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The Situation Room
Georgia Election Official Refutes Trump's Conspiracy Claims; Joe Biden Campaigns In Georgia For Senate Democrats; Some GOP Members Criticized By Trump For Not Getting Support; Disappointing Vaccine Rollout In The U.S.; Over Three Million Votes Already Cast In GA, Smashing Runoff Record; GA Election Officials Debunk Trump Conspiracies After He Demands They "Find" Votes To Overturn His Loss; CA Gov. Warns Of "Surge On Top Of Surge" As ICU Cases Rise 22 Percent. Aired 5-6p ET
Aired January 04, 2021 - 17:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[17:00:00]
JAKE TAPER, CNN HOST: She tested positive for coronavirus in October and she died three days after Christmas. Her brother says that Selene's (ph) legacy has inspired him to become a teacher. To Blancas family, our deepest condolences. May her memory be a blessing. Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, @jaketapper. Tweet the show, @TheLeadCNN. Our coverage on CNN continues right now.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer in THE SITUATION ROOM. We're following breaking news.
Top Georgia election officials debunking completely President Trump's election conspiracy theories after his truly shocking call to the secretary of state of Georgia demanding he find the votes to overturn the democratically held results.
In a scathing point by point take down just a little while ago, one clearly frustrated top Republican election official in Georgia said the Trump team has "intentionally mislead the state, Senate, voters, and the people of the United States."
Also breaking right now, President-elect Biden campaigning in Georgia right now for the two Democratic challengers in tomorrow's critical senate runoff election that will determine which party controls the U.S. Senate.
We are also following breaking pandemic news. The U.S. death toll now topping 352,000 people with more than 20.7 million cases and deep concern right now about the vaccine rollout here in the United States. The CDC says almost 15.5 million doses have been distributed but, but just 4.5 million people have been immunized so far.
Let's go straight to the White House to start our coverage this hour. Our chief White House correspondent Jim Acosta is standing by. Jim, a truly remarkable new attempt by the president to overturn the election he clearly and decisively lost. JIM ACOSTA, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (on camera): That's
right, Wolf. He's really out of control. And President Trump's attempted shakedown of Georgia's secretary of state, he even has some of his own supporters concerned about what he will do next.
One Trump adviser told me the president is being fed false conspiracy theories by a team of enablers on a daily basis that has darkened his mood in recent weeks. The adviser went on to say Mr. Trump is acting like a dictator now who wants to burn things to the ground on his way out adding, "An arsonist will always light the match."
Down in Georgia, state officials, as you said, complain they are playing whack-a-mole, knocking down the president's false claims.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ACOSTA (voice-over): One day after the president's unhinged attempt to fix the election results in Georgia, state officials there are firing back with a methodical debunking of Mr. Trump's bogus conspiracy theories.
GABRIEL STERLING, GEORGIA ELECTION OFFICIAL: This is all easily provably false, yet the president persists. I will admit when I listened to the audio of the phone call and the president brought it up again and I heard it on a radio ad again today, I wanted to scream.
ACOSTA (voice-over): Still scrambling to scam his way into a second term, President Trump is lashing out at members of his own party who won't join his quest to overturn the election tweeting, "The surrender caucus within the Republican Party will go down in infamy as weak and ineffective guardians of our nation, who were willing to accept the certification of fraudulent presidential numbers."
Some in the GOP can't believe their own ears after the president's call to Georgia's secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, aimed at cooking up a Trump win in that state.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES (via telephone): So, look, all I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes which is one more than we have because we won the state. So what are we going to do here, folks? I only need 11,000 votes. Fellas, I need 11,000 votes. Give me a break.
ACOSTA (voice-over): CNN has confirmed the White House attempted to call Raffensperger 18 times before the one hour conversation over the weekend.
TRUMP: The people of Georgia are angry. The people of the country are angry. And there's nothing wrong with saying that, you know, that you've recalculated.
BRAD RAFFENSPERGER, GEORGIA SECRETARY OF STATE (via telephone): Well, Mr. President, the challenge you have is the data you have is wrong.
(On camera): I did want to make my point that the data that he has is just plain wrong. We've= -- he had hundreds of hundreds of people he said that were dead that voted, we found two.
ACOSTA (voice-over): Even some of the GOP senators planning to side with the president and object to the official counting of electoral votes this Wednesday in Congress have issues with the call.
SEN. MARSHA BLACKBURN (R-TN): One of the things I think that everyone has said is that this call was not a helpful call.
ACOSTA (voice-over): Other Republicans like Senator Tom Cotton are refusing to join the effort saying in a statement, "Under the Constitution and federal law, Congress' power is limited to counting electoral votes submitted by the states." That drew a rebuke from the president who tweeted in response to Cotton that Republicans never forget.
[17:05:00]
Vice President Mike Pence who will preside over the electoral vote count on January 6th sidestepped the issue while campaigning before Tuesday's senate runoff in Georgia.
MIKE PENCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And I promise you, come this Wednesday, we'll have our day in Congress. We'll hear the objections. We'll hear the evidence. But tomorrow is Georgia's day.
ACOSTA (voice-over): All living former U.S defense secretaries have issued a letter insisting it's all over for Mr. Trump, writing, "The time for questioning the results has passed. The time for the formal counting of the Electoral College votes as prescribed in the Constitution and statute has arrived."
Tell that to the GOP Senator Josh Hawley, who is leading the charge to object to the election results in Congress this week, the kind of action he once slammed during Mr. Trump's impeachment.
SEN. JOSH HAWLEY (R-MO): The consequences to the republic of overturning a Democratic election because you don't like the result and because you believe that that election was somehow corrupted when in fact the evidence shows that it was not.
ACOSTA (voice-over): Add to that, Republican Senator Susan Collins who once said she thought the president had learned his lesson after being impeached over a phone call.
SEN. SUSAN COLLINS (R-ME): I believe that the president has learned from this case. The president has been impeached. That's a pretty big lesson.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ACOSTA (on camera): Now, the president is scheduled to campaign for Georgia's endangered Republican senators at a rally in the state later on this evening. Mr. Trump may want to consider how long he lingers in the state.
The Fulton County district attorney released a statement earlier today saying she found Mr. Trump's phone call to be disturbing. The district attorney went on to say in a statement that she will enforce the law without fear or favor and that anybody who commits a felony, a violation of law in the state of Georgia in her jurisdiction will be held accountable, Wolf.
That is tough talk from that district attorney. And when you talk to the president's advisers, they say, you know, the president may think if he, for example, pardons himself that that only covers him when it comes to federal law.
He is running into a potential, Wolf, for being in violation of state law down in Georgia. That's a big concern to the president and his team around him, Wolf.
BLITZER: And potentially in New York City and New York State as well, even if he were to pardon himself, even if he were to resign and let Mike Pence be president for a few days and issue a pardon, he still would potentially be vulnerable to state and local charges. Not federal charges, state and local charges.
All right, Jim Acosta, stand by. The President-elect Joe Biden is in Georgia right now campaigning for the Democrats in tomorrow's senate runoff election. CNN political correspondent M.J. Lee is joining us right now. M.J., tomorrow's vote will have a tremendous impact on Biden's presidency.
M.J. LEE, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT (on camera): That's right, Wolf. And the fact that we have both the sitting president and the president-elect campaigning in Georgia on the same day just goes to show how much is at stake in these two runoff races.
We just saw President-elect Joe Biden leave the stage, campaigning for Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock. And what he essentially pleaded with the Georgia voters on is to repeat what they did in November. Remember, they handed him a historic victory in the presidential election, allowing him to turn Georgia blue for the first time in decades, and he really emphasized how much political power is in their hands come tomorrow. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: You voted in record numbers in November. Your voices were heard, your votes were counted. The will of the people prevailed. We won three times here.
We need you to vote again in record numbers to make your voices heard again and again to change Georgia, to change America again. And this is not an exaggeration. Georgia, the whole nation is looking to you.
The power, the power is literally in your hands, unlike any time in my career, one state, one state can chart the course not just for the next four years but for the next generation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEE: Now, this was a political rally, but you could also tell that COVID-19 was top of mind for the president-elect. Again, he slammed President Trump and his administration's handling of the virus and also the vaccine distribution using the words shame. Take a listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: I've said it before, getting America vaccinated will be one of the most difficult operational challenges this nation has ever faced, but we've known it for the last months. This administration has gotten off to a god awful start.
The president spends more time whining and complaining than doing something about the problem. I don't know why he still wants the job, he doesn't want to do the work.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[17:09:56]
LEE: Now, Wolf, it's worth pointing out that Biden in this speech did not explicitly make mention of this explosive phone call that President Trump made over the weekend, trying to pressure Georgia officials to try to overturn results of the election in that state.
However, he did make a point of saying that there are some Republicans in the Senate who have taken an oath not to the Constitution, but to the sitting president. Clearly, the suggestion there was clear and just one more way for the president-elect to emphasize to voters in Georgia just how much is at stake. Wolf?
BLITZER: So much is at stake. M.J. Lee reporting for us. Thank you very much. Let's get some more on all of this. Joining us now, our chief political correspondent Dana Bash, CNN congressional correspondent Phil Mattingly, and CNN senior national correspondent Kyung Lah.
You know, Dana, this Georgia election official, Gabriel Sterling, he was an amazing fact checker. He went point by point by point totally, totally discounting the president's crazy conspiracy theories. Watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STERLING: The reason I'm having to stand here today is because there are people in positions of authority and respect who have said their votes didn't count and it is not true. The president's legal team had the entire tape. They watched the entire tape. And from my point of view, intentionally mislead the state senate, the voters and the people of the United States about this.
They say that there are 2,423 people who voted without being registered. Let's just be clear about this. You can't do it. Then there is the claim that 66,248 below the age of 18 voted. The actual number is zero. And 4,926 voted past the legal registration deadline. Again, it is zero. There's no shredding of ballots going on, that's not real, it's not happening. A potential hacking of Dominion equipment during a senate hearing last
week, that didn't happen either. Secretary Raffensperger does not have a brother named Ron Raffensperger. That is also not real. The president tweeted that out as well.
We see nothing in our investigations of any of these data claims that shows there's nearly enough ballots to change the outcome. This is all easily provably false, yet the president persists.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER (on camera): That was quite a take down from a Republican election official in Georgia, Dana. But do fact checks like that really make a difference to the president or for that matter, the supporters in the House and Senate?
DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: No, they should. But the sad answer to that question is no. But the fact that Mr. Sterling took all of that time knowing that all eyes are on Georgia right now because of tomorrow's pair of runoff elections, took the time to do what he did, to try to go point by point and counter point and try to prove what the president and his allies are saying is wrong, and taking it to the next level to say and by the way, you have to go vote tomorrow.
And talking about the very real dynamic and the way those two things are so intertwined was really remarkable and, you know, it just shows that when history books look back, are written and people look back on this time, there are going to be people like him who made a name for himself by just trying as hard as he could to do the right thing.
And, you know, I will tell you, and I'm sure Kyung and especially Phil are hearing this as well, on that last point, the idea of concern that people aren't going to vote tomorrow, that isn't just local Georgia officials. Republicans who are very, very concerned about what this means for the balance of power here in Washington are, you know, kind of holding their breath, waiting to see what the president says tonight down there because they're worried that anything that he says could suppress their own vote and hurt the Republicans on the ballot tomorrow.
BLITZER: Yes. What happens in those two senate runoff elections tomorrow in Georgia is so, so critically important. Phil, we have seen a few prominent Republicans push back on the president's efforts to overturn this democratically held election, including Senator Tom Cotton, Senator Pat Toomey, and Congresswoman Liz Cheney. Is this laying bare the deep split within the Republican Party right now?
PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Wolf, I think it's kind of viscerally ripping off the veil over forming battle lines of what the post-Trump Republican Party looks like. And I think there are a number of Republicans, at least 12 in the Senate, more than 100 in the House who have made clear that their post-Trump Republican Party looks a lot like the current Trump Republican Party.
And fealty to the president, loyalty to the president is crucial to that. And the rationale for that is that's what they're hearing from their constituents.
Now, there are many battles to come in terms of policy and whether you go populist economics or more -- kind of more traditional supply side economics. All those types of things that have to play out. But right now, I think you're seeing just a personality litmus test.
[17:15:00]
And the push back you've seen over the last 72 hours, Wolf, I think has been most notable because as Dana, as Kyung know, over the course of the last four years, you have not seen much of it at all, maybe a little bit. And then that person usually gets broken down by about 280 characters from the president's twitter account.
Instead, you have seen several lawmakers, actually, over the course in the last two days, you've seen a number of lawmakers including lawmakers that have been very loyal to the president come out and say look, this is a bridge too far and I think there is two things at play there.
One, this is about as egregious as it gets trying to overturn an election and the role that Congress plays that cannot technically do that without -- since it's traditionally ceremonial.
But I think there's also very clearly players are trying to position themselves for what happens next and how this plays out over the weeks and months ahead, is going to mean everything for this party in the years ahead.
But keep in mind, this is all happening 24 hours from an election that's going to decide whether or not Democrats have complete unified control of Washington, and the fact that this is playing out now goes to Dana's point, and it's not just down on the ground in Georgia where I know Kyung is hearing this.
I'm hearing it constantly from Republicans on Capitol Hill. They knew this fight was coming. They knew it had to happen given where everybody stood during the Trump era on policy and on personality. But the fact it was happening right before an election that will determine whether or not Mitch McConnell remains majority leader, it is just not something Republicans wanted.
BLITZER: You're absolutely right. You know, Kyung, you're in Atlanta right now covering these two senate runoff elections tomorrow. In that phone conversation that was recorded with the Georgia secretary of state, President Trump said, and I'm quoting him now, the people of Georgia know that this was a scam. How could all of this impact the results in tomorrow's critically important runoff elections?
KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Let's start with what this election exactly is. It is about persuasion -- it is not about persuasion, it is about who can get out the most numbers on their sides. If you watch just one hour of local television here, you see these ads and they're directed at getting out the base.
And we've heard the candidates speak this way. And that's what we've seen for weeks on weeks here. It is about running up the numbers among the faithful on both sides. So we went and talked to voters who are Democrats. We talked to voters who are Republicans today, and it was really astonishing, the real contrast here.
All the Democrats we spoke with had heard the news. They were eating it up. They were, in some cases, gleeful about this happening. A lot of the Republicans who went to see Vice President Mike Pence had not heard about this news. The sources that they are looking at simply weren't covering it or covered it so lightly that they didn't think it was that big of a deal.
People told us they didn't think it was going to matter. So, among the faithful who are going to show up and who the GOP is relying on tomorrow, will it make a difference? The Democrats we spoke with admit that they don't think it's going to make much of a difference. The question is who's going to be able to run up numbers on their sides, Wolf.
BLITZER: Critically important indeed. All right, everybody stand by. Up next, a very stark warning from the 10 living former defense secretaries as President Trump steps up his brazen efforts to overturn the presidential election. I'll talk about that with former defense secretary Chuck Hagel.
Plus, there is breaking news. The troubling U.K. variant of the coronavirus just reported in yet another U.S. state. We'll update you on that when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[17:20:00]
BLITZER: We're following breaking pandemic news. The U.S. death toll now topping 352,000 people with more than 20.7 million cases here in the United States. Our national correspondent Athena Jones is joining us right now. Athena, there is growing concern about the vaccine rollout and how many people are actually getting shots in their arms.
ATHENA JONES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Hi, Wolf. That's right, and there's also concern about these new variants of the virus. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced just a short while ago that a man in Saratoga County in upstate New York has tested positive for the strain of coronavirus first seen in the United Kingdom.
Now, the man had not traveled recently which suggest that just like in Colorado and California, it is as experts feared, this virus has been circulating, we just didn't realize it until now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SANDRA LINDSAY, RECEIVED SECOND DOSE OF COVID-19 VACCINE: I feel like I have completed kind of a marathon. I've closed the loop.
JONES (voice-over): The New Year any year bringing good news for some front line workers as they begin getting their second dose of the COVID vaccine. LINDSAY: I am very, very grateful to just receive this vaccine in the
first place.
MARITZA BENIQUEZ, EMERGENCY ROOM NURSE, RECEIVED SECOND DOSE OF COVID- 19 VACCINE: I will be 95 percent immune and that to me is like the greatest gift I could have ever, you know, started this year off with.
JONES (voice-over): Still, there are concerns about the slow pace of coronavirus vaccinations nationwide. Some 4.5 million doses administered so far, about a quarter of the amount government officials promised.
ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: We are not where we want to be. No doubt about that. But I think we can get there if we really accelerate, get some momentum going, and see what happens as we get into the first couple of weeks of January.
JONES (voice-over): The chief adviser to Operation Warp Speed acknowledging the slow pace, but insisting things are swiftly ramping up.
MONCEF SLAOUI, CHIEF SCIENTIFIC ADVISER, OPERATION WARP SPEED: Over the last 72 hours, 1.5 million vaccine doses have been inoculated, even though there's gap in reporting, that's quite an important number. That's 500,000 a day. We are optimistic as we go beyond this holiday season that the numbers will go up.
JONES (voice-over): Meanwhile, the FDA is set to meet this week to discuss giving half doses of Moderna's vaccine to people age 18 to 55, which could make it available to twice as many people in that age group. The urgency to get more shots into arms coming as infection rates soar.
Nearly 300,000 new COVID-19 cases reported Saturday, the highest single day total ever. Another roughly 210,000 added Sunday. The virus spread being helped along by travel. The TSA reporting 1.3 million people screened at airport security on Sunday. A record since the pandemic began.
[17:24:57]
FAUCI: It's terrible. It's unfortunate, but it was predictable that we were going to see the number of cases that we're seeing now. My concern is that it could get worse.
JONES (voice-over): Meanwhile, Sunday set another record for COVID hospitalizations nationwide and in six states, including South Carolina where hospitals in four counties were at full capacity. And a crisis in California --
SCOTT BYINGTON, CRITICAL CARE NURSE, ST. FRANCIS MEDICAL CENTER: I haven't seen anything like this.
JONES (voice-over): -- where in hard hit Los Angeles County, one person contracts COVID every six seconds, according to L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti.
BYINGTON: It's really rough. You know, we're at maximum capacity most of the time. We have patients in the hallways.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JONES (on camera): And there is now growing concern that the coronavirus variants first seen in South Africa may pose a problem for vaccine response due to the mutations to the part of the virus that allow it to infect the cells. Now, this doesn't mean that the vaccines developed so far won't be effective at all, but they could be less effective. This is something that scientists are studying, Wolf.
BLITZER: Yes. Well, that's a worry indeed. Athena, thank you very, very much. Let's get some more on all of this. Dr. Paul Offit, a member of the FDA vaccines advisory committee. He is joining us. He is also director of the Vaccine Education Center Children's Hospital in Philadelphia. Dr. Offit, thank you so much for joining us.
As you know, the CDC says 15.4 million coronavirus vaccine doses have been distributed around the United States, but just 4.5 million people have actually been immunized. That means more than 10 million doses are out there, they've been distributed but have not been given to people. Why is this proving to be such a huge challenge and how should it be addressed?
PAUL OFFIT, MEMBER, FDA VACCINES ADVISORY COMMITTEE: It's a huge challenge because we've never done it before. I mean, what we need to do is create a public health infrastructure that enables us to give millions of doses a day.
And right now, we don't have that infrastructure in place. I think we were late to give money to this. I mean, I think, just finally Congress appropriated about $9 billion to this effort, but it's a little late in the game to do that.
I wish that had happened earlier. We need to give mass vaccinations in stadiums and synagogues and churches and auditoriums and we need to set that infrastructure in place, and right now we don't have that infrastructure.
BLITZER: Because I was always wondering why the president of the United States didn't mobilize the U.S. military, activate troops, get the National Guard out there and do this in stadiums, parking lots all around the country, vaccinate millions of people very, very quickly.
OFFIT: It would have been helpful. I think we're learning now. We're getting better at it. We've done like roughly 500,000 doses per day which is good. There is no reason we can't get to a million doses a day, but what we have to happen, I watched Rachel Levine, our Secretary of Health a Pennsylvania, deal with this.
What she wants and she knows that she wants, for example, set up immunization clinics in rural parts of the state where, you know, they are sort of pharmacy free zones. It takes money to do that. She needs personnel to do that. She wants to work with the federal government to give her the kind of resources to do that. And to date it's been very frustrating for her.
BLITZER: Very frustrating. Some experts, Dr. Offit, have suggested giving one dose of the vaccine to more people as a way to get a greater portion to the population, at least, partially vaccinated more quickly. Based on data you study, do you support that idea because these two vaccines that have been authorized here in the U.S., you require two vaccinations within three or four weeks apart.
OFFIT: I don't support that at all. I think what you found when you did those so-called phase three studies and we get into the case of Moderna, 30,000 people or in the case of Pfizer, 44,000, there was a period of time, three or four weeks, one someone had only gotten one dose before they got the second dose.
And there were some evidence for protection, but those were based on a very small numbers and you don't know how long that efficacy would last. I think that's a bad idea. What we need to do is we need to ramp up production, ramp up distribution, ramp up administration, knowing that if we give two doses of this vaccine, that we can get 95 percent protection. To do less than that, I think would be a disservice to the American public.
BLITZER: Yes. So many hundreds of thousands potentially of lives are at stake right now in the United States and they got to do something, they got to do it quickly. Dr. Offit, thank you so much for joining us. Thanks for everything you're doing.
OFFIT: Thank you.
BLITZER: There's more breaking news here in THE SITUATION ROOM. We'll have more on tomorrow's hugely consequential Georgia senate runoff elections. We'll talk about it with the Atlanta mayor, Keisha Lance Bottoms. She's standing by live.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[17:33:45]
BLITZER: We're following breaking news, President-elect Joe Biden just wrapped up the campaign stop for the two Democratic candidates in tomorrow's U.S. Senate runoff elections in Georgia. We're joined now by the Atlanta Democratic Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms. Mayor Bottoms, thank you so much for joining us.
You just joined the President-elect as he urged voters in your state to come out and record numbers once again. He says the whole nation is looking to you right now, the people of Georgia, in this election. What's your message? Give me a brief sense of what your message to voters is tonight?
MAYOR KEISHA LANCE BOTTOMS (D), ATLANTA: Wolf, it's only three years ago that I was in the same predicament in terms of getting turnout in Atlanta, and it was a close vote. But what it says was for people across this country to start energizing our city and that's what I see happening across the state. There is an energy that I felt in this rally today that quite frankly I haven't felt during this election cycle. So you can feel that people are excited and they recognize what's at stake and to have the eyes of the entire country on Georgia, of really speaks to who we are as a part of the electoral process.
Obviously, we went blue in November. But I truly believe that we can stay blue and it's about turnout. We're already seeing a record turnout in this state and I think it's because of the energy that's coming from across the country.
[17:35:11]
BLITZER: We just heard a top Republican election official in Georgia, Gabriel Sterling, I'm sure you know him, tick through the false. The numerous false claims the President made about the November election in that recorded one hour conversation he had with Georgia's Secretary of State. He also is urging voters, in his words, don't self suppress your own vote. How concerned should Republicans be in Georgia right now about the damage the President's rhetoric might be doing to voter turnout tomorrow?
I believe that Republicans in this state are divided. We know that a number of people who usually or lean Republican traditionally voted for Joe Biden and the fact that we have two senators who will not denounce what this President has said. And, in fact, I've read something just before joining you, David Perdue seem to think that the issue was that the President was recorded, he didn't take issue with what he said.
So it's my hope that those Republicans and those Independents, who split the baby in November, will listen to what's happening in this state and really pay attention to the to the inability of these two senators to denounce what the President is attempting to do. And they will vote for Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock on tomorrow.
BLITZER: Yes, in Georgia, by the way, as you will know, it's legal for one party in a phone conversation to record that conversation if he or she wants to do so. I want to listen to something that Georgia's Republican Governor Brian Kemp said about the President's attempts to pressure your Secretary of State and that extraordinary hour long phone conversation. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. BRIAN KEMP (R), GEORGIA: I'm not going to fall into the trap of this is a big distraction, because it's not. People will need to pay attention to it. Nothing else matters for the next 24 hours. People need to do what the President and what myself and a lot of other people want people to do and that's get out and vote for David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: So what do you say, Mayor, to the Governor's insistence that the President's efforts to pressure the Secretary of State is simply a distraction?
BOTTOMS: How can we not pay attention to the President of the United States of America attempting to rig an election? I don't know what's more important to our democracy. We certainly have to pay attention to it, and we certainly have to act accordingly. When given the opportunity tomorrow to go and vote. Donald Trump only have a couple of more weeks to be President of the United States, but you have two senators who will not denounce what he has said. And also at least one senator who said that she will be completely focused on making sure that Joe Biden fails.
So, it is time for us to move on as a country. The energy is here in this state. We have enough people who care about the election and the future of this country to turn out and vote. Many of these people did not vote in November. We are seeing thousands of those people turn out to vote. And I think it's going to be a close one, but I do believe that they can pull it off that Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock can pull it off on tomorrow.
BLITZER: You know, we just learned, Mayor, that voting totals in Georgia have now smashed all previous records for runoff elections, over 3 million folks, voters in Georgia already have cast their ballots either by mail or in person. And the voting will obviously continue tomorrow. But what does that tell you about these record numbers?
BOTTOMS: It tells me that people are paying attention and that people care. But what I do want people to remember, especially Democrats across the state, we had a great early vote turnout in November, and then on Election Day, it didn't go our way. So it's not enough that we rest and rely on the record number of people who've already turned out. We all have to turn out and we can't take any vote for granted. We can't leave any vote out there.
And so, again, for independence, and those who voted -- who traditionally vote Republican, it's my hope that they will listen very carefully to what Donald Trump has said, and pay attention to the inability of the two senators who represent this state to denounce interference in our election process in this state.
BLITZER: Atlanta's Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, thanks as usual for joining us. We'll stay in close touch with you, appreciate it very much.
BOTTOMS: Thank you.
BLITZER: Coming up, did President Trump's phone conversation, including a shakedown effort of Georgia Secretary of State put him in move legal jeopardy. We're going to talk about it when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[17:43:39]
BLITZER: We're following breaking news, today, a top Georgia election official, Gabriel Sterling, totally, totally point by point-by-point debunked President Trump's election conspiracy theories and it comes after the President's truly shocking phone conversation all recorded more than an hour to Georgia Secretary of State demanding he find the votes to overturn the results of the election. Did that phone conversation put the President in legal jeopardy?
Let's discuss with Republican Election Attorney Ben Ginsberg. Ben, thanks so much for joining us. So what do you think did President Trump potentially commit a crime, either a federal crime or a state crime when he pressured Georgia officials to find 11,870 votes? Was he soliciting election fraud?
BENJAMIN GINSBERG, REPUBLICAN ELECTION LAWYER: Well, he probably was attempting to do that. And what he did was certainly wrong and immoral and ethically challenged. Whether he actually committed a crime, it's one of those things that a prosecutor would have to look at long and hard. And those cases are very, very difficult to bring and prove because an element of the crime, it's whether the President thought the charges he was making and the things he was asking are true. And as we know, the President has not always been accurate in the statements that he's made about the election.
BLITZER: Yes, he probably believes all those lines himself. But based on what you heard from that one hour plus phone conversation, it's now a lot of us -- I've listened to the whole thing, could the President actually be held accountable for the demands he was making? Could he potentially, if the prosecutors wanted, go ahead and be charged?
[17:45:20]
GINSBERG: Well, a prosecutor and there are always local prosecutors who are a little bit overly aggressive and politically ambitious, can certainly bring charges on the basis of that. My guess is, is that after looking at this for the two, three, four months that it takes to build a case that they'll exercise prosecutorial discretion and not bring charges against a call that was completely wrong to make? Because he's going to be out of office, and he's already paying a political price for this.
BLITZER: If you were the President's attorney right now, would you advise him, a, to potentially pardoned himself before leaving office? He's only got 16 days left. Or resign and let the Vice President become President and issue a pardon for him?
GINSBERG: Well, if you're looking at it, from the point of view of a better legal ruling, he would be best off having the Vice President pardon him. There will always be a question because it's never been litigated fully before about whether a President can pardon himself. And if I were advising the President, I would suggest to him he does not want to be the test case for the notion of itself, pardon.
BLITZER: We'll see what happens over the next 16 days. Ben Ginsberg, thank you so much for joining us.
GINSBERG: Sure, Wolf, thanks.
BLITZER: Coming up, California's COVID crisis worsens right now as the Governor is warning of a surge upon surge of new cases. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [17:51:17]
BLITZER: The already dire COVID crisis in California is getting even worse tonight. The Governor Gavin Newsom said just a little while ago that hospitalizations are up 18 percent in the last two weeks alone, ICU cases are up 22 percent and ICU capacity in some parts of the state has now fallen to zero.
CNN's Brian Todd is joining us right now. Brian, California went from being what seemed to be pretty much of a success story early on to now being a global virus hotspot. What's the latest?
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It certainly did, Wolf. You know, one expert just told us that there's a tsunami of coronavirus cases in California and that state residents need to get to higher ground. Tonight, we have new information on how California got to this horrific stage after battling the pandemic successfully in the early going.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TODD (voice-over): A grim view from California's frontlines.
GAYANA CHUKLANSEV, SURGICAL INTENSIVE CARE NURSE IN CALIFORNIA: Patients are dying like flies. We're full, we're at max capacity, we have no resources, we have no staff. Our doctors can't even intubate because they have like 40 patients each. It's like a war zone.
TODD (voice-over): The number of people hospitalized in California has reached alarming new levels, straining hospital capacity, and the number of deaths per day has spiked. In L.A. County, the new epicenter of the virus in the United States, hospitals are so overwhelmed. They're looking at rationing care.
SCOTT BYINGTON, NURSE, ST. FRANCIS MEDICAL CENTER: So we're able to get the equipment because somebody else you know had died. And that sounds gruesome at heart horrific but that's where we are today.
TODD (voice-over): In L.A. County, one person dies of coronavirus as often as every 10 minutes. As for the rates of infection --
MAYOR ERIC GARCETTI (D), LOS ANGELES: We're seeing a person every six seconds contract COVID-19 here in Los Angeles County, the nation's largest county 10 million people.
TODD (voice-over): The L.A. County Health Services Director who warned that hospitals in her county are being pushed to, quote, the brink of catastrophe said the density of population is one reason for the spikes in the Los Angeles area. She also cited the work patterns of many county residents.
DR. CHRISTINA GHALY, DIRECTOR, LOS ANGELES COUNTY DEPT. OF HEALTH SERVICES: We have a lot out of low income workers, a lot of essential workers who are working outside of their homes.
TODD (voice-over): Experts say in California often, more people are living inside a given home and one expert points to the dynamics of family living among many groups in the state.
DR. JORGE RODRIGUEZ, INTERNAL MEDICINE AND VIRAL SPECIALIST: The Hispanic people have multigenerational living, you know, and what we've seen is that the huge inequity in both healthcare and living in bias is coming to roost. There are people that are having to work multiple jobs.
TODD (voice-over): Early in the pandemic, California's leaders received praise for attacking the surge with stay-at-home orders, closures of bars and restaurants in the biggest cities. Florida, by contrast, allowed many businesses to stay open. Why is California's unraveling now worse than Florida's? One expert points to the ratio of hospital beds per person.
PROF. ANNE RIMOIN, EPIDEMIOLOGIST, UCLA FIELDING SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH: California really does have one of the lower rates of hospital beds. That is a good reason why we're seeing our hospitals overwhelmed more quickly than hospitals and other states that have more hospital beds per capita.
TOOD (voice-over): And one analyst says Californians living with stay at home orders longer than most of the country have been simply burned out with all the restrictions.
DR. SEEMA YASMIN, FORMER CDC DISEASE DETECTIVE: I think COVID fatigue is a real factor here where we are 10 months, 11 months into the pandemic and folks haven't had the support to stay at home because they live paycheck to paycheck.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TODD: Two experts we spoke to also point to the problems of homelessness in places like Los Angeles and San Francisco. Cities where the homeless populations have spiked in recent years. People living in shelters, in tighter space, as they say, have contributed to the surge in California. Wolf?
[17:55:04]
BLITZER: It's so sad. All right, Brian Todd reporting. Thank you.
There's more breaking news we're following. Republican Georgia election officials are fighting back very hard against President Trump's election conspiracy claims with a scathing point by point takedown of the President.
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BLITZER: Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer in THE SITUATION ROOM. We're following breaking news.
