This despite having shown little interest in the bill at all until after it passed congress. As a consequence, jobless benefits are now expiring for millions of americans. People like megan mayer a single mother in lincoln, nebraska with two teenagers to feed. I go to a Discount Grocery store and spend maybe 50 for the week for three people. Its been a really rough time and adjustment for my kids. Ive just been trying to plug through it and get through it the best that we can and just been holding on for Something Better to come my way with help from the government. Now she has to hold on longer. And it is a fact. This is because, a direct result of President Trump and his 13th hour games. Many will lose out on one weeks worth of payments because of his actions and will never get the money back. Some may have to reapply for benefits and that takes time and has overwhelmed state systems. If the president truly wanted to help people, not just the unemployed who are counting on the cares act, he did have alternatives. He could have signed the bill on time and then pushed for more money or better yet might have learned leaned on his fellow republicans erl u and often and used his selfproclaimed deal making skills to get a better deal in the first place. He had months to be clear, months to do this. But he didnt. That is not all he chose not to do. He did not say a word about this being the deadliest single month of the pandemic. Nearly 64,000 people dead already. He did not discourage people from traveling over the holidays paving the way for next month to be even worse. He did not address how slowly this vaccination effort is going so far. Nor did he send out a single tweet about this christmas bombing in nashville, tennessee or the work the federal Law Enforcement did in quickly identifying a suspect. As for easing the transition to a new administration here is what his successor said about that. We have encountered road blocks from the political leadership, the department of defense, and the office of management and budget. Right now we just arent getting all of the information we need for the ongoing, from the outgoing administration, in Key National Security areas. Its nothing short in my view of irresponsibility. So how has the president been spending his time in office these days . He continues to send out numerous tweets calling for the election for your votes to be overturned and he keeps fundraising to the tune of at least 554 emails since Election Night many asking for small donations most of which to be clear go to his own leadership pac not challenging the election. Of course he is still golfing. Same as yesterday. As Christmas Day. Christmas eve. And more than 300 other days at his own golf clubs since he took office. There is breaking news tonight. House late this evening voting to override the president s veto of the big annual defense bill. The senate takes it up later this week. The focus tonight remains on covid relief. Reaction now to the house covid vote from a republican critic of the president , a rare one. Congressman Adam Kinzinger of illinois. We spoke to him a short time ago. Congressman, youve been very vocal, unusually vocal, almost uniquely vocal as a republican calling out efforts by President Trump and other republicans to overturn, in simplest terms, the election results. I just wonder, given the flack that youre facing as a republican and there are costs to this, right, i mean political costs. Why . Why are you taking such a forth right stand . All right. I dont want to sound like im trying to be overly virtuous but heres the reality. I decided to run for congress when i was in iraq in 20082009 and i said, you know, if were going to ask young men and women to put their lives on the line for the country im going to run for congress and fight for it from the inside. Ive always said even in my ten years in congress, you know, we have to be willing to make tough votes because we are asking people to put their lives on the line for the country so we have to put our careers on the line. This is especially so right now. This isnt about whether you like donald trump or his policies anymore. This is all about are you undermining the very institution of a free and Fair Election that is so very important to the foundation of democracy and to the survival of this democracy that it is well worth putting everything on line to tell the truth . To your credit, youve called out this ongoing fight as a grifting operation right a selfinterested attempt to raise money. When it comes to President Trump specifically you tweeted, quoting here, my god, trying to burn the place down on the way out because you cant handle losing . No evidence, nothing but your temper tantrum and crazy conspiracies. Embarrassing. What damage is the president doing here . Because the fact is as you note some people still buy it, right . So youll have a portion of this country who believes without basis that the election was stolen. I think the long term it is more of a long term damage. I think in the short term, theres going to be a transition of power. Itll probably be not pretty in the meantime as weve been seeing. I do worry about the potential for violence on january 6th. I believe the damage here is if you believe your vote doesnt count and you believe the system is rigged and in some cases believe satan is running the u. S. Government ultimately you are going to lash out not just on twitter but there are going to be people that lash out violently. You have these folks now that you see on twitter so again not real life but seeming to pine for the idea of a civil war. Jim, is youve been to war torn areas. I have, too. I think people that say anything like that have no clue what war is. And the very heart medicine they rely on to stay alive will go missing if this country falls apart to civil war. Youve seen more than me. You served on the front lines but i did cover it. Weve seen the consequences of civil war. It is real and not something that just exists in twitter land. You mentioned january 6th. The president is still calling for protests on that day. There was violence a couple weeks ago in d. C. When some of these supporters turned out here. Do you sense at all that this drive is fading . The New York Post today which has been in lock step with the president said, get over it. Is it fading . You have sitting members of congress who sit next to you in the chamber who still say they will challenge these results on january 6th. I dont think the idea of challenging the results is going to fade because the reality is i dont i cant imagine any of these people except maybe brand new members of congress coming in who dont really understand how stuff works in terms of government i dont think any think this is a legitimate move but if they do it is frightening actually. I think its all about raising money. Its all about being the hero, getting the donations, getting followers so you can have some kind of influence. That is what this operation is. Im not trying po both sidesism here but this happens all the time. You see the drama from the democrats and from the republicans. You raise money on fear. You create fear. All to raise money. And look. To some extent we do have to talk about the negative things in this country but when we only talk about that and we only are teaching our kids that america is some flawed country and that politics is all about who can yell the loudest and tweet the angriest how are we going to expect them to ever restore the sanity in politics that we grew up with . To your point if you are at home watch the fundraising emails and look for the fine print. Look where that money can go. Final question, President Trump finally signed the covid relief bill. That will send 600 stimulus checks to millions of americans. His delay in signing got him nothing but now you actually do have democrats voting as well to increase the payment to 2,000 something the president has pushed for. Does that have any legs in the house or the senate . Well, it is possible. I voted for the increase that passed just barely under suspension. I dont know what is going to happen in the senate. Were in a unique time where people need the money but heres the deal. The president never said his position from the beginning. It was all a guessing game. And by the way, also, nancy pelosi had an opportunity in the fall to get this done and she made it very clear it was about the election. So this isnt about pointing fingers. I think right now we just need a clean reset on how we do politics. Start respecting each other again and grow up but thats probably wishful thinking. So if only we could teach our children better lessons by example. Congressman Adam Kinzinger, speaking for speaking tonight and for your service to this country. You bet. Happy new year. More ahead this hour two top political operators lay out where this all goes from here and what the president might do between now and inauguration day. It is a question. Later, what that dangerous new coronavirus strain could do if it takes off here in the u. S. Want to sell the best burger in every zip code . Add an employee. Or ten. Then easily and automatically pay your team and file payroll taxes. That means. World domination or just the west side. Run payroll in less than five minutes with intuit quickbooks. I was always comparing myself nefertitito my sisters. Irl they were always thin and i wasnt. I ate a lot of food. And then after i had my son it was really difficult to lose the baby weight, and everything took so much time and energy and i didnt have that. And then i tried noom, it was easy and it was super convenient. Its effective, id say its life changing. My my name is nefertiri and noom worked for me. Visit noom. Com and lose the weight for good. Welcome back. So the house tonight has green lit the bigger federal covid relief checks the president is pushing for but it is still unclear if it will get anywhere in the senate. The gop controlled senate. And either way, millions of americans are losing money they need right now due to his delay in signing the bill. They wont get it back. There is that, the pandemic itself, and the president s seeming obsession with overturning the election. Your votes. Joining us now our cnn political commentators democratic strategist and former republican senator rick santorum. Thanks so much to both of you. Senator santorum, the president delayed. If he had taken the simple step of signing this even on saturday night 24 hours before, folks would be getting money they wont get now because some of this is not retroactive. What was gained here . What was the point . Its pretty inexplicable to me. The fact that he went ahead and signed these two bills there really isnt a good reason to have held off. He conflated the two bills, created a lot of confusion with people that somehow or another the covid bill had foreign aid in it which was not the case and it was a separate bill. It just seems like the president is angry and hes not acting in his own best interests in my opinion with these two delays and i dont think he is acting in his best interest when he ka imto veto the National Defense authorization. The house overrode it. I think the senate will do the same and they should. There are very important things for the military that need to be done right away. As somebody who served on the Armed Service committee these are very important bills, compromise bills. The president supported it other than section 230 so it makes no sense for him to do that either. Paul, you have an interesting confluence here do you not . I see moments ago senator sanders is threatening to delay the senate vote overriding the president s veto on the defense bill in order to push for 2,000 stimulus checks as the president is. So you have this odd overlap in the president s goal and some democrats. Does that go anywhere . In your view . Or does it run into Republican Opposition in the senate . This is the problem. Mr. Trump has put his own party in a terrible bind. He says he is going to dalton georgia, great town, carpet capital of america on the tennessee border. Maybe the most conservative place in georgia. He is going to campaign there monday for Kelly Loeffler and david perdue two senators. What do those senators do . Georgia has fort benning, some of the greatest military installations in the world. Do they vote for trump or the troops . Do they vote for the 2,000 to help the middle class that nancy pelosi and donald trump now support . Or do they stick with Mitch Mcconnell and their leadership . This is trump is just rick makes a good point. He is not acting in his own best interest. I dont really care. He is not acting in the countrys best interests. You are talking about military families, soldiers pay. He has to be overridden on that in the national interest. That is not a partisan view at all. Then the extra money for an emergency he is just hurting the people who are paying his salary and also his partys chances to hold the senate. Senator santorum, do you see the political winds shifting within the Republican Party here with the president . I mean, you have at least the house voting to override the veto. Those are not easy votes for Republican House members to make to override a president who still remains popular among the Republican Base but particularly as we get closer to january 6th when the president is still pushing with some allies on the hill to attempt to block the senate, Rather Congress affirming the Electoral College vote. Do you sense the political winds shufti shifting against him among republicans . Well look. The National Defense authorization act is widely bipartisan exercise throughout both in the house and the senate. These bills usually pass by great majorities. And i think the president just picked the wrong one. So i dont think that was a political wind shift. I just think he picked the wrong bill to veto. And on the other issues, look. I think it is pretty clear to everybody that the president is not going to win this election. That nothing is going to happen on january 6th to overturn it. And members are beginning to look past this election. And start looking at their own future. I mean, he lost right . Lets call a spade a spade here. You heard president elect biden and he is president elect. This has been certified already in the states. Say that the Current Administration despite that is putting up in his words road blocks in the transition process. This is happening days after, you had a u. S. Suicide bomber, right, on the streets of nashville. A couple weeks after it was discovered that russia carried out a deeply damaging, and theyre still assessing the damage, of a massive cyber attack that the president still hasnt commented on. That has consequences. Paul, does it not, for the safety of this country today . Absolutely. Youve written books on this, jim and senator santorum served on Armed Services. We have enemies in america. There are a lot of evil doers out there. We have enemies in iran, in north korea. We have enemies in china. We have enemies in russia. And then the nonstate actors isis, el al qaeda. They know we are vulnerable in these transitions. They bombed the u. S. S. Cole in yemen in the final months of the Clinton Administration and then attacked niefrn in the next months of the bush administration. Our enemies know we are vulnerable in these moments. Mr. Trump and his appointees at the Defense Department to be putting up road blocks to president elect biden being able to protect our country is really unconscionable. I guess i, you know, have come to expect the worst from trump but its even worse than i expected. What is your answer, senator santorum . Weve had many conversations through the years. It is a subject of bipartisan agreement, right, that russia does not have americas best interests at heart. That china does not, that terror attacks or violence attacks on american soil are not in americas interest. Obvious statement. But you dont have the president getting out in front of this and saying definitively this will not stand. I mean, do republicans agree this is dereliction . You know, look. I think the president is in a transition himself. And i think he is very clearly transitioned away from the day to day speaking out on issues. Obviously his administration continues to function. They continue to operate. Obviously the fbi has done a terrific job in nashville. Its not like his the people arent doing their jobs. It is just the president isnt doing what were used to which is commenting on everything every moment of the day. He seems to be fixated on the one thing that is this election. Look, i understand the president looks at what happened to him four years ago and the Prior Administration investigating him and many people protesting and denying his winning of the election. Yeah, rick, thats an unfair equivalency. President obama invited him to the white house. Hillary clinton conceded the election. Understood. There is no challenge on the floor of congress to his election victory. There was. It is not an equivalency. There was but it didnt succeed. The point is, the president views this as i think, i could be wrong but i think the president views this as the other side getting a little bit of their own medicine on denying the legitimacy of his election. I think this is part of the president s grievances that he has about what happened to him and this is just coming forward at the time you would expect it to be honest with you. Well listen. Part of a longer conversation. There was a special counsel appointed who did discover wrongdoing and there were charges from that investigation. Rick santorum, paul, thank you very much to both of you. Thanks, jim. Breaking news this hour. In america, as america set another record for people hospitalized with the virus vaccinations are stepping up. Concerns persist over a new variant of the virus believed to have begun in england now spreading around the globe and later youll recall the jarring images from las