CNN "The Situation Room" - Transcript: Interview with Senator Chris Coons

Interview

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[18:27:21]

BLITZER: We're back with breaking news.

The United States has just reached a truly horrific milestone. More than a quarter-of-a-million Americans have now died from COVID-19.

Joining us now, Senator Chris Coons, Democrat of Delaware, very close friend and ally of president-elect Joe Biden.

Senator Coons, thanks so much for joining us.

Let me just get your thoughts, as we have now passed 250,000 American deaths, a quarter-of-a-million deaths, here in the United States since the first deaths back in February. This is an awful, awful development.

SEN. CHRIS COONS (D-DE): It is, Wolf.

This is a grim milestone and a reminder of just how much loss there's been all across our country. This pandemic hasn't spared a single town or village, state or community in our country. And of those 250,000 who've died so far, how many of them died alone?

How many of them died without their families having a chance to mourn or grieve or come together? This is a truly staggering loss.

And what makes it sharper, what makes it harder for all of us is, frankly, the fact that it didn't have to be this bad. The nation of South Korea had the same first day first infection that we did, and, if you look at the course of the pandemic in that country and our country, they managed to get control of it far faster, far better.

And it was relatively simple. As Dr. Sanjay Gupta was just saying in the panel you had on before me, the public health measures required to manage this are pretty simple, wear your mask, wash your hands, respect social distancing, coordinate testing and tracing, and develop a vaccine.

Had we had coordinated, competent national leadership, we would not be recognizing a quarter-million American dead today.

BLITZER: Yes, yes, a quarter-of-a-million mothers and fathers, sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, grandparents, good friends, they have died.

And, as you correctly point out, there was a lack of national leadership from the top on down. And that resulted, so sadly, in this total failure here in the United States.

Despite this very grim milestone, as you point out, Senator, the president-elect and his transition team -- and this is shocking -- they are still not getting the clearly important information they need. Biden says this could lead to a vaccine rollout being delayed once he takes office after January 20.

That rollout could be delayed weeks, he says, even months. Do you agree with the president-elect that what is going on right now, this lack of cooperation, potentially could cost American lives?

COONS: Well, Wolf, Joe Biden, as our president-elect, is showing leadership.

[18:30:00]

He is consulting with frontline workers, with public health experts, with the folks who are developing these vaccines, but he doesn't have access to the most vital information about the logistics challenges, about the supply chain plans that will be essential for the incoming Biden-Harris administration to move forward rapidly with vaccinating more than 300 million Americans.

We have really good news in that two vaccines now show enormous promise, more than 90 percent efficacy. But this is maddening that President Trump is continuing to indulge himself in now a two-week- long temper tantrum and refusing to accept the results of the election and that my colleagues here in the Congress are coddling him and sustaining him in this fever dream. When it breaks, we're going to see more Americans dead unnecessarily and a longer delay in the delivery of this vaccine that was unnecessary.

BLITZER: If President-elect Biden believes this will cost American lives, and that's what he said today, a delay in delivery of the vaccine, why not take immediate legal action now to get this formal transition under way?

COONS: Well, I can't speak to the legal strategy of the transition. I can say I think they've got good grounds to do so. The GSA -- the mid- level administrative agency that has the responsibility technically for making the determination that the transition should begin should have done so ten days ago.

It is the thinnest of excuses that not every state so far has certified as the recount is completed in Georgia and as Georgia certifies, there is no credible path for President Trump to overturn the outcome in the four states he would have to overturn for him to instead be declared the winner.

And, frankly, in the absence of the GSA making that determination, there's absolutely no harm to sharing the vital information about the pandemic and about the path toward vaccination with the incoming administration even if there were some path, some way that President Trump could remain in office. What would be the harm in sharing this information with the incoming team?

BLITZER: I don't know if you heard the reporting from our Jeff Zeleny that current and former Biden administration officials, current and former, are now reaching out to the incoming Biden transition team wanting to help, wanting to get some assistance to the incoming team. We're talking about Trump administration officials, current and former Trump administration officials. You're very close to the president- elect. Have you heard of that?

COONS: I am aware that there are both Republican senators and folks in the administration or former members of the administration who are trying to connect to the transition but it's been very tentative and very halting so far. What we need is President Trump to end this temper tantrum transition and accept electoral reality and authorize the sharing of robust information.

It is encouraging. There are some early outreach steps going on. But, frankly, the federal government is an enormous entity and undertaking. And the alarming news yesterday that President Trump fired Chris Krebs, the head of the Homeland Security Cyber Security Agency, in just the latest casualty of his four-year war on the truth, is a sign of how President Trump on his way out the door is intending to cause further chaos and havoc by exercising his favorite sentence, you're fired, to punish people who are speaking up against his delusions about the outcome of the election.

BLITZER: And earlier, he fired the defense secretary as well. Senator Chris Coons, thank you so much for joining us. Stay safe. We'll stay in touch with you.

COONS: Thank you, Wolf.

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