Yet, another, record day for people hospitalized for covid. More than 100,000. And with icu beds running short in this in his state, californias governor, today, announced stayathome orders for hardhit areas, when icu capacity drops to 15 . The bottom line is if we dont act now, our Hospital System will be overwhelmed. We dont act now, well continue to see a death rate climb, more lives lost. Today, we are now introducing a regional, stayathome order in the state of california. Its not just california. Delaware, announced, today, stayathome orders running through january 11th. In other words, the holidays. Arkansas recorded its highest case count of the pandemic. In michigan, cases are running five times what they were at the start of october. More than 10,000 new cases today, in florida. Again, vaccines are coming but the surge is already here. That is reality. Its what democrat and republic republican governors are now, all, dealing with. Speaking with cnns jake tapper for a conversation that is going to air at the top of the next hour, 9 00 p. M. Eastern time, president elect biden spoke to the reality we are all facing right now, and said he offered a way out. It is important that we, in fact, the president and the Vice President , we set the you know, the the the pattern by wearing masks. But beyond that, where the federal government has authority, i am going to issue a Standing Order that, in federal buildings, you have to be masked. And transportation, interstate transportation, you must be masked. Buses, et cetera. I think my inclination is, in the first day im inaugurated to say, im going to ask the public for 100 days to mask. Just 100 days to mask. Not forever. 100 days. The president elect, also, said he will be asking dr. Anthony fauci to be a chiefmedical adviser and part of his coronavirus team. Meanwhile, in the unreality show he is taking into his final act, the current president spoke, briefly, in favor of a compromisedeconomic relief package, but mainly confined to remarks of the fantasy world hes built for himself. Take a look. This is the president of the United States, today, sounding like an oldtime, flimflam man. Every point he i am about to sh you is made up. Mr. President , can i ask you, why is now not the time to concede . Well, he hasnt done anything. So, he hasnt looked. When he looks, he will see the kind of evidence that, right now, you are seeing in the georgia senate. You know, theyre going through hearings right now, in georgia. And they are finding tremendous volume. So, they havent looked very hard, which is a disappointment, to be honest with you. Because its massive fraud. Whether you go to wisconsin, where we just filed a case, or michigan. Or if you look at whats happening in georgia, as an example, or pennsylvania. If you look at nevada, which is moving along very rapidly. Or arizona. You saw those numbers come out, yesterday. We found massive fraud, and in other states, also. This is a probably, the most fraudulent election that anyones ever seen. I was going to say it would be funny, if it wasnt so sad. But, thats not true. It would still be sad, even if it wasnt so sad. See, how the president , there, made it sound like there was some kind of a snowball of momentum moving in his favor . Things are moving quickly . Basically, his game is say a state, make something up, say another state, make Something Else up. Hey, look at nevada. Arizona. Thosene those numbers come out yesterday. Look at georgia. The reality is there is no momentum, in his favor. Just the opposite, in fact. We got the tape of what the president said at 12 39, eastern time. At 1 13, 36 minutes later, news hit the local papers in wisconsin. Its conservativemajority Supreme Court declined to hear that case just filed that the president was crowing about. Heres what the republican secretary state of georgia said just yesterday. Looks like Vice President biden will be carrying georgia and he is our president elect. We have seen no substantial changes to the results from any counties, so far. And thats what we expected. As for michigan, pennsylvania, nevada, and arizona, all those states, along with wisconsin and georgia, have certified their results. And again, as attorney general barr said this week, the Justice Department has seen no sign of systemic fraud and, yes, they have been looking. We learned, as well, today, the president recently sampled another flavor of dangerous unreality. Speaking, within the last several days, at a meeting with Senate Majority leader mcconnell and other aides, he brought up congresswomanelect Marjorie Taylor green for the qanon conspiracy cult. Qanon, in case you havent been following, is the the folks who believe there is a global cabal of democrats and celebrities who operate childsex rings out of a pizza parlor and worship satan and drink the blood of children which , a source familiar with the matter telling cnn qanon consists of people who, quote, basically believe in good government. Which, then, reportedly led to silence in the room. White house chief of staff mark meadows then reported to have said he had not heard the group described as such. Yeah. 48 days until the president is out of office. And yet, there is another corner of this unreal world to report on tonight. One, in which the liaison to the Justice Department is barred from the Justice Department, told not to even enter the building. Kaitlan collins did the reporting on this. Joins us now. So whats happened with this white house liaison . Well, this is not a wellknown rule but its critical because you act as the intermediary between the west wing and federal agencies. So when you are not allowed in the building, it hinders your ability to be able to do that job. But, thats what we told happened to this white house liaison because we were told by sources that she was trying to get access to sensitive information, that she is not privy to access about potential voterfraud cases that the Justice Department was looking at. And were told, the belief was that she wanted to share that with the white house. Its not clear because she hasnt commented, and neither has the white house or the doj on this. But it did lead to ban her from coming to the building. And so, the white house has not commented on this but they do seem to be responding to this. Because, today, they announced they are putting her in another position as this advisory board. And you can see, there, thats where this ended up. The the white house is no longer saying she is going to be in this role. But youve got to remember, in september, white house chief of staff, mark meadows, emailed all the heads of these federal agencies and said they were replacing all of the liaisons. People who were doing their jobs. Not because of performance issues but because what it was seen inside the white house was they wanted to put loyalists inside those positions because you really can act as the white houses eyes and ears for what is going on given this is a president who has this distrust that the deep state is constantly working against him. So, its not clear who is fulfilling that role, at this moment. And President Trump today said or wouldnt say if he had confidence in attorney general barr. You have some reporting there their white house meeting this week. What have you learned . Yeah. The president chooses his words carefully. Hes been asked that question a inn number of times throughout his time in office. And you can always tell when he is actually upset with someone. The last i remember him doing it with was defense secretary, mark esper. Today, the president had that long pause. Im told tuesday the president and barr had a pretty c contentious meeting after barrs comments to the press, completely undercutting the president s argument you were showing earlier, his claims of fraud. After he say that just wasnt true. That the doj had not uncovered any evidence of that. And so, they had this contentious exchange. Of course, that has raised the question by the president s closest advisers about whether or not he is going to fire the attorney general, with just seven weeks left to go. And they say the president is really hesitant to fire someone ever since the blowback he got from firing james comey. So, its not clear if he will but he certainly has talked about doing so. At the top of the program, we played for you that sound where you heard President Trump say about arizona, quote, you saw those numbers come out, yesterday. We found massive fraud. We spent the day trying to figure out what he was talking about and we couldnt. So, we are happy to be joined now by arizona secretary of state, katy hobbs. Do you know what the president was talking about there . No, we have not found any evidence of fraud here, in our state. There continue to be challenges in court, that have been free from evidence of fraud. And d and those challenges continue to be dismissed. So, no, i do not know what he is talking about. So the court cases that have been brought forward. They have been dismissed . There are two pending court cases, right now, that are challenging the certification of the election that happened on monday. And we expect these to end up, the same way that the previous challenges have ended up. And basically, you know, in the the court challenge. I mean, i think you said they were evidencefree. Theyre not very detailed with any specific, actually credible, allegations of fraud, is that correct . Right. And so, there was some investigation of ballots that were duplicated, which is done by humans. And so, there were some mistakes found, which is not equivalent to fraud. This is a human process. Error is sometimes inherent there. And the level that we found is not concerning, at all, and nothing that would come near to changing the result of of any election. Its so, i mean, strange because, you know, yesterday, Vice President pence swore in arizonas newest senator, mark kelly. By virtue of doing that, i assume the Vice President is acknowledging that the arizona results are valid . Well, yes. And, you know, we had our republican governor and Republican Attorney general participate in the certification of the results on monday. The republican Governors Office prepared that certificate of election that allowed senator kelly to be sworn in. And so, you know, things are happening the way that theyre supposed to be happening. And we still have republicanelected officials, here, continuing to cry foul and claim there is all this fraud that there isnt. Did you ever expect to see a situation like obviously, you know, im not talking about just the runup to this election because obviously there was concern about, given what the president was saying, what might happen afterward. But just, you know, in our previous lives, did you ever consider this kind of scenario . Well, i think, in america, we have free and fair elections. Theyre a cornerstone of our democracy. And in that system, theres winners and losers. Normally, the losers accept the result and move on. And i think, we sort of predicted, leading into this election, with all the misinformation that was coming out of the white house about how the election would be rigged, that this was a potential outcome. Certainly, i think this is damaging and has farreaching consequences, beyond just this election. In what way . What are the farreaching consequences . Well, i mean, you have republicans, across the country, that are refusing to accept the outcome. And continue to delegitimize the integrity of our elections, which there the officials and the experts are saying there has been no evidence, at all, of widespread fraud. And there are will systems in place that check at every place, accuracy and testing of machines, postelection audits that test for those things and those things have happened. And and and we have elected leaders, who are fueling these conspiracy theories, and refusing to accept the results. And continue to say that the election was stolen. And that that is, frankly, dangerous to our democracy. Yeah. Arizona secretary of state, katie hobbs, i appreciate your time and work. Thank you. Just ahead, tonight, bob woodward and Carl Bernstein and what these final days and weeks of the Trump Administration may be like. And they, of course, covered the final days in the runup to that of the nixon administration. First, more perspective from Gloria Borger and david gergen. So, gloria, i mean, the president really is operating in this alternate reality. Amplifying baseless claims about the election. Lying to the american people. Whichever way he wants it, which people think they are giving to him, you know, to allegedly fight voter fraud. Seems like there is no backing down for him. No, there isnt any backing down. He doesnt feel the need to, and he doesnt want to. I spoke to somebody who speaks to the president , he said he is not listening to anyone anymore and he is not going to. So, this notion that, somehow, the president s going to come out of this and be gracious and concede and thats not going to happen because he has to have his supporters. Whether its because of who he is, or because of what he wants to do in the future. He has to have his own supporters believed believe that he didnt lose. That hes never going to be called a loser. And maybe, he wants to monetize this. As you point out, hes already raised his pac has already raised over 200 million. 70 of that, he can use for himself, if he if he wants to. Or whether he is planning for another run. Who knows if that would ever happen, in 2024 . But hes not going to leave the stage saying i lost. Its just not going to happen. David, does setting up, like, a grievance a grievance movement. Is that a is there evidence that that actually works to catapu catapult somebody for a reelection attempt, to run again . I mean, is that enough of a motivation . We talked to ben ginsburg, i remember, a while ago. And one of the things he was saying, you know, was that people who run again based on past grievance saying that they were wronged, it rarely has worked out. Im wondering if youve seen evidence to the contrary . I think davids computers frozen. The joys of what we are living through. But, you know, gloria, with coronavirus numbers, i mean, the numbers are staggering. People are dying at record numbers, right now. The president is focused on conspiracy theories. Right. Qanon, you know, antisemiticbased conspiracy theory. President biden is making plans to combat the virus. It is stunning, just the disconnect here. It is stunning, as you pointed out at the beginning, the president praises qanon. That people dont stand up in that meeting and say, are you kidding me . What are you talking about . You know, not only is he not focusing on the virus because, of course, he maybe, he believes that was a hoax as well. But he is spending all his time or his aides are spending an awful lot of time talking about pardons. And, you know, these pardons in advance of any potential crime for his family, for his lawyer, rudy giuliani. And, you know, pam brown and i heard, today, in our reporting that that that there is, also, talk of, perhaps, pardoning Jared Kushners father. Now, kushner, were told, is not involved in these discussions, and hasnt talked to the president about it because he really doesnt need to. But his father, as youll recall, went to prison for tax evasion, among other things. And so, that could be on the president s list of pardons. So, this is whats keeping him busy. Yeah. Wasnt just tax evasion. It was tax evasion and some other, also, shady things. Absolutely. I want to play something president elect biden told jake tapper, today, when he was asked if all these possible, preemptive pardons by President Trump concern him. Lets play that. Well, its it concerns me, in terms of what kind of precedent it sets, and how the rest of the world looks at us as a nation of laws and justice. But, look. Our Justice Department is going to operate independently, on those issues that how to respond to any of that. Im not going to be telling them what they have to do and dont have to do. Im not going to be saying, go prosecute a, b, or c. Im not going to be telling them. Thats not the role its not my Justice Department. Its the peoples Justice Department. And david gergen is also i think we figured out the problem. Hey, david, thanks for being here. Sorry about the problem. I am just wondering what you make about, you know, what we are hearing from this this this disconnect, this unreal world that the president is, you know, ginning up. Obviously, theres financial motives. There is politicalpower motives. And and, you know, motives for what his future may be. Listen. We havent seen anything like this before, in our history. You could argue that Andrew Jackson was denied the presidency and he came back and won the next one. And showed, yes, you can correct these things. But this president is so much off the spectrum, anderson, its just out of sight. I think, basically, this is about power. I think he wants to cripple joe biden, before he ever gets started. Hes been you know, things hes been doing on the stimulus program, the stalling on the stimulus program, the long lines for food. The hurt thats going on in this country. With iran. Theres so many things you can point to that he is really laying ground mines for joe biden to step into, and blow up his presidency and i think its disgraceful. The republicans need to stand up, and be accountable in this. They would be held accountable by history. But i mean, theres no sign, gloria, that no. You know, theyve not stood up, at all, since. And they remain fearful, obviously, of the base that trump has, that he is continuing to cultivate, who is donating money to him, that he can use however he wants, for the most part. Yeah. Theyre cowards. You hear some republicans speaking out. Actually, today, wolf did an interview with mitt romney, where he was very straightforward about the election. But, hes not running for president , i dont think. But, there are lots of folks now. The irony here is they have been paying homage to to this president. And now, he threatens to freeze the race that they want to run in. So, you know, there are there are senators, like marco rubio, ted cruz, josh hawley, probably like to be president one day, been real supporters of his. He doesnt care what they do now. He cares about keeping that support for himself, in one way or another. I mean, the Republican Party is of no interest to him. Yeah. I mean, david, it is it just its so clear. I dont theres no theres no way any republican on capitol hill believes that donald trump really cares about the Republican Party. No, their problem is, anderson, hes got more support in their districts and their states than they do. And that gives him it gives him enormous leverage against them. Thats what political power is all about. Thats why, you know, how much people win by matters. Its not just victory, its how big the margin is. And trump did very, very well in the general election. But hes got a lot more power, state by state, than any other republican, by some distance. Yeah. David gergen. Gloria borger. Thank you. Coming up next. Coming vaccines and the president elects call for a hundred days of masks mask wearing and the incredibly difficult Holiday Season we are now facing. Later, woodward and bernstein and their thoughts about this president s final days and weeks in office. Shark iq robot deep cleans and empties itself into a base you empty as little as once a month. And unlike standard robots that bounce around it cleans row by row. If its not a shark, its just a robot. To show up. For the sweet. The hectic. The tender. The tense. And the fiery. But for many, migraine keeps them. From saying. I am here. We aim to change that. With. Aimovig, a preventive treatment. For migraine in adults. One dose. Once a month. Is proven to reduce monthly migraine days. For some, by half or more. Dont take aimovig if youre allergic to it. Allergic reactions like rash or swelling can happen hours to days after use. Severe constipation can happen. Sometimes with serious complications. High Blood Pressure can happen or worsen with aimovig. Common side effects include injection site reactions and constipation. It doesnt matter what each day brings. So long as you can say. I am here. Aim. To be there more. Talk to your doctor about aimovig. Come on over here over here dshea i live in south jamaica, born and raised. Im a doordasher, im a momma with a special needs child, she is the love of my life. Doordash provides so much flexibility. If something happens with her, where i need to be home, i can just log out and just say okay, my family needs me. I dont have to answer to nobody. I dont want to be nobodys employee. I do what i want, im independent. Independent lady. Thats what i like about it. 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 seeing the brightest light possible at the very end of the darkest tunnel imaginable. That is where we are in the pandemic right now. Thank goodness, so many of us and the ones we love are healthy. Thank goodness so many of us can do what we can to help others, if we choose. And if you ever need one reason to wear a mask or stay home for the holidays, listen to this overburdened doctor in minnesota. Maybe, do it for her. What we do today, what we do tomorrow, what we do this Holiday Season, will determine who, exactly, gets to the other side. What i see are patients with breathing tubes lining the hallways. I see patients, who are gasping for air. I see family members on ipads crying, because they just want to be able to see their mom, their dad, their brother, one, last time. Thats what i see. Joining us now, cnn chief medical correspondent, dr. Sanjay gupta. Also, dr. Leana wen, emergency room physician, educator, and former Health Commissioner for the city of baltimore. Sanjay, i want to ask you about the president elects plan for masks but what do you make of president elect biden telling jake tapper that hes asked dr. Fauci to stay on . Yeah, i mean, its its heartening to hear. I mean, dr. Faucis obviously been around for a long time. Has served six president s. Will serve in sort of a chiefmedical adviser role. Sort of, a role that he has done for quite some time. So, you know, its very reassuring. Hes, obviously, been talking about this pandemic since the beginning, has has worked with ron klain, before, on the ebola outbreak, here in the United States. So, you know, i think i think hes hes the infectiousdisease guy we all turn to. Its great to know he is going to be able to still do that kind of work. Obviously, sanjay, wont be able to mandate mask usage, nationwide. But says he plans to in federal buildings. His plea to voluntarily mamask days, could make . Well, this has become a politicized issue. So i think there are some people who are not going to wear a mask, just as a straatement, frankly. Last week, to interview birx and it was amazing to me, maybe 40 to 50 of people were wear masks. Maybe thats not surprising to other people but its the white house buildings. Middle of a pandemic. And 40 to 50 of people wearing masks. I think most were not. And i think the things president elect biden is talking about will make a difference because, even within federal buildings, other institutions may take those cues. Hospitals do it all the time but other places of large unemployment may start to do that as well and i think it will make a difference. Dr. Wen, i know you recently wrote an oped in the washington post, which was fascinating and i urge people to read it. In it, you write its clear what lies ahead. We must cancel our christmas and holiday celebrations, now. I think its certainly hard. Its been a tough year for many and people bawant to see their loved ones. What do you tell them . So, anderson, i would say that it is really hard. That, pandemic fatigue is real, and we all cannot wait until this is over, and the end is not that far away. But we have to get through this winter, because what lies ahead for the next few months is actually our worstcase scenario in terms of overwhelmed hospitals. In he remembterms of the death t is occurring. You know, theres just so much virus in our communities right now. If you host a dinner of ten people, in many parts of the country, you have a one in four chance that someone at that dinner has coronavirus and doesnt know it, and will spread it to others. And i am certain none of us want to be the person who is the inadvertent superspreader or hosting an inadvertent superspreader event but that is probably what happened over thanksgiving. Probably, what will happen over christmas. And so, lets not have those gatherings and not travel for nonessential purposes, right now. Sanjay, pfizer ceo told nbc tonight its unclear whether a person who receives the vaccine can still transmit the virus. Which is a pretty big unknown. Could you just explain how that would happen . And what people would need to do to prevent it . Yeah. I think this is a really fundamental point. The way this trial worked. You had about 20,000 people or so receive the vaccine. 20,000 or so people receive the placebo. Over a period of time, there were close to 100 people who developed symptoms, and sort of raised their hands and came forward. And what they found was the vast majority of people who got symptoms, who developed the disease, were in the placebo group. Thats where that 90 efficacy, sort of, number comes from. What but what we dont know, and i think this is the point albert was making, is that we dont even actually know, for certain, that this vaccine prevents infection. And we dont know that it whether or not if prevents someone thats infected from transmitting. What we can definitively say is it really, greatly is effective at preventing disease, which is really important, right . People may, still, get it. They may even still transmit it but if it can dramatically reduce disease, thats really important. Now, it may turn out it does actually work well preventing infection and transmission. We just dont know that, yet. Those are going to be longerterm studies. I hadnt realized that. In all the reporting weve been doing. I guess, shows my lack i should have studied more in science when i was younger. I just assumed it meant you could not get infected. Right. Yeah. No. Look, i think a lot of people think that. And and its not its its one of those things where you have to look at what was the what we call the primary endpoint of the study . And really, with this primary endpoint they were looking for in these trials was to determine does it actually reduce the likelihood of getting covid19 . Now, again, it may do those other things. We just havent seen the data to be able to say that, at this point. And dr. Wen, if everything goes to plan, how do you educate people on how the vaccine works . Any expected side effects . You hear people all the time refusing to get flu shots every year because they are worried theyre actually getting injected with the flu. Right. And i think it is important to debunk that myth. If you get the flu vaccine, you are not going to get the flu from the vaccine. But somebody may have had a side effect in the past and they say, well, that gave me the flu. When, actually, that was an expected side effect. And i think thats what we need to do the same thing with covid19. Not minimize side effects but be really transparent about them. You could get a local side effect, local reaction of pain, redness, swelling, where the injection goes in. You could also develop fever, fatigue, body aches. Thats normal. Thats expected. Thats certainly a lot better than being intubated, put on a ventilator, and maybe die. So, its important for us to educate about this. I, also, think having trust in messengers is important. I was talking to a local preacher in baltimore, he wants to have an immunization drive at his church. And he wants to be the first to roll up his sleeves and get the vaccination to help to counter distrust in our community. And i think there will be many efforts like that, locally, that are really critical. Sanjay, researchers for new england journal of medicine say Moderna Vaccine they say was eliminate an immune response or, excuse me elicit an immune response, thats after the first vaccination. 119 days doesnt seem very long. They do say, at least. What does that can you explain what this means . Yeah. Theyre trying to figure out this unanswered question, at this point. And this paper dwhich i looked t doesnt answer it. The question is how long does the protection from these vaccines last . And what you got to keep in mind is when they looked at these, again, these endpoints, they are measuring about a threemonth time period. So, they can say, during those three months, there was a little bit of waning, you know, decreasing of the antibodies. But there was still strong immune response. It is also one of these things, anderson, at the end of the day, the real question is someone likely to to, you know, become sick with this disease. You may have protection in forms other than the antibodies, themselves. So, how long does the immunity last after a shot . We still dont know the answer to that but what they are saying is at least three months. Sanjay, thank you. Dr. Wen as well. Appreciate your time. There does seem to be some movement, at long last, towards a congressional stimulus package that would help mitigate the economic damage done by the virus. Talks are intensifying between republicans and democrats for a deal, after months of arguments. Joining me now is democratic representative Sheila Jackson lee. Congresswoman, thank you for joining us. Deaths reaching grim, new milestones virtually every day, now. Obviously, the economy continues to suffer. What do you say to Many Americans who wonder why Congress Still hasnt passed a second relief package . Well, what i will tell them is that, democrats, as you well know, anderson, passed a 3 trillion bill months ago. One that would not have americans in the dire conditions that they are in. We understand that we were blocked continuously and we understand now, having come back to washington, that we just cannot leave. We have to continue try and reach some solution. We know that there is one american dying, every 30 seconds, from covid19. There are no options. And the bill that is now before us, or will be before us, still being negotiated, is not what we would have wanted. Meaning, democrats, who worked so hard to make sure that cities and counties wouldnt be bleeding. That families wouldnt be evicted or having mortgage foreclosures. But, were at this point now. And so, this bill has enough money for about a fourmonth period, that includes 160 billion for our counties and cities and states that are bleeding revenue. 288 billion for the paycheck protection. Maybe, we can keep a few more Small Businesses from closing. And, of course, money for education and money for vaccine affirmation, continued testing. So, we put in the necessities. And, of course, something that we were fighting over is liability protection, using taxpayer dollars, that senator mcconnell seemed to have wanted for his for businesses that might be engaged in covid19 lawsuits. We had to deal with what we could deal with. But the main issue is americans are dying, americans need testing, and they need the vaccination, and they need the Distribution Process or protocols in place, so that we can try and save lives. How far do you think you are from some sort of compromise and and agreement on this . Well, the good news is that leadership has begin to begun to pore over the bill. Speaker pelosi and schumer have indicated we cannot leave, without a reasonable response to these lives being lost. I think were in a good place. We all have responsibilities to our district. But we have responsibilities to the nation. I cant go home without a bill that will help our schools and help our children normalize, or to provide some guidance on how we will distribute the vaccines. And, as well, to save Small Businesses and, finally, every day that ive been in the district, our local governments have said we have no revenue. We have police and fire. We have municipal workers. We have got to be able to have revenue to continue working, and i think this fourmonth window, till after president elect biden and Vice President elect harris are the president and Vice President of the United States, where we can have a reasoned negotiator. Someone, who is focusing on dying americans, and not focusing on dead elections, i think well be able to move forward. Ive heard you talk about the issue of hunger in america and, certainly, what we have been seeing during this pandemic is just its heartbreaking. You know, folks. I mean, huge lines, in cities around the world. Cities around the country, certainly. And people who normally have not, you know, had to go to food banks before. Now now, relying on them. We reported, last week, some 50 Million People may go hungry, this year, because of the impact of covid19. What can be done to stem that . First of all, i see it every day. We have been in the mix of food distribution, almost every week. Ill go home, this weekend, for just a short period of time and do another food distribution. The cars are long, not just in houston, in harris county. But its all over the nation. And, of course, people have said that it is people who have been food insecure, and i think we should not ignore them. Theyve been going to bed hungry, for a long time. But its,le also, people who ha lost their jobs, its families. Its people who lost two parents, if you will, and have the children remaining. So, we have to focus on that. I believe what will happen is that, if we can pass this crunch bill, this covid19 emergency bill, if you will, well immediately get to work, starting at the very beginning of january, to focus largely on Food Insecurity. Well continue to give if we can give cities and counties dollars, they can continue to help our food banks. People who have means or continue to donate to our food banks. I, frankly, have just joined some College Students who are going to do a texassized christmas. They are going to collect goods and money, until december 22nd and, by the way, they want to challenge colleges across america to be part of that because we know Food Insecurity is real. People are going to bed hungry. Children are going waking up hungry and going to bed hungry. Anderson, i think we will be really working on it when we return to get as much money as possible. Congresswoman Sheila Jackson lee, thank you very much. Quick programming note. With Covid Vaccine delivery close to becoming a reality. Please, join dr. Sanjay gupta and me, tomorrow night, 9 00 p. M. , eastern, for a new edition of coronavirus town hall. The vaccines. There is no question, the president s entering his final days and weeks as an occupant of the white house. Up next, a special conversation with two journalists who wrote a bestseller about another president s final days. Bob woodward and Carl Bernstein join me. That president , of course, is richard nixon. Whats the same and whats different, when we continue. Aligns quality probiotic strain, adds more good bacteria to your gut, to help strengthen your immunity. Try align today. Beautiful. But when i started cobra kai, the lack of control over my business made me a little intense. But now i practice a different philosophy. Quickbooks helps me get paid, manage cash flow, and run payroll. And now im back on top. With koala kai. Hey more mercy. Save over 30 hours a month with intuit quickbooks. The easy way to a happier business. Wake up in a winter slumberland. Soft percale sheets, all things cozy for your best nights sleep. Give the gift of a better bedroom with 10 off at casper. Com all things cozy for your best nights sleep. Vicks vapopatch. Easy to wear with soothing vicks vapors for her, for you, for the whole family. Trusted soothing vapors, from vicks 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. And with their insurance, it was no cost to them. Woman really . Tech thats service you can trust. Singers safelite repair, safelite replace. And look, it feels like im just wasting time. Thats why Td Ameritrade designed a firstofitskind, personalized education center. Oh. Their awardwinning content is tailored to fit your investing goals and interests. And it learns with you, so as you become smarter, so do its recommendations. So its like my streaming service. Well except now youre binge learning. See how you can become a smarter investor with a personalized education from Td Ameritrade. Visit tdameritrade. Com learn visit tdameritrade. Com learn [whats this . ] oh, are we kicking karly out . We live with at t. It was a lapse in judgment. At t, we called this house meeting because you advertise gigspeed internet, but we cant sign up for that here. Yeah, but im just like warming up to those speeds. Youve lived here two years. The personal attacks arent helping, karly. Dont you have like a hot pilates class to get to or something . [ muffled scream ] stop living with at t. Xfinity can deliver gig to the most homes. Just a reminder. Coming up at the top of the hour, president elect biden and Vice President elect harris, in their first, joint interview since the election, with jake tapper. As they get ready to take office, President Trump is in the throes of his final week there. Here to talk about it, two legendary journalists who wrote a bestseller about richard nixon. Bob woodward, author of the new, bestseller, rage. Longtime reporter for the washington post, Carl Bernstein. Bob, when you look at how republicans now continue to entertain President Trumps lies and conspiracies, and baseless claims of voter fraud and election fraud. What does it tell you about the grip this president will have on the Republican Party, for the next four years . Well, we at least, for the next 50 days, its going to be rather absolute. I think its shameful, quite frankly, the way the republicans have just kowtowed to this. Now, trump, clearly, is a political force. Those 74 Million People who voted for him. It its amazing. But this, i think, after january 20th, will start to crack. And i know, as carl knows, privately, lots of these senators will just say they want to get trump out of there. They want to move on, and theyre keeping their fingers crossed. Carl, can they move on . I mean, if he is threatening to run again and holding that over the head of all these republicans, who many of whom, themselves, want to run . They could show some courage, instead of continuing to enable a shameful president of the United States, who continues to attempt a coup. He continues to attempt a coup, and not a serious leader of the Republican Party has come out and said this must stop, mr. President. He continues to undermine the electoral system, for the future. So that, this election is called into doubt because of his lies by so many people. Look. Richard nixon was a criminal president , who was held to account because people in his own party said, mr. President , you cannot do these criminal acts. What donald trump is, is a subversive, american president , such as weve never seen, who has subverted the National Interest at every turn. We have hundreds of thousands of americans, dead and dying, because of his homicidal negligence. And he continues to abdicate his responsibilities, while more and more people die. And he focuses on his own, narrow, selfish interests. Weve never seen anything like this, and it is an episode in our history that is going to resonate for a long time, especially for the Republican Party. Bob, you know, obviously, look. Politicians, you know, have lied before. But the the scale of it, the brazenness of it, the complete disregard for what is true and not. And the acceptance by the president s supporters of his lies is extraordinary. Can things ever go back . I mean, or, now, are does everybody have free reign to just live in their own reality . And im talking about every politician, have free reign to live in their own relaality, an just say whatever they want, free of concern about what is actually true . Well, i dont think people are going to try to pull trumps stunts, in the exact same way. They may do it differently. But but i you know, we were talking about the final days here. And i think it is the final days of trump. The interesting question is does it mirror and resemble what happened to nixon, in 1974 . And as you may recall, the nixon final days had some real weird episodes. Like, nixon and his secretary of state, henry kissinger, getting down on their knees and praying together, as the president pounded the carpet. Asking the question, what has happened . What have i done . Also, nixons soninlaw, eddie cox, called senator griffin, who was a senator from michigan, at the time. Very close to richard nixon. And eddie cox said, were really worried about the president. He was up talking to the pictures of former president s, giving speeches. Were worried that he might take his own life. I dont think it has reached that point with trump. But that speech, last night, was one of the most bizarre performances i have ever seen. Not only detached from reality. But he actually got somebody to write it because he had a teleprompter there saying all these things, that make no sense. And as carl points out, we the number one calamity for this nation, now, is the pandemic. And for ten months, trump has ignored when i did one of these interviews with trump, i said, whats the job of the president . And trump said, to protect the people. And he has failed in a way that truly is unimaginable to protect the people that hes supposed to lead. And, carl, i mean the comparisons to the final days of nixons, those details bob was just talking about are extraordinary. I had forgotten about the paintings and him speaking to the paintings and the concerns about him taking his own life. Do you see parallels . I see something far worse because what donald trump has done is from the beginning of his presidency but in the final days, in the final months more than at any other time, he has undermined the interests of the United States, the health and welfare of its people. We have bread lines. We havent seen bread lines in this country since since the depression. Thats really what these food lines are about. We havent heard a peep out of this president of the United States nor about the coronavirus, which is killing our people by the hundreds of thousands. But lets talk about soninlaws as bob just did. Eddie cox was not a coconspirator in the presidency of his fatherinlaw. Lets look at Jared Kushner. Lets look at the pardons that we know the president is now considering for his grifter children, for his daughter, for his soninlaw. What is that all about . What does that tell us about the values of this president of the United States . Where is the National Interest, and what are these pardons about and what have they been about . Continuing the coverups that have started early in this presidency and are going through the final days of this presidency so that people cant be prosecuted and information cannot be obtained. Look at paul manafort. The president s Campaign Manager who was in contact with russian agents, and we know is the point of contact with the russians. We dont know about his discussions with donald trump, with roger stone. The coverups continue, including the financial interests that were pursued by the president while he was in office and his children. So these final days are unique in our history in terms of the venality. 48 days to go. A lot can happen in 48 days. I want to play part of your interview with trump back from july 21st. The question is going to be were going to look back, and were going to say, the end of july, august, september, october, what happened with the virus . Did people people want you know, weve talked about this. People want their president to succeed. Now, youre right. Theres some people who dont. No, no, no. I this inc. Youre wrong. People dont want me to succeed. But if you succeed, they succeed. Even the rinos dont want me to succeed. Theyll end up with a Supreme Court and lots of things that theyre not going to be too happy with. Is there any lesson you take, because i think this is so important you know, i keep because im in the business of trying to understand other people, i keep learning about how do you really understand people . How do i understand you . I mean you and i have you dont you dont understand me. You dont understand me, but thats okay. Youll understand me after the election. But you dont understand me now. You dont think so . No, i dont think so. I dont think i dont think you get it, and thats okay. What are the questions ive not asked that have not been answered . Um, i think youve asked me a lot of very good questions, a lot of personal questions. I think youve asked me a lot of good stuff. Youll know me after the election. I mean youll see who i am after the election. Thats the remark that really counts. Yeah. I mean, bob, we are seeing who this president is right now. I mean the display you talked about in that rambling 46 minutes when he was talking yesterday, which we didnt even air because it was so full of lies. Yeah, rightly so. I mean when he says i dont understand him, we do understand trump now, and the difficulty is larger than anybody could have expected. I dont think he knows the difference between the truth and untruth. And when something comes up, if he decides it is to his advantage to speak untruth, he will do it easily, happily. And if the truth, on rare occasions, serves him, he will do that. I just want to read there was one other thing we played in this. Now that the pandemic has struck, and this has carl was asking about Jared Kushner and so forth. And heres one of the things. Seven months ago, Jared Kushner said, oh, were now in the comeback phase of dealing with the pandemic. Right. And, quote, trumps now back in charge. Its not the doctors. Now, think about that, that somehow it is a great thing that trump has sidelined the doctors, and look at what the result is. I mean that is something you dont want on your tombstone. You know, carl, cnn is let me say one other thing you dont go ahead. No, no no. Go ahead. One other thing you dont want on your tombstone is Mitch Mcconnell not talking about this, not coming on this broadcast. The Republican Leaders not addressing this. This is on their tombstones, not just donald trumps. Thats whats so extraordinary about what were going through, not saying to the president of the United States, put we are going to put down this coup that you have attempted, mr. President. We are going to speak the truth, unlike you. We have not had that in four years. Bob, obviously the pardons you know, theres been reporting on the president looking into, you know, a variety of pardons for, as carl keeps saying, his kids. I believe it was grifter kids, carl said, and others, possibly kushners father even. President nixon, of course, was pardoned by president ford. The only way i assume President Trump would likely be pardoned is if he did it himself, which im not even sure ive talked to some legal analysts, and its not clear exactly who would have to determine if thats even constitutionally allowed. But ford wrote in his autobiography that nixons pardon wasnt motivated by concern over the state of his health. It was the state of the countrys health at home and around the world that worried me. It was criticized a lot at the time. Im wondering how history views that now. Well, in a very interesting way, i think it was 1998, well 25 years after watergate. Ford had been out of office for two decades. I went to interview him at his home in rancho mirage, california, and asked, why didnt you get an admission from president former president nixon that he had committed crimes . So ford opens his wallet and pulls out a little newspaper clipping, and its a clipping from a Supreme Court decision, 1915, the burdick decision, in which it said that the acceptance of a pardon is a confession of it. Hmm. And ford held that out and said, so i got him to say uncle. I got him to say at least legally that he had confessed to the crimes of watergate. Thats really interesting. Do you think he carried that put it in his wallet to show you, or do you think he carried that with him like all the time . No, no. It was yellowed and folded. Wow. I suspect he showed it to lots of people. Thats really interesting. Wow. He wanted to go ahead, bob. No. He wanted to make it clear, and of course the most important thing that ford did here, he really took the road took the nation on the road of healing. Yeah. And as he said, the Long National nightmare is over. And he took a lot of heat for pardoning nixon, and carl and i now think it was the right thing to do. We got to leave it there. Bob woodward, Carl Bernstein, thank you. Great act of courage. Carl, thanks. Even as weve been talking, the covid death toll has been climbing. In the hour weve been on the air, it has risen to more than 2,700. Thats the second highest single day death toll. Still three hours until the day ends. At least 276,148 people have now died in this country from this virus. I want to hand it over to jake for president elect joe biden and Vice President elect Kamala Harris first joint interview since winning the white house. Welcome to this cnn special event, the first joint interview with president elect joe biden and Vice President elect Kamala Harris. Im jake tapper live in washington, d. C. In 48 days, this building behind me will be under new management. After taking the oath of office, President Biden and Vice President harris will take charge of a nation truly in crisis. There has never been a worse time in the coronavirus pandemic in the u. S. Than right now, and it is only expected to get worse. The nation just recorded the atghest number of coronavirus