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Judge Dismisses Trump Campaign Pennsylvania Lawsuit; Trump Campaign Going for the Supreme Court After Pennsylvania Ruling; Republican Senator Pat Toomey Congratulates President-elect Biden; Expert Panel to Consider Priority Groups for COVID-19 Vaccine; One-on- One with Dr. Deborah Birx as COVID Cases Surge; California Reports Record-Breaking 15,000 Plus New Cases; Food Banks Struggling to Meet Need Ahead of Thanksgiving; Maryland Kindergarten Teacher Distributes Food to Her Students' Families. Aired 9-10p ET

Aired November 21, 2020 - 21:00   ET

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

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ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

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

It's our breaking news right room. The deadly coronavirus soaring past another very disturbing high watermark and a U.S. president not fighting the pandemic. Instead spending valuable time and energy on a battle that is already lost.

First, let's go to the pandemic. Look at what -- look at the number on your screen, 12 million confirmed cases of coronavirus here in the United States, and counting. Alone making the U.S. far and far away the most COVID infected country in the world. And more heartbreaking news this weekend, the number of Americans who have lost their lives, more than 255,000 Americans. That number also rising this weekend.

The response from President Trump today, he actually played golf. While G20 world leaders held a virtual conference on the global pandemic response, the American president went to his golf club in suburban northern Virginia outside Washington and played golf, and he tweeted about voter fraud in an election that he overwhelmingly and fairly lost to Joe Biden.

And yet, in another blow to the president's attempts to discredit the election results here in the U.S., a federal judge just threw out the president's lawsuit alleging voter fraud in the state of Pennsylvania. It's a major loss for President Trump this evening.

Right now I want to bring in our justice correspondent, Jessica Schneider, our White House correspondent Jeremy Diamond, and our political correspondent Arlette Saenz who's in Wilmington, Delaware, where President-elect Biden is.

Jessica, let me start with you. Tell us first of all about this major legal defeat for the president, some 48 hours before Pennsylvania counties plan to actually officially certify the vote.

JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, this is a 37-page ruling from this federal judge, and it completely tears down the entire legal strategy that the Trump team has been banking on.

Now, this is Judge Matthew Brann out of the Middle District of Pennsylvania. He's a long-time Republican, granted, he was appointed by President Trump, but he completely rips apart the legal strategy by the Trump team that was fronted by Rudy Giuliani. This is how Judge Brann put it in his opinion, saying, "Like Frankenstein's monster haphazardly stitched together." You know, this was an hour's long hearing. I listened into it for several hours this week, and the judge in this case he expressed skepticism, but it's really in this opinion that he tears this down.

He says this in his opinion, he says, "One might expect that when seeking such a startling outcome a plaintiff would come formidably armed with compelling legal arguments and factual proof of a rampant corruption. That has not happened. Instead this court has been presented with strained legal arguments without merit and speculative accusations, unpled in the operative complaint, and unsupported by evidence."

You know, this is a major takedown of the Trump strategy. This was a strategy that was promoted extensively by Rudy Giuliani all week long. He was in the courtroom making his case for several hours. He then held a press conference later in the week where he went on and on about the voter fraud that he said had run rampant in these Democrat- controlled cities like Philadelphia and Detroit.

But, Wolf, the judge here in this case basically saying that they did not come forward with any evidence here, with any facts to back up their claims, and this was really the last major case in a major swing state that if it was granted could have actually affected any of these votes. So really, this was the last ditch effort by the Trump campaign, and it has been completely knocked down by a long-time Republican who's the federal judge in the Middle District of Pennsylvania -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Very interesting indeed. A major setback for the president.

Any reaction, Jeremy, from the president to this latest in a string of legal losses for his campaign all across the country?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, the Trump campaign has already vowed in a statement this evening from Rudy Giuliani and Jenna Ellis who's another lawyer for the Trump campaign to appeal this decision, and perhaps in what is a novel reaction to losing a case and not just losing a case but essentially having your argument torn apart by a federal judge who says that you have no evidence in this case, they say that they are happy that this judge dismissed this case so quickly.

They say in the statement, "Today's decision turns out to help us in our strategy to get expeditiously to the U.S. Supreme Court. Although we fully disagree with this opinion, we're thankful to the Obama- appointed judge for making this anticipated decision quickly rather than simply trying to run out the clock."

And as Jessica noted, while this judge was indeed nominated to the court by President Obama, he is a member of the Federalist Society.

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He was a long-time Republican, so by no means is this somebody who is acrimonious towards the president and his campaign. As for the president himself, he is tweeting up a storm as well this evening arguing once again that there are thousands of illegally cast votes, no evidence to back that up, and what's so interesting, Wolf, is while the president continues to use his bull horn to make all of these conspiracy theory laden claims about this election, making these baseless allegations about widespread voter fraud in all of these battleground states, his lawyers have yet to actually present that evidence in court.

Rudy Giuliani made very clear in this very same case earlier this week that he was not making an allegation of fraud and clearly what arguments they are making in court, Wolf, are being thoroughly dismissed as they are in this case by Judge Brann because they don't meet the bar. While the president and his allies have been making this case publicly with no evidence using these conspiracy theories, they can't make those same arguments in federal court, Wolf, because they do not meet that higher standard that happens in a court of law.

BLITZER: Yes. That's absolutely true.

Arlette, you're covering the Biden transition for us. Any reaction from the president-elect?

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, President- elect Joe Biden's team is welcoming this decision as they say it essentially backs up their arguments that there are no credible legal challenges that the Trump campaign can mount to Biden's win. A spokesperson for Biden, Michael Guinn, telling me, "Yet another court has rejected Trump and Giuliani's baseless claims of voter fraud and their appalling assault on our democracy. The judge's ruling couldn't be clearer. Our people, laws and institutions demand more, and our country will not tolerate Trump's attempt to reverse the results of an election that he decisively lost."

The Biden team has for several weeks now been arguing that the president's team cannot really mount any credible legal challenges to the outcome of this election, but they have also been warning that the way that the president has been handling himself, his refusal to concede and also this insistence on waging these lawsuits that that is damaging and threatening democracy. We heard the president-elect himself just a few days ago talking about how irresponsible of a president he believes that President Trump is showing himself to be in this moment.

We've also heard from one of Biden's top senior advisers Bob Bauer who has said this election is over and nothing that the Trump campaign will try to do is able to change that, and they are getting some backup to that, at least today, with the dismissal of this lawsuit. BLITZER: You know, it's interesting, Jessica, the defeats are clearly

piling up for the president and his legal team, well over two dozen so far nationwide. Is there any more hope in any of these other very, very remote, long shot cases that they're trying to pursue?

SCHNEIDER: All of the judges we've seen in these cases, Wolf, whether it's the ultimate opinions or in court, these judges have been very skeptical, whether or not they've been Republican or Democrat appointed. I think what we're seeing from the Trump team is a shift from the legal strategy to really the political strategy here because while they're continuing to push these cases in court, you heard it from Jeremy there, the campaign saying that they will be appealing this all the way to the Supreme Court.

What we're starting to see is movement on the political front. We have certification deadlines that are coming up in Michigan and Pennsylvania on Monday, Nevada on Tuesday, and then throughout the following week. What we saw -- or are seeing in Michigan is perhaps some political pressure to stop the certification, and this is something that I've talked with election lawyers about throughout the day today, and they're concerned that on Monday when the state board of canvassers meets, this is a four-member board, two Republicans, two Democrats, and the concern here is that they could deadlock when they go to vote on Monday.

And if they do deadlock, I'm told that Democrats will run to court to try to get an order for certification that will mandate that these two Republicans vote to certify. But, you know, they're going to have to work through the courts on this. It's possible that the governor could step in. So it appears that the strategy might be putting pressure on these political players to maybe not certify in states where that's still a possibility like Michigan where we're going to see that convening of the state board at 1:00 p.m. on Monday -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Very interesting indeed.

Jeremy, we just got some more breaking news. The Republican senator in Pennsylvania, Pat Toomey, has just put out a statement. Let me read a couple of lines for you and for our viewers. "With today's decision by Judge Matthew Brann, a long-time conservative Republican whom I know to be a fair and unbiased jurist, to dismiss the Trump campaign's lawsuit, President Trump has exhausted all plausible legal options to challenge the result of the presidential race in Pennsylvania."

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And then Senator Toomey goes on to say this. "I congratulate President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris on their victory. They are both dedicated public servants, and I will be praying for them and for our country."

That's a significant development, the Republican senator from Pennsylvania, Jeremy, issuing a very strong statement accepting what is clearly the reality.

DIAMOND: It certainly is, Wolf, and it tells you what a death knell this ruling by Judge Brann, who Pat Toomey clearly knows well here and is articulating and making very clear that he has these conservative credentials despite the Trump campaign's attempts to attack his character and characterize him as simply as an Obama appointee.

But it makes clear that this is a big decision in the federal court this evening, and that it essentially eliminates a pathway to victory for the president in the state of Pennsylvania and therefore more broadly makes very clear that Joe Biden is the president-elect. And that is something that Pat Toomey, who like many other Republican lawmakers, has been unwilling to call Joe Biden the president-elect, is now comfortable doing because of how significant this decision is.

But, Wolf, the president has made very clear in tweets this evening, for example, that his strategy now is moving beyond simply the legal system. It's also moving to try and essentially overturn the will of the voters by pressuring these Republican state lawmakers. The president in one tweet this evening saying that he hopes that legislatures in these battleground states have the, quote, "courage" to essentially overturn the results of the election, and it's so stunning to hear those words, but that is what the president is trying to do here.

He's saying that, look, we can't get this done in the courts. We can't prove our case of fraud in the courts, but so what we're going to try and do now is to pressure these state lawmakers. And we've already seen that effort essentially fail in the state of Michigan. Yesterday the president hosted the House speaker and the Senate majority leader from the state of Michigan at the White House yesterday, and both of those lawmakers afterwards said very clearly that they haven't seen any evidence of fraud and that they expect the certification process to play out in a lawful and fair manner.

BLITZER: All right, Jeremy, thank you. Arlette, thanks to you. Jessica, excellent reporting as usual.

Let's discuss what's going on, all the breaking news, our senior political analyst Ron Brownstein is joining us. He's a senior editor at "The Atlantic."

Ron, thanks so much for joining us. Another statement, I just want to get your reaction, Senator Pat Toomey, Republican of Pennsylvania, in a statement recognizing that Joe Biden, Kamala Harris have won this election. He adds this, "To ensure that he is remembered for these outstanding accomplishments and to help unify our country, President Trump should accept the outcome of the election and facilitate the presidential transition process."

What are the chances that's going to happen anytime soon?

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Pretty slim, and in part because so few Republicans and even Pat Toomey himself waiting to this point to kind of, you know, acknowledge the gravity exists or the sky is blue.

You know, we are in a position where the president is pursuing a conspiracy theory that is at once racist and that it's focused on largely African-Americans, in cities with large African-American population, even though his vote declined more in suburban areas around those cities. He's not accusing Oakland County, Michigan, or Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, of manipulating the vote.

He's accusing the -- you know, the officials inside these heavily minority cities where he actually improved from 2016. It's a conspiracy theory that also has an enormous cost in the ability of Vice President Biden, President-elect Biden, to begin his planning for dealing with the pandemic that now has, what, 83,000 Americans hospitalized, the highest number we've ever seen. And it really continues what has been an ongoing assault on our democracy.

You know, this is not the first step on this road. We have a president who openly extorted the government of Ukraine using American military aid to try to manufacture dirt on his opponent, who weaponized the post office, who has been the first ever to manipulate -- try to manipulate the census for the advantage of one party, and through it all it has proceeded in large part because so few Republicans have been willing to step up against it. And I think it's proceeding now largely for the same reason.

BLITZER: Yes. Good for Senator Toomey to do what is clearly the right thing to do right now for the good of the country.

Doesn't the president realize, you know, Ron, that he has lost in the national popular vote right now? He's lost the election by more than six million votes. Take a look at this. Biden has 51 percent, Trump has 47.2 percent. Right now he is down by six -- more than six million votes right now, and in the electoral college 306 to 232.

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You need 270 to be elected president of the United States. He's way behind in the electoral college. It's been exactly two weeks today, two weeks since all the major news organizations, not just CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, the "Associated Press" all projected that Joe Biden is the winner of this election.

Why doesn't the president recognize what is so abundantly clear that he lost and he becomes gracious and promises to work with the incoming administration for a smooth transition?

BROWNSTEIN: Well, first, recognizing and acknowledging reality has never been one of this president's strengths. I mean, we're talking about someone who, you know, kind of -- how do you know when they're lying. Their lips are moving. I mean, he has said so many falsehoods that he has -- no one, I think, you know, is surprised that he is reacting in this way.

I think the surprise, Wolf, is that so many Republicans have been reluctant to call him out on it and thus provided oxygen to it, and he feels as if he can operate within the closed circle of the Republican coalition and pressure these Republican legislators or other officials like the canvassers in Wayne County that he did successfully pressure. We'll see what happens on Monday with the statewide canvassers, but it is kind of a form of succession. I mean, he is essentially saying I reject the idea that blue America

can legitimately vote me out, and you have to wonder, you know, our assumption has been that Republican elected officials are reluctant to challenge him on this because they are afraid of him. They are worried about a tweet. They are worried about a primary challenge. I think we have to allow for the possibility that a fair number of them are OK with the idea of him overturning the election, if he can find any way to do so. A judge, judges or state legislators.

I mean, does anybody really believe based on what we've seen over the last few years that Mitch McConnell would throw himself on the pyre to defend American democracy if Trump can find a way to convince legislators to try to overturn the results in enough states. I don't think so, it's not going to happen, but I think it's pretty ominous the signals that are being sent.

BLITZER: Along with Senator Toomey's statements, which we just reported on, very significant state indeed, the Republican senator from Pennsylvania, Republican Congresswoman Liz Cheney's call --

BROWNSTEIN: Yes.

BLITZER: -- today for proof of the president's election fraud claims came through as well. She issued a pretty tough statement as well.

BROWNSTEIN: Yes.

BLITZER: Either show the evidence you got or move on and accept reality. Senator Mitt Romney of Utah, he tweeted this week that the president has failed to make even a plausible case before any court.

Given tonight's latest legal defeat in Pennsylvania, how much longer do you believe the bulk of the GOP including the GOP leadership in the House and the Senate will continue to indulge in the president's fantasy? And Congresswoman Cheney is a member of the Republican leadership in the House.

BROWNSTEIN: You would think this far after the election we would be reporting on the Republicans who have not called on the president to abandon what is obviously an attempt to overturn the clear will of the voters, but so few have done so that we're still reporting on those who have, and I think, you know, he feels as though he has enough of the party in his corner that he can continue to pressure Republicans, I think, until the certifications are beyond legal challenge.

You know, there is a cost to this for Republicans. You know, what they are allowing here -- I described it in my "Atlantic" column this week as kind of a murder suicide. Some of them may like the idea of poisoning the well for Joe Biden with Republican voters, which will make it harder for him to build cooperation with Republicans in Congress. That's kind of the murder part. They're killing his chances of doing that.

But the suicide part is that by allowing Trump to claim that the election was stolen from him, he didn't really lose, he only lost because it was stolen, they are ensuring that he remains the dominant voice in the party going forward and they will continue to be under his thumb after January 20 facing enormous pressure from him now that he's convinced something like 3/4 of the Republican voters incredibly that this was stolen. They are locking themselves into him being the dominant figure. Whether he runs or not, he will certainly dangle that idea for a very long time.

BLITZER: And we'll see what the impact is going to be on those two critically important Senate runoff races.

BROWNSTEIN: Right.

BLITZER: In Georgia in early January that could be the decisive moment, who's the majority in the Senate and who's in the minority.

All right, Ron Brownstein, as usual, thank you very, very much.

BROWNSTEIN: Thanks, Wolf.

BLITZER: There's more breaking news we're following, over one million new cases of coronavirus have been confirmed here in the United States in just, get this, the last six days. A million new cases. And with Thanksgiving just around the corner, experts now say the number could continue to soar, but is hope the only way -- but is hope truly on the way in the form of a new vaccine?

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We'll update you on what's going on.

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BLITZER: As the coronavirus surpasses 12 million cases here in the United States, and is topping 58 million cases worldwide, the hunger grows for viable vaccines, but once they're approved and manufactured, who gets access first?

Dr. William Schaffner is joining us now, he's an infectious disease expert and professor at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

Dr. Schaffner, thank you so much for joining us. As you know, a CDC advisory committee is scheduled to meet on Monday, this coming Monday, to decide priority for the vaccine. I know you're on that committee. Clearly front line medical personnel, the workers there will be first in line, but who else in your view needs to be prioritized to get this vaccine as quickly as possible?

DR. WILLIAM SCHAFFNER, PROFESSOR, DIVISION OF INFECTIOUS DISEASES, VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER: Well, Wolf, it's good to be with you, and yes, I'm a consultant to the committee. I'm not one of the voting members anymore, but I think this committee is, as you say, going to put the health care workers first.

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That's understandable, the first responders, people who work in nursing homes, people who care for patients who have COVID, and then behind them, they're trying to decide, will it be this 80 million people who are essential workers or will it be the 60 million people who are 65 years and older, plus a whole bunch of other people who have underlying illnesses? Obviously the latter group are more at risk for really severe infections, and those vaccine trials really do show that infections and illnesses, I should say, the illnesses are prevented. So I suspect they'll go with the latter. I think they're going to go trying to prevent the most severe illnesses.

BLITZER: Because if you do the math, the people over 65, people with underlying health problems, you're talking more than 100 million Americans, I think, right there if you just do the math.

I know the committee, and you're a consultant to the committee, was supposed to start making decisions about this months ago but did not. Can you share any information about why there has been a delay?

SCHAFFNER: We could call it a delay or we could call it the most thorough discussion that I can recall having been associated with this committee now for over 30 years. We have heard from all quarters, medical ethicists have come in. We've had models to try to tell us which -- how often deaths would be prevented by working with one group or another, and we've heard from all quarters.

It's time now, however, for the committee to make a decision. I certainly agree with that so further planning can proceed. This is a big logistical enterprise, and the health departments out there need to know what the plans are and which direction to go.

BLITZER: There's been a lot of discussion, as you know, Dr. Schaffner, on ethics. Everyone has a stake in this. And difficult questions, does a police officer, for example, go before a grocery store worker? How do you make those kinds of determinations? Because these are life and death issues, who might live and who might die.

SCHAFFNER: Yes, that's why it has taken so long and why the discussions along with the medical ethicists have been so elaborate. We want to do the best for the most people as quickly as possible, and we want to make a particular effort to reach those populations that are at disproportionate risk of these infections, and that's communities of color, right? People who are socially disadvantaged. How do you reach them? Because they have a deep skepticism about this vaccine.

You know, we'll have the vaccine, but now we'll have a lot of convincing to do. Vaccine in the refrigerator never prevented any disease. We have to get that vaccine in arms.

BLITZER: It is so, so critical, Dr. Schaffner, thank you so much for everything you're doing and have done over these many years. We are so grateful to you. Thanks for joining us.

SCHAFFNER: Good to be with you, Wolf.

BLITZER: Up next, a nightmarish November for the coronavirus. Nearly one-quarter of all cases in the United States have come in this month alone. So what about Thanksgiving? What's going on? Our own Dr. Sanjay Gupta sat down with the White House Coronavirus Task Force member, Dr. Deborah Birx, to find out how your family should handle the upcoming holiday.

We'll be right back.

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BLITZER: The United States surpassing 12 million coronavirus cases today. With the holidays right around the corner, CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta sat down with Coronavirus Task Force coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx in a CNN exclusive.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. DEBORAH BIRX, WHITE HOUSE CORONAVIRUS TASK FORCE COORDINATOR: When you look at what's happening now, the rate of rise is dramatically different, and the number of states and the number of counties in the United States that have what we consider a red zone because of their characteristics, is now well over half of the country. So this is faster. It's broader. And what worries me, it could be longer. And I think it's on all of us right now to make sure that it's not longer.

I'm making the personal sacrifices not to infect my parents and my pregnant daughter, and there's a lot of people out there who know how to protect one another, and we just need to make sure we're all doing that.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: You saw the news about New York City public schools. Because of the 3 percent positivity rate, they're going to shut down. Good decision?

BIRX: You know, Europe was willing to sacrifice restaurants and bars to maintain their schools. We ask college students to sacrifice their college experience, and even the universities that were open, it was a different experience, but we asked them to change their behaviors, to wear a mask, to physically distant. We have 18 to 22-year-olds doing the right thing, and we're not willing to tell people that they really can't gather in public spaces or even indoors with their mask off with people that could have the virus because that's how it spreads, and you can't tell.

And I think when this is all over, we need to look at our choices and really understand in a different way what choices is best for every American at the time.

GUPTA: Some of this is happening real time.

BIRX: Yes.

GUPTA: I mean, there will be time to reflect but, you know, the New York City public schools based on their surveillance testing has about a 0.17 percent positivity rate.

[21:35:09] Why would you shut down schools when they are 0.17 and the city's 3 percent and keep restaurants and bars and other places like that open, even at limited capacity?

BIRX: I think the thing that confuses Americans, and I've heard this in the rocky mountain states. When we tell people that these masks prevent transmission, they're not perfect, but when we tell them they prevent transmission and then we close the spaces where people are 100 percent masked and leave open the spaces where the people are unmasked, which we know is a transmission area, that's confusing to the American people.

I understand why it's confusing. They're like, OK, you said masks work and I'm doing them here, and these spaces are safe, and you're closing my space and leaving open the spaces where people are unmasked, and I think that's very -- I worry about that because then it gives people the option to say, well, if bars and restaurants are open, then I can have 20 people over for Thanksgiving. And so I don't like it to be any number.

I like it to be keep it to your immediate household because, you know, if you say it can be 10 and it's eight people from four different families, then that probably is not the same degree of safe as 10 people from your immediate household.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: Thanks to Dr. Birx and Dr. Gupta. Appreciate it very much. Meanwhile, the country continues to shatter daily records when it comes to new cases of the coronavirus, but it isn't just the virus. Millions of Americans right now are suffering the economic consequences. They are lining up for hours at food banks across the country.

We have details.

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BLITZER: The coronavirus pandemic is clearly worsening here in the United States and showing absolutely no signs of letting up. Today California posted a record number of new cases, more than 15,000, breaking a single day record set just Friday. The state hasn't seen numbers this bad since July. All this comes as Los Angeles saw huge lines for COVID testing and for food banks. A stark reminder that millions of Americans won't be enjoying a traditional feast this Thanksgiving.

CNN's Paul Vercammen is reporting from Los Angeles.

PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, you talked about that dramatic jump in cases, this horrifying boomerang in California. Well, about a third of those cases in Los Angeles County, so they are still undergoing very, very, very extensive COVID-19 testing and tracing campaigns including here at Dodger Stadium, up to almost 10,000 people tested Friday alone.

Along with that, new rules in California. They are now forbidding anyone to cluster up in restaurants, bars, or anywhere else in large groups. A curfew from 10:00 p.m. to 5:00 a.m. Now this does not mean that you can't go to the grocery store or walk the dog, maybe grab some gas, go to a friend's house. But this is aimed at younger people who are gathering in large groups in the late night and early morning hours. That's what it's come to in California.

Also, we are talking about lines. Well, here in Los Angeles today, as we see these economic impacts of the pandemic just raging on, long, long lines to get a box of free food. This is the Unitarian Church. It's in Korea Town. More than a thousand people walked up and grabbed their food, many of them so grateful saying that they are either out of work or their hours had been reduced so much that they just could not make ends meet.

Volunteers on the ground saying they've never seen this much anxiety, uncertainty in their community.

Reporting from Los Angeles, I'm Paul Vercammen. Now back to you, Wolf.

BLITZER: All right, Paul, thank you very much.

I want to bring in someone who's advising the Biden transition team, the former acting Labor secretary under the President Obama, Seth Harris.

Mr. Secretary, thanks so much for joining us. It is so heartbreaking right now all around the country to see so many Americans desperate for food. It's hard to believe this is going on in our country.

Do you think, Mr. Secretary, a relief bill will be passed before January 20th when Joe Biden becomes the president of the United States?

SETH HARRIS, FORMER ACTING LABOR SECRETARY UNDER PRESIDENT OBAMA: I hope it will, Wolf. The economy is really stuck in the mud, and millions of families, particularly low and middle income families are suffering terribly. We still have more than 20 million Americans collecting unemployment benefits, more than a million Americans are applying for unemployment benefits every week. That's been true back through March.

We have accelerating rates of businesses closing and going into bankruptcy, so our economy is not out of the woods, and the American people are really suffering because of it, so Congress needs to act. They need to act in a very substantial way to give aid to families, aid to businesses, aid to state and local governments so that the basic services that we all depend upon will be able to continue.

BLITZER: They should have been doing this months ago given the crisis that's going on.

Is relief, Mr. Secretary, going to be the Biden administration's, do you believe, first priority, either passing a new stimulus deal or potentially on any lame duck deal that may go forward in the next few weeks? I don't know if there's going to be a lame duck deal, but clearly this has got to be a priority to make sure people can pay their rent, people can put food on the table.

HARRIS: I agree with you that President-elect Biden has spent most of the time during this transition period talking about defeating the COVID pandemic.

[21:45:01]

The first focus is on trying to crush the disease, crush the coronavirus, and that's going to require a nationwide coordinated effort. And so my expectation -- and I'm not speaking for the transition or the president-elect tonight, but my expectation is that that will be the first focus, and a part of that will be beginning the process of economic recovery. We made a slow K-shaped recovery that the wealthy are doing just fine.

People who can work from home are doing OK, but a lot of people have lost their jobs. A lot of people are at risk of losing their houses, their cars. Folks are having to leave the labor market to care for kids who are home from school. There's really a lot of economic risk right now, so early action both on the pandemic and on the economics of the pandemic recession, I think is going to be a priority.

BLITZER: How big, Mr. Secretary, of an economic stimulus package do you believe the president-elect will be looking for? What does he hope to deliver to Americans, $1 trillion, $2 trillion, $3 trillion, we've heard all sorts of numbers over these past few months.

HARRIS: Well, I'm not privy to the discussions that the president- elect is involved in, but we certainly hear publicly that there's a fairly substantial gap between where House Democrats would like to go. They factually already passed two packages, one of $3.2 trillion, one of $2.5 trillion, but the Senate led by the Senate Republicans have only passed a $500 million -- I'm sorry, $500 billion package.

That in my view is going to be inadequate. That number is going to have to come up. Essentially the deal that we get is the most important thing, right? We have to get to some kind of a deal that gets money flowing. I don't expect that we're going to try to make the perfect the enemy of the good, and you know, the lucky thing for America is that Joe Biden is one of the great legislative deal makers of this part of our history, so my hope is that once he takes office and maybe even before, we're going to see some kind of relief for the American people.

BLITZER: That would be so, so critically important.

Seth Harris, thanks so much for joining us. I'm not going to ask you if you're going to be in the new administration. We'll discuss that down the road. Appreciate it very much.

HARRIS: Thanks, Wolf.

BLITZER: All right, as we mentioned, many Americans are increasingly desperate these days and need help just to feed their families, but this crisis is also bringing out the best in many people. We'll have much more on the pandemic and the reaction when we come back.

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[21:51:56]

BLITZER: We're now only five days away from a Thanksgiving which will be very different than any we've seen before. Many of us will be far from friends and families, some will be missing those lost to the coronavirus. Others may not get to share in a meal at all after perhaps losing a job and having little, if any, money.

A kindergarten teacher in Maryland is doing what she can to help her young students who might otherwise be missing that meal. Her generosity shows how we can rally to help those who are most vulnerable, even in these terrible times.

CNN photojournalist John England (PH) brings us her story.

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MARGARET NORRIS, KINDERGARTEN TEACHER: How are you today?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Good.

NORRIS: Good morning. Today is the 81st day of school. You ready? They love it. And they don't know that this is not normal. To them it's just school.

All right, Isaac, where do you want the zebra?

I'm Margaret Norris. I teach kindergarten in Silver Spring, Maryland.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In your hair?

NORRIS: In my hair?

The majority of our students get free or reduced meals. I don't want any 5-year-old that I know to learn about hunger. It's a full-time job. I do something related to this every day. Today I was at the grocery store at 6:00 in the morning, buying the things that I need to deliver for next week's bags. Friend and family provide the money and then we do a lot of shopping.

Good morning, how are you? Thank you so much. We appreciate you.

When this began, we knew right away that our parents' jobs would be the ones that would be lost first. The entire family would be food insecure.

So the food effort began as just a reaction to the crisis. People have to eat, let's buy food. I do a lot of home deliveries and there's one family I take bags to and there's a little one, a 3-year-old. In one week I had bananas in the bag. And she opened up the bag and looked in it, and looked at her mom and her mother nodded and she picked up the bananas and she hugged them and she burst into tears. And that to me is the definition of food insecurity.

So what we're doing is we're providing food for the families to cook for themselves.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Margaret has been the core of a team and a conduit to get people involved. Margaret has been saying to everyone she's not trying to save the world, but you can do all you can. Help somewhere. Help someone.

NORRIS: Food is about providing for your children. Food is about sleeping at night knowing that you're going to be OK in the morning. Food is culture and love and community and it's more than just energy. I'm not feeding anyone's children for them. All I'm doing is the grocery shopping. I don't want anyone in my community to put a hungry child to bed.

What did we learn about? We learned about something they need.

We're helping others. It makes me happy to know that there's a child right now who is having lunch and they're having lunch because of our efforts. I do love all these children.

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[21:55:03]

BLITZER: And if you want to help those who are in desperate need of help this holiday season, just go to CNN.com/impact. You'll be able to "Impact Your World."

We'll be right back.

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BLITZER: That does it for me tonight. I'll be back, though, tomorrow night for another special edition of THE SITUATION ROOM tomorrow night, 7:00 p.m. Eastern.

Thanks very much for watching. You can always follow me on Twitter and Instagram, @WolfBlitzer. You can always tweet the show @CNN --

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