Transcripts For CNNW CNN Newsroom With Fredricka Whitfield 20201121

Virus has, once again, infiltrated the president s inner circle. President trumps son, don jr. , and the son of his personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, both revealing they have tested positive. That news now sidelining giuliani from the president s voter fraud case. He is now selfisolating. Experts are again warning of whats to come as the record surge of new coronavirus cases pushes hospitals to the brink. Polo sandoval is joining me from new york. What are you learning . Reporter not only are infections up right now, death rates are as well. Just last week alone, over 10,000 people lost their lives to covid in the United States. When you look at the weekly death rate from just about a month ago, thats nearly double. As we get closer to thanksgiving, dont be surprised if you see less people at airports across the country, including here at new yorks jfk. A couple of reasons, airlines are reporting drops in bookings, increases in cancellations, and of course the guidance from the cdc recommending against thanksgiving travel. Its a broader, and some fear longer lasting wave of covid19 infections and deaths, and you can see it in the latest covid trend map showing a virtual sea of orange and red ten months after the first u. S. Covid19 case was confirmed, at just over 13,000 new infections, the state of california shattered its own record friday. Then theres the reality of the fights on the front lines to save patients from the virus suffocating grip. Its a struggle come pounded by Staff Shortages in some of the nations rural medical facilities. Were seeing surges on intensive care units and thats when the mortality rate, the death rate goes vertical because nurses, other staff, doctors get overwhelmed and its not just a matter of the beds, its having trained staff in order to take care of them. Reporter on friday, the American Hospital association flagged reports from care facilities in at least six states where fears are growing about the physical and emotional toll on medical personnel. I have seen so many emergent intubations, ive seen people more sick than ive ever seen in my life. Reporter there is, however, hope that front line medical workers could soon be better protected against the virus. On friday pfizer and biontech were the first to apply for emergency approval of their coronavirus vaccine. This is what we had most hoped for, but its not just around the corner. The vaccine rollout is going to take a long time. Its not a vaccine that saves lives, its a vaccination program. Reporter until that happens, the centers for Disease Control and prevention continues urging americans to avoid travel and to keep the thanksgiving celebrations small. Im making the personal sacrifices not to infect thy parents and my pregnant daughter and theres a lot of people out there who know how to protect one another. And we just need to make sure were all doing that. Reporter including by continuing to wear a mask. The cdc out with another reason to do so. The researchers take a look at the state of kansas and its july 2nd mask mandate. A majority of the states counties, some twothirds, opted out of the governors mask order. They later recorded about a 100 increase in covid19 cases. Compare that surge to a 6 decrease in the counties that did require masks in public. And finally, a little bit of perspective. When you look back at july you see the highest number of daily covid cases during one of the last spikes was about 77,000. Again, thats in july. Yesterday, fred, just over 195,000. So it certainly gives you an idea of where we are right now, and potentially how things could continue to deteriorate if people dont heed the warnings from authorities and officials. Its up to every individual. Extraordinary numbers. Thank you so much. And those numbers are people. Polo sandoval, appreciate it. There are new covid cases within the president s inner circle and that could impact the legal fight that trump is waging to try to overturn the Election Results. The president s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, is going into selfisolation after his son tested positive for coronavirus. It comes just days after he held an unhinged press conference lobbying false facts false information, and baseless conspiracy theories about the Election Results in key states. Cnns kevin liptak is at the white house. Kevin, what could giulianis absence mean for the president s legal challenges, which are already running into a lot of brick walls . Reporter i think the president s legal challenges are fizzling with Rudy Giuliani or without Rudy Giuliani. But as you said, hes selfisolating after his son tested positive for coronavirus. It has already affected some of giulianis plans. He had initially been scheduled to participate in what had seemed like an extraordinary meeting here at the white house yesterday between the president and two michigan lawmakers. The president and Rudy Giuliani taking their legal efforts as they fail in court, turning them into more political pressure efforts to try and persuade republicans to either delay the certification of votes in their states or to convince them to assign electors to President Trump instead of joe biden. All of this is becoming less of a legal fight and much more of a political fight and a pr fight, and Rudy Giuliani clearly is taking, from his selfisolation, hes been beaming into news channels from there. Another case is the president s eldest son, donald trump jr. His spokesman said that he tested positive earlier this week, but that hes asymptomatic and selfisolating at his cabin. Of course, theres a long list of people who have tested positive for coronavirus at the white house in the president s inner circle. The president still continues to downplay the virus. In fact, at the g20 this morning, the president was participating, its a Virtual Summit hosted by saudi arabia. Theyre due to begin a side session on the margins of the g20 about pandemic preparedness. Leaders like Emmanuel Macron of france and Angela Merkel of germany are all speaking at the event. The president is at his golf course in virginia. And will be attending the Conference Call that way. Kevin, let me also ask you about this fundraising effort off giulianis press conference earlier in the week. What are you learning about how that came to be and the consequences of it . Reporter so plenty of the president s aids were watching that press conference with sort of a sense of horror because it was riddled with lies and it came across as sort of unhinged. But the president seems to think it went well. He said in the fundraising email that he sent to supporters, did you watch my legal Teams Press Conference yesterday, they were spectacular. This is part of this onslaught of fundraising emails the Trump Campaign has been sending out since the election concluded trying to bolster support for the president. And something that i think is really, really important is when you look at the fine print of these email fundraising solicitations, 75 of the money thats donated goes to the president s pac, the one that he just established. Its meant to establish his post white house political life. Hell be able to funnel money to his preferred candidates, sort of maintaining his influence on the Republican Party going forward. Only 25 of the fundraising goes to these actual recount efforts. A lot of people are saying thats a bait and switch. Kevin liptak, thank you so much for that. Well check back with you. So the president ial transition remains blocked by the Trump Administration, leaving the biden team on its own as it prepares to take over. The president elect meeting with his transition advisers today. Lets check in with cnn political reporter rebecca buck. Rebecca, what are you hearing about their plans, how they move forward . Reporter well, thats right, fred. The president elect, as you mentioned, meeting with his Transition Team this weekend. We dont expect to see president elect biden this weekend. These talks are going on behind closed doors. But a lot has been happening in the transition, despite some significant obstacles put up by the administration, of course, biden and Vice President elect Kamala Harris met yesterday with nancy pelosi and chuck schumer. They discussed some of the big issues that biden is going to be facing when he takes over. Of course, the coronavirus pandemic foremost among them, and with that the economic recovery and the idea of getting a stimulus passed through congress, if it doesnt happen in the lame duck session. And then of course next week we have reporting suggesting that joe biden will be naming his first cabinet picks. He said this week that he has already selected his treasury secretary and will announce that soon. We are reporting that one of the front runners is brainard, who is on the board of reserve, and would be considered a consensus pick for that position. And theyre also picking the secretary of state, which would send a signal domestically but to the entire world about how biden is going to approach his foreign policy, what his priorities and style are going to be there. So they are doing what they can, but there is a lot that is out of their control, especially because the administration and the General Services administration specifically, refuse to grant biden and his team access to some of the information and data that normally would be at their disposal in a transition. The president still has not conceded this race, fred. Rebecca buck, thank you so much for that. Well check back with you. Lets bring in dr. Celine gounder, an Infectious Disease expert and a member of president elect joe bidens covid19 board. Great to see you. Great to be here. Lets talk about whats at hand right now while some families are tangling with whether to get together or not this holiday. The u. S. Is on track to pass 12 million cases at some point today and the Trump Administration is still withholding information from president elect joe bidens team. How dangerous do you see this delay . How do you see it, you know, translating into more lives lost . Fred, this is a national crisis. This is a National Public health crisis. This is a National Security crisis. We really need that information now. I am really concerned that this is going to delay our ability to disseminate the vaccine and get people vaccinated. Its going to delay our ability to scale up and ramp up testing, which is really critical in terms of trying to get a handle on this. So this is information that needs to be shared with us now. We need to be on the inside of these negotiations with the pharmaceutical companies, with the local and state health departments, with the pharmacy retailers, who are all going to be important stakeholders in the response to coronavirus in the coming months. Lawmakers have been unable to agree on another stimulus package and now some 12 million americans are set to lose crucial Unemployment Benefits just after christmas, unless lawmakers are able to come to an agreement soon. What are the Health Implications that come with this kind of delay, the stressors that come with people worried about one day to the next . Well, people need the support for putting food on the table now, to make rent now. And those are not minor concerns and its going to be a lot harder also to convince people to work with us on Public Health restrictions, whether that is wearing a mask or social distancing, if they feel that their other needs, their very immediate social and Economic Needs are not being met. So this stimulus needs to be taken up by congress now, it needs to be taken up by senator Mitch Mcconnell now. This cannot wait until january 20th. You mentioned how with the promise of these vaccinations, how the Transition Teams need access to information so as to implement vaccines, come up with a strategy, if and when that day comes. Dr. Anthony fauci and others have said that average americans could get vaccinated as early as april. It will likely be up to president elect Bidens Administration to carry out this distribution plan. How do you make plans, even though your hands may be tied given youre not receiving access to all the information . What do you put in place, what do you plan for anyway . Well, we have a very deep bench of doctors and scientists and Public Health and policy experts who have been studying those issues for months, who have been drawing up blueprints and plans and figuring out how to operationalize this in terms of the nuts and bolts. We are going to be reaching out to state and local health departments, to partners in the private sector, to figure out what we can now. But at the same time, if we dont have the full data, if we dont have, for example, information on what are the nurses that we might be able to redeploy to certain areas to help with either surges in cases or with vaccination, if we dont have critical information on supply chain, cold chain, which is the deep freezer network that youre going to need, there are a lot of things that we really need to have really fine granular data in order to make accurate plans. Can you reach out directly to pfizer or moderna, two of the three promising makers of these promising vaccines . Yeah, thats going to be part of what the Transition Team is going, is trying to fill these gaps by reaching out to every one of these stakeholders. But by taking the process so inefficient, having to sort of rebuild this Knowledge Base on our own, that slows things down. And there are still going to be gaps. Pfizer has now submitted its vaccine for emergency use, moderna is expected to apply for emergency approval in the coming weeks. The fda could make a decision about whether to issue emergency use authorization for the first coronavirus vaccines december 10th. So what do you do with that information . I mean, this is really exciting news that we will have one, if not two vaccines with emergency use authorizations probably by the end of this calendar year. But its not enough to have done the science, to have had the fda vet the science and to authorize their use. Or even to make a determination or even to be able to make a determination as to who would get it first . Well, in terms of who would get it first, were looking a healthcare workers and essential workers on the front lines, as well as probably facilities like nursing homes, which we know are extremely high risk for transmission. But even that, we need to have plans. Youre still talking about millions of health care workers, millions of elderly living in nursing homes. So thats still a huge logistical challenge. Sure is. Dr. Celine gounder, thank you so much. Still ahead, the president s losses are piling up, but thats not stopping him from falsely alleging widespread voter fraud as the reason why he lost the election, why the president is honing in on michigan next. Plus, the pandemic causing Food Shortages for people around the country. Now thousands of americans are waiting for hours for a free meal ahead of the holidays. Well take you to a food drive live next. Cnn newsroom, brought to you by the farmers dog. Build your dogs fresh food plan at the farmersdog. Com. Kids, what do you want for lunch . Pizza. Tacos. Pizza what about subway . Its a good call and everyone loves it. We raised our kids on it. So it stopped the bickering . mocking tone mom, jjs copying me grow up. Mom knock it off try the new subway buffalo chicken or bbq chicken. 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Retire better President Trump and his legal team continue to try to overturn the results of the election, but the law continues to stand in the way. The Trump Campaign had three more election lawsuits rejected late this week, and trump and his allies have lost or withdrawn at least 28 cases that they have fought in court since election day. The president suffered more setbacks on friday after georgia certified bidens win in that state. And members of the Michigan State legislatures Republican Leadership who met with the president at the white house on friday, say they have not seen any evidence that would change the fact that president elect joe biden won their state. For more on these developments, lets bring in cnn justice correspondent, jessica schneider. Michigan set to certify its Election Results on monday, especially after the Republican Leadership of that state met with the white house and said were going to follow the law, does this simply mean after monday its over in terms of the president trying to challenge michigan . Reporter thats pretty much the ballgame. These certified votes, as we keep seeing them throughout the next few days and weeks or so, i means that the democratic slate of electors in these states will be voting for joe biden when the Electoral College meets on december 14th. At this point weve seen all of the president s efforts to stop the certified vote for joe biden in these key states fail on the political and legal front, and in many cases its republicans who are stepping in to rebuff the president s attempts. So lets run down some of these key states here. You mentioned first in georgia, the states 16 electoral votes, they have officially been granted to joe biden. It was last night that the republican governor there, brian kemp, he signed the paperwork to formalize the certification that was right after a federal judge rejected a lastditch lawsuit to block the certification. Heres what the governor said. As governor, i have a solemn responsibility to follow the law, and that is what i will continue to do. We must all Work Together to ensure citizens have confidence in future elections in our state. Reporter and the final tally there in georgia shows that joe biden won the state by 12,670 votes. Now, in michigan, despite the president inviting those Top Republicans from the state legislature to the white house on friday, those michigan lawmakers, they reiterated last night that they will not intervene in the states electoral process. The state certification there is scheduled for monday. The vote count puts joe biden up in michigan by more than 150,000 votes. Now, at this point there is some concern that the two lawmakers sorry, the two republicans, actually, who make up the fourmember canvassing board, they could refuse to certify the vote and that would lead to a potential Court Intervention where those members would be found in contempt or it could even mean that the democratic governor there, fredricka, could step in and replace one or both of them. Well see how it shakes out. Theres some concern, but in the end it looks like certification in michigan will happen on monday. Its still not clear why they went to the white house in the first place . Reporter right, they issued a Statement Last night saying that they talked to the president about coronavirus relief, you know, a bill passed, measures that would help their state of michigan. Really, they took this opportunity, this invitation, they said they werent going to turn it down from the white house. They came there, they asked the president for what they need, coronavirus relief, and then they came out and said, look, were going to let this play out. The votes speak for themselves. Joe biden will win michigan. Jessica schneider, thank you so much. And this programming note, she was a born leader, a fearless adviser, a political force. The cnn original series first ladies profiles Hillary Clinton tomorrow at 10 00. Well be right back. Ourselves. Lets get checked for those around us. Lets get checked for a full range of conditions. Introducing letsgetchecked a Health Testing you do at home. Lets get round the clock support from a team of nurses. Lets get fast, accurate results. Know your health. Know yourself. Order now at letsgetchecked dot com smart fridge. Smart car. Smart doorbell. Door bell hello but fitbit makes you smart about your health. This isnt some phone on your wrist. Its a way to help manage stress. Keep your heart strong. And detect potential signs of illness. Its more than a smartwatch. Its a smarter way to transform your health. Itanna could only imaginech. A comfortable nights sleep without frequent heartburn waking her up. Now, that dream. Is her reality. Nexium 24hr stops acid before it starts, for allday, allnight protection. Can you imagine 24 hours without heartburn . Irresistibly smooth chocolate. To put the world on pause. Lindor. Made to melt you. By the lindt master chocolatier. Legal team continue to try to overturn the results of the election, but the law continues to stand in their way. The Trump Campaign had three more election lawsuits rejected late this week and trump and his allies have lost or withdrawn at least 28 cases that they have fought in court since election day. With me now is david swer lick, an assistant editor for the Washington Post and cnn political commentator. Good to see you. Hey, fred. Georgia just certified a biden win, michigan is set to do the same on monday. Michigan Republican Leadership went to the white house, we understand under the auspices of talking to the president about coronavirus relief, even though there was the impression, because the president wanted to challenge michigans results, that perhaps there would be something untoward. So what was the point . What was the point for the president and what was the point for the michigan leadership to do this . Good morning, fred. So the Michigan Republican leaders came out and issued that statement saying, among other things, that theyve seen no information leading them to believe that the michigan results will change, but as you suggest, it does leave the question as to why the president right now, with everything going on, invited them to the white house to apparently sound them out about what they might do if he continues to challenge this election. You know, fred, the rub of this whole big picture for the president is that if he had put in half the effort toward fighting the pandemic that he has put in to pretending that he didnt win the election, he might have won the election. But now were in a situation where the president has done some things that are legal, like going to court, some things that just look fishy, like inviting these michigan legislative leaders to the white house right in the thick of this dispute, and then also have the clearly illegal refusal of gsa administrator emily murphy to release transition funds to the biden harris, now that we are winners of the 2020 president ial election. What is the next month and a half or two going to look like if this is the tone and tenor set by the president during this lame duck session . The president continues to deny he lost the election and appears to be doing everything he can to create problems for the incoming biden administration, including ending a federal Lending Program to help struggling businesses. The president withdrawing troops in iraq and afghanistan, cracking down on china and appearing to show no interest whatsoever in a covid stimulus bill. I mean, does he not realize how damaging this is for him trying to cement a more positive legacy . Fred, its already ugly as we know and it could definitely get uglier. I mean, apart from these sort of sore loserism and cry babyism that weve come to expect from President Trump in some of these situations, both before and during his presidency, you have the situation as you described where there is a budget deadline looming, there could be a shutdown. Democrats and republicans arent on the same page yet and were heading into that in early december. You have a situation where the president is pulling troops out of afghanistan, and no matter which side of that issue youre on, the reality is that they were there for a reason. He would have pulled them out sooner, past administrations would have pulled them out sooner if they thought it was prudent to do that. And then you have the news in the last day or so of secretary mnuchin, the treasury secretary, clawing back money from the fed that was that still potentially could go to Small Businesses and municipalities to help them with the coronavirus pandemic. It may not be a grand plan or a conspiracy to salt the soil, but it sure does start to look that way, especially if the administration and the president s campaign persists in pretending they didnt win the election past the day that some of these key swing states certify their results. He is the president of the United States until midday on january 20th, and thats a lot of time for a lot of mischeif. And there are so few republicans willing to say something. We know that mitt romney has spoken out and Susan Collins said they should be receiving access to government resources, he needs to be ready to govern on inauguration day. Gosh, why arent more speaking . Look, fred, i think its simply a matter that they are enthralled to or afraid of the president. If you go back to the 2008 president ial race, the 2012 president ial race, the tag on mitt romney was that he was a flip flopper. No one had on their bingo card but this administration is over. So whats the problem now . I was just going to say that senator romney, no one had him as the most courageous republican in the country, but here we are. To your question, fred, yes, this is a situation where the republicans in congress and other Republican Leaders and people around the trump orbit know that they need the support of the trump voters who are still with President Trump and its fine to be with President Trump, to support him and say you should run in 2024, thats a democracy. They can support him. Of course. The question is whether they will accept reality and do, frankly, the politically conservative thing, which would be to accept reality, move forward, and try to win the next election, rather than trying to plead their case. Rather than trying to overthrow a free and fair election, what kmdemocracy stan for in this country. David swerdlick, thank you so much. Good to see you and happy thanksgiving. Happy thanksgiving. Good to see you, too. Coming up, americans desperate for help right before the holidays. Well visit food banks in two states next. 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Cnns Paul Vercammen is at a food bank giveaway in los angeles and people have been lining up there for hours, i understand. Reporter they have, fred. Actually, they started lining up yesterday, some of them, in the evening. This is the first unitarian church. Were going to give you two views of this. This is the behind the scenes, the volunteers furiously working to get the food out. They have have deejay in here. You can see how long the line is. Well over 1,000 people are going to walk up to get food here. These are the stories were hearing. Its not only are they not getting the stimulus check, but many of them have restaurant jobs, either they got laid off or their hours were cut. So theyre scrambling to make ends meet, they want to have something to put on the table for thanksgiving. And look at this operation. Here is the front of the line, at a fast pace with a long stride, it would take you five minutes to walk this entire line. Among the many volunteers here, 50 of them that are putting food on the table for people, johnson, show us, what do you have in the box . First of all, weve got turkey, chicken, potatoes, everything, watermelon. I know that people are extremely grateful when they receive this box. How does it make you feel to hand out a box like that . It feels wonderful. I love it, love it. And what would you say to somebody who has not seen anything like this, who is sort of unaware of the level of desperation that some of these people have when they come up to get their box of food . They are desperate and all the way around the block. We thank you so much for taking time out. Well take a glimpse over my shoulder. An Interesting Development here, if you look just over to the right, a popup covid testing site, the city of los angeles and the county have become very aggressive and these sites have been trying to address people in many of the latino communities in los angeles who were sort of reticent to get tested, and some had misconceptions, there was a rumor going around that you could get the virus this way. But theyve been successful in doing this at a Grassroots Level and were seeing more of this across the city of los angeles. Last week they set a record, some 23,000 residents tested in just a short order. So were seeing an aggressive Testing Campaign here. Were also seeing a lot of great work by these volunteers, helping people get a box of food before the thanksgiving holiday. Back to you. Extraordinary effort by that food bank and so many other Food Distribution sites who are trying really hard to meet the growing need across america. Thank you so much, paul. Lets check in with cnns natasha chen at a food giveaway just outside of atlanta. Reporter fred, the first cars arrived at 5 30 a. M. For an event that was scheduled to start at 10 00 a. M. So that just goes to show the desperate need of the people in this community. You can see these are the final cars coming through, getting a box of produce, getting a gift card for turkeys and hams at walmart. Some of these people tell me that they had not been to a food drive prior to 2020. Its because of the pandemic and the economic strains that their jobs have been affected. Others tell me theyre here picking up food for their elderly relatives just so that they can keep them safe. We talked to the Dekalb County ceo about the people hes met in line. Heres what he said. I spoke with one lady who said that she never dreamed that she would end up in a food line, having worked her entire life. And i just told her that theres nothing to be ashamed of, that were in this together, were going to rise through this challenge, well meet it and well stand together as a county, as a state and as a nation. Reporter they gave out about 850 boxes of food today and this is just one of three locations in Dekalb County. We know of so many other food drives around the Metro Atlanta area and around the country. Its a similar story wherever we are talking to those people. Its a lot of folks who are coming to these drives who may not have needed this help before, and of course everyone has in mind the safety of thanksgiving gatherings and a lot of people here telling me theyre going to try to keep those gatherings small. Fred, back to you. Natasha chen, thank you so much. Those words cannot be stressed enough. So if democrats are to control the u. S. Senate next year, theyll have to win both of the Senate Runoffs in the state of georgia. 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All covered California Health insurance plans are comprehensive with Mental Health coverage, and financial help for people who need it. Covered california. This way to health insurance. Enroll by december 15th. Georgias governor has officially certified joe bidens win, but it has been clear since Election Night that the state is playing host to another fight, dual Runoff Senate races threatening to change the balance of power on capitol hill. Four more years snft four more years reporter you are hearing correctly. This georgia crowd is calling for a second trump term despite defeat. Vice president mike pence on his first return to the campaign trail pledged its not over. Were going to keep fighting until every legal vote is counted. Were going to keep fighting until every illegal vote is thrown out. And whatever the outcome, we will never stop fighting to make America Great again. Reporter thats despite the hand count led by a republican secretary of state in georgia. Working as an engineer throughout my life, i live by the motto that numbers dont lie. Reporter a fact the Vice President is ignoring while he dances a political twostep. President trump still insists he won. Meanwhile, pence is calling for georgia republicans to vote in the january 5th Senate Runoff to fight a joe biden presidency. The Republican Senate majority could be the last line of defense. Reporter supporters who showed up to see the Vice President have no problem following this logic. Do you believe the Election Results . No. Reporter penny, who came to see pence, carried a stop the steal sign. She says all this makes her want to vote in january even more. And how different is the energy from november to january . Its still here. It hasnt gone anywhere. What do you believe will happen in january on january 5th . I believe that people will come out and vote for republicans so that we can i guess so that it will be a fair fight when things come to the senate. Lets vote blue lets vote blue reporter the democratic challengers for the two senate seats, jon ossoff and reverend raphael warn ok attacked the gop fight with reality. They didnt like the results. It wasnt supposed to turn out that way. Explain that to me. Reporter the challenge for the democrats will be turnout. Something even the most diehard democratic georgians understand. I think that the people that voted in the general election will not come out for the runoff. Weve been ready for so many years. A little concerned about that. Reporter georgias Governor Brian Kemp formally certified the states vote, but in doing so offered a mashup of illogical statements, toeing the trump line. Sowing doubt on the vote and saying, yes, he would certify the vote just because he had to. Kyung lah, cnn, canton, georgia. All right. Well, usually just ahead of thanksgiving, this would be a big weekend for football. Well, maybe not so much this goaround. Why the big clemson Florida State Football Game is off when we come back. New news contactless Curbside Pickup is here just tap for tasty in the app. And pickup contactless. Cause its safety first. Right, tiny car . You wearing your seatbelt little man . Subway. Eat fresh. [announcer] forget about vacuuming for up to a month. 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. Irresistibly smooth chocolate. To put the world on pause. Lindor. Made to melt you. By the lindt master chocolatier. It was 1961 when nellie young lost her devoted husband. Without him, things were tough. Her last option was to sell her home, but. Her home meant everything to her. Her husband had been a High School Football coach and it turned out, one of his former players came up with an answer. A loan, created just for older homeowners. 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The acc releasing a statement and the wording has some perplected. It reads the postponement follows this mornings game Conference Call at which time both teams medical personnel were unable to mutually agree on moving forward with the game, unquote. Clemsons aththetic director tweeting in part, we are disappointed that we will not be able to play todays game against Florida State. Clemson has followed all of the accs protocol in preparation for this game. Now clemsons star quarterback Trevor Lawrence tweeting, man, we were ready to play with defensive with Florida States defensive end responding, we were, too. Were good over here he said. Weve reached out to the acc asking them to clarify what specific factors may have led up to this game being postponed but have not heard back, fred. This makes 18 of the 62 games scheduled this week now not being played. Six involving teams ranked in the top 25. Every single difference is missing games this weekend. This is the most impacted week of the season so far, topping last weeks total. The rise in the number of cases across college football, fred, paralleling the surging numbers were seeing all across the country. All right. I know a lot of folks are pretty shaken up, but it will be interesting to learn, perhaps later, why. Coy wire, appreciate it. Thank you so much. Hello again. Thank you for being with me. Im fredricka whitfield. We begin with this country facing an unprecedented surge in coronavirus cases as americans prepare for the thanksgiving holiday. The number of infections is expected to surpass 12 million today. Friday saw the highest day of new cases to date. More than 195,000. And more than 80,000 americans are in the hospital heading into the holiday week. But as this country struggles, President Trump is seemingly ignoring the crisis, focusing instead on trying to overturn the president ial Election Results. And today, skipping a virtual g20 summit session on the pandemic. Instead to play golf. This as we have learned the virus has once again infiltrated the president s inner circle. President trumps son don junior and the son of his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani both revealing positive test results. That news now sidelining giuliani from the president s baseless voter fraud case. He is now selfisolating. Meanwhile, a vaccine could be headed to americans very soon. The fda is set to review Pharmaceutical Company pfizers covid19 vaccine and could make a decision about early use authorization by december 10th. News of a vaccine could not come at a more urgent time. 42 states are seeing rising cases with several facing the highest daily totals they have ever seen. And thats leading to a wave of new restrictions announced by governors trying to get a