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CNN Live Event/Special

Interview With Georgia Secretary Of State Brad Raffensperger; Georgia Votes; New CDC Numbers: Less Than 29 Percent Of Distributed Vaccines Administered. Aired 4:30-5p ET

Aired January 05, 2021 - 16:30   ET

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

[16:30:38]

PAMELA BROWN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Manager in Georgia, Gabriel Sterling, he says we're going to see a flood of the returns shortly after the polls close in Georgia at 7:00 p.m. Eastern.

There is so much interest in early voting for these Georgia Senate election run-offs. Let's look -- take a look at these numbers. More than three million people voted early before today.

And then you look at the breakdown, more than one million of those were in those mail-in ballots. And then more than two million were those in person ballots that were cast early.

Let's look at the overall big picture here and how it stacks up to the general election. You see here on your screen around four million people voted for the general election, compared to the little more than three million for the election run-offs today.

But if you look at what happened in 2008 with the run-off there, you see how many more people voted for today's election, back in 2008, 2.14 million, compared to more than three million for today.

There's so much interest in this election today. And it's no surprise why because of how high the stakes are, with the balance of the Senate and the future of Joe Biden's presidency -- Wolf.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Pamela, the stakes clearly are enormous -- Jake, back to you.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Thanks, Wolf.

Joining me now, the top election official in Georgia who defied pressure from President Trump to -- quote -- "find votes" in his favor. This is Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger's first CNN interview since his stunning phone call from the president

Secretary Raffensperger, thanks for joining us.

Let's talk about the election today. We have seen more than three million Georgians vote early and absentee in these two Senate run- offs. There's a couple hours left until polls close. Can you give us a sense of how many Georgians you think will ultimately have shown up today to vote? BRAD RAFFENSPERGER (R), GEORGIA SECRETARY OF STATE: Can't tell right

now, Jake.

All I can say is, we have two-and-a-half-hours left to go. Any voters who are out there that haven't voted yet, we hope they get out there. And I encourage them to get out there before 7:00 today.

Some places, we have good turnout. In other places, we have -- turnout is a little bit light. So, we really encourage that we'd have good turnout today.

TAPPER: Do you think that we will be able to project a winner this evening, or might it take a few days?

RAFFENSPERGER: I think it'll probably take until tomorrow sometime.

Really depends on, what is the difference in the vote totals, how close the races are. And so, as soon as we can get those out to everyone, we know how important this is, not just for Georgia, but for our entire nation.

TAPPER: President-elect Biden won Georgia by fewer than 12,000 votes in November.

Without Trump on the ballot, do you think Republicans will win tonight? Do you think Trump might have hurt their chances by attacking the integrity of the elections, attacking Georgia officials such as yourself and the governor?

RAFFENSPERGER: Well, it's really tough to say, because, if you look at -- Senator Perdue outpolled David -- Jon Ossoff off by several votes, and he was really in good shape, just not quite enough to get over the 50 percent hurdle.

And yet Kelly Loeffler, she was actually in a jungle primary with about 20 other different voters, so two different races in some respects. So, we will just see how that all plays out.

TAPPER: President Trump was getting out the vote at a rally in your state last night. He said he's going to campaign against your reelection in 2022 because you have been standing up for the truth, against his false claims about the election.

What's your response to that?

RAFFENSPERGER: Well, that's two years out right now.

And, today and for this, I guess, next coming week, our job is to button up this election, get the results out to all the Georgians, and make sure that we can certify this race. So, that's my focus right now, not what happens two years from now.

TAPPER: OK.

I want to ask you about your phone call on Saturday with President Trump. Take a listen to what he told you, in part. (BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You can't let it happen and you are letting it happen. I mean, I'm notifying you that you're letting it happen.

So, look, all I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have, because we won the state.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

TAPPER: When you heard him say that to you, sir, did you interpret that to mean that the president was telling you to concoct, to invent 11,780 votes for him?

RAFFENSPERGER: Well, as he talked further, what was pretty obvious to me is that he just has bad data.

And we have the numbers on our side. And that's why we had our press conference. We showed that of -- I think there's 10,000 dead voters, he said. We had two.

[16:35:06]

We had no underage voting at all in the state of Georgia. Everyone was 18 during that election. He just has bad data. And when you have good data, you know that you can stand by your results. And our results were accurate.

TAPPER: You also heard in that clip that President Trump said he was -- quote -- "notifying you" that, in his view, you were breaking the law by ignoring the false conspiracy theories he was sharing with you.

When he said that, did you take that as something of a threat? And do you think President Trump in that call may have broken the law?

RAFFENSPERGER: We already have over 100 investigations going on about that election.

President Trump has sued us in multiple jurisdictions. And, in fact, one of those lawsuits was dismissed earlier today. And so we are standing on the truth. We know that we have followed the law, we have followed the Constitution.

And, at the end of the day, he will not prevail in a court of law.

TAPPER: But did you think what that when he said, I'm notifying you that you're breaking the law -- I mean, he is the commander in chief. He still has the Justice Department under him.

Did you take that as a veiled threat?

RAFFENSPERGER: Our election is supported by the facts, and he has bad data.

And so I will stand with our facts, and that I will stand with the results that we have reported and the results that we certified.

TAPPER: You have been standing up for the facts, under pressure from President Trump and from lots of lawmakers.

How do you explain that pressure that you have faced?

RAFFENSPERGER: I understand that people are disappointed.

For nine months now, I said that this would be a contentious election. And I understand that we lived in polarized times. Half the people would be happy. Half the people would -- sad.

Little did I know that the race would be so close. And that's where we are right now, that the half that did not win in November, they're very disappointed.

I'm a Republican, I was disappointed also. And I think that the Democrats obviously are happy. And I think they were maybe somewhat surprised, because it's the first time this state has voted and flipped for over 20 years.

But the facts are the facts. We followed the law. We followed the Constitution. And those are the accurate results of that election in November.

TAPPER: What do you make of the fact that David Perdue, who's on the ballot today, said that he didn't have any issue with what President Trump did to you on that phone call, said to you in that phone call?

He found the release of the tape disgusting, not the actual content of the tape. What do you make of the fact that so many Republicans, including House members from Georgia, are objecting to the electoral votes that Joe Biden won in free and fair elections?

Although, I should note, none of them are voting -- none of them are objecting to their own election on the same ballot on the same day using the same election system. What do you make of all that?

RAFFENSPERGER: Well, that's a good point, because their election was run with the same system, the same processes. And they won their races.

In fact, President Trump got 33,000 less votes in those Republican congressional districts than those Republican congressmen did. He also got 19,000 less votes than Senator David Perdue did in the metro regions.

And I stand by the results of what we purported in that election. And they're going to do what they may want to do up in the -- Washington, D.C., tomorrow. But, here in Georgia, we reported the results, we certified them, and I will stand by our results.

TAPPER: What kind of an impact has this had on you and your family?

I know that there have been a lot of threats. And I know it's been rather unpleasant. Has it been tough for your wife, for your kids, for your loved ones?

RAFFENSPERGER: Yes, it's been tough on the family, obviously.

It's really disappointing.

I understand that people really care about their causes. And I understand that you may be in the left or the right. But I thought America was always founded on some great ideals like our founders had, and that we'd have our discussions in the halls of Congress, not making threats, death threats, or then going and sending to your wife sexualized texts.

What kind of a person does that? That's disgusting.

TAPPER: The -- I know, you are a self-described Christian conservative. You are a very conservative Republican.

Are you disappointed in how so many members of your party are behaving, in terms of their deference to conspiracy theories and to this attempted sedition we're going to see tomorrow, as opposed to just standing up for the transfer of power, as we have seen over and over again, whether Nixon presiding over the Senate and allowing the fact that John F. Kennedy beat him all the way through every election until tomorrow?

[16:40:00]

RAFFENSPERGER: I'm just so proud that my dad raised me with those values. He's a World War II veteran.

And he just raised me to be truthful, to be honest, and to walk with integrity. And I'm just really grateful for my dad's upbringing. And it stuck, I guess, at some level in me. And I'm just real grateful for the upbringing that I got from my parents.

TAPPER: It looks as though we are going to see tomorrow Republicans objecting to the electoral votes from several states, including Georgia.

It looks as though Senator Kelly Loeffler, who's on the ballot today, may, in fact, take the lead in the Senate on objecting to these votes, these electoral votes that you certified and Governor Kemp signed.

What's your message to them?

RAFFENSPERGER: We have our results, and our results are accurate.

What happens in other states, I can't say. But I know that we followed the process, we followed the law. We did signature match, not just for the envelopes that came in with the ballot attached, but also we did it during the application phase.

Then we set up an online portal. In this run-off right now, over 70 percent of the people that have gotten their absentee ballots used photo I.D. We have a verifiable paper ballot trail, so we could do 100 percent recount. And the recount showed that the machines didn't flip votes, so the vote is accurate.

And it also verified the results of November 3.

TAPPER: Should people feel confident, should Georgians feel confident about the integrity of today's election?

RAFFENSPERGER: Absolutely.

We have never had an election that has been more secure, with more integrity. And I would encourage every Georgian, if you haven't voted yet, put away all this negative stuff that'll just keep you away from the polls and get up to vote. We have two-and-a-half-hours left to go. Please get out to vote.

TAPPER: What's your message to President Trump?

RAFFENSPERGER: I think we have had our conversation. I want to talk to Georgians.

Please get out to vote. Polls closed at 7:00.

TAPPER: All right.

Secretary of State Raffensperger, thank you so much for your time. Thank you so much for your integrity, sir. Appreciate it.

RAFFENSPERGER: Thank you.

TAPPER: A remarkably restrained Secretary Raffensperger.

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: All things considered.

TAPPER: I can't say that I would be so restrained were I in his shoes.

But, I mean, you saw him not -- I mean, honestly, Perdue, David Perdue, who's on the ballot today, called the release of the tape disgusting, and not President Trump shaking down Georgia election officials disgusting. It's like attacking a closed-circuit camera, instead of bank robbers.

PHILLIP: Right.

What's really striking to me about that interview is that you hear him. This is a conservative Republican in a conservative state...

(CROSSTALK)

TAPPER: Very conservative, by the way.

PHILLIP: In a very conservative state, talking about a state in which, frankly, they have pretty strict rules for voting in the state of Georgia.

He talked about voter I.D. There are accusations from Democrats that they have been purging voters from the rolls. So, this is not some kind of loosey-goosey liberal state. (CROSSTALK)

TAPPER: Stacey Abrams...

(CROSSTALK)

PHILLIP: Exactly.

But what President Trump has done for people like Brad Raffensperger is make him into some kind of centrist figure in which he's sort of just defending the basic -- Georgia has strict voting rules. They enforce those strict voting rules.

But it's not good enough for a president who wants to just find 11,000 votes, out of thin air, effectively. And that's what has put him in that position that I think is just really remarkable, considering that Democrats are still out there saying, hey, Georgia still has these tough election rules that should not be on the books that make it harder for people to vote.

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: That's exactly right.

And all of that is, understandably, kind of under the radar right now, because the president of the United States, as opposed -- what he should be doing is taking credit for everything that he's gotten done during the four years he's been in office, and everything else.

But he's so obsessed with this. And what you were both just saying about how conservative a Republican he is, it's a reminder that this has nothing to do with ideology. This has nothing to do with where you stand on the political spectrum.

This has everything to do with where you stand on the fealty to Donald Trump spectrum. And either you are completely loyal to him, which is almost never a two-way street. It's always a one-way street, or you're loyal to the Constitution.

And a lot of people who are now coming out in the Senate who are saying that they're being loyal to the Constitution, they spent a lot of the past four years ignoring some pretty outrageous stuff that President Trump did.

Now at the end, some of them are saying, OK. But what he is doing isn't because he's a conservative Republican or anything else. It's because he's an American.

TAPPER: We have said this before. President Trump has spent the last four or five years, maybe even longer, making facts and truth and decency into partisan issues.

And Secretary Raffensperger there just standing up for facts and truth and getting attacked. Rudy Giuliani called the governor of Arizona a very conservative Republican, called him Democrat.

[16:45:09] Again, facts, truth, decency, these are not partisan issues. We're counting down to the first results from the Georgia exit polls and early hints about the outcome of today's historic double Senate runoff. .

We have much more ahead. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: We'll get back to Georgia Senate runoff election in a moment. But, first, another major story that we are following, the worsening pandemic and growing issues with the vaccine rollout.

Moments ago, the CDC released new numbers showing fewer than 29 percent of distributed doses have actually been administered.

[16:50:05]

And it comes amid a dire situation that's only getting worse in California.

CNN's Erica Hill joins us with more.

Erica, so one health care official said southern California is facing what they called a human disaster.

ERICA HILL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, that's exactly right. There is so much focus on California right now, Anderson, because there's a concern what we're seeing in California could be seen in other states soon.

And if we look specifically at southern California, a massive region in the state, zero percent ICU capacity and what we're seeing is that people with non-COVID-related issues, a heart attack, for example, now hospitals are being told, ambulance crews are being told that they essentially have to ration care because the number of COVID patients is so high.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ERROL BARRIENTOS, CRITICAL CARE NURSE: This is the peak and in the next couple weeks, we're going to get more. I think we're going to be in some trouble.

HILL (voice-over): Amid surging hospitalizations, it's unimaginable directive for ambulance crews in Los Angeles County. Don't transport patients with little chance of survival and only administer supplemental oxygen to patients with oxygen saturation below 90 percent.

DR. PETER HOTEZ, CO-DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR VACCINE DEVELOPMENT AT TEXAS CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL: This is the catastrophic situation that we had hoped to avoid.

HILL: For those lucky enough to be brought in -- UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're waiting 2, 3, 4 hours minimum.

HILL: It's not just southern California in crisis. Nationwide, COVID- 19 hospitalizations have never been higher.

DR. DUSTIN BALLARD, DIRECTOR, MARTIN EMERGENCY MEDICAL SERVICES: So, we have to be prepared for the potential for rapid change.

HILL: In Arizona, just 8 percent of ICU beds are available. It's among the 41 states showing a rise in new cases over the past week, not a single one posting a decline.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We do strongly anticipate another surge following the holidays.

HILL: One thing that is down, testing. A slide that began in mid December. Meantime, issues and questions persist about the vaccine rollout. Just 28 percent of the more than 17 million doses that were distributed have been administered.

HOTEZ: If we don't fix this, the numbers of Americans who will lose their lives could come close to 1 million by the fall. It's that bad. So we've got to make this work.

HILL: New York's mayor hoping to set up mass vaccination sites for his city but --

MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO (D), NEW YORK CITY: We don't know when we're getting future shipments. We can't plan.

HILL: He's written to Vice President Mike Pence asking for help. In Florida, seniors camping out in their cars overnight as temperatures dipped into the 40s.

CAROLYN MOTZ, FLORIDA RESIDENT: I want to be able to see my kids and my grandchildren. That means a lot.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HILL (on camera): Look, we're seeing cases rise across the country and there's more concern about this new variant that was first identified in the U.K. It has now been identified in Georgia, found in an 18- year-old man. We're told that young man is now isolated. He did not have a history of travel, Anderson, nor did the 60-year-old man who was found to have that variant here in New York state.

COOPER: Erica, I appreciate that.

Joining me now is CNN chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

Sanjay, I mean, this is really just stunning and alarming. I want to start first of all with the news out of Los Angeles. Was the disaster we're seeing in California, was that inevitable? I mean, it -- I don't understand things like oxygen, you know, being in short supply just seems nuts. DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. No. No

question and we're certainly not used to this, you know, in this country, Anderson, a wealthy country with lots of resources. You and I have traveled around the world where they have to constantly triage these sorts of resources.

But, you know, none of this was inevitable. I mean, you know, it depends how far back you want to go, Anderson. But I will say that the idea of declaring these internal disasters now within hospital systems, we're seeing that in many parts of the country. The idea of turning public buildings, even churches and things like that into triage centers, we're seeing that in various parts of the country. So, it's isolated, you know, earlier last year, but now, you know, the entire country's on fire.

You know, one person dying every 15 minutes in California, it's basically one person every 33 seconds in the country right now dying of COVID. So, it's a really -- it's a dire situation. Our hospital system was not built for this kind of surge capacity, that's why I think there's a lot of struggles right now.

COOPER: And, I mean, the federal government, the administration certainly just seems AWOL on this. I mean, they seem to have washed their hands of the whole thing. Certainly the president has.

Dr. Fauci said today it's highly unlikely the coronavirus vaccines will be federally mandated. What's the problem with the rollout of this? I mean, this was supposed to be the thing that the administration was -- the president kept talking about the military was going to be involved. It's going to be incredibly quick. It's going to happen fast.

They're falling by all their own metrics.

GUPTA: Yeah. I mean, this is a constant note that we're hitting again. You know, the idea that they get partway through something and then all of a sudden, the attention, the focus, the drive to get it done sort of goes away.

[16:25:07]

So the vaccines, as you point out, it's remarkable the fact that we have two authorized vaccines in this country, but vaccines aren't really what makes the difference. The vaccinations are. And the states have been sort of left to handle this.

In our reporting, Anderson, we found that the association of states and territories, they asked for close to $8.4 billion to help create the infrastructure for this and other things, they got closer to $480 million. The right number probably is somewhere in between, but the point is there's a huge delta between what the states thought they would need -- what the states say they would need to get this done and what they actually received.

So it's very sketchy. It's very patch work. You could be in two different counties in the same state and have a very different experience in terms of actually getting the vaccine. And that's the problem of not having a national strategy.

COOPER: Yeah. Sanjay, I appreciate it.

Coming up, first exit polls of voters in Georgia Senate runoff. You could get hints about which party has the advantage tonight. That's just minutes away.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:00:00]