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The Situation Room

Trump Refuses To Concede Election, Even As Pandemic Spirals Out Of Control; Trump's Legal Challenges To Election Results Fall Flat; U.S. Shatters Daily Record With 184,000-Plus New Cases Reported Friday; Interview With Colorado Governor Jared Polis (D); New York City Schools May Close Again As New COVID-19 Cases Surge; Biden Not Openly Considering North Korea As Policy Priority. Aired 7-8p ET

Aired November 14, 2020 - 19:00   ET

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

[19:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer in Washington. This is a Special Edition of THE SITUATION ROOM and we begin tonight with the president running out of legal options as he refuses to concede in an election he lost more than a week ago. His only time in the public eye today was at one of those golf courses outside Washington DC even as thousands of his supporters rally today here in Washington.

But the number most worrying is the surging and record number of coronavirus cases, hospitalizations and deaths here in the United States. On Friday the Johns Hopkins University reported more than 184000 new cases and 1431 new deaths. This is the highest single day reported since the pandemic began in January and putting that death toll into context, nearly one American is dying from the coronavirus every minute.

Let's begin with CNN's Jeremy Diamond over at the White House for us. Jeremy, we've only seen the president for two official public appearances this week, not counting today's trip to the golf course. He's refusing to answer reporters' questions. He's refusing to concede the election, refusing to take charge of a clearly worsening and very deadly COVID crisis.

What is going on behind the scenes? What is the White House strategy?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well Wolf, people close to the president and close to this White House tell me that there really isn't much of a strategy at all here. Instead what you are seeing is what we've seen from President Trump so many times before which is him falling back on his instincts and charting a path that he wants to without much regard for what the consequences are.

Most of the president's allies in advisors recognize that these legal challenges are not going to amount to much and they certainly are not going to overturn the results of this election in which we saw Joe Biden elected 46th president of the United States. You just have to look at yesterday.

Nine lawsuits in several key battleground states brought forward by the president or his allies, dropped or dismissed in in courts in several key battleground states and as for the coronavirus, the president is continuing to do what we've seen him do for months now which is deciding to essentially abdicate any leadership role as it relates to combating this pandemic.

You saw the president yesterday focusing on a vaccine, of course who's wide distribution won't be available for several months now but as it relates to what's happening right now, the surge in cases, the president barely even mentioned that during that event yesterday.

The only time that he did mention it was to make his false claim once again that the surge in cases is tied to an increase in testing which is just flat out false especially right now when you were seeing the percentage of people testing positive for the virus skyrocketing.

But ultimately Wolf, strategy or no strategy, what you are seeing is that there are consequences to the president's actions here, whether it is on the elections front and the president's sowing mistrust among millions of Americans in our democracy and in our election system or as it relates to the coronavirus pandemic where you are seeing this virus rage uncontrolled which is something of course that the White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows himself said, we are not going to control this virus.

You are seeing that now being implemented.

BLITZER: It's out of control right now. Jeremy, is there any indication the president is getting closer to accepting the results of the election?

DIAMOND: Well Wolf, Trump - the president this week has been waffling up between on the one hand urging his allies to move forward with those legal challenges with the recounts in several key states and on the other hand we've had sources tell us as well that the president at times does appear to begin to come to grips with this reality that Joe Biden will be the next President of the United States.

Now today we saw the president drove through part of that rally where he had several thousand of his supporters here parroting his claims, his false claims about a rigged election and after that you saw the president take to Twitter once again to parrot those very same clean so he did seem to be buoyed by that and really dig in his heels.

Yesterday though, we saw him at least briefly acknowledge even just the possibility of a Biden administration following him in January so we'll just have to see Wolf. For now though the president isn't showing any signs of willing to publicly concede this election.

BLITZER: All right, Jeremy Dimond reporting for us. Thank you very much. Joining us now a key member of the president-elect's COVID-19 advisory board Michael Osterholm. He is also the Director for the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. Professor, thanks so much for joining us. You were ringing alarm bells

in the earliest days of the coronavirus. You're clearly correct in your concerns your warnings, offering advice on trying to slow down the spread but now the most dire predictions are in fact coming true. How is President Trump's inaction affecting the fight?

MICHAEL OSTERHOLM, DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR INFECTIOUS DISEASE RESEARCH AND POLICY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA: Well, it's having a major impact right now. We need leadership. We need someone to help guide our country through this very, very difficult period. I would suggest that we are actually just now just beginning to realize how bad this is going to get as a country. It's going to get much worse and national leadership is actually critical.

[19:05:00]

BLITZER: Is your team, we're talking about the incoming Biden coronavirus Advisory Council, being locked out of important information resources from the current administration, from the current government obviously? Are you having to go through back channels to get the information, the access you need?

OSTERHOLM: Well, our task force is really just gearing up this week and so it's been a little early for us to determine just how much of a hindrance it's been to be able to communicate directly with the current administration officials but the transition team clearly is on top of that and it's our hope that in the very near future, we can start to collaborate with them as we are - this is all coinciding with what's going to be a rapidly escalating number of cases over the course of the next month.

So this is - this is - we're just now beginning to get a sense of how high this number can go.

BLITZER: Yes, all hands on deck. That's what I tweeted earlier today because thousands and thousands of American lives are on the line right now well over the next few weeks and months. How big of a problem is it professor that the administration leaving - the leaving administration is - how big of a problem is it, that they're leaving without really starting to cooperate with the incoming team because this is so critically important right now, lives are on the line.

OSTERHOLM: Right. You know we need to really reframe this is what we need to do. We have to first focus on the fact that we're just a few months away from the first vaccine arriving and within - you know by spring and early summer, we as a country can start to get back to normal that would be an amazing opportunity.

But in the meantime we're going to have this very serious challenge with all these cases. We're a 184,000 today as you've heard me say, I know we're going to go much higher than that and what we need right now is leadership in terms of how are we going to help, support our communities out there.

If we're asking them to reduce their work time, what is open, we need to protect you know the waitress that doesn't have a job anymore. We need to make a conscious decision. Are we going to open bars and restaurants or open our schools? We need to look at all of those issues collaboratively and with the financial support to basically make do what we have to.

At this point I don't see that leadership coming and it's going to take really unfortunately until January when you know President Biden can then get in and hopefully make a big difference.

BLITZER: That would be January 20 and that's still what two months away from now. So what's your worst fear right now, professor? How bad is it going to get in terms of cases, hospitalizations and deaths? Because we're at record awful numbers right now.

OSTERHOLM: Well, you know Wolf, I had made a production in August, we might get to 200,000 cases before Thanksgiving.

BLITZER: 200,000 a day you mean?

OSTERHOLM: 200,000 cases a day, I'm sorry, excuse me, thank you and clearly we're going to even do that earlier than I thought. You know we could see even yet a doubling of the cases we see now and we already know that our health care systems are over run. Our hospitals filled. You know my worst nightmare is that we're going to see more and more pictures of people literally dying in the chairs in the waiting room of the emergency room to get into the hospitals.

That's going to happen. We have to help the public understand that they have to take responsibility and the key thing they have to understand is don't swap air with others. That's a simple message. Don't swap air and we can do a lot to reduce the transmission of this virus.

BLITZER: When you say don't swap air with others, that means wearing masks. Should there be a national mandate to wear a mask at least for now until there's a vaccine, an effective, safe and effective vaccine?

OSTERHOLM: You know everyone should wear a mask, wherever they're at and in some cases even in the home when you have people coming in from you know newly arrived college students etcetera and how we best achieve that I think is really up to the states but I think we've also seen where mandates have been in place, mask use is much higher.

So what we want to do is just help everyone understand, this is about saving not only your life but the life of your loved ones and it's about saving the lives of health care workers who are trying to take care of you. If they get infected while trying to take care of you, their life to is on the line. We have to understand. That's why swapping air is the worst thing we can do right now.

BLITZER: Yes, it would be important if the president yesterday, when he was in the Rose Garden, if he would have said that especially to his supporters out there, the most important thing you can do right now to save thousands and thousands, tens of thousands, maybe even hundreds of thousands of American lives is start wearing a mask, it's not a political issue, it's just critically important. Sadly, we did not hear that from the president yesterday. I suspect that the president-elect will be saying a lot more on that

as well. Professor Osterholm, thanks so much for joining us. Thanks for what you're doing.

OSTERHOLM: Thank you as always, thank you.

BLITZER: Thank you. I want to bring in CNN political commentator Michael Smerconish. He's the host of CNN's Smerconish which is on CNN every Saturday morning 9 AM eastern. I'm a regular viewer.

[19:10:00]

Michael, thanks so much for joining us. The president is now in this lame duck session of his term, 68 days left in office. Does he assume he no longer has to do the job, namely saving American lives by speaking out and telling people to start wearing masks?

MICHAEL SMERCONISH, CNN HOST, SMERCONISH: Well, he was all too happy to be in the Rose Garden yesterday touting the arrival of a vaccine. I don't blame him for that. I'm sure that Operation Warp Speed played a significant role in its development but your last conversation is so troubling because it's the leadership that's lacking, that gets us to that light that's now evident at the end of the tunnel.

And it seems like these final several miles are going to be quite deadly. I'm worried about fatigue Wolf, that has set in, in public minds and the casual encounters behind closed doors in the cold weather that really seem to be posing such a harm to us and that's where you would hope national leadership would kick in and the message about masks and maintaining social distancing as you just said, not sharing air where you can make that difference would be more part of what he's offering in the last couple of weeks.

BLITZER: Why do you think he doesn't do that? It's such a simple thing for him to do. Why not just tell the American people, you got to start wearing a mask because thousands of lives are on the line?

SMERCONISH: Wolf, I don't know what the answer is today. I can tell you that up until two weeks ago, I had a pretty fixed view as to why he wouldn't offer that. I think that he perceived it as a sign of weakness and also believed that any time that he was talking about masks or restrictions, it began to sound like a lockdown and he thought that that was problematic for the economy and that he viewed the economy as bearing his paramount responsibility as well as the way in which he'd get re-elected.

OK, the election's over. I would have hoped that the conversation that he'd offer would now shift into exactly what you're saying.

BLITZER: I'm clearly worried that his refusal to accept the results of the election and to authorize the transition to begin this transition process, allowing his coronavirus taskforce experts whether Dr. Fauci, Dr. Birx, Dr. Redfield and the others whether or not allow them to start working together with the incoming Biden team.

I'm worried that's going to slow things down. How worried are you? SMERCONISH: I'm extremely worried, not only when it comes to national

health but also national security as evidenced by the 911 commission report which spoke of the delay from the 2000 election, perhaps playing a role and you know you can walk and chew gum at the same time.

The president can certainly pursue whatever legal remedies he thinks are available to him while also doing the right thing for the country and what civility demands, make that telephone call, open up the passage way so that the transition can become - can begin. Nobody is saying that you can't pursue your legal remedies at the time.

I mean there's a process under way right now. It's tabulation, it's certification, it's electoral college. It's then acceptance by the Congress and - and that's going to follow through regardless of what the president may say and I think he needs to recognize that's the case.

BLITZER: Yes he should at least let the process begin. I want to play for you and for our viewers Michael, what the former president Barack Obama told CBS news. He's not hiding his outrage at all over the president's stonewalling. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, 44TH U.S. PRESIDENT: There is damage to this because what happens is that the peaceful transfer of power, the notion that any of us who attain an elected office, whether it's dog catcher or a president are servants of the people. It's a temporary job. We're not above the rules. We're not above the law. That's the essence of our democracy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: The - I mean those are strong words, the essence of our democracy and the president is holding back and it's really inexplicable.

SMERCONISH: Well, it is and you know our colleague Maggie Haberman, I thought had a great analysis in the New York Times at the end of the week. Sometimes, we on the outside take a look at the president's conduct and think that there's a methodology, a strategy that he's up to something. What's his endgame we wonder.

And the gist of our piece was to say that it's really (inaudible), there's no plan here and he's just taking it on the fly as it comes and trying to get to the next news cycle which is really a troubling thought.

BLITZER: Yes in the meantime, Americans are dying by the thousands. People are in hospital in record numbers because of coronavirus and the cases are simply exploding and even if you don't get very sick, you don't know what the long term ramifications of coronavirus are going to be in terms of your health down the road and this is really a whole new worry for so many people out there.

[19:15:00]

Michael Smerconish, thanks very much for joining us.

SMERCONISH: OK Wolf.

BLITZER: All right, thank you. It's been a week since Joe Biden was projected to win the presidential election but as we mentioned, President Trump has yet to concede or even to acknowledge the results. So what does this mean for the transition and what does it mean for the country.

We'll go live to Wilmington Delaware for a report on what the president-elect of the United States is up to right now.

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BLITZER: President-elect Joe Biden is spending the weekend considering nominees to his cabinet but the transition process remains in limbo as President Trump refuses to concede, shutting the Biden team out of funding, shutting the Biden team out of national security briefings and information on the distribution plans for a coronavirus among so many other critically important life and death issues. CNN's Jessica Dean is joining us now from Wilmington, Delaware.

[19:20:00]

Jessica, how's the Biden team approaching the transition without any co-operation and it's clearly unacceptable from the current outgoing administration?

JESSICAN DEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well Wolf, the transition team will tell you look, they're moving ahead as best they can. They feel OK about where they are at this exact moment but to your point, the longer this goes on, the more it threatens national security, it can make this health crisis that we're facing even worse.

So the Biden transition team is trying to work around that as best they can but remember, because the General Services Administration has not validated president elect Joe Biden as the president elect, the formal transition process hasn't started. That means that they can't talk to the current White House coronavirus task force. They can't talk to Health and Human Services about putting together a plan for the vaccine distribution.

So what are they doing? Well, we've learned that they are back channeling around some of this to local officials in various states, that they're talking to people in the health community, the medical community, trying to do what they can around the normal avenues that some - president-elect and their team would be taking right.

We also know when it comes to national security, you mentioned the president-elect not getting those daily briefings as is customary which means that Joe Biden is not kept abreast of the day to day movements. Of course he knows the broad picture but he doesn't know the day to day details. We know that the transition team has been reaching out to former Pentagon officials who worked under former Defense Secretary James Mattis, trying to get some information there.

They can't talk to the current official but they figured well, at least these are former officials but again Wolf, as you well know, they're just trying to get a lay of the land. A transition between administrations is a major undertaking and as you all were talking about earlier, back in 2000 the Bush administration admitted that the delay and then getting their transition going really cost them with national security among another host of issues.

You have all of those things now in addition to this pandemic so it is becoming increasingly difficult but again, the transition team would say they're moving ahead as planned. They point to the COVID-19 advisory board being set up and announced this week. They point to the Chief of Staff Ron Klain being named this week as moving the ball forward.

BLITZER: Jessica Dean reporting for us in Wilmington, Delaware where the president-elect and his team are right now. All right Jessica, thank you very much for joining us. Now on this truly delicate balance of a transition, even though it's not started. Leon Panetta, he served as Chief of Staff to President Bill Clinton. He was also a key member of the Obama administration, first serving a CIA director, later as Secretary of Defense.

Secretary Panetta, thanks so much for joining us. You know what it takes to set up a new administration, you've been deeply involved. How much damage potentially is being done to the Biden transition by the president's refusal to concede and allow the General Services Administration to allow the process to go forward.

LEON PANETTA, FORMER WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF TO PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON: Well Wolf, we have a president who's gone AWOL. AWOL from the election and its results, AWOL from COVID-19 and the impact it's having, AWOL from the transition and very frankly, AWOL from the presidency and that has created a dangerous moment here.

This is not something to take lightly, particularly when it comes to national security which I'm particularly familiar with, which is you know the briefings that need to be provided to the president, the intelligence briefings are absolutely essential to making a new president aware of the threats that are out there, that are facing our country.

Let me just give you an example, what if they are there is intelligence that Iran is planning an attack on one of our military bases sometime in the near future. To have the new president not fully prepare, not fully aware of that threat puts our forces at risk. That's the kind of danger that we're facing as a result of the president refusing to cooperate with the president-elect.

BLITZER: So when you sit back Mr. Secretary and you mentioned Iran, you can mention China, you can mention Russia, North Korea, other adversaries, they're looking at what's going on here, the confusion here in Washington DC and they must be saying to themselves you know what maybe during these next 68 - 70 days, whatever it is, maybe there's an opportunity to take advantage and sadly the president-elect of the United States, the Vice President-elect of the United States, their top national security advisers are not being informed about what's going on. That's deeply concerning.

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PANETTA: It's creating an intelligence gap. And there is no question that our adversaries, whose principal interest is in weakening the United States of America and undermining our institutions, undermining our strength, that if they - if they realize that there is a moment where whatever they're trying to do, whatever threats they're involved with, that that intelligence is not getting through.

First of all to a president who doesn't pay attention to the PDB but just as importantly, it's not being presented to the new president of the United States. There is a gap here and they're going to take advantage of that gap to do things that they otherwise would not do if they felt that the United States was going to be aware of it. This is dangerous.

This is a dangerous moment because they could do things that unfortunately, will not be reported to the elected leadership of the country. We are vulnerable and that's the bottom line.

BLITZER: The PDB, the Presidential Daily Brief which the tradition is that, that the incoming president immediately gets access to that highly classified intelligence information. I remember when I went down to Little Rock in November of 1992 to cover the transition from the outgoing George H. W. Bush administration to the incoming Bill Clinton administration, they were getting briefs right away.

I don't know if you were in Little Rock at the time but it was a very smooth transition. You had a one-term president immediately authorize the most sensitive information to the incoming president and the incoming vice president Al Gore. You remember those days?

PANETTA: Absolutely, absolutely and I'll give you my own experience in becoming CIA director during the transition when I went back to Washington, as soon as I got back there, which was sometime around this point in time after the Obama election.

I was immediately briefed on the intelligence bulletin the PDB and I was also receiving briefings from CIA officials, all of the operations types were presenting briefings to me so I was aware of what they were doing in going after our adversaries and indeed there were sensitive operations that CIA was involved in, in which I would have to make decisions about life and death and so knowing those operations, understanding it, prepared me.

So that when I became CIA director, I was fully able to conduct those operations and try to protect the American people in that process.

BLITZER: Yes and it's not - you know it goes without question that the former vice president, the president-elect right now has spent eight years as Vice President. He has the highest security clearances and the Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, she's a member of the Senate intelligence committee. They get access to the most sensitive classified information. It makes

no sense at all that they're not being briefed right now as the incoming administration needs to get ready for whatever's going to happen. Secretary Panetta, as usual thanks so much for joining us.

PANETTA: good to be with you Wolf.

BLITZER: As the country sees record spikes of the coronavirus, the Governor of Colorado is now urging his states' residents to be very careful this Thanksgiving and not, in his words and I'm quoting him now, "bring a loaded pistol for grandma's head."

He joins us next, right here in THE SITUATION ROOM.

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[19:33:31]

BLITZER: As cases spike in Colorado and so many other places around the United States, the Colorado Governor is pleading, "Do not bring Coronavirus to the Thanksgiving dinner table."

Governor Jared Polis is urging people in Colorado to self-quarantine if they plan to see relatives from other households for Thanksgiving, and he warns that ignoring the virus is like Russian roulette.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. JARED POLIS (D-CO): The more family members that make that decision to self-quarantine, the more likely it is that you're not really bringing a loaded pistol for grandma's head.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Strong words from the Colorado Governor Jared polis who is joining us now. Governor, how worried are you that family get- togethers this Holiday Season beginning Thanksgiving week could become super spreader events?

POLIS: Well, super spreader in the sense of that family with potential for devastating loss, Wolf and that's why I really don't mince words here. I mean there's really two options.

One is like our family is going to celebrate Thanksgiving with just our nuclear family as much as I'd love to see my mom and dad and Marlon's dad. We're going to do that. The other way to go is to start a self-quarantine immediately.

It would have been best yesterday, but starting today where you are essentially in a self-quarantine, self-lockdown for two weeks, if you really can't find another way to avoid having that intergenerational Thanksgiving because what of course can be deadly for people of all ages have significantly worse health impact for people in their 60s, 70s and 80s.

BLITZER: How bad is it in Colorado right now? I know you're getting ready for the ski season and tourism. How worried are you?

[19:35:11]

POLIS: Well, I think it's bad all over the country, Wolf. We're at about one in every 110 people have coronavirus now in Colorado. I think it is worse in some states, it might be a little better in some states.

To put that starkly, if you have a family of 11 people for Thanksgiving, there's a one in 10 chance that's why I use that Russian roulette analogy. I mean, it's like empty chamber, empty chamber, boom, you don't know if it's going to be you or not because a young nephew or niece or cousin could easily be asymptomatic.

Skiing is a safe activity outdoors. We a great summer recreation in Colorado: hiking, backpacking, and biking. You don't have to worry about the ski part.

Obviously, the town experience is different. So if you're renting a cabin, you're going to probably order in for food delivery. There's a little bit of capacity outdoors, depending on the weather.

But the mountains, outdoors in general, great places to be during this pandemic.

BLITZER: Just be very careful and just make sure you wear masks when you're with other people even if you're outdoors in the mountain area.

Some say encouraging personal responsibility, Governor, just isn't enough. Several local health officials have implored you and others to enact stricter statewide restrictions. Have you ruled out a lockdown for Colorado if the pandemic gets even worse?

POLIS: Well, look, we have pretty strong health standards in Colorado, the bars are closed. Restaurants have very limited dining capacity in the worst parts of our state, it is about 25 percent. They're able to serve more safely outside, and in other parts of our state they're at 50 percent.

But look, ultimately, when you're talking about spreading, when you're talking about what people empowered by science and data choose to do for Thanksgiving, who they choose to associate with, how many people, how close, how long, that is a matter of personal responsibility informed by data and science.

And our goal as an administration, and I encourage others across the country to do this, to just get that information out about what spreads a virus, how to avoid it, how to keep yourself and your family safe.

BLITZER: I know you've directed hospitals, Governor, to prepare for a possible God forbid, we hope it doesn't happen, a surge of cases. It is getting bad every -- worse every single day. How bad do you fear? What are your experts there telling you how bad do you think it's going to get before there's a vaccine, a safe and effective vaccine and things will start improving? POLIS: We'll look it's anybody's guess, Wolf, but the entire country

has had an enormous surge these last few weeks, so has Colorado. We have over 1,100 people currently hospitalized in Colorado, I believe that number nationally is in the high tens of thousands, 60,000 to 70,000 even higher.

Most of them will make it out, some won't. I lost a dear friend to COVID just in the last week. I'll be attending her funeral wearing a mask in the next few days. But look, no one is untouched by this.

If you're fortunate enough to be untouched by the health impact, you're touched by the economic impact that is a toll on everybody, particularly our lower wage workers and hourly workers.

So we're going to get through this. We expect the first dosage of vaccine will be available to healthcare workers and first responders in December, hopefully with broader inoculation across the population in the first quarter of next year.

BLITZER: Very quickly, are the hospitals filling up? The intensive care units filling up in Colorado?

POLIS: They are surely more full than they were a few weeks ago. We laid out the plan where how hospitals have to suspend their elective surgeries to make more room. Some of them are actually at that point already.

We've also created some alternative care facilities that are ready to go if needed, if even suspending elective care doesn't open up enough beds. We want to make sure that everybody that contracts COVID in Colorado or has any other health condition like a heart attack or a stroke has the best possible care so they have a chance of getting well.

BLITZER: Good luck, Governor. I know the situation is awful right now. Thanks so much for joining us.

POLIS: Thank you, Wolf.

BLITZER: The number of new cases of the coronavirus, breaking all sorts of records here in the United States and now, New York City's mayor is telling parents to prepare for the schools to shut down potentially as early as Monday as cases are spiking there. We will go live in New York when we come back.

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[19:43:20]

BLITZER: In New York right now, the rising number of coronavirus cases is threatening to close schools once again. The city's test positivity rate is nearing three percent. That's the threshold to move students back to remote learning.

The Mayor Bill de Blasio telling parents this could happen potentially as soon as Monday. CNN's Evan McMorris-Santoro is joining us from New York City right now.

Evan, Governor Cuomo said schools should be able to test out of COVID closing. What more are you learning about what's going on right now? This is so concerning.

EVAN MCMORRIS-SANTORO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, it's actually a very interesting development, a new one here this Saturday. On a press call with reporters, Governor Cuomo said testing inside New York City schools is now good enough that schools should be able to have their own understanding of what the viral load inside the school is, what the infection rate is.

And if that number is below that three percent threshold that you mentioned, that those schools should be able to remain open. Now, the Governor is saying that as a suggestion. He is not saying that something as -- it is not new policy. He said today, exactly, just a suggestion, which is quite an interesting development considering we're running up against this three percent number that you mentioned that up until now has been seen as the magic number that shut schools down in New York.

They opened in about the first week of October, and at the time, the Mayor of New York said he said if the infection rate, the seven-day rolling average of the infection rate reaches three percent, schools will shut down.

But now with that number approaching that level, the governor is saying something slightly different and we're not sure what implications that will have yet and that's leading parents and students and teachers asking a lot of questions tonight -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Yes, serious development in New York. We will stay on top of it together with you, Evan. Thank you very much. We're going to be much more on the pandemic in just a moment.

Also, though, President Trump said he fell in love with Kim Jong-un, but how might diplomacy between North Korea and the United States change with President-elect Biden getting ready to take office on January 20th? We'll take a closer look when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:49:48]

BLITZER: In Frankfurt, Germany today, police used water cannons to disperse a crowd of protesters furious over restrictions aimed at curbing the virus. Police say the protesters refused to wear masks and were not allowed to continue their march until they've put masks on.

Police ended up using water cannons to break up the event. Germany has been in a partial lockdown since November 2nd, and it's unlikely the restrictions will be lifted anytime soon.

[19:50:15]

BLITZER: President-elect Joe Biden is about to inherit a very, very complicated foreign policy situation with North Korea made even more tricky by President Trump's unconventional history with the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

CNN's Paula Hancocks reports on how much the U.S. relationship with Pyongyang is likely to change.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): This is the legacy of President Trump's North Korean policy, historic meetings with leader Kim Jong-un, countless letters described by the U.S. President as love letters, a statement signed in Singapore, but little tangible progress on denuclearization.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRISTOPHER HILL, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO SOUTH KOREA: It's not really in a better place. It's not at all in a better place as a result of the sort of reality TV diplomacy we saw from President Trump.

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: The thugs like in North Korea --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANCOCKS (voice over): President-elect Biden is very unlikely to be North Korea's preference. Until today, there's been no reaction from Pyongyang even after Biden called Kim Jong-un a thug in the last presidential debate.

North Korea has often welcomed a new U.S. administration with a provocation. Pyongyang launched a missile just three weeks after President Trump's inauguration in 2017. But opinion is split on whether a test is planned for the early days of Biden's presidency.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PROFESSOR JOHN DELURY, YONSEI UNIVERSITY: The premise of a test is Kim Jong-un is desperate, you know for attention and he needs it and that's not what I'm seeing.

You know, Kim Jong-un looks very focused on just getting through COVID. North Korea's had a really bad year economically.

BIDEN: I know from my discussions with --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANCOCKS: President-elect Biden has not mentioned North Korea as a pressing national security priority as outgoing President Obama considered it four years ago. Coronavirus, climate change, racial inequality dominating his attention.

He is also not necessarily expected to return to the policy of strategic patience, waiting for Pyongyang to come to the negotiating table, a feature of Obama's time in office.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOSEPH YUN, FORMER U.S. SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE FOR NORTH KOREA POLICY: He has emphasized denuclearization, but at the same time, he has emphasized what he called principle diplomacy. So I would hope that the engagement door would be more open now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANCOCKS: Ambassador Yun also cautions against ignoring what Trump did achieve by talking to Kim Jong-un.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

YUN: We need to save what we can, preserve what we can and build from that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANCOCKS (on camera): One thing experts do agree on is that President- elect Biden's approach will be far more conventional working level diplomacy. The days of top down diplomacy and personality led theater are coming to an end.

Paula Hancocks, CNN, Seoul.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: Thank you, Paula. As the pandemic breaks new records across the United States, we'll take a closer look at how the President's refusal to accept the election results could -- could -- hamper efforts to fight the virus and save thousands of lives.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Four decades of public service, three White House runs and a life filled with personal triumphs and tragedies. CNN's Gloria Borger gives us a close look at President-elect Joe Biden's life in a special report airing later tonight -- Gloria.

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Wolf, while President- elect Joe Biden was serving as Vice President, his son Beau was diagnosed with an aggressive brain tumor. Biden rearranged his life and Beau worried about him.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BORGER (voice over): While the Vice President tried to help his son, the son tried to help his father.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I absolutely believe and I believe it to the day I die that the thing that Beau was most afraid of was not dying. What he's most afraid of is the impact it would have on his dad. That that will really take us that out.

BORGER: Did he tell you that?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, yes. Oh, yes. All the time.

BORGER: It's something the Vice President wrote about in 2017 in his book, "Promise me, Dad."

BIDEN: Beau, just made me promise. It was this was just before he died. He said, dad, you've got to promise me you're going to be okay. I said, Beau, I will be.

He said, dad, look at me. Look me in the eye, dad. Give me your word as a Biden, dad. You're going to be okay.

BORGER: Are you okay?

BIDEN: I am because it is still emotional. But I knew what he meant. He was worried I'd walk away from everything I've worked in my whole life, the things I cared about. He knew I'd take care of the family. He never worried about that.

But he didn't want me walking away.

BORGER: Beau Biden died on May 30, 2015. He was 46 years old.

Is it true to keep Beau's rosary with you?

BIDEN: In my pocket.

BORGER: All the time?

BIDEN: I keep it all the time. He had it when he passed away. It was more gold, you can see its worn.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BORGER: After Beau's death, Biden decided not to run for President in 2016 and he felt his political career might be over. But as we all know, it wasn't. Back to you -- Wolf.

BLITZER: All right, Gloria. Thank you so much. "Fight for the White House: Joe Biden's Long Journey" airs later tonight, 10:00 p.m. Eastern right after THE SITUATION ROOM. You must watch this documentary. It is truly excellent.

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