tv Erin Burnett Out Front CNN November 20, 2020 4:00pm-5:00pm PST
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beautiful baby boy. i'm wolf blitzer. i'll be back tomorrow 7:00 p.m. for situation room. "erin burnett outfront" starts right now. out front, next. trump trying to overturn the election. meeting tonight for an hour with republican lawmakers from michigan and his next target? pennsylvania. plus, breaking news. donald trump jr. testing positive for coronavirus, as the president's legal team, including rudy giuliani, is now in quarantine after exposure to the virus. and trump's attacks on election integrity hitting the nation's poll workers especially hard. one of them happens to be a registered republican. tells me why it is so deeply personal for her. let's go outfront. and good evening. i'm erin burnett. out front, tonight, overturning the will of the people.
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that is what the president of the united states is trying to do. right in front of our eyes. literally. just look. watch your own eyes. a meeting today. seven republican lawmakers from michigan. president invited them to the white house, including the speaker of the statehouse. why did he invite them? bring them? fly them to washington? in a farfetched and dubious strategy, trump wants republican legislature in michigan to step in and name electors supporting him to the electoral college. so to give those electoral votes of michigan to him, instead of to joe biden. that's the will of the michigan voters, right? they chose joe biden by a margin of 154,000 votes. but we are learning, just now, that the michigan republicans at that meeting did not cave to trump. tonight, they're doing what is right. they have put out a statement that reads in part, quote, we have not yet been made aware of any information that would change the outcome of the election in michigan and as
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legislative leaders, we will follow the law and follow the normal process regarding michigan's electors. and then, the michigan republican leaders continue with a clear message for trump. quote. michigan's certification process should be a deliberate process, free from threats and intimidation. and the candidates who win the most votes win elections and michigan's electoral votes. these are simple truths. the power of is a simple statement because these are simple truths, not partisan truths, truths. no adjective required. and so, is this. these republicans, who are publicly rebuffing the president's position tonight are in way too small a category because the truth is, many republicans are silent, complicit, or cheering on the president's absurd and dangerous plan. take paul gosar telling cnn states should be able to
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disregard and name their own to the electoral college. think about that. then, republican senator lamar alexander released a statement today. says if there is any chance, whatsoever, that joe biden will be the next president, and it looks like he has a very good chance, the trump administration should provide the biden team with all the transition materials, resources, and meetings necessary to ensure a smooth transition. okay. we are really beyond this because let's be clear. it's not up for debate. this is not unsettled or unknown. alexander's getting props tonight for saying trump should start the transition, in case biden wins. that is not enough. that is trying to thread a needle here to say, oh, go ahead and start but we still don't know the outcome here. that statement gives oxygen to a dangerous and deeply un-democratic sentiment that has taken hold across much of this country. joe biden will be the next president and it is time for republican leaders to follow the likes of mitt romney and those
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michigan legislatures to take a stand and say the simple truth. the people who win elections, win elections. just got to stop dancing in fear of trump. kaitlan collins is outside the white house. jessica dean is in delaware. kaitlan, this meeting. obviously, the president called them to come to washington from michigan. tell us what you have learned. >> clearly, it did not go the way the president wanted it to because the white house said it wasn't an advocacy meeting, you are seeing a statement they put out tonight saying there is no new information changing their mind about who won the state of michigan. i think that's incredibly notable because while the white house was saying it wasn't political focused, it wasn't politically motivated to have this meeting, we did know that people from the campaign were supposed to be there, including rudy giuliani, who did not show up only because his son tested positive for coronavirus. and so, the question here is really what's next here, erin?
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because unparalleled efforts, we should note, by inviting these state legislators to the white house today. and we are told he has plans to do similar for pennsylvania. although, those invitations don't appear to have been extended yet. but initially, they said wait for the votes to come out. then, we will show the president has won. clearly, that did not happen. then, they said wait for our lawsuits. we now see the president and his allies have lost or withdrawn over two dozen lawsuits. only winning two cases so far for a small number of votes. it's not going to change the outcome of this election. and clearly, this pressure campaign didn't work because you saw his attorney sydney powell saying, yesterday, that the goal of this was to get them to change the electors to be for-donald trump which, of course, would be overriding the votes of people in this state, especially michigan, where joe biden has a margin of 150,000 voters. so, the question really is, is what does the president do next? he did not answer our questions today. so it's still really unclear,
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erin. >> all right. so, kaitlan, let me ask you about something that happened today. an exchange you had with the white house press secretary, kayleigh mcenany, that says a lot about the white house view of this situation. let me play the clip. >> you haven't taken -- >> i'm not an activist and you haven't taken questions since october 1st. and you just took about five, kayleigh. that's not doing your job. your taxpayer-funded job. >> so what does this tell you, kaitlan, as you were sitting there? basically, i could see the frustration on your face, right? that's your job. to go in and ask questions of kayleigh mcenany, the press secretary. >> and it was our first opportunity to do so since october 1st. and i got that not everyone is going to get a question every single time. i understand that. time is limited here at the white house. but she hasn't held a press briefing in so long. there's not that many reporters in the room. because of social distancing,
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we're pretty limited. there's only like two per row, i believe. whenever she started as press secretary, she used to call on everyone in the room. so, it's clear she is not calling on people whose questions she doesn't really want to answer. as evidence by the president, then coming in the briefing room a few hours later, not taking a single question. even though he touted it as a news conference, they moved it from a smaller room where fewer reporters would have attended. to the briefing room. but he still did not take questions. and i i through see people not want to answer questions about this unprecedented effort to try to overturn results of the election. >> kaitlan, thank you very much. i want to go now to jessica dean. she is with the president-elect in wilmington, delaware. so, jessica, what is the biden team saying about all of this today? and have we even had a chance to hear their reaction to that statement from the michigan republican lawmakers who, you know, walked out of that meeting
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and put out a statement rebuffing the president's wishes? >> right. well, we're still waiting for that. but we -- we have heard from one of the senior advisers and lead attorney for the biden campaign, earlier today. bob bauer. he gave a zoom call with reporters and talked about how all of trump's actions are eating away at the fundamentals of democracy. but he said that, while they are trying to rip at the fabric of democracy, it is holding firm. the biden campaign, the biden-transition team, joe biden, himself. all of them believe that, when this is all said and done, joe biden will assume office on january 20th. that none of these legal fights are going to pan out. nothing is going to be overturned. that, all of the outcomes of the election are going to be what they are. that he won the election. he and kamala harris won that election. but the fact remains, they still have to deal with all of this. so they are certainly monitoring all of it, erin.
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they are certainly concerned what it does to the state of american democracy. how many people believe conspiracy theories and don't believe joe biden, outright, won this election. but they believe in the end, it's going to hold firm. and one other thing, just quickly, to note. biden and harris meeting with chuck schumer and nancy pelosi, today. they talked about covid-relief bill and getting that through in the lame-duck session. erin, this is just another effort to show the american people they are leading, they are not going to wait on trump to concede. >> obviously, unemployment benefits and things all running out in december. that would be, you know, almost a month before you had a new administration with the new congress. thank you very much. and i want to go now to jonathan, a reporter who's been covering michigan politics for over a decade and has been speaking to members who attended that meeting today. alice stewart is with me. and ben ginsburg, longtime republican election lawyer who served as national counsel to the bush campaign during the
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2000 recount. jonathan, let me start with you. we have this statement, right? they are going to follow the normal process. they haven't seen evidence of any -- anything that would change the outcome and the process should be free of threats and intimidation. what are you hearing happened in that meeting? >> well, to tell you the truth, i don't know what happened, yet. it hasn't been over for too long, just yet. what i think is remarkable about that statement is -- not the actual content because very similar to what these gop leaders had been saying for the last week or two. but it's remarkable because it came out, you know, a minute after they left or so. so, clearly, they went in knowing that they were not going to have their minds changed. that's probably not what the president was hoping to hear.
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and, you know, he was probably disappointed. told me very similar things this week. >> right. and i mean, you know, it's -- it's -- it seems very clear. you know, alice, one republican has told "the new york times" he is coming under enormous pressure regarding his vote and this is in terms of the certifying that's going on in michigan. what do you make of this? you're getting pressure on people who are supposed to certify election results, to go a different way than the election actually went from the president. >> you just have to do your job, and i'm encouraged to hear what the -- the statement from the michigan leaders that came out of the meeting. saying that they have found and seen no evidence that would change the outcome of this election. and keep in mind, yes, we need to make sure every legal and legitimate and valid vote is counted. but to say there is a national, widespread conspiracy is really impossible to believe.
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states run these elections individually. i have been deputy in arkansas. each state takes a lot of pride and pressure to do this right and make sure it's accurate. and if the president -- many republicans want to support this president. but if he does see evidence, and there is some concrete evidence of voter fraud, we need to see it. we don't need rudy giuliani waving affidavits around in -- in a news conference. we need to actually see it. and then, we can investigate it. because the integrity of the election process is paramount here and we need to make sure we get it right. >> of course. right now, 27 have not gone in their favor. ben, let me ask you. michigan's supposed to formally certify their results on monday. what can the biden team do if that, for some reason, doesn't happen, right? when i am referring to this great pressure on those who are
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supposed to do the final certification here? >> well, i believe that -- that they will be required to do their duty. the biden campaign would bring what's called a mandamus action, which means you tell a public official to do what their job is, which, in this case, is certifying. now, i think that there are ways in michigan law for a state board to ask for more time. but this is not one of those instances where they should invoke that even if it's true because this is all pretty straightforward. what the president is doing is completely unprecedented, to try and disenfranchise voters by denying a certificate of election. so, i suspect that would biden team would -- would go into court, pretty quickly, to -- to get the board to do that. >> jonathan, i just want to make a clear point here, which -- which -- which you were making, right? you have -- well, you weren't making this but let me just
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contrast what you are talking about with those michigan leaders, right? the speaker. they went to this meeting because they were asked by the president. they went. within a minute, they put out a statement saying wome will not t up with intimidation. we have seen no evidence. we're going to go ahead. and they put in there, these are simple truths. this is how election works. okay? yet, on the national level, silence from some of the leadership. silence. nobody said such thing. you know this gentleman. does this surprise you? i don't want to say this is a profile in courage but, in the environment we are in right now, it is. >> yeah, sure. i mean, they were obviously under intense pressure, today. you know, senator shirky was greeted at the airport as he left in detroit. he was at the airport -- protestors. so they knew going in and i think, you know, they knew
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obviously what the question was going to be. whether the president was able to change their mind about awarding electors to the pretty clear winner of the popular vote right now. their statement about threats and intimidation. i think that was directed more at the canvassers. monday. you know, the gop leaders are asking to cool off because we do know canvassers are getting hounded right now on both sides of the aisle. asking them to do something that would be -- asking them to weigh in on a past that is usually rather perfunctory. usually, the counties have already certified results and the state board. >> yep. sorry, little bit of trouble with your audio there. let me -- let me just, ben, give you a chance to respond to the news we also have. which is that, you know, kaitlan was saying they haven't, yet, extended invitations and i don't know whether tonight's situation with michigan lawmakers will
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change it but wanted to try to invite lawmakers from pennsylvania, to do the same thing, right? you can overturn the popular vote of pennsylvania and turn those electoral-college votes for trump. do you think there is any chance that trump succeeds at any of this? >> i really don't. first of all, pennsylvania le e legislative leadership has said very much the same thing as the leadership in michigan did. there is also a quirk of pennsylvania law that, apparently, the trump campaign doesn't realize. but the current term of pennsylvania legislatures expired on november 30th. if the certification of election is denied, it's not denied just in the presidential race in pennsylvania. it includes races up and down the ballot, which means there will be no pennsylvania legislature except for half of the senate elected in 2018, to even vote on a slate of electors. so even if they could, they can't because they won't be
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sworn into office. >> all right. woel, well, i appreciate all your time. thank you very much. i want to go to longtime aide to president-elect joe biden, now member of the transition advisory board. so, how many did this hearten you to hear this statement from michigan republican leadership after their meeting with the president? >> well, i share your view that, you know, it's a low bar to be cleared but it's extremely essential that legislators clear it. joe biden has been elected president. kamala harris, vice president. and they need to get to work. that is my message that i want to, unequivocally, get out. they need to get to work because the virus is surging at an alarming rate. and it's having an impact on the economy. not a trivial impact. it's doing the kind of damage that it did, once before, in an earlier wave.
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leading businesses to dial back. leading to longer spells of unemployment. we've actually had a very sharp spike in people who are long-term unemployed. 3.6 milli 3.6 million now unemployed for at least half a year. 400,000 small businesses have shut and many others are suffering and dealing with the stress of reduced demand that they're facing in this -- in this environment. and as that is happening and all this transition stuff is going on that you have been talking about. absence of ascertainment, we learned secretary mnuchin actually pulled the rug out from under a program, tried to do so, tried to pull the rug out of a lending program that is essential right now to help offset some of these headwinds. so it's adding insult to injury, erin. >> so, you know, that context, i think, is so important. one thing i mentioned at the top of the program. i mentioned paul gosar but he wasn't the only republican
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congressman to do this. also, embraced trump's efforts to overturn the election through the electoral college. and -- and the reason i -- i am deeply concerned about this, as a citizen, is because it's working for a decent number of people, right? a monmouth poll released this week found 70% of republicans believe joe biden only won the election because of voter fraud. this is -- it is factually untrue. it's a simple truth that, that is false. okay? but perception maerttters and bn has said he is going to be president for all americans. but you have got a lot of americans who believe those things. what is biden's plan to get through to those people? to combat that? >> you also have a whole lot of people who are facing a whole lot of pain right now. i mention the surging virus. i don't need to tell you or -- or our viewers about this. but we, also, had over 20 million people claim uninsurance benefits last week.
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in fact, that number spiked by over 30,000, just in the past week. and we know that if congress doesn't get together and do what the president-elect has been calling for, which is to pass a stimulus bill in the lame duck. something like 12 million of those folks we also know that secretary of treasury mnuchin is trying to lead to the expiration of the lending program that is supporting state and local budgets, that's supporting small businesses, and making sure that credit remains available in these tough times. so we have an economy that is slowing, okay. there was a headline today from forecasters at jpmorgan suggesting that first quarter gdp next year could have a negative handle on it. that is, it could decrease. i'm not talking about some deep second dip like we had before, but that's the scenario at which all this is taking place. you asked about joe biden. he is already doing his best to
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reach across the aisle. he has met consistently over the past week with business leaders. he has met with union leaders. he's met with folks from commerce. he's met with folks from the health care industry. today, we had the chamber of commerce very clearly criticize this mnuchin move to reduce the lending facilities. so this is a bipartisan set of energy that's developing to go a very different route. >> jared, i appreciate your time. thank you very much. and next, pennsylvania senate majority leader says republicans may have to intervene if the state can't certify its results. that sounds like music to president trump's ears. the lieutenant governor of pennsylvania will be here explaining what is at stake. donald trump, jr. testing positive for coronavirus. the same person who again and again of course has questioned the seriousness of the virus and claimed that covid deaths have dropped to almost nothing. and now 2,000 just today. and georgia's governor certifies his state's election.
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pennsylvania lawmakers to the white house. michigan is a state that biden won by more than 81,000 votes, almost double the margin president trump won it by in 2016. pennsylvania now faces a deadline to certify its results, and that is monday. and a republican state senator says they will allow democrats to appoint e will be flectors. but they don't rule out intervening and the quote here is, if we were at the time, when the electoral college is going to meet and pennsylvania's results haven't been certified and still challenged in court, and there's no end to that, possibly the legislature would have a role there. of course, being challenged in court, you know, it opens the door here. there's been no victories for the trump campaign in any court challenges thus far. i want to go to pennsylvania's lieutenant governor now. so when you hear that, do you have any concern about -- >> no. >> tell me why. >> i'm not concerned at all.
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look, the bottom line is that, you know, jake corman is -- i like jake and i appreciate the line that he has to walk between governance and the upcoming pro-tend president of the senate and striking a balance with the lunatic fringe/death cult wing of the party, too. that's just a nod to that faction. the bottom line is this -- you know, they can clap their tinkerbell all they want. they can go visit the white house. but it's not going to change the music, because, you know, everybody -- and i mean everyone from the president on down, knows how this movie is going to end. >> so let me just ask you about what happens monday then. because his whole -- i understand how you're characterizing it, but he's basically saying if, if, if, but all the ifs are predicated upon pennsylvania not certifying results on monday as it is supposed to do. is there any question that pennsylvania will not skert fcen
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monday with joe biden as the winner? >> none. as your guest alluded to earlier, if they don't certify joe biden's results, they don't certify the entire house result either. and there's not going to be technically a house of representatives to even work with. so the bottom line is, i understand very much that they have to, again, pander to the lunatic fringe elements of their party. but the bottom line is that the law is firmly on the governor's side here, and the secretary of state. it's very clear that the secretary of state certifies it, and then the governor does. and anything else is just simply performance art. and it's just sad. >> so what do you make of the statement we got out of michigan, where they say these are simple truths? the people who win the elections win the electoral votes and nobody should be intimidated and very thinly veiled, and that statement, as a reporter who has been covering those in michigan for ten years, came a minute
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after they left the meeting with the president of the united states. so they took the meeting, they said it. they didn't rethink it or waver. so when you think that statement, and now there's the possibility that the republican leadership in your state may go visit with the president on monday, we don't know yet, but they might. do you think they'll do the same? >> who cares? i mean, go, go! have a good time. but it's not going to change anything. and they really need to be careful too, because my understanding is there's a flare-up of covid in the house right now. so i don't see that being a happy ending. but it's their story, they've got to tell it the way they need to. but the law is on our side. the bottom line, is facts are on our side. the bottom line, is biden is the president-elect, and he's up over 83,000 votes. again, unless there's some enchanted little village of 90,000 trump voters that we may have missed over the last two weeks since the election, you know, this is ball game in
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pennsylvania. and, again, it's ball game and we have a president elected, joe biden. >> lieutenant governor, thank you very much. i appreciate your time. >> thank you. "outfront" next, the pandemic hitting trump's inner circle yet again. his son, donald trump, jr., now positive for the virus. rudy giuliani how isolating after his son got the virus. and in georgia, trump supporters are refusing to accept defeat, but the governor has said, the results are the results. i'll talk to an official who has a message for those trump supporters. disease, diabetes and raised triglycerides,... ...vascepa can give you something to celebrate. ♪ vascepa, when added to your statin,... ...is clinically proven to provide 25% lower risk from heart attack and stroke. vascepa is clearly different. first and only fda approved. celebrate less risk. even for those with family history. ♪ don't take vascepa if you are...
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breaking news. donald trump, jr. testing positive for coronavirus. a spokesman for the president's eldest son saying he's currently isolating and asymptomatic. it comes after rudy giuliani's son tested positive for coronavirus today. "outfront" now, thank you, good to see you. this is a white house that has never take thn seriously, so we've had outbreak after outbreak hot spot there throughout the president's inner circle. the president himself, three nights in the hospital. what is your reaction to this
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latest news? rudy giuliani couldn't even hold his press conference today about the election, because he's isolating. >> yeah, erin, so thank you for having me on. this white house has not taken this seriously, and we have seen the consequences of that in terms of so many different people getting infected. now, obviously a lot of them end up having access to the latest experimental therapies, and that's bailed a few moeks out that have been quite sick. one thing we've not heard about is all of the staff that work at the white house, the hundreds of workers that make the place work. i'm sure many of them have gotten infected as well as part of this reckless behavior and they're probably not getting the world class care that these political leaders are. >> the president is number one, he was really sick and yet afterwards his comment instead of acknowledging that was, he's superman. so donald trump, jr., came under fire last month, you know, down
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playing the scenario of the coronavirus in an interview with fox news. take a listen. >> i went through the cdc, i kept hearing about new infections. i was like, why aren't they talking about this? oh, because the numbers is almost nothing. because we have gotten control of this. we understand how it works. >> we're now 2,000 deaths a day. we've seen a surge of deaths of nearly 30% in just the past 7 to 9 days, doctor. what do you think when you hear someone like don, jr. say what he just said, given the reality? >> yeah. so, look, the bottom line is, people like don, jr. know nothing about this virus. they should not be commenting. and their consistent underplaying it is a major reason we're in the position we are in. not enough americans have taken it seriously, because their
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political leaders have said if you get infected, it's no big deal. other people get quite sick. this is reckless behavior to underestimate and to really undersell what is a very potentially serious virus. >> it's just amazing, that we're at a point that even with all the improvement and treatments, it has been significant, we're back to record death levels. that's what you have when you have unmitigated spread and the deaths don't need to happen. doctor, you participated in a senate homeland security committee hearing yesterday. and the hearing, if i understand correctly, was focusing on the merits of hydroxychloroquine, which was the malaria drug. so they have this hearing about hydroxychloroquine, right now, and it got personal. i want to play for our viewers
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the exchange. >> there is now clear consensus in the medical and scientific community, based on overwhelming evidence, that hydroxychloroquine provides no benefit in treating covid-19. >> you can sit there with all the authoritative voice that you possibly have, but we have a gentleman here that are treating patients and they disagree with you. >> i think the doctor's testimony is reckless and dangerous for the nation. >> that's just a little clip, so people get a sense of what went on in an hours long hearing. what was going through your head? >> yes. on one hand, erin, i felt like this was surreal. we were almost in the twilight zone. because we are in the worst phase of this pandemic right now, and the fact that the senate is spending its time talking about hydroxychloroquine was unbelievable. and the personal nature of the attacks was really because people didn't have anything to say about the science. you know it basically came down
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to a group of people saying i have given it to my patients and saying it works. and me saying the science and evidence are very clear, it doesn't work. so if they can't refute the science, they went after me and called me reckless and suggested that i was responsible for the deaths of all these people, because the narrative they wanted to paint was a narrative that everybody would be just fine in america, if we all took hydroxychloroquine. it's really mind boggling. and i think it's deeply disruptive. >> i will also say, the chairman of the committee was implying that you and others like you are saying hydroxychloroquine doesn't work, not because of all the overwhelming science, but because it doesn't cost very much to buy hydroxychloroquine and all the other drugs are more expensive. and somehow you profit from it and it's all about profit. that was what senator johnson was saying. i mean, that -- just tell me what you think when you hear someone say that to you.
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that's what they're saying about your character. >> yeah, this has been a recurring theme, the president, his coronavirus expert, scott atlas, and now senator johnson, all of them saying american doctors are corrupt and we are withholding therapies or in the case of the president we are making up covid cases, all of it driven by the profit motive. this is what happens when you can't talk about the science, you can't talk about the health, you can't talk about the data. you start impugning the motives of all american doctors. it's crazy. and i did not think that our own government would turn on the medical profession this way, when we all know, of course, that is not what's going on. it's very disturbing and very distressing. >> doctor, thank you very much. it is disturbing and distressing saying the doctors were inflating the deaths because they get paid more.
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don't like the outcome, just say it's all fraud. the white house press secretary was asked whether the trump administration's failure to work with biden could slow down something that will save thousands of american lives, and that is vaccine distribution. here's what she said. >> not in the slightest, because in fact, i did hear the former vice president say yesterday he was concerned about not being able to distribute a vaccine. he shouldn't be. maybe he hasn't seen, but we have publicly available that plan that i mentioned in my opening. it's the covid-19 vaccination program, the interim playbook for jurisdiction operations. this is publicly available, if the former vice president would like to read through it. >> "outfront" now, a member of joe biden's coronavirus advisory board, also the director of the center of infectious disease research and policy at the university of minnesota. okay, she says it's publicly available, it's out there, there's no problem, there's no
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concern. there will be no impact on the vaccine distribution. even if you all have no contact with the trump administration besides reading that publicly available report. your response? >> well, that's just not the case. it's really critical that the incoming administration, biden, harris, and the transition team and our group have access to this information. the plans are still preliminary. states are still working on how to distribute this. we're only talking about the very first doses to roll out to health care workers. but that we also need to talk about how to get it out to the entire population. we need to understand how we're going to educate the public for the need for this vaccine, and why they want to take it, why is it safe and effective. these are all issues that are not available at this point, and not to be able to share that information between both groups is really -- is actually dangerous.
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>> so pfizer and its partner submitted for emergency use an eua from the fda for that vaccine. so in your plans, professor, and i know there are unknowns, but when is life back to basically normal, no masks, free travel, mass gatherings, concerts, sports? >> well, first of all, i'm just speaking for myself, we don't yet -- the transition team doesn't have that position out there. but let me just say it's likely going to take well into the second quarter, into the beginning of the third quarter of next year before we'll have sufficient vaccine for the u.s. population. so clearly between now and then, we have a lot of work to do. and as i pointed out just a moment ago, if we, in fact, see that up to 45% of the u.s. population doesn't trust this vaccine, as a recent poll showed, and won't take the vaccine, particularly in the black and indigenous and other populations, we can have a
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vaccine but still have a problem. so this is why we have to today begin working very, very hard at a community grassroots level to help communities understand why they want this. >> i want to ask you about south dakota and ask you for a specific reason. let me ask y-- set the table. the highest rate in the country, the numbers there are bad. hospitalizations, deaths. so when i saw what the south dakota governor said today, i really stopped in my tracks and i wanted to read part of it to you. she said, in south dakota, we won't stop or discourage you from thanking god and spending time together this thanksgiving. 3 52% positivity rate. >> that's simply dangerous. there will be more residents of south dakota and those who visit south dakota to come home to family that will become infected, unfortunately some of
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them will be hospitalized and some of those will die. and we're talking about an overstretched health care system now. one that's on the verge of collapse clearly in south dakota. even for those who come home to visit, they'll be going back to many communities in this country that also have very, very, very real problems with just trying to provide the very basic minimum right now of health care. >> professor, i appreciate your time. >> thank you. and next, georgia's governor certified the state's election results. and i'm going to talk to a poll worker. a republican poll worker from michigan. life long republican. she worked a 16-hour shift on election day. she says the president's attacks on the election are personal for her. by real stories of people living with bipolar depression. emptiness. a hopeless struggle. the lows of bipolar depression can disrupt your life and be hard to manage. latuda could make a real difference in your symptoms. latuda was proven to significantly reduce
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breaking news. the gofr november of georgia signing the paperwork. that means that the electoral college vote also go to joe biden, because he won the state. kemp did try to assuage the trump faction, saying he would follow the law, but he did criticize missteps by election officials. >> it is important for georgians to know that the vast majority of local election workers did their job well, under unprecedented circumstances. however, it is quite honestly hard to believe that during the audit, thousands of uncounted ballots were found weeks after a razor thin outcome, in a presidential election. this is simply unacceptable. >> all right. kyung lah is "outfront."
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>> four more years! four more years! >> reporter: you are hearing correctly. this georgia crowd is calling for a second trump term despite defeat. on his first return to the campaign trail pledged it's not over. >> we're going to keep fighting until every legal vote is counted. we're going to keep fighting until every illegal vote is thrown out. and whatever the outcome, we will never stop fighting to make america great again. >> reporter: that's despite the hand count led by a republican secretary of state in georgia. >> working as an engineer throughout my life. i live by the motto that numbers don't lie. >> >> reporter: a fact the vice president is ignoring while he dances a political two-step. president trump still insists he won.
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meanwhile, pence is calling for georgia republicans to vote in the january 5th senate runoff to fight a joe biden presidency. >> the republican senate majority could be the last line of defense. >> reporter: supporters who showed up to see the vice president have no problem following this logic. do you believe the election results? >> no. >> reporter: penny kloppton, who came to see pence carried a "stop the steal" sign. she said all that makes her want to vote in january even more. how different is the energy from november to january? >> it's still here. it hasn't gone anywhere. >> reporter: what do you believe will happen on january 5th? >> i believe that people lo cwi come out and vote for republicans so that we can -- i guess so that it will be a fair fight when things come to the senate. >> let's vote blue! >> reporter: the democratic challengers for the two senate
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seats, jon ossoff and rafael warnock attacked. >> they didn't like the results. wasn't supposed to turn out that way. explain that to me. >> reporter: the challenge for the democrats will be turnout, something even the most diehard democratic georgians understand. >> i think that the people that voted in the general election will not come out for the runoff. >> we have been red for so many years. you know, a little concerned about that. >> reporter: now, governor kemp tonight did indeed certify the votes, giving the 16 electoral votes to joe biden. but in doing so, erin, he did offer a bunch of illogical statements -- a mashup, if you will. he told the trump line, he's sewed doubt on the election results but at the same time said he would certify because he
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had to. >> thank you very much. i want to bring in gabe sterling, georgia's official. you were involved every step to have the way -- the election, the hand recount, every single thing. you're still hearing, though, from fellow georgians, right? they believe the election was stolen because of how president trump talked about georgia. what do you say to them? >> this is an emotional time for people who fought for the president and felt like he fought for them. unfortunately, it looks like -- well, it was certified the election after a hand audit showing the machines counted properly. the election records did their j jobs. we're still investigating multiple claims. have not seen anything that rises to the occasion of this.
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him fighting for these people is what they're waiting to hear if him on. it's difficult, i know. it's really hard. i've got my own family members who are pretty angry about the whole thing, and it's even hard to explain to them. >> you and i have been talking a lot through all of this, and you have been very clear. you're a life long republican, but your job is to count the votes and that's what you did. you counted the votes. there were some mistakes, we all know, but the votes were the votes and the outcome is clear. how do you get people to understand that at this point, gabe? to understand that? go ahead. >> continuing the amount of transparency we do, continuing to explain, as you have seen in some of my press conferences, we try to answer every single question and point out everything that's out there. there are going to be a group of people who will never believe at the end of the day, similar to the people who blefr that city
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si abrams lost. we got to get to a point in the country where at the end of the day, people have enough faith in the election to say, my person won, my person lost, and move forward of my job, i want to make sure david purdue and kelly loeffler win the seats for the same reason the president pointed out. could be the last line for the people who share those values. >> you talk about a recount. my understanding is recount is different from a hand count. you stick them in a machine, you could do that quickly. but you also mentioned legal challenges. is there any question -- should anybody have any question that the certification your republican governor just gave, and he may have done so hesitantly, but he did it, could be undone? >> listen, with the due process in this country, people come forward with something to show something untoward happened and a judge says, we can look at
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that, that's absolutely a path for that. the problem is we are underresources. we have 23 investigators on right now, and we're getting hundreds of people coming in talking about illegal votes and malfeasance and we're trying to track down all of them, but we haven't seen ballot harvesting, absentee ballots. with the explosion of them this year it's understandable for them to have some questions about that. we'll continue to operate on that path buck that's the main path you can see the channels on. the recount will not change. recounts rarely do that. the first one was the human beings doing the recounts. now we get a machine. it's much more likely to be more accurate than before. the handoff we just did was.1035% off on the total number of votes and .0099% off
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the margin. which is huge. the machinery worked. as i said before, people are always the parts that fall down on these things. >> i appreciate your time. thank you very much. the georgia results certified. nothing that they have seen rising to any level of notable fraud. so now, why does the president keep waging an all-out assault on the election workers? people there working tireless days. the president accuses these people of trued and corruption. i mean, that's what this would be if it actually happened after all. >> poll workers in michigan were duplicating ballots but when our observers attempted to challenge, the workers jump in the front of their view so they couldn't see what they were doing, and it became a little bit dangerous. >> duplicating ballots, jumping in front of volunteers to block their view, accusing poll workers of blatant fraud and kup
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corruption. i'm joined by one of those poll workers now. 16 hours she work in the wayne county, michigan. when you hear the president -- put your politics completely out of this for a second, but i will bring it up in one second. but poll workers duplicating ballots, jumping in front to block results, what do you say about that? >> it angers me. we work there 16 hours, and i saw absolutely none of that, no intimidation, no ballot tampering. we even had two poll challengers there, and they were there and they witnessed everything going on. like i said, i've never witnessed anything like that. it kind of breaks my heart that we're being be accused of that. >> they have been fighting the resultings in wayne county. joe biden won that county easily and this is where your politics come in. you have been a registered republican since you were 18 years old. the whole point is you do this
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because you have faith in the country and the system. joe biden won. maybe you're personally disappointed. i don't know how you voted but i know you're a republican. what do you say to this? how disappointed are you that you can go in as a republican and say, i don't see anything that happened because i don't think democrats are horrible people trying to destroy the results, yet that's what's accused of happening. >> we're republican and democrats working together at the polls. i was a registered republican when i was 18. i don't support the president and what he's doing currently. it embarrasses me. and i just wish he would accept the loss, move on, and start bringing us together instead of trying to create more divide. we need to come together at this point. >> teresa, will you do it again? will you work at the polls? >> oh, absolutely. absolutely. >> i'm glad to hear that.
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hopefully this will just be a brief bump in the road, just a small break, and things will be better. >> yeah adios 2020. >> yeah. all right, thank you so much. i appreciate your time, teresa. thanks to all of you for being with us as always on this friday. "ac 360" starts now. the bad news is the president is trying to overturn the election. the good news is his latest attempt today seems to have failed. john berman in here for anderson. back to the bad news, which is really historically bad. how do we know the president and his team are trying to overturn the election? because they told us. listen. >> the entire election, frankly, and all the swing states should be overturned, and the legislatures should make sure that the electors are selected for
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