Trump fires defense secretary Esper after election defeat; McConnell: Trump “within his rights” to wage legal fight; Pfizer CEO: vaccine more than 90% effective; U.S. surpasses 10 million coronavirus cases;

The Lead with Jake Tapper

CNN

News

3.5 • 1.7K Ratings

🗓️ 9 November 2020

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Source: Trump personnel chief threatens to fire anyone looking for another job; Trump refuses to concede or accept results of election; Sen Graham: Trump could run in 2024 if court challenges fail; HUD secy Ben Carson & Trump legal adviser David Bossie test positive for coronavirus; DOW closes up 800+ points on vaccine news, Biden win; Trump refuses to concede, peddles false fraud claims; GOP allies urge Trump not to concede election; Senate balance of power depends on two runoffs in Georgia; Will a republican-controlled senate block Biden’s agenda; President elect Biden assembles team, plan to battle COVID; Biden: election is over, time to set aside partisanship; Biden: wear masks, it will lead to “normal life”; Biden makes appeal to Americans: it’s time to end politization of basic public health steps; De Blasio says NYC is “dangerously close” to a second wave; US tops 100,000+ cases a day for 5 straight days; New COVID cases up 34% from last week, 43 states showing upward trends; New COVID deaths steadily rising, averaging 939 per day; Ballots still being counted in Arizona, Georgia; Georgia secretary of state refuses to step down, says Trump “unlikely” to win GA electoral votes; Senate majority likely to be decided by two runoffs in Georgia; To learn more about how CNN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is
0:03.2	Welcome to the lead. I'm Jake Tapper and we begin today with breaking news two days after it became clear that
0:09.4	Joe Biden had been elected 46 president of the United States.
0:13.0	Biden is now beginning his transition.
0:15.4	Presidents elect Biden is making an appeal to the nation for unity
0:18.7	in the end of polarization in the United States.
0:21.1	Yet, this happens at the same time that President Trump is
0:24.1	refusing to accept defeat and is instead lashing out this afternoon. As his
0:29.6	lame duck session as President began, Trump fired his Secretary of Defense.
0:34.3	Mark Esper, senior administration officials tell CNN that Secretary Esper has been
0:38.4	pushing back on President Trump since last year.
0:40.7	Esper was among officials in 2019 who urged Trump to release that aid to Ukraine,
0:46.4	aid that Trump used as leverage for dirt on Biden.
0:49.2	Espar cautioned Trump not to completely pull troops out of Northern Syria, and after force was used against
0:54.9	protesters outside the White House of Summer, as Per publicly denounced the moves, said he regretted
0:59.7	his presence and was careful to try to keep the US military out of the realm of
1:04.2	the president's political desires. Secretary Asper may just be the first
1:08.4	firing a senior administration official tells me that Esper is worried that President Trump will also soon
1:14.2	fire FBI director Christopher Ray and CIA director Gina Hasble next. A separate
1:19.6	administration source also tells me that President Trump's personnel chief at the White House
1:24.0	is threatening to fire members of the administration if he hears that they are even
1:29.0	looking for another job. Plus this afternoon we're learning of new coronavirus cases in
	...

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