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CDC Director's Approval Is Final Step Before First Vaccinations Against Coronavirus Can Begin; U.S. Adds One Million New COVID-19 Cases In Just Four Days; FDA Authorizes Pfizer/BionTech COVID Vaccine Distribution In U.S.; Trump Raised Prospect Of Firing Top Official In Meeting Friday; Supreme Court Rejects Trump's And Texas' Bid To Overturn Election; After Spike In Hospitalization, NY Gov Bans Indoor Dining. Aired 9-10p ET

Aired December 12, 2020 - 21:00   ET

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

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[21:00:35]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is CNN breaking news.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer in Washington. This is a special edition of THE SITUATION ROOM.

A light at the end of the tunnel and the coronavirus pandemic, as a panel of CDC advisors now recommend the first COVID vaccine in the United States for people 16 years old and older. All that's left is for the CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield to formally give it the green light and that green light could come we're told at any moment now. Once he does shipments hit the road, with vaccinations expected to start as soon as Monday but the punishing toll of COVID in the United States is unrelenting.

Today, another staggering record. More than 108,000 people across the country right now are hospitalized with COVID. This is the 11th day in a row that the U.S. has broken the record for hospitalizations. Yesterday get this more than 3,300 Americans died from the coronavirus and today already more than 2,200 have already died in a day is by no means over.

Dr. Redfield says that we should expect to see more deaths per day than there were on 9-11 every day for the next two to three months even with a massive vaccine rollout that is about to get underway. That historic roll up by the way when it happens will start in the state of Michigan. That's where the Pfizer scientists are created the vaccine. Millions and millions of doses they are preparing it all to get ready to move.

CNN's Dianne Gallagher is in Grand Rapids for us tonight. Diane?

DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, let's break down a really complicated, intricate process into three prongs here. The first one is temperature much has been made about these super cold conditions these vaccines must live in. We're talking negative 94 degrees Fahrenheit. And then there is the timing.

The timing and carriers like FedEx and UPS have talked about how they're keeping track of these packages, both with GPS and Bluetooth as well as with on-site teams. So they know every step of the way where these vaccine packages are and if there are any sort of interruptions. And lastly, there's transit.

Now here at the Ford Airport at Grand Rapids, Michigan, I've got Stephen Clark with me and you guys are pretty close to the Kalamazoo Pfizer facility. Besides that proximity, why is this an airport that's been planning for vaccine distribution?

STEPHEN CLARK, BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT, FORD AIRPORT: Absolutely. It's all about the runway 10,000 foot long, it's capable of handling those international wide body flights. And we see him every single day of the week, going domestically at least. So, just another opportunity.

GALLAGHER: But you guys have been planning for this for about a month now. I know the cargo facilities in talks with at least four different international carriers. It's not just technical. This has been emotional as well for you.

CLARK: Yes, this is our chance to get back at this virus. Right. So our friends and colleagues have been laid off. This is our opportunity to be on the front lines, get the vaccine out to them and make a difference. It's a big moment.

GALLAGHER: Thank you so much, Stephen. Now of course, Wolf. There's also a lot of security involved in this, the airports, the carriers, they are keeping a lot of this under wraps, making sure that there are no mistakes made and that every step of the way there are checks and balances Wolf.

BLITZER: All right Dianne, thank you very much. Dianne Gallagher reporting for us from Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Joining us now to discuss this historic moment, CNN medical analyst, Dr. Leana Wen, she's the former Baltimore Health Commissioner. Dr. Wen, thank you so much for joining us. Are we ready for this vaccine row lock? This is obviously a huge logistical challenge.

LEANA WEN, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: It is. And I think we should take a moment to talk about this incredible triumph of science. That's where we are. I mean, I think it's really incredible, that we now have a vaccine that's authorized for emergency use. Now, we are here because of this unprecedented speed in scientific development.

I hope that that also does translate into unprecedented speed when it comes to distribution. And there are so many bumps in the road that we need to be anticipating. And I actually really fear that we just have not been funding local and state health departments. They are the ones that are doing the heavy lifting when it comes to coordinating all these very difficult logistical pieces.

And we really need the stimulus package to come from Congress in order to help state and local health departments or else all that urgency that we put in to expedite how we got here scientifically could go to waste.

[21:04:58]

BLITZER: Yes, that's an important point. This Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine Dr. Wen it's just the first out of the gate, a second vaccine by the drug maker Moderna that could be authorized later this coming week. And that's a significant development as well. But in a new op-ed, that you wrote for The Washington Post, you say you have two major concerns about these vaccines, side effects, and coincidence, explain what you mean.

WEN: We need to be anticipating what are the scenarios that could really derail the acceptance of the vaccine and here are two. One is that there are side effects, they are normal, they are expected. And actually they mean that the vaccine is working that our body is producing the appropriate immune response, but we should tell people about it. That includes pain, redness, swelling at the injection site.

Also, some people may experience fatigue, body aches, fever, headache, these, again, are normal. But if people are not expecting it, then it could lead to maybe people not getting the second dose because this is a two-dose vaccine or two misinformation. And so that kind of transparency is really important.

In addition, we also know that one of the two priority groups that's going to get the vaccine first are nursing home residents, many of whom are older, who are medically frail, and who may experience illness or even death that are totally unrelated to the vaccine. But it may occur around the same time as a vaccine is administered.

So we need to get the baseline numbers and statistics in terms of who is ill and what the likelihood of illness is in these groups. And we also need to investigate every single possible adverse outcome immediately and transparently. That kind of total transparency is absolutely key.

BLITZER: Yes, that's a really, really significant. Standby Dr. Wen. Dr. James Phillips is also joining us the Chief of Disaster Medicine at the George Washington University Hospital here in the nation's capitol.

Dr. Phillips, thanks for joining us, do you share Dr. Wen's fears, how concerned are you about possible misinformation out there? Because there's got to be a lot of transparency and a lot of explanation that's critical in combating this virus.

JAMES PHILLIPS, CHIEF DISASTER MEDICINE, GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIV. HOSPITAL: Well, good evening to you both, and thanks for thanks for that great question. You know, misinformation has been a major issue throughout this entire COVID-19 pandemic. You know, misinformation at its core is really just a misunderstanding.

It's the perpetuation of incorrect information that's being believed by parts of the population. And that's the -- that's not uncommon with really any news story, especially major news, especially when you're getting information from a lot of different sources. However, what I think is more insidious, and more dangerous is the disinformation that we've been receiving. You know, there -- when you go on Facebook, you go on Twitter, you listen to even sections of our federal government, that has not only been telling us incorrect information, but purposely telling us things that are incorrect.

And that has led to the death of people, whether we're talking about masks, medications that we all were afraid weren't going to work based on the studies and then turned out not to work, yet, we're still being pushed by some of these groups and by some of these leaders.

So, when we look at the vaccine, where there's already a tremendous amount of vaccine hesitancy, we have to do everything we can to fight that. And that means public information campaigns by physicians, scientists, the media, celebrities, actors, musicians, you name it, it's all necessary to reach all those different segments of the population to combat the misinformation and the disinformation.

BLITZER: Yes, really significant. Dr. Wen, how crucial, therefore, will it be to have influencers, take the vaccine, show it on social media, talk about it, do it all on camera, celebrities, church leaders, political leaders, for example, and most importantly, respected people like you doctors?

WEN: I think it's really important. So much of the vaccine hesitancy that we're seeing is just that people don't understand this vaccine. It is something that's new, they're worried about the speed. And as much as we're trying to reassure them that every scientific safeguard was followed the scientific process was really thorough.

I think people just really want to see it in action. And so, I was talking to one of the local pastors here in Baltimore, who's very concerned about vaccine hesitancy in the African-American community here. He wants to at the first opportunity, he wants to hold a vaccination drive at his church, and he wants to roll up his sleeve and be the first person to get that vaccine in front of all of his congregants.

I think things like that, that are outreach to the community with people who are the most trusted messengers to our community. That kind of effort will be really critical.

And I hope that President-elect Biden and President Trump will both be willing to get the vaccine because that will also help to convince millions of Americans to.

BLITZER: Yes, I think you're absolutely right. Dr. Phillips, are you guys ready at the George Washington University Hospital here in Washington D.C. to start giving individuals the shots?

PHILLIPS: I'm confident with the preparation that's taking place in our local hospitals and really in hospitals across the country, and that goes for both urban and the rural hospitals. You know, we've done pandemic planning for decades, we've run these large-scale exercises over the years, most recently one called Crimson contagion, that was a nationwide large scale exercise where we identify the weaknesses and the vulnerabilities that we may not think of.

[21:10:21]

And clearly some of the things we've thought of or the logistics like what I know Dr. Wen was talking about, but even the things like the number of syringes and alcohol pads and the number of people trained to give vaccines may be the real bottleneck as opposed to the vaccine itself. So, these hospitals, our hospitals have been preparing for this since March. And I think that we are where we need to be.

And we're aided by the fact that we're not releasing 350 million doses right away. Although we wish we were. There's going to be small, incremental doses coming in every month. And that allows us to, to catch up and to improve the process, just like we did as testing was starting to be rolled out.

BLITZER: Dr. Phillips, thanks so much for joining us and Dr. Wen, thanks to you as well. And thanks to both of you for doing what you do. We're really appreciative.

In the last weeks of President Trump's presidency, CNN is now learning he has discussed firing, firing a key member of his cabinet, we're going to tell you who that is when we come back.

(voice-over): Plus, the U.S. Supreme Court rejects President Trump's latest challenge to the results of the election he clearly lost. But what does that mean about the 126 Republican members of the House of Representatives who actually signed their name on that suit? We'll discuss lots of news, when we come back.

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BLITZER: Despite the imminent authorization of a coronavirus vaccine for the first time here in the United States, and COVID numbers that are out of control across the board right now. President Trump is actually focusing in this weekend and lashing out his targets include various individuals. Also, the Supreme Court, his own attorney general Bill Barr, as well, all with barely a month left in office 39 days to be specific.

Boris Sanchez is over at the White House for us tonight. Boris, the President's advisors have been urging him not to fire any more of his top members as this outgoing administration continues. Only 39 days left. It sounds like he's actually thinking though, about ignoring that advice. What's the latest?

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right. Wolf, the President is so displeased with his own Attorney General William Barr, that he's openly having discussions in the White House about dismissing him with less than 40 days left in his presidency. This all goes back to William Barr telling the Associated Press that he saw no evidence of widespread voter fraud a lie that the President has repeatedly propagated. President apparently furious about that. And now, the latest news the revelation that William Barr worked to keep under wraps an investigation into President-elect Joe Biden's son Hunter.

Barr, following policy at the Department of Justice to not reveal any ongoing investigations into candidates or their family members around election time. That clearly infuriating the president. He made clear today on Twitter that he felt it would have boosted Republicans going into Election Day. He of course campaigned for DOJ to open investigation into Hunter and Joe Biden well before November 3rd. The President displeased at this point, and it's had conversations about firing Barr as recently as yesterday.

One source close to the two men indicates that their relationship is at a breakdown that they're not communicating directly. They described it as a sort of Cold War. And one source speaking to CNN's Jamie Gangel had this interesting take. They said quote, Barr cannot be intimidated by Trump. That is the real story. None of this matters. It's the deposed King ranting. Irrelevant to the course of justice and to Trump's election loss.

Notably, a source close to Barr is indicated that the Attorney General would not be resigning unless he felt that it was inevitable that Trump was going to fire him. Really this is sort of history repeating itself a Wolf, it draws back memories of President Trump berating his former Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Twitter for months before ultimately letting him go.

BLITZER: All right, Boris, thanks very much. Boris Sanchez reporting for us from the White House.

Let's discuss with our senior political analyst Ron Brownstein. He's also a senior editor over at The Atlantic.

Ron, as you know, a third of the U.S. Supreme Court, three of the nine justices, the three justices that Trump himself appointed to the Supreme Court. They joined the liberal, the three liberal justices, the other justices, and they refuse to even take up this Texas lawsuit, saying that this the Texas did not have standing in this particular case. How blindsided you think the President was that the justices they ruled against him on this issue?

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, he could be blindsided only if he was kind of starting in a fantasy world because the case was absurd from the beginning, the idea that a group of conservative states could sue to overturn the results of the election solely in states that voted against President Trump and have a standing to challenge the election procedures in a handful of other states, which was absurd from the beginning.

And of course, what's really striking about it, Wolf was an even though this case was so legally threadbare and based not only on kind of strange legal theories, but on unsupported quote facts included in the allegation, roughly two-thirds of the Republicans in the House and two-thirds of the Republican attorneys general in the country signed on to this case. And that raises really ominous questions about where the Republican Party is going in his posture towards small d democracy and the basic tenants have kind of the American constitutional system.

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BLITZER: Well, are they going to move on now? Are they going to drop this or they can continue to look for all sorts of other lame excuses to keep on fighting? What happened the fact that Joe Biden won the election and will be inaugurated on January 20th in 39 days?

BROWNSTEIN: Well, I think there are really three lanes that you have to look at whether there'll be kind of guerrilla activities in the final weeks, including, perhaps, certainly Jim Jordan has already said that he Republican in the House wants to object when the House votes to kind of certify the election in January.

If that could happen, I think a more immediate and sweeping problem is that Republicans are already using these baseless claims of fraud as the basis for a new round of voter suppression, you've probably seen that the Republican majority in the Georgia State Senate is already proposing to eliminate dropboxes in the state and to end on demand absentee balloting in the state that the law that they've had for about 15 years now anybody can request a ballot for any reason. They want to end that.

The Speaker of the House said the Secretary of the State should know what -- Secretary of State should no longer be elected by the voters but should be appointed by the legislators. And then there's a third lane and all of this, was what does this do in the long run and in the future to the Republican willingness to accept the results of future elections.

President Trump has already suggested several times that he will support a primary challenge against Brian Kemp, the governor of Georgia who was considered someone who had been restricting access to the ballot, as you know, but would not go all the way to try to overturn this for the President.

And that I think, you know, Dan Pfeiffer, the former White House communications director for Barack Obama said to me last week that in the future, not trying to steal an election may be seen as rhino Republican in name only behavior.

If Brian Kemp loses a primary challenge in 2022, a lot of Republicans are going to be intimidated by what President Trump is suggesting they need to do outside of the constitutional system.

BLITZER: Well, there's a lot of suspicion the President is doing this, even though he knows that he's not going to win. But he's doing this simply to raise money campaign money already raised since the election, about $200 million.

BROWNSTEIN: Yes.

BLITZER: I suspect he's going to raise another 100 million before January 20th. He'll have a huge campaign coffers to spend --

BROWNSTEIN: Yes.

BLITZER: -- basically any way he wants, especially if he thinks well, maybe he'll run again in 2024. How much of this is the result of money that the President wants to raise money?

BROWNSTEIN: Well, I think the President can raise money, I think, you know, under any circumstance, I think money is part of it. But I don't think it's all of it. The fact is that by allowing these poisonous fantasies to take route, that he did not lose the election that it was stolen from him.

Republicans are basically creating a situation in which they are cementing his dominant position in the party. I mean, it's going to be very hard to make an argument in the next few years that President Trump led the Republican Party in the wrong direction, we need to reconsider his direction.

If 75 percent of Republican voters believe that he actually won the election. And the only reason he's not president is because it was stolen from him in heavily African-American major cities. And I think that in that way, the Republicans who are going along with this, the two-thirds of House Republicans, Kevin McCarthy, in such a blatantly anti-Democratic lawsuit to disenfranchise 20 million voters, the senators in Georgia endorsing a lawsuit to disenfranchise 5 million of the residents of their own state who voted, all of them are creating a situation in which they are locking in President Trump's influence in the party and keeping themselves more likely to keep themselves under his thumb in the years ahead.

BLITZER: It's hard to believe what's going on. I suspect that's going to continue though. Ron Brownstein, thank you very much for that analysis.

BROWNSTEIN: Thank you Wolf.

BLITZER: Amid a spike in cases and hospitalizations across New York City right now, New York's Governor's banning indoor dining at restaurants across the city. We're going to New York. We'll get reaction when we come back.

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BLITZER: All restaurants in New York City right now being ordered to shut their doors in house dining once again. And that is effective Monday that order straight from the governor of New York who pointed to the fast-rising number of coronavirus patients right now in New York City hospitals.

CNN's Evan McMorris-Santoro is in New York for us. And this is a really an enormous step to take right now, when the restaurant industry is already in serious, serious trouble. Tell us what's happening where you are in New York City.

EVAN MCMORRIS-SANTORO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well Wolf, I'm here in Manhattan, and the short answer to your question is that the numbers all of the numbers are heading in the wrong direction and heading there very quickly. On Saturday, the mayor of New York City Bill de Blasio announced the seven-day rolling average of in the infection rate here in New York City has reached 6.26 percent, which is a big increase over just a couple of weeks ago, it was two points lower than that.

It's numbers like that, every number that he uses to track the virus, from hospitalizations to new cases to sadly deaths have been going in that wrong direction. And it's looking at those numbers that led to this new shutdown as Andrew Cuomo, the governor said yesterday, let's listen to him.

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GOV. ANDREW CUOMO (D-NY): The hospitalizations have continued to increase in New York City. We said that we would watch it if the stabilization -- if the hospital rate didn't stabilize, we would close indoor dining. It is not we're going to close indoor dining in New York City on Monday.

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MCMORRIS-SANTORO: So, Wolf, as you mentioned, there are economic consequences to this.

[21:30:00]

Some that can be dire for some of these small businesses that have just been trying to reopen a little bit in the past few weeks when some of these restrictions loosens. But it's really a sign of just how bad things are getting back here in New York, even as we're talking about the vaccine in the coming days. This really is a moment where people need to buckle down and stay -- pay attention to those guidelines, because it's not over yet. And it could be some of the worst that we've seen in the next few weeks, Wolf.

BLITZER: You're absolutely right. Evan McMorris-Santoro in New York City. Stay safe over there. We'll be in touch.

Let's get some more in all of these. I'm joined, once again, by our medical analysts, the former Baltimore Health Commissioner, Dr. Leana Wen. Dr. Wen, now that we have a vaccine, it's about to roll out maybe as early as Monday, how does this affect shutdowns? Should we do more restrictions until everyone is vaccinated? Give us some perspective.

DR. LEANA WEN, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: That's a really interesting point, Wolf, because I think it's important for people to know that the vaccine is going to make a difference in the months to come. But it's certainly not going to make a big difference right now, not even in fact, with the people who are vaccinated, because here's what the vaccine does and doesn't do.

What it does do that we have seen so far in the studies is that it reduces symptomatic illness and the likelihood that you're going to be severely ill and hospitalized and die. Now, that's very important. But what we do not know is whether the vaccine reduces transmission. And so, even the people who got vaccinated should actually still be wearing a mask, should still be practicing physical distancing because we don't want for people who are vaccinated to think, well, I'm not going to spread it to others, so I'm fine.

And so, what this means is, we all still need to really hunker down and get through this very difficult winter, which may include in many places, implementing mask mandates, if they haven't already, or implementing other restrictions, in particular on indoor gatherings.

BLITZER: Because there's already, Dr. Wen, a very wide spectrum when it comes to COVID restriction state by state, since some states will be doing their own vaccine rollouts, and they'll be on different trajectories. Are you worried that that potentially could still even more confusion out there among people trying to keep everything straight?

WEN: So on some level, you do want states to operationalize and do what's best for their jurisdiction, because a national policy may not always apply in every state. But on the other hand, you do want to have some coherent national policy. And so, I think that's the difference that you should let states operationalize.

But the federal government has a role in setting evidence-based policies. That's what we've been missing all along in the response, and I hope that we'll see more of that when it comes to vaccine distribution, but also when it comes to critically controlling this pandemic, too.

BLITZER: We know that a lot of folks out there watching us they have -- and it's understandable COVID fatigue, when it comes to wearing mask, social distancing, they've had enough, it's been going on for most of this whole year. Do you expect people to become even less likely to abide by these absolutely essential COVID restrictions now that they know there's a vaccine out there on the way?

WEN: Yes, I'm really afraid of this, because I want people to see that there is hope, that there is light at the end of the tunnel. But I don't want the tunnel to be collapsing on people when we are so close. Because right now we have more than 2,000 -- more than 3,000 in some cases, number of people who are dying every day from coronavirus. And how tragic is it that we are so close. And yet people are dying in such unprecedented numbers.

So I think it's important for us to recognize that pandemic fatigue is really real, that holidays are here and it's natural for us when we're stressed and scared to want to see our loved ones. But it's also really important that we avoid indoor gathering. So try to see people outdoors if we can. Get tested and quarantine.

If it's really important to see people indoors, you can get tested or you can quarantine for seven days and then get tested or quarantine for 10 days and then see people indoors together. It's really hard I know, but we can get through this very challenging period ahead until we can get to the point that a vaccine will be available to most of us.

BLITZER: Yes, these are life saving measures that we all have to deal with. All right, Dr. Leana Wen, thanks, once again, for joining us. Really appreciate it. WEN: Thank you, Wolf.

BLITZER: Despite the President's repeated efforts to overturn the results of the election here in the United States, members of the Electoral College will officially cast their ballots on Monday. Many Republicans though still refuse to acknowledge Joe Biden's victory. So, what's next for the Republican Party? We'll discuss right after this.

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[21:38:35]

BLITZER: Despite Donald Trump's continued efforts to overturn a free and fair election, another key step toward the Joe Biden administration takes place on Monday as Electoral College voters cast their official ballots. Biden, who won by more than 7 million national popular votes garnered 306 electoral votes. That's well over the required 270 needed to win. President Trump, by the way, only got 232 electoral votes.

Monday's vote in the Electoral College will seal Biden's victory but many Republicans still refuse to acknowledge that, hard as it is to believe. In a Monmouth University poll taken shortly after the election victory by Biden was projected, seven in 10 Republicans actually said they believe Biden only won because of voter fraud. Not all Republicans, of course, agree including the former Trump National Security Adviser John Bolton. In a Washington Post op-ed, he offers four ways his own party, the Republican Party, can move on from the election results.

Ambassador Bolton is joining us now with more, he is the former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. He's also the author of the book, "The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir". Ambassador Bolton, thanks so much for joining us.

In that op-ed you wrote that too many Republicans will see only the ratification of a stolen election on Monday when the Electoral College convenes, but how can it be otherwise, it's hard to believe, 126 Republican members of the House of Representatives actually back that failed effort by the Texas Attorney General to invalidate the votes from Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

[21:40:16]

JOHN BOLTON, FORMER NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER UNDER PRES. TRUMP: Right. Well, I think the principal reason is that Trump has been saying even before the election, the only way he could lose is through fraud or if it were stolen, and not enough Republicans even yet have spoken up to say that's complete nonsense. Now, some have, and I think more are.

But I think Monday, as you point out when the Electoral College votes, at that point, there's no legal way to overturn that. I mean, there can be a lot of sound and fury, but that's it. That's the result right there. That's the reflection of how the people have voted in the 50 states in the District of Columbia.

And at least then, that's one Republicans should say, and some have, by the way, since the Supreme Court decision in the Texas case, that the process has been exhausted. We know the result. Beginning on Monday, all Republicans should refer to Joe Biden, although we don't like it, that's for sure, they should refer to him as President-elect, because that's what he will be.

BLITZER: And Vice President-elect Harris. Let's talk a little bit about your op-ed, which was very, very strong. Your first piece of advice, Ambassador, was to recognize everything, as you pointed out, changes at noon on January 20th, when Biden and Kamala Harris are sworn in. You think it will help once President Trump actually leaves the White House, he's down in Mar-a-Lago and Palm Beach where it's sunny and nice, and he's playing golf every day?

BOLTON: Yes. I think this is important for people, whether they're pro-Trump or anti-Trump in the commentary ad and the press to understand. You know, actually, the media will have to cover somebody else beginning at noon on the 20th of January. Once the forum of the Oval Office is gone, it changes dramatically.

And I think there's a snowball effect that's going to happen then as Trump becomes less and less relevant. I'm not saying he's going to disappear, that would be ideal. I understand that won't happen. But it is inevitable that his influence will decline. And, you know, for Republicans who are worried about Twitter rants from Mar-a-Lago, their strength and numbers, it's not hard, just acknowledge reality, and you'll get through it.

BLITZER: You know, one of the other things you say that, as of this coming Monday, when the Electoral College convenes, all Republican members should come out and say that Biden won, yet very few of them have done that yet. Has the silence of leaders, for example, like the Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell made things worse?

BOLTON: Well, I think the more people who speak out at whatever level, the better it will be, and Monday is the perfect opportunity to do it. It's one thing to say that the President was entitled to take advantage of his legal remedies. He's done that, he's lost right across the board. This latest case, the Texas case, it will be recorded in history as an embarrassment to every Republican who signed on to it, every Republican attorney general who filed a brief in it. It was frivolous from the beginning, and it was rejected by the Supreme Court effectively nine to zero. It doesn't get any clearer than that.

BLITZER: It was rejected also by the three Supreme Court justices that the President himself nominated for the Supreme Court. Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, Amy Coney Barrett, they said this whole case had no standing coming before the Supreme Court. So that should presumably have a huge impact on a whole bunch of other Republicans, will it?

BOLTON: Well, and Clarence Thomas and Sam Alito and John Roberts and so it was all six Republican appointees. It should, and I think this is the kind of thing that helps demonstrate to Republican voters that it's not some vast left-wing conspiracy that reverse Hillary Clinton's famous phrase. The courts have stood firm on this, Republican and Democratic judge's state and federal just in Wisconsin today.

We had another rejection of a Trump lawsuit by a Trump appointed district judge in office, all of three months wrote a blistering opinion. The President's had his chance. He's not presented effective legal arguments. He's not presented facts. He's presented speculation and it's been rejected. Legally, this thing was over a long time ago. On Monday, politically, it will be over too.

BLITZER: You're a lifelong Republican, you say the Republicans should focus right now and making Biden a one-term president but Donald Trump is clearly considering another run. And you worked with him for a long time. Do you think he still has enough hold on the party to claim the GOP nominee in 2024, if in fact, he decides to run, he'll be 78 years old in 2024, that's the same age that Biden is right now?

[21:45:12]

BOLTON: Yes. I don't think he'll actually run. But I think people have to appreciate public opinion in the Republican Party or nationwide. It's not a block of granite. Whatever people say today can be affected by the facts, which is why it's important for Republicans to speak out and say more clearly what the facts are.

I think that if we obsess about Donald Trump, we're violating a fundamental conservative principle. Our involvement in politics is because of policy. It's not because of personalities, and especially not a cult of personalities. It's time to move on. Donald Trump seems to aspire to be the next Grover Cleveland. I don't think he's going to make it.

BLITZER: What are people around the world, and you were the National Security Adviser, you were the Ambassador at the U.N., what are they saying when they see what's happening here in the United States right now? It's hard to believe what's happening in the United States right now.

BOLTON: Yes. Well, what I tell them is that Donald Trump is an anomaly and aberration. This is a temporary problem. It does not reflect any real threat to American democracy. It's not a precursor of an authoritarian wave. Donald Trump doesn't have the brains to be an effective authoritarian. This is purely about Donald Trump and his presence, his influence, his impact will diminish every day that goes on once he leaves office.

BLITZER: Ambassador Bolton, thanks so much for joining us.

BOLTON: Glad to be with you.

BLITZER: I'll be anchoring, by the way, special live coverage of the Electoral College vote Monday. I'll start anchoring at 12:00 noon Eastern right here on CNN. Our special coverage on CNN begins Monday morning at 9:00 a.m. Eastern. Our coverage will continue throughout the entire day. Meanwhile, the vaccine that CDC advisers voted to recommend for use in the United States is the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine. Up next, you're going to hear exclusively from the CEO of BioNTech about what lies ahead. We'll be right back.

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[21:51:42]

BLITZER: Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine has received Emergency Use Authorization from the FDA with vaccines shipped and slated to begin leaving a facility in Michigan tomorrow. The Pfizer vaccine was developed in conjunction with the company's German partner BioNTech.

CNN Senior International Correspondent Fred Pleitgen had an exclusive interview with a German firms CEO. Fred?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Wolf. Yes, the folks here at BioNTech are absolutely thrilled to have gotten that Emergency Use Authorization in the United States. And the CEO of BioNTech told me, of course, it's a huge deal for the company.

But he also cautioned, he said it's going to take a while for the vaccine to actually make a difference. He believes they'll take several months before enough Americans will have been vaccinated to actually start beating the pandemic back. Here's what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UGUR SAHIN, CEO, BIONTECH: It quick happens beginning March, middle of March, end of March, to see the first effects. And I hope that was the spring season, we will have, by nature, a lower rate of infections, and the combination of both might help us to have a more -- yes, a better summer, than the situation is now.

PLEITGEN: What steps are being taken to really upgrade and really speed up production as fast as possible?

SAHIN: We anticipate that the need, the worldwide need for a vaccine is much higher than the initially estimated. And now, of course, understanding that models might be required. Yes. We started a few weeks ago to evaluate if we can produce more doses.

And this, of course, means that we need to understand the constraints, for example, the availability of all materials, the availability of machines, of production rooms and of fit and finish capacity. And this is exactly happening. And I anticipate that end of January, we will be able to clearly state if we can produce more doses and if yes, how many.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PLEITGEN: So there you see, Wolf, the company here are already working on ways to try and accelerate production to get even more of that vaccine, not just to Americans, but of course, also to people around the world. And one of the other things we're also working on as well is trying to address one of the real challenges of this vaccine. And that is, of course, the fact that it needs to be stored and transported at around minus 100 degrees Fahrenheit.

In fact, the CEO told me that they're already working on a possible new formulation of the vaccine that could allow it to be shipped at refrigerated temperatures possibly even at room temperatures, and he believes they might be able to achieve that possibly towards the latter half of 2021, Wolf?

BLITZER: Fred Pleitgen in Mainz, Germany thank you very much. More news right after this.

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[21:59:08]

BLITZER: Before we go, we want to pay tribute to a victim of the coronavirus pandemic. Charley Pride, country music's first black superstar was 86, the son of Mississippi sharecroppers. First love was baseball. He was a pitcher and outfielder. It wasn't until the New York Mets passed on him. That music became Charley Pride's main focus, and he launched his groundbreaking music career in.

In 1967, he broke through country music's racial barrier with his hit single, "Just Between You and Me". Pride went on to record more than 50 top 10 country hits eventually becoming the first black artist inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. Charley Pride died today in Dallas, Texas. May he rest in peace, and may his memory be a blessing.

I'll leave you with this 1971 performance of one of his biggest hits, the GRAMMY winning, "Kiss an Angel Good Morning".

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHARLEY PRIDE, COUNTRY MUSIC'S FIRST BLACK SUPERSTAR: -- give that to. Kiss an angel good morning and let her know you think about her when you're gone. Kiss an --

(END VIDEO CLIP)