the biden transition, despite zero cooperation from the white house s happening. if you're waiting for the dam to finally break in the republican party, if you're waiting to hear sensible clear gop official it is admit the facts, accept the reality en masse, accept their constituents' votes, you'll have to keep waiting. cracks are beginning to appear in the republican wall of denial. i give you exhibit a, chris christie. >> what's happened here is, quite frankly, the confidence of the president's legal team has been a national embarrassment. i've voted for him twice. elections have consequences. we cannot continue to act as if something happened here that didn't happen. the country has to matter the most, as much as i'm a strong republican and i love my party, it's the country that has to come first. >> chris christie, a strong supporter of the president's, as he said. he's been at the president's side throughout his term. he even helped mr. trump prepare for this year's presidential debate. exhibit b, republican congressman from michigan where president trump has been personally pressing state officials to dispute the vote count, to ignore legally cast ballots. that long-time republican congressman saying the fight for now is over. >> the voters spoke, and here again, michigan, it's not a razor-thin margin. it's 150,000 votes. have you to let those votes stand. 154,000 votes is nothing to overcome. it's over. the longer this lists, languishes, the time escapes from us of actually seeing a peaceful transition to the next administration. >> a peaceful transition. there's also the republican senator from pennsylvania, pat toomey, exhibit c, last night. shortly after a federal judge dismissed a trump campaign seeking to invalidate millions of mail-in ballots, this statement. i congratulate president-elect biden and vice president-elect kamala harris on their victory. they're both dedicated public servants and i will be praying for them and for our country. here's the reality. the main reason this presidential transition needs to begin in earnest now, not later, has nothing to do with politics. american lives are literally at stake. the coronavirus pandemic is raging. it is shattering unthinkable records on a daily basis. more cases, more hospitalizations and more deaths. already more than 256,000 american lives lost while waiting for a national plan to tackle covid-19. let's be honest, the u.s. has been playing catch-up since day one. the more tools the biden team has when they take over in january, the faster they can address this pandemic. the widespread republican denial is also distracting them from a race they might want to focus on. it's one that will determine the balance of power in the u.s. senate. two seats still to be decided. the outcome up to voters in one state. in georgia. that is where we begin our coverage this hour with ryan noble. kelley loeffler's campaign saying she has now tested negative for coronavirus, this comes after she tested positive on friday. what more do we know tonight? >> we know a lot of confusion. senator loeffler and her team said she did test positive for coronavirus on friday. she's since taken a number of tests. one came back inconclusive. then they went back and checked the results of that test again and determined she tested negative. she's going through yet another test in what her campaign says if she's able to test negative twice, that will allow her the opportunity to get back out on the campaign trail. as of right now, she's isolating. the effects of this, the impact have now trickled down across the republican party here in georgia. senator david perdue, also in this runoff race with so much at stake, he's been around kelley loeffler quite a bit over the last week or so, at an event with vice president mike pence on friday. none of them were wearing masks at different points during that event. he's, too, isolating until the results become more clear. we're waiting to see exactly the outcome there. boy, erica, you laid it out well. everything happening with president trump complaining about the results of the election, they really are a far cry in terms of the importance as to what happens here in georgia over the next month or so. these two races will determine who controls the united states senate in the next congress, if the democrats are able to sweep, that means the democrats will have control of the house, the presidency and the senate. if even one of these republicans is able to hold on, mitch mcconnell and the republicans will continue to hold the majori majority. >> we're also going to be looking to georgia again not just are for the senate race, the trump administration requesting a recount in georgia. joe biden was announced the winner on friday following a hand audit. this will be the third time georgia's 5 million votes will be tabulated. is anything likely to change, ryan? >> if you talk to the experts, erica, they flat reply sly say . many say this is just an exercise in futility. the results in georgia have already been counted twice, including a hand audit the second time around. there was really no discernible difference in the ultimate outcome. the trump administration has the ability to ask for another recount after the certification, they'll do so, but very little chance it will change the outcome. >> ryan nobles live in georgia, thank you. president trump's baseless election battle isn't working. the outcome hasn't be changed. the president's legal losses are piling up. now his wall of gop support apz to be showing some cracks. cnn's jeremy diamond is at the white house. despite the reality, we know the president is staying on this path. he's determined to undermine the election. >> reporter: no doubt. even as the president suffers one loss after the next, he's digging in in his attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election. yesterday he suffered this major defeat in the state of pennsylvania. a federal judge dismissing out of hand the president's attempts to prevent the state of pennsylvania from certifying election results, essentially handing a death nail to the president's attempt to overturn the results. in the wake of that, you are starting to see some of the pressure in the republican party building on the president. senator pat toomey, republican senator, announcing after that federal judge dismissed the president's lawsuit that he would recognize joe biden as president-elect and called on president trump to concede this election. you are also starting to see other republicans say at a minimum this transition needs to begin even as the president continues to play out this shrinking number of legal avenues he still has. we're also seeing the president's efforts to pressure republican lawmakers, also failing, whether in the state of michigan or the state of pennsylvania. the president's pressure has not led any republican state lawmakers to say they would overturn the will of the voters and assign those electors to president trump instead of the winner in those two states president-elect biden. the president really facing narrowing options and increasing pressure among republicans. we should note a majority of republican lawmakers have refused to acknowledge joe biden as the president-elect, even as we come close to three weeks after that presidential election took place. as for president trump, this weekend he spent a lot of time on the golf course and spent a little bit of time attending the g-20 summit, which is happening virtually this year because of the coronavirus pandemic. in that message the president gave this morning in a prerecorded message, he made clear he's ending his presidency, striking out a unilateral picture for the u.s. foreign policy and making clear the u.s. is an outlier, including on that critical issue of climate change. listen. >> to protect american workers, i withdrew the united states from the unfair, one-sided paris climate accord. a very unfair act for the united states. the paris accord was not designed to save the environment. it was designed to kill the american economy. i refuse to surrender millions of american jobs and send trillions of american dollars to the world's worst polluters and environmental offenders. that's what would have happened. >> now, even as the president is making clear that he stands by his decision to withdraw the u.s. from those paris climate accord, president-elect joe biden has also made clear he plans to rejoin that climate agreement as soon as he takes office. he'll strike out a very different u.s. policy as it relates to climate change and many other issues. >> many other ones, you're right. jeremy diamond, thank you. joining me now, cnn senior political analyst kristen and carl bernstein. on paper the president is losing but in terms of sewing dou isow. >> as he has been throughout his presidency, he's a huge threat to democracy in america. for the first time in our history, we are watching a president of the united states sabotage the interest of the united states through undermining our very electoral system. he is the mad king on his way out of office. destroying in his wake, out the door, our most basic institutional and constitutional stability. it is going to be a long time to undo the damage he has done to this country, to the national security of the united states, to the health and welfare of the united states, including the hundreds of thousands of dead because of his homicidal negligence that are resulting from his policies and his absence of presidential leadership in the pandemic. we've never seen this kind of destruction by a president of the united states, disregard for the interest of its people, it's constitutional and borders on sadicious. it will be up to the people of the united states how this rogue, mad king should be treated after he leaves office. >> well, as we watch for that and we watch what is happening on that road, we should point out the president's attorneys are really trying to spin even the latest legal loss in pennsylvania. i want to read from you, today's decision helps us in our strategy to get expeditiously to the united states supreme court. we know the president for some time has been talking about the supreme court's involvement in this election, alluding to it multiple times before election day. one example from september. take a listen. >> i think this will end up in the supreme court and i think it's very important that we have nine justices. >> we have known this all along, but just to point out, even if this ends up in the supreme court, it does not mean president trump is getting a second term. >> he's not. i mean, this is just madness. there is nothing -- i mean, as chris christie pointed out, they're not even making the case when they get into court there's been any kind of real voter fraud. they talk about these irregularities they can't point to that certainly wouldn't overturn the state in michigan 150,000 votes. it's unimaginable if hillary had behaved this way when donald trump won -- barely won two or three states, and yet we have an overwhelming victory in michigan and yet he's still trying to claim there was some voter fraud, which would be impossible to do at that level. i also want to say, it's not just donald trump. the republican party doesn't get off the hook here. they have been priming their voters for at least the last five to seven years with the idea that democrats are stealing the election. they make up these bogus stories. they're perfectly primed for somebody to do this. the fact you have a couple people coming out and saying something is completely outrageous. what the president is doing by any standard is utterly unacceptable. the entire world is watching us. it doesn't just affect what happens in the united states. we are a model and a leader in the world and what he is doing, it's unforgivable. >> to your point, what we are not seeing and what we are not hearing, right, are more republicans come out publicly and say that. say they are concerned for the future of this country. they are concerned for democracy. what they see is not only. what's interesting is for four years we have been talking about, well, they won't say anything publicly but privately there's also this concern behind the scenes. at what point are we going to start to see a shift? we're now in this transition period and the reality is the president is out of office on january 20th and the country needs a peaceful transition of power, no matter who the country voted for. are there some rumblings you're hearing that maybe finally we'll hear those public conversations privately? >> yes. but it's coming very, very late. look, the republicans in the senate have been craving not through just four years but this sadicious last year of trump's presidency in which he's trying to bring down the very democratic existence that is the bed rock of our united states. there are republicans in the senate who in talking to each other, despise and disdain this president, many of them, 15, 20 of them were happy to see joe biden went tin the presidency ag as the republicans held the senate. on my twitter account i said tonight, i listed 15 of these senators. i'll put it up on twitter who they are. many have been refusing to speak out. i know from members of their staff, from the senate itself and what they've been saying about donald trump. and yet this is the shame of the republican party that it has allowed the republican, the party, the party of lincoln, ko be captured by donald trump, an authoritarian, who is determined to undermine the constitution, undermine electoral system, our democracy, whose interests are his self-interests, his financial interests, the interest of his family. it is no accident that almost all of his principal national security advisers from mattis to bolton to kelley and on down the line, that they left believing that donald trump is a national threat to the security of the united states. we are now witnessing the ultimate threat as he tries to dismantle our constitutional protections and institutional stability of this country as he goes out the door. >> kirsten, i understand the strategy of not wanting to give too much oxygen to the president because what he thrives on is attention, and yet is it time for the biden team to be more vocal about just how damaging this lack of transition cooperation really is? >> no, i don't think they should spend any time on it. the president does just want to get attention. he just wants to blow up the system. he just wants to be the center of everything. and i think making him the center just place into what he wants. he would love to have a fight with joe biden. i think joe biden should do what he's doing, be the president-elect, be a grownup, be the person who cares about the future of this country versus the person who is just obsessed with himself. >> great to have you both here tonight. thank you. as president trump continues to deny the reality of the election results, president-elect biden continuing on. expected to begin announcing his cabinet picks this week. so, who is on the list? that's next. you're live in the "cnn newsroom." got unbeatable relief from your worst cold and flu symptoms. so when you need to show your cold who's boss, grab mucinex all-in-one... and get back to your rhythm. feel the power. beat the symptoms fast. working, parenting, problem solving. at new chapter vitamins we've been busy too... innovating, sourcing organic ingredients, testing them and fermenting. fermenting? yeah like kombucha or yogurt. and we formulate everything so your body can really truly absorb the natural goodness. that's what we do, so you can do you. new chapter wellness, well done. we create high performance, - [announcer] we're thrive cosmetics, cruelty free, 100% vegan formulas and we love that you love our products. like our award winning liquid lash extensions mascara. plus, with every product you purchase we donate to help a woman thrive. join our movement today at thrivecosmetics.com. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ when president-elect biden takes office, he'll be at war with the virus and at war with itself. the state of texas, the first state to record a million total cases of coronavirus. at this state the state has more cases than any state in the u.s. and more than ten countries worldwide. many hospitals are strained, as we talked about so many times on cnn. in el paso the morgues are as well at this point. right now, about 1 in every 25 residents in el paso is actively infected with covid. 1 in 10 has battled the virus at some point. now the national guard is there in el paso, called in to help with mortuary support. previously inmated had been recruited to help with the floefr flow of bodies. this as the cdc is warning against travel, warning against gatherings this thanksgiving, to avoid further spread, further pain. meantime, one of the state's two senators posting this. it's a picture, as you can see, of a turkey with the words, come and take it. that's from senator ted cruz. i'm not sure who is actively trying to take away his turkey. the virus is raging in the state of texas and doesn't care about anyone's politics. joining us, kathleen sebelius and david gergen. secretary sebelius, with all the scenarios you went through while preparing for a possible pandemic, was there ever a time that you talked through the possibility of almost an entire political party fighting the science and fighting you on public health measures that would be needed to deal with a possible pandemic? >> erica, none of us ever contemplated this scenario. the president never contemplated this scenario. never in the history of the united states have been see a public health crisis be politicized the way this one was. i go back to april when the cdc put out very clear step-by-step guidelines. the cdc was asked and did follow through with a step-by-step here's what you do to protect the health system. here's what the positivity rate should be, here's how much testing should be in place, what the contact tracers should look like. the number one goal was to keep americans safe and secure. the following day the president of the united states chose to begin attacking governors, demanding that michigan be opened, that virginia be opened, that minnesota be open, liberated, as he said, and that started what was an ongoing debate about what the protocol should be, should we follow the science, should we pay any attention to what the good health experts said. and we now are bearing those results. 3 million cases so far in november alone. hospitals filled to beyond capacity. not just in texas but here in the midwest, across the country people are being transported for hours or out of state to try desperately to find a hospital bed. and the end is nowhere in sight. >> as we look at all of this, you know, we've been saying for months, to your point, the need to address the reality of the situation. the need for some leadership. we are starting to see some republicans, when we talk about transition, some republicans telling the president it's time to concede, including the governor of maryland, larry hogan, which of course the president was not happy with. hit back pretty quickly, talking about -- taking a swipe at him, talking about buying faulty covid tests from overseas. here's the quote from governor hogan. if you would have done your job, americans wouldn't have been fending for themselves to find tests as we successfully did in maryland. stop golfing and concede. david, we know what the message is, obviously, in that tweet, but how much further do you think it goes in terms of influencing others to speak out? >> how much influence larry hogan has in general -- >> yes. >> or this -- >> yeah. >> i think it's a message it's growing. they came out and said this is the national embarrassment. thankful we have people like liz cheney in the house, and republicans with backbone, who stood up, but, erica, when you look at the overall number, the number of prominent republicans who have stood up to president trump on this, you can count on two hands. it's an embarrassment for the party that they're not taking this seriously. the party is complicit. the republican party is complicit and the mess we have on our hands and a number of deaths. this is not just the president. the congress is an equal branch of government. they failed to step up and we've got ourselves in a terrible spot. the vaccine apparently coming. but nonetheless we have paid a price for the number of americans, the number of people that will be left with all sorts of infirmities, and the reputation of the united states, looking like a crazy banana republic. >> the good news, obviously, is that there is a vaccine on the horizon, that we're getting this excellent data in terms of efficacy, that inc. thises are moving along quickly. that being said, the vaccine has been politicized. we can't ignore that either. just based on your experience. they were talking about the swine flu and h1n1. as we're moving towards emergency use authorization, as we move towards a rollout for the coronavirus vaccine, what should americans hear about it? >> i think it's important to start right away to make sure there's a lot of transparency around the steps of this process. that as the fda considers moving forward with the authorization, that people can really unpack the data. what does 95% efficacy mean? who is the vaccine most successful in terms of preventing the disease? what happens if you get one shot versus two shots? all those things -- the more the american public can hear from scientists, reassured this is not some kind of political trick, i think the further we go down the line of getting people to be ready to be vaccinated. i would tell you, to david's point, what's going on right now is going to lose more lives. is actually going to kill people because not having the transition team be able to know what the logistics of planning vaccine distribution are, what the priority order is and how that's going to be satisfied,ings governors need to know what role the federal government will play. are they on their own as they have been since march or will the federal government actually try to deliver the vaccine to the last mile if they identify the providers and the individuals who need to be vaccinated, can they count on the federal government to have the logistic plan to get the vaccine to them? all those pieces of the puzzle are daunting, under any circumstances. but with a two-dose vaccine that has to be stored at super cold temperatures, it's even more daunting. having the trump administration and the current hhs refuse to let the biden team communicate around vaccine logistics, get into the agencies, talk to people, is incredibly dangerous. >> secretary kathleen sebelius, david gergen, thank you for joining us. >> thank you. the trump administration refusing to formally sign off on a transition to president-elect biden. so, just how does that affect this nation's preparedness amid a raging pandemic? we just touched on part of it. ahead, a member of the biden/harris advisory board joins me to talk about those hurdles and how they're trying to get over them. we made usaa insurance for members like martin. an air force veteran made of doing what's right, not what's easy. so when a hailstorm hit, usaa reached out before he could even inspect the damage. that's how you do it right. usaa insurance is made just the way martin's family needs it with hassle-free claims, he got paid before his neighbor even got started. because doing right by our members, that's what's right. usaa. what you're made of, we're made for. ♪ usaa as the coronavirus rages across the country, the u.s. has set hospitalization records for 12 straight days. nowhere is the lack of communication during this transition between the trump white house and incoming biden administration as critical and potentially damaging as it is in terms of how we fight this pandemic and, of course, as parts of that, how a vaccine is distributed once it's available. dr. gounder is one of the medical experts recently named to biden's covid-19 advisory team and an infectious disease specialist. we know just today, president trump's vaccine chief acknowledges she's had no contact with the biden transition team. give us a sense of where you stand right now. what has been your experience in terms of getting information, as being one of these advisers to the president-elect, do you see any improvement and do you see signs it could get better? >> we're currently not having conversations with the current administration. we're not even supposed to be backchannels. we're piecing together what is being done through conversations with other stakeholders. that means this information, gathering information -- i don't want to call it a transfer, but trying to get ourselves up to speed is taking much longer than it would if we had a smooth transition. it's not complete because there's going to be information that only the administration is going to have and that's not being shared with us. >> part of what we heard is also concern about the politicization of the vaccine. i want to play one of those moments. >> i think it's very unfortunate that the whole process has been politicized. therefore, the context has created conditions whereby people's conditions have been exacerbated and we are where we are today. >> that's one of the perceptions. i'm sure this is one of the things you're talking about in your meetings, what the messaging should be. part of that messaging involves timelines. how much damage do you think the politics have caused at this point when we talk specifically about a vaccine? >> i think the politics have been enormously damaging. when you look at survey data that's been done looking at americans' likelihood of accepting a vaccine, those numbers have gone down, down, down over the last several months. i'm particularly concerned about communities of color, for example, which have shouldered an undue burden from the coronavirus pandemic, both healthwise as well as economically. they are among those who are also least trusting of this vaccine which means you'll see another disparity perpetrated here. >> there's also -- the messaging is somewhat confusing. it's wonderful to know we're getting a vaccine. i certainly hear the hope just in talking to friends and family members about, okay, now we see it. there is some light at the end of the tunnel. but the reality of when that light will reach the average american, i'm not sure that's been cloer. this may be a perfect example of why. >> our plan is to be able to ship vaccines to the immunization sites within 24 hours from the approval. so i would expect maybe on day two after approval, on the 11th or 12th of december. >> i think by the second quarter of 2021 maybe into the third quarter we'll have a vaccine that will hopefully be licensed for general use if everything goes well and the data continues to promote the safety and we can vaccinate a good portion of the public going into fall of 2021. >> you listen to the two situations. and the initial doses we imagine will go to those on the front lines. how realistic is a timeline and a consistent one? >> yeah, i think the message here is the people who are going to be vaccinated starting this calendar year will be front-line health care workers, other essential workers and you'll also see vaccinations in nursing homes and assisted living facilities. the general public will not have access until april or may at the earliest. then it takes time. it takes time to vaccinate everybody and for everybody to want to be vaccinated and come in for vaccinations. yes, there's light at the end of the tunnel but a long tunnel ahead of us. that really means we need to double down on the other basic prevention measures in the meantime. >> the virus is not changing between now and january 20th, as we know. what do you think will change starting january 20th with the biden administration in terms of how the pandemic is approached? >> i think you'll see a very different messaging on masks. masks have also been very politicized. masks are a basic public health measure. masks are highly effective, they're cheap and they don't shut down the economy. if you want to keep the economy open, masks need to be number one, two and three as part of your strategy. the other key thing you'll see a big difference in tenor, in emphasis on is testing. the current administration has really discouraged testing. said we're testing too much. the fact is you cannot get your hands hand are -- you cannot wrap your hands around a problem like this until you understand what the problem is. where the transmission is occurring, in what populations and why. the only way to know that is if you do a lot more testing than we're doing currently right now. >> dr. gounder, appreciate it as always. thank you. >> my pleasure. just ahead, stunning allegations out of iowa. a lawsuit claims managers at a food processing plant bet on just how many employees would get covid-19. those details are next. you're live in the "cnn newsroom." ly now, new and existing customers can get our best smartphone deal. it's historic. that is historic. which means... i'm making history, right? yea, i don't know if i'd exactly sa- wow. me, dave brown. existing customer who got the greatest deal in history. just like every other customer gets... oh that's cool too. it's not complicated. at&t is making history. everyone gets our best smartphone deals. narrator: upgrade your protectin this holiday season... some things are good to know. like where to find the cheapest gas in town and which supermarket gives you the most bang for your buck. something else that's good to know. 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vividly as they once did. i've been taking prevagen for about three years now. people say to me periodically, "man, you've got a memory like an elephant." it's really, really helped me tremendously. prevagen. healthier brain. better life. at university of phoenix, students with relevant life experience and eligible transfer credits save on average $11k and 1 year off their undergrad degree. see how much you can save. managers as a tie soon food pork processing plant were accused of placing a bet on how many workers would get the coronavirus. dan simon has the story. >> reporter: stunning allegations made against managers at this tyson pork processing plant in waterloo, iowa, one of the first to shut down when the coronavirus raged uncontrollably in the spring. aed a alleged taking bets on how many would get the coronavirus. according to the allegations, the plant manager of the waterloo facility organized a cash buy-in, winner take all betting pool for supervisors and managers to wager how many employees would test positive for covid-19. in the end, more than 1,000 employees would catch the virus, about a third of the nearly 3,000 working at the plant. >> i'm scared. >> reporter: this man spoke to cnn's gary tuchman in april about his conversation with tyson's hr department. >> they told me, i was -- i was safe and they told me that everything was okay and they told me i have a better chance of catching the coronavirus going out to walmart than in tyson. come to work, you're safe. >> our main focus is to keep our plant team members healthy and the community members, keeping the disease out of there. >> reporter: that was tyson ceo dean banks in march, as supermarket shelves began to lay bare as plants struggled to contain the virus. even as best practices became known, the suit says tyson failed to provide appropriate personal protective equipment and failed to implement social distancing or safety measures to protect workers from the outbreak. at least five waterloo plant workers died, according to the lawsuit. the suit filed earlier this year by the family of one of them. but it's been revised with even more troubling claims including the alleged betting pool. another manager alleged to have also explicitly directed supervisors to ignore symptoms of covid-19, telling them to show up to work even if they were exhibiting symptoms of the virus. a concern one employee echoed to cnn in april. >> do you think they care about your health? >> not as much as they need to. >> reporter: tyson ceo dean banks put out a statement that reads in part, we are extremely upset about the accusations involve some of the leadership at our waterloo plant. tyson foods is a family company with 139,000 team members and these allegations do not represent who we are. he went on to say that the alleged individuals involved would be suspended without pay and that he's also tapped former attorney general eric holder to launch an investigation. i'm dan simon, cnn, reporting. up 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we've been following the economic impact of covid-19 and the restaurant industry in los angeles has certainly not been spared as the case count surges. and l.a. county health officer reported a 68% increase in cases between october 28th and november 10th. on thursday, the county reported its highest new case count of the pandemic, more than 5,000. cnn's paul vercammen is live in los angeles. we know there's a series of new restrictions enacted in the state of california, some more looming, and that is a major concern for the restaurant industry. >> that's right, erica. look at it as a series of devastating waves crashing down on the restaurants and bar business. just last night, a curfew went into effect at 10:00 p.m. no more gatherings in restaurants and bars, and that means no patrons and thus no business. and now, we're on the brink here in l.a. county, perthe county rules, a little complex, but stay with me. if the five-day average exceeds 4,000 new cases, restaurants and bars can offer only takeout or pickup. and we're on the brink of it right now after several days. so take dustin lancaster, a major player in the restaurant business here. he went from 13 down to 10 restaurants. behind me, his oyster bar right now, he's chewing his fingernails because he just doesn't know what's going to happen. he already laid off 250 employees. he brought some back. and now, this, the possibility of having to close down again. >> the biggest toll is we're going to have to lay off the people we just brought back. we're going to have to furlough them, likely, as we downsize to takeout only, which requires less staff. this influx is just about to break us all. >> and lancaster also noting if it is not a straight layoff, you have the situation where people's hours are just so dramatically cut. he and other restaurateurs just want to see a stimulus package passed. there was a $120 billion in one of these measures earmarked for the restaurant business. he's now saying we'll take $30 billion. we'll take anything. anything to keep these service workers in los angeles. and obviously, throughout the country, back on their jobs. back to you, erica. >> yeah, so important. just one thing to clarify. you're saying if they hit that number, there's no outdoor dining either. it's just takeout. >> that's in l.a. county. that's right. if the five-day average exceeds 4,000 new cases per day, when we're on the brink of that right now, that's what has the restaurateurs here so nervous, and every single person, whether it be a server or a maitre d', anyone who makes their living in the restaurant business is recoiling in terror. >> absolutely. all the distributors as well. this is something that millions of americans are dealing with across the country. paul, appreciate it. thank you. a quick programming note for you. tonight, the final two episodes of the cnn original series "first ladies." hillary clinton airs at 10:00, followed by lady bird johnson at 11:00. be sure to stay with us for that. we'll be right back. what's the name again? >>it's shiori. what? >>shi - or - i adam, emily and then... s-uh um... >>it's shiori. sh-ori. thank you, that's great. shiori (in japanese) there you go. >>yeah. 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[ muffled scream ] stop living with at&t. xfinity can deliver gig to the most homes. top of the hour. you're live in the "cnn newsroom." i'm erica hill in new york, in for ana cabrera. the presidential election was called two weeks ago, and still the lion's share of rak and file republicans choose to dispute the rulthesults or at least puby hold out hope the president will prevail, but let's be clear. he will not. the american people spoke with their votes. joe biden will be inaugurated at noon on january 20th. this weekend,

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