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Erin Burnett Outfront

Trump Creates Chaos: Calls for Special Counsel to Probe Baseless Election Claims, Vetoes Defense Bill, Threatens Stimulus Bill; Trump Calls for Special Counsel to Probe Baseless Election Claims as He Causes Chaos, Test GOP Loyalty: "Coming Unhinged"; Trump Issues New Round of Pardons, Including Paul Manafort, Roger Stone, Jared Kushner's Father. Aired 7-8p ET

Aired December 23, 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: Thanks very much for watching. I'm Wolf Blitzer in THE SITUATION ROOM. You can always follow me on Twitter and Instagram @WOLFBLITZER. Tweet the show @CNNSITROOM.

Erin Burnett OUTFRONT starts right now.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN HOST: OUTFRONT next, unhinged. That is how one Republican aide describes the President tonight calling for a special counsel on election fraud vetoing one bill and he might scuttle another on his way out the door. Is it worse than we know?

Plus, we have breaking news, hospitalizations reached a record high in this country as a new forecast predicting an alarming number of deaths in the coming weeks.

And team Trump's repeated and false claims about a voting company's role in the election the President lost. Tonight an employee is in hiding after being targeted by Trump allies. He is our guest. Let's go OUTFRONT.

Good evening, everyone. I'm Kate Bolduan in for Erin Burnett.

OUTFRONT tonight breaking news, President Trump calling for a special counsel tonight to investigate his completely baseless allegations of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election, tweeting from aboard Air Force One tonight this, "I disagree with anyone that thinks a strong, fast and fair Special Counsel is not needed immediately."

Do you know who disagrees with Trump, the man who served as his attorney general until today. The man who would have appointed a special counsel if he saw any reason at all to do so, but he did not.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WILLIAM BARR, ATTORNEY GENERAL: If I thought a special counsel at this stage was the right tool and was appropriate, I would name one, but I haven't and I'm not going to.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: This is just another part of Trump's chaotic exit from Washington this evening, landing in Florida moments ago to spend Christmas at his Mar-A-Lago resort and leaving a disaster in his wake. A mess so big that one Republican aide told CNN he's coming unhinge. The President vetoing a massive defense bill on his way out of town, a bill with overwhelming support from his own party, a bill that authorizes pay raises for the U.S. military.

And now Republicans on Capitol Hill are anxiously watching to see if Trump will do the very same to their government funding and COVID relief bill. The scariest part of that threat for everyone involved is the President doesn't even seem to know what's in the bill. White House officials acknowledging to CNN that Trump himself had not received a detailed briefing on the package, why not?

Well, perhaps he was too busy with those meetings that we keep talking about and hearing more about, meetings with conspiracy theorists egging on the President on his misguided and dangerous attempt to overturn the election. If the President had read the bill, he wouldn't be complaining because a lot of his complaints are about what he actually asked for in his own annual budget.

For instance, Trump complained about $85.5 million for assistance to Cambodia. The Trump's budget proposal listed at 82.5 million for assistance for Cambodia. Trump complained about $1.3 billion for Egypt and the Egyptian military. Trump's budget proposal, 1.3 billion for assistance for Egypt. Trump went on to complain about $40 million for the Kennedy Performing Arts Center in Washington. Trump's budget proposal $40 million for the Kennedy Center. Trump complained about $154 million for the National Gallery of Art. Trump's budget proposal $161 million for the institution.

I could go on, so instead of reading the bill, because clearly he did not, the President is continuing to pursue dead ends to overturn the election and failing to do anything other than create chaos. Today, the President invited Pennsylvania's entire Republican senate caucus to the White House for lunch, still clinging to his impossible dream that they can somehow overturn the results of the election in the Commonwealth. They can't.

The President is also sending misguided message to his own White House staff. The White House management office telling staff in an email today to disregard a previous email with detailed information about their last days in the White House. Giving the impression, of course, that they will be there beyond January 20th. They won't.

And on top of that, according to The New York Times, the President is now turning on his closest allies, even on Vice President Mike Pence because he thinks pence should be doing more to defend him. The thing is, if even Mike Pence won't defend the President here, the President should probably understand that there may be nothing to defend, because in case you've forgotten Pence has spent the last four years doing everything he can to defend Donald Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE PENCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And President Donald Trump, I think the United States once again has a president whose vision, energy and can-do spirit is reminiscent of President Teddy Roosevelt.

I'm deeply humbled as your vice president to be able to be here.

I couldn't be more proud to stand alongside this president.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[19:05:00]

BOLDUAN: John Harwood is OUTFRONT tonight at the White House. John, why did the President vetoed this defense bill that his own party overwhelmingly supported?

JOHN HARWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kate, the stated reasons are two; one that he wanted the bill to contain the repeal of a provision of communications law that shields internet companies from liability for things third party say about them. He thinks big tech is out to get him and he wants to strike back. The other reason that's unrelated to defense. The defense-related reason is that the bill, Defense Authorization Act Congress contemplates the renaming of some military bases to get rid of the names of confederate heroes who they were named after.

The President who has made racist appeals as a big part of his political campaigns in the past wants to stop that. He doesn't want the confederate bases renamed. But the larger reason is that he's in psychological distress. The President cannot handle the blow to his psyche and his reputation of losing this election to Joe Biden. So he is thrashing about pretending he didn't win, launching, as you said, these crazy schemes to try to stop it and lashing out at people who recognize the reality that he lost, that includes Mitch McConnell, who shepherded this COVID relief and omnibus spending package that just passed the Congress.

And the significance of the veto of the NDAA is what it says about the possibility the President might actually try to take down COVID relief and trigger a government shutdown. We don't know that he's going to do that, but he certainly might. Washington is a mess right now and the reason Washington is a mess is that Donald Trump is a mess.

BOLDUAN: And he just skipped town. John, thank you. Phil Mattingly, let me get over Phil Mattingly right now. He's OUTFRONT as well. So Phil, on kind of where John just left off, Republicans overwhelmingly supported the defense bill. They overwhelmingly supported the government funding and COVID relief bill that we've talked so much about. What are they going to do about this?

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: So on the former Republicans we talked to you right now for the most part are all-in on overriding the President's veto of the National Defense Authorization Act. I think one place that Republicans feel comfortable if they're going to buck the President, it's on defense issues. And on the NDAA from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on down, they have made clear that they plan to override this veto and it looks like they will be able to do it, depending on how House Republicans go. They've already teed up the process to do just that next week. They

knew this was coming. On the COVID relief piece, it's more just keep your heads down. And it's fascinating to watch, Kate, I've actually seen it play out multiple times over the course of the last four years, where the President kind of goes through something like this and Republicans decided that it's better to just kind of leave him be and hope he works his way out of it and kind of comes back to them.

In the end, the reality over the course of the last 18 hours, I guess, were the most fascinating thing is how few people know anything about what's going on right now, including some former allies to some close allies to the President. He's obviously in a feud right now with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, because Mitch McConnell deigned his willingness to acknowledge that Joe Biden was going to be the President-elect.

McConnell is often the person who is on the phone privately without anybody knowing kind of walking the President towards an area that Republicans are more comfortable with. Now, Kate, he did speak with Kevin McCarthy, the Republican Leader. McCarthy in a private conference call with House Republicans today saying that the President did not commit to vetoing the COVID relief package, but he was unhappy with it.

I think the big question right now and McCarthy didn't give many details as to what happens next, it's just that, what happens next because right now nobody knows and there are very, very real deadlines at play, Kate.

BOLDUAN: It is unbelievable, but also I guess not at this point. Phil, thank you.

OUTFRONT tonight, Abby Phillip, CNN Political Correspondent, David Gergen who served as Presidential Advisor to Four Presidents and former Republican Congresswoman, Mia Love. Thank you guys for being here.

David, what is your take on this? What is the President trying to accomplish with any and all of this?

DAVID GERGEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, I think he's, first and foremost, desperately trying to hold on to power. He's going to cling to those curtains in the Oval Office until the very last second on January 20th. But when he realizes this power is draining away, I think his second objective is to keep himself in the news.

And I think he intentionally wants to take these pardons, which will grow increasingly controversial, it named his kids and then he named himself to create alternative and competing stories so that you don't have three or four days or a week of focus on the pardons, you spread that out. I think that's partly what he's doing with these domestic bills and partly what he's doing as veto potential war drum with Iran. He's trying to do (inaudible) other subjects.

BOLDUAN: Congresswoman, as David was saying, one thing we know is that the President wants desperately to keep control of the Republican Party, but I'm wondering your perspective on if he's desperate to do that, is driving a wedge within the party the way to go about it?

[19:10:06]

MIA LOVE, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: This is something that I'm all too familiar with. When I was serving in the House of Representatives and the President was in the White House, they would tell us all the time, whenever there was a major bill coming up, we don't want to push anything forward that the President is not going to sign. This happened on immigration.

The President came to conference and said, I just put a bill in front of me; Goodlatte (ph) one or Goodlatte (ph) two, we did that and then he started hearing a whole lot of things from a whole lot of people and then he turned his back and said, I'm not signing this. I never said I would sign this.

My guess is Kevin spoke to the President. Kevin speaks to the President all the time. This is the minority leader in the House and Mitch McConnell speaks to the President all the time. I don't think anybody should be baffled that the President just turned his back and said, I'm not going to sign this. This is par for the course for me. I've seen this happen one too many times.

BOLDUAN: And Abby, and then add to that that according to the New York Times, Trump's even complaining now about Mike Pence. That Mike Pence isn't even fighting hard enough for him and Jared Kushner, now, according to the Times won't get involved, because he's told people according to the Times that the President is his children's grandfather, and one of the kind of eternal questions remains, are there seriously no adults left in the room?

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, there are certainly no adults left who the President wants to listen to. I think we should be very mindful of the fact that according to our reporting in The New York Times and other outlets, last week on Friday when the President had that unhinged meeting in the Oval Office about ways to overturn the election, and posited naming Sidney Powell as a special counsel, a lot of other people in that room, including people who have actually been pretty supportive of his efforts to overturn the election disagreed with that.

And then just a few minutes ago, as he was landing in Mar-A-Lago, he resurfaced this idea of a special counsel. It really does suggest that the President continues to push back against people who are around him who might disagree with his more outlandish ideas. His circle is getting smaller and smaller as the days go on and as long as that happens, I think it's going to be - we're in for a really bumpy ride here.

The President is only listening to a few people and they're the ones who are telling him exactly what he wants to hear and also telling him some things that are really outside of the bounds of our democracy, and outside of the bounds of things that are appropriate for him to do. So I think that this is getting more extreme and not less.

BOLDUAN: Let me add one more that, Abby, as you will point out the call out for special counsel again, adding one more to that, David, is tonight the President was also tweeting about a rocket attack against the U.S. embassy in Baghdad this weekend pointing to Iran as being responsible. And part of the tweet, he adds, in also saying, "Some friendly health advice to Iran: if one American is killed, I will hold Iran responsible. Think it over."

And I'm sitting here with 28 days left in the Trump administration, a military conflict with Iran and a final 20 days of his presidency, what would that add to this chaos?

GERGEN: I think bottom line here we're entering the most dangerous period in the Trump presidency in the next 28 days. Bill Barr has now left that as Attorney General. We're going to have a new acting attorney general, who knows what Trump can force this new acting Jeffrey Rosen to do. He can order all sorts of things, especially on the pardon front.

But this Iranian question is really, really serious. The tensions have been building as you well know and we're approaching a point, January 3rd, which is going to be first year anniversary, when we took out Soleimani and it caused such tensions between U.S. and Iran. And now the Iranians are sending rockets in Baghdad toward the U.S. Embassy. They haven't really hurt anybody, but Trump is warning and giving himself a pretext if he needs it, if he wants it he'll have a pretext for using military action.

And that is part of the worst-case scenario. If in the next 28 days for variety of reasons Trump starts sending military forces one way or another, even putting him in the streets of the United States, then we're in really serious crisis territory.

BOLDUAN: Congresswoman, getting back to what Republicans in Congress will or won't do. I mean, at some point, do you think they can, I don't know, successfully just put their heads into the sand and wait this out for 28 days? I mean, they have the votes to override the veto on the defense bill, they have made that clear that that is one area that they will buck the President as Phil Mattingly is reporting.

[19:15:04]

But someone has to say something when it comes to this government- funding bill and this COVID relief bill. This isn't a political football, this is lives, this is livelihoods, this is people standing at food banks that need help in this moment. And the fact that Republicans just still are on a private conference call trying to figure out what's going on rather than standing up and screaming, this is ridiculous. I don't think it actually still should shock people.

LOVE: One of the major frustrations, again, that I had is that we got into the habit of negotiating with the White House not knowing whether they were going to stand behind those negotiations. It is the House of Representatives and Congress's job to write bills and write legislation, and then send it to the White House for the White House to execute. Sign those bills into law and execute them.

But I've been saying this over and over again, it is not the job of Congress to stand behind the President or any president. Their job is to represent the people that have voted them into those positions. And if they can start getting that, if everybody can remember that, then the American people would best be served. But this is why we're seeing all of this frustration this back and forth and at the 11th hour that discord with the President saying he may veto the stimulus bill and has already decided that he is going to go against defense spending.

BOLDUAN: And look Abby, it may seem small when we're talking about lives and livelihoods at stake here. But what is the deal with this email back and forth at the White House over this is the exit plan, this is the exit process, here's the detailed information about your last days in the White House like how you're going to receive your final paycheck, except now they receive another email today saying never mind guidance is coming.

PHILLIP: It's another just normal administrative process that has become subject to the President's whims that this email was basically telling people what they already know that on January 20th, they're no longer going to have jobs at the White House. And this is the process and the procedure by which that's going to happen and now it's being rolled back, because if you know the people at the White House recognize that that story getting out would infuriate the President.

So it's silly, but, Kate, look, people in the White House are planning for their next jobs. They are starting their consulting firms, they're going out, they're getting other jobs. They're doing the things that they know they have to do if they want to be employed at the end of January. And so all of this is just a sideshow. People who work in that building know that this is over on January 20, whether the President wants to admit that or not.

BOLDUAN: Just hold on until then. Buckle up actually is the word we must continue to use. Thank you very much, guys.

OUTFRONT for us next, we have some more breaking news. The U.S. shattering hospitalization records tonight as the coronavirus crisis pushes the healthcare system to the brink. Americans are being warned about many more deaths to come.

Plus, Bill Barr's final day, he marched in lockstep with Donald Trump until he broke ranks at the very end. So what is his legacy?

And an employee of a voting systems company forced into hiding after the Trump campaign and allies promoted lies about the election. He is my guest.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:22:01]

BOLDUAN: We have more breaking news in tonight. The President of the United States just issuing a slew of new pardons. I want to get straight over to Pamela Brown in Washington for us once again this evening. Pam, who's on the list?

PAMELA BROWN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kate, the President continues his revenge against the Russia investigation tonight by rewarding two former advisors indicted by special counsel Robert Mueller, issuing full pardons to his former campaign chairman Paul Manafort who was convicted for a slew of financial crimes and to Roger Stone after completing his sentence earlier this year. Also on this list just released from the White House, Jared Kushner's father, Charles Kushner. Let's take through this.

Paul Manafort and Roger Stone, they were indicted by special counsel Robert Mueller, went to trial, convicted by juries of multiple crimes. Investigators say Manafort broke the cooperation agreement by lying to them. Roger Stone never cooperated after lying to Congress to protect the President and has never shown remorse.

So now both men are being rewarded by the President for their loyalty. The President as we know, Kate, has been long aggrieved by the Russia probe and has said he thinks his advisors were treated unfairly. It's worth noting here the Mueller report detailed in the obstruction of justice part how Trump's team, Trump himself dangled pardons as a way to protect himself and now we're seeing the President's plan play out with these pardons here, these full pardons to Paul Manafort and Roger Stone.

Also tonight, Charles Kushner, the father to the President's son-in- law, Jared Kushner. He was convicted of illegal campaign contributions, tax evasion and witness tampering and he served a 24- month sentence. Now, White House officials tell me that Jared did not advocate for his father to get the pardon, because it was the unspoken word between him and Trump that this would happen. That is what sources have told me and my colleague, Gloria Borger.

But overall, the story here, Kate, that is emerging from these pardons is that the President is using his pardon power to reward those close to him, some of whom likely would not have met the DOJ criteria for pardoning. And it's really significant when you think of this pardon for Paul Manafort. As you'll recall, Kate, me and my colleague, Evan Perez, we were the first ones to break the news that Robert Mueller was indicting him.

And so now to be sitting here saying that he has been given a full pardon by the President in the Russia probe is truly remarkable.

BOLDUAN: Pamela, thank you so much for bringing it to us.

Let me bring in right now, Abby Phillip, she's back with us, Nick Ackerman joining us now served as Assistant Special Prosecutor for Watergate and Evan Perez, CNN's Senior Justice Correspondent.

Evan, first to you, everyone was waiting for these names to drop. What statement is the President making tonight with this?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, the President is saying repeatedly that essentially the Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation overreached. He called it a hoax which is a word that he's used to describe this investigation since the beginning, Kate.

[19:25:01]

But one of the things that I think when you step back and you look, especially at the two Russia investigation figures here, Paul Manafort and Roger Stone. The President is essentially rewarding these two men for refusing to cooperate with prosecutors. In the case of Paul Manafort, according to the Mueller report, he spoke to another witness, Rick Gates, and said that he had had conversations with the President's lawyers and had been told that they were going to be taken care of.

In the end, that's one of the reasons why prosecutors said that even though he signed a plea agreement, he ended up not providing full cooperation during that. And as for Roger Stone, he went to or he was sentenced, rather, to prison for lying on behalf of the President to protect the President. That's what the court said. And so both men, essentially, went to the ends of the earth to protect President Trump and he is rewarding that.

As far as the Charles Kushner pardon, that's an interesting one, because Chris Christie, who obviously is very close to the President was the man who sent him to prison. And so that's been one of the interesting parts of this waiting for that pardon to come, which we all expected to come.

BOLDUAN: And Abby, I mean, with Charles Kushner here, I mean, I guess Trump checks maybe the final box of pardoning someone with family ties.

PHILLIP: Dipping his toe in the waters of family pardons, I think, is what we can certainly say this is. I think it definitely kind of warms people up for the idea that the President is more than willing to pardon people just simply because of their personal connection to him. That's been true, though, for some time. If you look at all of the pardons the President has issued, since he's been president, the vast majority of them have gone to political allies, people who he is personally close to and not to people who would have gone through a normal process or people who you could make a case where the criminal justice system has worked against them.

This is a president who has been waiting for this moment to undo the Mueller investigation. But Kate, I think one of the important things about what we're seeing here is this is clearly also a president who knows that his pardon power is running out. He only has a few more days to use it, so he's using it in the most provocative way possible, which tells you everything you need to know about whether he truly believes that he will be president come January 21, 2021 which we know he will not be.

BOLDUAN: And we have actually a bit of sound I want to play as we were talking about the webs and ties here of Chris Christie being the prosecutor that put Charles Kushner behind bars. Let me play for you what Chris Christie has had to say about this in the past.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS CHRISTIE, FORMER GOVERNOR OF NEW JERSEY: I just think that it was so obviously had to be prosecuted. I mean, if a guy hires a prostitute to seduce his brother-in-law and videotapes it and then sends the video tape to sister to attempt to intimidate her from testifying before a grand jury, do I really need any more justification than that?

I mean, it's one of the most loathsome, disgusting crimes that I prosecuted when I was U.S. Attorney. And I was U.S. Attorney in New Jersey, Margaret (ph), so we have some loathsome and disgusting crime going on there. But I just laid out the facts and any objective person with facts knows - confronted with those facts, I had a moral and an ethical obligation to bring that prosecution.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: But that does not make it pardon proof, Nick.

NICK ACKERMAN, FMR. ASSISTANT SPECIAL WATERGATE PROSECUTOR: It doesn't make it pardon proof on the state level. But in terms of loathing, disgusting crimes what we're witnessing now is a culmination of Trump's effort to obstruct justice on the Russian matter. He has pardoned Roger Stone, who was the interface between the Trump campaign and Donald Trump and the Russian hackers and WikiLeaks that was releasing the stolen documents during the 2016 campaign.

Roger Stone was convicted for covering up for Donald Trump. He is pardoned now. Paul Manafort who was the Trump campaign's liaison to the Russian intelligence agent, Kilimnik, who had the job of picking up the detailed polling data that the Russian agents used in St. Petersburg to suppress the Hillary Clinton vote during the 2000 election. And he's pardon Michael Flynn, who was convicted for lying about his conversation with the Russian ambassador that he did at the behest of Donald Trump (inaudible) relations after the Russians had backed him during the campaign.

If you notice, the only two people in the Russian investigation that have not been pardoned are Rick Gates and Michael Cohen. The two people who cooperated and testified truthfully to the government.

[19:30:03]

What we have witnessed now, and what we have witnessed a last few months, is an obstruction of justice in real time, and this is really the culmination of it. Donald Trump is intent on making sure that the truth about his connections and what he did in the 2000 campaign with Russia never sees the light of day. That's what these pardons are all about.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN HOST: Evan, on Roger Stone, folks remember -- I think it was in July the president has already granted Stone -- commuted his -- Roger Stoner's sentence. What is the difference now that he gets a full pardon?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, the president says that now that he has given him a full pardon, it means that Roger Stone can do everything he can to work on these issues of criminal justice reform which Roger Stone has been already going around claiming that's what he's trying to do.

Really the commutation, all it did, it saved him from having to go to prison back in July. At the time, one of the reasons the president said, he's in his 70s, because of the COVID situation, he didn't want to send Roger to prison.

So now, he is able to -- this wipes it away. It's as if it never happened.

BOLDUAN: Thanks, guys.

OUTFRONT with me now, Democratic congressman from Connecticut, Jim Himes. He sits on the House Intelligence Committee.

Congressman, I'd just like your reaction in seeing this latest list of pardons, Roger Stone, Paul Manafort, Russian investigation be damned.

(LAUGHTER)

REP. JIM HIMES (D-CT): Not one bit surprising, Erin. And we have not seen the last of it.

Donald Trump doesn't surprise us anymore. What he does is always only in his self interest. And so, he is rewarding people as your previous guest have pointed, who he regarded as a being useful to him.

That, of course, is legal in our Constitution. It's not even close to what the pardon power is designed to do. The pardon power is designed to be uplifting. You know, it's designed to introduce mercy into a system of justice, which sometimes can be unmerciful.

To not just address the extenuating circumstances of somebody who's committed a crime, but it's supposed to uplift us all. You know, a parent who committed a crime to feed a hungry child, somebody who committed an act of violence to protect somebody who is vulnerable. Maybe technically illegal, but when a pardon happens in those circumstances, it's uplifting.

When it happens in the circumstances, to the murderers of yesterday, the grifters, the members of Congress who insider traded to make money for themselves, and now, course the people who supported the president, all it does is drags us and our country into the mud with President Trump.

BOLDUAN: Congressman, I mean, now, we have for people who are charged with the Mueller probe, that the president has now pardoned. So, I mean, he's got days left to go, right? So, by the time this is done, what's going to be left of the Mueller investigation?

HIMES: Well, you know, history has a way of writing the truth. I know that Donald Trump and Donald Trump supporters have done everything they can to suggest it was one big hoax.

But I was right in the middle of, it you can go back and read the Mueller report. It is a catalogue of absolutely awful behavior. It's the president son looking for dirt from Russians. It's the president's campaign manager conveying pulling information to a known Russian intelligence agent.

It's George Papadopoulos lying about how -- lying to the FBI after telling people that the Russians -- I mean, it's just a catalogue of awful behavior, and lying and grifting.

And it wasn't at the end of the day, according to Mueller, chargeable or indictable crime. But it's still, some of the sleaziest behavior.

I mean look, the behavior in the Mueller report makes Richard Nixon look like a choir boy.

And there's just no changing that. This is, of course, what the president is trying to do. He's trying to whitewash that.

BOLDUAN: And these pardons come on the same day that the Attorney General Bill Barr, that he stepped down, he resigned. Is there coincidence in this timing?

HIMES: Well, I'm not sure about that. There was no way in the world that the attorney general was going to make a peep about the sleazy pardons. You know, Attorney General Barr's time in office will be remembered as him again, being just an agent of Donald Trump. So, the idea that the attorney general is going to say something I think is farfetched.

But, again, it's all part of the same story. You know, Donald Trump could have let the attorney general finish out, what have we got, 20 days?

BOLDUAN: Twenty.

HIMES: As attorney general?

Because Barr went against him on the fantasy that he won the election, you know, he got shown the door three weeks early.

BOLDUAN: While I have, you we know the president vetoed the crucial defense bill, the NDAA, and now, the COVID relief bill and government funding bill are hanging in the balance, hanging in limbo.

[19:35:00]

Do you know what's going on here?

HIMES: Well, I think I know what's going on. Donald Trump can't not be in the limelight, at the center of attention. And he's managed to yank that spotlight back to him, today.

Look the NDAA veto is pathetic, absurd, and mean. This is -- this is the mechanism by which we give raises to our soldiers and sailors and marines and airmen. And Donald Trump has said, no, we're not going to do that.

He's threatening to hold up desperately needed food aid in money in unemployment, the people who are really suffering. And that's all because he's throwing a temper tantrum, and bizarrely, as you know in the NDAA, because he's angry about renaming military bases away from Confederate generals, people who fought against the United States of America.

So, this is all about Donald Trump's desperation, to keep himself at the center of the limelight, even if the House burns down around him.

BOLDUAN: Thanks for coming in.

HIMES: Thank you.

BOLDUAN: OUTFRONT for us next, breaking news on the coronavirus -- hospitalizations are at an all-time high in the United States. Is this health crisis officially out of control, once again?

And the personal and frightening toll of repeated lies from Trump allies about a stolen election have an employee of a voting systems company. He tells us how he is now fighting back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:40:16]

BOLDUAN: In the breaking news, the U.S. breaking record coronavirus hospitalizations for the 3rd consecutive day. As the CDC projects as many as 93,000 additional deaths, in just over the next three weeks.

OUTFRONT now is William Haseltine, groundbreaking HIV and AIDS researcher and former professor at Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Public Health, and Dr. Jonathan Reiner, director of the cardiac cath lab at G.W. Hospital, also an adviser to the White House medical team under President George W. Bush.

Professor Haseltine, these grim numbers come amid these now new worries over the coronavirus strains in the U.K. and in South Africa.

The NIH director said today that he is concerned that our countries surveillance system is not adequate to keep up with tracking these coronavirus strains. How likely is it then that you think the South African strain is here as is thought with the U.K. strain?

WILLIAM HASELTINE, FORMER PROFESSOR, HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL & HARVARD SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH: Well, first of all, I would say that the tragedy that we are seeing in real time is these Thanksgiving bump. And we are about, at the end of January, about a month from now, going to see a mountain, which I will call the New Year's mountain. People are traveling. They are getting infected, not only from the viruses that are around but some of these new strains.

It's very likely, in the 300,000 British travelers per month the reach the United States that virus has come here. It's likely that the South African viruses come here. And it is likely we are creating our own strains right here at home.

The NIH director is right. Other countries, including South Africa, are doing a much better job at surveilling they are types of viruses. We need to know what our enemy is so that we can fight it. BOLDUAN: Dr. Reiner, New York's Governor Andrew Cuomo, he's been

speaking up about his frustration with the federal government, the lack of action. He has wanted travel to be banned from the United Kingdom. He wants testing to happen as well.

Listen to this from him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. ANDREW CUOMO (D), NEW YORK: Why aren't we saying test the travelers in the U.K. before they get on a plane? That HHS, and the CDC have not acted on this is really reprehensible.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: The reason he is asking it is because that the CDC has not really spoken up with regard to these new strains and what the guidance should be.

Should the CDC have spoken up by now?

DR. JONATHAN REINER, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: Absolutely. The CDC has been largely sidelined for months. And Director Redfield pushed to the side, you know, for many weeks and months now.

The federal government in the spring ceded most of the coronavirus response to the states, and now we are seeing the outcome of that.

Where is the task force? The task force has not held a press conference other than once in the last 6 months. Where is the head of the task force, the vice president? Do you know where he is? He's going to Vail, Colorado, on vacation.

How is it possible that the head of the coronavirus task force when our hospitals are literally drowning and our health care providers are drowning, where we're having 3400 deaths a day, that he is going on vacation? Where is the leadership? There is not none. It is a rudderless ship.

BOLDUAN: Let me add to that actually, Professor, because CNN has new reporting tonight that the White House Coronavirus Task Force has informed states that they are no longer going to be sending out weekly state specific updates, with data and specific guidance and recommendations for the states that the states are now going to have to request to it for them to get.

Look, this may be just one layer of the response and the job of the task force, but I'm sitting here and wondering, what do you think it means in terms of how engaged the task force is at this point if they are offering less information, not more?

HASELTINE: Well, we known as Dr. Reiner has said, we have known for a long time there has been virtually no real leadership on COVID. In fact the leadership has been negative. They encourage people not to wear masks, they minimize the seriousness of the disease, they said just let this virus go, let them get infected. This is the consequence. We are the worst nation in the world, by far,

to suffer from this disease, and even in the current pandemic, which is around the world, during the winter here, and the winter months, other countries are taking very serious actions.

[19:45:01]

They are locking down people over Christmas in Great Britain, a holiday which is almost synonymous with the life of that country.

That's how seriously they are taking it. And what are we doing? More travelers than you can imagine packing the airports, without masks, some with masks. But it really doesn't matter. They're getting together and they are going to suffer the consequences.

We're going to see very serious disease and many people that are going on those vacations are going to die at the end of January.

BOLDUAN: Professor Haseltine, Dr. Reiner, thank you.

OUTFRONT for us next, repeated claims from the Trump campaign and allies about a stolen election aren't just talk. The chilling effects on one employee's life, one employee of a voting system company whose life could be ruined now. He's OUTFRONT.

And the border wall, the physical symbol of the divide between those who are for and against it. Where do things stand tonight?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I promise you it's never going to secure the country, not any better than it's already secured.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BOLDUAN: New tonight, on notice. Dominion Voting Systems sending letters to both White House counsel, Pat Cipollone, and President Trump's personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, to keep all records related to the baseless claims that their voting machines changed votes to help Joe Biden win. Why you may ask. Because the company says that legal action against Giuliani is, quote, imminent.

This as a top campaign with Dominion is now suing the Trump campaign and allies, including Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell. The lawsuit saying this, in part, defendants knowingly circulated and amplified a baseless conspiracy theory to challenge the integrity of the presidential election. While this theory has been thoroughly rejected, its immediate and life-threatening effects remain very real.

OUTFRONT with me, the man behind the lawsuit, Erik Coomer. He is Dominion's director of product strategy and security.

Eric, thank you for coming on. First, I do need to say that there is no evidence that you or your

company did anything to manipulate or steal any election. The Trump administration itself has actually said this was the most secure election in U.S. history. But for a month now, you have had to be in hiding. We are not revealing your location for security reasons.

Can you describe what these conspiracy theories and disinformation surrounding you and your company have done to your life?

ERIC COOMER, DOMINION VOTING SYSTEMS EXEC SUING TRUMP CAMPAIGN, OTHERS: Yeah, thank you, Kate, and good evening. Thanks for having me on.

To put -- to put it briefly, what I've experienced over the last six weeks has been a complete upheaval of my life. As you mentioned, I have been in hiding in a secure location. I have not been able to return to my normal life since all these baseless accusations came out.

You know, I'm currently, for security reasons for both myself, my colleagues, I'm currently on leave from my position. So I'm not working. I'll still employed with the company but I am on leave due to the security concerns. So, it's been, again, a complete upheaval of my day-to-day life.

BOLDUAN: And this is because, as I understand it, you've been receiving death threats daily, threats to your family, threats to your colleagues. It all started really just days after the election. An activist out of Colorado accusing you and the company of even being on some scheme to make sure that Trump wouldn't win.

And I want to give you the opportunity to ask you for the record, Eric, have you been involved in changing any votes? Deleting any votes? Or impacting any votes? Or even being on phone calls about doing so?

COOMER: Never, I've never even joked about influencing elections. I've done this for 15 years, and I do it because I really believe in the democratic process. It's not a joking matter.

And even, even if I wanted to there is no way for me to manipulate those votes. I don't have access to state and county election systems journey an election. I've never written a single line of code that's used in Dominion's product, that's out in the field. Again, I've never made any statements, even joking to friends, families or loved ones, about influence in the election.

And to be clear, I am in hiding because I have received many death threats, it's on a continual basis. My entire family, their private information has been published online, in what's referred to as doxxing. You know, all of my private information has been released online, people have taken photos of my house, people have threatened to come by and lynch me, decapitate me, they referred to me as a traitor. And it is not safe for me to go about my daily life. And, you know, even my father has received harassing letters to his home. BOLDUAN: I do want to play for going just so they can grasp what

you've been facing, just a sampling of white people have been saying, with these conspiracy theories, how they have made it on to television.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUDY GIULIANI, PERSONAL ATTORNEY FOR PRESIDENT TRUMP: The Coomer character, who is close to Antifa, he specifically says that they're going to fix this election.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let me ask you about this guy Eric Coomer. He's I think he works for Dominion, he said supposedly don't worry about Trump, I've already -- I have already made sure he's going to lose the election. Is that -- is that true for starters?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's true, you have that?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's true.

CHANEL RION, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, OAN: In Coomer's case, he was in a position of power to actually act upon his rage against Trump and Trump voters, what does he mean when he says Trump won't win, I made F-ing sure of that? Nothing?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: And so, now, today, yesterday, you filed this lawsuit, you're filling -- you're suing a slew of them for defamation. What would you like to get out of this?

COOMER: Well, ultimately and primarily, I want to set the record straight and try to reclaim my reputation. But, secondarily, you know, people need to be held accountable. Their statements, they're baseless accusations have real consequences. I am -- I am not a public figure, I have never sought out any publicity or limelight, or spotlight. I have been thrust into this, by these accusations.

And again, my safety and the safety of my family is at risk. Somebody needs to be held accountable for that, the people that are in this filing should be held accountable.

BOLDUAN: Eric, thank you for coming on.

COOMER: Thank you so much for having.

BOLDUAN: Thank you.

Tonight, with just four weeks left in his administration, president Trump is not giving up on one of his biggest campaign promises, his border wall. He's racing to finish as much of these can.

Ed Lavandera is OUTFRONT.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ED LAVANDERA, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): If you want a taste of life on the Arizona-Mexico border, ride shotgun in Kelly Kimbro's 1992 desert beaten Ford pick up truck.

KELLY KIMBRO, ARIZONA RANCHER: We're not big time ranchers. We have a couple of cattle ranches. We make a living. We love the lifestyle.

LAVANDERA: It's hard to tell where the United States ends and Mexico begins on Kimbro's 800 acres in southeast Arizona.

This year, that changed. The Trump administration is carving a 19-mile wall right through this wide open value.

What's it like to see this massive construction project on your property?

KIMBRO: We did not think it was necessary.

[19:55:03]

LAVANDERA: Construction crews moved in about a year ago. This is what the wall looked like across the San Bernardino Valley in February. This is what it looks like today. Some see it as a long scar.

KIMBRO: And the American taxpayer doesn't see. They hear build that wall. It's going to secure this country. I promise you it's never going to secure the country, not any better than it's already secured.

LAVANDERA: In the final weeks of the Trump presidency, the rush is on to finish building at least 450 miles of the border walls. Customs and Border Protection officials say at least 438 miles of that are now complete.

As the coronavirus pandemic raged this year, border wall construction never stopped.

For months, anti-wall activists have documented what they describe as an environmental catastrophe unfolding along the southern border, crews blasting and bulldozing through rugged mountainous terrain.

Border Patrol officials say the new walls are vital to patrolling these remote regions.

DANIEL HERNANDEZ, BORDER PATROL AGENT: Good infrastructure buys us more time and gives us the critical seconds and minutes we need to get to an area. But as of now, a lot has been erected and we're hoping in the future it pays off dividends.

LAVANDERA: The Army Corps of Engineers say eight border wall projects have been finished with crews actively working around the clock on 37 other projects.

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT-ELECT: Good evening, my fellow Americans.

LAVANDERA: The question is what happens when President-elect Joe Biden takes office? Biden has pledged he would not build another foot of border wall.

BRANDON JUDD, NATIONAL BORDER PATROL COUNCIL: There's construction that's taking place. It's going to go up this mountain.

LAVANDERA: Brandon Judd leads the National Border Patrol Council. The union has been a vocal ally of President Trump. Judge says it would be foolish for Biden to stop the construction now.

JUDD: You can see the trench that go straight up that line. Those are the footers. What? You're just going to throw that away. That doesn't make any sense because now you're just throwing money down in the toilet.

LAVANDERA: Halting construction isn't enough for some anti-wall activists.

KATE SCOTT, ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVIST: Take the wall down in the areas it needs to be taken down right away.

LAVANDERA: We hiked to this border wall stretching the San Pedro River bed in Arizona with environmentalist Kate Scott. She says this construction is a deadly threat to wildlife that migrates through this area.

SCOTT: I can tell you, we wake up, we cry, we steady ourselves and we get to work because it's been so painful for me to witness this monstrosity.

LAVANDERA: But the wall also isn't being built fast enough for Jim Chilton.

JIM CHILTON, ARIZONA RANCHER: The international boundary.

LAVANDERA: Right?

CHILTON: Yeah.

LAVANDERA: This isn't the kind of wall you want?

CHILTON: No.

LAVANDERA: His ranch spans across 50,000 acres in Arizona. Chilton is lobbying for a wall on this spot. He says it's a low priority area because it's so remote but he does have the ear of the border wall's biggest cheerleader.

President Trump put Chilton in the spotlight during a rally last year.

CHILTON: Mr. President, we need a wall.

I offered the federal government ten acres of land over here of my private property to have a forward operation base. I offered it for $1 a year. And I even told them, I'll give you the dollar if you can't find one.

LAVANDERA: You've made the Border Patrol, the federal government an offer you thought they couldn't refuse.

CHILTON: They said they would study it. That was four years ago.

LAVANDERA: Chilton's ranch sits between a 25-mile gap and existing border wall and he says it's prime terrain for drug smugglers. He's deployed hidden cameras to capture what he says are more than a thousand images of camouflaged smugglers marching across his ranch.

CHILTON: My ranch is a no man's land. It's actually controlled by the cartel.

LAVANDERA: Laiken Jordahl has spent a year sounding the alarm about border wall construction in Arizona.

LAIKEN JORDAHL, CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY: This wall is purely political theater. It does nothing to actually stop people or drugs from crossing the border.

LAVANDERA: Jordahl drove us around Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, a breathtaking national park in the heart of the Sonoran Desert. The tranquility of the landscape is broken by the sounds of crews building more than 60 miles of wall, part of it through this national park. He calls himself a disaster tour guide.

JORDAHL: They're pulling out all the stops to rush this project through. This is all trash.

LAVANDERA: Jordahl used to work as a U.S. National Park ranger at the Organ Pipe National Monument in Arizona. He says he resigned after President Trump took office.

JORDAHL: It's really an insult to those of us who live down here. We're seeing our communities ripped apart. We're seeing these ecosystems being destroyed. We don't care what you call it, this thing is a disaster.

LAVANDERA: Ed Lavandera, CNN, along the Arizona-Mexico border.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BOLDUAN: Ed, thank you so much.

And thank you all so much for joining us tonight. I'm Kate Bolduan.

The breaking news of pardons, chaos, and the president flying out of town continues right now, with John Berman and "AC360", right now.