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COVID-19 Is Leading Cause Of Death In U.S. This Week; Trump Pushed Georgia Governor To Overturn Election; President-Elect Biden To Ask Americans To Wear Masks For 100 Days; Source: Expect "Flurry" Of Pardons Before Trump Leaves Office; Pentagon Denies Blocking Biden Team From Meeting With Officials; U.S. Tops One Million Cases In First Five Days Of December. Aired 6-7p ET

Aired December 05, 2020 - 18:00   ET

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

[18:00:18]

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.

We begin tonight with the United States on a very grim path in its fight against the coronavirus. Yesterday alone, another 2,607 Americans lost their lives to the virus. Nationwide, more than a hundred thousand Americans are in hospitals around the country right now with COVID-19. That's a record number.

And this week, the virus was the leading cause of death here in the United States.

And while so much hope has been invested in a vaccine that could be available in just a matter of weeks, state health departments from around the country are now warning that those initial doses won't be enough to vaccinate everyone in so-called top priority groups.

But as the country is living through some of the darkest moments in our recent history, with millions of Americans facing economic uncertainty and hunger as a result of the pandemic, President Trump is absent -- largely absent in this fight.

Instead, he is focusing in on debunk conspiracies looking to overturn the results of an election, he lost by more than seven million votes nationwide.

CNN's Ryan Nobles is on the scene for us in Georgia right now, where the President is scheduled later tonight to appear at a rally that many Republicans hope will focus in on the party's two Senate candidates.

But Ryan, tell us more about a phone call today between the President and the Republican Governor of Georgia, Brian Kemp.

RYAN NOBLES, CNN WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Wolf. This was a private phone call between the President and the Georgia Governor that has now spilled out into a very public feud between the two men that has been hashed out on social media.

The President calling Brian Kemp this morning, trying to convince him to convene a special session of Georgia's legislature to look into what he says are issues of fraud and malfeasance in the Georgia election.

The Governor told him no, and then went to Twitter to defend himself. This is what Governor Kemp said, he said, quote, "As I told the President this morning, I publicly called for a signature audit three times to restore confidence in our election process, and to ensure that only legal votes are counted in Georgia."

But that wasn't enough for President Trump. He quickly responded to Kemp saying, "But you never got the signature verification. Your people are refusing to do what you ask. Why are they hiding? At least immediately ask for a special session of the legislature. You can do that easily and immediately and you need to." But Kemp still refusing to do so.

And now, this has now become a problem for Republicans not just here in Georgia, Wolf, but across the country because of these vitally important runoff elections that are happening here in this state.

Two races that will determine who controls the United States Senate in the next Congress. The Republicans need to win at least one of them, and there appears to be a growing set of confidence that is lacking among Trump supporters here in Georgia.

I've been to a number of Republican events here where Trump supporters lash out at Republican leaders demanding to know why they aren't doing more to try and help President Trump overturn the results of the election, as opposed to focusing on the race at hand.

And there is concern tonight among Republicans that when the President comes here tonight, that he is going to spend a lot more time complaining that there was fraud in this election, and continue to float his baseless claims about the election that already took place and not spend enough time talking about Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, the two Republicans that are running in this runoff election.

Now, to be clear, Republicans say that President Trump has received the message. He understands how important it is for him to specifically tell his supporters tonight that they need to get out on January 5th.

What worries Republicans here in Georgia is that he is going to couple that message with the continuation of hammering on the electoral process here, essentially undermining the confidence that many Republicans have in the process, a confidence that they need to have going into this vote in January.

Wolf, it is so important the Republicans need to win at least one of these seats if they hope to contain or control the majority of the United States Senate in the next Congress; and Wolf, of course, that will be their only bastion of power if they are able to pull it off -- Wolf. BLITZER: Very quickly, Ryan, before I let you go, that's a huge crowd

behind you. I can't tell. Are they wearing masks? I don't think they're socially distancing. I'm worried about a super spreader event potentially.

NOBLES: Well, Wolf, we've seen this play out so many times with President Trump and his supporters. And you're right, there are very few masks being worn here. There is no attempt to socially distance and this is in a state, Georgia, where coronavirus cases are on the rise.

This like many Trump events has the potential to be a super spreader, and it seems as though the President and his campaign and these two Republicans running for the United States Senate just aren't all that concerned about the C.D.C. recommended guidelines containing the spread of the coronavirus -- Wolf.

[18:05:27]

BLITZER: Record numbers of cases, hospitalizations and deaths right now, and apparently, the folks there don't care. All right, Ryan, we'll get back to you. Standby.

Let's get some more on the drama that's unfolding right now in Georgia. I want to bring in CNN political commentator and host of CNN's "Smerconish," Michael Smerconish.

Michael, thanks so much for joining us. We know President Trump, as you just heard, called the Georgia Governor, Republican Brian Kemp, tried to pressure him into overturning Georgia's election results, which have now been officially certified that Joe Biden won the election in Georgia.

That's not necessarily how democracies are supposed to work when the President is leaning on a Governor to do the opposite.

MICHAEL SMERCONISH, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: What is this event tonight? Is it a Trump rally? Or is it a Loeffler and Perdue event? Because the priorities are now at odds; until and unless the President concedes, they are at cross purposes.

And here is how, Wolf, the best argument that Georgia Republicans have to motivate their base is to say that Senators Perdue and Loeffler are the only thing that stands in the way, they are the bulwark against total democratic control; Biden, Schumer, and Pelosi, all those talking points.

But they can't say that and they can't say it from the stage tonight, so long as they don't recognize that the election is over. So through at least December 16, when the Electoral College finally puts all of this to bed, they are going to be denied fundraising opportunities and opportunities to energize that base to come out and maintain control of the United States Senate. That's what's at stake.

BLITZER: It isn't just the President denying reality four weeks ago, today, all of the major news organizations projected that Joe Biden won this election.

But this week, and you saw the report, "The Washington Post" contacted all Republican members of the House of Representatives and Republican members of the U.S. Senate, 249 lawmakers and only 27 of them acknowledge that Joe Biden won the election.

Michael, what does that tell you?

SMERCONISH: It tells me that it's a testament to the control that President Trump maintains among those in the G.O.P. base. It also tells me that those Republican Members of the Congress, this House and the Senate are cognizant of the fact, maybe fearful, cognizant of the fact that if he wants to continue to be the titular head of the Republican Party and maybe set up a run in 2024, he is able to do so and they don't want to be at cross purposes with him.

BLITZER: Are they basically scared of the President still?

SMERCONISH: I think they are because you know the ability to be primaried with the President's support is something that I think they're all fearful of.

I think that that, frankly, is the sword that he is now -- you started by talking about Governor Kemp. The President has said that he regrets having endorsed him. I think that Governor Kemp is a great example of exactly what I'm talking about.

President Trump relishing the opportunity now going forward to get involved in primaries with those who don't have his back.

BLITZER: Yes. And we know that in a phone conversation during the week, the President called Governor Kemp a moron and a nut job in addition to expressing regret that he endorsed his re-election campaign.

All this comes as we've been reporting, Michael, the President preparing for this rally later tonight, these two Senate runoffs, they are so, so critical. If the Democrats were to win both of these Senate seats, they would be the majority in the new Senate, 50/50. But the Vice President of the United States breaks ties, Kamala Harris would be the Vice President, the Democrats would be in the majority. This is really critical.

How real is the fear from Republicans out there that the President potentially tonight in his remarks could do more harm than good for these two Senate Republican candidates?

SMERCONISH: Wolf, there's no one who can energize a crowd like President Trump, a crowd of his supporters. But if tonight he sticks to script, it'll be the first Trump rally where he has ever been teleprompter Trump.

He is teleprompter Trump when he addresses a joint session of Congress, never in these free-flowing settings like tonight. So no matter what aides may have told him, no matter what promises Republicans in Georgia may have extracted from him, you just won't know until that mic is hot.

BLITZER: As you know, President-elect Biden things he will be able to work with the congressional Republicans, the leadership in the House -- Republican leadership in the House and the Senate. Is that really realistic right now when these very same Republicans won't even accept the reality of who won the election.

[18:10:08]

SMERCONISH: It's hard for me to see that if you're in a leadership position, you're a Republican in a leadership position, given the data that we have now in terms of the election outcome, if you don't have -- I'll use the word "decency." If you don't have the decency to pick up the telephone and call the President-elect and wish him well, it doesn't bode well for the future of the country, I think in terms of compromise.

BLITZER: I think you're absolutely right. Michael Smerconish, as usual, thanks very much.

An important note to our viewers.

SMERCONISH: Thanks, Wolf.

BLITZER: Michael actually has a brand-new movie that's just coming out entitled, "Things I wish I knew before I started talking." It releases this coming Tuesday. Make sure you check it out. I'm anxious to see it as well.

Michael, thanks for everything you're doing.

SMERCONISH: Thank you. Good night.

BLITZER: Also, tonight, millions of people in California right now are facing stay-at-home orders, new ones, as the coronavirus situation in that state is growing worse and worse. We're going there live when we come back.

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[18:15:09]

BLITZER: All right. There's breaking news and it's really stunning and awful. Get this: the United States of America has just passed one million -- one million new cases of coronavirus in December alone. One million new cases this month and we're only -- we're only not even completely done with December 5th. Five days, one million new cases of coronavirus in the United States.

It's heartbreaking to see what's going on with cases, hospitalizations and record numbers of deaths.

Out in California right now, millions of people are facing some of the toughest lockdown restrictions since the spring and that's starting tomorrow night. New coronavirus cases and hospitalizations out there are exploding, putting an already stressed healthcare system in even more dire straits.

Let's go to CNN's Paul Vercammen. He is joining us from Los Angeles right now.

So Paul, update us on the breaking news. What more can you tell us about these new stay-at-home measures?

PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, let's go first to what's causing this and that is these alarming, soul crushing numbers here in California. Twenty-five thousand new cases of coronavirus announced today.

We have 10,000 hospitalizations here in California, and then we also have more than 200 deaths.

So for any of five regions that have a remaining Intensive Care Unit bed capacity of less than 15 percent, these new stay-at-home orders go into effect.

The San Joaquin Valley region and the Southern California region, that's 27,000 million people, excuse me, right there did not meet this threshold. So one minute before midnight tomorrow night, these orders will go into effect shutting down museums, playgrounds, distilleries, wineries, bars and many other places, basically ordering people to stay home.

Now this is not being met with applause throughout California. In fact, the Riverside County Sheriff is calling these new restrictions ridiculous.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHERIFF CHAD BIANCO, RIVERSIDE COUNTY, CALIFORNIA: While the governor's office and the state has threatened action against violators, the Riverside County Sheriff's Department will not be blackmailed, bullied or used as muscle against Riverside County residents in the enforcement of the Governor's orders.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VERCAMMEN: Now, back here live in front of the UCLA Medical Center where they are at the vanguard of the fight against the virus, doctors and nurses are celebrating these new safety measures.

This UCLA Center will also be able to receive up to a million of the vaccinations. They have the storage capacity in seven freezers. So they are girding up for this fight on a myriad of fronts. California bracing for the absolute worst now -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Awful situation out in California. Indeed, much of the country right now. We'll get back to you, Paul. Thank you very much, Paul Vercammen in LA.

Let's discuss what's going on. It's a brutal situation. Joining us, CNN Medical Analyst, Dr. Leana Wen. Also with us, Dr. James Phillips. He is the Chief of Disaster Medicine at George Washington University Hospital.

Dr. Phillips, as hospitalizations continue to reach record highs all across the United States, many nearing capacity, explain to our viewers what you're seeing what needs to be done right now as this situation becomes much more urgent.

DR. JAMES PHILLIPS, CHIEF OF DISASTER MEDICINE, GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL: Thanks, Wolf, yes, it certainly is a dire situation around the country, and that includes here in the National Capital Region, which is you know, D.C., Virginia, and Maryland.

And in all three areas, we've seen record highs in our numbers of cases just in the last two days, which is just a -- it's the same thing across the country where we're starting to see a trend that is extremely disturbing.

And as you're hearing in California, we're running out of beds. And that's happening in small towns and in large cities across the country.

The main things that need to be done are what hospitals are doing right now. They need to prepare their surge plans. Soon, we'll start seeing cancelation of elective procedures, elective surgeries and that'll probably start nationwide in the next couple of weeks if things don't change.

We need to see people continuing while they can to get their flu shots to reduce those hospitalizations and prevent that overburden on our system. Four hundred thousand people were hospitalized last year for flu, and we're seeing extremely low levels right now and that's helpful. We need to keep it that way.

And then the last thing is, people need to cancel their Christmas plans and we can talk a lot about that.

BLITZER: Yes, this is so, so, so dangerous what is going on, right? These are life and death decisions that folks are going to have to make.

Dr. Wen, the President-elect Joe Biden told our Jake Tapper this week that he'll asked all Americans to mask up for 100 days once he takes office. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: In the first day I am inaugurated to say I'm going to ask the public for 100 days to mask, just 100 days to mask, not forever, 100 days.

[18:20:10]

BIDEN: And I think we'll see a significant reduction if we incur that -- that occurs with vaccinations and masking to drive down the numbers considerably.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BLITZER: Looking at how dire the situation, Dr. Wen is right now, do

you think that'll be enough to drive down these numbers?

DR. LEANA WEN, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: I think it will certainly make a big difference. We know that if everyone were to mask right now, through the end of the winter, we could save more than 60,000 lives in America.

And I think it makes a big difference for the President-elect to be on the same page finally, with our public health experts, instead of directly contradicting public health, which is what has happened to date.

It makes the big difference also to see the incoming President and the entire administration model the kind of public health behavior that we expect Americans to have.

But I also hope that the President-elect Biden will reach out to other messengers, including Republicans, pastors, and other leaders who will be trusted messengers in communities around the country, and also to recognize that masks are part of the solution, but we also need physical distancing, and avoiding indoor gatherings and agreeing with Dr. Phillips, we need to think about Christmas and our Holidays up ahead very differently, not gather indoors.

BLITZER: So I take it, Dr. Phillips you're bracing for -- you're bracing for much, much worse, at least in the immediate weeks ahead, even as these vaccines are showing some significant -- significant promise.

PHILLIPS: Yes, absolutely. The vaccine is a real sign of hope, and we've been looking for that for a long time. But what we are facing in the next two months is dire.

You know, Thanksgiving was now nine days ago. The majority of people who are going to develop symptoms of COVID from Thanksgiving have developed them. Most of them probably feel kind of cruddy.

Over the next seven to 10 days, those folks are going to start showing up at our hospital who are not going to do well. And on day 10, we're going to start admitting some of those patients who are never going to go home.

So we haven't even begun to see the surge from Thanksgiving yet, that'll start next week. And so if we repeat the same mistakes that we've made over Christmas, we're going to overburden our healthcare system tremendously come January and that means that folks that should be getting healthcare for routine things that we see, chest pain, abdominal pain, cancer treatments, people are going to be waiting for that because we're overburdened with COVID.

So the things that Dr. Wen has stated could not be more important.

BLITZER: The C.D.C., Dr. Wen is telling state health departments and governor's offices for that matter, how many vaccine doses they'll initially receive once the F.D.A. approves these vaccines. A CNN analysis of 45 states show all will actually fall short of what

they need to fully vaccinate what's called the first priority group, which are healthcare workers, long-term care residents. How do you even begin to choose who gets a vaccine and who doesn't?

WEN: It's really hard to because right now, vaccines are a scarce resource. We hope that won't be the case forever and that eventually come spring, late spring, we will be able to have vaccines available for every American and ideally everyone will take the vaccine.

But initially, there is going to have to be a decision, hard decisions that are made. Initially it does make sense for healthcare workers who are on the frontlines who are seeing COVID patients to get vaccinated, because without them, we won't have a functional healthcare system.

And then we need for nursing home residents, as well as nursing home staff because they represent nearly 40 percent of all those who died from coronavirus thus far. And then we, as a society, have a really difficult choice to make.

If our decision is that we want to reduce the number of people dying, then we want to prioritize those who are older with chronic medical illnesses.

There's another argument to be made that we need our essential infrastructure, so for example, what about vaccinating our teachers as one of the earlier groups if we want kids to be back in school for in- person instruction? And I think those are the types of decisions we'll be making in the short term while also reminding everyone that the vaccine is not here yet, and so we need to keep up masking, physical distancing and not gathering indoors.

BLITZER: Good points indeed. Dr. Leana Wen, Dr. James Phillips thanks to both of you. Thanks to both of you for doing what you're doing. We are certainly grateful.

With less than 50 days to go for the Trump administration, sources now tell CNN, the White House has held multiple meetings about pardons since the election. We're getting new information. Standby.

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BLITZER: With only 46 days left in office, President Trump may unleash what sources are suggesting could be a flurry of pardons. That's what some sources close to the White House are telling CNN.

Let's go to CNN's Jeremy Diamond. He's over at the White House for us. Jeremy, the President has actually used his power of clemency less often than many other Commanders-in-Chief, but it sounds like that's about to change.

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: It certainly is going to change, Wolf. We know that the President has been contemplating a number of additional pardons in his final weeks in office.

But what's notable in the case of President Trump isn't so much the number of pardons as much as the nature of the kinds of pardons that he is considering and the ones that he has issued already.

We know that President Trump unlike previous Presidents has really used the power of the pardon to help political allies and really done this on a case by case basis, sometimes, frequently often actually circumventing the traditional Justice Department Pardon Office and the typical process that these parties actually go through.

[18:30:10]

And whether that is appeals by celebrities like Kim Kardashian or doling out a rewards for some of his political allies, like the former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn whom the President pardons just a week and a half ago.

And now we know that the President is considering another wave of controversial pardons. There have been numerous meetings at the White House led by the White House's Counsel Pat Cipollone, but also involving other top advisors to the President, including Jared Kushner, the President's son-in-law, who is also, we are told, hoping for a pardon for his father, Charles Kushner.

Now, we don't know that Jared Kushner has asked the President for that pardon. But we do understand, according to our sources, that other people have lobbied the White House for a pardon for Charles Kushner. But beyond that, of course, there are potential preemptive pardons for the President's attorney Rudy Giuliani and even discussions about potential preemptive pardons for the President's children. That, of course, would be highly controversial.

BLITZER: Certainly would be. All right. Jeremy Diamond at the White House, we're going to get back to you as well. But let's discuss all of this with our Senior Legal Analyst Preet Bharara. He's also the former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York.

Preet, the President says we just heard considering all these so called preemptive pardons including for three of his children; Ivanka, Don, Eric, son-in-law Jared Kushner, his longtime friend and attorney Rudy Giuliani. How would that actually work and what concerns potentially does that raise?

PREET BHARARA, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Well, the first thing is he almost certainly has the legal constitutional authority to do it and that might surprise some people. The pardon power in the Constitution is one of the most broad and unfettered powers that a president has.

And maybe that's one reason why he likes it so much, because he likes to be able to do things that can't be questioned, can't be appealed, can't be reversed. All he has to do is issue to the White House what is essentially a piece of paper that has some language about what kind of coverage that particular individuals would get.

One of the most broad pardons we've seen in recent modern history was the pardon that President Ford gave to Richard Nixon who had not been charged, who had merely engaged in conduct that maybe there were potential charges forthcoming in the future and gave as what's described a preemptive pardon for President Nixon, basically, with respect to any conduct that occurred while he was in office against the United States of America.

So it's basically is simple as issuing a formal piece of paper and it probably works. But this nature of broad pardon for so many people that are close to the President, family members, and associates and lawyers, that would be unprecedented.

BLITZER: Yes. It certainly would be. The President has also claimed, as you know, Preet that he has and I'm quoting him now, the absolute right to even pardon himself. As you know an opinion from the Office of the legal counsel just days before Richard Nixon resigned suggests otherwise. So what happens, Preet, if the President were to try to do just that, in other words, issue a pardon for himself?

BHARARA: So that would be, again, a piece of paper. I don't mean to denigrate it in terms of how formal it is, but it's a piece of paper that people will argue. His lawyers will argue has the force of law that can be used as a shield to any future federal charge against him.

Maybe it never gets litigated, maybe it never gets decided, because going forward, no federal prosecutor ends up bringing a case against former President Donald Trump. But if they did, if there was a criminal case to be brought, whether based on the Mueller report volume two or some other charges out of SDNY or anywhere else, then the President's lawyers would say, well, look, there's this piece of paper. This is our affirmative defense to that charge.

And then there would be litigation over the question in that court of whether or not the President can pardon himself, as I've said many, many times and others have said also, the overwhelming expert opinion on whether or not a president can pardon himself is that he cannot. The problem is it has never been tested, because it's never been tried before.

So there would be, I think, a substantial litigation on that point even though the text, the structure, the language of the Constitution, and common sense, and that OLC opinion, all combined to say he cannot do it.

BLITZER: But even if he were to succeed in pardoning himself, he's only pardoning himself from federal crimes. If various state attorneys general or the Manhattan district attorney, for example, were to come up with some alleged crime committed by the then former president, that pardon that he granted himself would have no impact, right?

BHARARA: Correct. That's absolutely correct. Which is why some people consider the pardoning of himself under the Federal Constitution to be kind of futile, because the cases that we know are winding their way through prosecutors offices are in offices like the AG's office and the Manhattan DA's office that are not subject to stoppage by a pardon from the President. And it also will now affect his ability to be charged for things that he does after the issuance of the pardon.

[18:35:02]

So for example, if he issues a pardon for himself at some point in December and then he commits other crimes, misrepresentations and fraudulent acts in January or in February or thereafter not covered either even under the federal system.

BLITZER: Preet Bharara, always helping us with the legal analysis. We're grateful to you. Preet, thanks very much.

BHARARA: Thanks, Wolf.

BLITZER: Meanwhile, a senior intelligence official are now telling CNN that the Trump administration actually prevented the President-elect's transition team from meeting counterparts from U.S. military intelligence agencies.

And now, the Acting Defense Secretary is pushing back. Does this confusion potentially pose a threat to U.S. National Security? A former Secretary of Defense William Cohen is standing by live. We'll discuss right here in THE SITUATION ROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:39:55]

BLITZER: CNN is now reporting that President-elect Biden's transition team was actually blocked from meeting with certain Pentagon intelligence officials. Today, the Acting Defense Secretary, Christopher Miller, pushback saying in a statement and I'm quoting now, "The DoD and its transition leadership are fully cooperating with the Biden transition team."

Let's discuss with the former Defense Secretary under President Bill Clinton, William Cohen. Mr. Secretary, thank you so much for joining us.

As you probably have heard by now, some Pentagon officials blamed these intelligence meeting delays on the Biden team. Apparently, the Biden transition team could meet with other officials at the Pentagon, but not with officials from the DEA, the Defense Intelligence Agency or the NSA, the National Security Agency, what do you make of this? Could this potentially do damage to the country's National Security?

WILLIAM COHEN, FORMER DEFENSE SECRETARY UNDER PRESENT. CLINTON: Well, potentially, yes. We have only one president, one Acting Secretary of Defense as such right now and they certainly have all of the information available to them to make decisions. The problem is that with President-elect Biden is trying to get a running start so that on January 20 or January 21, he's able to take the baton and take it at full speed.

And what the President is doing, the current president's doing, he's not prepared to pass the baton on. In fact, he's in Georgia this evening, I think trying to undermine the entire election. So he's not willing to pass the baton on and that is going to put Joe Biden, President Biden in a more difficult position in terms of having information that will be necessary for him to act quickly, prudently and wisely on our National Security interest.

For example, you say, well, I'm giving you all of the information, but not the intelligence. Well, intelligence is power. Information is power. I need to have the information of what is taking place, for example, in Somalia. The President is talking about removing troops in Somalia. What is the threat assessment in Somalia? Does that jeopardize our remaining troops? Does that jeopardize our allies in the region? What are the consequences of removing or reducing that presence?

Those are the kinds of things that Joe Biden will have to know from day one and it really helps if you know in advance exactly what the intelligence is showing. And if you take the DIA, the Defense Intelligence Agency out, State Department out and other agencies, it puts you in an inferior position of knowing everything that's going on.

BLITZER: Yes.

COHEN: So right now, I think, we're reasonably safe. We have an Acting Secretary Defense, but that doesn't help when Joe Biden takes over and he appoints his Secretary of Defense.

BLITZER: And he takes over, as I said, at 46 days on January 20th.

Since the election, Mr. Secretary, President Trump has actually been purging various civilian leadership over the Pentagon, including the Defense Secretary himself. He's been installing a bunch of loyalists. This week, President Trump placed his former campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski on a Pentagon Military Advisory Board. Do you believe this is appropriate?

COHEN: I think this is a signal to the American people, just think what would have happened had Donald Trump been reelected. This is something he has wanted to do from day one. He's been inhibited somewhat from doing these things, because of the fear of reelection.

But if he would have been reelected, this is just a sample of what he's doing, purging the various agencies of the expertise of the real intelligence operatives, et cetera, and putting his loyalists in. These are people who pay fealty. He has to force them, he wants them to just simply kiss the ring and that's just an example of it.

Now, on a substantive basis, it doesn't change much. The advisory boards don't have real power in the sense they can make decision. They make recommendations. They can help a secretary of defense make more wiser decision, because they comprise a group of people who are out in the world either in academia or in the business world or who are defense experts and security experts like Henry Kissinger and Secretary Albright.

And so he's purging all of the experts and it's really sort of an obscene gesture to the Biden supporters and to, at least, the majority of the American people saying I'm going to get rid of all of the experts. I'll put my people in who don't really know much about world affairs and defense affairs, but this is just the a salute to you in a way that's inappropriate.

BLITZER: As you saw in The Washington Post today, the newspaper reached out to every Republican member of the House and Senate this week and get this, only 27 of them acknowledge that Joe Biden actually won the election. When you were in Congress, when you were in the House many years ago, you're one of the first Republicans to break with your own party and call for President Nixon's impeachment.

So what's your reaction to this Republican silence that we're seeing now exactly four weeks to today since every major news organization in the United States, including Fox News project that Joe Biden would be the next President of the United States?

[18:45:04]

COHEN: Wolf, I served for 24 years on Capitol Hill. I was dedicated to the rule of law and that is what holds our country together. The observance, the dedication of the rule of law. President Trump doesn't believe in that. He believes he has absolute power of a dictator or an autocrat.

And so the people on Capitol Hill, my Republican friends, I would say, if you're acting out of fear, that this President may occupies some political position or non-official position and you're acting out of fear, extortionist never go away. They will always be out there. And if you cave into the fear that you might be primary sometime in the future, you will live under that for the rest of your duration.

So you're abdicating, your obligation is to the Constitution, you're abdicating your responsibility as a United States Senator as being a separate independent branch of government. And frankly, I think it's shameful that more senators, more Republicans are not willing to recognize the obvious that Joe Biden has been elected. And he needs to have the recognition by the United States Senate that he is going to be the President of the United States.

Fear to recognize that or say congratulations, Mr. President now, President-elect, I think it only reflects poorly on the individual senators. And it's so difficult to accept that that's not the body that I served in for so many years. There were so many Republicans who made their lives and base their lives on the rule of law and respect for the institutions.

And what's happening, you're seeing that Donald Trump is savaging our democracy. He's putting his primary emphasis on him rather than the country. And I just want to say a word, I know time is running out, I want to say a word about what's happening on the front lines here at home.

We're in a war and we have to congratulate the men and women, our frontline defenders, who are taking people in, dying people, having to construct COVID treatment in parking garages and yet we had the President of the United States just said not a word, not a word of sympathy, of compassion other than I'm going to challenge this election, because it's about me.

And so I want to say to all of those who are first line defenders, thank you. God bless you. We need you and we are overwhelming you, because the President of the United States says he's a wartime president and he's leaving hundreds of thousands of people dead on the battlefield.

As I've said before, I think he ought to be removed from office as a result of a commander who has failed in his primary obligation to protect and defend the American people. And I think at this particular point in time, he could say that he is a commander who should be relieved of his duty and worse, I would say that - even discussing whether or not he can pardon himself.

Just imagine if he were to continue doing what he's doing after he's out of office. I think the pardon doesn't extend to those kind of activities.

BLITZER: All right. He'll be out of office in 46 days, as we all know. Secretary Cohen, thanks as usual for joining us. We always appreciate your assessment. It comes with a wealth of experience, so thanks for all your service to our country.

COHEN: Thank you, Wolf.

BLITZER: And be sure to watch the new CNN film President in Waiting. It takes a very personal look at the role of the Vice President. That's later tonight 9 pm Eastern right here on CNN, right after our special SITUATION ROOM.

Coming up, as cases surge in the United States, some other countries are set to roll out vaccines as soon as next week. The U.S. will be watching very closely. We have details when we come back.

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[18:53:14]

BLITZER: There's breaking news we're following and it's awful. We're just learning that the United States of America has now passed 1 million new confirmed cases of coronavirus in this month December alone and we're only halfway through December 5th. In less than five days, less than five days, more than 1 million confirmed cases of Coronavirus in the United States.

And as the U.S. waits for emergency authorization for a coronavirus vaccine, the United Kingdom is getting ready to roll them out next week. CNN Salma Abdelaziz has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN REPORTER: Wolf, the vaccine is already on its way and the doses are being sent to storage facilities across the U.K. and the first people to be vaccinated will be medical workers. So the plan is starting early next week, 50 hospitals across this country will inject their own stuff with the vaccination. All of this while officials here spar with Dr. Anthony Fauci who criticized Britain's regulators saying they approve the vaccine too soon.

We then heard from a Cabinet Minister here who said, well, the U.K. was first because it's the better country. Not a very helpful comment, but Dr. Fauci did apologize and express faith in the U.K. system. But this all shows just how much it's under scrutiny, Wolf.

BLITZER: Salma Abdelaziz in London for us. Thank you.

Let's go to Russia right now. Moscow began opening coronavirus vaccination centers today. CNN's Matthew Chance has this report.

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, Moscow has today launched a mass vaccination campaign, opening 70 vaccination centers across the city, according to officials where residents can get injected with Sputnik V. The vaccine developed by Russian scientists, which is still, remember, to complete phase three human trials.

Officials say priority will be given to designated high-risk groups, but as vaccine production has stepped up, everyone in the Russian capital will be eligible for the jab.

[18:55:07]

The Mayor of Moscow has suggested early participation in the scheme has been enthusiastic saying more than 5,000 people registered for vaccination in the first five hours alone, Wolf.

BLITZER: All right. Matthew, thank you. Matthew Chance reporting.

There's more breaking news we're following. Once again, millions of California residents right now they're headed for a brand new just announced stay-at-home order. We have details of what that order will look like, stay with us.

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