Republican Senate Leadership roy blunt and newly elected congresswoman Nicole Malliotakis and nancy mace coming up. The country is crying out for healing. As President Elect biden fills his cabinet. Who will have chrome of the senate to potentially confirm them . Ill speak to georgia democrat candidate jon oshoff ahead. Hello. Im dane ma bash in for jake tapper in washington. The state of our union is preparing for the worst. Americans finish an unusual thanksgiving weekend, the nation is heading into what is expected to be a devastating month for the pandemic. Already 4 million new u. S. Covid cases and more than 34,000 deaths this month alone. We havent even begun to see the effect of thanksgiving travel, dinners, or black friday shopping. One Infectious Disease expert is now warning that the postholiday case surge will be destabilizing for the u. S. Health care system and the economy and Homeland Security with some projects of deaths will double double before vaccines are able to be able to people to give some really muchneeded relief. As President Elect biden prepares to take Office Amidst this crisis, President Trump is final showing some signs he knows he lost and telling reporters on thursday that he will leave this white house if the Electoral College votes for President Elect joe biden on december 14th. But he is still spreading dangerous and fraudulent claims about the election. I want to go now to Admiral Brett Giroir who, of course, is in charge of testing for the Coronavirus Task force. Thank you so much for joining me on this holiday weekend. First of all, Many Americans change their that have gone day plans but more than 1 Million People still flew the day before thanksgiving. The highest since the pandemic began. Many are going to be flying back today. How worried are you about the impact that this will have . So thank you for having me on. We are all very concerned about travel but those who are traveling, its very important to remember the good rules and that is very critical to wear a mask at all times, to wash your hands, to have good hand hygiene, to avoid crowded spaces and that will decrease your chance of getting it or spreading it during the conveyance. Once you get back tour location, just remember youve had an increased risk of being splofed exposed so you should deep crease activities in about a week and if you can get tested that would be a good idea. We are very concerned about the travel but what we do makes a difference. Not as if we are passive onlooke onlookers. We could really make a difference here. You just said there should be a decrease in movement. Should americans who travelled for thanksgiving or gathered actually be fully quarantining right now . No. That is not recommended to have a quarantine after travel, unless youve had a direct exposure to a person with covid for 15 minutes and in close contact. But it makes sense. If you have an increased risk because youve traveled, do the normal smart things, the common sense things. That is decrease the unnecessary activity. If you have necessary activities, of course. But youve had a time where you could have been exposed, make really sure you adhere 100 to mask wearing, to avoiding crowds because you could inadvertently gotten covid and spread it so be careful during the week after your travel because you are at increased risk. Dr. Anthony fauci is saying he expects there will be a surge on top of a surge now because of what we have seen this weekend. Do you agree with that . So i talked to tony yesterday and we are both in very good agreement that what happens depends a lot on what we do. There certainly can be a surge because of the travel and the mixing of people who have not been in their own little pods. But right before the holiday, we started to see just the glimmers of flattening of new cases which was very positive but we are at a risky time because of the travel. Its not just the travel. But its exposing people who have not been sort of in their own pods. We know that people are acting pretty well right now when they are in their local home locations but when they go somewhere different, you have groups of people mixing and, remember, you can be april symptomatic and still spread the virus and that is what is so dangerous. That is so important to remember. More than 91,000 americans are now in the hospital with coronavirus. Its the highest number we have seen yet during this pandemic. Some ptop experts are suggestin the number of daily u. S. Deaths could be double in the coming weeks to reach 4,000 per day. Do you think that the u. S. Could reach 4,000 deaths per day this winter . So a lot depends on this weekend. Again, what we saw before the holiday was that cases were starting to peak and go down and positive iterate was starting to go down. Hospitalizations and deaths lag that by two, three, four weeks. It really depends on this weekend. We, of course, want the trend to continue, but this weekend with all of the travel, its really concerning to all of us. Youre right, our hospitalizations are peaking right now at about 95,000. About 20 of all people in the hospital have covid so this is a really dangerous time. We really have to see what this weekend looks like. I really cant project that. But, remember, we are not passive bystanders. If we do the right thing universal mask wearing and videoing crowded spaces and crowded restaurants and bars and those things we can still flatten this but this is a crucial time as you pointed out. The testing i want to get to. The United States is performing about 1. 7 million coronavirus tests per day. I want you to listen, though, to what dr. Anthony fauci said about the u. S. Testing strategy last week. We should be flooding the system with tests to determine the the trends of the asymptomatic spread. We dont have that availability of tests. We should have now we should have tests that are Point Of Care, sensitive, specific. You can do at home, you can get 9 results yourself. So we dont have widely available Point Of Care testing as dr. Fauch yi just described. How big of a problem is that and when can americans hope to see that . So we have had great progress in that. And, again, we need to develop the technology. We are investing hundreds of millions of dollars into it. We have about 70 million Point Of Care tests in the system this month. That is a lot more than we had in months beforehand. A little card based test. We are Flooding Markets and we are in ten different states for surge testing. We are eight different locations where we are doing serial testing. We do have a whole new solicitation out trying to look for more home tests. But the home tests that is widely available and the hundreds of millions is not here now. We have our first homebased test. Its only available about A Hundred Thousand per month but we will continue to invest and knock down every door to get the technologies and to scale up. We continue to use the Dpa Hundreds Of Millions of dollars. Would love to have hundreds of millions of those tests. We are not there now. We are going to get there within a couple of months, i do believe. So is the u. S. Doing enough right now on testing . Is the u. S. Doing enough on testing . Yes. We are doing everything we can possibly do on testing. We would like to see testing increase. Because of the asymptomatic spread, we would ultimately like to get to a point in time where we do a lot more asymptomatic testing and that is critically necessary. Let me rephrase that again. Unless we get control of the viral spread by doing the things like wearing a mask, avoiding indoor crowded spaces you cannot test your way out of this. Its got to be the smart policies and universal mask wearing is critical, Vidavoid A Of Those Spaces is how we get out of the pandemic. We have to have both. Lets talk about encouraging news and that is about potential vaccine and that potentially coming by the end of the year. 4 in 10 americans told gallup this month they dont want to take the vaccine. That includes a majority of nonwhite americans. How are you going to convince americans to take this vaccine . So i want to make sure that all americans know that this vaccine these vaccines have been tested in Tens Of Thousands of individuals. They are independent Data Da Monitoring Boards and an independent review and they will have an Advisory Committee on december 10th. We are trying to educate the public. We have to see what the data show but all indications are this is an extremely safe vaccine, the Pfizer Vaccine and moderna. And very effective. Over 95 effective. Remember if we immunize those groups at the highest risk like longterm care facilities and it is elderly and minorities, we can absolutely get 80 of the benefit of the vaccine by only immunizing a few percent of the population and that is what we really need to do this month when we are going to have you know, we should have enough vaccine by the end of the year to immunize 20 million americans and we have to immunize for impact. The rest of the america get it in the Second Quarter or Third Quarter of 2021 but we could maximize our impact right now. You said on fox last week, that youre confident in your plan to distribute the vaccine, the plan that you just talked about right there. Your message to the Biden Administration is, quote, you need to let it work. Would it be a mistake for the biden team to make changes to your plan to distribute the vaccine . Obviously we think the plan that is there is pretty optimum. There were formal meetings with Operation Warp speed last week with the Biden Transition team. Im told that meeting went extremely well. Remember that almost everyone on Operation Warp speed who will be there on january 19th and be there on january 21st. I believe there will be a smooth professional transition. Remember, we are starting with about 40 million doses this year. Just think about flu. We have already distributed 180 million flu vaccines this year. Now the logistics are more difficult and the cold chain is more difficult but i really am confident in the plan to get it and particularly get it to the states and to the highrisk populations. This is a life saving vaccine. This puts the end to the pandemic. This is the way we get out of the pandemic. The light is at the end of the tunnel but the American People have to do the right things until we get that vaccine widely distributed. Wear a mask, avoid indoor crowded spaces and all of the things you know. Thats a hopeful note to end on. Thank you so much, admiral, for joining me on this thanksgiving weekend. And thank you all that you have been doing during this pandemic. Thank you. Another trump legal challenge smacked down. When will Republican Leaders step up and acknowledge that he lost . Ill ask one of them, republican senator roy blunt who joins me exclusively next. Plus, President Trump is heading to georgia. What do democrats need to do to get out the vote in pivotal runoff races there . Democrat Senate Candidate jon oshoff will be here. The last few months has been amazing. Its not just a work environment. Everyone here is family. If you are ready to open your heart and your home, check us out. We thought for sure that we were done. And this town said not today. Risotto. 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Save more for adding drivewise. Save even more for driving safely. See how much you can save with allstate. Its velveeta shells cheese see how much you can save with allstate. Versus the other guys. Clearly, velveeta melts creamier. Welcome back to state of the union. Im dana bash. Its been more than three weeks now since the election was called for joe biden and President Trump still has not acknowledged he lost even though the Biden Transition is under way and cash and formal communication is happening with officials. Joining me now, exclusively is a member of the gop leadership republican senator roy blunt of missouri who also chairs the Senate Rules Committee which oversees the election. Senator, thank you so much for joining me this morning. A Growing Number of your Senate Republican colleagues are now acknowledging that joe biden won the election. Do you accept the fact that joe biden is the President Elect of the United States . Well, we are certainly moving forward as if that what is going to happen on january the 20th. The Transition Money which really is a relatively new thing in American Government that the elected president would have to have Government Money to make their transition is available. The rules committee i chaired issued the regulations a few days ago so that Senate Employees who wanted to be a part of what is called the landing teams and the various agencies have a legal structure now to where they can go and be at those agencies between now and january the 20th, if the if the biden the Biden Organization wants them to do that. But, you know, the president wants to see this process play out. The President Elect technically has to be elected president by the lecters and that happens in the middle of december and january 6th, im one of the four members of the congress that participates in the joint session that decides that those electoral votes are fully accepted and that is when this process is over when those votes are accepted and counted. But we are working with the Biden Administration, likely an administration on both the transition and the inauguration as if we are moving forward. Likely administration. So is it safe to say you do consider joe biden the President Elect . Well, the President Elect will be the President Elect when the lecters vote for him. Part of the problems we have had between the media and congress and particularly republicans and congress the last four years, is always a strawman that is set up. I think im on a list that youre keeping that your network of republican senators havent yet acknowledged that there is a President Elect as if that is a significant thing. Its just a constant fight. Yeah. About things. What matters is what matters is we are doing going through the process to allow this process to work its way to inauguration day. I hear you. But the issue, senator, forgive me, but the issue, senator, is that its not just a title. Its that the current president has lost and his allies have lost or withdrawn more than 30 lawsuits since election day. Michigan, pennsylvania, georgia have certified the votes. And maybe even more importantly, the president is undermining the democratic process by Talking About Fraud that nobody can find, even judges who look at cases that come before them say is not happening. So that is why that this is an issue. Do you well i guess the question is we are about the end of that was process. When states that is why you c