The president s campaign of delays, shake ups and denials over the facts this have election. Next hour we will see him for the first time in several days in an official capacity as he heads to Arlington National cemetery for a wreath laying honoring our nations veterans on this veterans day. While those veterans fought to protect our democracy the president and his administration the fact is fighting to undermine it. Thats right. And while this fight in washington persists so does the dire situation in our nations hospitals. There are now a Record Number of covid19 patients in our hospitals and a Record Number of covid19 infections this morning. It has gotten so bad in some states leaders are asking their residents to stay at home all over again. Were covering all the angles this morning, the shake ups, the transition, the National Security impact and of course this Health Crisis. Lets begin our reporting with our m. J. Lee who is following president elect bidens camp in delaware. Morning, m. J. Reporter good morning, poppy. While this race was called on saturday but still no concession from President Trump. Here in wilmington, delaware, biden is continuing on with his transition efforts. Earlier this week we saw him announce his covid advisory council, yesterday he gave a press conference and talked about the future of health care. Today he is going to be meeting with transition advisers as well and yesterday what we saw was biden trying to project a sense of calm and what cnn is being told is that this reflects the mindset of his advisers as well, basically that they feel like they shouldnt be too aggressive right now because that could backfire, but we also heard biden using some pointed words towards the president and his refusal to concede. Take a listen. Well, i just think its an embarrassment, quite frankly. The only thing that how can i say this tactfully . I think it will not help the president s legacy. Reporter this week biden has also taken some phone calls with foreign leaders who have congratulated him on his victory, so quite the contrast from International Leaders versus some Republican Leaders here in the country. I will just quickly note there are real ramifications to President Trump not officially conceding. Biden does not have access to transition funding. He cant get the president ial daily briefings. He was asked about both of these things yesterday and he essentially said, look, it would be nice to have access to those things, but it is not necessary because im not president quite yet. Guys . And we should remind folks the Obama Administration gave that access to President Trump when he was elected. On day one. On day one. Mj lee, thanks very much. Lets bring in john harwood. John, we will see the president in the next hour, this for veterans day, a wreath laying. Do we expect him to continue to propagate these myths about the election outcome . Reporter hes doing it this morning, he sent out an absurd tweet a few minutes ago saying, jim, that the Washington Post had done some sort of illegal suppression poll in the state of wisconsin. Look, the president has been hunkered down in the white house mostly watching television, reacting to television, not by any outward sense doing the job of president in this deadly pandemic except for firing a bunch of people who had stood up to him, like mark esper, the former defense secretary. The president is obviously struggling psychologically to accept his defeat, while he is doing so he is forcing the entire Republican Party to acquiesce in this charade, in part because theyre trying to motivate their base for a couple of Senate Elections in georgia in january. And the request he is going to be how long can the president maintain this position, how long will republicans stay with him. Weve seen foreign leaders move away, even trumpfriendly foreign leaders, Boris Johnson from the uk, Benjamin Netanyahu from israel, accepting the reality of the situation. Theres zero chance of the president legally because theres no evidence or through recounts reversing this because the size of joe bidens margins are way beyond any realistic hope of overturning in a recount. So the question is is the president going to actually speak today or is he going to silently participate in this veterans day observance. We dont know the answer to that yet. Its just a question of time before he accepts the reality of the situation and either helps joe biden make this transition or resists for a protracted period. Were going to have to watch and see. John harwood, thanks for the reporting from the white house this morning. We turn now to the shakeup inside the pentagon. Since monday four top leaders in the pentagon are out, why had trump loyalists including one a controversial to say the least retired general who once called former president obama a terrorist. In a senior position now in the pentagon. Barbara star is at the pentagon with a detailed look at these changes. First of all, really you unprecedented to do this, an outgoing president to do this during the transition, but tell us the sweep of these changes and whats the reaction inside the building to this, the level of concern . Well, one of the impacts certainly is they have now swept out people who have combined decades of experience in the military, defense and National Security. That institutional memory here at the pentagon now absolutely gone. A lot of unease here i would say because they dont know exactly why the president did it, hes offered no public explanation and a lot of anxiety because they have no idea what, if anything, President Trump may decide to do next and whether these moves are paving the way for some kind of military orders by the president. So where do we stand . Lets look at the people involved. Mark esper, defense secretary, pushed out, fired unceremoniously by tweet. Now the man who has taken his place, a man named christopher miller, a former soldier in special operations until 2014 so very recently out of the military. Expertise in counterterrorism, but thats been his main portfolio for many years. Does not have the breadth and depth of experience that most secretaries of defense have as they come into office. Additional replacements, the policy chief James Anderson replaced by the person you mentioned, jim, retired brig dean general anthony tata, someone who could not get confirmed to a senate job so he is now basically filling in for anderson. He has tweeted in the past about president obama being a muslim and a terrorist. Hes now the policy chief at the pentagon. Moving on, the intelligence chief, a retired add children Joseph Kernan who was planning to retire, nonetheless, moved up and left yesterday. He is being replaced by a name named ezra cohenwatnick. He had been with flynn in the National Security council when flynn had that job. Hes been in several different jobs. In addition the chief of staff at the pentagon has been replaced. After veterans day when everybody comes back to work tomorrow the big question is what happens next. No question. We will be watching, we know you will, barbara star, thanks very much. So what is a growing Health Crisis in this country. State leaders are calling for people to stay home, to cancel gatherings, poppy, its a remarkable request to be making at this stage. But they have to, its a decision our family just made ourselves. You have to do it to protect the people that you love and everyone else and yesterday marked the eighth consecutive day that the u. S. Reported more than 100,000 new covid cases and saw hospitalizations hit a record high. Lets going to Adrienne Broaddus who joins us in chicago with morning. Reporter good morning, poppy and jim and to those of you watching and listening. 45 states saw an increase, but its not just here in the midwest that we are seeing an increase, the midwest is outpacing other parts of the region. Terrible and awful, thats how illinoiss governor described the covid situation. Illinois among one of the states setting new records, but not just for cases, theres Something Else were seeing here in the midwest, the number of hospitalizations are also going up. Across the nation there were more than 61,000 people in the hospital with covid as of yesterday. Guys, thats the most weve seen since the start of the pandemic. Also yesterday i heard from a doctor with the mayo clinic. Theyre concerned about staff shortages. Let me give you an example. In minnesota and wisconsin, 1,000 members of the staff are out. Here is why, they either have covid, someone in their family has covid so theyre at home treating them or theyre quarantining. And the doctors are concerned what happens if our Health Care Professionals are sick, who is going to continue to take care of us . As weve been telling folks throughout the morning, texas also hit another milestone, surpassing 1 million cases. If texas were its own state or its own country, excuse me, it would be among the top ten. I wish the news were better but that is the report, poppy and jim. Thank you for bringing it to us. It is remarkable that were still at this place. Thank you so much. We have a doctor joining us ahead in texas who says that when people let their guard down in hardhit el paso they are seeing an influx to their icus. Also, the president s move to delay and to obstruct the transition doesnt just make things harder for the biden team to get up and running, experts say it makes the nation less safe. We will talk about it. This is about you. And more an a week after election day a steady stream of false vote fraud claims. Outright lies. We are going to give you the facts. children laughing music swells music fades exhales experience the power of sanctuary at the lincoln wish list sales event. Sign and drive off in a new lincoln with zero down, zero due at signing, and a complimentary first months payment. Thats why weve merged with sprint. Get more. Now its about to get even better. And as we work to integrate sprints network, our nationwide 5g keeps getting stronger. With the capacity and coverage to reach more people and places across the country. Who says you cant have it all. Now is the time for 5g. Now is the time to join tmobile. Im szasz. [norm] and we live in columbia, missouri. We do consulting, but we also write. [szasz] we take care of ourselves constantly; its important. We walk three to five times a week, a couple miles at a time. Weve both been taking prevagen for a little more than 11 years now. After about 30 days of taking it, we noticed clarity that we didnt notice before. Its still helping me. I still notice a difference. Prevagen. Healthier brain. Better life. With this seal, this restaurant is committing to higher levels of cleanliness. The expertise that helps keep hospitals clean, is helping keep businesses clean too. Look for the ecolab science certified seal. Sofi made it so easy to pay off my student loan debt. They were able to give me a personal loan so i could pay off all of my credit cards. I got my mortgage through sofi and the whole process was so easy. Choosing sofi was literally one of the best decisions i could have ever made because it gave me peace of mind. At university of phoenix, students with relevant Life Experience and eligible transfer credits save on average 11k and 1 year off their undergrad degree. See how much you can save. We started by making the cloud easier to manage. But we didnt stop there. We made a cloud flexible enough to adapt to any size business. No matter what it does, or how it changes. And we kept going. So you only pay for what you use. Because at dell technologies, we stop. At nothing. Welcome back. This morning pentagon officials are on edge after sweeping an unprecedented changes by the Trump Administration during the transition by an outgoing president. Four senior civilian officials including the defense secretary, mark esper, have either been fired or resigned since monday and theyve been replaced with perceived loyalists to the president , very little experience, all this raising serious questions about National Security. Joining me now is dave lapan a retired marine colonel. Dave, good to have you on this morning. Good morning, jim. Happy veterans day. Hopefully its a happy one. For sure. Thank you. And an honor to our veterans like yourself who are watching. First question, is there any precedent for an outgoing president during transition to make such sweeping changes to the Senior Pentagon leadership . I dont think it is. Again, at the end of an administration it is somewhat normal for people to leave on their own accord as the transition begins, but the way that these changes are being made and the people that are being installed is what makes it highly unusual and dangerous. The 9 11 commission noted that the shortened transition between the Clinton Gore Administration and the Bush Administration as a result of the recount then risked u. S. National security. I mean, one example that the Bush Administration could only fill about half the positions in senior National Security roles that were necessary and might have made the country less safe. Of course, 9 11 followed. I wonder can you explain to people why its important for an incoming president , a president elect, to have this time to prepare . So its a few things. Its the size of the government, its the smooth operation of a government, it needs to go without a hitch, without any kind of gaps that could be exploited by adversaries, which is why we hear from the 9 11 commission why its so important and so potentially dangerous. You have to have people that get up to speed very quickly, that have security clearances provided. Again, its a huge undertaking and more time you can take to do that in an orderly fashion it will be better. Its still going to be a dangerous time, all transitions are, but shortening that period of time makes it more dangerous in this instance. Lets get at the why, why President Trump is doing this right now. Our Barbara Starr says that they might be motivated by push back that the Trump Administration got from officials such as esper about the withdrawal of troops to afghanistan. They are writing about how the might be to declassified russian interference. Can you make any sense of why President Trump is making these changes now . The fact that we have to ask those kind of questions and theres so much speculation about them is concerning as well. Is not knowing the motives, not having a level of transparency and this administration has squandered any credibility and trust its had over the last four years. So even if these were there were rational reasons to explain these, were not getting those and the level of distrust is high already. Just take, again, it was very clear that the president was unhappy with mark esper, his firing comes as no great surprise, but they have a senateconfirmed deputy secretary who has been in the position more than a year, could have been elevated to the position. They didnt need to make these kind of changes. So it causes people to question whats behind it. Bigger picture question about whats the senates power here to confirm these and of course led by republicans but somehow ceding that power. I want to play comments from the secretary of state yesterday regarding this election and get your reaction to it. Have a listen. Is the state department currently preparing to engage with the Biden Transition Team and if not at what point does it hamper a smooth transition or pose a risk to National Security . There will be a smooth transition to a second Trump Administration. Were ready. The world is watching whats taking place. Were going to count all the votes, when the process is complete there will be electors selected. There is a process. The constitution lays it out pretty clearly. Now, he may have been joking there or signaling the president or both. I dont know. Frankly, i dont care. But what impact does that statement, those words from the nations top diplomate have on the integrity of this election, peoples confidence in it and how does the world react to that . So those are the two things that my initial reaction was. One, whether he was joking or not its inappropriate, its not a joking matter so he shouldnt shouldnt have been, again, in his position making a joke about something so serious. Two, he didnt answer the question. He was asked about preparing for the transition. He dodged that and made this, you know, again, attack on our democracy and our elections. As the chief diplomate of the United States that is very worrisome to our allies and it gives sucor to our adversaries as well. They will take advantage of any opportunity they see where we are confused, where theres gaps, where theres weaknesses. Dave lapan on this veterans day, thank you for your service and also happy birthday to the marines as well. Thank you, jim. Well, with me now is max dyer president and ceo of partners for public service, they are a Nonpartisan Group and this is what they do, they help president ial transitions happen ideally smoothly and on time. Thanks, max, for being here. Maybe you could answer the question that secretary pompeo did not answer thats so important about why this matters from a National Security standpoint, knowing what we know from the 9 11 Commission Report that the 37day delay, while bush v. Gore was being decided they found led to a delay in the National Security team being put in place. Why does this matter . Thank you so much and i think you covered some great material in just this last segment. The answer is our government matters. We live in a very dangerous world, there are external threats represented by the 9 11 example and there are internal threats like the pandemic and the Economic Issues we face and our government is central to addressing them and its a very large, complex organization, i would argue probably the most Important Organization not just on the planet but probably history. Wow. And to take charge of it is a big deal. 4,000 political appointments, 4 Million People when you count the military, hundreds of operating units, you need time and you need cooperation and information and transition is all about being ready to govern on day one. The metaphor for me is that president elect biden will be flying the airplane that we are all in, we should all be committed to making sure that he and his crew is ready to go at the very moment in which they take charge because our health and welfare as a nation depends on it. For sure. No matter who you voted for. Absolutely. So a lot is going on here, its not only the president s claims for the gsa not signing the letter to hand over the money and resources and information get yet to the biden team, its pompeo and the attorney general bill barr basically feeding into this rigged election narrative, its the president firing all those folks we went through at the top of the show and by executive order a few weeks ago, didnt get a lot of coverage, but totally rearranging the classification of 100,000 federal workers, right, that has implications here. You are a former volunteer fireman and you call all of that together a fivealarm fire. Absolutely. Its really quite extraordinary. President trump is checking out of the hotel soon and hes trashing the room on his way out. It is not good. He shouldnt do it, its not a hotel, its our government, and it has enormous implications for the ability of our country to deal with big problems. You mentioned a few of them, the fact of the matter is we have an amazing Career Civil Service that is really the engine room of our government. They actually are responsible in every agency to put together information for the incoming biden team and what we really need is simply a decision by gsa to permit that process to continue. Real quick i think sorry, go ahead. I was just going to say on your point about the gsa which most americans dont know what this is but this is the body that has to sign documents that say, okay, biden team, here is a few million bucks, here is a bunch of information, here is your access to office space to get ready to do the most important job in the world. Yes. Their explanation, max, is, well, it can get messy if things change. Look at bush v. Gore in 2000. Why do you think that is not an apt comparison . Well, for two big reasons, the first is that in terms of just the you know, the state of the election, obviously people see it quite clearly, there are tens of thousands of votes that would have to be changed in order for the election itself to come out in any different way, very different from what it was like in florida, you would at least have to change over three states with many, many, many votes. Equally important whats at stake is clearly so much for important with National Security interests, the pandemic, Economic Issues. President bush when he handed off power to president obama did the best that anyone has ever done, he did it because of his experience in 2000. He understood that a handoff of power was fundamental to the new person being able to start right. The other critical issue here to understand is that the balance of interests are clear here. Gsa simply needs to permit a process to continue Going Forward, theyre already working with the biden team. Its critical the biden team gets these resources and that does not diminish President Trumps ability to pursue whatever remedies he wants, but not enabling the biden team to have the access to the money and other things it does put our National Security at risk. I appreciate your time this morning and the teams work on this. Max stier, thanks so much. Thank you. These are important conversations. Dr. Anthony fauci thinks the general public could start getting vaccines as soon as april, but right now coronavirus cases are surging in this country and hospitalizations are setting records. Theres a lot of work we have to do. For sure. Also taking a look at the markets, we are moments away from the opening bell on wall street. Futures pointing higher, investors preparing for a Biden White House and figuring out how to profit from it. Market strategists say solar, other alternative Energy Companies along with infrastructure, building suppliers and railroads could be some of the biggest beneficiaries of the incoming administration. Sales are down from last quarter but we are hoping things will pick up by q3. Yeah. Uh. Boss doug . Sorry about that. Umm. What. Its. Um. Boss you alright . [sigh] [ding] never settle with power e trade. It has powerful, easytouse tools to help you find opportunities, 24 7 support when you need answers plus some of the lowest options and futures Contract Prices around. Dont get mad. Get e trade and start trading today. Americans from both parties. Turned out to vote in numbers like we havent seen in a hundred years. And Election Officials counted those votes carefully, transparently and in accordance with the law. So, no matter who you voted for, if you cast a ballot, or counted them. Thank you for showing the world that even in times like these, america is still going strong. Well, a promising new study shows that a new test might be more effective at detecting previous covid19 infections. Researchers are now working to try to see if a t cell test may be more reliable than those Antibody Tests. Cnns senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen for more on this reporting. Elizabeth, how could this help prevent infections to better detect past infections . Right. If we can detect who has been infected in the past we can sort of learn more about what different people need to do in order to protect themselves. A lot of people have been very interested in this, they say i was sick back in march but i never got tested for covid, i want to know if i had it and they go and get Antibody Tests. Well, our immune systems are amazing, we make antibodies, we make b cells, we make something called natural killer cells, i think they got the best name and we make something called t cells. You can measure Different Things to check for past infection. So lets take a look at this test. So whats going on here is that this test, the new one or the one thats being scud eid, it detects t cells instead of antibodies, there is an unpublished study that those a new study that those the t cell test is more effective than the Antibody Test, it was better at picking up who had been infected in the past and who hadnt. And the test could possibly be commercially available after thanksgiving. Now, the big question here is if you test positive for t cells for covid19, does that mean that you cant get it again . And that is what we dont know. That is the important question we just dont know the answer, only time will tell. But this is a step in the right direction. Jim, poppy . For sure. I definitely want to get that because i swore with how sick i was in february i had it but then the Antibody Test was negative, so im going to try to get that when it comes out. Before you go, good news this week, of course, about vaccines. Listen to this from dr. Fauci, what he said last night about when it might actually be available to most people. I think youre going to get vaccinated within the first four months, i would say by april you will be able to be vaccinated. Is that everyone . So when he said you specifically he meant jake tapper because jake asked the question, he said, dr. Dpauchy, im not a doctor or a nurse, im not over 65, i dont have any underlying conditions when can i get the test and dr. Fauci said april. So really what dr. Fauci means is were going to start possibly as soon as next month vaccinating health care workers, those who take care of patients with covid and then the next step would be people in nursing homes, people with underlying conditions that make them vulnerable to covid complications and eventually we will get to other people, other groups in april, people who are not over 65, and people who not do not have underlying conditions. Thats what hes thinking at this time. Its remarkable, for all the flak dr. Fauci has taken from some corners, he has consistently said for months an approved vaccine by the end of the year, as soon as possibly november and availability into the spring hes been consistent. Elizabeth cohen, thanks very much. President trump and his allies are undermining faith in our election. Thats what theyre doing. Every day. Pushing false allegations and straight up disinformation, that means deliberate misinformation, im going to fact check those claims next. 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[sfx mnemonic] the president and his allies have unleashed a flood of false allegations and disinformation in the days after the election. In a blatant attempt to undermine the results. So here are the facts. Lets begin with a postal worker in pennsylvania who claimed he was told by his supervisor to backdate mailin ballots. The Washington Post now reports that the postal worker has now recanted that allegation telling federal investigators the claims were not true and signing an affidavit admitting that. Speaking with sources today, you know, the kind of words they use to describe that information was overly embellished or totally made up these allegations. Totally made up. We should note that since then this postal worker has put out a video with the right wing Group Project veritas in which he denies denying the allegations, however, we should also note it is a crime to lie to federal investigators and his statement recanting his claim was under oath. Another false claim, that observers in philadelphia were not granted access to witness the opening and sorting of ballots. This is not true. In fact, a judge in philadelphia decided the citys board of elections complied with the law in how it allowed both campaigns proper access to the canvassing process. Next example, the president s supporters are circulating a list which claims to showcases of ballots in the state of michigan being cast in the names of dead people. The origins of this list are unknown but our colleagues at cnn they looked into 50 of the names on that list. Here is what they found, 37 of the people listed are indeed dead, but they did not vote. Five of them are alive and voted legally according to public records and eight are alive and did not vote. More broadly note this, the department of Homeland Security run we should note by trump appointees yesterday debunked rumors of dead people casting ballots in this election saying that there are a number of voting integrity measures already in place to protect against that very type of ballot fraud. Finally, President Trump has made unfounded allegations of socalled secret ballots that he claims suddenly appeared on election night, all of them voting for president elect biden. This, too, is false. Different states counted ballots at different speeds but there is no reason to claim any results were withheld or secret. In many cases mailin ballots skewed heavily towards the democratic ticket and the fact is those ballots were often counted later in the process. There were no secret ballots and no suspicious late vote counts. We are keeping an eye on all of this for you and keeping to the facts. Joining me now to discuss a cnn legal analyst elie honig. Thanks. Lets beginning with the remaining legal challenges do they have any legal legitimacy . Jim, remember this past weekend three or four days ago when the president announced starting monday he would be prosecuting, his word, misuse of the word, but prosecuting his case to show this election was a fraud. Wednesday, theyve got nothing. Ive been reading these complaints that the Trump Campaign and their surrogates are filing. There are two recurrent faults in these complaints, one, the numbers of blts that they are talking about if they are talking about specific ballots are minuscule, 53 votes here, a couple hundred votes there. Number two they dont have the proof. You laid it out perfectly. Theyre claiming voter fraud and havent won a single case. Theyve filed cases all across this country they havent won a single piece of litigation yet. They are winless. They are like the new york jets of constitutional litigation. The record speaks for itself, they are not turning around anytime soon. Dont insult my new york jets, but point taken. Sorry. So how quickly because frankly this is partly our largely a pr charade to raise doubts here. How quickly do you expect courts to dismiss these cases. Courts are dismissing these cases with alarming speed. Some of these cases are getting dismissed within 42 or 78 hours of being filed. Were starting to see the Trump Campaign and its surrogates dismiss their own lawsuits. We have now seen one lawsuit withdrawn, we saw another appeal can drawn the other day. That i think is a warning sign you dont see that very often. When the Trump Campaign is pulling back its own lawsuits i think thats a flashing red light that they are in trouble. I want to you can at that about the attorney generals hole because he told federal prosecutors that they should examine what he called voting irregularities and this is before and this is the change before states moved to certify the results, violating or overturning longstanding doj policy. The quote from his memo, i authorize you to pursue substantial allegations of voting and vote tabulation irregularities prior to the certification of elections in your jurisdictions in certain cases as i have already done in specific instances. Tell me what the standard is now for opening investigations. You are a former prosecutor. What guidance do they take from this . Theres bad news and good news. The bad news is william barr has changed the rules at this very late date, the rule used to be you dont do anything public, anything overt on an electionrelated case until that election is certified, finalized, done and over. Bill barr has now after the election is over, after donald trump has lost, as donald trump casts about for any read to cling to, now bill barr says were going to change that longstanding rule and let you do public things now if necessary. Its a continuation of bill barrs politicization and abuse of dojs power. The good news sths not going to make any difference. The facts just are not there. Bill barr can change the rules all he wants he cant generate facts out of nothing. The margins are too big, they would have to flip more than one state, its just not going to happen. Bill barr is trying to let doj and use doj to support this narrative but theres no substance there. Elie honig thanks for walking us all through it. Thanks, jim. Okay. And were going to post that fact check from jim on all of those lies regarding the election and the actual facts online so you can see it. Meantime, were going to take you next to tacks to el paso where strained hospitals are now storing bodies in cold trailers as covid cases spike and local morgues fill to capacity. We will speak to the doctor battling it on the ground next. My nunormal fewer asthma attacks. Less oral steroids. Taking my treatment at home. Nucala is a oncemonthly addon injection for severe eosinophilic asthma. Not for sudden breathing problems. Allergic reactions can occur. 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Texas is now the first state in the nation to reach 1 million covid cases and 8 of el pasos population, 8 of the citys population, is infected with covid19. There are 810 morgues alone as deaths are spiking there and congress is considering extending a twoweek shutdown set to expire today. With me now is an Infectious Disease expert and member of Texas Medical Association covid task force. Its good to have you. Im sorry its on such dire news but thank you for being here. Thank you. You said, look, you have these 26,000 active people, over 1,000 people in the hospital in el paso. You call these dark times. Is there any choice but to extend the lockdown over for the next few weeks . First, thank you for having me. These are dak times. But i want to relay the message of hope e. As the Community Gets ahold of this crisis, and we have the resources amongst our Health Care System here, i think thats what gets us into winter and next year when we talk about vaccines and therapeutics and antibodies. Hopefully the community will rally around like after we did august 3rd and really form the nexus of what should be el paso strong. You know what its like for the Health Care Providers on the ground because youre there and working in these hospitals every single day. You talked about physicians and nurses literally coming up to you crying. What are they going through . I think the biggest word is just fatigue. And theres frustration. The fact when we went back to the initial surge back in july and august and that constant wear and tear of seeing people come in sick, intubated. Again as much as we have the messages of the patient that took his last sip of sprite battling this disease, there are also the message of family members that have survived and come through and able to go home with their families. I really want people to focus on that to give us our north star Going Forward to get through this. A nurse from el paso, where you are, was dispatched to new york in the spring when we were going through and we were the hot spot and we were experiencing the worst of this. He came back and he told our affiliate that what el paso was going through now, in his mind, was, quote, rougher than the time he spent in new york in the spring. Is it that dire at this point in time . Obviously you have Better Therapeutics so more people are living instead of dyeing as they were in the spring. Still, is that an apt comparison . I wasnt in new york but one of the things people dont realize when you think about el paso, for a city of almost a million on the border, we probably have Less Health Care resources than a lot of large resources. New york is a mecca of health care in the United States. We struggled with nursing shortages, physician shortages but with the governments help and dod were getting those resources, get our hands whats going on now. So i speak to our communities to say these resources are here right now. As our country goes up 45, 50 states increasing their infectivity rate, it wont be here forever. We just need to focus in and get this done for our community. Doctor, thank you very, very much for what youre doing on the ground and projecting that hope as well. We need that right now. Thank you, poppy. Jim . This just in to cnn, cnn can now project President Trump will win the state of alaska. David chalon is standing by. David, this was expected. What does this tell you . Yes, it was expected, three electoral added to President Trumps column here. That you brings him up to 317 votes. You see donald trump has a healthy 46,000vote lead, 56. 9 to 39. 1 . We also projected senator dan cillin, the incumbent senator there, will hang on to that seat in alaska. This came in because we got 3,000 additional votes in from alaska and allow us to make these projections there. David chalian, well stay on top of the news. Cnn just learning the president met with his team on legal strategy just yesterday. Well have the latest just ahead. But we didnt stop there. We made a cloud flexible enough to adapt to any size business. No matter what it does, or how it changes. And we kept going. So you only pay for what you use. Because at dell technologies, we stop. At nothing. Well, very good wednesday morning to you. Im jim sciutto. And im poppy harlow. Moments from now we expect to see the president. He will make his first public appearance in almost a week. He and the first lady are heading to Arlington National cemetery for a wreathlaying ceremony, obviously to honor our nations veterans on this veterans day. We will bring that to you live. Meanwhile, joe biden is pushing forward with his transition plan, meeting with his Transition Team later today. Hes the president elect. As for outgoing President Trump, hes still digging in pushing unproven, false claims of massive voter fraud. We just debunked several on this program. Cnn learned the president met with his team yesterday on a legal plan, offered no plans to concede, a transition in flux combined with a stunning shakeup of leadership within the defense department. Really unprecedented during a transition, now prompting growing concerns over the nations security. Weve got you covered. Lets begin with cnns john harwood. John, what more do we know about this meeting yesterday, what the plans are Going Forward . Jim, let me start by saying there are a couple of new things this morning. The first is the president is finally going to get out of the white house. Hes been hunkered down watching television, stewing over the embarrassment of his defeat, tweeting, hes going to get out and participate in that veterans day ceremony and hes going to do it while hes got a modest amount of good news today. Cnn has just called the political president ial race in alaska. He will win those three electoral votes. Thats entirely expected. Better news for republicans is that dan sullivan has been reelected senator from nebraska. Thats something Mitch Mcconnell will welcome. But the president still has not accepted the reality, not prepared to embrace the reality of whats happened to him. He met with advisers yesterday, signaled hes going to persist on legal claims and phonio political claims hes making. It is likely the legal claims crash and burn next week. Theres no evidence thats been presented, almost entirely courts have shunted aside these claims hes making. But this is the situation the president has not faced in his life before. Throughout his childhood, throughout his career in