Return to Transcripts main page
The Situation Room
Interview With Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL); Leaked Trump Phone Call Stirs Controversy; Georgia Officials Debunk Trump Election Conspiracy Theories; New York Confirms First Case Of U.K. COVID Strain Believed To Be More Contagious; Experts: Trump's Request To "Find" Votes Could Put Him In Legal Jeopardy; Georgia Secretary Of State At The Center Of Trump's Efforts To Subvert Election. Aired 6-7p ET
Aired January 04, 2021 - 18:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[18:00:00]
WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Election officials in Georgia torching President Trump's debunked conspiracy theories about election fraud on the heels of his jaw-dropping phone call to the Georgia secretary of state in which the president of the United States actually demanded that he find enough votes to reverse his election defeat.
One official, a Republican, accusing the president's allies of having intentionally misled the state Senate, voters and the people of the United States.
And we're also following breaking news for president-elect Joe Biden's campaign swing in Georgia just ahead of tomorrow's crucial Senate run- offs, Biden rallying Democrats and telling voters they have the power to decide control of the U.S. senate.
And there's breaking pandemic news as well. The U.S. coronavirus death toll has now surged past 352,000, with more than 20.7 million confirmed cases, as the CDC releases dismal new data on the vaccine rollout. more than 15 million doses of the vaccine have been distributed so far around the country, but get this. Only 4.5 million Americans have so far been vaccinated.
Let's start our coverage this hour with our chief White House correspondent, Jim Acosta. He has got more in the president's truly outrageous pressure campaign to try to overturn the election results.
Jim, update our viewers on the latest.
JIM ACOSTA, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Wolf.
President Trump's attempted shakedown of Georgia's secretary of state has even 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 who wants to burn things to the ground on his way out, adding -- quote -- "The arsonist will always light the match." Meanwhile, down in Georgia, as you said, state officials complain they are playing Whac-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 VOTING SYSTEM IMPLEMENTATION MANAGER: This is all easily, provably false. Yet the president persists.
I will admit, when I listened to the audio of the phone call when the president brought that up again, and I heard it on a radio ad again today, I wanted to scream.
ACOSTA: 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 Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, aimed at cooking up a Trump win in that state.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: 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. Fellows, I need 11,000 votes. Give me a break.
ACOSTA: CNN has confirmed the White House attempted to call Raffensperger 18 times before the one-hour conversation over the weekend.
The people of Georgia are angry, the people of the country are angry. And there's nothing wrong with saying that you've recalculated.
BRAD RAFFENSPERGER (R), GEORGIA SECRETARY OF STATE: Well, Mr. President, the challenge that you have is the data you have is wrong.
I did want to make my points that the data that he has is just plain wrong. We know -- he had hundreds and hundreds of people he said that were dead that voted. We found two.
ACOSTA: 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 a not a helpful call. ACOSTA: 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.
Vice President Mike Pence, who will preside over the electoral vote count on January 6, sidestepped the issue while campaigning before Tuesday's Senate run-off in Georgia.
MIKE PENCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I promise you, come this Wednesday, we will have our day in Congress. We will hear the objections.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
PENCE: We will hear the evidence. But tomorrow is Georgia's day.
ACOSTA: All living former us 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 GOP Senator Josh Hawley, who's 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.
[18:05:01]
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: 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 just learned from this case. The president has been impeached. That's a pretty big lesson.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ACOSTA: Now, the president is scheduled to campaign for Georgia's endangered Republican senators at a rally in the state later on this evening. Marine One has just touched down on the South Lawn of the White House. We will see if the president answers some questions on his way down to Georgia.
But Mr. Trump may want to consider how long he lingers in that state. The Fulton County district attorney earlier today released a statement saying she found Mr. Trump's phone call with the secretary of state down there to be disturbing. That district attorney went on to say in a statement that she will enforce the law without fear or favor -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Well, clearly, the president did not learn from the fact that he was impeached by the U.S. House of Representatives.
ACOSTA: No, he did not.
BLITZER: All right, thanks very much.
I want to get an update right now on president-elect Joe Biden's last- minute campaign stop in Georgia just ahead of tomorrow's crucial Senate run-off elections.
Our political correspondent, Arlette Saenz, is on the story for us.
Arlette, Biden desperately would like to secure the Senate for the Democrats. So what was his message tonight?
ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: Well, Wolf, president-elect Joe Biden's message to Georgians was simple, urging them to get out there and vote for the Democrats in tomorrow's Senate run-offs.
The president-elect's goal really today was mobilizing those same voters that turned out for him back in November, helping to flip this state from red to blue. And so much of the -- what the president hopes to accomplish, the agenda that he promoted during the campaign, including health care, immigration, and climate change, hinges on the results of these Senate run-offs, which will determine control of the Senate.
Take a listen to Biden's message to Georgia voters earlier today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN (D), 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.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
(LAUGHTER)
BIDEN: 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 of the next four years, but for the next generation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SAENZ: Now, while campaigning here in Atlanta, the president-elect made no mention of that explosive phone call President Trump had with Georgia state officials, as he attempted to pressure them to change the results of the election here in the state.
The only comments that has come so far is from the vice president- elect, Kamala Harris, who called that conversation an abuse of power.
But Biden did talk about the need for senators to be loyal to the Constitution over the president. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: You have two senators who think their loyalty is to Trump, not to Georgia. You have two senators who think they have sworn an oath to Donald Trump, not to the United States Constitution.
Let me tell you something. I got elected when I was 29 years old and six more times to the United States Senate from Delaware. And guess what? Not once did I think I took an oath to any president, Democrat or Republican. I took an oath to the United States Constitution.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SAENZ: And those comments are also coming as a group of Republicans in the House and Senate are planning to object to the results of the election on Wednesday.
That is something that the Biden team is simply calling a stunt.
BLITZER: Arlette, the president-elect, Joe Biden, also took a direct swipe at President Trump for his continued absence during this latest very deadly surge of COVID cases here in the United States. Tell us about that.
SAENZ: Well, the president-elect has not been shy in expressing his criticism of the president's handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
And, today, he took particular aim when it comes to the distribution of vaccinations, something that he has said has been far behind pace of what the administration had initially projected. Take a listen to his comments earlier today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: I have said it before. Getting America vaccinated will be one of the most difficult operational challenges this nation has ever faced.
[18:10:00]
But we have 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.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
BIDEN: I don't know why he still wants the job. He doesn't want to do the work.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SAENZ: Now, the president-elect himself has promised that there will be 100 million vaccine shots in the first 100 days in office.
But so much of what he's hoping to accomplish will be based on this early groundwork that the Trump administration when it comes -- sets when it comes to the vaccine distribution -- Wolf.
BLITZER: So much at stake, life-and-death issues.
Arlette, thank you very much.
Let's bring in our political correspondent, Abby Phillip, our senior congressional correspondent, Manu Raju, and CNN's Ryan Nobles.
Abby, as the president continues his push to fight the election results, a Georgia election official, Gabriel Sterling, knocked down the false claims about voter fraud put out by the president and his allies, Sterling being a Republican.
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's not true.
The president's legal team had the entire tape. They watched the entire tape and then, from our point of view, intentionally misled the state Senate, the voters and the people of the United States about this.
They say that there's 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 people below the age of 18 voted. The actual number is zero; 4,926 voters passed the legal registration deadline. Again, it's zero.
There is 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 did not 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 have seen 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: Abby, will any of this amount of very, very serious and excellent fact-checking change the president's mind, for that matter, or change the minds of his supporters in Congress?
ABBY PHILLIP, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: No, I don't think it will. I don't think the president cares one way or another about what the truth is, because, as Gabriel Sterling laid out in that clip, all of this is readily available to him and his attorneys, that they at any point could very easily just find this information.
They could simply just ask Gabriel Sterling or Brad Raffensperger about this information, and they never have. This is not about the facts. This is about the president wanting to live in a universe in which he has not lost.
And so I don't think it will change his mind. And as for his allies on Capitol Hill, they are trying to have it both ways on this. They don't want to deal with the fact that all of the things the president are saying are not true. They're just saying, well, people are saying that there are problems, and they hope that by doing that they can get away with backing these falsehoods.
I think the reality is that we all know that this is completely invented and completely made up, and that the people who are supporting it are doing so willfully, because the accurate information is out there. It's on that table that he put out, that Gabriel Sterling put out there, and it's very easily accessible.
But none of these people are interested in doing that, because this is about politics, it's about political power, and about showing the president that they have his back, so that he could have theirs.
BLITZER: Manu, that Georgia election official, Gabriel Sterling, is a lifelong Republican.
And we are seeing a small group of Republicans in Congress now publicly rebuke the president's efforts to have Congress reject the election results. And this is dramatic, potentially significant. Tell us about that.
MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, there are a small group of Republicans, but it's a small group.
One of them is the number three Republican in the House Republican leadership, Liz Cheney, who told me today it was -- quote -- "deeply troubling" what the president has done, and she said everybody should listen to that hour-long phone call that has been leaked to the press that we published, others did as well.
But in addition to that, the -- one Republican Senator Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, one of the states that these conservatives are targeting, called the president's phone call a new low.
But it's been a small group, Wolf. I talked -- I tried to ask Kevin McCarthy, the House Republican leader, today if he has any concerns with the call, if he was OK with this phone call to the Georgia secretary of state. He would not respond to questions about that. He did say earlier on FOX that the president was -- had concerns about the integrity of the election, so seems to be backing up the president's claims here.
Other Republicans also defended the president, including the ones who are leading that charge on the House floor, like Congressman Jim Jordan of Ohio, who told me that this would not affect the amount of support they will ultimately get come Wednesday, when it's time for the joint session of Congress to count the electoral votes.
[18:15:11]
He anticipates a sizable amount of Republicans to join hands on this, but we're clearly seeing a split within the party about how -- about whether or not they should try to overturn the election. More Republicans are raising concerns publicly about the effort.
We expect probably close to a majority, if not a majority, of House Republicans to get on board behind this effort, on the Senate side, probably a minority, Wolf, of Senate Republicans will vote to overturn the electoral results, more Republican speaking out, including Ohio Senator Rob Portman today, against that effort.
Trump allies like Tom Cotton are also concerned. So, while this effort will not succeed, Wolf, it's unclear whether this -- it's doubtful that this phone call that the president made to the Georgia secretary of state is going to change much, particularly among his supporters on the Hill.
BLITZER: We will see what happens on Wednesday in the House and the Senate.
Ryan, what sort of role is all of this playing in Georgia right now, where you are? Those two Senate run-off races are tomorrow. They will determine control of who has the majority in the U.S. senate, a lot of stake.
RYAN NOBLES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: In many ways, Wolf, this phone call continues a theme that has happened for this entire Georgia Senate run-off. And that is these Republican candidates forced to deal with President Trump's unpredictability and his inconsistency.
It goes from his immediately claiming that the election here in Georgia was a fraud. It goes to his deciding to back out of the omnibus spending bill and saying that he wanted to $2,000 checks, his decision to veto the National Defense Authorization Act.
At every turn, these Republican candidates who have worked so hard to stay as closely in line with President Trump have found themselves in a very difficult spot, trying to explain exactly where they stand. And what we have found, Wolf, is that, at every turn, when, given the choice, they always connect themselves close to Donald Trump.
And that happened this time around as well. Senator David Perdue has said not anything negative about the president's comments to the secretary of state, instead complaining that the secretary of state recorded that phone call. And Kelly Loeffler just refuse to talk about it at all when pressed by reporters several times today.
Wolf, I was at an event today with the vice president, Mike Pence, who also kind of leaned into these conspiracy theories. I talked to a number of Republican voters as they left that event. Very few of them even knew about the secretary of state call. And even when we told them about it, it didn't seem to bother them.
So, it's pretty clear that these Republican candidates think the best way for them to win on Tuesdays is to stick close to President Trump.
BLITZER: Very interesting.
Abby, one adviser, we're told, actually compared President Trump to a dictator who wants to burn it all down to the ground on his way out the door. So, what could that signal in these final 16 days of the Trump presidency?
PHILLIP: Buckle up.
I think we have a long way to go between now and January 20. This president is, I think, growing more desperate to try anything that he can to extend his time in the White House, even though that is not possible.
But this call is just the latest effort that he has made to try to do, I think, even more egregious things to try to get officials around the country to do his bidding on this. And then, beyond that, we're still waiting on the pardons. We're waiting to see what he does when it comes to his family members or himself when it comes to any kind of criminal liability.
And I think, between now and January 20, you're going to see him, I think, become more desperate, as his opportunities to kind of throw a wrench in the system dwindle.
Wednesday is going to be one of the final times. And I think, after that, you're going to see him, I think, perhaps get more desperate.
BLITZER: Yes, these final 16 days could be quite, quite intense.
All right, guys, stand by. There's more news we're following.
Just ahead, I will speak with Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger. We will talk about the president's latest scheme to try to overturn the election here in the United States.
And later: New York state just confirmed its first case of the extremely contagious U.K. COVID strain. Will it make the terrible surge in hospitalizations even worse?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[18:22:38] BLITZER: Breaking news: officials in Georgia slamming President Trump for his disgraceful phone call, demanding that the secretary of state of Georgia find enough votes in that state to overturn his election defeat, this as the president continues to lash out at lawmakers who refuse to play along with his scheme.
For more than that, I want to bring in Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger of Illinois.
Congressman, thank you so much for joining us.
You probably saw it. Today, the president tweeted this. And let me put it up on the screen and read it: "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 or fraudulent presidential numbers" -- end quote.
Is that how you would describe yourself, as part of what the president calls the surrender caucus?
REP. ADAM KINZINGER (R-IL): No, certainly not. And if he calls us the surrender caucus, I would actually say that what we're doing is, we're fighting, and we're fighting to uphold, even in difficult circumstances, the Constitution of the United States and the will of the people.
The president had plenty of opportunity over the last number of weeks to prove his case in court. That wasn't done. No court case happened. All these things that are being thrown out on Twitter that supposedly prove fraud are later proven to be fraudulent themselves.
And what we need to do now is to get away from this desire that some politicians have to just avoid the pain of having to tell their base or their district what they don't think they want to hear and just tell them the truth.
When the truth comes out, people will want to hear it. But when nobody's saying the truth, people are confused, and they don't know who to believe, so they believe who they think they trust.
BLITZER: What is so totally, totally outrageous, Congressman, is that at least 140 of your fellow House Republicans are expected to vote against counting the Electoral College results, the electoral votes, when the House and Senate convene on Wednesday.
Have you had private conversations with these colleagues of yours? Have you tried making the case to them that this, for all practical purposes, is outrageous?
KINZINGER: Yes, look, we have had -- it's really been the center of everything we have been talking about since we have been back out here in D.C.
[18:25:00]
I'm hopeful that initially would have been 140 will be less, that we have kind of stemmed that tide a little bit just in having these discussions.
That said, that initially would have been 140 will be less that we have kind of stemmed that time a little bit just in having these discussions. That said, if it's 100 or 50, it's way too many. But if we can do less, that's good.
I mean, the bottom line is this, is, President Trump ran a race and he lost. And all the evidence is that he lost. Every state, which has the final authority in terms of certification, has certified their result. It is not the role of the Congress of the United States to determine whether or not we like what they sent. It's our job to simply determine that they sent electors to us.
BLITZER: Yes, all 50 states and D.C., you're absolutely right, they did officially certify the results of the election. Biden won by more than seven million votes.
And then the Electoral College convened virtually, and they affirmed the results 306-232 for Trump. You need 270. Trump is the loser. Biden is the winner. Ultimately, the guardrails of the Constitution, I think you agree with me, will hold.
But even this push to overturn the election by the president and his supporters in the House and Senate, it may be bumbling, it may be futile, but is it still essentially a coup attempt?
KINZINGER: I think -- I don't want to say coup, because I think that -- from my position, it leads to a whole set of things.
I do think, though, it is an attempt to overthrow the will of the people. And it's one thing to be concerned about voter fraud. I think everybody's concerned about voter fraud, and we want to go after it whenever we can. But to make accusations that 20,000 votes that were just for Biden, and then you see that that wasn't true, or that there's a explanation, because the Trump votes were uploaded in the second tranche.
I mean, to say all that, to overload people with information, to confuse them, and then this is the most dangerous part, is, we know that president-elect Biden's going to be president. We know that. But the damage that is done to the trust in the institutions out here is what can be long-term or even short-term detrimental.
It is the only thing -- the only thing that makes a constitutional republic work is the understanding that we can have transfers of power, and we can all trust each other with the will of the people. When that starts being violated, it's damaging.
BLITZER: What really worries me is the potential, God forbid, for violence.
So, the mayor of Washington, D.C., has now asked that the National Guard be mobilized tomorrow and Wednesday here, because demonstrations are about to begin in favor of the president ,against the election result, and there could be some significant violence. How worried are you -- and you're a military man -- how worried are
you that what the president is inspiring right now could lead to some significant violence, not only in the nation's capital, but around the country?
KINZINGER: I am worried. I am worried.
We saw violence in the summer. I think we could potentially see violence tomorrow, and -- potentially. I hope not. But what's happening now is people, instead of expressing themselves by making arguments or having discussions, are expressing themselves that way.
What I get concerned about is, you can go on Twitter, where somebody has 500,000 or a million followers, and they're telling you that they know that Donald Trump won, and the government is -- or the deep state or the satanist pedophiles that QAnon believes runs the government are going to overthrow your will.
It's not totally irrational, then, to think that somebody is going to take that into their own hands. It's a major concern. The president knows better. Leaders out here know better. And it's much easier, evidently, to just avoid telling the truth because you don't want to get swamped by the Twitter mobs.
BLITZER: And you would think the president of the United States would want to calm things down, but he's not doing that. He's doing exactly the opposite right now.
Congressman Kinzinger, thanks for everything you're doing. We really appreciate it. Thanks for joining us.
KINZINGER: You bet. Happy new year.
BLITZER: Happy new year to you as well.
Just ahead: Officials confirm a new more contagious strain of the coronavirus is now in New York state. We're going to have the late- breaking developments.
Plus: CNN presses Florida's Governor Ron DeSantis on how his state's slow and chaotic rollout of the COVID vaccine is unfolding. We're going to show you a rather heated exchange. You will want to see this.
We will be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[18:33:55]
BLITZER: There's breaking news that we are following. Governor Andrew Cuomo says a man in New York state has tested positive for the new strain of the coronavirus that scientists worry is much more contagious.
CNN's Nick Watt is tracking all of the latest developments for us from Los Angeles. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NICK WATT, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Today, a nurse in New Jersey among the first to be vaccinated against COVID-19. And that's her dose two, such a big deal that the governor came to watch, applaud and elbow bump.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I have now body armor.
WATT: But the overwhelming majority of Americans still awaiting dose one.
FAYNA LUDZ, DAYTONA BEACH, FLORIDA, RESIDENT: We're senior citizens. All we want is get the vaccine. Please give us the vaccine.
MONCEF SLAOUI, CHIEF ADVISER, OPERATION WARP SPEED: Nothing has gone wrong. What we have committed to is to have 20 million doses of vaccine available for the American people to be immunized.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, no, Mr. Slaoui. No, it was that 20 million Americans would be vaccinated.
WATT: By New Year's, and now he says 20 million vaccinated was a hope, not a commitment.
Bottom line is January 4th, and still, just a little bit over 4.5 million have had a shot.
[18:35:06]
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: No excuses, we're not where we want to be, but hopefully, we'll pick up some momentum.
WATT: The FDA meets this week to discuss having the dose of Moderna's vaccine for the 18 to 55 demo to get more shots in arms.
Meantime, the virus remains rampant.
MAYOR ERIC GARCETTI, LOS ANGELES: We are seeing a person every six seconds contract COVID-19 here in Los Angeles County.
WATT: California in crisis, hospitals are running out of beds and equipment.
SCOTT BYINGTON, CRITICAL CARE NURSE, ST. FRANCIS MEDICAL CENTER: We needed high flow oxygen and we were able to obtain it, because a patient recently died in the ER. And so we're able to get the equipment, because somebody else, you know, had died. So that sounds gruesome and horrific, but that's where we are today.
WATT: Nationwide, record numbers in the hospital, and 100,000-plus for 33 days straight. And over the past week, one person has died from COVID-19 every 33 seconds. No words of sympathy from the president, just a tweet brushing off the death toll as fake news and his own surgeon general disagrees. JEROME ADAMS, U.S. SURGEON GENERAL: I have no reason to doubt those
numbers.
WATT: The president's lie compounds the pain of the bereaved.
ROSA CERNA, LOST FATHER AND UNCLE TO COVID-19: It's an insult to every family, because there's absolutely no way for somebody to say that it was fake, because my dad is not a fake dad.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WATT (on camera): And, Wolf, as you mention now, a case confirmed in New York state of the more transmittable U.K. variant. That case is connected to a jewelry store in Saratoga Springs.
Also now in California, six confirmed cases of that variant stoking fears when you are rolling in the holidays of the surge upon a surge -- Wolf.
BLITZER: It's now California, New York, Colorado, Florida. It's emerging in all parts of the country right now. Very disturbing indeed.
Nick, thank you very much.
We're also getting some new information about the vaccination rollout in Florida. For more, I want to bring in CNN's Rosa Flores. She is joining us from Miami right now.
Rosa, some senior citizens of Florida, what, they've been waiting in line for hours and hours, even overnight to get the vaccine.
You pressed the governor on this earlier today. Tell us about the exchange you had.
ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, Wolf, the governor really should have expected this question, because this is week four of the vaccine rollout in the state of Florida, and our cameras were rolling last week as seniors were waiting overnight to get the vaccine,. And on top of that, seniors in this state have been asked to go to a website to get an appointment to get this vaccine and that website keeps crashing. It was a very simple question. Why? What has been going wrong?
But Governor Ron DeSantis wouldn't even let me finish asking my question. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FLORES: Governor, what has gone wrong -- Governor, what has gone wrong with the rollout of the vaccine that we've seen phone lines jammed, web sites crashing and --
(CROSSTALK)
GOV. RON DESANTIS (R), FLORIDA: A lot of demand. I mean, I think at the end of the day --
(CROSSTALK)
FLORES: If I could --
DESANTIS: Excuse me, excuse me, you just said what has gone wrong. So, I'm answering the question.
FLORES: If I could complete the question though.
DESANTIS: So, are you going to give a speech or you're going to answer -- ask a question?
FLORES: With all due respect, Governor, I'm trying to --
DESANTIS: You asked a question. I'm going to answer it.
FLORES: I'm trying to finish my question.
DESANTIS: No, you are giving a speech, you asked a question.
FLORES: I am trying to ask you --
DESANTIS: You are going to ask how many questions? You get three? They only got one question. Why do you get three?
FLORES: With all due respect, Governor, I'm just asking if I could finish any question?
DESANTIS: You didn't. You finished the question.
FLORES: I did not. My full question is, what went wrong with the rollout of the vaccine when we've seen phone lines jammed, web sites crashed and --
DESANTIS: So you're repeating your question.
FLORES: To complete it for you, Governor. We've seen websites crashed and also seniors waiting overnight for the vaccine.
DESANTIS: Where was that at?
FLORES: We've seen it in Duval, Broward, Orange and Lee Counties.
DESANTIS: Why was -- like in Lee? Why did that happen? Did you investigate why?
FLORES: That's my question to you, Governor. You are the governor of the state. I'm not the governor of the state.
DESANTIS: OK. But you didn't investigate why, that how -- like in Lee County. And why was there a big line? Did you investigate why?
FLORES: Could you tell us why?
DESANTIS: Because we distributed the vaccines to the hospitals, and the hospital said, first come, first served, if you show up, we'll do it. So, you didn't use a registration system. There wasn't anything that was done, and there's a lot of demand for it. So, people are going to want to go ahead and get it.
(CROSSTALK)
FLORES: So, are you saying there was no plan then from the state to make sure that senior citizens didn't wait outside overnight?
DESANTIS: So, the state is not dictating the hospitals how -- we are not dictating to Carlos Migoya how he runs his operations here. That would be a total disaster. These guys are much more competent to be able to deliver health care services than a state government could ever be.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FLORES: Now, Wolf, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has maintained that his priority is to vaccinate Florida seniors here in this state.
[18:40:04]
Now, my follow-up question to the question was, why are assistive living facilities still waiting for vaccines. He didn't answer my question, because he walked right off that exchange -- Wolf.
BLITZER: You did an excellent job, Rosa. We're very proud of you. Good exchange indeed. He should be patient, he should answer these questions. These are life and death issues that especially people over 65 years old in Florida are facing right now. Thanks for that, for doing what you did.
I want to bring in our chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, right now. He's the author of a brand new book just coming out tomorrow. You got to get it. It's entitled "Keep Sharp: Build A Better Brain At Any Age."
I can't wait, Sanjay, to read your new book. It's going to be amazing. But let me get your reaction to what we just heard, that exchange that Rosa had with the Florida governor, Ron DeSantis. It's heartbreaking to see these elderly people just waiting in line, sitting there overnight because they hope they can get a vaccine.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, I can tell you, it strikes very close to home.
First of all, what Rosa was asking about is happening, and it's not an exaggeration. And I know this, because my parents were two of those senior citizens who waited all night in Lee County to get their vaccines. The way it worked for them is that they basically, they wanted to get the vaccine, they started to searching online to try to find where the vaccine might be available.
They were told that the local library was going to have a certain number of doses, so they got there at 1:30 in the morning. It was like camping out for a concert except that my parents are in the late 70s. It's outside. They're trying to maintain the distance.
This is -- I think that's the frustration and I think that's the frustration hearing from a lot of people. Fantastic that the vaccine is out there, but this is what it is sort of come down to as far as distribution goes in some places. Not everywhere, but in some places. And it's -- you know, as much preparation as there should have been, this should have been a more coordinated roll out in many of the places.
BLITZER: I don't understand, Sanjay, why FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency or the National Guard or the military has been activated. People are dying, and they are activating the military and FEMA if there's a hurricane or tornado. But why aren't they activated right now to get these shots into the arms especially of the elderly?
GUPTA: I don't know the answer to this, Wolf, but it's been a note that we have been heard many times throughout this pandemic, we're going to do this at the federal level, and then the states sort of have at it. The states have asked in the billions of dollars to create the infrastructure of the public health to handle something like this, receive $480 million.
So, they've been woefully underfunded, and then it's very hard for them to take a brand-new vaccine that requires the cold storage that everyone has heard about by now, and to be able to distribute it. So it is becoming a situation where the people are sort of trying to fend for themselves.
And again, my parents just sort of found this vaccine by -- on their own. There was unified strategy to try to distribute it to them.
BLITZER: Yeah, this is an awful situation. Sanjay, we'll continue this conversation. Thank you as usual.
Just ahead, did President Trump actually break the law when he demanded that officials in Georgia overturn his election defeat there? I'll ask the former U.S. attorney, Preet Bharara. He's standing by live. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[18:48:08]
BLITZER: Many legal experts say President Trump may actually have broken the law when he pressured Georgia's secretary of state in a recorded phone conversation to find enough votes to overturn his loss in the state.
Let's discuss with the former U.S. attorney, the CNN senior legal analyst, Preet Bharara.
Preet, thanks for joining us.
So, what do you think? Did President Trump actually commit a crime, whether a state crime or a federal crime during that one-hour recorded phone call with Georgia's Republican secretary of state? PREET BHARARA, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: I think it's possible. I
mean, any good prosecutor, when you have some evidence that a crime was committed, you want to take an investigation, at a minimum, based on that call, based on the things that Trump is saying, based on what seems to have been his intent, describing the specific amount of votes that he wants against the evidence that there was no voter fraud as determined by Republican officials and courts and all sorts of other folks looking into as well, I think it's clearly worthy of criminal investigation.
And we have -- there's a statement from the Fulton County D.A. suggesting that it may be looked at. I think it's too soon to say whether or not definitively you could prove beyond a reasonable doubt a criminal violation to a unanimous jury, but it's disturbing. It's unethical. It's an abuse of power at a minimum.
BLITZER: You've looked at the laws in Georgia, as well as the federal laws. Which prosecutor -- a state prosecutor or a federal prosecutor would have potentially a stronger case?
BHARARA: I don't -- I don't know, because I don't practice in Georgia. From what I've looked at, it looks at the Georgia statute provides a little bit more of a basis to bring a case. I think what will also matter is the appetite for the folks to bring a particular case.
There's some conjecture about the sudden the departure of the United States attorney in Georgia, in Atlanta. I don't know why that happened, it seems odd because he said he was going to stay until January 20th, he left suddenly I think today or yesterday. So depending on who the new U.S. attorney is, with the appetite might be in Washington, we could see an investigation on the national level or you could see an investigation at the local level.
[18:50:08]
BLITZER: I know you watched today, as Georgia's top election official, Gabriel Sterling, offered a detailed fact-checker of the president's false and truly outrageous claims about the election. You tweeted in response, I'll put it up on the screen: Explain your Twitter praise for us. Go ahead.
BHARARA: I can't see the tweet you put.
BLITZER: We just see -- we just see the hands clapping. You are clearly -- you are clearly praising Gabriel Sterling and when he did. It was an amazing fact check by him.
BHARARA: My amateur use of emoji time on the Twitter, look, here's a Republican official who doesn't gain anything, right? He gains the ire of the president of the United States, he gains the ire of perhaps both senators in Georgia, of his own party, by stating the truth, by putting forward facts.
I mean, the craziest thing in all of this, the context, in which the president is making allegations against of that official and the secretary of state and the governor, is what motivation could they have? Not to look at bona fide issues of voter fraud. They're Republicans, they're doing what's right, and it's a good thing to see.
BLITZER: Preet, thank you very, very much. Obviously, we're going to continue our analysis down the road.
Since President Trump lost the election, no state official has been under more pressure than from the president actually than Georgia's Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.
CNN's Amara Walker has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
AMARA WALKER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In the face of repeated attacks and pressure from President Trump --
BRAD RAFFENSPERGER, GEORGIA SECRETARY OF STATE: We believe we do have an accurate election.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: No, no, you don't. No. No, you don't. You don't have. You don't have. Not even close.
WALKER: Georgia's Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger hasn't budged from his principles. As the president refuses to accept the reality that he lost Georgia just two weeks before Joe Biden's inauguration.
RAFFENSPERGER: I think that's really what we're called to be, is people of integrity. And that's -- I work hard on that every day so people know that we're working hard for honest elections.
WALKER: On Saturday, the secretary took the call he's been trying to avoid for weeks.
RAFFENSPERGER: I never believed it was appropriate to speak to the president, but he pushed out. I guess he had his staff push us. They wanted to call. The challenge that we have, first of all, we're in a litigation mode with the president's team against the state of Georgia.
WALKER: Raffensperger sat down for an interview with us at the beginning of December. The secretary who voted for Trump says he leans on his faith in tough times.
RAFFENSPERGER: It's truth in that faith. And so you can't kill it. It's just an organism. It's living, breathing because it's within us. And so I'm very hopeful. And we need to just continue, quote, to fight the good fight.
WALKER: The death threats and vulgar messages targeting his family began pouring in since Trump and his allies continue to make baseless claims of voter fraud in Georgia.
TRUMP: He's an enemy of the people, the secretary of state.
WALKER: You know, the people of Georgia know that this was a scam. And because of what you've done to the president a lot of people aren't going out to vote. And a lot of Republicans are going to vote negative because they hate what you did to the president.
RAFFENSPERGER: Well, we've been through an awful lot.
WALKER: Raffensperger says losing his 37-year-old son after a fentanyl overdose nearly three years ago helped put life in perspective.
RAFFENSPERGER: It was a struggle throughout his life. But every one of those times that we had, you know, that he struggled, you know, God was there for us.
WALKER: And prepared him for moments like this.
RAFFENSPERGER: I do lean into the Lord because I know what he calls us to be in all things, is to be honest and treat people with dignity.
We have to just lower the rhetoric and we have to really start trying to understand and have conversations with people and not put up our walls and not attack but just listen.
WALKER: And that's exactly what he did during the stunning call from the president. He listened. But never gave in.
As a conservative and born again Christian, Raffensperger says he's focusing on the tight Senate runoff, hoping the Republicans will pull through.
RAFFENSPERGER: My job is to make sure elections are run honestly and fairly. The Republican Party's job is to raise money and make sure they turn their people out to vote.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WALKER (on camera): Now, Wolf, at the state level there have been calls for an investigation into this phone call from President Trump. I can tell you, though, it's unclear at this time if the secretary of state's office or the state board of elections will actually look into this call, and refer the matter to the attorney general or local district attorneys.
Wolf, back to you.
BLITZER: Yeah, Brad Raffensperger, Gabriel Sterling are both very, very courageous men.
Amara, thank you very much. Excellent report. We'll have more news right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[18:59:30]
BLITZER: Finally tonight, we share more stories of people who died from the coronavirus.
Bishop James Flowers Jr. of Maryland was 84 years old. He was a community activist and the pastor at the Shining Star Freewill Baptist Church for 38 years. Bishop Flowers was also a gospel recording artist and toured the country with his singing ministry. He leaves behind four children and many grandchildren and great grandchildren. Demetra Mulenos Karras of Washington state was 97, a dedicated and
loving mother who treasured spending time with her family. Demetra was very independent and always put others before herself.
May they rest in peace and may their memories be a blessing.
Thanks very much for watching. I'm Wolf Blitzer. I'll be back tomorrow 4:00 p.m. Eastern for special coverage of the Georgia Senate runoffs.
"ERIN BURNETT OUTFRONT" starts right now.
