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New Day

Biden Adds to Cabinet; Struggle to Finalize Stimulus Deal; Great Threat After Suspected Russia Hack; Pandemic Update from Around the World. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired December 18, 2020 - 06:30   ET

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

[06:30:00]

TOLUSE OLORUNNIPA, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Disparities and we have seen a lot of black communities left behind, really traumatized by the way that the EPA has handled itself. And I think we will have and this new nominee, someone who understands that and someone who will bring that to bear in this role. So these are history making nominations, and they will bring their life experience as -- in addition to their professional experience to these roles.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: You know, it's so interesting because the impact of polluted air, polluted water, is disproportionate on community of color, so this isn't just about diversity inside the cabinet, but it's also about serving the needs of people who are disproportionately affected.

And, Natasha, I heard overnight, Deb Haaland especially, who will be nominated for secretary of interior, the progressives who have been lukewarm, or a little bit tepid so far on the cabinet selections of Joe Biden, just gushing in approval of this nomination.

NATASHA ALFORD, VP, DIGITAL CONTENT AND SENIOR CORRESPONDENT, "THE GRIO": Yes, it's really a beautiful sight to see. Again, this is so symbolic, right? We think of the fact that American land was stolen from indigenous people, and so the story is almost perfect to have Deb Haaland in this position, that is not only just really powerful, but directly impacts the lives of tribal communities. And groups like the NDN Collective, progressive groups like Justice Democrats, environmental advocacy groups, they celebrate this, but they also fought for this.

You know, they made sure that even as other picks were being considered, that Deb Haaland was front and center. We saw a lot of celebrities even get involved, from Rosario Dawson to Kerry Washington.

So -- so, again, the -- the symbolism is so important, especially for young children to see that even though black communities, Native American communities, we are affected by these issues, we are not just victims. You know, we are active leaders who can solve our own problems. And both of these picks, Haaland and -- Deb Haaland and Michael Regan are very experienced. They're able to work across the aisle. They've had a track record of bipartisan success. And they bring that personal experience to bear.

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: It really does say a lot.

As we look at President-elect Biden, he and Dr. Biden sat down with Stephen Colbert. And, of course, we knew it was going to come up, but he was asked specifically about Hunter Biden. I just want to play his response.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEPHEN COLBERT: You know that the people who want to make hay in Washington are going to try to use your adult son as a cudgel against you.

How do you feel about that and what do you have to say to those people?

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT-ELECT FOR THE UNITED STATES: Well, look, I have -- we have great confidence in our son. I am not concerned about any accusations that have been made against him. It's used to get to me. I think it's kind of foul play. But, look, it is what it is.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: I think that last part, Toluse, is especially interesting, I think it's kind of foul play, but it is what it is. It's also likely something that the president-elect will continue to be asked about.

OLORUNNIPA: Yes, this is the first time that we're hearing President- elect Biden essentially, potentially accuse the folks investigating his sons and the folks that are making a big deal out of it, including some of the president's allies, as engaged in foul play and maybe even manipulating the Justice Department, putting pressure on the Justice Department to try to make politics influence the, you know, the investigation potentially into his son.

He said what you would expect a father to say about their son, which is, you know, I think -- I think my son is doing a great job. I don't think that there's anything to this. But we'll have to wait and see.

And then one of the major things that we are still waiting on is for Biden to appoint his -- or to nominate his attorney general. And this is a question that will be leaning over this process, especially now he has raised the specter of foul play in one of these investigations or the idea that politics may be interfering in this investigation. Who will he choose for attorney general and what kinds of things will be put in place to put a firewall between the White House and the political branch and the Justice Department under a Biden administration? Those are key questions that we're waiting to hear more about.

BERMAN: All right, Toluse, Natasha, thanks so much for being with us this morning. Appreciate your time.

HILL: Congressional leaders still trying to hammer out a stimulus deal. Now, if they don't reach a deal, it could lead to a government shutdown tonight. We have the latest for you, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:38:39]

BERMAN: The U.S. government could be headed for a shutdown at midnight tonight as congressional negotiators struggle to strike a deal on spending and, importantly, a coronavirus relief package.

CNN's Sunlen Serfaty live on Capitol Hill with the latest.

Look, we were told they were close. What's going on here, Sunlen?

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, things are simply just not in a good spot right here on Capitol Hill. And, frankly, even worse for the millions of Americans who need relief now. Lawmakers have been trying to tie this still-illusive final deal on COVID relief to the must-pass government spending bill. That has to pass by midnight tonight in order to avoid a government shutdown.

So right now, in the absence of a final deal, today on Capitol Hill, we will see this massive scramble to try to figure out how they can avoid that. We could potentially see them pass a very short-term stopgap funding measure, essentially to keep the government funded for another 48 hours or so, buying them some time to still try to negotiate the relief bill. Or will we see them let the government end funding, shutdown essentially for the -- for the duration of potentially the weekend? That is the big question up here on Capitol Hill today.

Now, at the same time, the negotiators are still working to try to move past some of these outstanding issues. There is still debate right now over whether and how long to extend eviction moratoriums, whether there should be additional restrictions on that second round of stimulus checks that Americans could see some time soon.

[06:40:05]

But, John, the reality of this moment is very bleak. Congress is stuck right now. They are about to see their problems get even worse at midnight tonight, that deadline. And that's a lot to say that millions of Americans are just waiting, waiting for Congress to bring them some relief.

John.

BERMAN: That's right, if you're -- if you're looking for extended unemployment benefits, you don't care if members of Congress have to stay up late tonight.

SERFATY: That's right.

BERMAN: You want them to get the job done.

SERFATY: That's right.

BERMAN: Sunlen Serfaty on Capitol Hill, thanks so much for being with us.

SERFATY: Thanks.

BERMAN: Federal officials warning this morning that this huge cyberattack of government agencies poses a grave threat. We have new details on the scope of this suspected Russian attack and how they managed to do it, just fascinating, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HILL: Developing this morning, America's cybersecurity agency is warning of the grave threat that a massive hack of U.S. government agencies poses to the United States. "The New York Times" is reporting this morning a top nuclear agency and the Energy Department were also attacked.

[06:45:01]

Joining us now, CNN political and national security analyst, David Sanger, who's a national security correspondent at "The New York Times."

David, good to have you here this morning.

So part of your reporting, let's just pick up on that, that we had there, is that the National Nuclear Security Administration was compromised. But in a statement, the Department of Energy said that it was only a -- it was not mission essential national security functions, business networks only.

We still don't know the full scope of this attack. So do we know for sure that there's nothing to worry about when it comes to -- to -- especially that department in particular?

DAVID SANGER, CNN POLITICAL AND NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Erica, we don't know that there's nothing to worry about. We have to imagine here that we're at the very early end of our understanding of the attack. The main thing we do understand is that a piece of network monitoring software, which is very widely used in the government, among Fortune 500 companies, my employer, "The New York Times," uses it, was basically invaded by a group of hackers, who we believe are linked to the SVR, a Russian intelligence agency, and they got into the update system. Think about the way your phone updates overnight, you know, when you plug it in. And, of course, when that happens, you don't go and look at all the code that Apple or someone else just put into your -- into your phone.

Well, the Russians go into this update system and then companies, government agencies, downloaded it. And that was in March. And then once you're in the software base, you can sort of bore in and go laterally anywhere you want.

So, while we -- what we've heard from the Energy Department, and we've heard similar things from Treasury and Commerce and so many others, the fact of the matter is that they're all telling me they don't really know. And they don't know that this is just espionage. HILL: Well, it's also remarkable that this happened in March. And

we're just finding out about it now.

How concerned should we be about that?

SANGER: Well, it's even worse than that. It happened in March. We're only finding out about it now. And we're only finding out about it because the alarm was raised by a private cybersecurity firm called Fire Eye, whose own tools for looking at network vulnerabilities were stolen by this same group. And they were the one who saw the code.

And what's that tell you? You know, the United States has spent billions and billions of dollars building both a big cyber offensive capability, the United States Cyber Command, and an intelligence capability at the National Security Agency, and then a civilian equivalent at the Department of Homeland Security, the people who were watching over the election. But the fact is that right now it looks like none of the sensors they set up were set off because they are designed to see threats coming from overseas. And by getting into this domestic piece of software and then by beaconing out to servers in the United States, the Russians basically routed around the alarm system. And that tells you that we fundamentally have to go rethink, once again, a system that was pierced by the Russians in the late '90s, pierced in another way in 2008, and, of course, during the 2016 elections.

HILL: You've pointed this -- to this as both an intelligence and a deterrence failure. And you -- I think you just laid out some of those reasons there in that previous answer. But when we look at what's happened, the fact that they have figured out these work arounds to the alarms that were put in place, how are we at this point, do you think? Is it a lack of leadership? Is it that the focus is not in the right place? Is it -- I mean, I don't know what it is.

SANGER: Sure.

HILL: Is there something that stands out to you?

SANGER: No, it's a great question. A few things stand out to me, Erica.

The first is that -- and I think you saw this in President-elect Biden's statement. And, by the way, President Trump has not said a word about this yet, right? I mean the other day when all of this was really bursting into view, he sent out more tweets about hacks of the election that didn't happen and has never mentioned this. We're nearly a week into it, OK?

When President-elect Biden turned out his statement yesterday, he said, defense is not enough. There has to be a price to be paid. And that's what he told us for our documentary in "The Perfect Weapon" and he has made this point time and time again.

The difficulty is that while the United States has done a lot, even under President Trump, to raise the price, go into foreign networks, send warning shots across their bow, as the United States did through cyber command during the 2018 midterm elections, clearly the Russians do not fear us right now on this. And the question is, how far are you willing to escalate with a nuclear power?

You know, the thing about cyber is, it's always remained below the level of conflict. And we want to keep it that way. But if you say you're going to retaliate, you have to be willing to think about retaliation that may not in the cyber realm because that may not be where the Russians themselves are most vulnerable.

[06:50:01]

It's certainly where we're most vulnerable.

HILL: So -- so, quickly, before I let you go, and thank you for bringing up the leadership, because that's where I wanted to go next. We look at this very strong statement that we got from Joe Biden, the fact that we have not heard from Donald Trump on this in at all the same way. What does Joe Biden need to do on day one to follow up that statement? And then just real quickly, too, what's the intent of an attack like this?

SANGER: Well, on following up, there's a long list of things. But, you know, one of them is, as Alex Stamos out of Stanford has pointed out is, we need a sort of National Transportation Safety Board of cyber incidents, where we have a big investigation, all the results are made public and you can learn from these lessons and move on. And we don't have that.

Intent, Erica, is the thing that worries me the most here. We're all assuming that this is just about surveillance, espionage, grabbing documents. But most history in recent times in cyber shows that attacks that begin that way, sometimes end up as damaging attacks, the way the North Koreans took out 70 percent of Sony's commuting power, the way the United States and Israel took out Iran's nuclear centrifuges. So there's no reason to believe right now that this is only about espionage. We haven't seen damage, but we may be at the early end of the attack. And I think that's what I'd be most worried about if I was Biden coming in, facing a government that clearly has been ridden with holes.

HILL: Yes. And, again, we still don't know the full scope here.

David Sanger, always appreciate you joining us. Thank you.

SANGER: Great to be with you.

HILL: And you can catch "The Perfect Weapon," that new HBO original documentary, which is based on David Sanger's book. Remember, you can catch that as well.

Meantime, herd immunity, that is the strategy that some of President Trump's advisers were pushing. Well, now the king of Sweden says that strategy failed in his own country, as hospitalizations there skyrocket. More on that, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [06:56:11]

BERMAN: This morning, the king of Sweden slamming his country's response to the pandemic, as the nation reports a record increase in cases. The king says the herd immunity strategy there has failed.

CNN has reporters covering this and other developments all around the world.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Kristie Lu Stout in Hong Kong.

The government has unveiled a fourth round of desperately-needed relief, giving some $826 million to businesses hit hard by the pandemic and the tough restrictions put in place. As COVID-19 cases surge here in Hong Kong, the city has been clamping down. There is a ban on dining in after 6:00 p.m., bars, gyms, beauty salons are closed. Public beaches and entertainment venues like Disneyland are shuttered.

Now, the government has already given some $40 billion in relief to businesses, but for small business owners here in Hong Kong, that may not be enough to survive the winter.

MAX FOSTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Max Foster in Sweden.

King Carl Gustaf has condemned the country's response to the coronavirus pandemic. He told the national broadcaster SVT, I think we've failed. We have a large number who have died, and that is terrible.

The country never enforced a lockdown or the wearing of masks and only brought in restrictions relatively recently, such as a national ban on gatherings of more than eight people. They're currently recording a record number of coronavirus patients in hospital and some ICU units are running at full capacity, according to reports. Prime Minister Stefan Lofven said he agreed with the king's comments.

SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN REPORTER: I'm Salma Abdelaziz in London.

A charity's plans to feed Britain's most vulnerable children has been met with backlash. For the first time in its 70-year history, UNICEF will be providing food assistance to the U.K.'s neediest families. It says a domestic emergency has been created by the coronavirus pandemic. But a senior government official is outraged that a U.N. charity is stepping in to help, saying UNICEF should be ashamed of itself and calling the plans to feed hungry children a political act of the lowest order.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BERMAN: Our thanks to our reporters all around the world.

NEW DAY continues right now. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Health care workers overwhelmed by a record 114,000 patients now being treated in hospital for COVID.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think it can get a lot worse, as you're seeing. We're seeing an incredible surge. The hospitals are full.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The rollout of Pfizer's vaccine continues across the country.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're going to see the vice president get it alongside the second lady, alongside the surgeon general, as well. They're doing that to try to instill confidence in people.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Congress drawing closer to a stimulus deal with the lives of millions of Americans on the line.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The fact that we can't come together on a bipartisan basis, on what is essentially disaster relief, I think is shameful.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Alisyn Camerota and John Berman.

BERMAN: Welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is NEW DAY.

Alisyn is off. Erica Hill with me this morning for a really exciting morning.

HILL: It really is.

BERMAN: So, in just a few minutes, Dr. Sanjay Gupta will receive the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine. We will watch him get it live.

Next hour, Vice President Mike Pence and the surgeon general will receive the vaccine. We'll bring that to you live, as well.

Overnight, a key FDA advisory committee voted to recommend authorization of Moderna's vaccine, meaning that a second vaccine could be available in just days.

And this morning we're learning about issues with the distribution of Pfizer's vaccine. At least six states say they were told by the Trump administration they will be getting fewer doses than expected next week.

The current situation in the country is just awful. Unimaginable loss right now as 3,270 new deaths reported overnight.

[07:00:04]

Hospitals in California reaching a breaking point. ICU capacity in L.A. County.