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CNN Live Event/Special

Ossoff Widens Lead Over Perdue; CNN Projects Warnock Wins; Pence Faces Pressure from Trump to Thwart Electoral College Vote. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired January 06, 2021 - 04:30   ET

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

[04:30:00]

RYAN LISSA, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: John, if I could just read a couple of quotes from a story that's moving in Politico like a half hour ago. These are Republicans talking about the results of this election. Trump -- this is one Republican.

Trump is the cause of this lock, stock and barrel.

Another Republican --

Turns out if the leader of a party spends two months actively delegalizing elections and saying voting doesn't matter. Voters listen. This was one decisive factor in Georgia and -- this was the decisive factor in Georgia and anyone who says otherwise is problem sharing substances with Lynn Wood.

That's the kind of stuff right now that is coming out of the Republican Party in the wake of this loss. So I think that just takes the air out what's going to happen later today. And is going to be even more embarrassing that it already was to a lot of Republicans who are going to get up and object.

LEMON: Let me guess, Angela. You're going to say that completely downplays the role that all of the people who fought to win this election, Democrats -- I was reading your mind, Democrats in Georgia fought to win this election by saying that it was the president's fault that they loss. Maybe it was the Democrat's fault that their own party won. But how much of an impact do you think Donald Trump, his terrible behavior had to do with this, with their loss?

ANGELA RYE, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I think that here is the real unfortunate reality. It is to quote what former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid once said about Donald Trump. He is the Republican Party's Frankenstein. I am not going to take the onus off of the Republican party for the monster they built and created. To Alice's point that she wishes the results were different.

Let me tell you who the results could have been, K.K. Kelly, who is Kelly Loeffler who adamantly opposed Black Lives Matter and who said they threatened to destroy the United States. That is the alternative. It is David Perdue. Those are the two candidates who Jon Ossoff in our interview said were Bonnie and Clyde. Right? These are people who have almost engaged in criminal and certainly unethical behavior in the United States Senate. So let's not put all of the responsibility at the feet of Donald Trump.

Let's instead put the responsibility at the feet of the people who worked diligently to suppress voters and then wanted to call John Lewis the conscience of the Congress and the conscience of the country when he died but still won't pass the John Lewis voting rights act.

Let's not take the responsibility away from the people who still have the power and the votes to do the right thing in the United States Senate whether we're talking about voting rights, whether we were talking about election security before the November election or whether we're talking about COVID relief. We're reeling so people can live and they're losing their homes and their livelihoods right now. Let's not really like make this rosy -- create this rosy pretty picture of what's really going on. Donald Trump is the Republican Party, and the Republican Party is Donald Trump.

LEMON: A point of clarification --

RYE: Period and yes, shout out to every black person -- go ahead.

LEMON: No, finish your thought and then I'll ask you a question. Shout out to every black person --

RYE: Shout out to every black person who made this happen in spite of the Democratic Party who has a lot of work to do as well. But yes, this is a time to celebrate. I certainly believe Jon will pull it off. He stands on the shoulders of John Lewis and so many others who fought for him and others in this. Go ahead, Don.

LEMON: Before we run out of time, I just want a point of clarification. You're not saying Kelly Loeffler is a member of the Klan because you're saying K.K. Kelly.

RYE: Oh, I saying she campaigned -- just like Jon said -- she campaigned a Ku Klux Klan member. Jon -- or David Perdue --

LEMON: She said that she wasn't.

RYE: Go ahead.

LEMON: She said that she took a picture with someone and she didn't know who he was.

RYE: I don't care what she said. I don't care what she said. She acted like a K.K.K. member, Don, when she shamed the Black Lives Matter movement and used those toxic talking points. Causing my friends to get death threats so I'm not going to give her a pass for that. We can't --

LEMON: I'm not saying that. I'm just telling you what she said. I'm telling you what she and her campaign said. That's it.

RYE: She can say whatever she wants to. She will always be K.K. Kelly to me, and she lost her job. She lost her job.

LEMON: She's not going to be a Senator. Go on. Go on. What did you want to say, Alice?

ALICE STEWART, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I think it's irresponsible to paint her in that way and granted you're certainly free to do so --

RYE: No, it's irresponsible to say you want other people to be in the Senate when they --

LEMON: Angela, let her speak.

STEWART: That's absolutely not the case. Let me just say this, you talk about suppressing the vote in Georgia. Look at all of the elected officials in Georgia that ran this election. They're all Republicans. The governor, lieutenant governor, Secretary of State, on down. Republicans made sure that Georgia had free and fair elections. Two months ago and this week. So you can -- if you want to point --

RYE: And what about 2018?

STEWART: -- out were the election problems, there certainly are not any in the state of Georgia. I think it's really important to make sure instead of looking at what's wrong, we need to take a look at what's right. The voters have spoken --

RYE: Then look at the facts.

STEWART: And it was a free and fair election --

RYE: The voters did speak.

STEWART: And that's important. That's the takeaway.

LEMON: Angela, go ahead please.

RYE: No, but the takeaway needs to be rooted in fact and the fact is there were voters. Voters purged and they have been purged since 2018. Look at the results. Stacey Abrams should be your governor in Georgia.

This is your own state as you once said. And I would also say that I actually went back to 2010 when Republicans and state legislatures all across the country were to not only suppress votes through cutting back early voting, making it harder to vote absentee and then instilling voter I.D. laws. You know that voter I.D. is on the books in Georgia. So certainly you know that suppressive tactics are on the books, but black people showed up in spite of them.

LEMON: Ryan, I think it's fair to say that Republicans are going to be grappling with the legacy of Trump for quite a while?

LIZZA: Quite a while. I just think that a lot of the hot takes from November when Republicans did exceed expectations in the House races and in Senate races and some of the polling in places like Texas which is really off and a lot of other places where Trump did better than he was supposed to do according to the polls. I think a lot of those takes will be rethought in the light of the fact, you know, that now he may have lost the Senate for his party. There's not a lot to point to from the Trump presidency as he finishes

these final days. There's not that much to point to where the kind of Trump wing of the party can say, yes, that worked out really well for us. And this is sort of an exclamation point on that. Big caveat obviously is his hold over the Republican Party and its voters remains, you know, ironclad.

LEMON: Well -- thank you all. Certainly, a lively discussion especially at 4:30 in the morning. I appreciate it. Good morning. Good morning, everybody.

RYE: Thank you, Don.

LEMON: Thank you. The new overnight numbers are moving Democrats closer and closer to history. They are on the brink of taking control of the Senate, and with it a reset for President-elect Biden before he even takes office. Don't go anywhere.

[04:40:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: It is down to one seat. The final remaining Senate seat in Georgia will have a major impact on the business of legislating for all of Congress. It is huge for President-elect Joe Biden. Less so for Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer. Of course, it will change the dynamic in there. But for Joe Biden, this will be history times two, OK? If Jon Ossoff can win, he will be a Jewish man, young, elected in Georgia on top of Raphael Warnock who would be the first black Senator elected from that state. That would be history, but it would make a world of difference for Biden.

Mitch McConnell, Kevin McCarthy are waiting to see if David Perdue who is the incumbent running against Ossoff can turn things around. Perdue put out a scary statement. More of this kind of fear-mongering about how when all the lawful votes are counted, we believe we will be victorious. Based on what? Based on what? Here is the state of play in a key race alert.

All right, you see here that the Raphael Warnock race has been given to him. We are projecting that he will win this race. We'll go through why in a moment. Elected to the U.S. Senate. Again, not only a son of Georgia, deep roots in the Ebenezer Baptist Church. He is there. He's been working for this community for a long time.

But this is the race to watch. And right now Jon Ossoff is 16,370 votes ahead. We just saw some votes come in before the break. We'll explain what's happening there. Perdue has a lot of wood to chop and not a lot of trees left to help him. Let's get to John Berman at the magic wall to put numbers to this situation. So the number moved now circled in green, 16,300 --

JOHN BERMAN, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF NEW DAY: I make it easier for you to read.

CUOMO: Thank you very much, appreciate that. Did not change this time but it has been changing more slowly over time not because people went home but there was a change in the counting in DeKalb County.

BERMAN: Yes, they're counting some of the in-person early votes. They've had to scan some of the votes by hand. They now appear to be done with the in-person early vote. And that is what has given Jon Ossoff the 16,370 vote lead, which to be clear is more than Joe Biden won the state by in the presidential election.

And just to show you the manner in which the vote has been coming in. You see right here, sorry, that in DeKalb County he's leading by more than 200,000 votes. This vote batch that just came in, there were 3,706 votes that just came in. Jon Ossoff won 98 percent of them. That's a lot. I'm not great at math. 98 percent is a lot. OK. He was able to expand his lead by some 3,000 votes there.

I want to tell you where the remaining vote in the state is and why Jon Ossoff feels bullish at this point. Chatham County, which is Savannah, there is about 3,000 votes left to be counted there. He's got nearly 60 percent. He could very well expand his lead. I just told you about DeKalb County, which is the Atlanta area. Fulton County, which is Metro Atlanta. There's about 4,000 votes left. Jon Ossoff is at 71 percent there. Again, when the 4,000 votes are counted -- maybe in the next few hours --Ossoff will likely expand his lead.

Gwinnett County, a little less than Democratic in Fulton and DeKalb, but still 60 percent of the vote. There is about 4,800 -- all of about 4,800 votes left to count so Ossoff will likely expand his lead there as well. So when you're looking at where things can grow, they can grow in more places for Ossoff than David Perdue.

You were talking about the other Senate race -- the race that we have called for Reverend Raphael Warnock -- who is at 50.6 percent ahead by 53,000 votes. You want to know how he won? Well he did well everywhere.

[04:45:00]

If you take the baseline for how a Democrat needs to win in Georgia now, what Joe Biden did in November, he won by 11,000 votes. That's the bare minimum need to win. So Raphael Warnock did better than Joe Biden almost everywhere. Warnock won strong and ran strong everywhere, which is why he will now be the Senator elect.

CUOMO: Boy, what an amazing change in one election cycle.

BERMAN: Yes.

CUOMO: You know, you had a state there, with obviously, Stacey Abrams making the case that people weren't being able to vote and now the first African-American Senator from the state looks like is going to be the winner there tonight. Big news. J.B., I'll be back in a second.

Let's take a little break. You're going to see J.B. on "NEW DAY," of course, the show of record in the morning. Not just on CNN but all of cable. And they will be focusing on the events of the day to come that will really be about this wall of shame. Will these men and women really take to the floor of Congress and exercise a right when they know it's not right to do so?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: President Trump's fate already decided but Vice President Mike Pence, the man who is been by his side from day one, day one of his presidency, may help lead one final round of election chaos on his behalf. That will happen later today.

So let's bring in justice correspondent Laura Jarrett. Laura, good to see you. Good morning to you. I hope you got a lot of sleep because man, I'm exhausted.

LAURA JARRETT, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: I know you been burning the midnight oil, Don.

LEMON: Yes, but you still got hours to go before you sleep. Laura, good morning to you again. What can Pence actually do today during that joint session of Congress, anything?

JARRETT: Nothing. His role there, we've been calling it ceremonial. It's really a rubber stamp in a suit. He is there to open envelopes and that's it.

[04:50:00]

The president can tweet all day long about Mike Pence coming through, but there's nothing for him to come through on. This should not be a tough call. And I hope that our viewers understand.

What the president is asking him to do here is to steal the election. The vice president took an oath of office to support and defend the constitution and the president wants him to violate that oath. Now lawmakers do have a role here, right? And the lawmakers have signaled that they are planning to object. That's within their right but they're not objecting on any basis in fact or in law, they're doing it all on these just conspiracy theories and really eroding the faith in democracy.

The people voted here, and Congress has a role to do, but they're just not doing it. And so we're going to see, I think, Don, is sad political theater. We know the ending here and it shouldn't have to be this way.

LEMON: Not even -- this can't even end up in front of the House of Representatives. You know, they said they can choose their own electors or in front of the Supreme Court. Any chance of that, Laura?

JARRETT: That's not going to happen. This is going to fail. It's a stunt. They know it's a stunt. The vice president has told the president according to our reporting that he has no role here. And the president apparently just doesn't want to hear it.

LEMON: Laura Jarrett, we will be watching. Thank you.

JARRETT: Thanks, Don.

LEMON: See you soon. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:55:00]

LEMON: There is a lot happening while we were on the air.

CUOMO: Absolutely. You know why they bring in the new team. You know why they bring in Cuomo and D. Lemon?

LEMON: Why?

CUOMO: Because things happen overnight. That's why.

LEMON: You think so. I thought it was D. Lemon and Cuomo. But it's OK.

CUOMO: That's fine. That's fine. I'm the one going to give you the big headlines right now. You can decide for yourself what that means. Now on our watch tonight, Don and I watched as the Reverend Raphael Warnock came out and said I believe I'm going to win this election. Then CNN felt comfortable projecting that Raphael Warnock will be elected to the U.S. Senate. The margin that he has is strong. The areas that remain may likely add to that.

LEMON: It's historic.

CUOMO: Yes, absolutely.

LEMON: Black man representing Georgia.

CUOMO: And a humongous turnout among black voters in that state.

LEMON: And you could get and will probably get -- has not been called yet. If you look at Jon Ossoff going up against David Perdue will be a Jewish man who is representing the state of Georgia in the U.S. Senate. So we haven't called that one yet, but an historic time for the election. So anyway --

CUOMO: We must be watching. We are making history together. Don't go anywhere. CNN's coverage continues with the man, John Berman.

LEMON: Jon Berman again.

CUOMO: Yes, and the superstar, Allison Camerota "NEW DAY," next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

ALLISON CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: We want to welcome our viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is "NEW DAY." It is Wednesday, January 6th, 5:00 here in New York and we begin with breaking news.

A dramatic and history-making night in Georgia.

[05:00:00]