Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by when the world gets complicated, a lot goes through your mind. With fidelity wealth management, a dedicated advisor can tailor advice and recommendations to your life. Thats fidelity wealth management. Consumer cellular. Johnson johnson. Financial Services FirmRaymond James. Bnsf railway. The william and flora hewlett foundation. For more than 50 years, advancing ideas and supporting institutions to promote a better world. At www. Hewlett. Org. And with the ongoing support of these institutions and individuals. This program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Woodruff a newlyelected joe biden is moving tonight to set up his presidency. A defeated donald trump is moving to oust those he deems disloyal as he refuses to aid the transition. Looming over it all, covid19 and potentially hopeful news. Lisa desjardins begins our coverage. Reporter the first weekday since former Vice President joe biden was declared the election winner, and the new president elect made it clear he is full steam ahead. Establishing and holding a teleconference wh his Coronavirus Task force, made up of wellknown doctors and disease scientists. This group will advise on detailed plans built on a bedrock of science and to keep compassion and empathy and care for every american at its core. Reporter mr. Biden outlined a specific plan he and Vice President elect, california senator Kamala Harris have for fighting the pandemic when they take over in january make Rapid Testing available; deploy more contact tracing; give clear guidelines to businesses and schools; and address communities including minority communities, hardest hit. This comes as drug maker pfizer announced a seeming breakthrough, that its vaccine trial was more than 90 effective in preventing the disease. Mr. Biden pointed to the sign of hope, but urged that in the months before any vaccine is widely available, americans must protect themselves. I implore you, wear a mask. Do it for yourself. Do it for your neighbor. A mask is not a political statement, but it is a good way to start pulling the country together. Reporter today there was news that the u. S. Has now had more than 10 million covid19 infections, with nearly 240,000 deaths. Meanwhile, secretary of housing and urban development, ben carson, tested positive for the disease, as did the Trump Campaigns newlyappointed lawyer david bossie. They along with also coronavirus positive white house chief of staff mark meadows had attended last weeks Election Night watch party at the white house. As for President Trump, he has given no indication of conceding to biden, and he has had no public appearances since thursday. Instead, he announced a major decision on twitter that defense secretary mark esper will be replaced by christopher miller, director of the National Counterterrorism center. The president tweeted chris will do a great job mark esper has been terminated. I would like to thank him for his service. Reporter during a Trump Campaign press conference today, White House Press secretary Kayleigh Mcenany and r. N. C. Chairwoman Ronna Mcdaniel discussed unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud. Reporter in michigan, a court of appeals rejected a trump attempt to challenge the vote count there as defective meanwhile, republicans in congress have largely declined to endorse the election results, at least publicly. At the capitol, Senate Majority leader Mitch Mcconnell welcomed four new republican senators, even as the larger fate of the chamber is still unknown. In the president ial race he called for the process to continue. We have the system in place to consider concerns and President Trump is 100 within his rights to look into allegations of irregularities and weigh his legal options. Reporter but fellow republican senator susan collins, fresh off her own victory last week, released a definitive statement openly congratulating president elect biden. And then there are some like senator lindsey graham. On fox yesterday, he urged a continued fight. If republicans dont challenge and change the us election system, therell never be another republican president elected again. President trump should not concede. And a trump appointee has yet to ascertain that mr. Biden has won the president ial election, potentially delaying the president ial transition. Reporter some World Leaders were quick to congratulate mr. Biden and senator harris. Chancellor Angela Merkel of germany translated i congratulate joe biden from the bottom of my heart on his election to the 46th president of the United States of america. Reporter some countries like russia and china say they are waiting for all of the votes to be counted. translated we noticed that mr. Biden has declared election victory. We understand that the u. S. President ial election result will be determined following u. S. Law and procedures. Reporter and as the Trump Campaign lawsuits play out, the counting of remaining ballots continues with voter turnout already hitting a 50year high. The Associated Press has yet to announce a winner in alaska, north carolina, and georgia. The peach tree state is so close its heading to a recount. For the pbs newshour, im lisa desjardins. Woodruff so far, the fact that President Trump will not concede underscores his campaigns allout legal effort to challenge the results. But those efforts have had litt traction in the courts so far. We turn to benjamin ginsberg. His work as a republican election lawyer spans decades, and includes work on the landmark bush v. Gore dispute after the 2000 election. Benjamin ginsberg, thank you so much for joining us. The president and the people around him are saying there was widespread fraud. They are saying this election was stolen. Is there evidence that you see to back that up . There is not evidence so far to back that up. And its worth remembering, judy, that those were allegations that were made before this election, based on past elections, with absolutely no proof of that. And so the credibility of these statements now are being called into question by courts. Woodruff im hearing some of the people around the president say, well, you know, we gave al gore 37 days to contest the election result back in 2000. You can at least do the same for us. Is it an appropriate comparison . Well, i think that a candidate taking his or her time to pursue recount and contest remedies is allowed under state law, is appropriate. Remember the Hillary Clinton campaign intervened in three jill stein, very long shot recounts on december 26 of 2016. So that the president does have the ability to pursue those remedies. The difference here is that he is alleging fraudulent elections and rigged results, that there is no evidence for. Woodruff so were seeing lawsuits in at least five states, that i can think of pennsylvania, michigan, arizona, georgia, nevada, and if not lawsuits, the beginning of some sort of legal challenge. Pennsylvania seems to be the main focus because of the number of electoral votes it could give the president if the results were overturned. Do you see anything that is the making of a legitimate complaint there . The case before the u. S. Superior court, which has to do with the absentee ballot deadline being extended for three days by the state supreme court, rather than the legislature, is a real legitimate issue. But there arent enough votes involved in that to change the outcome of the election. And the question of a legislatures role, as opposed to a state supreme courts role, does not have to be answered for the 2020 election. Woodruff so what about some of these other allegations. In michigan, theyre saying theyre alleging backdating of ballots. In georgia, they were talking about latearriving ballots. Do any of these add up to something that could materially change the results . Certainly not so far. Ive been involved in trying to put together challenges to elections. And the truth is, you really need sameday, electionday affidavits, attesting to individual ballots being mishandled or fraudulent or somehow improper. And trying to create a case after an election is very difficult. They are allowed some time to try to get that together. But in reality, these cases tend to dissipate over time and not be successful. Woodruff so what is your best thinking, estimation, at this point, benjamin ginsberg, about what could happen . I think the margins to make up in too many states are too great. In fact, the processes that the individual states have in place require ballot by ballot, precinct by precinct, county by county findings of the illegal ballots in fraud. And so far, and the evidence presented by the Trump Campaign, there is not close to enough to over turn the results of the election. Woodruff not for lack of trying. Benjamin ginsberg, we thank you very much. Thank you, judy. Nice to be with you. Woodruff and we turn now to our lisa desjardins, to yamiche alcindor, and to nick schiffrin. Lisa, let me come back to you first on the Biden Campaign. How are they reacting to everything, including the Legal Proceedings by the trump people, refusing to concede . First of all, judy, theyre very busy. I think the word i hear from all sources in and around the Biden Campaign, they are focused. They know there is a lot of work to be done. Lets take apart sort of this transition, the issues were having with the g. F. A. Administrator. The Biden Administration sent me a statement that they look forward to the g. S. A. Administrator as seascertaining they that won. They are not too worried about them failing to release the money for the transition. They say they have been raising money for months, then have their transition teams ready to go and theyre deploying them. One reason for that, judy, is the law that describes and sort of projects how this transition should work is written by ted koffman, one of the key advisors for president elect biden. And also to add to reporting weve had in the past, the Biden Campaign tells me they will have transition offices here in wilmington, as we reported, and also in washington, d. C. , and the president elect will be working in both places. E more thing, as you heard in the piece, the presidtelect is talking about the agenda, very focused on the coronavirus, and talking to sources today, they say he does plan a National Mandate as they talked about in the campaign trail. He can only directly affect federal areas like federal parks, but he is going to be reaching out to governors, asking them to mandate masks around thcountry. Woodruff interesting. Yamiche, tell us about the thinking inside the white house, inside the Trump Campaign, as they continue to insist the election is not over . The president is refusing to face the thing he has feared the most in his life and during this president ial campaign, and that is he has lost, he is a loser of this campaign. He is not wanting to at all say that former Vice President joe biden is the president elect. Sources tell me that the president is angry. He is blaming people around the white house. He is isolated. He is overseeing a white house that is paralyzed by his inaction and refusal to sign this form from the g. S. A. Administrator. And the Trump Campaign is filing lawsuit after lawsuit, a new one today in pennsylvania. But when they had a press conference at the Republican National committee, fox news, the president s favorite tv network, cut away saying in good conscience we could not air the false claims. And the president is really feeling as though he is backed against a corner, not wanting to at all acknowledge what is going on here. There is some worry that the president not wanting to do this might actually slow things down, including the distribution and operation of the coronavirus vaccine. If he does not sign this over and biden does not get all of the different people in place he needs, that vaccine could possibly not get to all of the people it needs to in time. Woodruff and, yamiche, what does the president s refusal to concede so far actually mean for the transition Going Forward . Well, typically 24 hours after a race is called, and the winner is clear, the transition formally starts. In this case, President Trump is not doing that, so there are a lot of people who are very worried about this. There are people who are looking at President Trump and saying can he actually concede . Will he actually do that. The lawsuits we continue to talk dont have any evidence evidence behind them. And today we learn that david bosi, he has the coronavirus. So as all of this turns on, there are a lot of people worried about that. Another thing to note is the Senate Majority leader, Mitch Mcconnell, threw his support behind President Trump. He is key to possibly getting President Trump to back off and admit he lost. He is very concerned about holding on to republican voters, as well as winning that senate race in georgia. So a lot of people think Mitch Mcconnell is going to stick into this because he is, quote, handcuffed by politics. Woodruff and back to you, lisa, on that. What about the fact that you cover the hill, and the vast majority of republicans are not congratulating joe biden . Theyre going along with the president challenging questioning the results. What do they see as the way forward here . I can handle this quicy. Senators republican senators, their words today, was there fraud . Not in my role to decide that. From john cornyn. The number two senator says, lets let this play out. Obviously well get a result at some point. Some limbo in the senate republicans, who are not yet willing to go against the president. Woodruff were watching them all very, very closely. And finally to you, nick, all of this taking place as the president today fired his secretary of defense, mark esper. Tell us what is going on there. Yeah. Esper was the president s Number One National security target, ever since he resisted the president s desire to invoke the insurection act. It was a surprise to many. The republican chairman of the Senate Armed ServicesCommittee Told recorders he did not know ahead of time. Miller is a former green beret, who joined the Intelligence Community recently during a purge by the president of senior officials over there. He is seen as an ally of the president , and he was chosen above the deputy secretary defense and the senior officials who have more experience. But a senior officiain the Defense Department says miller will represent continuity over the 72 days, and the senior staff was to continue the mission with no significant changes. And former senior officials, judy, i talked to do believe he is likely to have little impact. One fear though suppressed by one former senior official is that he could go along with some kind of adventurous decision by the president against, perhaps, iran. We asked leo pnetta, and he said no. The interview was in barg go today, and he rejecte rejected he tried to explain why he didnt fight the president more. Quote, youve got to pick your fights. Esper said he held his tongue because, quote, who is going to come in behind me. It is going to be a real yes man. And he concluded, judy, god help us. Woodruff that certainly gets our attention. Nick schiffrin, covering that part of todays fastmoving events. Nick schiffrin, yamiche alcindor, lisa desjardins, thank you all three. Woodruff as we reported, this is a transition of power, unlike any we have ever seen. To help us understand what is happening, im joined by David Marchick, the director of the center for president ial transition. It is a Nonpartisan Group that helps president s and candidates prepare for the next administration. David marchick, thank you very much for joining us. Again, how unusual is what is going on right now . In terms of compared with other transitions. Thanks for having me, judy. There have been peaceful tratransitions of power for 223 years. 537 votes determine the outcome of 270 electoral votes. The outcome is here, as george w. Bush said, and the transition should be moved forward. Woodruff that is exactly what i wanted to ask you, and i posed this question to ben ginsburg, because you hear republicans saying we gave al gore 37 days, and why cant we do the same thing this time. Youre saying it is different situations . The circumstances are entirely different. The law that governors why the g. S. A. Administrator does requires her to make a decision when the outcome is clear. This year there are four states that Vice President elect biden has one where he is above the margin of victory by very, very significant counts. The likelihood of a change is almost zero. He would have to win both pennsylvania and georgia. He is up by al