Our gop political Powerhouse Team breaks it down. The most dangerous thing about Rheumatoid Arthritis is often unseen. Because the pain youre feeling could be a sign of irreversible joint damage. Every day you live with pain, swelling, and stiffness. You risk not being able to do the things you love. Especially in these times, its important to keep up with your rheumatologist. Schedule an appointment today. Good evening. Thank you for joining us. Tonight, cases of covid19 rising in every single state in the country. The u. S. Surpassing 1 million new cases in november already. Now the pandemic hitting one city in texas hard. Heres abcs matt gutman. Reporter High School Football coach Charles Brown loved his team, but even more, he loved his sprawling family. We did it oh, no, you better not reporter but last month when he was diagnosed with covid, it was the familys turn to motivate the career coach. We were all telling him, just keep fighting, thats how you even that morning i said, you have to pinkie promise me that you will not stop fighting. Every time when we ended the phone call, it was i love you. Then he would wave to millie like this and ive blown kisses. Thats what he taught everybody else and his players and his students. You fight till the very end. Then you turn it over to the lord, and the lord will do the rest. Reporter dying of covid, the retired coach hoped to spare them one last anguish. Right at the end, he left us because he didnt want to be put on a ventilator and he knew there was no other choice. And he didnt want me to have to make that decision. Because he knew how bad it was. His lungs were like concrete. Thats why he kept telling us, i cant breathe, i cant breathe. Reporter coach brown, who recently retired, one of the latest victims in the city where the spread of covid is described as uncontrollable. El paso, texas. Once dubbed the safest city in the country, imperiled now by the virus. Cases, hospitalizations, and deaths breaking records. Theyre backing in this refrigerator truck into the medical Examiners Office just over there. There are still more of these trucks headed this way. The state has shipped ten refrigerator trucks here, and county judge cardiego says more may be needed. How long would it take if you had the same trajectory of numbers going before you exhaust resources . Theyre saying about two weeks. 154 bodies in there. Why is that . We have such a massive number of positive cases, hospitals are at capacity. Reporter the judge walking us through this personal heartbreak in his hometown. So you think that you have two friends who died who might be in one of these trucks . One for sure, but i have no clue. Ive got friends that have died in the last week. And i have no clue where the process is. Reporter texas isnt unique. Every single state in the country is seeing an increase in cases, infections, deaths. For the first time the u. S. Surpassing a staggering 10 million covid19 cases, the highest number reported in any nation. And today alone, 131,000 new cases reported. Officials now from both sides of the aisle with dire messages. From new york we have one last chance to stop a second wave. Reporter to utah, where overcrowding in intensive care units is forcing governor gary herbert to declare a new state of emergency. Im placing the entire state of utah under a mask mandate until further notice. Reporter in indiana, state officials calling for retired Health Care Workers to help. Ohio shattering a record with over 6,000 new cases in just the past 24 hours. In tulsa, oklahoma, hospitals there have run out of icu beds. But in the el paso region, numbers have been climbing for weeks. This is a very vital moment reporter the increase so alarming that the u. S. Air force has deployed dozens of medical personnel from around the country. Every hospital in the area using those blue surge tents for overflow. Those tents were once used for Disaster Relief and Detention Centers housing thousands of separated children. They are now retrofitted to become emergency hospitals. Getting tested now similar in length to the scene two weeks ago when hospitals were already scrambling to keep up with incoming cases. Me as a nurse, it just kicked in. Ive got to take care of these people. This is something weve got to do as a community. Reporter vanessa is a nurse here at the University Medical center. Does it get any easier dealing with these patients who are the sickest youve ever seen . No, it doesnt. You werent used to seeing so many people die . No, of course not. I think were human. Our emotions get to us. Sorry. Its just hard to see. Reporter among those who have died due to the virus here, 90 are latino. Funeral homes are faced with an unrelenting procession of bodies. These refrigeration units reporter christopher luhan is helping families say their final goodbyes. Families need some type of closure, so they ask us if they can their loved one, one more time. Reporter when i was here in october they were preparing. You have a walkin refrigerator thats been full. Before this room held bodies, what was in it . It was a storage room and part of our music room for our chapel usage as well and we saw that we needed to do something. Reporter and across the city, in another funeral home, theyre making use of every corner. Now weve got converted chapel into a cooler. And a small area for to place caskets. Reporter once filled with rows of pews and prayer, now converted to hold up to 80 bodies. Tonight they tell us they are at 100 capacity. We never thought that we would have to disband to a bigger cooler. Reporter in el paso, going shopping has customarily been a family affair. Officials pointing to that custom as one of the causes of this exponential increase in cases. Big box stores like this one with 40 of the people contracting the virus at stores like this. Hours later that walmart announcing it has temporarily closed for industrial cleaning. The surge in cases has divided local politics. At the end of october, county judge ricardo salmonellego issued an order calling for a twoweek shutdown of nonessential workers. El pasos mayor said he wouldnt ask the local police force to enforce the rule. Texas attorney general taking the proposed lockdown to court. It seems to me like people are playing politics with other peoples lives. Well, theyre not used to el paso. Weve got the reputation that el paso doesnt make a lot of decisions that are not made by the state. Were so isolated in this area. We get its hard to get the same Economic Development money. So this is no different. This is one more step in saying, you know, you shouldnt have the authority. Reporter help cannot get here fast enough. The news of the first safe and effective trials for vaccine for the virus providing hope. If a vaccine is approved by the end of the year, pfizer expects to produce enough vaccine to cover 25 million people. Health care providers and sen r seniors in Nursing Homes will be the first to receive it. Dr. Smith was the first to join the human trials. Now shes happy to help bring an end to the pandemic. As an africanamerican female, knowing that this disease was affecting africanamericans and people of color disproportionately, i also wanted to be part of the race to a cure, not so much a cure, but something that could help prevent covid19. Reporter back in el paso, coach browns wife, vicki, hoisting the loss and grief of 250,000 americans. Is there one thing youre going to miss most about him . That hes not here. I can only say, hes not here physically with me. Because that especially for these last five years, we have done everything together. Reporter tonight the words of the coach remembered in his own home. We were taught, fight, and fix one obstacle at a time. Thats all we can do, one thing at a time. One of the last things we said in his obituary was, because of your love, dad, we will make it through. And thats what will get us through. Reporter for nightline, im matt gutman in el paso, texas. Our thoughts are with coach browns family. Coming up, any hope left for a civil transition . Is important to me. So being diagnosed with advanced nonsmall cell lung cancer. Made me think of all the things that i wanted to teach my kids. My doctor said i could start on keytruda. So i did. With each scan things just got better. In a clinical study, keytruda offered patients a longer life than chemotherapy. And it could be your first treatment. For nonsmall cell lung cancer that has spread, keytruda can be used. For adults who test positive for pdl1. And whose tumors. Do not havean abnormal egfr or alk gene. 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But now with keytruda, we have hope. Its tru. Keytruda from merck. Ask your doctor about keytruda. Your shoulder seems to be healing nicely. Im sorry baby. I dont want you to play with that. singing twinkle, twinkle little star. How i wonder what you are. How are you doing . Schedule a video visit with your doctor. Kaiser permanente. Thrive. How can i, when you wont take it from me you can go your own way xfinity mobiles fast nationwide 5g network meets the first iphone with 5g. Get the new iphone 12 on xfinity mobile. And right now get 250 off. Learn more at an xfinity store today. beeping sound abundant wind and solar energy, we have the power to take on climate change. Use less from 4 to 9 pm to keep california golden. Its been a week since election day, and the president and his circle still claim the election was rigged. One of the Top Administration officials, secretary of state mike pompeo, refusing to acknowledge joe biden is the president elect. Is the state department currently preparing to engage with the biden transition team, if not, at what point does a delay hamper a smooth transition or pose a risk to National Security . There will be a smooth transition to a second Trump Administration. It doesnt look like any transition will be smooth. Earlier this evening i spoke to three republican strategists. Matt dowd, sara fagen, Barbara Comstock about what team trump hopes to gain. Id have to agree with ambassador john bolton, who today said hes eviscerated his credibility internationally. But i think fortunately youve seen people generally understand which way this is going. The legal case is not they dont have serious lawyers, they havent made serious allegations with backedup information such that we had in the 2000 recount. So i think you will see this sputtering to an end fairly quickly. Matt, even though the president said we had to know the results that night, he and his inner circle have not gotten any closer to accepting the realities of the numbers. Should the nation continue to be patient, or is it time to put up or shut up . Well, i think the nation has moved on. You look around. I live in a town which voted for donald trump. Theyve taken their maga flags down. Theyve taken their banners down. Theyve moved on. They want to talk about thanksgiving and what were going to have and what are people going to do. I saw a poll today, 80 of the people said 80 of the voters including 60 of the republicans said biden won, and they all said that trumps got to concede. So the countrys moved on. And everyone else has moved on. Theres a small circle of people, including the president , that hasnt moved on yet. Sara, so far theres no evidence of widespread fraud. Officials from both parties have stated publicly that election went well. Is there any evidence that would support the president s claim he won this election . Well, i havent seen it. Of course, hes availing himself of the courts, and he has a right to do so. I think probably the only case, and its not fraud, its a legitimate legal case, is whether the state Supreme Court in pennsylvania overruled the state legislature in a way that was unconstitutional by allowing votes to arrive after election day and be counted. Now thats a very steep hill to climb up, but it is a legitimate court case. Sara, follow on if i may. Why are we seeing more republicans come forward to either support the president or say, lets move on . Well, i think theres a process thats going on around the president by his closest advisers, most of whom are his family. I think youve got a handful of senators who are in the congratulate joe biden camp. Weve seen them come forward. Weve seen former president bush do that. You have others who are giving the president his time. I think what i see is individuals choosing their words very carefully. You know. Just saying that the presiden s has the right to use the court, it looks like its an uphill battle, but well give him the opportunity to do so. I think this will work itself out. Its going to take longer than some people want it to. Barbara, to that point, is there any concern that some of the president s actions could provoke some kind of civil unrest . Well, you know, you did hear i think Pierre Thomas on abc did report there was some Law Enforcement concern. And because the president often does throw gasoline at various fires, as matt pointed out, people have moved on. The president was fired. He doesnt like that. He was a sore winner, never mind a lower loser, so i think we certainly expected he would not take this well. But, you know, the facts what are they are. I think joe biden was very gracious about that in pointing that out, theyre moving forward. The International World is moving forward. And the good thing is, you know, we can do this. I would point out, since we all work on the 2000 campaign, one of the things that the 9 11 commission pointed out afterwards is that delay in transition time might have contributed to some of the National Security incidents, things being missed. I am concerned about not having our National Security people transitioning and working with the biden team to make sure the countrys protected. We need to have that continuity so that we protect the American People and our National Security. Matt, to the point, the three of you were in the room when it happened in 2000, working for the bush campaign. A number of people in trump world are comparing 2000 to today. From your perspective, is there any comparison between the work you all were engaged in in 2000 in tallahassee, florida, where we all spent too many days, to what were seeing going on right now . Well, the only comparison at all is that it wasnt decided on the tuesday night, election night. Thats the only comparison. This election, we had to wait a few days until ballots were counted, then we knew who the winner was, joe biden. Thats the only comparison. Everything else doesnt compare. One thing ill point out, as everybody knows, the margin of victory that joe biden has in pennsylvania, michigan, wisconsin, is three times the margin of victory that donald trump had in those same states in 2016. I know youre a michigan man who lives in texas. You love sports analogies. Give me a sports analogy. How much longer does this go go on . Are we in the third quarter, fourth quarter, overtime, where are we . How much longer before you think the Trump Administration goes along with what the facts have led sinus. The clocks on zero. The fans have left the stadium. The opposing players are playing for their next game. And the team is still on there and the coach is yelling at them, we can still win, even though the clock says zero and theyve lost the game and the fans have already left and theyre about to turn out the lights. Thats the equivalent sports analogy for right now. Sara, the last word. In contrast, president elect biden seems to be staying above the fray, having daily events that make him look president ial, while President Trump hasnt been seen in days. Is biden winning the perception game of whos in charge . Well, hes certainly handling himself i think almost flawlessly. You know, he doesnt take the bait on questions about when hes going to speak to mcconnell, if hes being appropriately treated by republicans. You know, he just stays above the fray. Hes been very, very smart in a way that i think that is probably defused a good number of people who voted for the president and did not want biden to win. But they look at the way hes conducted himself, and you cant help but say, i like his style, he seems reasonable, hes not agitating, hes not picking a fight with trump. Hes sort of doing everything the way you would want a president to handle himself. I think that accrues to his benefit as he moves toward january and likely becomes the next president. Most likely definitely will become the next president. Thank you all for your time and insight. Always grateful. Thanks. Thank you, byron. And up next, loved ones for loved ones. Roomba vacuums exacty where you need it. Alexa, tell roomba to vacuum in front of the couch. And offers personalized cleaning suggestions for a clean unique to you and your home. Roomba and the irobot home app. Only from irobot. This ones for you. You inspired us to make your humira experience even better. With humira citratefree. It has the same effectiveness you know and trust, but we removed the citrate buffers, theres less liquid, and a thinner needle. 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