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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Biden's First Priority Will Be Addressing COVID Crisis; Biden Plans to Undo Trump Policies with Executive Actions; Trump Campaign to Push Baseless Claim of Dead People Voting; Joe Biden Faces Spate of Tough Challenges on Day One; World Leader Congratulate Biden on His Victory; Alex Trebek, Legendary "Jeopardy!" Host, Dead at 80; SNL Gets First Crack at the Election, House After Projected Win. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired November 09, 2020 - 04:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[04:30:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, U.S. PRESIDENT-ELECT: Refusal of Democrats and Republicans to cooperate with one another is not some mysterious force beyond our control. It's a decision, a choice we make. And if we can decide not to cooperate, then we can decide to cooperate.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAURA JARRETT, CNN ANCHOR: The optimism from Biden is about to meet some harsh realities, a spreading pandemic, an unemployment crisis, an opponent who refuses to concede, rampant misinformation about this election and a nation as divided as ever. Now it appears a little known official in this administration could be standing in the way of Biden's transition. We will have more on that for you in just a moment.

ROMANS: But we expect to hear from Joe Biden after he and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris receive a briefing from the transition's coronavirus advisory board.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: That plan will be built on bedrock science. It will be constructed out of compassion, empathy and concern. I will spare no effort, none. Or any commitment to turn around this pandemic.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JARRETT: They're going to need an aggressive plan to control this worsening situation, and a new seven-point plan is where things start. CNN's Jason Carroll is covering the Biden team for us from Wilmington, Delaware.

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Christine, Laura, later today we are going to be hearing from President-elect Joe Biden about this coronavirus task force. We can tell you it's a 12-person task force headed by a number of scientists, people like former Surgeon General Vivek Murthy is also going to be on this taskforce.

President-elect Joe Biden for his part today will be speaking. He'll be giving remarks, trying to explain what he's going to do to try to get this pandemic under control. Already have some sort of a clue as to what his plan will entail. There's already a transition web site that's up. It's called "Build Back Better." It includes a 7-point plan to deal with the pandemic, including, quote, regular reliable and free testing to all Americans.

Looking ahead for what Joe Biden plans to do, and that's make good on a number of his campaign promises. So, once he is sworn in as president, that may include several executive actions, which include rejoining the Paris Climate Accord, rejoining the World Health Organization. But again, the first priority at this point is dealing with the pandemic. So waiting to hear more information about that coronavirus task force -- Christine, Laura.

ROMANS: All right, Jason, thanks so much for that.

The Trump campaign is spreading baseless claims of election fraud as it tries to contest Joe Biden's victory. Now the campaign's last gasp focuses on dead people and a little known Trump appointee in charge of handling the transition resources and giving money to Biden has not done so.

CNN's Boris Sanchez joins us live from Washington this morning. And the whole -- this whole nonsense about the dead people. I mean, we saw online all of these -- just this garbage about lists of dead people who voted. OK. We're combing through these lists, they're just -- it's just not true. I mean, these people -- we looked at 50 people on one of these lists and a handful of them had voted and they're all alive. So it's just garbage.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I think there's no better way to describe it, other than garbage. These claims are completely unfounded, and you're right, CNN combed through these lists of names and found that many of them were still alive or they hadn't voted, or they passed away previously and didn't cast a ballot. Obviously, but that's not stopping President Trump and some of his allies from making these incendiary claims trying to question the legitimacy of American democracy.

And we're learning there's a bit of a tug of war behind the scenes here. With some people close to the President including first lady Melania Trump sort of counseling the President to perhaps consider accepting reality and conceding to President-elect Joe Biden. On the other hand, there are others like the President's personal attorney who are counseling him to dig in his heels and pursue this messaging blitz, this strategy to try to present to the American people the argument that the election was stolen, that the election was illegitimate.

Of course, again, we should point out with absolutely zero evidence that tens of thousands of votes were somehow falsified to steal the election from President Trump. It does not pass muster. Part of the idea includes holding campaign style rallies where the President would read the obituaries of people who he claims voted for Joe Biden but passed away before the election took place. I don't need to repeat -- it's not true.

Beyond that part of the purpose of these campaign rallies, this messaging blitz would be to delay the transition process. And part of that is to buy time for lawsuits that the President has filed, which even many of his own advisers in private acknowledge are weak and likely will not overturn the results of the election.

[04:35:03]

And also, there's a belief among some close to the President that putting pressure on them through drumming up support for this idea that the election was illegitimate would force some secretaries of state to open investigations in battleground states that could perhaps somehow change the result. It is highly unlikely to happen, and apparently more so than anything else that's being done to assuage the President's ego.

ROMANS: You know, Boris, tell us a little more about this little known official who's holding up the start of a transition. You know, the Biden team today is starting its work on, you know, an advisory task force for coronavirus, but the money is not flowing for the office space and for the expenses of a transition, as it usually does.

SANCHEZ: Yes, you're absolutely right. This is ascertainment. It's sort of the getting the ball rolling on the process of a transition and it's handled by the general services administration. It's sort of like the logistical hub of government and the head Emily Murphy has not signed off on documentation that would allow the Biden team access to, as you noted, millions of dollars in funds, office space, equipment, to really get things underway over the upcoming weeks in order to have a fully functioning team in place on January 20th for the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden.

Clearly part of the reason that this is happening is because the President hasn't conceded. She is a Trump appointee, and we should point out, the only other time this has happened in modern history is in 2000 when the Supreme Court through a legal battle took a month basically to hand the election to George W. Bush over Al Gore.

ROMANS: All right, Boris, thanks for getting up so early for us or staying up late. Or this has been all one long day and week, hasn't it? I don't even know what time it is.

SANCHEZ: It's been days. It's been days. Great to see you, Christine.

ROMANS: All right, you too, thanks.

JARRETT: All right, so mush to discuss here. Let's bring back in CNN senior political analyst, John Avlon. John, we've seen the last few days, a handful of Republicans, mostly like Mitt Romney acknowledge the outcome of this election. But most, namely Mitch McConnell the Senate Majority Leader, has not acknowledged Biden's win, and many people are still feeding this baseless idea of election fraud even though there is absolutely no proof. CNN's Donie O'Sullivan spoke to Trump supporters protesting the election in Pennsylvania. Listen to what they say.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's legal for them to count votes in Pennsylvania two days after the election on November 3rd.

DONIE O'SULLIVAN, CNN REPORTER: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You're wrong. Go, I don't want to talk to you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I believe that Donald Trump won the election. I believe that they tried to steal the election. How do you go from almost losing 200,000 in 5 hours, you're down to 30,000 votes, away from winning?

O'SULLIVAN: A lot of Democrats voted in the mail, they voted absentee, they voted before election day. And in a lot of states, those election day votes got counted first. That's why Trump had that early lead. And then once those other votes are getting counted, that is how Biden caught up.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So, where are all the Trump ballots that were mailed in? Why are we finding them laying around in different places?

O'SULLIVAN: But Trump was telling everybody not to mail it in. Right? That's why there's much more mail-in Democratic votes, no?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JARRETT: So John, half the country thinks that or at least was OK voting for a President that's been spewing that type of misinformation. But here's the fact, the President is about to leave office. Someone else was elected. So why are Republicans inflaming the situation with more misinformation and giving Trump supporters hope that this election result is going to be overturned.

JOHN AVLON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Because the President still hasn't accepted defeat.

JARRETT: But why are they afraid of him?

AVLON: That's what I was going to say. They're afraid of him because that muscle memory has taught them to be afraid of him. Donald Trump has led through fear and greed and successful corralled a lot of his administration and Republican in Congress. But there is that clip of Donie, you saw the danger of the sort of disinformation feedback loop the President has projected outwards and that Republicans are not repeating in narrow enough numbers.

This is about math. This is not a conspiracy. This is counting votes and there are a lot of areas where Trump gained and some where he fell behind particularly where they back loaded the counting of early vote. And some would say this is a problem of his own making. But the damage that can be done to our democracy by seeding these doubts about Democratic outcomes is so dangerous, and that's why Republicans need to step up and straighten their civic backbones and tell the President you need to face reality, you need to face facts. I know it's hard, but this is the deal, you have been defeated.

ROMANS: I mean look, and votes are still being counted. We are still counting every one of these votes in these states, several states including Arizona and Georgia.

[04:40:00]

There are two Senate runoffs in January in Georgia. They will help determine control of the chamber. Joe Biden leading there, but my question is can Democrats pull out wins in Georgia, do you think?

AVLON: Oh, yes, look, a couple of things about Georgia. First of all, Stacey Abrams deserves dispositional credit. Democrats are going to get to work. For really motivating the registration throughout the state. I'd even flip the question. How are Republicans going to do if Donald Trump isn't on the ticket? It's going to be a test of ground game. For the Senate though hangs in the balance. The stakes are high. Obviously usually special elections in the South revert to the runs off, they would tend to tilt Republican. But this is going to be a test of that major get out the vote operation that Democrats and Stacey Abrams have built. And they're building off a win, apparently, and that's a big motivator. So we'll see, this is going to be an epic race.

JARRETT: John, the President seems to have a unique grip on his supporters. Consider this, look at this map. This is the map of the election. Right? Red states, blue states, now take a look at the coronavirus map. The hardest hit areas, right, the places where the virus is just waging are the areas that actually voted for the President in spite of all the super spreader rallies that we showed. In spite of the job losses. In spite of all the deaths and the pleas for people to just listen to doctors and wear a mask. If a pandemic that has killed almost a quarter million of Americans won't change people's minds, what will?

AVLON: Hyper partisanship is a hell of a drug. But I mean that very sincerely. This is what happens when negative partisanship takes the way of reason and facts. This is devastating many of these communities. They voted for Donald Trump and they've no doubt had their reasons, but they weren't necessarily based on the state of the coronavirus.

One of the things our exit polls showed is that the country was almost divided about whether the country had turned the corner around coronavirus. That's not a matter of debate. We have not. It's going to get worse and in many of those communities, and that's a problem.

ROMANS: You know, John, I's wondering about just when you look at just the shear -- the electorate turned out for this, you know. Did this pandemic change elections for the good? I mean, no matter who you voted for the turnout was incredible. Big early turn out, big mail-in vote. People look at this, even applauded postal workers last week. At the end of the day, election day was remarkably smooth. Is this a preview of election days of the future?

AVLON: Look, there's a lot we can learn. I think this was a unique circumstance in terms of driving up turnout. Both sides enormously motivated, both for their candidate and against the other guy. But here's what we shouldn't lose. This early voting, more voting by mail, which only a handful of states have done in the past, increases participation. It lowers barriers to entry, and it reduces chaos on election day that leads to voter suppression. We should take that note, we should learn that lesson and continue that going forward no matter what.

JARRETT: Well, it leads to also a lot of questions, though, when state legislatures don't let them count ahead of time, and then there's all this confusion about why there aren't Trump votes that were mail-in.

AVLON: It's a solvable problem.

JARRETT: There's a solvable problem here that can be done.

AVLON: 100 percent.

JARRETT: I want to get your 30,000 foot view on what happened here. Obviously, everyone has been through a roller coaster over this past four years. Almost half of the country said no big deal. Russia, impeachment, kids ripped away from their parents, all the tweets, everything, what's your takeaway?

AVLON: I think folks need to listen a little bit harder to what's underneath people's votes. Often voting is a matter of emotion. It's not necessarily a matter of ideas for rational. But Democrats who erode and saw some areas erode like Miami Dade need to listen hard to why those voters voted against what they would see as their interests.

I think what we're also seeing, people are not single issue voters for the most part. There's a multiplicity of issues that led to their decisions. So, there needs to be a lot more listening. There need to be less thinking communities as cookie cutter groups who appeal to with one message. And both parties got to start digging in and learning the lessons of this election now, and hopefully we can elevate the debate and reason together more next time around.

ROMANS: All right, John Avlon, so nice to see you this morning.

AVLON: Thanks, guys.

JARRETT: Good note to end on.

ROMANS: Senior political analyst for us here at CNN.

All right, to markets now. CEOs are expecting a more stable relationship with the White House from a Joe Biden presidency. Several business leaders congratulated the President-elect over the weekend, while calling for the country to come together.

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said, quote.

Now is a time for unity. We must respect the results of the U.S. presidential election and support a peaceful transition of power.

Corporate America had been supportive of Biden in the runup to the election. Now with the news of a new incoming administration, CEOs say top priorities for Biden should be more stimulus to help consumers and business hurt by the pandemic, and measures to stop the spread of coronavirus. We'll be right back.

[04:45:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: So overwhelmingly positive reactions coming in from leaders around the world about Joe Biden's win. How could things shift in the coming months and years. International diplomatic editor Nic Robertson live in London with more. I've been watching sort of the headlines and newspapers and hearing these statement from world leaders and they are welcoming a known quantity. Someone who has been in politics for a long time that they think they can work with.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, and someone whose track record they know, and someone who they think isn't going to be like President Trump and be isolationist and put America first. While they put allies first, work together with allies. I mean, that's the broad reception we're getting here in Europe.

Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commissioner, has said she wants to deepen and strengthen those ties and specifically, right now, you know, those transatlantic ties to help combat the coronavirus pandemic, and deal with the economic outfall from all of that.

So that's, you know, a very clear message coming from the Europeans about engagement there. I was listening to the Irish foreign minister speaking, a big deal for him, and the Irish in particular having Joe Biden as President-elect. He's got such deep Irish roots, and the Irish are really counting on him. This is what the foreign minister was saying, to hold the British government here in London to account on the Brexit deal. The British government is trying to work out with the EU at the moment. Because Ireland's getting impacted by it. The peace in Northern Ireland could be impacted by it.

And President-elect Biden has sent a very clear message to Downing Street, saying, hey, don't damage that peace in Northern Ireland.

[04:50:00]

So, you have, you know, the Irish government there looking to this, looking to Joe Biden to help sort out that relationship, and keep them on a good economic track in Ireland.

China is an interesting one at the moment. Because we haven't heard from the leader there, Xi Jinping. But we have heard from Chinese officials and they are saying, look, we have seen Joe Biden say, you know, I have won the victory. We've also seen him say there's still a legal process going on. They're saying that they'll wait until that process plays out before they say anything. But they also were talking about improving relationships with the United States through dialogue and sort of calming the situation down.

So, I think that's the big broad perspective. Everyone's an angle on it. You know, Joe Biden and Ireland very tight connections there. Prime Minister Boris Johnston here trying to break his game up. He's been very pro-Trump until now.

ROMANS: Have we heard from the Russian leader?

ROBERTSON: We haven't. What we've heard from Russian media though kind of playing up, you know, the fact that President Trump hasn't yet accepted that Joe Biden has won.

ROMANS: Right.

ROBERTSON: And sort of playing that up as a negative about the Democratic process in the U.S. as they like to do, because they like to show that democracy, the way we understand it, does not work.

ROMANS: Yes, anything that they can undermine or try to highlight flaws in what they think -- what they consider flaws in democracy. All right, Nic, nice to see you. Thank you.

Tropical storm Eta is making landfall in the Florida Keys. There are already reports of flooding, tornadoes are possible. In Miami schools, city offices and some coronavirus testing sites closed now. Eta is expected to restrengthen into a hurricane again later today. Eta, by the way, is the 28th named storm to make landfall this season tying a record. It's actually the first, though, in Florida.

JARRETT: All right, friends, family and fans around the world mourning the loss of legendary jeopardy host, Alex Trebek.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: And now, here is the host of Jeopardy, Alex Trebek.

ALEX TREBEK, HOST OF "JEOPARDY!": Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen. On behalf of all of us, welcome to America's favorite answering question game, Jeopardy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JARRETT: That was the first episode Trebek hosted back in 1984. He worked right up until the end, taping his final episodes less than two weeks ago. There's been no official word on the cause of his death, but Trebek announced early last year that he was battling pancreatic cancer.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE RICHARDS, EXECUTIVE PRODUCER "JEOPARDY!": He was the most professional person that I have ever worked with in any capacity. Here he was battling cancer, pain, chemo, exhaustion, but you couldn't tell when the cameras rolled. He was an amazing dad, and he loved Jean so much that it was inspirational. So, what I told him was I wanted to thank him for showing me how to be a better man at work. And even more importantly a better man with family and my life. He was really that great.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JARRETT: That was his executive producer there speaking. Episodes hosted by Trebek will air through December 25th. No word yet on a successor. Alex Trebek was 80 years old.

ROMANS: An American institution.

JARRETT: A legend.

ROMANS: Really. It's is Monday morning. Let's look at markets around the world. Here now you've got global markets all moving higher. Tokyo, Hong Kong and Shanghai all closing up strongly. And European shares opening up as well. On Wall Street, U.S. Stock index futures also higher. This post-election rally here in the markets. Beyond the election Wall Street is eyeing more earnings reports. Walt Disney and McDonalds are among the companies reporting results this week. And there you go.

JARRETT: All right, well there were clearly a lot of last minute rewrites for "Saturday Night Live." The show went on just hours after the presidential race was call for Joe Biden. In case you missed it, here's a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE, NBC "SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE": And this is what happened when people in New York heard that Donald Trump was defeated.

And this was Trump's hometown. Can you imagine you get fired from you job, you go back home and everyone in your own house is like, you suck? But you know what they say, only in New York -- what's that? Oh, it wasn't only in New York? Oh, my God, that's real. Do you know you have to be for Paris to right church bells when you lose? The whole world is celebrating like World War II just ended. And I know this isn't really the same as defeating the Nazis, but it did end with a fascist leader hiding in a bunker.

It's already Saturday and the only candidate who's conceded is Kanye West. It is never a good sign when Kanye accepts reality faster than you do. Trump has filed several lawsuits demanding recounts.

[04:55:00]

Alleging voter fraud. I just want to point something out real quick. Remember in 2016 when he lost the popular vote to Hillary by 3 million. He blamed it on illegal immigrants sneaking in and voting. Well, this time he's going to lose by 5 million votes. Which by his own logic meaning Trump let in 2 million more illegal immigrants and they all voted for Biden.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: I don't know about you, but SNL cast were cracking up through the whole broadcast really. I mean they were just making themselves laugh so much. I did love the fact that so many people felt like they want to take to the street. But I did not love how close people were. That really kind of -- I noticed that and it bothered me a little bit.

JARRETT: Yes, I was glad to see a lot of masks at least where I was out in New York.

ROMANS: Yes.

JARRETT: The sound was deafening at least here in the city.

ROMANS: Yes. All right, thanks for joining us everybody. I'm Christine Romans.

JARRETT: I'm Laura Jarrett. "NEW DAY" is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: I will name a group of leading scientists and experts as transition advisers to help take the Biden/Harris COVID plan and convert it into an action blueprint.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is going to be an advisory group of about a dozen scientists and experts to guide their response to the coronavirus pandemic.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The President wants to take this show on the road, and the President has continued to push these baseless accusations that the election is fraudulent.

SEN. LINDSAY GRAHAM (R-SC): Trump has not lost. Do not concede, Mr. President. Fight hard.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't think we're going to see anything that's going to overturn this election. It's time to get behind the winner of the race.

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT-ELECT: While I may be the first woman in this office, I will not be the last.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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