Transcripts For CNNW New Day With Alisyn Camerota And John Berman 20201118

Two vaccines to get people to be complacent. Help is on the way. But help is not here yet. Announcer this is new day with Alisyn Camerota and john berman. We want to welcome our viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is new day. And we begin with outgoing President Trump exacting revenge for his loss. Last night he fired the top Election Security official in the country because that official reported the truth, that there was no widespread voter fraud. And then republicans in wayne county, michigan, tried to block certification of the votes in that state or county. The Trump Campaigns lead county bragged that this would allow michigan to appoint protrump electors, essentially giving trump michigan. Even though he lost that state by, john homemade graphic 148,000 votes. This isnt about how far the president will go. Thats not the question, the question is how far will republicans let him go at this point. And think about when this is happening. Right . We just had the deadliest day of the coronavirus pandemic in six months. 1,700, 1,707 new deaths reported overnight. Nearly 77,000 americans are waking up in the hospital this morning. The White House Coronavirus Task Force Warns that there is an aggressive unrelenting and expanding spread of the virus across the country and that the current mitigation methods are not working. Joining us now, we have David Gregory and miles taylor. Miles served in the department of Homeland Security under President Trump where he worked closely with chris krebs. He also recently revealed he was the anonymous author of an oped and book that was critical of the trump administration. Good to see both of you this morning. Miles, just because you see a train wreck coming doesnt make it any less shocking when it actually happens. And so though it was predicted that chris krebs was going to lose his job, because he deigned to speak out and say that this was the most secure election in the history of america, he predicted that he was going to be fired and last night he was. Yeah. I think thats absolutely right. I mean, look, i would even go further than that, alisyn and say in a single tweet, the president has now put our country at vastly greater risk of a cyber incident, because in addition to being the nations top Election Security official, Christopher Krebs is the nations top domestic cybersecurity official. The way that donald trump is acting when it comes to this precarious president ial transition period is like a drunk sumo wrestler in the dishware section of a bed bath and beyond. Hes knocking everything over and the damage is very, very consequential. In the case of chris, this is someone who were counting on in this president ial transition period to monitor threats from foreign adversaries like russia and china who want to exploit this period and do damage to the United States. Chris was on the front lines of trying to prevent those threats. Its a very dangerous time to remove an official like that. And chris krebs is not a hyperpartisan individual. I was there in the oval office with chris two years ago when the president signed the law creating the domestic Cybersecurity Agency he runs and he has run it very ably. But alisyn, theres also a political mistake here that the president has made. If the president continues to contest the results of this election until inauguration day, well, hes now made a new enemy, because chris krebs, i suspect, will take to the airwaves to talk consistently about how this actually was the most secure election and that there wasnt fraud in the vote. So again, the president has made a political mistake here, because now he has an enemy on the outside that once worked for him that can talk every single day about why the president is lying to the American People. Well, he has been talking. He was fired for telling the truth. Theres just no ambiguity here. He was fired for his statement the president told us as much overnight in his firing tweet. Chris krebs wrote, there is no evidence that any deleting system deleted or lost voted or changed votes. The november 3rd election was the most secure in history. He was fired for doing his job. And you were saying, you know, strike him down, hes only going to become more powerful. Im using a star wars reference and metaphor here, because kris krebs himself did that overnight. Mark hamill tweeted in praise of chris krebs overnight. So what did he do . He oneupped luke skywalk. He said, in defending democracy, do or do not, there is no try, this is the way. So quoting from both empire and mandalorian all at once. And yoda. Yoda is in Empire Strikes back. Yoda quote. He kind of mangled it a little bit. But hes taking on a guy whos standing up for democracy. Thats it thats what the president is doing here. He is fighting democracy. This is not what a leader in a democracy does, revenge firing because someone is standing up to your baseless conspiratorial corrupt claims. But weve known this and theres so much thats wrong with it. The success here is the fact that our elections came off during a pandemic thanks to tireless poll workers without any widespread irregularities or abuse and without outside interference. Those are things to be celebrated in 2020, for sure. Donald trump is not celebrating that. Hes doing the opposite. And everything hes doing, i think people understand, is not on the level. Its not on the level. This is not a real contesting of the election. This is the same argument hes used before, anytime theres a setback, then something must be rigged against him. Nobody believes it. Republicans have been notable in their silence and their fear. And weve talked about why. Theyre afraid of trump and trumpism and what hell do out of office. Theyre afraid about the georgia recount. But even that wall is shatter g shattering. Even Kevin Mccarthy is talking about the fact that its heading towards a biden voerictory. And hes been sounding like something of a dead ender in the defense of trump. Theres nothing there. The legal maneuvers are not Going Forward. But whats so worrisome is the precedent that this sets, that you could have a president of the United States sack someone who disagrees with him when hes in the middle of making baseless claims. That thats hour spopower is supposed to be wielded and somehow that will be put back in the bottle as we move forward. When joe biden takes office, hes going to have to fix some of these loopholes that have been revealed by all of this and how precarious some of these democratic norms are. I just want to point out, when a republican speaks out against something that President Trump does, it is notable, david, as you said, so i want to point out that senator burr last night did say this, miles, about chris krebs. Quote, chris krebs is a dedicated Public Servant who has done a remarkable job during a challenging time. Chris and his team have worked diligently to strengthen our election infrastructure, help to shore up zpanlts and build trusts between the state and federal governments. Their efforts were essential in protecting the 2020 u. S. President ial election against the threats of foreign interference poo interference. Im grateful for all chris has done and wish him best in his next chapter. Is that notable or is the silence notable . I know chris krebs. I worked very closely with chris krebs and he is widely respected on both sides of the aisle on capitol hill. I would urge members of congress to get out there and actually talk about his record. But the most important thing to remember here, alisyn, especially in light of senator burrs comments is that chris is really the nations most trusted Election Security official. So people every day are getting disinformation from the president on twitter. And right now if there are any viewers doubting whether their votes were counted or counted correctly, you can rest assured that someone like chris krebs knows what hes talking about. He has traveled the country to look at these voting systems. He has put in place extensive cybersecurity and infrastructure security protections to make sure that the vote was not corrupted and compromised. So when chris says this was the safest vote in modern american history, you can trust that mans words. He knows what hes talking about. Donald trump has barely spent any time in his presidency focused on Election Security. And i remember it. We couldnt get the white house to dpay attention to that issue but chris did and he spent four years of this administration focused on that question. So voters should rest assured, there wasnt widespread fraud in this country. This election tally is accurate. Joe biden is the president elect of the United States and unfortunately, chris now will have to talk about that from the outside. But that may be the Silver Lining and the bright side, because he can help perhaps advise the biden transition team. If senator burr really believes that chris krebs is so good at his job, richard burr should stand up and say that joe biden is the president elect and that the gsa should ascertain that he won the election. Im sorry, its too late to dam with faint praise from richard burr and these other republicans who are praising him. Its time. Its over at this point and theyre creating the space for the president to do these destructive things. And david, i want to show you a picture, because i think youll appreciate this as much as anybody. On the well of the senate, senator Kamala Harris, the Vice President elect was there and shes getting fist bumps from lindsey graham, whos trying to undermine the election in georgia, is basically congratulating Kamala Harris on being the Vice President elect. Its just bogus. Its this farce. Theyre playing with this fire right now. I totally agree. And you know, if youre watching that scene in the senate well, as if you couldnt become more cynical about politics. I mean, what is that . That were not in on the joke. That this is all a game. Oh, sorry, kamala, we have to do all of this crap for the president , but grapcongratulati to you. And that is whats going on, in case the American People feel shut out, thats exactly the conversations that are happening. And alisyn, i thought you brought up a good point about the whole idea of restoring democratic norms. The point is, youre never going to change the fact that the president has the ability to fire people at will. Thats embedded in executive power. But theres a larger point. You know, there were democrats who complained about voting irregularities in 2004, in ohio. And that they thought these were widely ignored. If we simply get into a system where theres no center in american politics, its just a power grab. Look whats happening with the way the Supreme Court is being treated. Its whoever has the power will make the rules. And if that just goes back and forth and back and forth, thats where democracy really suffers, because its not just what donald trump is doing today, its what hes ushering in is the only way to exercise power. David gregory and miles taylor, thank you both very much helping us appreciate this moment. We talked about chris krebs, but there was another major assault on democracy overnight, and it took place in michigan, where the wayne county, thats detroit, board of election certifiers refused to certify the election in wayne county. Republicans stood in a way for a time of certifying this election. Effectively, trying to throw out the entire election in michigan and were told by the Trump Campaign the goal was to turn it over to republican legislatures, so they could award michigans electors to donald trump even though he lost that state by 148,000 vote. The republicans on that county board relented overnight and ultimately did certify it, but i dont think its over yet. Joining us now is the secretary of state of michigan, jocelyn benison. Thank you so much for being with us. What what happened overnight . The truth won out. Two individuals on the wayne county board of canvassers who have a ministerial responsibility to certify the Election Results refusing to do so on baseless claims that were ultimately clerical errors that occur in nearly every election, in nearly every jurisdiction. And notably, the public spoke out sand identified and amplifid the truth that these elections should be certified, theres no reason they shouldnt be, and ultimately, they changed course after public comment, changed their votes, and ultimately, the board voted 40 to certify the wayne county Election Results, moving us now to a position where the state will look and certify those results as well. I want to talk about the future in just a moment, but i want to talk about what you agreed to overnight. The secretary of States Office has agreed to look into, to audit, basically the election process in wayne county. The gripe they had was over discrepancies in the books. Explain that to me. What were identified was bookkeeping errors. Incidents where voters may have shown up to a precinct, but may have ultimately decided no t to vote and leave, or perhaps ballots placed in an envelope that then should go through a machine. Just Different Things that occurred throughout the day when you have a very high turnout election that oftentimes arent fully reflected in the bookke bookkeeping. So you go through the books and explain any type of discrepancies. What the board noted yesterday werent explained really in part because the city didnt have time to get through a lot of the precincts. Its the largest jurisdiction in the state and they have a limited window. But certainly, the state has a role to play, as well. And were committed to ensuring that our elections are not only secure, but the public can have confidence that the results are, indeed, an accurate reflection of the will of the people. And i heard you say overnight, there were discrepancies in more precincts in 2016, which the republicans in wayne county did vote to certify, than this time around. Is that correct . Yes, and there were more discrepancies in august than there were this time around. And several discrepancies in other jurisdictions can in other counties. So this is quite common. It doesnt indicate theres any malfeasance, irregular tityrre certainly no widespread fraud, but its more of a bookkeeping clerical issue that oftentimes does get clean up and well moving forward look to make sure that voters can have confidence in the election. They chose to care about it in an election that donald trump lost, even though there were more examples of it in the election that donald trump won and the Detroit Free Press reported when you add up the number of discrepancies, 367 votes. That was the discrepancy in wayne county. 367 votes. Joe biden at this point leading in michigan by 148,000. So you can see the scale of the discrepancy there. I want to talk about the future, because the juan county canvassing board did certify it. And youll look into the numbers and make them right to the extent that you can. But i dont think its over now, because now it goes to the state certifying board and there are two republicans and two democrats on that. And if both republicans vote no, what happens . Well, i mean, at first, ill say that im confident that we wont get to that point, because the state board of canvassers have a ministerial role, an administrative role and the law very clearly says that they shall certify the elections once the counties do so. So they really dont have a lot of wiggle room to overturn decisions that were made at the county level. At this point, i believe every county has voted to certify the results. So they really have a formal role to play, but not a very substantiative role to play. And certainly, the cowards would get very directly involved if they deviated from their otherwise administrative responsibility to certify and finalize the results. The reason i ask, though, is because theres no ambiguity now about what the Trump Campaign is trying to do. And im going to try to read this off the screen. But jenna ellis, whos an attorney for the Trump Campaign stated explicitly what they are trying to do here. She said, breaking this evening, the county board of canvasser in wayne county, michigan, refused to certify the Election Results. If the state board follows suit, the republican state legislator i think she means legislature, but im not going to give her too much credit for being able to spell she says, will select the electors. Huge win for donald trump. Shes saying their goal is to have the Republican State Legislature choose the electors, ignoring the will of the people of michigan. Thats their goal at this point. Your reaction to their effort . Three things of note there, really. One, to throw out hundreds of thousands of votes based on a few clerical errors and ultimately was determined to be a bad course of action and, you know, potentially not in compliance or allowed under the law, certainly for the state board of canvassers would be a direct violation of state law and there would be, i assume, and anticipate a court action that would swiftly follow that would require them to do their very clear job of certifying the results under the law. And the state legislature has already said, leaders in the state legislature have already confirmed publicly that they have no desire or intent to overturn the will of the people. A lot of this is really a strategy to erode Public Confidence in what was a wellrun, secure election. And weve seen this not only in michigan but around the country. These efforts are not going to be successful. The people have spoken. The election has occurred. Now as we follow all of our protocols to certify the results, its important we move forward doing so and not allow noise to get in the way of blocking the citizens of michigan, the citizens of the country and the votes that they have taken. I know you have your work cut out for you in the coming days and weeks. Hopefully not more than that. Secretary of state jocelyn benison, thanks for being with us this morning, appreciate it. My pleasure. Thank you. We have breaking news from pfizer this morning. The company Just Announced new details about the safety of the Coronavirus Vaccine and when it will be available to the public. This is honestly terrific news. Youre going to want to hear all of this, next. Insulin injections can make diabetes complicated. Meet omnipod it delivers insulin through a tubeless pod. Just one small pod replaces up to 14 injections and today you can get started with a free 30day omnipod dash trial at omnipod. Com. No more daily injections. 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Plus, for a limited time, ask how to get a 500 prepaid card when you upgrade. Switch today. All right, breaking news, pharmaceutical giant pfizer Just Announced moments ago that its Coronavirus Vaccine is 95 effective, and that they will apply for fda emergency use approval within days. It comes just as the u. S. Recorded the deadliest day of the pandemic in six months. Cnn chief medical correspondent dr. Sanjay gupta joins us now. What pfizer actually reported is a wide array of data about their vaccine, which really fills in some of the gaps here and gives us a much greater understanding and perhaps reason for optimism about the product. Tell us. Yeah, i think so, john. First of all, we are hearing this information, this news from pfizer. We want to hear this ultimately from the fda as well. But if this holds true, exactly as you point out, this is news that basically demonstrates the effectiveness of this vaccine. Let me show you, i think most people have been able to follow these trials for some time, but basically tens of thousands of people received a placebo, tens of thousands of people received a vaccine, and they basically have been comparing them. And what they found was that about 170 people developed covid. The vast voimajority of those, were in the placebo group, versus eight in the vaccine group. And thats where these 95 plus numbers come from in terms of effectiveness. You may be able to read that at the bottom, but people who got severely hill there were ten people who got severely ill, nine were in the placebo group, one in the vaccinated group. So were hearing this from the company, but if this holds up, that really does demonstrate the effectiveness and the numbers frankly are even better than what we heard a couple of weeks ago on november 9th, from the daerlt. Said it was about 90 effective. Now about 95 effective. Also, now the big news is that two months have passed to look at safety data. And theyre saying, again, this is the company saying this, but theyre saying they have not had adverse safety problems, so theyre going to go ahead and submit this for an emergency use authorization, which is something weve been waiting for for some time. That emergency use authorization, well see what happens. But this could all transpire, guys, over the next several days. What does that mean, actually, sanjay . What does that mean for the rest of us if were granted the emergency use authorization. If the emergency use authorization they would apply for that. If its granted, it would go theres two committees involved. One committee that helps the fda issue that emergency use authorization. And theres another committee that says, okay, there is now an authorized vaccine out there. Who gets it. Where does it go . The distribution plan. This is a committee in conjunction with the cdc that basically determines that and determines whats called the vaccine schedule to sort of determine who get it, when do they get it and things like that. If that all happens, were talking about basically for the first time in all of this, people outside the Clinical Trial would start receiving the Coronavirus Vaccine and that could happen before christmas. Oh, my gosh. Thats great news. Granted, that be will front line workers, the most vulnerable groups, could be months and months before the general public gets it, and that brings me to the next point, we have to get there. Its all the more incentive to be safe now and do the things we need to do. And were seeing, sanjay, with the statistics, just numbers that are horrifying. Weve been talking about hospitalizations and new cases. But the deaths now are starting to rise at a rate that really i think should shock people. We had 1,700 1,707, to be exact new deaths reported overnight. And every single one of them matters. Im concerned now that were seeing the hospitalizations and cases rise that well only see these deaths continue to rise at higher levels over the next several weeks. I know, i know. This is one of those mornings where were giving you such good news potentially about the vaccine but have to remind you of the stark reality of the next few months. Yeah, john, these nothing has changed. Weve been reporting on this for months. We see the number of cases go up. A few weeks later, the number of hospitalizations go up, a few weeks after that, the number of deaths go up. I hate saying it, but its true. And the number of deaths, according to the models, per day, they think could start to approach 3,000 again, similar to the sorts of numbers we saw at the very beginning of this, where we didnt know what was happening. We were all sort of shell shocked by this new pandemic. We could be right back in that same position. There are places within the country that are the hardest hit. Were talking about the midwest here. And im not the kind of guy to say, i told you so, but when you talk about mask mandates, physical distance guidelines, states that didnt impose those things are the ones that are being hardest hit now. Im talking about south dakota. North dakota, wyoming, iowa, nebraska. These are some of the hardest hit states now in the country, making up nearly 40 of new infections. S it is still possible to bring this under control, and im talking about even short of the vaccine, which you correctly point out will be more available for the general public late spring, early summer of next year, but there are things we can do now. We know, we have plenty of evidence now that the masks work, that the physical distancing guidelines work, that a sort of really not having large public gatherings work. That closing down or limiting occupancy works. It works. Masks, public gatherings, and stopping people gettinging intr in large groups inside without masks on. Thats a terrible idea. If we do those things short of the vaccine, we can start to bend the curve. Remember that flatten the curve thing, we used to say it all the time back in march and april, were back there again. Weve got to flatten the curve or well overwhelm people in hospitals around the country and then you cant take care of kids. Sometimes youre in a waiting room with other people who are sick and exhibiting symptoms. So we need an athome test. Is that on the horizon . Yes, that is on the horizon. These tests are improving, as well. A disease that didnt even exist a year ago, developing tests for it, making sure they can get to the point where theyre at home, its a big deal. And theres another one that is coming on the market. This is an athome molecular test. Youve heard a lot about the antigen tests. This is an actual molecular test that is looking for the genetic material. And basically, the way this works is again, all at home. You would swab yourself. You would take that swab. You would put it in a vial of fluid. You see the machine there. Once you have that vial of fluid, you put that on the machine and wait about 30 minutes and it basically just tells you, positive or negative. Do you have presence of the virus or not . This can be done at home. My understanding is, well confirm this, but it would be around 50 and, you know, this is the type of thing that people could do at home and then make decision. If it comes back positive, you stay home. If its negative, you can go out with a mask on and all the Public Health practices. But we would love to have this actionable data on a daily basis or certainly a regular basis to be able to make decisions about how we should conduct ours lives that day. Sanjay, thank you very much for all of the breaking news. Developments are coming fast and furious. Heemeanwhile, senator linds graham is defending his call to the georgia secretary of state saying this is all a big misinterpretation. Our next guest was on that phone call. What does he say really happened . Ard, your clothes can repel pet hair. Look how the shirt on the left attracts pet hair like a magnet pet hair is no match for bounce. With bounce, you can love your pets, and lint roll less. I see you looking uh i see you looking na, na, na i see you looking uh i see you looking watch what i do camera clicks watch what i do i see you looking watch what i do camera clicks watch what i do i see you looking watch what i. Do developing overnight, propublica reporting an effort to pressure georgias secretary of state, raffensperger to throw out legally cast ballots. That potentially was retaliation for raffenspergers refusal to endorse President Trump. Georgia is set to wrap up its hand count of ballots today. Joining us now is gabriel sterling, a Georgia Election staffer who has firsthand knowledge of some of this pressure campaign. Mr. Sterling, thank you very much for being here. Before we get to the controversial phone call that you heard between senator graham and the secretary of state, what do you know about how the Trump Campaign was trying to pressure secretary raffensperger for an endorsement . Well, we are republican elected officials in this state and they asked and said given the role that the secretary holds over the election, that we wouldnt be endorsing at this time. The secretary donated to the president in 16, donated to the president in 20, but he was not going to endorse. They had that discussion, they werent necessarily happy about it, but that was the extent of it. Did you feel after that that you had a bullseye on your office somehow . Not in particular. We were just doing our jobs. To go back and quote the earlier ill quote the mandalorian, this is the way. We follow the law and execute our duties. Youve just made john berman so happy. Hes just blissfully happy right now, that youre requoting his quote, his requote. Lets talk about this phone call between senator graham and secretary rathffensperger. What did you hear on that phone call . Frankly what i said last night, i can see where the secretary has his interpretation, because they were asking specific things about how our absentee ballot works, in terms of, is there a way to go back and look, and we said, we do not have the authority to go back and secondguess what the county Election Officials have already done with signature matching. And our signature matching has been following along the same matches, about 0. 5 get tossed for missing a signature or having a mismatched senator. And if theres someone who wanted to go that route, everybody has due process in this country. If they think they have evidence, they can go to a court of law. And at the same time, we discuss things about the United States Senate Runoffs that are coming up, where we were saying, there are people from outside of the state and we see democrats trying to encourage people to come to our state using a federal loophole that allow them to vote in two states, and how do we head those off . Those are the kind of conversations that were had. So both interpretations could be seen that way. But if senator warren called, we would take her call. If senator graham called, had questions about our process, we answer the questions about this process. I understand and i hear you and i think that thats really judicious of you, but im just wondering, since it was an interpretation of the secretary that senator graham was suggesting, well, then, you might want to throw out all of those absentee ballots. Did you hear that . I didnt hear those words in quite that way. But i think there was a question of how, is there power within the law, if you see an sborl abnormality in the law, versus if you have an inspection of those signatures. That was a question that was asked. So that probably did raise the hairs on the back of the secretarys neck. And i understand that. And the senator was probably trying to figure out, what do i do to help defend the president who i support. And the president has many legal routes. Theres 73 Million People who voted for them and im sure theyre trying to say, i want to ensure that those votes were counted accurately and thats what were trying to ensure that the will of the people of georgia is done. Did it raise the hairs on the back of your neck when you heard him say that . Ive been doing this for over 30 years now, so very little raises hair on the back of my neck, but the situation was, we were answering questions, i knew what the law was, so i was really unconcerned. And we said, if you want to go that route or somebody else wants to go that route, you go to the court of layofw. They can have good lawsuits, bad lawsuits, but up to judges to make those decisions, not me or the secretary. As far as the recount, is this going to be completed by midnight tonight . Its not exactly a recount, its a hand audit to verify the outcomes that came out after election day. We are well on track. Our largest count finished up the first recounting of the ballots and were now doing the Quality Control to make sure everything license nes up. And through this process, we already found that there was a little over 5,000 ballots that were not uploaded properly into our system and that closed the president s gap from 1,456 down to 1,253. There were always going to be some illegal votes and were trying to track those down and investigate them, but nothing to say the outcome will be different based on what were seeing so far from this audit. Gabriel sterling, thank you so much for all of the information. Thank you, alisyn. Okay, they were the governors who went it alone, stuck with President Trump, did not mandate masks or Public Health restrictions. They were praised in rightwing media for it. So how is that working out today for the people of their states . We have a mustsee reality check for you next. 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 try optum perks. Its a new way to save up to 80 . And everyone can do it. Its from optum, a Health Care Company thats trusted by millions of people. You dont have to sign up for anything. Just go to optumperks. Com. And get a coupon to use at your pharmacy. Thats it. I opted in. I opted in. You can, too. Opt in and save big today. This morning, its the virus thats dictating the story, no matter what certain politicians think, there were a number of governor who is chose to walk in lockstep with the president , and now were seeing the impact on their states. John avlon here with a reality check. Everyones entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts. Its one of the key quotes of our times and its painfully relevant, as the covid crisis escalates across our nation ten months after it arrived. Public health shouldnt be partisan and science is not really a matter of opinion. But its been made to seem that way. Turning masks into culture wars with cause to resist restrictions that are designed to save lives. Well, now we know that americans are paying the price for all of this foolishness, with more than 140,000 new cases a day, hospitalizations doubling month over month, with one state reportedly hitting the highest covid mortality rate in the world. Back in june, Vice President pence wrote that the media has taken to sounding the alarm bells over a second wave of coronavirus infections. Such panic is overblown. Not so much, unfortunately. Because now were in a third surge, worse than ever before. Cases are up across the country, but the governors who back the Trump Party Line are the ones really raepg the whirlwind, because no states have seen more new covid19 infections, hospitalizations, and deaths over the past week per capita than north and south dakota. And take a look at the top 15 states with the most cases per capita, two exceptions, wisconsin and illinois, theyre all deep in Donald Trumps base. This is what happens when ideology elbows out science. South dakota governor kristi nome was lionized in june as the governor who stayed the course, the course being resistance to Public Health measures like masks. Today theyve had over 67,000 and 644 deaths. Its sevenday Positivity Rate a stunning 58 and still no mask mandate. The tragedy is compounded by the fact that some people who are being hospitalized are still in denial about covid, because they bought into President Trumps bluster. They dont want to believe that covid is real. Their last dying words are, this cant be happening, its not real. Disinformation can be deadly, but this is what happens when the Trump White House advisers like scott atlas push herd immunity. More people die. And the president has been mia. He hasnt attended a meeting of his Covid Task Force in months. Since the election, hes found times to play four rounds of golf and tweet more than 400 times, but nothing about covid. Hes refusing to let the Covid Task Force brief Vice President elect biden, while an update model predicts that u. S. Covid cases will be 340,000 by the 1st. And when gavin newsom got caught attending a restaurant party. Were on a tough road for the next few months and its a path that mindless politicization of the virus has put us on. So lets learn the right lessons and take this advice to heart prosecutep from the president of the american medical association. Never again can we allow a campaign of misinformation and disinformation to coopt conversations around Public Health and sow divisions that only serve to prolong the suffering of so many. And thats your reality check. God willing, that statement from the ama is right, but it doesnt show any signs of slowing down. Its just common sense and common decency at this point. John, thank you. All right, this morning, a top official of Homeland Security, fired for telling the truth. Refusing to say theres widespread voter fraud. Now hes out of a job. What will republicans do about this, next. Among my patients, i often see them have teeth sensitivity as well as gum issues. Does it worry me . Absolutely. Sensodyne sensitivity gum gives us the dual action effect that really takes care of both our teeth sensitivity as well as our gum issues. Theres no question its something that i would recommend. President trump fired a top official in the department of Homeland Security, chris krebs, who had said the election was the most secure in u. S. History. Joining me now is republican congressman Adam Kinzinger of illinois. Why do you think President Trump fired chris krebs . Its a loyalty thing and so two things, number one, theres this guy in the administration named john mac a tee that for whatever reason has been granted authority and for the last year or so he has overruled the desires of secretaries, of leaders of their organizations, all to try to place both his friends in government, lets be honest, his buddies, but also people seen adds sufficiently loyal to trump. Thats why we heard about this story a week ago, i can almost guarantee he is the one who put that story out there. What happened a chris krebs said the election was secure. Thats his job to say that. His job is to make sure that they are defending the elections and, of course, that is counter to what the president is trying to say so i think that all feeds into why hes out there. There is like a loyalty purge going on in the last month in the white house. Whats the impact of that . Its bad. I mean, look, you know, yeah, over the next couple months theres only a limited amount, you know, bad actors can do, but i think its really important for somebody like chris krebs to be there to talk about what weve done right, to in essence postgame this election. Where did we have attacks from foreign governments, what are Lessons Learned especially as we go to a handover to the next administration. But, look, again, we are in the last month or two where if somebody is not seen as sufficiently loyal its a chance for somebody like john macatee or the president to get pay back. Its a weird time for sure. You are going out on a limb by saying this which youve done consistently over the last few years, you have taken issues with the president and administration where you think its appropriate. Where are your colleagues, congressman, at this point . This is going on. Where are they . Where are your colleagues saying, maybe its time to ascertain the election . Where are your colleagues who say its time to coordinate in the transition on coronavirus . So, you know, its a tough one to answer because everybody has, i guess, their own reason, but here is my general thing, i think too many people look at twitter. I think you read too many even congressmen read too much of twitter, too much of your internet comments in the blogs and they know if they go out against some of these twitter mobs, whether its on the right or left, ive been mobbed by both sides, trust me, and if you look at that and you say, gee, i dont want to face the twitter mob, which, by the way, isnt even a real thing, its not a real reflection of reality, and i think its just a matter of a lot of people waiting out until, you know, the president comes to terms with this. Look, we all believe that every vote should count and we all believe that in this election every lawsuit thats legitimate could be, you know, gone through, but we have a tradition in this country of looking at the results, congratulating the president elect, starting the transition process and Going Forward and thats that is essential to the passage and the strength and the survival of democracy. You are Lieutenant Colonel in the air force national guard, i think i got the rank right, i dont want to stiff you right if youve been promoted without me knowing. Thats right snuf served in iraq, afghanistan, fly missions regularly. The president moving to draw down troops in afghanistan and iraq soon. Your reaction to that. Its pointless and i dont know the reason except to try to follow through on some Campaign Promise that he made, except his biggest Campaign Promise was the defeat of isis and you have to totally overlook that isis is in afghanistan or in iraq or in syria in order to think that this is somehow, you know, following through on his rand paul version of a promise to withdraw from, quote unquote, endless wars. Even the president himself said that afghanistan isnt a war, its a peacekeeping mission. So this idea is silly. Look, with 2,500 troops all you really have left is enough troops to defend the remaining troops who are just there to defend those troops. At 2,500 troops you really can just do a force protection and you really cant extend power or train or advise the afghanistan military. I think its part of his desire, again, to say he did it but also maybe an attempt to hobble the next administration because now president elect biden is going to have to make a decision to either keep it at that risky level or go back and add troops, which is a whole new story. Hobble the incoming administration, what do you mean . Expand on that, please. Well, i think its going to be a very tough decision now for the president elect to make. Typically in this country and if you see like george w. Bush when he negotiated the status of forces agreement to 2011, he could have kept that status of force agreement with iraq for long term but he made the decision that the next administration should have a say on foreign policy. This should be the case now. This should be president elect bidens decision on the future of afghanistan and i think the president is trying to force his hand. When you go down to 2,500 troops the Vice President or president elect either has to say im going to double the troops which is a whole new story in january or hes got to continue to pull out. Very quickly, how concerned are you what else the outgoing president will do in the next 60 days . Im concerned, but not overly frightened. You know, i think this kind of stuff is concerning, i dont expect him to start a war or anything like that, but, you know, look, lets just be adults here and lets just move on and lets take a deep breath and there is an election around the corner, trust me. Good luck with the lets be adults thing. Meanwhile, i will let you monitor nap time. Congressman kinzinger, thank you for being with us. You bet. New day continues right now. The president fired one of the most seen year officials involved with keeping our elections safe. Chris krebs was telling the president what he did not want to hear about the election. There is no evidence of irregularities, no evidence of widespread fraud presented today to the wayne board of canvassers. Nationwide average daily case counts are now double the peak of the summer surge. This is simply the fastest increase california has seen since the beginning of this pandemic. Weve got a few months before the vaccines come to the rescue. We want to save as many lives as we can. Announcer this is new day with Alisyn Camerota and john berman. Welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world, this is new day. And this morning it is not just a question now of how far the president will go, the answer to that it seems is there are no limits. The real question is how far republicans will let him go. Overnight the president fired a key official at Homeland Security whose crime it appea