Return to Transcripts main page
Erin Burnett Outfront
Obama Delivers Closing Argument in New Ossoff Campaign Ad; Nashville Police Defend Actions After Docs Show Bomber's Girlfriend Told Them in 2019 He Was Building Explosives in an RV; Congressman- Elect Luke Letlow Dies at Age 41 After Battling COVID; Rep. Ralph Abraham (R-LA) is Interviewed about Congressman-Elect Letlow's Death. Aired on 7-8p ET
Aired December 30, 2020 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JIM ACOSTA, CNN HOST: Lorraine Shiffman of Michigan was 87 years old. Her daughter, Randi (ph), says she was vibrant and strong and dedicated her life to being a wife, mother, grandmother and great grandmother. She became an avid stone collector while spending winters in Arizona and may she rest in peace. I'm Jim Acosta.
Erin Burnett OUTFRONT starts right now.
BIANNA GOLODRYGA, CNN HOST: OUTFRONT next breaking news, the CDC projects as many as 82,000 COVID deaths in just the next three weeks, as California is now the second state to detect the highly contagious COVID strain. All of this as Operation Warp Speed is anything but.
And more breaking news on Capitol Hill tonight, a Republican senator saying that he will challenge the Presidential election results next week when Congress tallies the votes and he isn't ruling out contesting multiple states.
And a 41-year-old congressman-elect with two small children dies from COVID complications. His doctor said he had no underlying conditions. His mentor and friend is my guest. Let's go OUTFRONT.
And good evening, everyone. I'm Bianna Golodryga in for Erin Burnett.
OUTFRONT tonight breaking news, a grim new projection. The CDC predicting up to 82,000 more Americans will die from coronavirus in just the next few weeks. That's more than 3,400 deaths every day.
Now, it comes as that highly infectious strain of coronavirus has now been identified in a second state. This time hard-hit California. We're learning new details about this case and the case in Colorado. And in a moment, I'll talk to one of Colorado's top epidemiologist.
But this news could not come at a worse time. Today, the CDC reporting nearly 2.6 million Americans have received the coronavirus vaccine. That's a far cry from the 20 million the administration promised by the end of the year, which incidentally is tomorrow. Even the administration admitting today that there are problems.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We know that it should be better and we're working
hard to make it better.
DR. BRETT GIROIR, ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR HEALTH, HHS: Yes, of course, we need to be doing a better job.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GOLODRYGA: At the current rate of vaccinations, it will take 10 years for this country to achieve herd immunity at the current rate according to emergency physician and CNN Contributor Dr. Leana Wen. Yet, the President, well, he's patting himself on the back tweeting, "The Federal Government has distributed the vaccines to the states. Now it's up to the states to administer. Get moving."
Trump passing the buck just one week after taking credit for the number of vaccinations. "Distribution of both vaccines is going very smoothly," he wrote. "Amazing how many people are being vaccinated, record numbers."
Record numbers but not for the United States. When it comes to vaccinations per 100,000 people as you can see, the United States trails the United Kingdom, Bahrain and Israel. And the United States also falling behind when it comes to distributing the vaccine. This is what we've heard from the President for months.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We will deliver 100 million doses of a safe vaccine before the end of the year, maybe quite a bit sooner than that.
Under Operation Warp Speed we're on track to deliver at least 100 million doses of a vaccine this year.
We'll be able to distribute at least 100 million vaccine doses by the end of 2020 and a large number much sooner than that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GOLODRYGA: But according to the CDC, only 12.4 million doses have even been distributed to states. Forget Operation Warp Speed, Trump's operation is currently moving at a snail's pace. And instead of working to fix the problem, well, the President is working on his golf game, hitting the links this morning for the sixth time since heading down to Mar-A-Lago.
John Harwood is OUTFRONT live at the white house tonight. John, the President also found some time to sprinkle in more false conspiracy theory tweets and calling for the Republican Governor of Georgia to resign. But one thing apparently he's not doing, not on his agenda, the pandemic.
JOHN HARWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Bianna, President Trump is making sure as he goes out to highlight his signature qualities which are, he's a huge liar, he's delusional and he's also incompetent. The reason he's incompetent is that he has no focus, no attention span, no management skills, no willingness to accept responsibility and no genuine concern for the people who he is supposed to be representing.
Donald Trump's principal concern is self-gratification, that's why he plays so much golf. That's why he watches so much TV. That's why he spent so much time fooling around on his Twitter account.
There's an additional problem though, which is the Republican Party that he leads. They're very proudly disdainful of government, of experts, of elites and that's not a great formula if you need your government in a crisis to do something in an expert elite fashion, which is what we need on Operation Warp Speed and the distribution of these vaccines.
[19:05:08]
So as a result, you've got this what might have been the signature accomplishment of the end of President Trump's term, the one sweet spot of 2020; the breakthrough in the vaccine, the rapid distribution is going in a subpar fashion.
Now, it's a good thing that people like Moncef Slaoui and Admiral Giroir are acknowledging shortcomings and saying they're going to do better. But it's a better thing that in three weeks we're going to have a new administration that whatever you think of their ideology or the policies they favor, they know what they're doing in terms of running the government and making the government work.
GOLODRYGA: Yes. They're following the science, which is what this administration and this president at least should have been doing this past year instead of as CNN reported last night outraged about renovations that are taking place at Mar-A-Lago. John Harwood, thank you so much for breaking it down for us as always.
And OUTFRONT now, Dr. Rachel Herlihy, the State Epidemiologist for the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. Dr. Herlihy, thank you so much for coming on. So we know there is now one confirmed case and one probable case among members of the National Guard assigned to the same nursing home. What else can you tell us so far?
RACHEL HERLIHY, STATE EPIDEMIOLOGIST, COLORADO DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENT: So right now we're really continuing to investigate these cases and their potential exposures. There's really two possible scenarios that we're looking into. One is the scenario that these individuals could have potentially been exposed while working at this nursing home. And then the second scenario is that they could have potentially been exposed before they were deployed to work in this facility.
GOLODRYGA: And you know how alarming it may be for people when they hear that this is, once again, linked to nursing homes. This is where this epidemic started in the U.S. early in the spring. But in terms of the new variant, it's also been confirmed in Southern California, how long do you think this variant could have been here in the U.S. and just simply gone undetected? HERLIHY: It's difficult to know at this point. We certainly don't
believe that these cases that we've identified in Colorado are the only cases that probably exist in the state. They're certainly not the only cases that we know exist in the US.
And I think at this point, really, state health departments and CDC are really focused on scaling up our surveillance activity. So we have the ability to detect this virus throughout the country and know how widespread it could potentially be.
GOLODRYGA: Yes. We hear that it could have been here for months and just hadn't been detected until recently, but we continue to see the spike in cases. Maybe that's one of the reasons why. Dr. Herlihy, thank you so much. We appreciate it.
HERLIHY: Thank you.
GOLODRYGA: And OUTFRONT now, Dr. Jonathan Reiner, who was a Medical Adviser to the George W. Bush White House for eight years, also the Dean of Brown University School of Public Health, Dr. Ashish Jha. Welcome both of you.
Dr. Jha, you just heard what Dr. Herlihy said about this new variant in Colorado. What is your reaction?
DR. ASHISH JHA, DIRECTOR, HARVARD GLOBAL HEALTH INSTITUTE: Yes. So first of all thank you for having me on. I think that this variant probably has been around for a while. Obviously, the person in Colorado doesn't have a travel history, did not get it directly from the U.K., picked it up in the community. That means other people in Colorado have it and there's no reason to think that it's somehow confined to Colorado.
It's really an issue that we have not been doing genomic surveillance in a way that the U.K. and other countries have been. We've got to step up and be looking for these kinds of things. Much, much easier to track it if you're looking for it than just to be surprised by it.
GOLODRYGA: Yes. It seems to be a pattern of areas where we need to step up, testing being one of them as well. But Dr. Reiner, Admiral Giroir said that he's confident the vaccine will work against this new variant. That is encouraging news. But when it comes to the vaccine, the numbers, I mean, they don't lie. Nearly 2.6 million vaccine doses given a far cry from the 20 million that had been promised.
The head of Operation Warp Speed says that we know that it should be better. At least he's been forthcoming about that, but do you see enough urgency right now to fix this?
JONATHAN REINER, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: Absolutely not. And when I hear Admiral Giroir, I have these really awful memories of the horrible rollout for testing in the United States where it took almost two months to test a total of 20,000 people. There needs to be a fierce urgency to vaccinate the most vulnerable people in this country and I just don't see it. Admiral Giroir says, well, we're going to be getting the vaccine to
Walgreens and to CVS stores around the country and then it should really pick up. Look, in our most successful year administering flu vaccine that way, we give about 160 million vaccines. We need to give with these two dose vaccines 500 million vaccines and we need to do it quickly.
We need fast vaccination events. We need to use the parking lots of baseball stadiums. We need drive through events. We need arenas. We need to take vaccine into the community.
[19:10:01]
Telling people just to go to your nearest store isn't going to get us where we need to be anywhere in the time we need to do it. Look at a country like Israel. Israel is 133rd the size of the United States, yet they have vaccinated one-fourth the number of people that we have. They vaccinated 20 percent already of their population over the age of 60. We haven't even begun to do that.
GOLODRYGA: Yes. And Dr. Jha, when you look at a country like Israel, when you look at a country like Bahrain or the U.K., what are they doing that we aren't? Because there does seem to be a disconnect here domestically between what the President is saying and then what he's implying the states aren't doing, even though they do need federal help to do it.
JHA: Yes, even last week, I mean, literally on the 21st of December, so nine days ago, Vice President Pence said, we're going to have 20 million Americans vaccinated by the end of the year. We'll be lucky if we hit four or 5 million. The biggest difference between us and the other countries is what Dr. Reiner said, basically a sense of urgency to do this.
In other countries, they're not spending their time fighting about whether it's the state's responsibility or not. They're not passing the buck, even much of the administration has spent much of today and yesterday saying the problem is that we have 50 states that are all failing at their job, that's one theory. My alternative theory is we have a federal government that's not providing adequate support, it's not 50 failed governors, it's really a failed federal leadership that's not doing what needs to be done.
I think the idea as Dr. Reiner laid out are exactly the kinds of things we need to be implementing now soon not at some point down the road.
GOLODRYGA: So Dr. Reiner, let's look ahead in this incoming administration, because President-elect Biden says that he plans on vaccinating a hundred million people in the first 100 days, is that too optimistic, given where we are right now?
REINER: I don't think it's optimistic enough. Let's think about it, a hundred million people in a hundred days is a million people a day. I think we probably need to do twice that number a day. A million people a day only gets us to what we think is herd immunity in 18 months. That's a lot of people dying between now and then.
If you want to vaccinate 80 percent of the population in, let's say, the next 10 to 12 months, we need to vaccinate probably 2 million people a day. And to do that we need out of the box thinking, we need to learn how to do this quickly in large numbers, not by people just sort of strolling into their local CVS.
We need big events. We need to go into the communities. We need to be proactive and we need to do it with a sense of urgency. And only the federal government can provide the resources that states will need to do that.
GOLODRYGA: Yes. And Dr. Jha, President Trump meantime is saying that states, I mean, no surprise he's been saying this the entire year, but the states are to blame for the delays. Here's what he just tweeted today, "The Federal Government has distributed the vaccines to the states. Now it is up to the states to administer. Get moving."
So where do you think the blame lies? You hear from state saying, we'd love to get moving, we need the resources. We need help.
JHA: Yes. So that's, of course, absurd. What's happening is because states don't have resources, they don't have the technical capacity. A lot of states are then shifting it to counties and saying to the counties, OK, you guys figure it out.
And essentially, what's happening is the people with the fewest resources and the least amount of technical capacity, counties and a lot of states are actually having to do the hardest part of this whole vaccination, which is get all the logistics worked out. Like this is silly. This is not how we're going to make America safer. This is not how we're going to open up our economy. This is not how we're going to save lives.
Like you just need a serious federal effort to work with states, get resources together and start doing this. This is not undoable, Bahrain can do it. No offense against Bahrain.
GOLODRYGA: Right.
JHA: But if they can do it, I'm pretty confident the American people and the American government has the capacity to do this.
GOLODRYGA: Yes. Point taken. It's just unacceptable to see the lines of elderly waiting in Florida for hours, if not days to get their vaccines as well. Dr. Reiner, Dr. Jha, great to have you on. Thank you so much.
JHA: Thank you.
REINER: Thank you.
GOLODRYGA: And OUTFRONT next breaking news, Republican senator Josh Hawley announcing that he will challenge the Electoral College count and won't rule out challenging multiple states election results. Plus, former President Obama delivering his closing message just days before Georgia's crucial election.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Georgia you have the power and now it's time to vote.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GOLODRYGA: And Dawn Wells, the actress who played Mary Ann on Gilligan's Island dies from coronavirus.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, Mr. Howell, you've got to help. It's Gilligan, Skipper and the Professor, they've gone island hopping ...
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[19:15:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:17:35]
GOLODRYGA: Breaking news tonight, Republican Senator Josh Hawley not ruling out the challenge of multiple states election results next week. This just hours after he first announced that he planned to object when Congress certifies the Electoral College results and thus the will of the people confirming the Joe Biden is the next president. Tweeting millions of voters concerned about election integrity need to be heard.
Well, President Trump's own hand-picked Attorney General at the time, Bill Barr, said that there was no evidence of fraud that impacted the election results. And also let's be clear that this is just prolonging the inevitable. Sen. Hawley's objection could mean a debate on the issue but it won't change the outcome.
OUTFRONT now Democratic Senator Gary Peters of Michigan. He is the ranking member of the Senate Homeland Security Committee. Senator, thanks so much for coming on. Let me first get your reaction to Sen. Hawley's political stunt objecting to next week's Electoral College results. He knows that this will go nowhere. I can only imagine what his Yale Law School professors must be thinking.
But for millions of voters who fall for this farce, are you worried that it could further erode faith in the electoral process?
SEN. GARY PETERS (D-MI): Absolutely. And you're right, this is a circus. It's really unfortunate that he is going to do this and try to raise questions where there are no facts to back anything up. The state of Michigan, we saw Republicans lawsuit after lawsuit, all of them were thrown out of court. There was no evidence whatsoever.
Those are cases that occurred all across all of the battleground states as well. You mentioned Atty. Gen. Barr. In Homeland Security we had Chris Krebs, who was in charge of cybersecurity. We said that this was most secure election. And what we should be doing, we should be celebrating the fact that we had a safe, secure election in this country in the middle of a pandemic, and we had people exercising their constitutional right, that's what we should be celebrating.
Instead, we have Donald Trump and other elected officials who quite frankly should know better, putting out false information, misinformation, trying to undermine trust. And when you undermine trust in a democracy, this is an incredibly dangerous stunt that they are performing and one that shouldn't be called out.
GOLODRYGA: Yes, which is what I don't understand for someone as critical about their authoritarian countries like China as Sen. Hawley is, to have him then bring this to light publicly in question our democratic process, it can only be considered a gift to countries like China.
[19:20:06]
But in terms of others speaking out, we know that there are some Republican Party members calling out senator Hawley on this. Five-term Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger responding to Hawley's announcement by tweeting himself, "Internal monologue: 'I want to be President so I decided to try to get POTUS tweet saying I'm great even though I know this isn't going anywhere, but hey... I'll blame someone else when it fails."
This as some Republican senators, though, have suggested that they will go along with Hawley's charade, so why is Congressman Kinzinger in the minority, a Republican saying there's no basis for this and that it's time to move on?
PETERS: Well, it's sad and I can't explain why so many of my colleagues either don't call it out or simply stay silent, which is the same as allowing this (inaudible) ...
GOLODRYGA: I mean, but do you talk about this, I mean, amongst yourselves? We see you on the floor speaking. I mean, you have camaraderie. You have relationships and that's a good thing, does this come up? I'm always wondering, do you talk about this? It's one thing to tweet something and put it out publicly for the President to see, but amongst yourselves are some Republicans saying this is crazy?
PETERS: Well, certainly some, we have the discussions and when the initial discussions were more related to let the process play itself out, you can have legal challenges, you can have recounts and we can understand some of that. But we're well past that point now. So some of those explanations that were given to me in the last few weeks simply don't hold water.
We've gone through all of that. We've had recounts. We've had court cases. And I just think if I could bring back your point, which I think is so important about authoritarian governments and certainly Sen. Hawley should realize that this is right out of the playbook of an authoritarian regime, when you start to undermine court systems, when you start to undermine the free press, when you start undermining elections. That is the road to autocratic government.
This is an incredibly dangerous thing that he is doing as well as other Republicans. They're trying to acquire some short-term political gain apparently, but in the process are damaging the very roots and the very foundations of this democracy. It has got to stop.
GOLODRYGA: Absolutely. Meantime, I know that you are on the same page with President Trump when it comes to giving Americans $2,000 stimulus checks instead of just $600. Something that the house with Republican support approved this week. But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell today said that that bill has no realistic path to quickly pass the Senate. Is there anything that Democrats can do to prove him wrong as a standalone bill and vote?
PETERS: Well, with the senate procedures you need to have consent in order to move it because we're running, quite frankly, out of time with the new Congress coming in on January 3rd. So you need to have consent. We're all consenting, you will not find any Democrat saying no, saying put it on the floor now, let folks vote. Mitch McConnell has the ability to do that.
We can waive those rules. Put it on the floor. He simply is unwilling to do that and the American people are going to be hurt as a result of Mitch McConnell. And the fact that other Republicans are not pressing Mitch McConnell to put it on the floor, including two senators from the state of Georgia.
They should be pressing this to go on the floor now and let senators vote it up or down. It's passed, as you mentioned, bipartisan in the House. It has President Trump's support. There's no reason whatsoever not to put it on the floor and let senators vote the way they choose.
GOLODRYGA: Well, Sen. Peters, you have a busy few days ahead before the end of the session. We appreciate you joining us. Happy New Year to you.
PETERS: Happy New Year. Thanks for having me on, take care.
GOLODRYGA: You too. And OUTFRONT next, new 911 calls just released from seconds after that massive Christmas Day explosion in Nashville.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, my god. My entire building just fell down and it's collapsing. I live at - 2nd Avenue North. Please come.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You said the entire building just collapsed?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GOLODRYGA: Plus, 12 days ago, Congressman-elect Luke Letlow first tweeted that he was sick with coronavirus. Well, tonight the 41-year- old father of two is dead. His close friend and mentor is my guest coming up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [19:27:39]
GOLODRYGA: Tonight, Georgia's Republican senators on the defense in the final days of the Senate runoff elections that will decide the balance of power in Washington. As President Trump intensifies his bitter feud with top Republican officials in the state using baseless election fraud allegations to call for Gov. Brian Kemp's resignation and falsely claiming that Secretary of State's brother works for China.
Kyung Lah is OUTFRONT from Atlanta for us tonight. And Kyung, the President's anger looming over the Republican candidates at a time when they need the party unified more than ever to help them with these close races. How much is this hurting them in these final days?
KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR U.S. CORRESPONDENT: Well, certainly it's a sign that there is time running out and the Republicans are certainly feeling it. Gov. Kemp, who is a Republican Governor here in the State of Georgia, after the tweet that the President said he wanted the Governor here to resign, a member of his own party angered because he lost the State of Georgia here to Joe Biden.
The governor called reporters to a news conference at the capitol to say, look, I want to talk directly to Republicans. The window is closing, avoid everything that you're hearing, start focusing on this runoff on January 5th. And he was urging Republicans to continue to do that to look at the goal and to look at the President's tweets and he used that word directly, Bianna, the tweets as a 'distraction'.
So the Governor here trying to refocus. It's something we've seen the Republican senators do here and we're seeing the Governor do that today as well, Bianna.
GOLODRYGA: It harkens back memories of the President attacking Jeff Sessions bitterly as well for months. Meantime, we know that President Obama featured prominently in the final stretch now in a new TV ad making the closing argument for Democrat Jon Ossoff.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: When the moment came to reject fear and division and send a message for change, Georgia stepped up. Now America is counting on you again. You can send Jon Ossoff to the Senate to beat this virus, rebuild our economy, to make sure everybody can afford health care and to carry the torch John Lewis passed to us with a new voting rights act that secures equal justice for all.
[19:30:01]
Georgia, you have the power and now it's time to vote.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[19:30:01]
BIANNA GOLODRYGA, CNN HOST: And now, Vice President-elect Harris going to Georgia on Sunday. President Trump and President-elect Biden with dueling rallies Monday, the eve of the election.
What's the feel on the ground there?
KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, look at all the people you just named, Bianna. You have President Obama delivering that closing message for the Democrats there. We have President Trump here. President-elect Joe Biden here, Kamala Harris coming as well.
This is a proxy war for national politics. It is very clear just by seeing all these national figures coming in that what is at stake here is control of the U.S. Senate. It is whether or not Democrats will have control not of just the White House and the House but also the Senate.
And that is what both sides clearly understand. You can see it in the voter turnout. In the early vote totals so far from the secretary of state say 2.75 million people have voted. Those are extraordinary numbers for a run off here in the state of Georgia.
So, there's extraordinary interest and it is being fuelled, Bianna, by this understanding, both from those national figures but also the voters here on the ground that there is a lot at stake and time is running out -- Bianna.
GOLODRYGA: Yeah, the proxy war is a perfect way to describe it. Kyung Lah, thank you so much.
And now, I want to bring in Larry Sabato, prominent political handicapper and author of "Sabato's Crystal Ball Newsletter". He's also the founder and director of the University of Virginia's Institute of Politics.
Larry, welcome on the show.
You just heard Kyung Lah there on President Trump's influence on these races. What impact do you think he's having, a positive or a negative one, or just neutral at this point?
LARRY SABATO, FOUNDER & DIRECTOR, THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA CENTER FOR POLITICS: Well, certainly not neutral. I would say both positive and negative. That is, if he comes down, as he's going to apparently Monday night and have a rally, one of his famous rallies, he will undoubtedly stimulate Republican turnout.
Of course, the question is, will he spend more time endorsing and promoting the two Republican candidates for Senate or more time airing his grievances about the non-existent vote fraud? It's a close call.
So, he could end up hurting them more than helping them, and he certainly hasn't helped by attacking the Republican governor, the Republican lieutenant governor, the Republican secretary of state. You know, the list goes on. But I think people get the point.
GOLODRYGA: Yeah, and the attacks seem to be increases as we get closer to the Election Day. And with just days left, what do you see -- or who do you see having the edge right now? SABATO: What's really interesting is this, if you go back right after
the first election, November 3rd, almost everybody in politics said, well, the Republicans clearly have an advantage because they win all the runoffs, especially in Georgia. And that's true. And the last Democratic senator was elected in 1996.
So, the Republicans have a strong string of victories. Here's what's happened though. You mentioned this a little bit earlier. This has become a proxy war for everything that's going to happen over the next year or two. Without the senate, Democrats can do relatively little. With the senate, they can do a great deal more.
So, the excitement level, the endorsements and the money -- probably a billion dollars is going to be spent by outside and inside groups on these two races. So, it's elevated and the race. And the turnout has been terrific. And blacks had been turning out, of course heavily Democratic. Blacks have been turning out to be a larger proportion of this election than even they were in November when Biden narrowly won the state.
GOLODRYGA: Is there any chance that there could be a split verdict, or will both Democrats and both Republicans win?
SABATO: Well, the odds are both of one party will win. We've had over 50 of these dual Senate elections since we went to popularly elected Senate seats more than a century ago. But in seven cases you've had a split with one seat going to the Republican, one seat to the Democrat. However, the last one was in 1966 in South Carolina. That was a long time ago.
On the other hand, maybe it means we're due. Maybe it's time that we'll get 1 and 1. But remember Democrats need both seats. If they don't get both seats, they won't control the Senate. And the vast majority of people who are going to vote are going to vote for the same party for both seats.
GOLODRYGA: Yeah, what happens in Georgia will determine what happens in Washington.
Larry Sabato, thank you so much for your insight.
SABATO: Thank you, Bianna.
GOLODRYGA: And OUTFRONT next, breaking news, police in Nashville on the defense after it's revealed that the girlfriend of the suspected Christmas Day bomber told police last year that he was making explosives.
And incoming Congressman Luke Letlow dies of coronavirus. The father of two was just 41 years old with no underlying health conditions.
[19:35:02]
His former boss is my guest.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) GOLODRYGA: Breaking news, police in Nashville on the defensive tonight saying, quote, hindsight is 2020. This after it was revealed that the girlfriend of the suspected Nashville bomber told police he was making explosives in his RV back in August of 2019. That's 16 months ago.
Martin Savidge is OUTFRONT.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
911 OPERATOR: 911, what is the address of your emergency.
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Tonight, newly released 911 calls revealing the moments before and after the blast. Just before 5:30 a.m. Christmas Day, the first call comes into Nashville police reporting what sounded like gunfire in the city's tourist district.
CALLER: There have been three rounds of gunshots outside the building.
SAVIDGE: Police respond but instead of a gunman, they find an RV blaring a warning to evacuate the area.
VOICE: If you can hear this message, evacuate now.
SAVIDGE: The next 911 calls come after the RV has exploded.
CALLER: Oh, my God, my entire building just fell down. It's collapsing. I live at (AUDIO DELETED) Second Avenue North. Please come.
DISPATCHER: The entire building just collapsed?
SAVIDGE: But it was another call to 911 16 months earlier some say could have prevented the entire tragedy.
DISPATCHER: 911, what is the address of your emergency?
SAVIDGE: August 21st, 2019, an attorney reports he's concerned about one of his clients.
CALLER: Maybe I can diffuse the situation.
SAVIDGE: Police show up at the home of Pamela Perry, who according to the officer's report tells them she's the girlfriend of Anthony Warner, the suspected bomber of the Christmas Day explosion in Nashville who died in the blast. She says that her boyfriend was building bombs in the RV trailer at his residence.
Police also talked to Perry's attorney who tells the officers, Warner frequently talks about the military and bomb making. He stated he believes that Warner knows what he's doing and is capable of making a bomb.
RAYMOND THROCKMORTON, FORMER ATTORNEY FOR ANTHONY WARNER: I made a report on the spot for him to get checked out. I did all I knew that I could do.
SAVIDGE: According to the report, police go to Warner's home, knock, but get no answer. Police observe there was an RV trailer in the backyard, but the yard was fenced off and police could not see inside. They eventually leave and the report ends.
Supervisors were notified of the incident. Authorities never managed to speak to Warner or get a look inside his RV. The same RV, authorities say, detonated with such devastated force on Christmas Day.
THROCKMORTON: Somebody had checked tony out and gotten him the help that he needed, then this would have never happened.
SAVIDGE: Late this afternoon, the chief of Nashville's metro police department defended his officers' actions in 2019.
CHIEF JOHN DRAKE, METRO NASHVILLE POLICE DEPARTMENT: I believe the officers did everything they could legally. Maybe we could have followed up more. Hindsight is 20/20.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SAVIDGE (on camera): The Nashville police chief also said that his officers, especially one from the explosives unit, for more than a week tried to contact Warner on the phone and in person, but they never got enough evidence to get a search warrant. They also reached out to the FBI.
And here's the thing, Bianna -- after the blast on Christmas Day, the head of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said that Warner had not been on anybody's radar, yet we know now that's not true. Sixteen months ago, he was on the radar of the local police and on the radar of the FBI, but then dropped off that radar until exploding violently again on Christmas Day.
GOLODRYGA: Yeah, you can't help but wonder what could have happened if police were able to get inside that RV in 2019.
Martin Savidge, thank you so much.
Joining me now is Bob Mendes. He's a city councilmember-at-large in Nashville, Tennessee.
Councilman Mendes, thank you so much for joining us.
We know it took police five days to tell us about this warning from August of 2019.
Why do you think it took so long?
BOB MENDES, NASHVILLE COUNCILMEMBER-AT-LARGE: Well, I think it took so long because the PR arm of our police department was playing with reputations rather than getting the full truth out. And, unfortunately, it's not the first time we've had that problem with our police department PR team here. GOLODRYGA: And so, when you hear the police chief say that
hindsight's 20/20, what comes to mind?
MENDES: Well, I mean, I watched that press conference. And when asked whether there was anything more that could have been done, he said no, and then of a pause said, except for maybe some more follow up. I think locally at least, there are going to be a lot of questions asked about what about that follow up?
You know, they knew Mr. Warner in the RV with a bomb. If you're playing clue, that would have been enough to win. This has to be graded a loss by law enforcement that they had all the pertinent information 16 months ago and somehow it slips through the cracks.
GOLODRYGA: And this is not to take away from the hero police officers who managed to get residents out of their homes in harm's way in between the 911 call and when the bomb went off. But police today said that they had no legal basis for search warrants or subpoenas and an attorney wouldn't let them check the RV.
MENDES: Well, couple things about --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DRAKE: The officers did not have probable cause to get a search warrant. There was a call for service on a lady who had two guns who needed care, so, you know, she needed some assistance. There was nothing else there to say, okay, yeah, we can get -- you have to have probable cause that a crime --
REPORTER: Sure.
DRAKE: -- being committed or about to be committed. Right then, there was nothing other than a statement from someone.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GOLODRYGA: Sorry about that. We just wanted to get our viewers to hear that in detail as well.
But police officers also said they sent his information to the FBI. The FBI didn't find anything.
Are you saying that the police failed at their jobs, or is this just a tragic miscommunication here?
MENDES: Well, I think they say they asked the FBI whether he was in any databases. I'm not sure they asked the FBI to do any more or not. You know, the chief of police didn't have answers today for even whether this complaint had been cleared or just got lost on somebody's desk. I don't think we have enough answers right now.
But I do think that it is clear that, you know, again, this has to be graded a loss. They didn't get to the finish line. And we know that locally, if it were a person of color or if it had been maybe drugs involved, you know, meth instead of bomb making, it almost certainly would have been investigated.
They never tried to get a warrant and, you know, locally, we're going to want to know why that is.
[19:45:02]
GOLODRYGA: Council, I know you will stay on this as well as we will be too. Thank you so much. Happy New Year to you.
MENDES: Thank you very much.
GOLODRYGA: And OUTFRONT next, a 41-year-old father of two with no known underlying conditions about to be sworn into Congress passes away after a battle with coronavirus. His close friend and former boss joins me next.
Plus, we remember "Gilligan's Island" star Dawn Wells who died of COVID complications.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAWN WELLS, ACTRESS: Gilligan, do you feel all right?
BOB DENVER, ACTRESS: Come, take a seat over here.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GOLODRYGA: Tonight, a heartbreaking story as a 41-year-old incoming congressman dies 11 days after announcing that he had coronavirus. Congressman-elect Luke Letlow, husband and father of two small children, had no underlying medical conditions according to a doctor who was treating him.
OUTFRONT tonight, Congressman Ralph Abraham of Louisiana. Letlow served as his chief of staff and was set to take over his congressional seat just days from now.
Congressman Abraham, first off, my deepest condolences to you over this sad and shocking loss.
What has been going through your head since you learned about his passing?
REP. RALPH ABRAHAM (R-LA): It's a very sad day for many of us in Louisiana. It's just devastating.
And the question is, you know, why a young, healthy 41-year-old succumbs to his COVID. But it -- you know, it shows that this virus is very random. It's very powerful. And we must take it very seriously.
GOLODRYGA: Yes, for all of these people who are traveling or not taking it seriously under the age of 40 and say that it's not going to impact them, this is unfortunately a case example of what can happen.
And we have been following Congressman-elect Letlow as he announced over Twitter that he had coronavirus on December 18th.
[19:50:01]
He said he was, quote, at home resting and following quarantine protocols. Just three days later, he said he was in the hospital, expressing confidence, that, quote, I will be on the mend soon.
You're a doctor who's treated COVID patients. You know, I get goose bumps when I read those tweets. What is your reaction to how quickly his condition deteriorated?
ABRAHAM: It shows you again what this virus can do and it can do it very quickly. Luke had the best medical care anyone could ask for from his family physician to his specialist in ICU, and 24 hours, round the clock surveillance, and this still happens.
So, the message here is, one, count your blessings, hug your family, but, two, be very vigilant with this COVID. This pandemic that we are seeing now, in my opinion, is a little different than the ones that we saw earlier in the year. Same pandemic, but maybe a little bit of a different strain of this virus, maybe a little stronger because it's not supposed to attack 41-year-old males, females, and kill them.
GOLODRYGA: And just heartbreaking to see the images of his beautiful family, those two small children that will no longer have their father to look up to.
The doctor who treated Congressman-elect Letlow said that he suffered a cardiac event. A lot of people can't get over the fact he was just 41 years old, had no underlying conditions, as we mentioned.
Can you tell us a little bit about him? You had the fortune of getting to know him and working so closely with him, as his mentor. For those that are just hearing about him for the first time, talk about who he was as a man, as a political leader, and as a father?
ABRAHAM: He was part of our family. Luke was the person that always focused on the solution, and not the problem. When he looked up in the sky, he saw a blue sky instead of clouds. He just brought that positive attitude to any meeting, and I had been in hundreds of meetings with Luke, and other people.
And if they were opposing views, Luke was the gentleman that always found that common ground that ended up uniting us and, again, focusing on the solution instead of the problem. A wonderful family -- his wife Julia could not ask for a smarter, better, more grounded person.
They were just -- she is, and Luke was -- just great Americans. The people that you would want to represent you in a congressional seat.
GOLODRYGA: Well, it's a lost to those folks in Louisiana. It's unfortunate that it took a tragedy like this for people from both sides of the aisle to come together to express the same condolences, heartfelt condolences, and please express our condolences to Luke's family as well, his wife, and those small children.
Thank you so much for joining us, and again, we are sorry for your loss.
ABRAHAM: Thank you.
GOLODRYGA: And OUTFRONT next, Florida goes against CDC recommendations, and vaccinate seniors before some frontline workers. So, how's it going?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:56:40]
GOLODRYGA: Florida, one of the states bucking CDC recommendations and vaccinating seniors ahead of some frontline workers. It's a massive undertaking.
And Ryan Young is OUTFRONT.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RYAN YOUNG, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This bumper-to- bumper traffic jam twists around the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida. A line so long, drivers have more than enough time to get out and stretch.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You have to be patient, but it's a good setup.
YOUNG: Not just in Orlando. Elderly Floridians across the state anxious to receive the COVID-19 vaccine are dealing with a similar situation. In Fort Myers, many bringing lawn shares as they sit and wait for hours, nine, to be exact, for this man.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I feel there's got to be a better way.
YOUNG: Because Florida has one of the largest populations over the age of 65. Governor Ron DeSantis decided to break slightly with CDC recommendations, which call for frontline health care workers, and first responders to be vaccinated first.
GOV. RON DESANTIS (R), FLORIDA: We believe that the better approaches to focus on the elderly first and foremost, then we will get into essential workers.
YOUNG: The vaccine, much needed in the Sunshine State, which is seeing dark days this year, more than 21,000 COVID deaths so far. Many of them seniors.
UNIDENTIIFED MALE: We know people that have not survived.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Unfortunately.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Unfortunately.
YOUNG: But the problem is, all 67 counties are handling the vaccine rollout differently, creating some confusion.
BRUCE SCOTT, WAITED IN LINE FOR 9 HOURS TO GET COVID-19 VACCINE: I'm grateful to get the vaccine, I feel there's got to be a better way to distribute this. For people that really need it, elderly that might be disabled in some way, they can't endure this process, so there's got to be a better way.
YOUNG: The issue is not restricting the long lines. Some seniors have heard the vaccine is available, and it started showing up at hospitals, only to get turned away, while others flood hospital phone lines looking to make appointments.
In South Florida, Broward Hill says they've already booked up with vaccine appointments, and won't take on more patients until February.
Back in Orange County, 30,000 people signed up within 24 hours on the counties website. They vaccinated more than 1500 seniors on the first day, a dose of hope during this awful year.
CANDICE SEITZER, RECEIVED COVID-19 VACCINE: Great. I can't wait to see my grandkids. I can't wait to hug those little guys! It's like, it's been so long in coming that so relieved, it's wonderful.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We are just feeling very blessed right now.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
YOUNG (on camera): Bianna, day two, we've seen a remarkable change in what we saw yesterday. Cars are wrapped around the block, now seniors get the shot here, then they travel over to this parking lot over here, where they have to sit and wait for 15 to 30 minutes to make sure they don't have an adverse reaction.
One last thing, we heard the governor today, Ron DeSantis, he says he believes he is not going to take the shot because that seniors here deserve to get it first.
Back to you.
GOLODRYGA: Many believe that was the right move by the governor.
And finally tonight, we are mourning the loss of a cultural icon, Don Wells, who played Mary Ann on "Gilligan's Island" passed away today from coronavirus complications.
(VIDEO CLIP PLAYS)
GOLODRYGA: Mary Ann was the wholesome castaway who competed for decades among baby boomer viewers with the sexy ginger. Wells had roles on other shows and on stage as well, but none eclipsed Mary Ann.
Dawn Wells was 82 years old, and survivors include a stepsister. My kids watch their first episode 3 weeks ago, and no surprise, they love it as well.
Rest in peace, Dawn.
And that's it for me tonight.
"AC360" starts right now.
