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Trump Pushed Georgia's Governor To Overturn Biden Win; Some New York City Public Schools To Resume In-Person Learning; U.S. Tops One Million Cases In First Five Days Of December; Fauci: We Haven't Hit The Post-Thanksgiving Surge Yet; Congressional Leaders Optimistic On Stimulus Deal; President-Elect Biden: Bipartisan Proposal "A Good Start". Aired 7-8p ET

Aired December 05, 2020 - 19:00   ET

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

[19:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: This is CNN Breaking News. Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I am Wolf Blitzer in Washington. This is a special edition of THE SITUATION ROOM. Right now, here in the United States, more than 1 million Americans have been diagnosed with the coronavirus in the last five days alone. More than a million Americans diagnosed with COVID in the last five days alone. The first five days of December.

The pandemic is spreading faster here in the U.S. than ever before. Currently, more than 100,000 Americans are hospitalized from the virus. There has never been that many people hospitalized here in the United States at one time since the start of this pandemic. And while there is optimism out there on the vaccine front with some state leaders say they expect to start getting the first doses in the coming weeks. Medical officials are very cautious right now about expecting any really meaningful impact for the vaccine for at least a few months.

They are warning that these initial doses won't be enough to vaccinate anyone in those "high priority groups" not in the beginning. Meanwhile, President Trump absolutely silent on anything related to this National Health Emergency in the United States. He is in Georgia tonight getting ready to focus and trying to win an election he already soundly lost.

He lost the election by more than 7 million national popular votes, 7 million. CNN's Ryan Nobles is in Georgia for us right now, where the President will be rallying his supporters ahead of a very important senate run-off race. He's going to be speaking later tonight. Ryan, the President did try another tactic today in his field effort to hold on to his office, tell us about that.

RYAN NOBLES, CNN NEWS CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Wolf. Air force one just landed a few minutes ago behind me as the president prepares to speak to this rally in Georgia in support of the Republican candidates in the Georgia run-off. And Republicans here bracing tonight for which version of President Trump they're going to get is it going to be the President Trump that forcefully encourages supporters to get out and support the Republican candidates or is it going to be the President that we have been since the election.

Stockpiling grievances and complaining about on the election that he has already lost. If it is anything to do with the tweets that we've seen from the President already today, it will likely be a ladder. And in fact, we've learned today Wolf, that President Trump is in a public spat now with the Governor of Georgia, Brian Kemp.

He called Brian Kemp on Saturday morning asking him to convene a special session of the Georgia legislature to look into what he calls allegation of fraud in the Georgia election with the hope of overturning the results in his favor.

And that phone call spilled out into a public twitter spat. And it was the governor responding to the President, telling him "As I told the President this morning, I publicly called for a signature audit three times to restore confidents in our election process and to ensure that only legal votes are counted in Georgia".

Now the president quickly responded to Kemp as well by saying but you never got the signature verification. Your people are refusing to do what you asked. What are they hiding? At least immediately ask for a special session of the legislature that you can easily and immediately do. Now even though President Trump asking Brian Kemp for this, it doesn't appear that Kemp is in any mood to move forward in that respect.

And it seems very clear that the results here in Georgia are going to stand after three different recounts would show that Joe Biden has won the election. Republicans here in Georgia would much prefer the President to be focusing on this runoff election, David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler the two Republicans meet the President to come here tonight.

And specifically send the message to his supporters that they need to show up on January 5th and cast a ballot in favor of those two candidates. The Republicans need to win at least one of those seats in order to retain the majority in the United States senate, which could have end up being the only passion of powerful Republicans in Washington in the New Year.

But, there is real worry tonight for Republicans that even if the President does specifically send that message it's going to be coupled with his ongoing grievances about the process here and that the crowd here in Georgia is going to eat it up. Already tonight Wolf, Kelly Loeffler one of the Republicans started talking about the election.

She asked the crowd here to vote early, she ask them to ask for absentee ballot. They responded by using chant "stop the steal" which the chant that the President and his supporters have used over and over again as they backup his claims about this election in November.

So there is a lot riding on this rally here tonight for President Trump and for the Republicans. And there's - as we said before Wolf, the question is which version of President Trump are we going to see here tonight in Georgia. Wolf.

[19:05:00]

BLITZER: What is very disturbing Ryan and I look at the crowd behind you, I don't see a whole lot of people wearing masks. I don't see any social distance at all. Don't these people know what is going on in our country right now?

NOBLES: Well, Wolf frankly, if they do they just don't care. And this continues the trend that we saw for President Trump throughout the entire election. There is just no effort at all to contain the coronavirus pandemic. Aside from the fact that the rally is being held outdoors, every one of the participants here is packed into a relatively small area. There are thousands of people are here, very few of them are wearing masks.

There is attempt to take temperatures, they asked people to wear masks. Very few people listen. This is a very dangerous situation and it is not me saying this. This is the President's own CDC that puts out these recommendations about events like this. And it is just the President his campaign and these Republican candidates running for the senate runoff here that are simply ignoring those recommendations.

BLITZER: Right, Ryan. This could be a real awful super spreader event that's going on right now. And apparently folks out there they don't care. And certainly the president doesn't care either. All right, Ryan, thank you very much. We'll get back to you Ryan Nobles on the scene for us.

In the meanwhile, New York right now is seeing new coronavirus cases numbers similar to the surge reported in the early days of this pandemic. But starting next week at least some schools in the New York City will resume in person learning. I want to go CNN's Evan McMorris- Santoro. He's in New York for us right now. Tell us more what are you learning Evan?

EVAN MCMORRIS-SANTORO, CNN NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf as you say, it may seem paradoxical that schools are going to reopen to students as these numbers are rising in New York City. But officials here say that's what the science allow them to do. So starting Monday you're going to see a return of five day a week school for some students at New York City public schools for the first time since this pandemic really shuts the schools down back in March.

Let me go through bit of, how this is going to work. So on Monday, students that are in 3-K, Pre-K and K through 5 they resume five day a week classes in-person. And then on Thursday students with severe disabilities they also do in-person classes, there is no schedule in- person classes yet for middle school or high school students.

But the basic deal here is that the officials say they can test enough inside the schools to keep the numbers low inside schools and keep them safe for those younger students who they say it's all important to get the socialization, get the chances to be inside the school.

It is obviously a very important thing when we see the larger public schools system in America reopen its doors for five day a week school. But it is important to note some caveats that go with this shift. For example, the only parental or be like to send their kids back to school on Monday are the ones who already signed up for hybrid schools before, that's only about a third of the students.

So it's not a full experiment yet but it is an important one, that if those numbers stay safe inside schools, that showed maybe school can open even as these numbers go up, a very important change verses the spring, Wolf.

BLITZER: Well, let's hope it works, Evan McMorris-Santoro in New York for us. Thank you. Joining us now Dr. Jeremy Faust, she's an Emergency Physician and Brigham Women's Hospital in Massachusetts.

Also with us Dr. Seema Yasmin, she's a CNN Medical Analyst, a Former CDC Disease Detective. Dr. Faust, we are seeing these hospitalizations like never before here in the United States. Can you explain to our viewers how dire the situation is becoming in hospitals right now? And what might happen if we don't turn things around quick?

DR. JEREMY FAUST, EMERGENCY PHYSICIAN, BRIGHAM WOMEN'S HOSPITAL: Thanks, Wolf. What we are seeing right now is a little bit of an expectation of what we thought might happen a few weeks ago. Cases go up and then a week or later hospitalizations go up and then a week or two later, deaths go up. And so right now, we are in the phase where hospitalizations are starting to really match the number we saw a few weeks ago, just like you thought they would.

The difference between now and the spring is this is all over the country. It is out of control which sounds terrible and it's terrible. But the reason that we may not be seeing popular vaccines in a hospital just yet is that in the spring it was kind of, concentrated to a few hotspots.

Now the whole country is a brewing hotspot and my concerns is that a couple of weeks from now, it won't be just a couple of hospitals or couple of regions or states where they are running out of an ICU beds which is happening but it finally be the whole country because the amount of hospitalizations in every state will get to that point. So we need to absolutely watch out because once we run out of hospital beds, we are going to face something the likes of which we have never seen before.

BLITZER: Yes. This is an awful situation. Dr. Yasmin, Dr. Antony Fauci has publically warning that the United States has not even yet seen the post Thanksgiving surge yet. We know more people will be traveling for the upcoming Christmas, Hanukkah other holiday celebration. How do we turn things around at this point? How do we convince the American public that this is dangerous of what we are seeing?

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DR. SEEMA YASMIN, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: We really need people to be sensible here and realize that travelling during the height of a pandemic, during this third wave is a really bad idea for yourself, those around you, to your community. We know that TSA was screening puts it around 1 million people a day during Thanksgiving week for a total about 9.5 million Americans travelling by air in a run-up to Thanksgiving and in a days after.

And as Jeremy just said because there's a delay between when people get exposed to when they get diagnosed, to when they whine up in hospitals, we have not yet seen that surge from Thanksgiving hit the hospitals. And everyone can look at the maps and just see how out of control this is. How many ICU across the country are coming to that point where there are almost at capacity and having to move patients elsewhere.

This is not sustainable. And it would just get so much more worse if people are not cancelling their Christmas plans. So it comes down to making that really smart decision about the end kind of, feels like it is insight because we believe the emergency use authorization of COVID-19 vaccine is imminent. But now is the wrong time to let down your guard, in fact we need to hunker down over this winter.

BLITZER: We certainly do. I remember earlier on when there were hot zones in various parts of the country, whether New York or New Jersey, California, Florida, Georgia and now the hot zones are all over the country. They've just exploded. Dr. Faust, we have been dealing with this pandemic now for almost a year.

It is easier to become numb to what we are seeing. Just remind our viewers what you are seeing every day. And some stories you can share, because that is so important for the folks out there to understand the enormity, the danger that we all are facing.

FAUST: The things that spikes me the most is what I am seeing is younger patients coming into the hospital. Because younger people do better, it takes more infection for us to see hospitalization, it just takes more infection for enough people to get sicken the younger age group.

But actually, I was talking to a colleague of mine the ER (ph) doctor in Ohio last night who has coronavirus, just got infected. How do they go to the hospital is now in his own ICU he's an ER doctor and now he's a patient in his own ICU. And we face time so I can get a look at this guy, because he's a healthy air force veteran and he's in his 40s and he does - he is very healthy dude. So for him to be on a lot of oxygen and huffing and puffing and him saying, hey, Jeremy, look at me man. This is real. It did not take much.

This is what I do for leaving. I look at patients. And he looks like he was hurting. I think he's going to be doing OK. He seems to be having been doing better today. But when I see a young, healthy person struggling to breathe and get to a complete sentence, it hits home. And that's what I want people to know. Don't wait until you know someone in your risk group to take it seriously, either saw this thing that I was not expecting to see.

BLITZER: Yes. It's so sad indeed, Dr. Jeremy Faust and Dr. Seema Yasmin. Thank you, to both of you. Thanks for both of you for what you're doing. We are grateful. Meanwhile, millions of Americans are desperate for another relief package. So will Congress be able to put aside partisanship and get something done. Our member of what's called the problem solvers (inaudible) standing-by live. We got important information for you. Stay with us. You are in "The Situation Room".

[19:15:00]

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BLITZER: Millions and millions of Americans all across the country right now are struggling to simply survive the financial fall-out from the coronavirus pandemic. And on this Saturday night there are finally at least some sights, signs of hope for a possible economic stimulus breakthrough. CNN's Arlette Saenz is in Wilmington, Delaware keeping watch on President-Elect Biden and his transition team. Arlette the President-Elect, the Vice President-Elect they are about to inherit an enormous economic crisis that's devastating so many millions of American?

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN NEWS POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: And Wolf, President- Elected Biden is cleared about the economic reality that he will inherit when he takes office. And he is pressing congress to act immediately now to ensure that relief is offered to Americans during this pandemic as it is about to hit a record potential numbers in the coming weeks. And take a listen to a bit more of what Biden had to tell our colleague Jake Tapper about his support for that bipartisan deal in Congress.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT-ELECT OF UNITED STATES: I think if they can get the 900 or we are talking about the number, I think it was $900 billion.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Yes $900 billion.

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT-ELECT OF UNITED STATES: Yes.

BIDEN: That would be a good start. It is not enough. It is needed and we should focus on the things that are immediately needed. And what's immediately needed is relief for people on unemployment checks, relief for people that are going to get thrown out of their apartments after Christmas because they can't afford to pay rent anymore, relief from mortgage payments. Relief on all the things that are in the original bill, the house passed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAENZ: And Biden has made it clear that believes a package passed in the coming weeks would just be down payments to deal with some of these COVID issues are facing so many Americans. And he has said that there will be need for another type relief package to come in January and despite all of this division in acrimony out of this election Biden believes that Republicans will want to work together on a deal heading into the January and February months. Now while President Trump is campaigning, they're holding a rally down

in Georgia, Biden spent the day here in Wilmington, Delaware, he attended church it was a bit of a quite day for the President-Elect but he has said that he will make it down to Georgia before that Senate runoff in January, Wolf.

BLITZER: All right, Arlette. Thank you very much Arlette Saenz in Wilmington, Delaware for us. So let's bring in Democratic Congressman Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey, he's among the lawmaker who actually introduce state bipartisan plan this week.

[19:20:00]

Congressman thanks so much for joining us. Thanks for everything you and your colleagues are doing. I know you are the Coach Chair of what's called the problem solvers, Cogs is Republicans and Democrats working together. You are slowly trying to come up with a deal. One of the prospects right now that you can start getting some desperately needed economic relief for millions of Americans.

REP. JOSH GOTTHEIMER (D-NJ): Thanks Wolf for having me. You know we are building very good momentum. Speaker Pelosi and Senator Schumer have come out supporting and you saw the Vice President putting in a good word but also Republican leaders and the chambers of commerce and other recognizing that we have to get something done now before the end of the year.

People are hurting, small businesses. We got 30 percent in New Jersey they have gone out unemployment keeps ticking up. And obviously the case load is devastating. And every day we see higher numbers. People need help now and they can't afford to wait until the new administration.

So our emergency package is focused on as the Vice President said it, down payment. Just getting people the help right now through the holidays and helping to put food on the table, keep people in their homes and until we can get a new administration and some more support.

BLITZER: 46 days ago until the new administration comes into office. Senator Bernie Sanders as Congressman is warning that he won't support this plan unless it includes specifically $1200 economic stimulus check to Americans. President-Elect Biden as you heard he said that it would be better to include all of that. But he says use this as a down payment. What are the chances of Senator Sanders want to be included in this current legislation $908 billion?

GOTTHEIMER: Well, Wolf if you understand the realities that you're trying to bring people together here and get something done the Democrats and Republicans can agree to. And of course the White House can agree to in a divided government.

And so the Problem Solver Cog is the 50 of us and 25 Democrats and 25 Republicans have been working very close with a group of bipartisan senators for weeks now, collaborating this together. There are some things in there I love to get more of but I recognize what the president said that. This is a got to be down payment this is an emergency short term relief package to get the people help now.

And to me whether it's nutrition or giving those food line, which are just so devastating or helping people with food whether it's having people with PPE for small businesses to carry them through this unemployment another $300 a week, helping our schools and child care.

It really, this package really addresses all the major priorities and of course, vaccine distribution which hope will get us out of this mess. But the bottom line is about helping our local community and our states now and giving them some help now and then getting another package I am hoping when the President-Elect Biden is sworn in.

BLITZER: The House Speaker as you know Congressman, Nancy Pelosi is strongly defending herself after rejecting a much larger deal offer, a month before the election at that time the Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin came to her with a $1.8 trillion deal twice what's on the table right now. She said no at that time. I want to play for our viewer what Congressman, Democratic Congressman Rohit Khanna of California told me last night here in THE SITUATION ROOM.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. RO KHANNA (D) CALIFORNIA: I think we should have accepted the $1.8 trillion. Now I put a lot of the blame on McConnell as well, because as you know, he was not willing to have a vote. And McConnell had a vote we would have probably had a deal. So I don't think it is useful to Monday morning quarterback on the speaker, I do say clearly though we should have said yes to $1.8 trillion.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: What do you think, Congressman Gottheimer?

GOTTHEIMER: Well, I agree completely with Rohit on that. You know I worked diligently on that package getting something done and obviously with the administration and with leadership to try to get that across the finish line, it didn't. I think we should have taken that deal, but the bottom line is as Rohit said, you know now we got to look forward and he's right that it is not just Democrats but also Republicans and everyone who deserves blame for not getting that done.

Now the key is to again focus on what we can get now across the finish line. And I think this $908 billion that we put together that covers all priorities and will help families and small businesses and communities. It is the right package and it's the right answer for the moment we are in now.

People as you know won't, can't hang on much longer. You have people who are really suffering and they can't put through on the table, till more businesses will go out. And if we don't help them now, more people are going to be out of work. So whether you are talking about child care or our schools or support for our state and local governments or for our families and our hospitals, these are dollars we got to get it done. And none of us should go home. None of us should leave Washington until this is done. BLITZER: Yes. You better not leave Washington, this is so critical because you see so many millions of Americans it's hard to believe here in the United States of America so many Americans right now are suffering because Congress can't get the job done for whatever reason.

[19:25:00]

And as I often say you can't let the perfect be the enemy of the good. You got to compromise and come up with something and then move down the road in the months to come. Congressman, Gottheimer, thanks to you and your entire caucus for what you're doing was grateful.

GOTTHEIMER: Thank, Wolf. And thanks for putting it so well. We cannot "let the perfect be the enemy of the good". That's exactly right.

BLITZER: That's absolutely. All right, we'll take a quick break, more news right after this.

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[19:30:00]

BLITZER: Now that hope of getting a safe and effective vaccine is getting closer to reality, a lot of people want to know what to expect when they actually get their vaccination. Dr. Sanjay Gupta reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

YASIR BATALVI, VACCINE TRIAL PARTICIPANT: That evening was rough. I mean, I developed a low-grade fever and fatigue and chills and --

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Yasir Batalvi is describing the side effects that he experienced during Moderna's COVID vaccine trial.

BATALVI: Thirty minutes later I had a little bit of stiffness, muscle soreness in my left arm. It's like you -- you're punched in the arm, basically.

GUPTA (on camera): When you're going through this whole process, Yasir, 22-page consent form, hearing about all the potential side effects, knowing that you're trialing something that, you know, we don't have a lot of data on at the time, did you have any second thoughts before taking it?

BATALVI: Honestly, Sanjay, yes.

ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: It's claiming the efficacy of --

GUPTA (voice over): Every decision we make is risk versus reward. And when the company announced early data showing over 94 percent efficacy, Yasir was confident it had been worth it.

BATALVI: It doesn't last long. And the potential of folks not getting this vaccine and actually infecting people with COVID, those affects last a lot longer and they can be life or death.

GUPTA (voice over): These are early days, and the two vaccine frontrunners in this country, Pfizer and Moderna, use a type of genetic sequence called mRNA.

It's a technology that has never before been used in humans outside of a clinical trial. mRNA stands for messenger RNA. It carries the instruction for making whatever protein you want. In this case, the spike protein the virus uses to enter our cells.

These vaccines require two doses. One to prime, one to boost, a few weeks apart so the body mounts what we hope will be a lasting immune response.

One of the biggest concerns now is that the side effects that Yasir is describing, fatigue, muscle pain, fever and chills will deter people from getting that second dose.

DR. MONCEF SLAOUI, CHIEF SCIENTIFIC ADVISER, OPERATION WARP SPEED: Maybe 10 to 15 percent of the subjects immunized have quite noticeable side effects that usually last no more than 24 to 36 hours.

GUPTA (on camera): Do you worry about the impact of this vaccine on you long-term?

BATALVI: I gave it a lot of thought. And the only thing that gave me some calm was trying to research the actual vaccine, trying to understand how mRNA vaccines work.

GUPTA (voice over): We understand this for sure, you can't get infected from this vaccine, because the vaccine doesn't actually contain the virus. And even though these are genetic-based vaccines, they don't alter our DNA. And as far as those side effects go, that may even be a good sign.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That means your immune response is working for you. You should feel good about that. And there shouldn't really be any difficulty coming back for that second shot, knowing that you're now in a much better position to fight off this awful virus.

GUPTA (voice over): For now, Yasir is looking forward to his next appointment, which is on December 10th, the exact day the F.D.A. might authorize the first vaccine for COVID-19.

BATALVI: So I put my name down because I just -- I felt so helpless. It's public service. I have to do it because I think mass scale vaccination is really the only realistic way out of the pandemic that we're in.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: Dr. Sanjay Gupta reporting for us. Thank you, Sanjay.

Coming up, the President and his allies, they are profiting from the so-called Stop the Steal Movement. Why that could be behind the President's totally baseless claims. That's next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:37:36]

BLITZER: Tonight, as President Trump attacks the Republican Governor of Georgia with totally baseless calls to overturn the election he clearly lost, there is one way in which the President is actually winning his post-election war chest but he is not the only one benefiting.

Jeremy Diamond is over the White House for us with the numbers. Jeremy, what are you hearing? What's the latest?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: These numbers are really eye-popping, Wolf, more than $207 million raised by the President and his political operation in just the last month since Election Day. That money is benefiting both the Trump campaign, the Republican National Committee, as well as a new Political Action Committee that the President has established to help him move his political activities forward post White House.

And it is a startling sum, and it has come on the backs of this effort, basically, more than 400 fundraising e-mails sent out by the campaign, hundreds of text messages, all telling supporters that they can overturn the results of the election and making once again, these baseless claims of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 campaign.

And so you have to look at this and see this as nothing but misleading, frankly. You know, the President is telling these folks that look, you can help overturn the results of the election, you can help uncover widespread voter fraud by donating to this, but in fact, Wolf, a smaller and smaller percentage of that money has actually gone to the legal fund for the Trump Campaign and the Republican National Committee and their recount account.

In fact, as of the last few weeks, 75 percent of the donations put in by supporters that is going to the President's Political Action Committee, Save America. That's the name of that Political Action Committee and those supporters don't necessarily know that that's what's happening to their money unless they read the small print. Otherwise, they're seeing these big, bold letters saying Election Defense Fund.

And one more note, Wolf. Tonight, at the President's rally in Georgia, you saw signs with two words, "Save America." Clearly, the President is thinking ahead even as he tries to convince his supporters he can overturn these results.

BLITZER: And he is going to have hundreds of billions of dollars of that campaign chest in the years to come after he leaves office to do basically, whatever he wants.

All right, Jeremy, thank you very, very much. So let's bring in our senior political analyst, David Gergen. David, as you just heard, the President raising now more than $200 million and probably a lot more as long as he continues this baseless legal battle. He is raising tons and tons of money. Is that why he isn't giving up the fight because for all practical purposes, it's become a cash cow?

[19:40:05]

DAVID GERGEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: It not has become a cash cow, Wolf, I think the large rallies having the boisterous kind of reception he's going to get there, it shows -- he is demonstrating just how much power he retains as he leaves the presidency.

Normally, power almost evaporates the day you head toward the exits as President. But in this case, we've got once again, yet once again, a precedent making leader on Donald Trump who has, you know, raise a huge amount of money and is leading his party toward what could be in Georgia, the most consequential vote domestically in Joe Biden's first two years in office.

It's an enormously important election, and if the Republicans can just pick up one seat, to get one seat in this election out of the two that are on the table, they will be in control and can whittle down whatever Joe Biden wants. We've already seen that happen, you know how much he lost with Nancy Pelosi, originally wanting over $3 trillion in the stimulus package. They're down to less than $1 trillion. That is because of the continuing strength of Donald Trump.

BLITZER: Yes, if the Republicans would win one of those two Senate seats, they will be the majority. Mitch McConnell will continue to be the Majority Leader in the Senate.

When this fight ends, you know, David, and Donald Trump leaves the White House on January 20th. The money that he's raised, more than $200 million already, probably another hundred million is ready to come in, he could do that all sorts of things that as long as he insists, you know, he might run again in 2024.

GERGEN: Yes, that's a very, very interesting point. I know he can't put it in his own pocket, but he does have that money to spend. It can make an enormous difference in politics, as you know. He can be out there saying, if you support me in 2022, if you then support me in 2024, here, I've got this X amount of money, just millions of dollars, I can pass to you. But if you're against me, I'm going to withhold the money.

It gives him a lot of leverage. And in politics, leverage is everything in many, many cases.

BLITZER: Or he can also use that money for travel expenses, other expenses. He doesn't have to dip into his own pocket. He can say I'm going from a Mar-a-Lago down in Palm Beach, Florida, I'm going up to New York, or I'm going to California. And this is quote, "campaign related" if he wants to say that, right?

GERGEN: You know, Wolf, whether he can use that for future -- his own campaigning.

BLITZER: Yes, of course. That's his Political Action Committee. He will be able to use that money for if he runs again in 2024. He certainly could use all those hundreds of millions of dollars for that.

GERGEN: Can he use it for defense purposes, in fact? Can he use it to pay lawyers if he is being sued?

BLITZER: Yes, I suspect he can, and that's probably one of the reasons that he is continuing this fight, which is hopeless, but he is continuing because he is raising a ton of money in the process, which is very, very significant.

Let's talk a little bit more about Georgia right now. The President, you know, I assume he wants these two Republican senators to get elected on January 5th when the runoff takes place.

What do you make of the news, though, of the way the President is describing Georgia's Republican Governor Brian Kemp, trying to strong arm him into overturning Joe Biden's win in Georgia the other day? The President of the United States called Governor Kemp, a loyal Republican, a strong supporter of the President, a moron and a nut job, and he publicly said that he regrets endorsing him. Have you ever seen anything like this before?

GERGEN: No, no, I think it proves once again that Donald Trump can often be his own worst enemy. This is really crazy. He very much needs for the Republican Party to be in control. He needs to support that and go in with a simple message. We've got to elect these two Republicans Loeffler and Perdue. We have to elect them so we have enough insurance policy in the Senate to control things.

He doesn't have to go into whether he should have been elected or not, he needs a simple, straightforward message. What is he doing? He is stepping over his message. He is completely taking the focus off that and we're talking about the fight he is having with this Republican Governor.

You know, if you were Republicans, right now, if you care about the future of this party, you have to wonder, have we made a Faustian bargain with the devil? You know, this guy does all these good things and helps us get elected down ballot, but then he does crazy things and makes the party look ridiculous.

You know, he is really harming the sense of what the Republican Party is all about, and what it represents in the next couple of years. Republicans wanted to put back together a party that seemed more sensible, a little closer to the center.

BLITZER: David Gergen worked for four presidents, as we all know. David, thank you so much for joining us.

GERGEN: Good to see you, Wolf.

BLITZER: All right. The stakes are very, very high right now for Republicans and Democrats. Senator Kelly Loeffler and Reverend Raphael Warnock, they debate each other live on CNN. Debate Night in Georgia. That's tomorrow, 7:00 p.m. Eastern. We'll have a special SITUATION ROOM both before at 6:00 p.m. Eastern and 8:00 p.m. Eastern around that debate. That's tomorrow night, Sunday night. [19:45:12

BLITZER: And as the nation sees a surge in coronavirus cases, the NFL isn't immune at all. What could that mean for the current season? The league's chief medical officer is standing by live. We will discuss the NFL and COVID-19 when we come back.

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BLITZER: There's more breaking news coming into THE SITUATION ROOM right now. Professional sports, not immune to the ravages of the coronavirus as we all know, and now there's word that Major League Baseball has just filed a lawsuit against insurance providers citing and I'm quoting now, "The severe economic damage COVID-19 has caused baseball and the insurance coverage purchased to protect baseball against the risk of catastrophic economic losses like those that baseball now faces."

[19:50:20]

BLITZER: CNN has reached out to the insurance companies named in the suit for a response, has not yet heard back.

Meanwhile, we're also learning that professional basketball, we're talking about the NBA has issued new guidelines for players and staff to follow as the season is set to get underway this month.

ESPN reporting players and staff are banned from going to bars, clubs, live entertainment and gaming venues as well as spas and pools while they are in their home markets.

During road trips, teams will only be permitted to dine at, quote, "approved restaurants or fully privatized spaces."

Also in this year, like no other it's been a football season like none we've ever seen before. Games played without quarterbacks, without fans, but with 200,000 new COVID cases now daily the norm in the United States can the National Football League possibly finish it season?

Dr. Allen Sills is joining us right now. He's the NFL Chief Medical Officer. Dr. Sills, thanks so much for joining us. The pandemic is spiraling out of control right now, more than a million new cases in the first five days of December alone. It shows absolutely no signs of letting up this winter. Can the NFL finish the season safely?

DR. ALLEN SILLS, CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER, NFL: Well, Wolf, I do believe that we can. We've said all along that we expect this to get tougher as we go forward because we knew that the number of cases would likely increase, but we're very confident in our plans and our protocols.

Our clubs have done a great job with mitigating risk, and we believe if we can continue to increase our compliance, we can do just that. We can move forward safely. We can keep our club environment safe and we can continue to finish our season in the manner that we plan to. BLITZER: Well, those of us who are NFL football fans, we hope that

happens, but I want you to listen, Doctor to Dr. Myron Rolle. He played in the NFL, he was an NFL player. He is now a neurosurgeon. This is what he told CNN about attempting to finish the season. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. MYRON ROLLE, FORMER NFL PLAYER: The NFL should delay the season. Stop it for right now. Allow independent thinkers to come in and really sort of allow these infections to slow down.

Look at hospitals like my hospital, Mass General, Mayo Clinic, Cleveland Clinic and other places around the country to see -- to use as a barometer basically on how the country is doing.

I think with all the disruptions, all the delays in games, players coming in and out of the facility with positive tests, the outbreaks that you're seeing, the non-compliance with mask wearing by coaches and players, staff members not being fully transparent with their symptoms. All of this is a public health disaster.

I think the NFL is falling short right now, their players and the League and the community at large.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: So Dr. Sills, what's your reaction when you hear what Dr. Rolle has to say?

SILLS: Wolf, as I said, we know that there are a lot of challenges in front of us, but we feel like we have a very solid plan. I'm a neurosurgeon also, just like Dr. Rolle is and I know that patient compliance is always a challenge.

But what we've seen is when we comply and when we do the things we know that mitigate risk, we can do so safely. I'd also point out, our overall test positivity rate in the NFL is still 0.2 percent. That's well below the positivity rates anywhere in the country right now.

And I think our NFL facilities are actually the safest places in their community. The reason I have that confidence is again, we have very detailed protocols in place. We're testing our players, coaches and staff every day and we have a very innovative and detailed contact tracing program that far exceeds what's in place in other elements of society.

So we all share concerns, and we're all monitoring these situations. But I do believe our facilities are safe. And also I'll point out, we continue to have regular and ongoing discussions with public health officials both at the local and the state and the Federal level.

We're in regular communication with the C.D.C., with the White House Taskforce about what we're doing. So it's a situation we continue to monitor. But I think our results to this point really speak for themselves that our positivity rates have been well below what you've seen in other elements of society.

BLITZER: Is the use, Doctor Sills, of a secure bubble like the one used by the NBA, for example, is that something you would consider to ensure for example, the playoffs and the Super Bowl are played without interruption?

SILLS: Well, we've said all along that all options remain on the table. And what we mean by that is we're looking at a lot of different models of how can we mitigate risk and keep ourselves safe, and we've got to do that based on the data.

We work in very close partnership with the NFL Players Association and their medical advisers. We also have a lot of external expert advisers from leading academic medical centers around the country, and so we'll look at our data and we'll see what does seem the safest choice to be as we move into January, because one thing we've learned throughout this pandemic, Wolf, is it changes constantly.

Every few weeks brings a new set of challenges, and so we've said, all options are on the table. Let's look at where the data takes us and do what we think is safest when we get to January.

[19:55:03]

BLITZER: Dr. Allen Sills, thanks for everything you're doing. I know these are really, really difficult times for you, for the entire NFL and let's hope for the best. My Buffalo Bills are doing well and we want to see them continue to do well, but we want them to be safe at the same time. So let's see what happens.

Thanks so much for joining us.

SILLS: Thanks for having me, Wolf.

BLITZER: All right. Meanwhile, new developments in the coronavirus crisis. Since midnight, the United States have now reported more than 174,000 new cases, more than 2,000 new deaths and this day is not even over with yet.

And the first week in December, it's not even a week, it is five days and five days are not over with yet, more than a million new infections have been reported so far in December, staggering numbers. How much worse can it get? We'll be right back.

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