at this point. None of them have shown leadership on the state's most pending crisis. What happened this evening with the Supreme Court, that's kind of it. They've kind of exhausted all the legal challenges. We got to move on.
And so with me, I don't care what's said about this issue. It's in the past. We got such a big job to do in this country. And Congress has got to get down to it and figure out how to find some bipartisanship. Move the ball forward, provide some funding. I mean, you got to be careful with how much you're going to spend, of course, but find that middle ground, provide something for the states because governors have a big job to do.
We're on the front lines. We're operationalizing. We're innovating. We're creating solutions for our citizens. Congress has the luxury of not having to worry about any of that. All they do and I said it earlier today, they support funding, they support a policy and that's it. That's the entirety of their job. It isn't that hard. So frankly, that's my frustration with Congress at that point. Stop worrying about politics of yesterday and start doing the job of today.
[19:15:02]
BURNETT: And OK, and I hear what you're saying, and as there is this dire need to deal with this crisis, there's also the CDC, Dr. Redfield saying you're going to have up to 200,000 more people dying over the next three months even with a vaccine coming out. The numbers are stunning and staggering and horrible, they're not numbers the President has been talking about this week as he's been focused on this lawsuit.
So we've seen the worst week for coronavirus deaths, Gov. Sununu, this week since the whole thing began. And I know it hit very close to home for you. You talk about what's happening in your state. The Republican just elected Speaker of the House in New Hampshire a week ago, Dick Hinch, died of coronavirus on Wednesday. I know he was a close friend of yours. And you have said you want people to know about this. His death was a cautionary tale, why?
SUNUNU: It's a cautionary tale and Dick was a great friend, but it is a cautionary tale. People have to understand that when we're talking about masks and social distance and all these stipulations that we're putting in place, it's not for the safety of you just the individual, it's the safety of your coworkers, it's the safety of your families, it's the safety of your community, everyone has to participate in that.
And when you have a select few individuals, and it's across the country, there's this kind of vocal minority out there that spend so much time trying to convince other people not to be safe. It's just completely irresponsible. It really is.
We have, to your point, we're at the peak right now. Hopefully it's a peak. Hopefully we start seeing a downturn in terms of hospitalizations and fatalities. But it's very, very real and it doesn't matter whether you're an elected official, it doesn't matter whether you're in long-term care facility, whether you're old or you're young, it can have very, very negative effects for you and your family and your loved ones with asymptomatic transmission, community transmission.
So we're still very much in this and that's why Congress has to do their job. Governors have been, I think, doing a great job across the country, Republican and Democrat alike, making sure that they're operationalizing something. We got a vaccine coming in a matter of days. We've been waiting for nine to 10 months in a matter of days. We got to be ready to go. And we are and we definitely are. But everyone has to be part of that
solution. And that's really the message here. A cautionary tale, it's such a sad story. Dick was such an incredible individual. But everyone really needs to be part of understanding why that happened and making sure that taking care of their families, of their co-workers, of that person in an aisle six at the grocery store, it's a community effort.
BURNETT: Governor, I appreciate your time. Thanks so much, Gov. Sununu.
SUNUNU: You bet. Thank you.
BURNETT: And next the breaking news as we are waiting really for the go ahead from the FDA on that coronavirus vaccine, it could be literally moments away. As the White House is threatened, the head of the agency, the head of the FDA earlier today will tell you why.
Plus, Sarah Palin, she's back in Georgia today pushing a lie as she urges Republicans there to vote in the Senate runoffs.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SARAH PALIN, FORMER GOVERNOR OF ALASKA: The rigged election and I know that's for a whole another bus stop, but for a rigged election.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: And millions of Americans already living hand to mouth with a new worry tonight. Will Congress help them? It's not looking good tonight.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:21:42]
BURNETT: Breaking news, the United States watching, waiting. At any moment, the FDA could give final authorization to the first vaccine to fight coronavirus in this country. And Pfizer is ready to begin shipping vaccine doses across the country once that happens. It will be a major milestone in the efforts to fight the pandemic in this country, which tonight hit another record for hospitalizations. The sixth day in a row. The 30th out of the last 32 for that grim statistic as death this week is also a record.
So, the vaccine should be celebrated, but it comes as Trump even at this late hour just before the vaccine gets shipped across the United States is making it about politics in terms of the approval process. Two sources including a Trump administration official telling CNN tonight that White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows gave FDA Commissioner, Dr. Stephen Hahn, a blunt warning earlier today. And it was this, either green light, the vaccine by the end of the day or resign.
You heard that right, a threat. Authorize the vaccine when we want it or resign. This as another source as Trump has been venting about Hahn since the U.K. began administering Pfizer's vaccine this week. And you don't need to take our word for it, take Trump's. He went on Twitter this morning, "Get the damn vaccines out now, Dr. Hahn. Stop playing games and start saving lives." Three exclamation points.
So why is team Trump playing politics with the vaccine? Well, the reason is pretty simple, right now he is making it all about getting credit for the vaccine. Earlier today he tweets, "The swine flu, and the attempt for a vaccine by the Obama Administration, with Joe Biden in charge, was a complete and total disaster. Now they want to come in and take over one of the 'greatest and fastest medical miracles in modern day history'. I don't think so."
And if you needed more proof that Trump is in it for the credit, here he is again.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Don't let Joe Biden take credit for the vaccine. Don't let him take credit for the vaccines, because the vaccines were me and I pushed people harder than they've ever been pushed before.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: OUTFRONT now the former FDA Commissioner under President Obama, Dr. Margaret Hamburg and Dr. Jonathan Reiner who was a medical adviser to the George W. Bush White House.
So Dr. Hamburg, let me start with you. So this vaccine everyone anticipates is going to get this green light. So the fact that the White House Chief of Staff would call the FDA chief or receive a call, however the conversation occurred and say do it by the end of the day or resign is a needless threat and a nasty one. What would you do? I mean, what is Dr. Hahn to do now?
DR. MARGARET HAMBURG, FMR. FDA COMMISSIONER UNDER OBAMA: I think Dr. Hahn is working with the team of scientists and professionals at the FDA to move this vaccine authorization forward as quickly as they can. It is a historic event. It couldn't be coming at a more important time in terms of where we are in this devastating pandemic. Everyone wants this vaccine to be made available.
But I don't think that the White House trying to put undue pressure on the agency is going to make a whiff of difference to be honest and I think it will only harm the overall efforts to get people to have confidence in this vaccine.
[19:25:04]
The FDA has been working very, very hard to have an open, transparent process of process that is clearly driven by science and data. Huge efforts have been made to try to restore some of the confidence that has been lost ...
BURNETT: Yes.
HAMBURG: ... because of this undue intrusion of politics. So I think they should just sit back. This is, as you said, a moment to celebrate not to criticize.
BURNETT: And Dr. Reiner, that is part of the problem here. As I said, this was anticipated to get a green light right. I mean, it got the committee. So for that call to even come to Dr. Hahn, that threat do it tonight or else is unnecessary, done for political and personal reasons. And unfortunately, could have the effect of sowing doubt, creating the perception of doing it for political reasons or threats or pressure as opposed to for science, which is exactly what you don't want the American public to think.
JONATHAN REINER, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: Exactly and so unnecessary. The fact whether the vaccine gets an UAE today or tomorrow, Sunday, the vaccine is being shipped next week. Those plans are already in place. We know that it will receive any EUA, so counterproductive.
When I see patients in clinic, I asked every single patient if they intend to take the COVID vaccine. When they say no, the most common explanation is they're concerned that it's been rushed. So now what do you see? Now you see the Chief of Staff, basically, rushing the FDA ...
BURNETT: Yes.
REINER: ... unacceptable, completely counterproductive.
BURNETT: So Dr. Hamburg, there's a new op-ed in The Wall Street Journal, we talked about how this vaccine is going to go out. Dr. Michael Siegel wrote it, a neurologists and a neuroscientist, and the title is A Shot (Instead of Two) about the vaccine. So just to make sure everyone knows the Pfizer vaccine is a two shot of vaccine over a period of a month. You got to get a first shot and then a booster.
He writes, "The protocol in Pfizer's clinical trial was to give all participants two doses. The FDA is likely to approve this protocol. But we are in a pandemic and supplies of vaccine are inadequate. There's an alternative: vaccinating as many people as possible with a first dose and waiting on the booster until supplies are plentiful. But we are in a pandemic and supplies of vaccine are inadequate. There's an alternative, vaccinating as many people as possible with a first dose and waiting on the booster until supplies are plentiful."
Dr. Hamburg, what's your reaction to that? Obviously, that's not how this thing was tested. We don't know how a single dose would work, but this is the idea he's putting out there, get more people with a single dose and then deal with the boosters as supplies come online, what do you say?
HAMBURG: Well, it certainly is a topic of discussion. It was talked about in the vaccine Advisory Committee yesterday a bit. The studies weren't done to answer the question of whether one dose is sufficient. And we really can't be sure that the level of protection that one dose gives would persist. We don't have enough information, because the people in the study got another dose in about a three-week timeframe.
But it's something that should be looked at in more detail. It certainly is the case that we have marked limits in the availability of the vaccine at a time when we need the vaccine, desperately. So I think it's an area that needs to continue to be looked at. But as we go out now, I think it should be done in accordance with how the study was structured and the data that we have to support.
BURNETT: Yes.
HAMBURG: The importance of that second booster to get the level of efficacy up and probably the duration of protection enhanced.
BURNETT: So, Dr. Reiner, I want to ask you one other question, as the President through the spring was talking about, oh, it's just one case. It's a dozen cases. It's going to go to zero. There were so few we knew about at the time and so few became so many. An incredible study out today.
The team at the Broad Institute in Massachusetts looked at that biotech conference in February in Boston, that everyone now is known was a super spreader event. They did a genetic fingerprinting study, which found that one case there led to 245,000 cases. One case led to 245,000 cases across the United States and Europe. That is incredible. That's one person gets sick, 245,000 cases, deaths all from one.
REINER: This is an opportunistic virus. It will spread from person to person to person until there was herd immunity. We are going to have herd immunity this coming summer after we vaccinate a sufficient number of people in this country. But if you are unmasked and you are infected and you encounter people who have not already had this virus, you will infect them.
That conference shows just how virulent this virus is and why it's so important going forward in the next several months to continue our vigilance, mask up and when it's your turn vax up.
[19:30:04]
Get vaccinated. This virus will, you know, continue to spread until we put it down.
BURNETT: Thank you both very much.
And next, more on the Supreme Court and its rejection of Trump's attempts to invalidate millions of votes. And Sarah Palin on the campaign trail, rallying Republican voters for that crucial runoff election in Georgia.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SARAH PALIN (R), FORMER ALASKA GOVERNOR: Georgia, we need you to not just show up January 5th, not just win, but to crush it!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Will that message be heard?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BURNETT: And in tonight's conspiracy callout, Sarah Palin joining a newly elected congresswoman who promotes QAnon conspiracies to campaign in Georgia. Both of them repeating the president's widely debunked and dangerous claims of a rigged election.
Ryan Nobles is OUTFRONT.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RYAN NOBLES, CNN WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It is crunch time in Georgia, even though the Senate runoffs are more than three weeks away.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've got your back, Georgia. We got your back.
PALIN: Thank you!
NOBLES: And high-profile Republicans like former vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin are crisscrossing the state, selling the message of protecting a GOP majority by electing David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler.
PALIN: I want to speak on behalf of America, Georgia, we need you to not just show up January 5th, not just win, but to crush it!
NOBLES: Voters have already started returning absentee ballots. Early voting beginning statewide Monday, as Republicans try to balance two causes that don't totally align.
MIKE PENCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I want you to be confident about your vote.
NOBLES: Urging supporters to vote in the runoffs, while at the same time lending support to President Trump's baseless claim of election fraud in the state.
PALIN: The rigged election, and I know that is for another bus stop, but for a rigged election.
NOBLES: Republicans are also encouraging early and mail-in voting, a practice the president and allies have attacked. But with the control of the Senate on the line, Republican volunteers like Brad Carver are making the pitch.
[19:35:06]
BRAD CARVER, REPUBLICAN VOLUNTEER: I think a lot of our voters still will vote early, in person, and I think we will see all other voters take advantage of the absentee ballots.
NOBLES: Democrats are doing the same.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's get some signs to vote.
NOBLES: Pushing their supporters to vote early.
JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: Good afternoon, everyone.
NOBLES: President-elect Joe Biden traveled to Atlanta next Tuesday to drive home the early vote message. And this weekend, candidates Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff will make dozens of stops across the state.
JON OSSOFF (D), GEORGIA CANDIDATE FACING U.S. SENATE RUNOFF: That's where everybody needs to make a plan to vote, because these attacks on voting rights are real, and they cannot be -- they cannot be permitted.
NOBLES: For Republicans, one critical question down the stretch is whether the president's baseless attacks of voting in the state will undercut the campaigns of the GOP candidates, especially while GOP officials in the state like newly elected Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene has promoted the QAnon conspiracy theory, continue to spread false claims about the November results.
MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE (R), CONGRESSWOMAN-ELECT FOR GEORGIA'S 14TH CD: We all know for a fact Joe Biden did not win Georgia.
We know that Georgia are reelected President Donald J. Trump.
Now, we got two fights on our hands.
NOBLES: All with the goal of keeping the Trump's loyal supporters engaged until January 5th.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NOBLES (voice-over): And these totally false claims by the president and his allies here in Georgia are real world consequences. I've talked to a lot of voters since covering this Georgia runoff, I've yet to meet a Republican that doesn't believe the president's claims about the election on some level, some way, shape or form. The question is, does it blow back on the Republican candidates here running in the runoff election? Do the voters here not trust the system and then not show up in January?
That's a question we're going to be on the answer to in the next three weeks -- Erin.
BURNETT: All right. Ryan, thank you.
And now our next guest, Georgia lawmaker Bee Nguyen, who single- handedly debunked the claim of voter fraud by Team Trump. When a Trump ally put out a list of voters who allegedly cast illegal ballots, Nguyen recognized two of them, two of them, two of her friends, and a constituent, three in total, all of them she knew were voting legally.
So, then, she spent days looking through public records. Even went knocking on doors. She found dozens of other voters on Trump's list who were all legal, all eligible, all free and fair voters. And after she did all the legwork, she then called it out publicly.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) BEE NGUYEN (D), GEORGIA HOUSE REPRESENTATIVE: You've alleged these voters have committed a felony. When I picked up the phone and call my friend, I let him know he was on the list, he and his wife were very surprised to learn that their names had been attached to a federal lawsuit, that there have been no attempts to verify any of this information.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: OUTFRONT now, Democratic Georgia House Representative Bee Nguyen.
And, Representative, I appreciate your time.
So, you were talking in that clip to data analyst, Matt Brainard, who's information, you know, has been used in suits filed by Trump and his team. You knew that information was incorrect. You went out and checked it.
Did you ever think that you would find such blatant lies about voters? Just completely made up and who knows how they pick those names, used by the Trump campaign?
NGUYEN: No, I know the allegations in the numbers produced were inaccurate but I did not know how easy it would be to see when I pulled all that's attached to it, I pointed out yesterday in committee, upon looking at the first page, there are duplicate and choose a voters. Three different voters listed twice for the same allegation. And in his testimony attached to the lawsuit, he assures people that he has cleaned up the file for duplicate.
You know some of this information I think on the surface for the general public might make sense -- it does make sense in some ways, right? If you see a voter who has the exact same name and the exact same birthday registered to vote in two different states, you might be likely to believe they no longer live in the state of Georgia.
But I did on the first list was simply look through the first 10 names. I was able to find property tax records with a public record and it found the voters, 8 out of 10 of these names, they still live in the state of Georgia, they still pay property taxes. They claim homestead exemption as primary property in the state.
And I subsequently picked up the phone and was able to connect with one of the voters who confirmed he still lives in the state of Georgia. He has only voted in the state of Georgia. He has a lengthy voting record that it's also public record that one could have looked up to verify.
BURENTT: So, you put all this time in.
[19:40:00]
You went and did the leg work to find out the truth, right? And then you spoke out and you told the truth, which was a courageous act in and of itself. The problem is, of course, as you know, Representative, most people don't do that and they hear what they're told. And when lies are repeated so often, and then you're in an echo chamber, you only hear the lie, you might start to believe it.
Here are some voters in your state.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REPORTER: You think Biden still won?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No. Not at all.
REPORTER: Do you think Trump won?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think Trump won.
REPORTER: Do you genuinely believe that he --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That he kicked Joe Biden's ass? Yes, I do.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think the whole election, the count was wrong. The systems were rigged.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: So, Representative, what do you do about that? They believe what they've been told.
NGUYEN: Well, it's very important to me when we had the opportunity to speak in committee to present facts, real facts, and do the legwork to ensure that I understood what was in this lawsuit. It's a very lengthy lawsuit. It's 1,500 pages long.
The exhibit that includes the names of these is also extremely long and hard to navigate. It's a PDF file, not an Excel file, and there are many names on this list.
So I felt it was important to do my due diligence to be able to tell real life stories, and to actually contact the voter's names two have been accused of committing a felony and having a conversation with them in real life or on the phone.
You know, I went to one of my constituent's houses. I recognized a zip code on the file and I knew I represented her. And I feel it's my responsibility as a representative to ensure that I am watching out for my constituents. And it does feel personal.
When I looked here, I saw that, I knocked on her door in my campaign before, so I just went over to her house, and she was there with her husband. They had both lived there since 1985. They're older, black voters living in the South, and when I told her that her name was on this public filing, I wanted to assure her, because I did not want her to be alarmed, to be afraid, to feel like, you know, she wasn't going to be protected in a court of law for this accusation that was patently false.
BURNETT: So you're now, as I mentioned, on the receiving end of some awful stuff, death threats for speaking out like you did. I know you knew you were taking risks by doing what you did, and you were willing to do that. But nonetheless, some of the stuff that is happening and some of these threats are awful and beyond the pale of what anybody could have expected.
How do you feel about that now, and why is it so important for you to keep doing what you're doing, to come on and do interviews like this one?
NGUYEN: You know, I think every elected official in this country, every election worker in this country is in a tenuous position of trying to decide do we do our job or to risk our lives? And that is not -- that is not an acceptable position for people who are just trying to do the right thing. I made a calculated risk, because I feel I ran for office because I wanted to represent my constituents and I wanted to fight for my values and the values of the people that I represent.
I knew that there would be repercussions, and, you know, what I'm most disappointed about is my colleagues on the Republican side who understand that a lot of what is being said is disinformation. They understand that our lives are being risked every single time, they allow hearings like that to go on, that they allow information to be unchecked.
They know that our lives are in danger, and they have yet to speak out on our behalf. You know, politics are partisan in public, but behind closed doors, we have to work together. Some of us are friends. We see each other every single day during legislative session.
And I'm waiting for them to have our backs, because at the end of the day, it is not worth -- it is not worth people taking -- being threatened. It is not worth your colleague's life being endangered or an election worker's life being endangered.
BURNETT: All right. Representative Nguyen, I appreciate your time. Thank you very much for telling us all of this and all these details. It's important for people to continue to hear them and hear these details. All right. Thank you.
And I want to go back to breaking news this hour. The last-ditch effort by President Trump and the Republicans to pull a coup to the courts, to undo democracy, that has been denied now by the Supreme Court of the United States, which flat out rejected that lawsuit from the Texas attorney general, which challenged the election results not in Texas, but in Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
It was an ill-advised attempt by the president to steal the election from Joe Biden.
[19:45:00]
Now, keep in mind, it wasn't just the president. Eighteen other states attorney general, and 126 House Republicans got on board to pursue their own political futures, or pardons, or who knows what it is. They all knew the suit was bunk. Arlette Saenz is covering the President-elect Biden.
Arlette, the context of this, right, is the second time this week the court has spoken with one voice and said, get out of here. And the electoral college, meeting on Monday, when this is all formalized, how is the president elect responding to the Supreme Court's unanimous decision tonight?
ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: Well, Erin, President-elect Biden's team is welcoming this decision from the Supreme Court. This is, as you mentioned, the 2nd time this week that they've gotten a ruling like this. They've always felt that Biden's victory was really sound in footing. That there was nothing that would up and the fact that Biden won this election. I want to read you a statement from one of Biden's campaign spokespersons, Mike Gwin.
He said, the Supreme Court has decisively and speedily rejected the latest of Donald Trump and his allies' attacks on the democratic process. This is no surprise. Dozens of judges, election officials for both parties, in Trump's own attorney general have dismissed his baseless attempts to deny that he lost the election. President-elect Biden's clear and commanding victory will be ratified by the Electoral College on Monday, and he will be sworn in on January 20th.
So, this decision from the Supreme Court is just the latest in a string of allegations that the president-elect and his team have gotten, regarding these legal efforts. They've largest with the challenges as political theater. They did not think anything that President Trump would bring up to legal action would change the outcome of the election. They will be waiting for that Electoral College vote on Monday to really give that decisive and to all of it as they prepare for Biden to take office in January -- Erin.
BURNETT: All right. Arlette, thank you.
And I want to go to the attorney general of District of Columbia, Karl Racine. He joins me on the phone. He is the president of the National Association of Attorneys General, which is obviously significant here given that 18 of them has signed on as -- to a friend of a court brief here.
What do you make of the ruling from the Supreme Court tonight, Attorney General?
KARK RACINE (D), ATTORNEY GENERAL, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA (via telephone): Erin, it's a pleasure to be with you, as always.
Look, we knew, anyone who studies law knows, that the Texas A.G.'s claim, and the other A.G.s who joined in, and Congress folks who joined in, had no legal basis. We were always confident in the rule of law, and that is that there is no Trump judge, no Obama judge. There is only a rule of law.
And the United States Supreme Court, as people say it's ideologically 6 to 3 on the Republican side resoundingly voted for democracy. Now is the time to move beyond this. I am not going to criticize the 18 folks who joined the brief. I'm
going to ask them to do what President Lincoln urged the South to do after the Civil War. Let's get together and bind this country's wounds. Let's move forward in a way that first takes care of the pandemic, and the people, the United States, who are suffering as a result of it. Donald Trump is a footnote in history that will be seen as a bad footnote, that will never go back to again. Let's talk about America.
BURNETT: So, Attorney General, let me ask you, because, obviously, in your capacity as president of the National Association of Attorneys General, you know all of these folks.
RACINE: I do.
BURNETT: And 18 of your fellow attorney generals, did sign on to the suit, right?
RACINE: Some are my friends.
BURNETT: Some are your friends, OK. And, by the way, I want to make it clear, plenty of Republican attorneys general did not sign on, but 18 of them did. And they know the law. They know, I would, presume that this was ridiculous.
Why do you think they did it?
RACINE: I think there's been unprecedented withering, coercion, and pressure, and threats by Donald Trump, to pressure people to join. I think it's probably a handful, less than a handful, who actually don't know the law and have been put in by poor campaign finance rules to be mouthpieces for honestly unbridled power.
And those few, I'm not going to name them, it's time for you to leave the attorney general room. The overwhelming majority come on back, work with us, as we move this country forward.
BURNETT: All right. Attorney General, I appreciate time, thank you very much.
RACINE: Thank you, Erin.
BURNETT: Attorney General Racine from Washington, District of Columbia.
And next, what's Congress doing to help Americans who now, right this hour, don't have the money to pay the rent.
[19:50:02]
Don't have the money for food. There is millions and millions of Americans in a situation tonight. That's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BURNETT: Tonight, failure, Washington stalled on a stimulus deal to provide much needed relief, urgently needed relief for tens of millions of Americans. Here are some of the numbers today. More than 850,000 Americans filed for the first time unemployment benefits last week, 850,000 -- 853,000 to be specific, the highest number since mid September. Nearly 6 million Americans have filed for unemployment benefits, at least 2 weeks in a row.
Another report finds out 14 million Americans are about to face eviction. They can't pay the rent. But since the last stimulus back in the spring, which was important, it happened quickly, it made a difference, there has been nothing, no one coming together on another bill.
[19:55:01]
All we've gotten from leaders in Washington is finger-pointing.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): This isn't half a loaf. What they're offering is heel of the loaf.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Nancy Pelosi doesn't want to approve. I do.
SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): What's standing in the way is Donald Trump, and most of all, McConnell's Senate.
SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY): At every turn, they've delayed, deflected, moved the goalposts.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Just complaining about each other.
OUTFRONT now, one restaurant owner who struggles, we've been following since the beginning of the pandemic, Tom Sopit. You know him. He is the owner of an Employees Only in Los Angeles. Before the pandemic, he had more than 40 employees. He now has about five employees working each night.
Tom, as I talk to you over the past eight months now, every time I've hoped this time will be the time we are going to talk about things are doing better. The changes have been successful. You've gotten the help that you need in order to get through this. You get to the other side when there's a vaccine. Yet this has not been the case.
I mean, Tom, how upset are you that Congress has just not responded yet?
TOM SOPIT, OWNER, EMPLOYEES ONLY: I'm upset. I'm frustrated. You know, over 100,000 restaurants have closed permanently in the last 200 days. More will keep closing if Congress doesn't do anything.
They need to put their politics aside, and they need to focus on American people and the small businesses losing everything every day. BURNETT: So, now, there's this bipartisan framework. That's all it is
at this point, for a $908 billion relief plan. And in it, Tom, more money for airlines, money for music venues, and those and say maybe endured necessarily. But my point here is there's no direct relief for independent restaurants or bars, which is basically the definition of restaurants and bars.
What do you say to that? Nine hundred and eight billion dollars, and no money for you and the millions like you.
SOPIT: We're the second largest private sector in the country. We employ 11 million people in the United States. This doesn't include our supply chain of wine -- wineries, farmers, breweries, the linen people, the janitors, everything.
It's -- their interests seem to only be the large corporations. The small businesses are not getting anything out of this. And we need relief now.
BURNETT: And now, I mean, what you've been doing, I know, you know, indoor dining was banned. So, then you had to twist yourself into a pretzel to become some sort of outdoor market, right, to be compliant with the rules.
You know, back in March you had to do with shutting down. What -- how much more runway do you have, Tom?
SOPIT: Well, we don't have much longer. I think that we're trying to hang on for as long as we can. We've invested quite a bit into our outdoor patio, and trying to make all the changes, and pivot accordingly.
But a lot of these decisions we don't really have a say. When they decide to close down, they just closed down. There's nothing we can really do about it.
So the only thing we're hoping for now is really federal aid.
BURNETT: So, how do you get by? I mean, how do you even plan, live your life like this?
SOPIT: We are just figuring it out day by day. We are hoping that each day is a bit better.
BURNETT: I want to play one more thing for you, Tom, if I can, because, obviously, you're going to have a new president at the end of January. And President-elect Biden did talk about the coronavirus really. Here's what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: Congress needs to act and act now, on the COVID package. It has to get done before they go home. Millions and millions of Americans simply can't wait any longer.
(END VIDEO CLIP) BURNETT: Saying the right thing, do you think things could actually change in a new administration when it comes to the practical reality of getting a bill, getting money to you and others like you?
SOPIT: We really hope so, because, you know, millions of people are going hungry. Millions of people are getting evicted. And thousands of small businesses are getting close to every day.
So we really hope. There's a lot of hope with this new administration. But I guess we're just going to have to wait and see.
BURNETT: All right, Tom. Well, I appreciate your time. Thank you very much.
Hoping that things change dramatically.
SOPIT: Thanks, Erin.
BURNETT: Thank you.
And thanks very much all of you for watching on this night. As we await news from the FDA, and, of course, breaking news out of the Supreme Court rejecting Trump's last desperate plea to overturn the election.
Let's hand it off now to "ANDERSON COOPER 360."
