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Erin Burnett Outfront
DHS Says 2020 Election was "Most Secure in American History" as GOP Cracks Grow; Trump Still Refuses to Concede; DHS on 2020: "No Evidence that Any Voting System Deleted or Lost Votes, Changed Votes, or was in Any Way Compromised"; Source: CIA Director on "This Ice" as Trump Purges Govt Officials; Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) Discusses About His Take on President Trump's Firing of Top Officials. Aired 7-8p ET
Aired November 12, 2020 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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Erin Burnett OUTFRONT starts right now.
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: OUTFRONT next, Trump's own Homeland Security Department just issuing a warning, calling the 2020 election the most secure in American history. You heard me right. As cracks in Trump's Republican wall of support are growing at this hour, the President though right now ensconced in the White House refusing to concede.
Please, breaking news, two top Homeland Security officials just forced to resign. And now CNN is learning the CIA Director is on this ice, a quote. Who's next to go and what seems to be a clear purge?
And also breaking this hour, the CDC projecting another 40,000 Americans could die from coronavirus over the next few weeks, as the Biden team is divided over another lockdown for the country. Let's go OUTFRONT.
Good evening. I'm Erin Burnett.
OUTFRONT tonight, the most secure election in American history. These words are from President Trump's own Department of Homeland Security, the statement breaking just moments ago.
Trump himself at the White House not coming out cleaning to power and the Department of Homeland Security cyber unit just issuing a stunning and powerful statement. OK. The November 3rd election was the most secure in American history, period. "There is no evidence," they continue to say, "that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes or was in any way compromised."
While we know there are many unfounded claims and opportunities for misinformation about the process of our elections, we can assure you we have the utmost confidence in the security and integrity of our elections, and you should too. When you have questions, turn to elections officials as trusted voices as they administer elections.
We're going to be joined by one of them in just a couple of moments, but I just want to take a pause here. If you're home, think about this for a moment what I just read. That is from President Trump's own Department of Homeland Security. This sentence, the November 3rd election was the most secure in American history. It's the fact and it's stunning. It shouldn't have had to be said, but it is the truth.
And it comes on a day the President has been saying the opposite. Rage tweeting at least 50 tweets including total lies about the election like this one. Trump claims voting software deleted 2.7 million votes for him, switched it that he would have won these states, won the election. This is absolutely 100 percent false.
The software did not affect vote counts, full stop, and now you have Trump's own Department of Homeland Security with this statement which appears to be very clearly somewhat in response to that, saying it's false. There was no deleting or changing of votes and this was the most secure election in American history.
Yet at this hour, there is no sign that President Trump is accepting reality or considering conceding. Sources tell CNN he may not even admit he lost until Georgia conducts a full recount, which won't even be done until the 20th of November over a week away.
Meanwhile, a chorus of Republicans are not waiting for that Georgia recount. They've had enough, I guess. I don't know what it took to them to get to this point, but they are finally doing it. Governors, longtime Republican strategists, even one of Trump's evangelical allies telling him it's over.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. MIKE DEWINE (R) OHIO: I think that we need to consider the former Vice President as the President-elect. Joe Biden is the President- elect.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Evangelical Pastor Robert Jeffress acknowledged that Biden won and urged his supporters to pray for him and Karl Rove, a household name. He was also informally advising the Trump campaign has written an op-ed saying, "The President's efforts are unlikely to move a single state from Mr. Biden's column, and certainly are not enough to change the final outcome."
Well, certainly it wouldn't be the case given that the November 3rd election was the most secure in American official history. According to the Department of Homeland Security. In Washington, more Republicans are nudging the President to accept reality. Republican senators now, John Thune, Rob Portman, Chuck Grassley, even Lindsey Graham telling CNN it's time that Trump give Biden access to classified briefings.
Let's be clear, that's a very small step that they're saying that, not going the whole full monty. But it is given the situation and the backing that Trump received, a significant crack in the solid wall of Republican support, because the fact is that he lost.
Even in Arizona, again, the President tweeting today, "From 200,000 votes to less than 10,000 votes. If we can audit the total votes cast, we will easily win Arizona also."
But again, the facts the post-election audit found no evidence of fraud that would impact the outcome. Right now Biden leads by more than 11,000 votes. It's close, but it's a wider margin of victory than the one by which President Trump won Michigan four years ago.
I'll say it again. Trump's Department of Homeland Security tonight an unprecedented statement, the November 3rd election was the most secure in American history.
Arlette Saenz is with President-elect Biden in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. Kaitlan Collins is at the White House.
[19:05:04]
Arlette, let me start with you in the President-elect. How is Biden reacting to this? And obviously the statement from the Department of Homeland Security literally just coming out moments before our program began, but it is a significant statement coming from within the Trump administration itself.
ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: It is, Erin, and President- elect Joe Biden is simply plowing ahead with his transition planning, completely unfazed by what they are hearing from the Trump administration. Biden is moving forward with his planning, even continuing to feel these congratulatory phone calls including one from Pope Francis today, which is quite significant for Biden says he would be only the second Catholic to become President when he goes to the White House.
Now, Biden also today spoke by phone with congressional leadership, with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi as well as Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. They talked about the coronavirus crisis in that phone call. But one person that Biden still has spoken with his Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, the two men have had quite a long working relationship together and it is the relationship that could be critical to Biden, if Senate Republicans are able to hold on to the majority.
But for the time being, that conversation still has not taken place. But Biden is really putting all of this aside and still moving forward with his transition work. He is here in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware right now. He and his wife, Jill Biden, own a vacation home here, so he's taking a little bit of a break from his home base back in Wilmington, Delaware, but he's continuing to meet with his transition advisors as they are plotting the next steps ahead.
BURNETT: All right. Arlette, thank you very much. So let's go to Kaitlan Collins at the White House.
So Kaitlan, the President sitting there watching TV now learning that his own Department of Homeland Security has said that what he's tweeting is absolutely false. What is his mindset right now?
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes. We should note that comes as there's what amounts to basically a purge underway at DHS where we're seeing several top officials being forced to resign by the White House presidential personnel office as we've seen. They've been the ones who've been conducting these loyalty tests across the administration.
But as far as the President's mindset, Erin, we know that he knows he's lost this election. What the difference is here is that he has not said as much publicly. He has admitted as much privately, but publicly he is still tweeting about fraud and these baseless accusations that Joe Biden has stolen this election from him.
So the question is, when does he finally come to terms with reality in a public manner where his supporters understand what the President sees that we have all been seeing. And of course, that's still the big question that we don't know the answer to. We do know that sources say they believe when the President does acknowledge his loss, he's going to tease a 2024 run, even if he hasn't made a final decision about whether when it's going to be carried out. We're told that that's what's going to happen as he's coming around that.
So it's not just that the President is admitting what's happened in 2020, he's got something that he's teasing going along with it. But as far as the here and now, he is meeting with political advisors daily. They understand what's happening. But Erin, I think it's important to point out that, as his political advisors are saying, give him a few more days, give him a few more weeks and he'll come forward admitting it.
He is misleading his supporters who believe that there is fraud, because the President is alleging there is fraud without any evidence. So it's important to note that the President is misleading ...
BURNETT: Yes.
COLLINS: ... a lot of people by making that kind of a claim.
BURNETT: It's a crucial point you make, because there are people who believe it. And given that he knows the reality, it appears that that's the goal, is to have people believe these falsehoods. It weakens our country. And you also have a reporting, Kaitlan, I know about the President's adult children, what's their involvement right now?
COLLINS: They're basically split as we've seen in so many times before on what the President should do going forward. When you look at the Ivanka Trump's and the Jared Kushner's who are considering their own kind of future for what happens in a post Trump world or in a post Trump country, they believe the President should calibrate his message, stop pushing these fraudulent claims and instead, they're pushing the President.
But, of course, it's got to be this delicate nuanced kind of manner, because they can't just go to the President. No one is just going to the President and saying bluntly you've lost this election, it's time to concede. Instead, they're telling the President what he wants to hear by also waiting on him to make that final call. You're not seeing that from the Donald Trump junior's and the Eric
Trump's who are instead encouraging the President to fight, pushing these baseless claims on social media instead amplifying them. You're seeing a division inside the family, which we've seen before as Donald Trump has been president, but we're really seeing it come to this epic point now as they're deciding what is he going to do. And the question really for advisors is how much longer is this going to last. It could be weeks, it could be days, no one really seems to know, Erin.
BURNETT: All right. Thank you very much, Kaitlan.
I want to go right now to, well, exactly where the Department of Homeland Security. They said when you have questions turned to election officials as trusted voices as they administer elections. That's the right advice, so let's do it.
Longtime Republican who manages Georgia's voting system Gabriel Sterling. He is Georgia's voting system implementation manager. I saw a lot of you, Gabriel, over last week.
[19:10:06]
BURNETT: As I was sitting here and you're coming out with the counts and making sure we knew how to pronounce the counties and all of that. But let me just give you a chance to react to this news, the President today comes out with that tweet about dominion voting machines, which are used in Georgia among other states. He says that this changed the vote from Trump to Biden, 2.7 million votes that this would have changed the whole thing that dead people voted in Georgia. What do you say to all of that?
GABRIEL STERLING, GEORGIA VOTING SYSTEM IMPLEMENTATION MANAGER: We have no evidence to show that anything along those lines occurred. And in fact, we launched today what will end up being the largest hand retaliating audit in the history United States to assure everybody. Because at the end of the day, Erin, our job is to make sure that everybody, every Georgian and every American has faith in the outcome of this election.
Because of things said by many people, not just the President, there are going to be a swath of voters who no matter what will never believe those machines didn't do that. So that is why we're going to do that hand count as our audit, our intent is to always make sure we are transparent and our job is regardless of outcome to make sure that the will of the Georgia voters are met.
BURNETT: So what's your reaction when the Department of Homeland Security comes out and says, "The November 3rd election was the most secure in American history"? Look, they shouldn't have had to say it, but they came out tonight and said it probably in no small part because of the allegations that he put out about the entire election being flipped by the voting machines.
Would you agree when you look at what happened in Georgia and I know it was tough with mail-in and all of that, but would you agree with that the most secure? STERLING: I would absolutely agree that Georgia had the most secure
election in our history, because one thing that many people don't know, Erin, is that this is the first time in 20 years we use paper. We've been using the direct recording electronic devices for 20 years, so yes.
And the absentee ballots was only 25 percent of our ballots. The in- person voting was 75 percent of our ballots. Our machines weren't flipped. The issue in Michigan where they had one election supervisor make a mistake with the database that had weird results, that was not a glitch. That was not a software issue. That was a human error.
And as we've seen nearly every single time when it comes to elections, any issues fall down to the most faulty piece of the system and there's always going to be human beings, because we are inherently flawed. We are the ones who make mistakes. The systems are built around it to catch those mistakes and correct those errors.
So people can have faith at the end of the day that their vote counted the way they intend it and that the overall result is the actual result.
BURNETT: Well, I think it's just significant that you say it's the most secure in history, that people do not confuse closeness with, perhaps, being inaccurate. And I think that's what's being sold out there, it's not true. And that's the point you're making just because it's close, so what it was close, your job is to count the votes, that's your job.
STERLING: The closeness of the election shows that it was a real election. If someone is going to try to do something hinky in election, it might have made it a little bit bigger. And in Georgia, 53 percent of the votes for all the State House seats combined went to Republicans, 54 percent of all the State Senate seats combined went to Republicans, 51 percent of all the congressional votes went to Republicans.
The Republicans came in first when you combine their stuff or individually in both U.S. Senate races.
BURNETT: Yes.
STERLING: We had issues in Fulton County where there were 9,000 more votes cast for Sen. Perdue than there were for President Trump. This is not hard political science to look at.
BURNETT: No, it isn't and we saw splitting the ticket across this country. Let me ask you about the recount. Because you say you're going to be doing this hand recount. He has tweeted, the President of the United States, that he will win Georgia with the recount. He's been very specific. The numbers we have right now, Joe Biden is ahead by about 14,000 votes 14,102, I guess it went up about 50 votes overnight.
Do you think anything will change the outcome of the results in Georgia now, the recount? You've been involved in a recount before, we're at 14,102 votes.
STERLING: And let me just be clear, this is technically not the recount or statute. This is an audit that happens to get to a hand tallying. So the situation here that we expect is that you will always see some differences. We've been saying that from the beginning, you're introducing human error into this, but to change the outcome would be massive, let me give you a quick example.
In Michigan before they stopped the recount in 2016, that was all hand marked paper ballots, ours are only 25 percent and that's where you see the most potential changes. There were about 2.5 million votes that they had gone through and I think Hillary had picked up 850, Trump had picked up 750. So it was a net change of a hundred votes over 2.5 million ballots.
That's the kind of changes you're going to see in most of these things. We don't anticipate it. But part of the reason to do this is because there are people who don't trust these machines to count them right. So I am really prayerfully hoping that there is no massive change in this. We're really putting all of our chips on the table to say we trust this system, and we know it's correct.
BURNETT: All right. Well, I really applaud your time, Gabriel. Thank you.
STERLING: Thank you, Erin, and have a great night.
[19:15:04]
BURNETT: All right. And now I want to go to one of the nation's preeminent constitutional scholars, Harvard Law Professor Laurence Tribe is back with me. He was part of Al Gore's legal team during the 2000 election recount.
So Professor, you hear Gabriel Stirling, a lifelong Republican, I want to make clear here. He wants to get this right. That's what he cares about. He says that he thinks it is absolutely fair to say this is the most secure election in Georgia's history. The Department of Homeland Security has now come out contradicting what the President of the United States said on tweet today and said this election was the most secure in American history. What's your reaction to that?
LAURENCE TRIBE, HARVARD LAW PROFESSOR: My reaction is that it's very clear that this has been an incredibly secure election and that the only fraud around is the fraudulent claim of the President that there was massive voter fraud. It's interesting that the President was saying when he was ahead in Pennsylvania and Georgia or at least when the vote count made it look like he was ahead, he said, oh, stop the counting.
And when it looked like he was behind in Nevada and Arizona, he said, let's count more votes. He's just making it up as he goes along. And the proposition that his own Homeland Security department has said this was the most secure, least fraud vulnerable election in our history. The notion that we should pay no attention to that, but just listen to
the President is profoundly misguided. And what I worry about isn't that any of these recounts like in Georgia will make a difference. Recounts have never in the last 50 years, no statewide recount has flipped more than 355 votes, so they won't matter.
And it's clear that the 10s of thousands of votes by with Joe Biden as a head will remain very much in place despite all of these frivolous lawsuits. What I worry about is that there are perhaps 70 million people who listen to what the President says and pay attention to him and believe that our election system is insecure and undermining faith in democracy undermines democracy itself. That's what I worry about.
BURNETT: And so as you have been looking and I think many people share your concern that that does appear to be the biggest threat. But I know, Professor, that you have been going through every lawsuit that the Trump campaign has tried. We talked a couple days ago, you said they were O for 12. You've been reading through every single complaint. Have you seen anything legitimate out there now? How is your analysis changed here over the past 48 hours?
TRIBE: No, it hasn't changed at all and it's enough because I can't change my mind. I keep reading what they're filing and it doesn't make sense. In fact, today, in the Arizona case, the President's lawyer when pressed by the judge said, no, we are not actually alleging fraud we're just saying there might have been an honest mistake here or there.
Well, when you're counting 150 million votes, there bound to be one or two mistakes here and there. But that's not going to be flip the result of an election. And so the situation is exactly as it was a couple days ago, except with every passing day, the President, and those who are enabling him does more damage to our democratic system. It's about time that he move on because the rest of us have moved on.
BURNETT: So I want to ask you one other question with your legal expertise, former aides tell CNN that Trump has been talking since 2017, so for the past three years about whether he could self-pardon, basically pardon himself before he leaves. So one former White House official said, Trump asked about self-pardons, as well as pardons for his family. Can he do that? Could he pardon himself and anyone else he wanted to for any unknown criminal acts found subsequently before he leaves office?
TRIBE: He can certainly pardon in his family. But pardoning himself would be an extraordinary and unprecedented act. Hundreds of years ago, Lord Coke (ph) in England established a principle that has been accepted in American law for centuries and that is that you cannot be a judge in your own case. If he tries to pardon himself, I think in the end, that pardon would not hold up.
But predicting what a court would do with such an unprecedented exercise of power is hard. One thing we do know, he certainly cannot pardon himself vis-a-vis New York prosecution either by Letitia James on behalf of the State of New York or by Cyrus Vance on behalf of Manhattan. [19:20:02]
State and Local crime, serious crime is often punishable by years in prison are not subject to the President's pardon power. Another thing we know is he can't pardon himself from the possible espionage he might commit after leaving office when he leaked secrets for his own benefit, classified information to other governments. He's not been very good at keeping silent.
Those future crimes are beyond the reach of the pardon power of vis-a- vis both the state and the federal government.
BURNETT: All right. Well, Professor Tribe, thank you very much for laying all that out. There's intense interest in that topic.
TRIBE: Thanks.
BURNETT: I appreciate your time as always, thank you.
TRIBE: Thank you, Erin.
BURNETT: And next more breaking news, we are learning Trump's CIA Director Gina Haspel is on 'than ice'. Is she the next to be fired as the purge abroadens today?
Also breaking, an alarming new prediction tonight from the CDC which is now projecting roughly 40,000 more Americans could die from coronavirus over the next few weeks. And yet, the President on this issue silent. And new results coming in tonight from several crucial battleground states, our John King standing by at the magic wall to break down the new numbers we have this hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:25:01]
BURNETT: Breaking news, CIA Director Gina Haspel is on 'thin ice' according to a source close to President Trump. This as sources say the White House today forced two top Department of Homeland Security officials to resign. It all comes after a purge at the Pentagon this week which forced out the Secretary of Defense and three other top officials there. These numbers are really starting to add up.
Alex Marquardt is OUTFRONT. So Alex, several top National Security officials dumped since the beginning of the week. Here you're at, what, am I doing the math here, seven or something. CIA director Gina haspel could be next?
ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: As you say, Erin, she's on thin ice and it looks like this purge may be spreading today as you noted, two DHS. Now, Gina Haspel hasn't been on the President's good side for quite some time for a variety of reasons. But most recently, because of her reluctance to declassify and release documents relating to the FBI's Russia investigation.
The President and the Director of National Intelligence, John Ratcliffe, have wanted her to do that. They can in fact do it themselves, but they want her to do it. And she's been reluctant to do so because it would reveal what are known as sources and methods, how the intelligence community gathers intelligence. So that's why she is on the outs with the President remains to be seen whether he will fire her.
But as you note, these dismissals today now spreading to the Department of Homeland Security, two top officials, one the Assistant Secretary of International Affairs, Valerie Boyd and a senior member of the cyber agency known as CISA, Bryan Ware, they were both forced to resign. We're told by one source to my colleague, Geneva Sands, that it was because they were perceived to be anti-Trump.
And Erin, this really raises the question about the fate of another senior official, Chris Krebs, who is the head of the cyber arm CISA. He was put in charge of securing the election of the voting and by all accounts that went very well. As you note at the top of the show, DHS and his agency, CISA, said that no votes were changed or lost or deleted.
And in the days following the election, Krebs has been extremely aggressive at shooting down conspiracy theories and false claims, not only by the President, but by his allies, by his supporters. There's one really nefarious conspiracy theory that has taken root that Krebs has repeatedly called a hoax and nonsense.
And I want to show you one thing that he tweeted tonight, it's actually a retweet of another election expert, which reads, "Please don't retweet wild and baseless claims about voting machines, even if they're made by the President. These fantasies have been debunked many times."
So that's a retweet from Chris Krebs and he's echoing what this expert is saying that these fantasies and baseless claims have been put out there by the President. So, Chris Krebs is well aware that there's a target on his back and that he is on this list alongside Gina Haspel as top officials who could soon find themselves fired by the President, Erin.
BURNETT: All right. Alex, thank you very much.
I want to bring in Sen. Ron Wyden, now a member of the Intelligence Committee. So, Senator, let me just ask you about both of these. Mr. Krebs, clearly, I'm reading between the lines, but he's the one who wanted to put the statement out saying the November 3rd election was the most secure in American history and referring to the unfounded claims that are out there, which we know have been put out by the President. You heard about that retweet. Is there anything you can do to protect him from the President's wrath?
SEN. RON WYDEN (D-OR): First, Erin, I want your viewers to know where I think we are and I hope I'm wrong, but it sure looks like Donald Trump is firing anybody who might say no to an illegal order. That's essentially what these cases that you're talking about.
Chris Krebs, for example, has always been a straight shooter on these election security issues. He was trying to deal, for example, with a whole tidal wave of false rumors and he did it by the book. That's not what Donald Trump wants, and Donald Trump is basically systematically replacing all of these people who won't just be his version of a glorified yes man.
BURNETT: So, you have this issue with Krebs now as Alex is reporting and in light of this stunning and an unprecedented statement put out by his unit within DHS and then you have Gina Haspel. Sources tell us trust between the White House, as in the President, and the CIA is 'completely broken down', the words that we have for Director Haspel situation is on 'thin ice'. So, do you think she's about to lose her job?
WYDEN: The important thing for your viewers to know is whatever you think about Gina Haspel, the probable replacement for her is Richard Grenell. He would be a National Security disaster, because consistently, he's been about politicizing intelligence.
[19:30:08]
So again, you come back to all of these challenges and they add up to one obvious reality.
And that is, Donald Trump is putting his political agenda, this distorted, skewed agenda, he's putting it first ahead of America's national security interests. And the 9/11 Commission and others have warned about that kind of thing in the past.
BURNETT: Yes.
WYDEN: And unfortunately, it's coming home to roost.
BURNETT: And they have, right? They said that the lack of briefings that were received, right, by then George W. Bush because of the whole recount contributed to security misses that were involved with 9/11. I mean, it's stunning when you think about what's at stake.
You now have two more top DHS officials out today. Three over at the Department of Defense, the secretary of defense, our -- you know, when -- can this be undone, Senator?
I think this is what people want to understand who are watching right now. Is this something you say, okay, this is bad but if we get through this in 60 days, these people will be reinstated or great people will be put in, right? Is this a bump in the road or is this bigger than that?
WYDEN: This is far bigger. These are very real consequences. And the reality is for too long, Republican senators -- and I'll touch on why they're so important now -- have always said, give Trump time.
Well, you've got a small child, I've got a small child. You don't allow tantrums with your small kids.
These are ones that have national security consequences. And what I just hope is, instead of what we've seen over the last couple of days, a handful of Republicans saying, well, gee, we probably ought to have these briefings, we need Republican senators to make it clear publicly, vociferously that this is a threat to this country and this country's well being.
We've always been about a peaceful transfer of power. I believe Joe Biden is the president-elect and we ought to get on with making sure that he can start building the agenda on everything from the coronavirus to dealing with national security quickly.
BURNETT: All right. Senator Wyden, I appreciate your time. Thank you.
WYDEN: Thank you.
BURNETT: And next, the deadly pandemic is getting worse. Record hospitalizations, ICUs full in multiple states, more than 100,000 new cases for the 10th day running. And our Sanjay Gupta now calling it a humanitarian disaster. He's next.
Former President Obama speaking out now about Trump's refusal to concede.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The president doesn't like to lose, and never admits loss.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:36:48]
BURNETT: Breaking news: An influential coronavirus model predicts the U.S. could hit 439,000 deaths by March 1st. Just to be clear, that would mean in the next three and a half months we nearly double the number of people who have died in this country, right, over the past eight months. It's 197,000 more people dead in the next three months, and it comes as the number of reported deaths for yesterday and today exceed the number of people killed in the 9/11 terror attacks.
The U.S. tonight also reporting a record high number of hospitalizations for the third running, and reporting more than 100,000 cases for the 10th day running.
But despite the crisis getting worse by the day, President Trump has not been a part of it. Take a look at his public schedule post- election. Two days in a row, his only public events were giving remarks where he was spreading falsehoods about election fraud, tweeted 50 times today.
Five days of no public events in his schedule. He did play golf for two days. Only official event was a ceremony for Veterans Day yesterday.
Today, once with the vice president, meeting with his secretary of state, and the treasury secretary, nothing public, nothing about coronavirus. The task force met this week for the first time since October 20th, the first time in a month.
The lack of leadership comes when American lives are at risk. You're seeing hospitalizations at record levels, deaths are surging. Someone is dying every 43 seconds. Someone is dying every 43 seconds from coronavirus in this country.
The president, though, public schedule, coronavirus schedule empty, playing golf. This is the same guy who said this about then President Obama in 2015.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We have a president that can't lead. He said, the hell with it, I'm not going to do this anymore, I want to rest and I want to do other things, including going out and play golf.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: And as the virus spreads across the country, it is continuing to spread in Trump's inner circle, his campaign adviser Corey Lewandowski testing positive for the virus. Lewandowski who will show you here wearing a mask was at the White House election party. He says he believes he got the virus after that in Philadelphia.
And "The Washington Post" also reporting tonight at least eight RNC staffers have tested positive, which is what happens when you have people coming in, working close quarters and not wearing masks.
OUTFRONT now, CNN chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, and Dr. Jonathan Reiner, who is a medical advisor for the George W. Bush White House.
I appreciate both of you.
Sanjay, you know these new projections coming out, nearly doubling in death, right? So, it took eight and a half months to get to where we are now and they're going to almost double those numbers in the next three and a half months, according to that model, if there aren't dramatic changes.
You've used incredibly strong words talking about the United States of America and a humanitarian disaster.
Why?
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I don't use those words lightly, Erin, I think this is a humanitarian crisis at this point. I've been doing this sort of work for almost 20 years and I've covered a lot of humanitarian crises all over the world. If you look at the specific ones going back to the tsunami in South Asia, the earthquake in Haiti, the Somali famine, these are the toughest worst stories I've ever covered.
You can see what happened in these situations.
[19:40:01]
You know, 227,000, 220,000, 260,000 people died in these various things. We've already had 242,000 deaths already and we're in the middle of it, you said it, the projections for how many people will die.
But I think it's also this point that you raise. It's an event -- a series of events now that have occurred in this country where we have had a tragic number of deaths, the majority of which could have been prevented. We have a situation now where hospital systems have been overwhelmed at times and we're hearing from modelers tonight that every state -- just about every state in the country is expected to run out of ICU beds this winter.
I mean, what -- so what does that mean for someone who needs to be in the ICU, and they're told in the United States of America, that can't happen, we don't have the beds. We have to fly you out of the state, the regions. We're a country that Doctors Without Borders came to because they go to the hottest spot in the world to take care of humanitarian disasters and when they point their finger at the globe, this summer, it was the United States.
So, again, I don't -- I don't use these words lightly but it has been a humanitarian crisis in the country, and as you know, the numbers are still getting worse.
BURNETT: And, Dr. Reiner, just to be clear, as these death tolls are climbing, someone is dying every 43 seconds and ICU beds are being overrun, we're seeing it in state after state now, right? Situations that are worse in terms of the ICU situation in a broader swath of the country than we've seen in any other point.
Just to make it very clear, the things that need to be done to have those numbers not come true, not come to fruition, need to be done now. They cannot wait until even if the Biden administration turns on a light switch and does something different on January 20th. So it matters what the president is doing now, what the coronavirus task force is doing right now.
Do you see any sign that anything is happening?
DR. JONATHAN REINER, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: No. Our house is on fire. And the president has basically locked himself in his bedroom.
We had 151,000 new cases today. We're averaging about 129,000 cases a day over the last week. Our hospitals are increasing by 1,600 COVID cases per day. And yet our president hasn't made a single statement about COVID since before the election.
He had the energy -- mental energy today to tweet about cable news ratings, but not a single word about the COVID crisis. We need action now. There's new leadership coming in two months but we're burning now.
And needless deaths will occur if this federal government doesn't take action. I understand that the president's ego has been shattered by this electoral loss. I get that. But he needs to pull up his big boy pants and get to work.
If he's -- he does not have the mental capacity to do that now, the Constitution has a remedy and the vice president should begin those proceedings. But we need federal action we need it now. We cannot wait.
BURNETT: Sanjay, there has been this sense out there that -- because of the numbers from Pfizer, and people will start getting vaccinated, that, you know, sort of -- you hear it from governors here in New York you hear it, a few more months and we're good.
And the vaccine news is excellent, right? There's going to be more vaccines coming out. The Pfizer vaccine appears to be 90 percent effective. This is wonderful.
However, the chief of the WHO today says a vaccine is needed urgently, but we cannot wait for a vaccine and put all of our eggs in one basket, and President Obama's former CDC director, Tom Frieden, just said this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. TOM FRIEDEN, FORMER DIRECTOR, CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION: A vaccine is really important and the news is very encouraging, but vaccination is not a fairy tale ending to the pandemic. We're still going to be dealing with it, at least through most or all of 2021 and quite possibly beyond that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Sanjay, is this the reality we need to accept, that sure, vaccine is great news but we still have a year or more?
GUPTA: Yes. I think, you know, if you look at the timetable. There's data to say, how quickly can this be distributed, how quickly can you get it to the general public and all of that, that puts it with this massive distribution project if the vaccine even gets authorized, you know, sometime second quarter of next year.
But as other questions, you know, as reporters, scientists we have to ask these questions, the early data, which we haven't seen for the Pfizer vaccine says it's 90 percent effective against COVID-19. That's impressive as people have said.
We also need to know, this relates to your question, does it prevent people from transmitting the virus, right? I mean, it's great it prevents them from getting as sick. Does it prevent them from transmitting the virus? Because that's the critical point towards decreasing the trajectory of the pandemic.
There's other objective things that we can do now, we talk about them all the time, masks and indoor locations that can be addressed.
[19:45:02]
But the vaccine is going to be a while away still. BURNETT: That's a hard thing for everyone to realize here.
All right. Thank you both very much as always, Dr. Gupta, Dr. Reiner.
And next, Biden's popular vote lead expanding tonight as more results are coming in from several crucial battleground states, as every vote will be counted. Our John King is standing by at the magic wall.
And former President Obama on the president and Republicans refusing to accept Biden's victory.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: It is one more step in delegitimizing not just the incoming Biden administration but democracy generally.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BURNETT: Tonight, new results coming in from Georgia, Pennsylvania and Arizona as we inch closer to the finish line. President-elect Joe Biden expanding his lead in Pennsylvania, maintaining the margin in Georgia while the race narrows in Arizona.
So let's get to the bottom of all of it. John King OUTFRONT at the magic wall.
So, John, what do the new results show?
JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Most of all, Erin, they show that tweets and lies and frivolous lawsuits do not change the fundamental rules of politics, that is math. Math.
Let's go to Pennsylvania. You mentioned Joe Biden's lead, 54,273 votes.
[19:50:03]
Remember, this is the state that put Joe Biden on the top. We projected that just before noon on Saturday. The lead was 34,414 then. It is bigger now, Erin. It is growing as small late ballots come in.
The stale state of Georgia, you talked to Mr. Sterling at the top of the hour, a Republican administration counting votes. Joe Biden's lead there, 14,102. Back on Saturday, around noontime when we called the race, well, almost half that, 7,248. So, it's still solid there.
You go out to Arizona. This is one place where the president has narrowed the gap some. It's 11,034 now. Noon Eastern Time on Saturday when we projected the race for Joe Biden because of Pennsylvania, it was 20,573.
So the president has closed the gap there, but they're almost finished with the count in Arizona, Erin. That could be done within hours or certainly by tomorrow. And Nevada, just because the president's team said bad things happened in Nevada, 36,866 now. That is up from 22,000 when we projected.
So no matter where you look, Arizona is a little tighter. But Biden has held on to his leads and, again, math is math.
BURNETT: Okay. So math is math, and when you look at, you know, when ballots have to be received, we're now -- because of mail-in, right, everybody had different dates by which you had to receive a ballot which was postmarked by Election Day. In North Carolina, if you postmarked it by Election Day, you had until today.
So, it's 7:51 Eastern, you know, a couple hours past the close of mail. So when -- when can that be formally projected?
KING: Let's take a look at North Carolina. We're waiting on one number, and before I explain that, look, the president has a pretty healthy lead here, 71,787 for President Trump. There's no one in the Biden campaign staying up at night thinking they're going to win North Carolina.
But the reason we have not called this one yet, as you noted, that deadline was today. What we do not have yet from North Carolina officials, how many, what is the total universe of mail-in ballots they have to count? Is it a big enough number to have any probability that Joe Biden could overcome that 71,827 vote lead?
Again, in the Biden campaign, there is no indication, no belief that will happen, but we need that big number. How many votes do you still have to count before our statisticians can be sure?
BURNETT: It's pretty incredible they don't know that number.
KING: They haven't told us yet is the answer.
BURNETT: Right, right. Yeah, but I know in other states obviously it was so crucial to the projections, right? If you don't know your denominator.
All right. So, President Trump obviously is putting out these false -- these false statements. I just want to emphasize this. You have been talking about this from the beginning. In a lot of these key states, the margin is actually wider than what we saw in 2016, right? When it wasn't contested, it wasn't going through this fraught, horrible experience that everybody's going through.
KING: Let's walk through them. And remember on that night, Hillary Clinton called the president on election night and she gave a public concession speech the morning after.
One of the close states back then was Pennsylvania. Joe Biden, 54,000- plus right now. Let's go back in time, 44,000. Joe Biden has a bigger lead in Pennsylvania today than Donald Trump did four years ago.
Another state that was crucial four years ago, Michigan. Somehow the Trump campaign thinks it's going to go to court and overturn this one. I've been doing this for a long time, Erin. It's nearly 150,000 votes, 148,000-plus for Joe Biden, 148,000-plus. Donald Trump carried Michigan by 10,704 votes four years ago. Hillary Clinton did not cry fraud. She respected the process. Let's go out to Georgia. Georgia's a place Donald Trump carried four years ago.
The fascinating part about this, go back in time, Hillary Clinton ran a pretty strong race in Georgia. The Democrats thought the state was starting to move. 1.8 million votes to 2 million votes there. If you come to the results now, Democrats got almost 600,000 more votes in Georgia. They turned out their votes.
And, Erin, one more point, as we go through this. If you can give me one second here, here is the reality of this. I just want to do this one more time. Let's allocate these.
Let's say the president wins North Carolina. We assume that's going to happen, Georgia and Arizona. He has to turn three states. Even if he turns Michigan and Pennsylvania in court, pipe dream, it's not enough. This is simply ludicrous. It's not going to happen.
BURNETT: It's not going to happen. We all know it, and it's time that he says it. Thank you, John.
And also breaking tonight, former President Obama speaking out publicly for the first time about Trump's refusal to concede the election to Joe Biden.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: They appear to be motivated in part because the president doesn't like to lose. And never admits loss.
I'm more troubled by the fact that other Republican officials who clearly know better are going along with this, are humoring him in this fashion. It is one more step in delegitimizing not just the incoming Biden administration, but democracy generally. And that's a dangerous path.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Jeff Zeleny is OUTFRONT, our senior Washington correspondent. And Abby Phillip, our political correspondent.
[19:55:02]
So, Abby, you know what's interesting there from President Obama? You know, he has, of course, spoken out about President Trump, right? Very strongly.
But in this answer, I thought what was interesting was is he made it bigger than that. He went after the whole GOP, and people that he thought were reasonable within the GOP, right? It's a significant step for him.
ABBY PHILLIP, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. I think that it reflects his own evolution on this, I think over time. This is a president who repeatedly talks about how he in general believes that the system works to push against some of the things that President Trump does.
But I think what he's acknowledging in that clip is that he was surprised to find that an element of the system, which is the president's own party, isn't even doing that, and I think that -- that him voicing that concern really is reflective of broadly what other Democrats feel as well, which is that this episode is maybe the final episode that proves that President Trump has had a dramatic effect not just on you know, his administration, but on his party, potentially on the country, and you heard him saying again in that clip that he was concerned about democracy, just like he said at the Democratic National Convention several months ago.
BURNETT: So, Jeff, President Obama did this interview ahead of his memoir, which is coming out called "A Promised Land", and you are one of the few who have actually had a preview. You've read the book.
So you shared an excerpt where Obama points to Sarah Palin and the Tea Party as the root of some of the divisive rhetoric we see today.
So, here's what he writes as you shared: Through Palin, it seems the dark spirits that have long been lurking on the edges of the Republican Party, xenophobia, anti-intellectualism, paranoid conspiracy theories, an antipathy toward black and brown folks -- were finding their way to center stage. I'd like to think that given the chance to do it over again, McCain might have chosen differently. I really believe he put his country first.
What did you learn from that, Jeff?
JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: It's really an extraordinary summation of what President Obama saw in real time as he was sitting in the White House, primarily with the rise of the Tea Party movement back in the 2010 midterm election campaign when, you know, there was a rejection of the Obama policies, and personality more than that.
So it was not the Republican Party that he had served in the Senate with. It certainly was not the Republican Party that he had served back in the Illinois state Senate with. He thought that he could work with both sides of the aisle. He thought that he could bridge the red America and the blue America. That came to be not true.
So this is the most, you know, directly and bluntly we have heard former President Barack Obama confront race and really show how his election and President Trump's election was a reaction to the Obama presidency.
That's why this book is so fascinating. He has always hesitated to talk about this. Now, Erin, he's talking about it directly.
BURNETT: And, Abby, another thing in here which I found very interesting that Jeff was sharing, President Obama talking about the toll the presidency took on his marriage.
He writes, quote: Despite Michelle's success and popularity, I continued to sense an undercurrent tension in her, whether it was my round the clock absorption with work, or the way politics exposed our family to scrutiny and attacks, or the tendency of even friends and family members to treat her role as secondary in importance. Lying next to Michelle in the dark, I think about those days when everything between us felt lighter, when her smile was more constant and our love less encumbered, and my heart would suddenly tighten at the thought that those days might not return.
You know, Abby, it is interesting. She opened up similarly in her memoir, and people really care deeply about learning these things. These are human beings, right? What do you make of his decision to include such intimate details?
PHILLIP: Well, you -- I think you nailed it, Erin. When your wife has already written about some of this stuff, you don't have a whole lot of options here. I think the president -- President Obama understood that Michelle Obama had already paved the way for this conversation and it would have been, I think, probably more surprising if she had -- if she had been so open about their marriage and about seeking marriage counseling at a certain point, and all of these things and that he failed to do the same.
I think it's just about that kind of balance. But you're totally right. I think that Michelle Obama's book was impactful for a lot of reasons, but I think one of the biggest was her honesty about their relationship, about her -- the fact that she really hated politics and it put a strain on their marriage.
And that was I think very relatable to so many Americans and hearing the other side of that is surprising. You really do rarely hear president Obama talk about their marriage in that way, but I'll tell you, as someone who covered them years ago, it -- I don't think it would come as a surprise to many reporters who covered that White House.
There were always rumors that Michelle Obama was more unhappy than she seemed in spite of everything going on, the high heights that they had reached and he's opening up now about exactly what those things were.
BURNETT: Right. All right. Well, thank you both very much. I appreciate it.
And thanks very much to all of you for joining us.
"AC360" with Anderson starts now.
