Return to Transcripts main page

Erin Burnett Outfront

Trump In Denial As G.A. Says Recount Results Show Same Outcome; Trump Ally Attacks Georgia's Republican Governor: Lock Him Up; One-On- One With Republican Who Called Out Trump In Emotional Plea; Ivanka Trump Deposed In Inauguration Lawsuit; President Weighing Pre-Emptive Pardons For His Children, Kushner; Source Close To White House Expects A "Flurry" Of Trump Pardons; U.S. Reports Record 100,000-Plus Coronavirus Hospitalizations. Aired 7-8p ET

Aired December 02, 2020 - 19:00   ET

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

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: May they rest in peace and may their memories be a blessing.

"ERIN BURNETT OUTFRONT" starts right now.

ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: OUTFRONT next, Trump's dangerous denial. His allies calling for fellow Republicans who don't parrot lies that the election was stolen to be locked up. One Republican official who had the courage to stand up to Trump telling him to stop inspiring violence is OUTFRONT tonight.

Plus breaking news, Ivanka Trump deposed. The President's daughter meeting with investigators as part of an investigation into misused funds. This as we learned the President does plan a flurry of pardons on his way out.

And a dire warning, the Head of the CDC tonight says the next few weeks could be the most difficult in America's public health history. Let's go OUTFRONT.

And good evening. I'm Erin Burnett.

OUTFRONT tonight, Trump's dangerous denial as the state of Georgia releases the results of its second recount. A recount that was done at Trump's request. A recount that Georgia is saying - shows again that Biden won.

The President announces he's holding a victory rally in Georgia on Saturday. Yes, it is called a victory rally. Trump is also releasing a 46-minute video full of baseless claims about voter fraud, which we are not going to air clips of because to do so would amplify things that are factually untrue and the President knows it to be factually untrue.

Today, team Trump holding a stop the steal rally. That's the rallying cry of pro Trump activists to echo and amplify President Trump's false conspiracy alleging that the election was stolen from him. Trump's allies like conservative attorney, Lin Wood, wearing a MAGA hat, attacking fellow Republicans because they won't say the election was raped. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LIN WOOD, TRUMP ATTORNEY: I want you to go to the Governor's mansion. I want you to circle it. I want you to blow your horns until Brian Kemp comes out and orders a special session of the Georgia legislature and then he can resign. And then as far as I'm concerned, lock him up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: Lock up the Governor, because he doesn't like the results of the election. This is insane. And so as this, Trump's barely former lawyer, Sidney Powell, you saw her there actually behind Mr. Wood, actually telling voters not to vote in the crucial Georgia Senate runoff saying, "I would encourage all Georgians to make it known that you will not vote at all until your vote is secure."

So they have now taken it so far that they're actually disenfranchising their own voters and telling them not to vote in the most crucial Senate election runoff of the entire cycle. But the chance of lock him up, the tweets from Trump personally disparaging Republican leaders who are standing up for the facts of these elections are doing great harm. And they are exactly what the Georgia Election Chief Gabe Sterling was talking about when he made national headlines last night with this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GABRIEL STERLING, GEORGIA'S VOTING SYSTEMS IMPLEMENTATION MANAGER: Mr. President, you have not condemned these actions or this language. Senators, you have not condemned this language or these actions. This has to stop.

We need you to step up. And if you're going to take a position of leadership show some. I can't begin to explain the level of anger I have right now over this. And every American, every Georgian, Republican and Democrat alike should have that same level of anger.

Mr. President, it looks like you likely lost the state of Georgia. We're investigating. There's always a possibility, I get it, and you have the rights to go to the courts. What you don't have the ability to do and you need to step up and say this is stop inspiring people to commit potential acts of violence. Someone is going to get hurt, someone is going to get shot, someone is going to get killed and it's not right.

If you want to run for reelection in four years, fine, do it. But everything we're seeing right now, there's not a path. Be the bigger man here and stop - step in, tell your supporters, don't be violent. Don't intimidate. All of that is wrong. It's un-American.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: I'm going to speak to Gabe Sterling in just a moment. And the White House now is responding to him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Georgia officials have said election workers are

facing threats because of the President's false claims on winning the state and his rhetoric throughout the election, does the President condemn threats against election workers or does he take any responsibility for those threats?

KAYLEIGH MCENANY, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: We condemn any threats against anyone. There's no place for violence. What I will say though, too, is that the President's lawyers, they were doxxed by a left organization, their private information put out, so we're seeing that happen to people on both sides of the argument and there's no place for that ever anywhere.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: The both sides' defense, rears its beautiful head.

[19:05:03]

Let's just be clear though, Kayleigh McEnany is not the president and the President is the one who needs to step up here. He has not condemned any threats made against election workers. Instead, he continues to fuel the fire. He actually retweeted a clip of Sterling's plea, what I just played for you. He retweeted it and his comment, no, not apologizing, not conceding, not calling for calm, not God, though, saying he's sorry.

The comment was, "Rigged Election. Expose the massive voter fraud in Georgia. What is Secretary of State and Gov. Kemp afraid of. They know what we'll find." Triple exclamation point. And so it goes.

Kaitlan Collins is OUTFRONT live near the White House. Kaitlan, after being called up by a top Republican in a very public way, Trump upping the ante.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes. He did not echo in any sense of the way what Kayleigh McEnany told reporters this afternoon before. As you noted, she did bring up saying this is kind of a both sides situation when really all of this is coming from the top down, starting with President Trump attacking and undermining the election, which he has done for nearly a month now.

We are really close to being at that one-month anniversary of the November election and yet the President is still contesting the results of this at least attempting to contest the results of it. And in his 46-minute video that he has made in recent days posted today from the White House says he's been basically holed up and barely speaking with reporters.

The President insisted that they are going to overturn the results of this election. He made clear that they're not going to stop trying to do so and at least maybe not succeeding in court, as we know they've lost dozens of cases there, but they are going to continue to try to shape the public opinion, which is what the President is doing.

We've seen polls that show what the President is saying is actually convincing his supporters that something fraudulent happened with this election, despite the fact that the President's own Attorney General, who has been a hero to conservatives says that that's not true. Election officials who worked for this government have said it's not true and election officials in states like the ones there in Georgia have roundly criticized the President and said what he is saying is not accurate.

Yet, the President has continued to say that. He says they're going to continue to file more lawsuits, so don't expect the President to concede this election anytime soon, based on what he's been saying to people so far. And instead though, behind the scenes, Erin, we should note he does seem to be acknowledging that his time in office is coming to an end because we noted that he's been discussing potential pardons for his three children, Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump and Eric Trump, in addition to Jared Kushner and his attorney.

And tonight, we are told that we should expect the President to issue more pardons before he does leave office come January. And he did acknowledge to a guest at a Christmas party last night at the White House that if they do not stay in the White House past January 21, 2021, hopefully he will be back in January 2025 he said.

So you can see the President is planning to leave, but he is not saying as much publicly despite what the Press Secretary said there earlier.

BURNETT: Thank you, Kaitlan. It still amazes me that he would even use that word if, I mean, it's unbelievable.

I want to go now to the man who gave that poignant and passionate speech, Gabe Sterling. He is the Voting System Implementation Manager in Georgia. And Gabe, I always tell people, again, it shouldn't matter but in the world we're in now it's important to note you happen to be a Republican.

And I want to get to what you said, but first what Sidney Powell said, who was an attorney for the President, now former but she's out at this stop the steal rally in your state. She says, "I would encourage all Georgians to make it known you will not vote at all until your vote is secure." So she's telling people not to vote in the Senate runoffs. I mean, how detrimental is this to your party and your state?

STERLING: It's criminal. It's the exact thing. Well, let's face it, Sen. Loeffler and Sen. Perdue, were forced by President Trump to ask for my boss, Secretary Robert Brady resignation. Otherwise, the implicit threat was going to be that he would do it through tweets and torpedo their campaigns. But we're having the same outcome either way. It's, I'm not going to say unfortunate, it's terrible. It's wrong.

Literally in Georgia you have the most secure vote you've had in 20 years for the first time with paper again. So I think she's right, you should know when you're vote is secure. Your vote is secure.

BURNETT: Well, and I'm glad you just said what you just said, because you've said it before on the show and I keep trying to make sure people understand, the most secure election you've had. There is a paper trail for every ballot. The rest of this is disproven conspiracy theories, but yet these rallies are going on right. They keep gathering people today, hundreds of people at that rally and I want to play a little bit more of what we heard today, Gabe, at the rally.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNEY POWELL, FORMER ATTORNEY OF PRESIDET TRUMP: They have fought so hard to get rid of President Trump and tried every dirty, nasty, evil illegal trick in the book to do it. Yes, it is pure evil. Georgia was absolutely full of it.

[19:10:01]

Rife with voter fraud.

WOOD: You listen up, Gabriel. You're not going to sell our votes to China.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: Your reaction, Gabe?

STERLING: I read that in a tweet, somebody told me that Mr. Wood mention me by name. Crazy. It's insanity. It's just so baseless from any sense of reality. It's detached from reality. And yes, I'm a Republican and I'm going to stay Republic. I'm going to fight for the sanctity and sanity of a party that has been a big part of America and I've been fighting for since I was 15 years old.

And Lin Wood, the bizarre irony is he has not voted in the Republican primary since 2004. He's been in voting at Democrat primaries. So I sort of questioned the underlying thought process beyond that. Encouraging anybody not to vote is ridiculous. I can't even - I guess, Erin, I've gotten to a point now where nothing is incredible to me anymore.

The President has to know at this point he's lost, as you pointed out earlier. We've done a regular count. We've done a hand tally, which if you remember, the first conspiracy theory was that the Dominion machines were flipping votes.

BURNETT: Right.

STERLING: And of course our (inaudible) dead spot on. And now we're doing a third recount, which again, is essentially dead spot on. And another underlying part of the Dominion issue they have is in Wisconsin, in the counties where the Dominion machines worked. President Trump got 59 percent of the vote. In the counties in Pennsylvania where the Dominion machines were used, President Trump got 52 percent of the vote.

I mean, none of this makes sense with the flimsiest of looks at any level of reality and the problem is, there's people who believe it and we know that there's nuts out there who are going to thank - the President called Brad Raffensperger an enemy of the people. We should go after him maybe and we've already had people go on to his property. But one of the things that set me off yesterday was I stepped up to a

degree, I'm on TV, people are going to say things and do things. So I've got police protection outside my house, the Secretary ran for office, at some level you don't ask for it, but it comes with a territory sometimes, terrible but it's true.

But yesterday when I found out about this 20 something contractor who was literally just doing his job and he was just doing a regular process of moving a report from one computer to another computer so we could read it and these QAnon crazies saw it and said, he's manipulating voter data. They found his name. It was a unique name. So they found his families, they're harassing them and then two or three weeks down, there was a tweet from a guy that said, you've committed - they said the kid's name, that you've committed treason, may god have mercy on your soul and had a gift of a noose.

And at that point, I was just done, so - and this misinformation, disinformation and the steal and thing that something was taken from me and (inaudible) been taken from you, we got to do something about it. The reality is, he's not going to win Georgia. He's not going to win Wisconsin. He's not going to win Michigan. He's not going to win Pennsylvania.

He has the right to go to the courts, which they are doing. I understand that they're filing an official election challenge tomorrow. Everybody has due process. This stuff, what you just showed, it's ridiculous and unnecessary and, frankly, at this point, dangerous.

BURNETT: And so came out and I have said I thought what you said was so powerful and I know you said it as a professional, but also deeply personal. And yet the President saw what you did, he retweeted it and his retweet was the comment, "Rigged election. Show signatures and envelopes. Expose the massive voter fraud in Georgia. What is Secretary of State and Gov. Kemp afraid of. They know what we'll find."

That was his response to what you had to say. I found that stunning, even for him.

STERLING: Did you really find it stunning?

BURNETT: I suppose one would have thought maybe he could have been silent. I mean, but it was an upping of the ante, Gabe.

STERLING: It's doubling down but the thing is if you watch President Trump or read his book, this is what he do. He views everything very transactionally and he's not going to back down from his position until he's absolutely forced to and even then he will never admit he is backed down.

This is what you're going to have to expect in the situation and there are times when that is the correct position to take. Let's say you're fighting with China, it's not that, but this is about the American Democratic process. This is our election system that everyone has to have faith in at the end of the day. And yes, you should always be able to have due process and question

outcomes, if you see legitimate real things need to be investigated. But the items that have been put in these lawsuits, especially the Sidney Powell and Lin Wood (inaudible) they're based in just another world of reality that the rest of us don't live in.

[19:15:00]

BURNETT: Well, Gabe, I appreciate your time. Thank you very much and thank you for speaking out because I know it is hard. I know it's hard for your family and I appreciate it. I hope everyone appreciates it. It's (inaudible) to do it.

STERLING: Thank you, Erin.

BURNETT: Thank you.

And next breaking news, we are learning that the President's daughter, Ivanka, has been deposed by the Washington, D.C.'s Attorneys General's office as part of its lawsuit alleging misuse of inauguration funds.

Plus, a doctor in a hard-hit hospital, a scene in a picture running a makeshift COVID unit in a parking garage. The President retweets a conspiracy theory that the picture means the virus is a hoax. Another thing he tweeted. That doctor is my guest. He's going to respond.

And President Obama says it is time for some of the Democratic Party to give others a voice.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We stick so long with the same old folks and don't make room for new voices.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:19:39]

BURNETT: Breaking news, at this hour we are just learning that Ivanka Trump has been deposed in a lawsuit alleging the misuse of inaugural funds. In a filing today we're learning the President's daughter was deposed yesterday.

Now, the lawsuit was filed by the D.C. Attorney General's Office, it alleges fraud by both the Trump Inaugural Committee and the Trump Organization. The lawsuit accuses them of grossly overpaying for events based at the Trump Hotel, in Washington, D.C. for the President's 2017 inauguration.

[19:20:07]

That, of course, would be using donor money, et cetera, to fund yourself. This as the Trump family's legal troubles are piling up and it is

clear they are worried because a source tells CNN tonight that the President's advisors moving ahead, they believe it would be perfectly fine for him to pardon his children and his son-in-law.

OUTFRONT now David Cay Johnston, an Investigative Reporter who has covered Trump for many years and is the author of It's Even Worse Than You Think: What the Trump Administration Is Doing to America. Laura Coates, she's a former federal prosecutor and Nick Akerman served as Assistant Special Prosecutor during Watergate.

So Laura, how much legal trouble, obviously, we're just finding out about this deposition now, but how much legal trouble are the President and his children, including Jared Kushner, his son-in-law facing right now?

LAURA COATES, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, it depend on actually the conduct they're engaged in. We're not just learning about the lawsuit with the D.C. Attorney General's Office, that was filed back in January.

But the idea that she would be enveloped into it because apparently Rick Gates, you'll remember, headed the inaugural committee was somebody who sent her an email and expressed to her in some form or fashion, I'm really concerned about this gross overpayment of funds that's above market rate and apparently she had a role in deciding whether to do that.

We'll have to wait and see what liability she faces and misusing perhaps private or nonprofit funds. But in the larger context, the Trump Organization, you already know, in New York has been under scrutiny in other places at the state level. So even if the President of the United States were to engage in the so called preemptive pardons, trying to anticipate what trouble somebody might be in if they violated the law, they still have that horizon of potential state investigations, which her father could never touch.

BURNETT: So Nick, one of the many things the President said in his 46- minute video rant that he released today, which was full of baseless things that he knows to be untrue. He did say, "The same people who failed to get me in Washington have sent every piece of information to New York so that they can try to get me there. And any place else that can investigate."

Now, obviously, a pardon wouldn't apply to say, the Southern District of New York, Nick, so we understand what he's trying to say is that are trying to (inaudible) ...

NICK AKERMAN, FORMER ASSTANT U.S. ATTORNEY, SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK: Oh, no. Southern District of New York a pardon would apply, that's a federal U.S. Attorney's Office.

BURNETT: OK. So then explain to me where Trump would face the most danger legally. But say he did pardon, where then would he face the most danger legally? AKERMAN: I think the most danger he faces is with the District

Attorney's Office in Manhattan. They are the ones that have taken him to the Supreme Court, now twice they're going up, with respect to his financial papers and getting his tax returns from his accountants. There is no way he can pardon himself out or anybody can pardon them from the federal government with respect to the state violations.

They have been investigating it. Information wasn't sent to them by Washington. One who is a resident of New York files a separate tax return with the State of New York. They file a separate tax return with the federal government. If you lie on your state tax return, that is income tax evasion in the state. It's a totally separate crime. It has nothing to do with anything being sent from Washington, D.C.

BURNETT: Which is crucial and thank you for making it clear, the Manhattan DA. I obviously misspoke there with Southern District.

David, we know President Trump because of whatever fears he may have is discussing with his advisors the idea of preemptively pardoning his children. Now, we don't know what crimes he thinks they may have committed, but to be pardoning someone would mean something. Does this mean they think there is something real to worry about?

DAVID CAY JOHNSTON, AUTHOR, "IT'S EVEN WORSE THAN YOU THINK": Oh, they are worried about a lot. I'm sure that Trump lawyers, for example, have warned Eric Trump before he testified to the State Attorney General in what is currently a civil investigation that there's the potential for a New York State racketeering enterprise charge as they press ahead with that.

The difficult issue here, Erin, is we've never tested a preemptive pardon. Jimmy Carter did it for people who avoided the draft by going to Canada or Sweden or elsewhere. And, of course, Gerald Ford famously did that for Richard Nixon, but neither was tested in court as to whether you can preemptively pardon someone and that pardon does two things.

It takes away your Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and it does nothing for you going forward on the federal level. If you do anything the moment after that pardon that you're vulnerable for.

From Donald Trump's perspective, pardons to his children may help them but it could turn out to be a double-edged sword that comes back to haunt him.

BURNETT: So Laura, the President has told advisors that he's worried that the Biden justice department will go after him.

[19:25:00]

But Biden has been really clear here. I mean, he's really downplayed going after Trump, because he said that's what kind of thing Trump would do and I wouldn't. Here's how Biden put it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: I will not do what

this president does and use the Justice Department as my vehicle to insist that something happened.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: So Laura, if Trump is still worried enough to obsess over pardons, does that lead you to believe that he has done something that Biden would be forced to pursue? I mean, you can't look the other way on certain things.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COATES: I mean, possibly, but I think that Trump has projected for the better part of four years about the things that he perhaps would do and believes that retaliation or vindictiveness in the executive branch would exist, because he has exhibited many of those qualities at this point in time. Just look at the track record and the attrition rate of people he has let go and the variety of reasons for doing so.

So I think what you're seeing here is twofold, number one, Biden does seem to be reluctant to perhaps put the country through what he thinks would be a politically bad optics situation of having to pursue charges against President of the United States or a former president, but I think also remember the federal government, we're talking about, say, a civil rights case, they're well in tuned and inclined to become the backstop if a state level prosecution should fail.

So I think perhaps as you speak about pre-emptive pardons, think about also the role that the federal government is often timid about being preemptive, when they know that there are state level investigations that might accomplish something quite similar.

And remember, also, we didn't mention the idea of George H.W. Bush doing a preemptive pardon for Caspar Weinberger which, of course, we remember there was enough chatter about I wonder if he's doing it preemptively for the very concerns you just raise, Erin, would there be something about the notion that he could implicate someone else?

And so he will obviously have that notion, that optical statement and innuendo if he engages in behavior for the reasons we're asking these questions.

BURNETT: So, Nick, when it comes to Trump's kids, given what Laura is saying and what David said, any business related charges that could come up with likely also involve Trump himself, given the family business and given the fact that he has not severed his ties to the Trump Organization even though he said he did. Can he pardon them for something if he is also charged in the same case?

AKERMAN: I don't believe so. If he's basically a co-conspirator with his children, for example, let's say the children plus Donald Trump were indicted for conspiring to evade taxes and to prevent the government from collecting it's lawfully due taxes, they would be co- conspirators. Now, under the U.S. Constitution, the President does have the power to

grant pardons. But he also has the duty under the Constitution to faithfully execute the laws of the United States and it's certainly not faithfully executing the laws of the United States to be involved in a conspiracy to prevent the government from collecting taxes, and then go ahead and pardon your co conspirators.

Now, keep in mind, this issue has never ever been decided by any court in the United States. That's because you've never had a president like this who's ever done things that would even raise this issue nor have you ever had a president who's even thought about pardoning his children.

BURNETT: All right. Well, thank you all very much. I appreciate your time tonight.

And next, more breaking news, more than 100,000 Americans, we have crossed that line now, are hospitalized with coronavirus and it is a record. It comes as the Head of the CDC is out with a dire warning tonight.

And former President Obama says Democrats need to cut it out when it comes to defund the police or risk turning off more voters.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:32:53]

BURNETT: Breaking news for the first time, the United States has surpassed 100,000 coronavirus hospitalizations, breaking the record set yesterday, crossing 100,000 -- a staggering number of people being treated for COVID right now in hospitals across the country.

And the CDC Director Robert Redfield tonight issuing a dire warning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ROBERT REDFIELD, DIRECTOR, CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION: The reality is December and January and February are going to be rough times. I actually believe they're going to be the most difficult time in the public health history of this nation, largely because of the stress that it's going to put on our health care system.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: Well, one picture that speaks to this stress about the situation that hospitals face is the one you're looking at now. This is from a doctor running a COVID unit set up in a parking garage in Reno, Nevada.

A conservative lifestyle blog seized on the photo, using it to claim that that whole unit is a scam, and then president Trump re-tweeted it, adding the baseless election fraud claim, fake election results in Nevada also. OUTFRONT now, Dr. Jacob Keeperman. He's an ICU physician at Renown

Regional Medical Center, and he is the doctor that you see in that picture.

Dr. Keeperman, I'll ask you about the president's tweet in a moment. I want to ask you how things are right now. What is the situation like that you're dealing with?

DR. JACOB KEEPERMAN, MEDICAL DIRECTOR, RENOWN TRANSFER & OPERATIONS CENTER: Things are tough. Patients are sick. People from all walks of life, all ages, are getting afflicted by COVID-19, in addition to the heart attacks, the strokes, and the traumas that people get every day.

So we are getting close to a breaking point. Our health care heroes are tired. They want to do the best they can, and they need everybody's help to do that.

BURNETT: And so you sent that picture out of the unit that you've had to set up, right, in that garage. And so tell me about that photo and what we're looking at first, what we're actually seeing there behind you, what you're dealing with now every day, Doctor.

KEEPERMAN: I took that photo on November 12th when I recently had revived to Renown Health in Reno, and I was asked to lead that area.

[19:35:08]

And I was so impressed with foresight that the leaders of Renown Health and the elected officials of Nevada made to put the resources in to developing an alternative care center.

I took that photo before the first patient arrived, due to national HIPAA laws and human decency. I wouldn't take pictures of a patient, and that is where we were getting ready to see our first patient. Shortly after that, our first patient arrived and we have since seen over 200 patients in a parking garage, a place I never thought I would take care of a human being.

BURNETT: Two hundred patients in a parking garage, human beings fighting for their lives. Some of them, the patients you have seen, have died. The president of the United States then re-tweets that picture, you know, referring to it as a hoax, right, fraud, just like election fraud in your state, he says.

What was your reaction when you heard that he did that?

KEEPERMAN: I was sad. I was disappointed. And I was disgusted, and it's about time all of our elected officials view COVID as a humanitarian crisis, view health care as a humanitarian issue, and recognize we need to look at each other as human beings. We need to not politicize and polarize everything. We need to take care of ourselves, take care of our loved ones, take care of one another so we can get through this together.

BURNETT: So in your tweet, you say there were five deaths in just a 32-hour period, and you now are saying you have seen 200 people in that parking garage. You know, what is the personal toll this is taking on you right now, Dr. Keeperman?

KEEPERMAN: It's devastating. It's demoralizing. It is incredibly challenging to be holding the hand of a patient when they take their very last breath because their loved ones can't be with them, and then having to call their loved ones after to tell them they won't be coming home.

And so it's hard. It takes an emotional, physical toll. We want to do the best to provide the best care for everyone and there are so many health care heroes often unnamed, unrecognized, the respiratory therapists, the physical therapists, our house keeping staff, food services, patient transporters, lab techs that are all making a difference for you.

So please take care of yourselves, take care of your loved ones and allow us to continue to take care of you.

BURNETT: Dr. Keeperman, thank you very much for your time.

KEEPERMAN: Thank you, Erin.

BURNETT: We wish you the best we possibly can as you continue to fight there on the front line.

I want to go now to Dr. Jonathan Reiner. All of you know him, right, advised the White House team under President George W. Bush.

So, Doctor, you heard what Dr. Keeperman had to say, what he's dealing with personally, how he has treated 200 people in that parking garage, and, of course, the president's response and what he said, what's your reaction to what you just heard from the doctor?

DR. JONATHAN REINER, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: We had 2,700 deaths today in the United States, and the second highest number in the brutal history of this pandemic, and before it's all said and done, this is going to be basically the bloodiest war this country has ever fought. And Dr. Keeperman is front line troops, and the president of the United States is mocking him.

In that photo, Dr. Keeperman is wearing something that's called a PAPR, which is a powered air purifying respirator, that looks like the hood -- clear hood he's wearing. You wear that only in the hottest of hot zones in the hospital, and that's the person and that's the environment the president is mocking. It's shameful, and infuriating.

BURNETT: So you referenced 2,700 people dying today of coronavirus.

REINER: Right.

BURENTT: Earlier, just a moment ago, I played the CDC director, Dr. Redfield, saying that this could be, these next few months, not now, what's ahead. The rest of December, January, and February, the worst time in the history of American public health.

Do you think that's possible that this death could go way up? REINER: It is going to happen. You know, by this time next week, we're

going to be talking about 3,000 deaths a day, 3,000 deaths a day. That's 9/11 every single day, until we do something differently.

Now vaccines are on the horizon that's amazing and that's going to eventually bring us back to normal, but in December, if we have two vaccines in December, we'll only vaccinate maybe 10 percent of the population of the United States.

[19:40:03]

We can't depend on that. So we need to turn things around. We need to mask up, we need to social distance. And in some places, where it's really hot, we are going to need to shut down certain things, like bars and restaurants.

We can't keep doing what we're -- what we're doing now and expect a different result. That is insanity.

BURNETT: And Dr. Redfield also mentioned that he thought the possibility of mandatory masks -- I'm sorry, mandatory vaccine, right, obviously the reason I misspoke was because mask mandates obviously have not worked, legally and in terms of implication.

Is there any chance a mandatory vaccine would work?

REINER: I think you can see in many industries mandatory vaccines. So, for instance, every year where I work in D.C., in my hospital, you have to get an influenza shot.

BURNETT: Yeah.

REINER: Now, they can't force me to have the shot, but I can't work there if I don't have it, and you can imagine a lot of industries in the United States that might adopt the same policy. How about meatpacking plants, nursing homes?

So I think you're going to see that. I hope we don't have to go down that road. I hope we can have enough public education to teach people that these vaccines are safe, effective and the way to go. That's really the way to do it, from the grass roots level up.

BURNETT: Dr. Reiner, thank you for your time.

And I want all of you to know on Friday night, we have a coronavirus town hall. It is all about vaccines and your questions. Dr. Sanjay Gupta and Anderson will be with you for that. It is at 9:00 Eastern, as I said, on Friday night.

And next, President Obama says Democrats need to ditch what has become a big talking point.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I guess you can use a snappy slogan like defund the police, but you know you've lost a big audience the minute you say it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: And Trump now using the United States military to get back at companies including Twitter.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:45:57]

BURNETT: Tonight, President Obama warning his own party against the "defund the police" movement, saying messages like that one alienate a big audience that could help Democrats achieve their goals.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: If you believe as I do that we should be able to reform the criminal justice system so that it's not biased and treats everybody fairly, I guess you can use a snappy slogan like "defund the police", but you know you've lost a big audience the minute you say it, which makes it a lot less likely that you're going to get the changes you want done.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: OUTFRONT now, Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, who saw unrest in her own city this summer over an officer-involved shooting.

Mayor, I really appreciate your time.

Now, I want to be clear, from my understanding, you've never completely supported defunding the police, but the budget this summer passed -- that you passed did cut the corrections budget in Atlanta from $18 million to $3 million, and that money was reallocated to social services.

So, you know, given that, what do you think about what President Obama said? Do you think he's right or wrong?

MAYOR KEISHA LANCE BOTTOMS (D), ATLANTA, GEORGIA: Well, thank you for having me, Erin.

That was something that was in the process of happening since I took office in 2018 because we committed to working towards closing our city jail, a 450,000-plus square foot facility that now only houses about 30 inmates a night.

So I do agree with what President Obama said, and what I've said repeatedly, even in the African-American community, if I walk into one room, there may be some younger progressive activist calling for defunding the police. If I go into another room with some of my more seasoned residents, then they're saying we're not paying our police officers enough.

So I think that it's difficult to have that conversation when it's all or nothing but I think once you peel back the layers and get to the sentiment that we want police officers to have positive interactions with our communities, then I think you can have a much more productive discussion.

BURNETT: And, look, slogans can hurt in many cases. But, you know, you just mentioned if you walk into one room of younger constituents and another room with people who are older, that's a divide we have seen, right? I mean, we have seen it in interviews.

And here's Congresswoman-elect Cori Bush, she is adamant that defund the police is exactly what she wants and the words she wants to use, and then here she is compared to the House Majority Whip James Clyburn who came up in the civil rights movement and says "burn baby burn" was a huge mistake, you know, because it took away what he wanted.

Here's the two different points of view.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CORI BUSH (D), MISSOURI CONGRESSWOMAN-ELECT: I understand that people don't like the slogan. I get that, but I don't like death. I don't like black death. I don't like keep seeing my people die at the hands of police and nothing is happening.

REP. JAMES CLYBURN (D-SC): But the fact of the matter is people use those slogans in certain districts and those may sometimes work to the detriment of our candidates.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: So how do you bridge this divide? And I know nobody wants to boil something down to three words, but, you know, as President Obama points out, to a lot of voters it does boil down to three words. How do you get the nuance here?

BOTTOMS: We have to listen to each other, and really be able to articulate what your common goal is, just as many of our younger residents want to have safe interactions with police officers, our older residents want that for their children and their grandchildren.

Listen, I can guarantee you, last week, there was a community nearby who packed up some hams and some turkeys and took them to our police -- our local police precinct because they don't think we take enough care of our officers.

So I think at the end of the day, it's about listening to each other. What is our common goal? As we talked about closing our city jail, what's our common goal? It's not returning criminals out on the streets but we're saying low level offenders shouldn't stay in jail simply because they can't pay a cash bail bond.

[19:50:03]

We're saying, let's change this and turn this into a facility where people can access health care, GED training, and job training, et cetera. That resonates throughout our community but it's how we articulate the

message. And it's about listening to one another, articulating our common goal and then working together to get there.

BURNETT: So, it's interesting, you know, given what President Obama said about defund police. He also actually criticized the Democratic Party. He believes it is tendency to stick with the old guard at the expense of new voices, younger voices, that are not being heard as much.

Here's how he put it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: One thing I will say about the Democratic Party, promoting young people is really important. We stick so long with the same old folks and don't make room for new voices.

Democratic National Convention I thought was successful considering the pandemic. But, you know, the fact that AOC only got, what, three minutes or five minutes when she speaks to a broad section of young people who are interested in what she has to say even though if they don't agree with everything she says.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: By the way, she didn't get three or five minutes. She got one minute and stretched it to a minute and a half.

But what do you think about this point? Did the Democrats missing an opportunity?

BOTTOMS: Well, I think the point is that we got to make sure our democracy is open to everyone and everyone understands that they have the ability to participate in it. It's oftentimes, people think and I see this quite often in my community, that this is for something, this is for someone else. Someone else is to lead.

I don't really have a voice. I can't be involved. I'm not qualified. I don't have credentials or whatever it is. I think it is incumbent upon us to open the door and say this is about all of us. This is about a party that represents who we are as a people, whether you are blue collar worker or whether you are a professional, that there is a place for you here.

And what we are seeing now is people aren't waiting their turn anymore. It's understandable that (AUDIO GAP) that they have to wait their turn

But what concerns me is that we will lose a lot of the institutional wisdom that got us to where we are and we aren't being open to one another to be graceful as we transition who we are as a party.

BURNETT: All right. Well, I appreciate your time. Thank you very much, Mayor.

BOTTOMS: Thanks.

BURNETT: All right. And tomorrow night, don't miss the first joint interview with Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. They will join Jake at 9:00 p.m. and you will want to see that.

And next, President Trump playing politics with United States military so he can get back at social media companies like Twitter. We'll explain.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:56:52]

BURNETT: Tonight, the president is exacting revenge and using U.S. troops to do it. So, bear with me here. He is threatening to veto a defense bill, and it is a bill that actually includes a pay raise for U.S. troops. He's wanting to do this unless it includes a repeal of a little known provision which protects social media companies.

Now, you may say, what is going on here? Well, it is an issue that has now taken urgency for the president on Thanksgiving Day, that #DiaperDon started trending after the president ranted about the election results and the media.

So, there was an image of him sitting at this desk, it went viral. #DiaperDon starts trending.

He sees the trend. He gets upset. He lashes out a Twitter. He says they made up the hashtag, that it's all made up. The trends are lies. And then repeatedly called the provision known as Section 230 the national security threat. Yes, you can't make this up, people.

Manu Raju is OUTFRONT on Capitol Hill.

Manu, Jim Inhofe, the Republican chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee tells you he will defy the president's veto threat on this bill. The president wants to do this because he was upset about this Diaper Don.

MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Congress is going to roll the president here. Republicans and Democrats are aligning with the need to pass a bill that would authorize $740 billion worth of defense projects. And the president's demand, and unrelated to man to go after social media companies, in the view of Republicans and Democrats has nothing to do with this. It should stay away from the bill.

Even though Jim Inhofe sympathized with the president's concerns, the chairman of the committee says it has absolutely nothing to do with this. It was scuttling efforts, so he said that they're going to still move ahead, despite what the president is demanding. He said that he conveyed this message to the president privately.

Also, Erin, they're also planning to defy him on another key issue here. The president has threatened to veto the, build if it includes provision requiring the renaming of military properties that are currently millions after confederate leaders. Inhofe told me that provision, to rename those properties, will still be in the bill despite the president's veto threat.

So, on two key issues here, Congress plans to roll the presidents in his waning days in the office, Erin.

BURNETT: I still -- there is something even at this point, and all of this, when I cannot believe the president would care about the trend Diaper Don. I can't. I'm sorry, and we're laughing about it, but there's a pardon of me that goes oh my.

OK, you also have new reporting tonight, on a serious issue. Strong pressure Biden is getting from both the right and the left about his cabinet choices. Tell me?

RAJU: Yes, that's right. Republicans and Democrats each pushing the administration to do certain things. Republicans say they need to be consulted with, before the nominees come forward. Even though a lot of them have yet to even say that Joe Biden is the president elect.

And Democrats are saying that the president should go forward potentially, even more liberal nominees. Elizabeth Warren told me that it should be quoted, strong progressives in this cabinet.

And I just spoke to Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, the liberal New York Democrat, and she told me that the administration should be more aggressive if they take back the Senate in those Georgia races. And she also said that Rahm Emanuel, the former Chicago mayor, I think is selected to the Transportation Department, in her view, that is a, quote, hard no -- Erin.

BURNETT: OK. Both parties have a lot of internal strife to deal with.

Thank you very much, Manu Raju.

And thanks so much to all of you.

"AC360" starts now.