Fraud and recounts are simply noise, not law. They dismissed it as theatrics. All of that came as we saw joe biden as we have not seen him before after winning this, a smile on his face, confidence in his voice, and said republicans are simply intimidated by President Trump. President elect joe biden moving forward tonight to build his new administration. Even as President Trump and republicans try complicating his transition to power. I just think it is an embarrassment quite frankly, how can i say this tactfully, i think it will not help the president s legacy. Reporter 71 days to inauguration, reality is settling in that biden faces new road blocks as the Trump Administration refuses to cooperate with the timehonored tradition of peaceful transition. But biden also taking pains to cool the temperature, saying he could still begin forming a government without access to federal funding or intelligence briefings. He down played the possibility of taking legal action. We can get through without the funding. Were in a position that we feel very good about. Theres nothing that slows up our efforts to put things together. Reporter at his first News Conference since the election, he playfully smiled at the republican resistance. Have you spoken to your long time friend in the senate, mr. Mcconnell, and what do you make of his specific comments over the last 24 hours . I havent had a chance to speak to mitch. My expectation is that i will do that in the not too distant future. I think that the whole Republican Party has been put in a position with a few notable exceptions of being mildly intimidated by the sitting president. World leaders are moving on. British Prime Minister boris johnson, offering congratulations in a call to biden. As did the french president , emanuel macron and angela merkel. Letting them know that america is back, were going to be back in the game. It is not america alone. Reporter biden sought to keep the spotlight on policy, namely protecting the Affordable Care act, the landmark law under the microscope during Supreme Court oral arguments today. Were going to fight for your familys Health Coverage the same way we fight for our own families Health Coverage. Reporter it is more telling, considering this day in history. Four years ago that biden met with Vice President mike pence. A week after election day, biden struck an optimistic tone, still insisting he can unite the country. I am not a pessimist, as you know. Reporter for republicans that havent come to terms with the election, biden had this to say. They will. They will. Reporter and that smile on mr. Bidens face there, wolf, said it all. His first News Conference he held since the election. He was clearly confident about this and he does believe republicans will eventually come along. He was also trying to intentionally play it cool, not to get worked up by anything going on because of course President Trump, one of the biggest things he was always so concerned about, the delegit miization of his election. Joe biden doesnt want to play into that. He was confident and strong in that press conference. Wolf, we expect more announcements later this week about senior staff, even chief of staff in the new white house. Theyre moving ahead and moving ahead quickly, irrespective of what the president and his supporters are saying and doing. Thanks for that, jeff zeleny. Lets go to jim acosta. The Trump Administration is moving ahead under the false and ridiculous notion that the president won a second term. Tell us more about that. Thats right, wolf. Republicans are rallying behind President Trump as he refuses to concede the election to joe biden as foreign leaders are phoning president elect biden to congratulate him, mike pompeo told reporters there would be a smooth transition to a second Trump Administration. On top of that, the White House Office of management and budget is continuing to tell agencies to prepare their upcoming budget proposals as if nothing is changing. The one state the president is on the verge of clinching, the state of denial. President trump and his gop allies are steering the 2020 election into something out of the dystopian world of 1984, ignoring last weeks results, pretending somehow they won. There will be a smooth transition to a second Trump Administration. All right. Were ready. The world is watching whats taking place. Reporter the secretary of state snapped at reporters who asked about the message sent to the world as the gop refuses to accept reality. Thats ridiculous and you know thats ridiculous, you asked it because it is ridiculous. Reporter president elect joe biden tried to laugh it off. Theres no evidence of any of assertions made by the president or secretary of state pompeo. Reporter Vice President mike pence met with gop senators behind closed doors as the president sent out a message of defiance from his social media bunker tweeting we will win. He has yet to face reporters since last thursday. Thank you very much. Reporter the president has dug in with outright support of gop senators. Senator, have you congratulated Vice President biden yet . No. Why not . Reporter who are backing his legal odyssey, seeking some voter fraud case, capable of upending the election outcome. Even as the president s campaign has yet to prove anything was amiss. The president wasnt defeated by huge numbers, in fact, he may not have been defeated at all. Reporter the Senate Majority leader says theres nothing wrong with that. Until the Electoral College votes, anyone who is running for office can exhaust concerns about counting in any court of appropriate jurisdiction. It is not unusual, it should not be alarming. Reporter a key side show in the transition turmoil, georgias republican senators called on their state, secretary of state, to resign after bidens potential victory there. But heres the deal. The two senators are still fighting for reelection and alienating the president could upset his base of supporters. Two republican members of the chamber called on their own secretary of state, fellow republican, to resign for no other apparent reason than the fact that President Trump did not win their state. Reporter despite the gop antics, the rest of the world appears to be moving on. Leaders from u. S. Allies, britain, france, germany, canada, turkey, congratulating biden. Some Administration Officials refuse to go on with the president s farce. William barr calling on them to velgt voter fraud, saying having familiarized myself with the new policy and ramifications, i must resign from my role as director of the election crimes branch. The they have another hostile takeover. Sources say they may have their sites on leadership roles at the Republican National committee, something don jr. Denied, but a scenario that has some in the party cringing. Ladies and gentlemen. Leaders and fighters for freedom, liberty and the american dream, the best is yet to come. Reporter privately, trump advisers winceing. Not sure why the president wants a recount, it is like he wants to lose twice. The white house is taking note of who is standing with the president as edition in his heels now. If the president wants to run in 2024, many in the party expect that to happen, trump team is taking a note of who is passing a loyalty test these days and who is not. This may not be the Republican Party kissing off democracy, wolf, more like kissing the ring. Jim acosta, thank you very much. Lets get analysis from abby phillip and republican governor john kasich. Abby, i want to consider the extraordinary developments were witnessing now. The president of the United States still refusing to concede, his secretary of state questioning our democracy, the White House Budget Office proceeding as if mr. Trump won. If i have us a sense, abby, how extraordinary all of this is. Reporter well, i think, wolf, a couple of months ago when you would ask republicans on capitol hill or in washington what they would do if President Trump refused to accept the results of the election, they dismissed that idea as outlandish, said it would never happen. Now it is happening. Not only is he rejecting results of the election, but joe biden is on a track to have a larger margin of victory in the key states than trump did four years ago. And even still, republicans on capitol hill are suggesting that that is likely to be overturned, which it is not. I think that this is beyond just denial or placating the president. At this point, you know, they are taking risks with a really long tradition in this country of walking away from power, ceding the stage when they lost and the people have spoken, and i think republicans think they can do this just to gin up the president s base, but the risk is that theres long term damage to our democratic system i think. Huge risk. Governor kasich, the president , the president elect now, talking about joe biden, seems largely unfazed by the Trump Administration efforts to stall his progress, stall the transition. Biden says trumps failure to concede is simply an embarrassment. Do you agree with the president elect . Yeah, i think it is an embarrassment. I think it is ridiculous. I just cant believe what these republicans are doing, wolf. It just doesnt make any sense. If you just think about pennsylvania where i think youre going to find that biden is going to win that by more than 50,000, maybe approaching 100,000, and clearly he went gang busters in michigan and wisconsin, i dont know what theyre doing other than maybe trying to avoid angering trumps base. And i hear this theory about well, they may not want to do anything before the january 5th situation in georgia, the double elections, but i dont think that holds water. I think it may be somewhat of a fear that if they dont stand up and fight, because if you read some of the stories about trumps base, theyre still saying oh, no, no, this is not over. Trump has won. So i think theyre just doing damage, not just to the whole process here in the country, probably damaging the Republican Party because some people are going to look at this and say it is ridiculous. When its over, its over. Thats absolutely true. Abby, biden laughed off the secretary of state pompeos comment that President Trump will serve a second term. While biden may not be entertaining that comment at all, it does carry some weight, especially when you hear it from the secretary of state and leaders around the world, people all over the world are hearing what he is saying. Yeah. This is the extraordinary thing. The secretary of state is typically the person who is in the position of urging other governments to act in a democratic fashion, urging other foreign leaders to adhere to the result muof the election and st aside so a new government can come in. Now you have the secretary of state saying despite what the voters have said, based on votes that we have, he, himself does not accept that result and that theyre going to plan for a second trump term . It really undermines the confidence in the United States and the leadership that the United States has around the world. I mean, even last week the state department was sending out statements about elections in other countries, even while the president was spreading conspiracy theories about our own elections. So yeah, i think the other risk here that as we have been discussing, there is damage to american democracy but theres also damage to americas standing in the world as a leader, leading democracy in the world. Governor kasich, i was thinking about what the secretary of state mike pompeo said, there will be a smooth transition to a second Trump Administration. Yeah. I watched it. There could be a smooth transition to a second Trump Administration if trump decides to run again in 2024, and he actually wins. Then there would be presumably a smooth transition to a second Trump Administration, but thats not going to happen now. We would have to wait at least four years for that to happen. Do you think he potentially will run again in 2024 . You know, one thing we know about donald trump is trying to predict what he is going to do is unpredictable. I think over time, he will become bored, may be a force in the party, probably have a pac, has twitter followers, he may use that to put himself in position of authority, but running again, i really dont see that. In terms of the secretary of state, he knows better than what he is saying, and maybe he is running for president. Did you ever think about that, wolf, in 2024. When trump moves away, he will say my man is pompeo because look how he stuck with me because it is this loyalty, this loyalty thing you have to give. It is really frustrating for me. I think when youre elected, youre elected to serve the country, not a person or political party. We have seen this before, we have seen this before. You cover that race between Thomas Jefferson and aaron burr, you remember that. He said theyre going to give him a work and shot it down. This is not healthy for the party, for the country, for the way people see us around the world. I was on the phone with an ambassador today, wanted to talk about where things are headed. No question whether trump was defeated or not. I think people know better. By the way, last thing. Joe biden laughs it off, i have to tell you, his staff is not laughing about this. I know this because when people said things about me and i sort of laughed it off, my staff registered every comment and understood what was going on. This is not, this is not a game. No, this is Serious Business indeed. Thank you very much. Just ahead, i speak with a republican election lawyer who says theres no, repeat, no evidence of widespread voter fraud, despite top members of his party enabling President Trumps denial of election loss. And later, dr. Anthony fauci now says Coronavirus Vaccine could be widely available by the end of april. But warns the pandemic could get much worse in the months ahead. 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Come on you two, lets go. A gift for the whole family. So join in now and see your best self in the mirror. Staying on top of your game takes a plan. Thats why at aetna, we take a total, connected approach to your health and wellness. With Medicare Advantage plans designed to surround you with the care you need every day. Aetna Medicare Advantage plans. As republicans enable President Trumps denial over the election loss, some members of his party are pushing back. Joining us is one of the republicans, election lawyer ben ginsberg. Thank you for joining us. Attorneys for the biden campaign, biden transition i should say now, say the onslaught of trump legal cases and accusations is simply theater, saying it is theatrics, not really lawsuits. Do you agree is there any legitimacy to his argument or claims . To win cases, wolf, they have to put enough results into play to change the outcome of the election in individual states and in none of the suits that they filed so far around the country are they anywhere close to doing that in any state. Just look at the president elects margin of victory. Even in the closest states now, he is leading by thousands of vo