Transcripts For CNNW Anderson Cooper 360 20201118

The president elects win in that county helped him to win michigan. We start with the firing of chris krebs, President Trump fired him by tweets, too. The first is baseless and inaccurate, and in the second tweet the president writes in part, chris krebs has been terminated. What more are you learning about this . This is someone who most americans are probably not aware of in terms of name recognition. But it is someone whos more important to this election than anybody else. This country does not have an election czar. We have elections in all these different states. And krebs called himself the risk adviser for the election. It was his job to make sure that the u. S. Election in 2020 went smoothly, safely, securely, and he did that. Now we live in a country where the president has fired by tweet on tuesday night one of the most senior officials involved with keeping our democracy and keeping our elections safe. We have seen krebs in the days since the election pushing back baseless allegations and unfounded claims and straight up lies from the president and his allies about what they believe was a fraudulent election in the words of the president was it was rigged. We read the tweet from the president moments ago when chris krebs responded on what appears to be a new twitter account that was flagged to me by a source whos close to krebs. Krebs writes that he was honored to serve. We did it right. Defend today, secure tomorrow. Protect2020. This was these phrases were that he used repeatedly when it came to securing the election. This was not someone who was overtly political. He was a political appointee. He was named by President Trump to this position. He went out of his way to be apolitical in his job. I pressed him repeatedly on how he would face disinformation coming from the president. This was not something he would engage in. But it is something in the days since the election he has engaged in, if not directly then certainly indirectly by pushing back on all of these various claims. And just today, quoting a long list of very respected scientists and elections experts who put out an open letter saying that the claims, that allegations that Voting Machines were manipulated, which is something that the president have said are either unsubstantiated or technically incoherent. So we have seen krebs going through these conspiracy theories. One notable one that he pushed back was that a cia supercomputer was changing votes from trump to joe biden. He called it nonsense and a hoax. What appears to have happened here is this pushback simply got too much for the president and now chris krebs finds himself as part of this National Security purge that trump is carrying out in the final weeks. Alex, youve reported that krebs sort of expected this to happen. In the days that followed the election, he became much more vocal. Think of what we were hearing from the president in the weeks leading up to the election. We hear it is going to be the most fraudulent election and it is going to be rigged. And foreign governments would create fraudulent ballots that would lead to this most rigged election. Krebs quietly, gingerly would make these comments, whether to the press or these panels that in fact it was very, very hard to manipulate these mailin ballots at scale. So he was doing what he could to walk that line between correcting the record that was being pushed by the president and putting out what was actually true. He focused on what he liked to call speed kill. This was taking down these conspiracy theories and lies and rumors as quickly as he could. And he put out this website called rumor control that would do that. In the days following the election when the president was talking about dominion voting systems, he would push back, saying these claims of these votes are being changed are simply untrue. So he was doing it in his way and in fact he was doing it in a way that was not direct as another senior federal official who was named by trump, who called the president s claims insulting, baffling, and straight up lies. Now krebs found himself on the losing end of standing up for the truth. Anderson . Alex, thank you. For more on this, kaitlan collins. What more can you tell us from President Trump firing krebs by twitter, which is just what he does. Reporter there has been times where people tried to resign or get fired in person. And the president prefers to do it by tweet. Thats what hes chosen to do tonight. It is not a surprise. I was told the president erupted when that statement came out saying this was the most secure election in american history. And that these voting systems the president has been talking about did not change any votes. We are seeing in chris krebs what is the reason why a lot are not speaking out against the president when hes wrong and that is, the president will fire you. The president is especially wrong here about the claims hes making and chris krebs was fired. To be fired by the president at this stage is a badge of honor that i think chris krebs can probably wear proudly moving forward. Hes not hes speaking the truth and hes fired for speaking the truth. And the toadies around the president may be licking their lips in satisfaction tonight. But history will not judge them kindly. They basically view this cyber arm agency, part of dhs that was engineered to protect against election fraud. For the president to do that and into fire krebs is just classically how the president conducts his business, and how he does things. It makes you view things when people ask, why did the gsa administrator did not say anything yet about the biden transition, this is an example that you see there. Chris krebs started out in the george w. Bush white house. He was in a republican white house. He left when obama was in office. He worked for microsoft and came back under the donald Trump Administration. This implication that hes not a republican or has served under a republican president , goes to show the kind of people that are working in this white house. You get fired not because of your political views. Its because you displeased the president. And you get fired via twitter. Which is the weakest thing possible for the president to do. Kaitlan collins, thank you. Congresswoman jackson lee, i am not surprised to see what happened to these people. Not everyone would stand up for the president but tell the truth. What do you think this says about how far does President Trump is willing to go to convince the American People that he won the election but even though he lost . Im sorry. We dont have your audio. Well try to fix that as soon as we can. Lets get perspective from Abby Phillips and our david gergen and miles taylor. He was revealed as the author of a New York Times oped that was highly critical of the president. Miles, you worked in the department of Homeland Security. You were hired the same day as mr. Krebs, you guys worked together in your time there. Why does it matter . Well, first of all, it is a couple of things. I think this demonstrates how unhinged the president is becoming towards the end of his presidency. But the bigger takeaway is chris krebs is not a super partisan figure. He was a political appointee of the president. But this is someone who has more integrity than almost anyone i know. Chris and i started the same day and there was no one that i respected more than the government because he wasnt a partisan. Hes focused on the mission. What matters more to him than anything was making sure our elections in 2020 were more secure than they were in 2016. On chris first day, he said, i want my mission to be that make sure that the bad guys, the russias and chinas in the world trying to interfere into our election cant do it again. If there is anyone of the entire federal government that deserves credit for protecting the integrity of our election of this cycle, it is christopher krebs. So the fact that the president singled him out as enemy number one when it comes to election integrity, that should tell you something. The president is afraid to hear the truth and chris krebs knows more about the truth than anyone in the government. Miles, as alex reported at the top of the program, apparently mr. Krebs may have seen this coming. Hes likely not surprised hes been fired by the president. He knows that people that tell the president truths he does not want to hear often pay a price for it. Thats absolutely right. But chris is not one of those people who felt like he needs to be a showboat. He felt that his mission was very, very important. And right now it continues to be important after the election. And chris knew that. He knew that after the election things would be disputed and it was important for the officials to give the American People confidence that their votes were counted and counted correctly, and assure them of the integrity of this election. But theres one other thing i want to emphasize, and thats the recklessness of this decision. Christopher krebs is in a sensitive position in Cyber Security and government. Hes read into very sensitive programs that very few people in the federal government are read into. Right now for the president to fire him at a time when our adversaries could be targeting us is reckless and dangerous and puts the American People at risk. And abby, krebs has pushed back on a number of lies in the past week, including those made by President Trump and his supporters. Yes, this invented idea that votes have been changed through the Voting Machines or pushing back on the idea that foreign governments may have been interfering with the vote counts or there was massive mailin fraud. All of these things are things that the president are stating without any shred of evidence. We should be clear about it. There is no evidence to support any of those claims, on the scale that the president is claiming them. I think this has been expected for some time. We have known for a long time that any officials that push back on the president s falsehoods like this are likely to be in his sights. Chris krebs is no exception to that. The question now is not so much for the president but for the Republican Party thats propping him up in this late stage. People like ted cruz and Lindsey Graham who actually do know what the president said has no basis in fact. But they continue to back him up. This is just an effort to undermine the entire electoral system of the United States so that he can hold onto power as long as possible. David, abby makes such an important point. Yes, of course this is what President Trump does, what we should expect him to do, and try to wreak as much havoc as he can before hes shown the door. But the fact that republican and senators are playing along with it and getting along for fear of the base and the Georgia Senate races is shameful. It is shameful. I do think there are some positive news out of this. But for decades, weve celebrated people who speak truth to power. And here we have this young man krebs, a young man who stepped up forward. A republican, when all the republicans have been too cowardly to say anything. Hes going to walk out with his honor in hand. There was a ban on chris krebs talking to the biden transition folks. That ban now falls away. If chris krebs is so inclined, he would be a major asset for him to sit down with the Transition Team of president elect biden and help bring them up to speed. He doesnt have to do anything to break classification. He has to help them understand how to sort all of this out, which they desperately need to know. David gergen and Abby Phillips, thank you. Congresswoman Shirley Jackson lee is back with me. Not a surprise. We know what happens to people in the administration who tell the truth. What does it tell you about well, we may hold before President Trump showing us the door. We are living in a surreal time now. Democrats should not take this likely. I believe that we are more vulnerable with the firing of director krebs. The reason i can say that, i can assure you that the concern is that the gaping hole that will be left after director krebs has left is very challenging. Secondarily, i would say we started looking at Election Security with director krebs as early as 2018. The committee had several hearings, director krebs was always open and forthright. Looking at the question of Election Security, we came together and said we did not want to happen in 2020 what had happened in 2016. Director krebs worked with us to ensure that and presenting us with the work of cisa, and apprising us of the constant firewalls that he was looking to ensure that we would have a safe and secure election. One of things i remember asking him, was he interacting with each state. And he indicated he was an open book for any of the state agencies to receive that information. Hes truly a patriot. All he wanted to do is ensure the American People that their votes are protected. We are so divided that republicans on capitol hill promote the president s lies, and those look, there are some, you know, you know, some members of congress, the senate, who are just, you know, such d ideologues that this is how they want to see it. But there are other ones who know better and know this is false and know what they are doing is shameful and wrong. Anderson, i think this is really a moment of conscience. We often hear the words that you dont speak ill of the United States or your president overseas and it is the phrase, if you end any negative conversation regarding the commander in chief when youre overseas. I am going to use it in a different way, we are at the waters edge. We dont know what the president is going do next. I am appalled at the firing of the secretary of defense. Not that i was a fan of his leadership. But the fact that stability is most important as were dealing with National Security. This is domestic security. And were at the waters edge. That means we need patriots, democrats and republicans, at this moment. Elections are over. For us to do what is right on behalf of the American People, to give them the right kind of guidance. To tell people who are out protesting on behalf of this president that these are fraudulent elections, to say that we cant go any further if we are going to unify. We have so many mountainous issues. My point would be that this is a time for republicans as it would be for democrats if it was a circumstance, a shoe on the other foot, to say that we have had fair and nonfraudulent elections. A professional and nonpolitical director of cisa indicated, director krebs, that it was the most secure election in the history of the United States. It is time for our friends to stand up with us as democrats to affirm that. I also think it is time, anderson, for the General Services administrator. Its unthinkable, for a staff person telling them they cannot proceed. I think theres a lot of need for courage, for morality, for unity, and for standing for the person people. I appreciate your time. Thank you. More on the firing of chris krebs coming up. keeping your oysters growing while keeping your business growing has you swamped. you need to hire i need indeed indeed you do. The moment you sponsor a job on indeed you get a shortlist of quality candidates from a resume data base so you can start hiring right away. Claim your seventyfivedollar credit when you post your first job at indeed. Com promo are your asthma treatments just not enough . Then see what could open up for you with fasenra. It is not a steroid or inhaler. It is not a rescue medicine or for other eosinophilic conditions. Its an addon injection for people 12 and up with asthma driven by eosinophils. Nearly 7 out of 10 adults with asthma may have elevated eosinophils. Fasenra is designed to target and remove eosinophils, a key cause of asthma. 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Protect2020. We are joined now by adam schiff. You released a statement that read in part, it is pathetic, but sadly predictable. Does this surprise you at all . No, it does not surprise me. This has been the story of the Trump Administration for four years. Anyone that had the audacity to speak truth to power would get fired and replaced by someone who would. That was the early experience in the administration, and it will be the experience until the president is walked out of the oval office. But its a terrible tragedy. And for a good public servant, i have to tell you, anderson, i sat through innumerable hearings on the subject of Election Security, election interference. And i was consistently impressed with chris krebs, with his willingness to just speak it plainly. Not color things to for president. Everyone that got fired by this president is only an enhancement to their reputation. Thank you, chris krebs, for doing a good job securing our elections and i think you leave your office with your head held high unlike many others. He was named by President Trump to this position, charged to safeguard the election. To the president s, you know, followers believing that there is a deep state in cahoots against him, this is one person that the president appointed to this position. Thats exactly right. A lot of people complain of being deep staters are people that he put in. With this president , nothing is consistent. The president does whatever he thinks is in his personal interest and hes vindictive. You have chris krebs in not so many words of what the president has been saying about the elections being stolen or fraudulent is a bunch of bunk. That was not something that the president could tolerate. Both because it was true and because he had the courage to say so. At this moment, while we are speaking of Rudy Giuliani, maybe not at this hour, but hes in court making all of these false allegations that chris krebs has been rebutting. Apparently the president is chewing through any lawyers whos willing to essentially speak nonsense to the court and running out of them. And has Rudy Giuliani, his goto when all else fails. This is a contrast that we have between a person of principle like chris krebs, and Rudy Giuliani, the last of the administration willing to still do the president s dirty work. The idea that Rudy Giuliani is in charge of the president s legal situation on this gives you a sense of how legitimate the charges are, that Rudy Giuliani is the one whos now in charge, because a lot of lawyers dropped out or their cases have fallen apart because there is no widespread voter fraud in this country. What does it tell you about the next 64plus days that the president is going to be in office before he has to leave . It seems like Maggie Haberman was on last week saying that the president views it as kind of like a show and hes watching and he thinks of things in the increment of time and wanted to see how it all turns out, almost as an observer. There is a lot of damage he could do the next 60something days. I think there is a lot of truth to Maggie Habermans assessment. He has always viewed his own job of presidency as if someone else doing it. He talks about himself in the third person as the way he criticizes the policies of the federal government and its inability to do things when hes leading the federal government. You would think he was some passive observer on the sidelines and not empowered to do things. But the problem is that his interests, as you say, are very myopic. What helps donald trump in the next 24 hours, what helps him in the next news cycle, whats good for him in the future, what helps his moneymaking down the line or future political ambitions. He cant understand someone like this. He cant understand chris krebs who would do his duty anymore than he can and risk his life for the country. Up next, what the wayne county board of canvassers have done tonight. And how Lindsey Graham inserted himself in the georgia president ial election and got involved in other states. The most dangerous thing about Rheumatoid Arthritis is often unseen. Because the pain youre feeling could be a sign of irreversible joint damage. Every day you live with pain, swelling, and stiffness. You risk not being able to do the things you love. Especially in these times, its important to keep up with your rheumatologist. Schedule an appointment today. Whoa . Someone please help of course. Youre tenacious, ill give you that [heavy breathing] product not yet rated. Tech every customer has their own safelite story. This couple was on a camping trip. When their windshield got a chip. They drove to safelite for a sameday repair. 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The certification of results from michigans biggest county were almo was almost stopped. Democrats on the panel voted to approve the certification and two republicans did not. Wayne county shows biden won more than President Trump approximately by 264,000 votes. Joining us now is rick hasen. Hes the cnn election law analyst. So this move, i mean, youre talking about disenfranchising the votes of overwhelmingly africanamericans in detroit by two republican canvassers. I am not even sure how they get that position. The trump legal maneuvers seem to be failing in the courts, especially in michigan. So how did this happen . This is just more of the same. We have just one thing after another in terms of failed attempts. We had filings in nevada. Rudy giuliani arguing in pennsylvania. All of his lawsuits and attempts are failing. After the votes are tabulated, you have some form of certification process. This is something thats unprecedented, that these officials are trying to reject the vote. I dont think its going to get anywhere. It will work its way up the food chain to the state board of canvassers, and the governor would have the power to replace a canvasser who wouldnt vote to certify. It does show you the length that people are willing to go to humor the president s argument that he potentially won the election. Have you seen this before . You know, as far as questionable ballots or anything that would warrant the results not being certified . Well, we had elections before when there were issues, you can go back to 2018 where the North Carolinas state board of elections said, there was fraud going on in relation to absentee ballots and we need to redo the election. That was done on a bipartisan basis. We have in North Carolina now a state Supreme Court race thats very close. There will be potentially a recount. But when someone is ahead by hundreds of thousands of votes, saying im not going to certify detroit because i dont trust the results there, besides being racist, its not the way things go when it comes to not a close election. These things are usually a formality. So obviously states are not certifying results, among the biggest fear. In michigan, you said it would work its way on the food chain. Is this possible in other states as well . One of the Senate Leaders in michigan says theyre not going to be changing anything. They know joe biden is the winner. If you look at pennsylvania and the last attempt of Rudy Giulianis lawsuit. That was probably the worst lawyering ive heard from any lawyer arguing in my life. Really . It was not surprising given what we have seen from Rudy Giuliani. What was so terrible about it . At one point the judge asked basic questions. Asking, is this strict scrutiny or common law . And Rudy Giuliani did not seem to know what those terms meant. You know it was just an embarrassment to listen to that. When you look across the states, remember, biden is ahead by 36 Electoral College votes. Even if manage to mess it up in one state, there is still many other states. You have this the president who has not conceded. You have Lindsey Graham potentially interfering with the vote count in georgia. These are terrible and unprecedented things and speaks terribly of our democracy. But in terms of trying to affect the outcome of the Electoral College vote thatll happen in january, i dont see any of this amounting to anything. You think these efforts will fail . Every maneuver so far has failed except for a minor attempt in pennsylvania. None of the cases seem to involve the theories or number of ballots that would make a reversal. I dont see any legal path right now based on whats been filed to overturn results in one state much less the three states somehow to legally change the results of the election. So if Rudy Giuliani is the only lawyer around and you were in legal trouble, would you call him . I would argue the case myself. Even if i was just a high school graduate. Good to know. I will keep that in mind. I will follow your advice. Richard hasen, thank you so much. Appreciate it. There is more breaking election news. Georgia says they should finish their hand recount tomorrow night. And that so far, the recount is spoton to initial tallies. If true that would completely undermine President Trumps attempt to overturn the results in georgia, which narrowly swung to biden. And other breaking news, controversy involving Lindsey Graham when he admitted statements to the Washington Post that graham asked whether there is a way to toss legally cast ballots in georgia. This is what cnn was told about what graham said on that call. Well, it is just an implication that, look hard and see how many ballots you can throw out. Graham has since admitted the conversation did occur. As well as having conversations with Election Officials in two other states. He says the georgia secretary of state is mischaracterizing the conversation. Joining us now is gabriel sterling, he was not only in the room with the secretary of state when the call with senator graham occurred, he made the announcement of the recount. Gabe, i hope you got some sleep. I was able to catch up on some, but my sense is you have not been able to. Manu raju asked Lindsey Graham about that call today. I want to play you what he said. Lets listen. He thinks its an implicit threat. That was not the purpose of our conversation, throwing out ballots. We are talking about an election that weve not had yet, which is the senate races. Is there any way we can do to make it better . Does that match up to what you recall . He was talking about the upcoming race for two republican senators. Frankly, it meets the secretarys characterization is correct. But senator graham is not incorrect that he did focus on the upcoming race to make sure that legal ballots are being cast. There was a secondary conversation, what does this mean, if there is a percentage of potential envelopes, you look at the signatures and say there should have been more rejected than not. Could that be a potential court challenge, and that was the implication. There is no way our office can do that and we said, if you want to go that route, there would have to be a court route. We were having conversations about the fact that people from other states were looking to come to this state. And there were ways they can do that is through registering. There is a possibility that the senator is focused on one thing, is and the secretary is focused on one thing. And our job here is to follow the laws of the state of georgia and continue with our hand audit which we plan on finishing tomorrow by midnight. Senator graham is not a member of the committee. He says hes well in his rights to ask questions about the election. Do you agree with that . If senator warren called to ask questions, well answer it. I dont see anything being out of line. If the senator calls, you simply pick up the phone and answer the question to the best of your ability. It was Just Announced that , 2,755 initial inperson votes were not counted, it was a mistake in the ongoing audit. Are you still on track to you said you are still on track to finish the recount tomorrow. Yes, we are. We have 778 net positive for the president out of floyd county and 449 tonight we found an additional 176 that goes to the president right now. That puts the margin at 12,753 and we have no indication that there is anything broader than that. But this is why you do audits. Make sure that human beings dont make errors, and thats why we have the guardrails in place. When you say you found these, what does it mean . How does it get misplaced . When they did the audit, they said, we have 248 more votes here than we thought. By going back and looking at the polls and other things they should have reconciled before uploading the final certified results, we were able to say, yes, you were missing a card. They say, yes, we were missing a card, and uploaded. Theyll load that up tonight and thats where the 176 votes came in from. Thats why you do audits because human beings tend to make errors. Its rarely an electronic problem. Its almost always a human error in any election throughout american and world history. Gabriel sterling, i appreciate your efforts. Thank you very much. Thank you, anderson. Have a great night. You, too. Coming up, a senator tests positive for coronavirus. And an official named emily murphy is still refusing to trigger a formal transition for the biden team. What the biden team says about the delay, next. But we didnt stop there. We made a cloud flexible enough to adapt to any size business. 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Manu, unfortunately yet another member of the senate has tested positive for coronavirus. What do we know . Yeah, the senates most senior republican, 87yearold Chuck Grassley was a senate protem. He tested positive for coronavirus today. He was exposed to someone who had covid19. He was in the senate yesterday. He delivered a floor speech. His floor speech was about the importance of Wearing Masks and social distancing. Grassley himself at that time was not wearing a mask during his floor speech. Senators typically do not when they speak on the floor. But he was walking on the senate with a mask. He also attended a meeting with Senate Republican leaders last night in a room. Im told they were Wearing Masks. The Senate Republican leader said they were all spread apart. So, no one else seems to be isolating. But of course this comes as a bit of a shock for someone who has served in the senate as long as he has, someone who can be affected by the virus, and someone who has not missed a vote since 1993. Now he missed some today. And hell miss until he recovers. Yesterday, senator brown asked to wear a mask on the floor. Ted cruz took to twitter saying this is idiotic. Thats an ostentatious fake virtue. Isnt this exactly what senator brown was worried about . Yeah, when someone presides over the senate, while theyre not directly next to the person speaking, the senator speaking, there are aides or floor staff. And in the case of senator sullivan who was presiding at the time and had his mask off and shot back at sheriff brown who called on him to wear a mask, there was a Senate Parliamentarian reacting at the time. Not all have that rule of sitting back and watching the Senate Floor Action take place. Not all those republicans wear masks while they are presiding. Bait number of them do. But its inconsistent, the social distancing on the senate floor is inconsistent. And while most members wear masks while they walk around the capitol, some of them interact differently in closed door spaces. Now that Chuck Grassley has tested positive, well see if theres any changes. I know were watching some of the exchanges. Were going to show them on the screen. Do you know exactly what happened . Obviously they say behind the scenes is interesting compared to what theyre saying publicly or not saying. I was in the senate gallery. Not all of it is visible or audible from what you see. Lindsey graham, close trump ally came in and gave senator Kamala Harris a fist bump. Then later in their interaction, Kamala Harris was approached by senator mike rounds. Mike rounds said congratulations to Kamala Harris, as did senator james lange ford and senator tim scott. Interesting because those three senators have not yet said that she is the Vice President elect of the United States or that joe biden has won the election. Theyre siding with the president s fight against the Election Results for now. And when i caught up with Lindsey Graham, for instance, he said he wished if he wins ultimately, which he believes will be decided within a month or so, then shell be willing to work with her. He said he made that point to her. Lankford said he was just being polite when he said that. President elect biden and his Transition Team took a swipe at the General Services Administration Today for still refusing to unlock formal relations. Refusal means no current executive Branch Officials can meet or talk with incoming counterparts. The center of the storm is emily murphy. Pete muntean is at the gnc for us today. You spent the day trying to get answers from this emily murphy. Did you get any . Not yet, anderson. Whats interesting is we took a different approach to get ahead of her. We came to headquarters, dialled her spokesperson and asked if she would come to the sidewalk, speak to us on camera, explain why she is not officially signing off on it. It was a bit of a last minute request and our request was denied. Its important to note this is the latest of dozens of requests to just try and get to the bottom of this delay is something president elect joe biden says is costing lives every day. She was appointed by President Trump, but, i mean, she is there to serve the American People. Its sort of interesting how much power this, until now obscure Government Official holds. Is there any indication when she might finally is there anybody who can have power over her to get her to sign off on this . Because theres a report that she personally is already looking for a new job in a posttrump world. Any window into the timing of all this right now is simply speculation because we cant hear from emily murphy directly. When i spoke to her spokesperson, she laid out a couple reasons the gsa feels empowered to do this. The act of 1953 which gives the final authority to sign off to the transtoigs the incoming administration. And two, the bush versus gore election back in 2000, which took about five weeks to call. In this case, the race has already been called. You know, in the previous case, it was a few hundred votes in just one state. In this case, tens of thousands of votes separate a win in multiple states. Shes simply waiting on President Donald Trump to concede. We shall see. Pete muntean, appreciate it. Coronavirus, to date no formal contact between the White House Coronavirus task force and any member of the biden advisory team. Rick bright, former vaccine expert at skmelt Human Services who earlier this year filed a whistleblower complaint. Appreciate you being with us. I want to taube about the transition in a moment. First your reaction to pfizer admitting its vaccine has hit its safety milestone and theyre preparing for emergency use authorization. How big a deal is that do you think . Anderson, thanks for having me on. Its a really important milestone for pfizer and moderna to move forward to get the application for review by the fda. Pfizer is indicating they have collected enough data, enough safety data and enough efficacy data that the fda is requiring for that submission. Now, the fda will take the opportunity to review all those data, and theyll present those data to an external Scientific Advisory board. And that external Scientific Board will make the determination if that data is sufficient and adequate to make a recommendation for the fda to issue that emergency use authorization. So, were getting closer each day. The ceo said theyve kept the trump and biden teams informed about Vaccine Developments. Is that accurate . Is the bidenharris Advisory Board receiving information from pfizer and other Companies Working on vaccine . To the best of my knowledge, since the election we havent had any communication with the administration, absolutely, with the current administration. Whats happening in Vaccine Development or anything with the Pandemic Response. And weve had very limited, if any, interaction with any of the companies that are working on the Pandemic Response as well. This delay in ascertaining the election is really causing significant delays in hampering our ability to transition the new Leadership Team from the old Leadership Team to respond effectively to the pandemic. Specifically what is what can you not do that you would like to be doing right now. I mean, yesterday, president elect biden said lives could be lost because of these kind of delays. Anderson, were in the middle of the worst pandemic crisis in over 100 years in our country. Theres so many factors that are ongoing that are critical to not only ending the pandemic but getting america back to work and get america back in schools and bringing our society back together once we get the pandemic under control. There are many moving parts not only for Vaccine Development, which we just said were at late stages of that develop skpmt the fda might authorize a vaccine in the next month or so. And if so we need to start rolling that out across america. We need to know what plans, if any, are in place to distribute that vaccine. We need to be able to pick up that baton in the middle of the race and keep running with it. Your administration we have to start from scratch. Sorry. The Bidenharris Administration will be overseeing the distribution of this. There may be distribution by the Trump Administration, but the biden team will pick that up when he is president. The idea that youre not already being looped in to how its being distributed, playing a role in those meetings, thats pretty extraordinary. Thats extraordinary