hello. thank you for sharing your day with us. president-elect biden building his white house team. tapping a long time aide with deep experience to be his chief of staff. ron klain, may not be a household name, but it's important. it is sadly grond hog day on that front. trump retweeting fantasies about his prospects of overturning the election results. the count is moving a bit in the

president's direction in arizona and the president is tweeting 200,000 votes to less than 10,000 votes. if we can audit the total votes cast, we can easily win. we will know the tally soon. the tweet is just more evidence of the president's folly. even if he did come back and win arizona, it's not enough. joe biden is still the president-elect. period. there are a few more republicans today saying it's past time for the president to end this tantrum. most gop leaders won't stand up to the president because they fear him and need him. mixed in with the ridiculous tweets alleging widespread voter fraud are tweets about the election in georgia. democrats long past being amused. >> the election is over. it wasn't close. president trump lost. joe biden will be the next president of the united states. kamala harris will be the next

vice president of the united states. senate republicans, stop denying reality. >> transition challenges could not be more clear. more than 700,000 americans filed unemployment claims last week. that's one of too many sober coronavirus-related numbers. more than 144,000 new infections reported wednesday. that breaks the previous record for most cases in one day. that record set tuesday. also another record high number of hospitalizations and the highest daily death count since in may. the president won't let his coronavirus talk to president-elect biden's coronavirus team. dr. anthony fauci insisting the important work on vaccines and treatments will not be impacted. >> certainly it's having no impact negatively on our ability as well as our activity in developing vaccines and developing countermeasures. help is really on the way. think about it metaphorically.

the cavalry is coming here. vaccines are going to have a major positive impact. >> we'll take a deeper look at the troubling coronavirus numbers in a moment. first the numbers that make clear joe biden won, period. this is the national election map here. you see the red and the blue. 51% for joe biden. 5.2 million vote lead in the popular vote. that's not how we pick a president. it's state by state, but that in and of itself is a powerful number. let's go through the big states. pennsylvania put joe biden over the top. there's his lead right now. let's go back in time. the president says this is going to change in his favor. we called the race a little before noon on saturday. joe biden up 34,414 votes. this is now, joe biden up 53,898 votes. the trend is going against the president as they count more ballots. georgia, this is noon on saturday. 7 ,248 votes with joe biden's

lead then. they continue to count ballots, and let's bring it up to now, 1 14,057. almost double the lead on saturday. west, the president can claim some progress in arizona. if we go to noon on saturday in the race, joe biden was up 20,000 votes. not the 200,000 the president talks about. it was 20,000 plus votes. here's where we are at this moment, 11,635. most experts think probably not, but it's possible as they keep counting votes the president could catch up. but the math that matters most, even if he does, 270 electoral votes to win the white house, here's where we are right now. even if -- let's assume biden holds onto georgia. even if president trump somehow had a comeback in arizona, and we haven't called north carolina yet, let me get the red. that's going his way and we'll

give him this one, it's not, joe biden has 295. you would have to overturn pennsylvania, georgia and another state to do that. there are some adult voices in the republican party, the ohio governor among them, who says mr. president, accept the math. the country needs that. >> look, i think that we need to consider the former vice president as the president-elect. joe biden is the president-elect. the white house has every -- the president and his campaign has every right to go into court. our courts are open. our courts are the best place, frankly, to adjudicate facts. we need to take a deep breath. there's a process for this. we need to follow the process, and we need to move this country forward. >> with us to share the reporting on their insights this hour, john harwood and mj is

with us. you see governor dewine as a grownup saying at least the president should start the transition. press your case in court if you want. is there any indication the person who matters most, the incumbent but defeated president of the united states is going to listen? >> reporter: well, i think over time, john, the pressure is going to increase on him. even today, look at his twitter feed, he's doing more and more bashing of fox news on his twitter feed and talking about alternative media outlets. one of the speculations we've had about his post presidential life would be that he would be involved in conservative media. that does nothing to disabuse that notion. he was a retweeting something that suggested the democrats had to be stopped in georgia otherwise kamala harris would be the deciding vote in the senate. she's only deciding vote in the senate if joe biden is president. i think president trump understands he lost the

election. he's playing it out to cover his embarrassment and also to try to position himself for post presidential life. but the statements by people like jim langford, repeated by chuck grassley, more and more of that pressure is going to come on, especially when we get to next week. the georgia recount, the lawsuits are frivolous and will be thrown out of court. i think the ball started rolling downhill. the only question is when the president calls an end to the game he's playing. >> it's an important win mj lee. also because we're in the middle of the pandemic, and the biden team should have every right to have full access to the trump team for data and insights anded a viesz from the experts who care about the pandemic. but the first steps out of the biden team have been interesting.

ron klain, was the first pick, a throwback and progressives have been saying we need new faces y. you had immediate embrace of the president's choice. why does that matter? >> reporter: it matters because the last time the biden team wants right now is any kind of sort of political distractions and that includes noise coming from the progressive wing of the party saying they're unhappy with a kind of personnel announcement or decision or some kind of policy decision that might be coming in the weeks ahead. everything that the biden transition team is doing right now is trying to show that they are focussed, that they are undeterred in moving forward with this transition process despite all the noise that we're getting from the trump team and despite the reality the president himself has not officially conceded yet, and i

think it's really important to point out to viewers that there is a reason that this transition process is in place in the way that it is. you know, typically these things happen, and unfold in the way that they do because it is helpful to the president-elect as they are preparing to enter the white house to get prepared, to get briefs so they can be as ready as possible on day one, and these are not ordinary circumstances right now. we have a pandemic. we have an economic crisis that a president biden is going to have to deal with, so i think you're absolutely right that the more information that the biden team can get their hands on, the more briefings including the classified briefings that he is technically due right now, but is not getting, those would all be helpful for him to have. so i think this is a part of the big reason why we are starting to see a trickle of republican voices and public figures starting to say look, maybe they're not ready to say biden

has won this thing, but they are starting to make the sound and the noise that for the sake of national security, it is important for biden to start getting these briefings so he can be prepared on day one. >> and to that point, john, back to you, you heard the governor dewine at the top of the program. he served in the congress for some time. he knows how things work and he's an adult trying to deal with the coronavirus surge and saying he would like a smooth transition of power to help him face the crisis. langford says in his view, his reprehensible you don't allow joe biden to get the president's intelligence briefings because in january joe biden is going to be the president and who knows what the world will bring. listen. >> there's nothing wrong with vice president biden getting the briefings to be able to prepare himself so he can be ready. there's no loss from him getting the briefings and to be able to do that. if that's not occurring by friday, i'll step in as well to

be able to push him and say this needs to occur so regardless, whatever way it goes, people can be ready for the task. >> it's interesting to make that comment. the idea he says i will step in and push. that is interesting. >> no, there's no question about it. and i think the senators who are not running for president in 2024, senators who are less in hawk to the republican base at this particular moment, people who are not in republican leadership which is another place where they feel a lot of the pressure are going to step up in their areas of expertise and assert themselves. remember, john, this is a multifaceted national security situation, because in addition to the things jim langford was talking about, threats in other countries, we've got this surging pandemic in the united states, and we're about to go over a cliff of suffering in the

united states given the expiration of protections against evictions which affect large numbers of americans. the looming expiration of unemployment benefits for people. the looming layoffs of more than a million state and local government workers which is going to be a big drag on the economy. all of these things are issues that republican and democratic senators and governors alike feel in their own states they understand that a new administration is coming and they need to have some action whether it occurs in a lame duck session or early next year. we've got major crises right in our face right now. >> and to that point, john, thank you. mj as well. we have news just in to cnn, more evidence of some cracks in the republican party. one of the senate's top republicans backing the idea that the president-elect, joe biden, should get access to classified briefings asap. let's get to capitol hill with manu raju.

>> chuck grassley, the most senior republican in the senate. i talked to him on his way in to the senate chamber. i asked if joe biden should have access to those classified briefings. he said i would think especially on classified briefings, the answer is yes. now, he becomes the most senior republican to make that case. most republicans are not answering that question. or they say the president's legal challenges should play out first before the transition can take place. mitch mcconnell was just asked by a colleague if he believes the president should have access to the briefings. mcconnell would not answer any questions as he was entering and leaving the senate chamber. but chuck grassley made it clear he believes that the president-elect joe biden should get the briefings. i said it specifically, should president-elect joe biden get those briefings. he said i think especially on classified briefings, the answer is yes. and most republicans won't even acknowledge that joe biden is president-elect. now, i did ask chuck grassley

whether or not the administration should sign off on the reck sit paperwork to ease a transition process, something the administration has refused to do so far. he said that he thinks a precedent that occurred in 2000 with the gore/bush florida dispute that shortened the transition period, he said they should follow the same precedent in 2000. the concerns raised by the 9/11 report was that shortened transition period led to unpreparedness in the united states ahead of 9/11. i reminded him about that. he still said follow what happened in 2000. he's another republican who says at least joe biden should get those classified briefings. >> in today's washington, that's a modest step forward. sad that's all we get. up next for us, several states adding new restrictions because record spikes not only in coronavirus but in hospitalizations as well.

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several states deciding to add new coronavirus restrictions. this is the case count around the country as the case counts are surging. the case count, red line, 143,231 new infections reported yesterday. that's a new record, breaking the record the previous day. that's the problem we're in right now. you see the surge and spike going up the hill. we started back in the spring. the summer surge that we thought was horrific. we are way love that now. 140,000 cases plus. and if you walk through it with those cases comes hospitalizations. hospitalizations also now at a record. 65,386 yesterday. and you see back in the spring

when it was new, hospitals were overwhelmed. summer surge, more cases, hospitalizations around 60,000. now more cases and the line is going up. the state by state trend orange and red on this map are bad. you see a lot of it. 44 states. 18 of them, 50% more infections this week than last week. 18 of them 26 other states 44 total reporting more co-vid infections this week compared to the data last week. this is why. look at the positivity rates. dark on this map is bad. 55% positivity in south dakota. 50% in iowa. 40% in wyoming. five in ten people who get a coronavirus test are positive. 22% in alabama. up to 18% in pennsylvania. 10% in ohio and michigan. double digits is bad and it's going up across the country. several states are saying let's put new restrictions in place.

new york limiting outings. connecticut limiting private gatherings. massachusetts more mask rules and also limiting indoor gatherings. a stay at home advisory in rhode island. as states deal with this, there's debates of whether there should be more federal mandates. one of the president-elect's team says maybe. dr. anthony fauci says i don't think so. >> we could pay for a package right now to cover all of the wages, lost wages for individual workers for losses to small companies to medium-sized companies. for city-states count governments. we could do all of that. if we did that, then we could lock down for four or six weeks. if we did that, we could drive the numbers down. >> there is no appetite for locking down on the american public. but i believe that we can do it without a lockdown. >> joining us now is an

emergency room physician and researcher at brown university. she says in her hospital they've never seen as many covid-19 patients as this week. walk us through that, doctor. >> john, i can't begin to explain to you what it's like right now to work in emergency departments in hospitals across the country. i admitted more patients with covid-19 on my last shift than i ever have, even during the height of the surge this spring. our hospitals across the country are literally being overwhelmed with covid-19 patients. the data you presented, there's approximately one person dying every minute across the united states from covid-19 right now. but it's not just about those deaths. it's the hospital beds, too. it's the fact that we have nurses out sick. we're doubling up staffing. we have many hospitals that are sending adult patients to pediatric hospitals, to pediatric intensive care units. we're asking pediatric nurses to take care of adult sick patients

because there's not enough stuff. the thing that scares me most is this is the beginning of the wave. the infections we're seeing today, the hospitalizations we're seeing today, those are infections that were transmitted two or three weeks ago. what we're going to see two or three weeks from now has already been set in motion, and it's really up to us as individuals right now to make the right choices so that we are not completely overwhelmed so the dam does not completely break in early and mid december. >> so this for some time has been a state by state calculation. the president of the united states checked out months ago. it's a fact. it's sad but it's a fact. this has been a state by state calculation. you heard dr. michael oser home saying if you could pass a package that gives people wage protection, money, you could have a lockdown for four or six weeks. he's a member of the president-elect's transition team. we're checking to see if that's his opinion or the opinion of

the new administration. do you think something that dramatic might be necessary? >> i hope it's not. i hope that we can do things like wear masks, stay away from indoor dining, stay away from gyms, stay away from thanksgiving gatherings with people that aren't in our household, and that we can slow the transmission of this virus. i'm hearing from my patients, my nurses, my colleagues, that we're all scared of another lockdown. the thought of having my kids home from school alone, that terrifies me but i know there's a lot of small businesses and individual who is are terrified about what's going to happen? they'll be out of work. they're going to lose what they worked for for their whole life. a large stimulus package like outlined could help bridge the gap until we get a new administration in, until we get a vaccine. but i'd like to think we can do this without another full lockdown. it's really, again, it's up to us. can we really all wear masks when we're out of the house? so far we haven't. if we did that, we could potentially avoid a lockdown

which is dr. fauci saying we don't have an appetite for, but it may be necessary. >> up to us means people have to listen. if you look at a gallop poll, are you likely to stay at home for a month if public officials repded. only 49% say that. in april '67%. there is a coronavirus fatigue, restriction fatigue, not paying attention, that's a problem. >> it is a problem. we're exhausted. i mean, i see it among my staff. wearing a mask constantly, it's tiring. it fogs up your glasses. away want to go back to seeing our family, being able to travel, being able to have parties to celebrate big occasions. but the thing is that if we don't make the right choices now, we may not be able to have those parties, because we may see our loved ones get sick and die. and we need to communicate that to the public that this is a short-term thing. a vaccine is on the horizon.

we just have to hold out for a couple of more months and do the right thing. i will also say, john, we need to make it easy and we need to be consistent. you mention the trump administration. the cdc came out yesterday for the first time saying universal cloth mask wearing is essential in stopping the traps mission of this virus. it is time for the trump administration to say the same thing and to model the same thing. if they won't, it's up to the republican house and senate and our celebrity influencers to get that message across to the public. that's the only way we're going to make it through this fall and winter. >> amen. doctor, i appreciate your insights on this day. and we wish you a happy birthday. >> thank you very much. not the birthday i wanted to spend -- with you is a joy, but co-vid makes it different from usual. >> yes, it does. it does. you should find a moment to celebrate anyway. grateful for your insights. coming up the

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president-elect biden's first big personnel appointment is telling. biden has relied on a circle of trusted advisers. sticking with the group will not fly in today's democratic party. especially among progressives who want to see early proof the president-elect takes their concerns seriously and will bring diverse voices into the administration. but give biden credit. leading progressives were quick to praise the klain announcement. this from elizabeth warren tweeting ron has earned trust across the entire democratic party and alexandria ocasio-cortez gave klain a thumbs up martin luther king junior and called it an encouraging choice. andrew card knows a thing about difficult white house transitions.

he was chief of staff to george w. bush when he took over in 2001 after the supreme court settled that election. it's good to see you on that day. you knew governor bush well when he became president-elect bush and president bush. ron klain has deep experience like that. he goes back to the clinton/gore administration and the bi obama/biden administration. how important is that personal bond? >> it's great to be with you. i think it's an excellent choice. ron, he'll know joe biden. and part of the job of a chief of staff is to pay attention to the president 24 hours a day 7 days a week. you never know when the president will have to make a difficult and challenging decision. it's best if you really

understand the president so you know his mental and physical and emotional and spiritual health. i think ron will know that, because he's worked so closely with joe biden in so many different capacities. but i do caution ron like i would caution anyone who became chief of staff. the emphasis of your title is staff, not chief. the staff are in charge of the staff. i remember telling president george w. bush when he asked me to be the chief of staff, understand if i do this, i cannot be your friend. i will just be a staffer in charge of the staff. you can't feel guilty about hurting your friend if you disagree with me or don't like what i'm doing. you've got to tell me what it is and don't feel bad about hurting my feelings. now, if i'm no longer chief of staff, i'd love to be your friend again, but as long as i'm your chief of staff, i'm just a staffer in charge of the staff making sure the staff gives you what you need to do to make

tough decisions and lead this country and the world. so ron is going to recognize that he's stepping into a role that will have him serving the president, not being the president's best friend. >> we'll watch that play out. it's an interesting perspective. you have some unique perspective. an independent from maine caucuses with the democrats. you know senator king. he's among many people sounding alarm about president trump's refusal to sign the papers to allow the normal transition process to play out. and senator king has an eye on history. >> what's at stake is the security of the united states. if you look back through history, for example, bay of pigs, black hawk down, september 11th, what do those have in common? they all occurred in the first year of a new administration. any transition is a moment of vulnerability when our adversaries look to take advantage, and this is being done as i said, for no reason

exempt f except for the peak of the president. >> you have unique perspective here, the history of books will record you are the man who walked into the florida classroom and whispered to the president of the united states, a second plane hit the second tower, america is under attack. what advice would you give to president trump to get over it and get the transition under way? >> that is right, senator king. i signed a piece in the last 24 hours with john podesta suggesting that the administration should move forward with the transition. even if the results of the election aren't really well known or well respected, move forward. we want a president biden to be just as prepared as a president trump to be in office on january 20th th at noontime. and there's so much going on. the pandemic, number one, is something that's a realtime challenge and it should be understood by both potential

presidents on nontime in january 20th. and i happen to think it's going to be joe biden. i think the trump administration should acknowledge that and do the full transition with him and do that now. but even if they don't want to acknowledge that, make sure joe biden is fully prepared to be president in case he is the president at noontime on january 20th. yes, the world is dangerous and it's particularly dangerous right now. yes, we are in the midst of a pandemic. it wasn't just the issues that senator king raised. i can also report you remember after george w. bush became president, we also had a situation over ep 3 plane being forced down, and people were wonders is george bush up to this challenge. he proved he was, but that was an unforeseen occurrence. ufos come all the time to the president of the united states. it's the chief of staff's job to

make sure the president is ready to meet the challenges whenever they come. i hope the transition will be given to joe biden to be able to be ready should he be the one to take that oath of office on january 20th, 2001, and i honestly believe he will be. i think he's the president-elect. >> well, you believe he'll be the president-elect, but the bush name and people who worked in the bush presidencies are somehow treated as pariah's in today's republican party. i want you to listen to lindsey graham who says mr. president, keep fighting. >> the election is not over. somebody needs to be talking about nevada. the lawsuits in nevada are promising. we haven't seen all the lawsuits perhaps they will file. but what we've heard of so far, do you think any of those things have the chance of overturning any of the states? >> yes, i do. >> we met long ago. i've been at this a long time.

they have put zero evidence forward of widespread fraud. the margins are outside the box. you did write in that op ed that this is not 2000. 2000 was about one state. it was about one state. the president would have to overturn the results of three states. three states to overturn the election. it's not going to happen. what kool aid are republicans drinking? >> i don't know. i respect the president's right to go to court and get things addressed, but even if everything the president suggests happens in terms of investigations, i don't think the results will change. in florida in 20 years ago, 20 years ago, the difference in florida was 537 votes. that what it was. one state, and that made the difference in the electoral college. it's a much higher hurdle for president trump to be able to turn the votes around in so many

states that he would have to do it to be able to say he won. i think joe biden is the president-elect. yes, president trump has the right to request a recount. georgia is doing it by law. and others may have to do it because of other races. the only race in the country is not the race for president of the united states. but recounts may happen and should happen, and we should respect the results of those recounts. but i don't see any path to victory that is credible for president trump right now. >> math is math. andy card, grateful for your time and experience on this day. great to see you. >> good to see you, john. thank you. up next, pelosi will lead a smaller majority in the new house, and today she tries to manage a rumbling family feud over who is to blame for that.

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the american people. it's most unfortunate that the republicans have decided that they will not respect the will of the people. let me just say -- t like the house is burning down and they just refuse to throw water on it. heather, that's a classic pelosi tactic. she knows she has a family feud to deal with today. let's light up something we agree on and go after the republicans and say they need to acknowledge the elections. can she carry that unifying theme into that meeting today? >> you know, john, i think she probably will be able to. today is kind of a new members getting their feet wet. i think the thing to look for is next week when all of the democrats are back and they're together for the first time since early october and they're voting on leadership. that will be when i think we

probably see some of these grumblings we've heard since the election, those things will resume because members of different parts of the caucus will be together and be able to strategize easier and maybe get into more mischief. >> sometimes this is like behind the doors cloak and dagger secret. this is not in this case. hakeem jeffries, a key pelosi deputy, house democratic caucus chair said this. do we want to win? do we want to govern or be internet celebrities? i think it's a useful conversation for us to have because the social message wasn't helpful. one of the internet celebrities, alexandria ocasio-cortez who responded astounding, some dems don't believe it's possible to governor, be political popular, but it explains a lot about how we got here. these are rising star democrats who from the same state, mind you, same city, who have issues.

how much of this is personal rivalries and how much of this is a big party problem? >> i think it's a mix of both. i think the thing that was notable about chairman jeffries is he said that on a private leadership call to pelosi and the other top democrats last week before they held a broader caucus call, and then when he got on the caucus call, he did not say that. and so us reporting it, i think, some of these so-called internet celebrities like alexandria ocasio-cortez were hearing it for the first time, and like you said, she didn't hold back yesterday. she went on twitter and put him on blast, essentially, and i got a lot of eyes martin luther king juniors from -- emojis. he wants to be speaker in a couple years. she has a huge platform, millions of followers. they're from the same state. but part of it is they're representing different wings of

the caucus and trying to make sure their muscle is flexed and their voice is heard. it's part of the broader struggle that we're seeing in the caucus to determine where it goes next and how it leads in the next congress when it only has maybe five to ten seats in the majority which has you know is super slim. >> super slim. and president-elect biden should be watching. the little people feud happening among the house members is going to come to him when they have demands about policy. heather, appreciate your great reporting. up next, coronavirus cases are exploding everywhere. one particular trouble spot right now? utah. from bath fitter. bath every bath fitter bath is installed quickly, safely, and beautifully, with a lifetime warranty. go from old to new. from worn to wow. the beautiful bath you've always wanted, done right, installed by one expert technician, all in one day. we've been creating moments like these for 35 years, and we're here to help you get started.

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new talk, coronavirus is exploding overwhelming hospitals, forcing some areas to shut down schools again and revert to online learning. we have more on the growing crisis. >> reporter: the numbers in utah are simply trending in all the wrong directions. the state is averaging more than 2,600 new cases a day. that's the highest this metric has been since the pandemic began. eight consecutive days have seen new case numbers over 2,000. in terms of just how much this is ramping up in the past few weeks, we're seeing a 44% week over week increase of case numbers. deaths also going up. last friday was the highest day for deaths with 17 reported in utah, making it deadliest week so far. the biggest concern for the state is hospital capacity.

in some hospitals, intensive care units are at 90%. doctors are describing this as approaching a tipping point. and this is something that's forced nurses to be brought in from out of state to supplement the nursing availability here in the state because resources are already so strained. this concern is in part what prompted the governor to issue a state of emergency. he issued a statewide mask mandate, he is forcing schools to postpone extracurricular activities. he is limiting social gatherings to small numbers of people, asking them to remain in their households, and college students will also be required to do weekly testing in the new year. in addition to all of this, the governor tapped the national guard to help with testing and contact tracing. >> lucy cavanaugh, thanks very much. up next, president bide's transition collides with

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hello to viewers in the united states and around the world. i am john king in washington. thank you for sharing your day with us. president joe biden filling his team. they say it is past time for trump and his enablers to accept the election's overwhelming math. >> he knows the territory