and accessoriesphones for your mobile phone. like this device to increase volume on your cell phone. - ( phone ringing ) - get details on this state program visit right now or call during business hours. hello, everyone. i'm kate bolduan. thank you for joining us this hour. we'll begin this hour with the explosive spread of coronavirus still more than 166,000 new infections were reported in this country just yesterday. that marks two straight weeks that daily cases topped 100,000. more than 73,000 americans are currently hospitalized with covid-19. that is the highest number since the pandemic began. the country has never seen anything like this in the already long months that the country has been facing this pandemic.

from coast-to-coast states are implementing new restrictions in an effort to slow the virus' spread like california, mississippi and iowa now, now implementing a mask mandate after months of resistance from the state's governor. but it will get worse before any chance of getting better in all parts of the can't. t parts of the country. the numbers say so. the national average is above 10% now. and five states are reporting positivity rates of more than 40%. you can see them highlighted on your screen there. all this as president-elect joe biden says the situation will only get worse if the trump administration continues to block the transition. >> more people may die. if we don't coordinate. look, as my chief of staff, ron

klain would say, who handled ebola, a vaccine is important but it's little use until you're vaccinated. how do we get over 300 million americans vaccinated? what's the game plan? >> on cnn this morning the nation's top infectious disease expert, dr. anthony fauci, he reiterated the importance of what biden was hitting on, a smooth transition. >> transitions are important. and if you don't have a smooth transition, you would not optimize whatever efforts you're doing right now. it's easy to hear about it in the news and read about it, but when you sit down with somebody and talk about what went wrong, what went right, that's important. >> lessons learned. jessica dean is following the biden transition, live in wilmington, delaware this morning. what are you hearing from the transition today on this? >> reporter: well, kate, today they're kind of taking their

focus to national security. we know that president-elect biden will be briefed by a team of experts in intelligence in diplomatic relations and diplomatic security but they are not official experts because the transition is being held up so they're not allowed to get the formal daily briefings. joe biden not getting the briefings that typically by this point in the transition process the president-elect would be getting. they're focussing on that today. but as you saw, the number one priority is covid and the coronavirus pandemic. we know their scientific advisers are meeting with various drug companies this week to talk about the vaccine and the distribution plan they know that has to get put into place and every day they're not allowed to talk to dr. fauci or people at health and human services it delays them being able to craft that plan. so they're focused on all of these things but we do expect to see the president-elect later today while he gets this

briefing. >> also just in, jessica, biden making some more announcements. his white house staff just beginning to take shape. what can you tell us about that? >> reporter: right. we're starting to see what the white house senior staff is going to look like under president-elect biden. we know that newly named chief of staff ron klain will be there, but we also learned congressman sedgewick will be coming on as a senior adviser. we know that campaign manager jen o'malley dillon will come on as deputy chief of staff. the first woman to run a presidential campaign. also chief strategist mike donlan is coming in and steve rocheti coming in as counselor to the president. there are a number of names they're releasing but a lot of the names are people who were

close to president-elect joe biden and first lady -- incoming first lady jill biden for many, many years. so it's not surprising to see a lot of these names going into the white house with bidens. kate. >> jessica, thank you. joining me is dr. celine gounder, a member of the biden transition covid-19 advisory board. a doctor we have leaned on many times during this pandemic for expertise in public health. dr. gounder, it's great to see you. the tone that biden -- it seemed like a new tone that president-elect biden hit yesterday talking about the impact of a delay in coordinating what the transition would be when he said that more people will die if the transition is delayed. do you think that is the case? >> i think, kate, this is like jumping from one moving train onto another while both are going at 100 miles an hour. this is a really complicated,

very difficult pandemic to control as it is. and the fact that we are not being -- we're not privy to some of the granular on the ground details, everything from understanding what's going on with supply chains to what are the current plans for distribution of vaccines. this is really problematic. and this is something that needs to be shared now so we have time to digest all of that information and start to make plans of our own. >> you are an expert in public health. you're hitting on a few of those, but what are the areas of the covid response that you think needs most attention and most immediately as the biden team moves in? i say that against the backdrop of what we've heard from the trump team is we'll read them in when it's appropriate or all of the information that is necessary is publically available already. >> to formulate your government policy based on what is publically available on the internet or that you can read in

newspapers, that's ludicrous. there's reason why we have government experts, life long b bureaucrats who focus on these issues and that's why we need them at our disposal to make plans. the president-elect plans to invoke the defense production act, this is something we on the front lines, myself included, have been pleading for months now. we're still dealing with shortages of critical supplies, like masks and gloves and with cases surging across the country the shortage is only going to get worse. >> that's an important point and that's an important thing to note. you think that almost immediately he's going to invoke that because you think -- do you think at this point when you're talking about ppe the supplies are already strained again, we're back in crisis mode here? >> we are back in

position. what do you say to the governor? >> if you want to keep the economy open,s this the most effective tool we have at our disposal right now. it's so sad to see something so highly effective and cheap politicized. this is like politicizing toilet paper, a basic hygienic tool. >> the number of hospitalizations is concerning,

right now, 73,000. people so sick they have to be in hospital care. why is that indicator so worriso worrisome? what's the indicator that you're watching as you're advising president-elect biden. >> hospitalizations you can't make up a hospitalization. and that is something that's very concrete. so we know that there's a lot of transmission happening, people without symptoms in the community. but we have underestimated what the extent of that is because we simply are not testing everybody. when somebody comes into the hospital, that's a very concrete thing but sadly that's the tiny tip of the iceberg of the larger transmission of covid in this country right now. >> hence it will get worse before it gets better. dr. gounder a huge task in front of you thanks for coming on. >> my pleasure. the accusation against senator lindsey graham. that graham suggested they throw out legally cast ballots in the state of georgia.

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georgia's republican secretary of state leveling some serious and explosive claims against republican senator lindsey graham of south carolina. secretary brad wrath lingberger saying lindsey graham called him and said he should try to discredit ballots in georgia. a hand count is under way as we speak in georgia following president-elect joe biden's near victory in georgia. i want you to listen to how -- how the secretary talked about

this with wolf blitzer. listen. >> he asked if the ballots could be matched back to the voters, i got the sense that it implied then you could throw those out for any -- if you look at the counties with the highest frequent error of signatures. so that's the impression that i got. just an implication look hard and see how many ballots you can throw out. i think they're looking at that as part of a court case. >> manu raju is on capitol hill and also here is david challon. what are you hearing about this from senator graham, he isn't denying that he took it upon himself to call the top election official in georgia that's for sure. >> reporter: he's not denying the phone call took place, just denying the way the republican secretary of state from georgia has characterized it hp pe said, according to graham, this is a good conversation.

he denies threatening him or suggesting legal ballots should be tossed out. his argument is he is trying to understand the process and verifying signatures on mail in ballots. i said why is a south carolina senator calling the georgia secretary of state, he told me because it affects the whole nation and he's, quote, very interested in what happens. he went on to say this about the claims that he threatened the georgia secretary of state and told him to throw out the legal ballots. he said that's ridiculous. i'm trying to find out how do you verify signatures on ballots in these states that are the center of attention. it seems that georgia has some protections that maybe other states don't have where you go into the portal to get that ballot. it was a good conversation. i'm surprised to hear him verify it that way. he also said he did not -- was not told by the president to make this phone call which occurred on friday, he said he has not spoken to the president in about a week's time.

but this goes -- is consistent with the president's efforts to question the validity of these mail-in ballots as this hand recount is under way and as joe biden has been projected to win the race and looks like he's going to carry this state. republicans have been questioning the legitimacy of this. i asked lindsey graham, have you seen anything that would suggest that the results of the election should be overturned in any way? he said, he has not seen that yet but he said those are the questions he's asking. so at least acknowledging that but getting a lot of criticism for this phone call to the secretary of state. he claims it was normal business but questions about why the republican judiciary committee chairman would raise this concern with the republican secretary of state of georgia who made some of those alarming comments accusing graham of suggesting to throw out those legal ballots, kate. >> the secretary of state clearly felt very differently about that conversation, david. he is a republican.

why would he lie about this conversation? >> reporter: well, i can't think of a reason. but the question really kate is what the hell is lindsey graham doing? chairman of the judiciary committee. he thinks he's responsible for verifying, in his own word, that georgia's vote count was done properly when the person who's charged with the responsibility in executing georgia's election says there's no evidence of any kind of fraud that the recount that is under way is going to match up with the initial results that we saw with very little change in the overall vote totals. as was expected. and this onslaught, this about this, the secretary of state in georgia immediately after election day, it started with his two republican colleagues running in those georgia senate run off races calling for his resignation. his colleague that serves in the house of representatives, doug collins, who is running trump's

sort of pointless battle for getting a different vote count in georgia than the one that exists, out there just throwing stuff against the wall to see what sticks. these are his republican colleagues and now lindsey graham, who's from south carolina who as chairman of the judiciary committee has no responsibility over the way in which georgia's elections are executed is in the business now of picking up the phone and calling the secretary of state of georgia and having a conversation whether or not as manu reported he heard from the president to do that, let's be clear lindsey graham is doing the bidding in trying to create fraud where there is none that exists according to the top election official. this is other level stuff going on here. >> to state the obvious, this isn't unnamed sources. this isn't a democratic secretary of state. this isn't any of those things. this is straight up a republican top election official in the state making very clear that he

felt either threatened and he, from a conversation, had the very clear -- a clear enough impression from a conversation with lindsey graham that he felt comfortable speaking about it publicly multiple times that what lindsey graham was implying. in the midst of this recount -- this hand count that is happening right now. this isn't after the fact. this isn't a post mortem look it's in the middle of what's happening. graham inserting himself here it has obviously to do with the presidential election but is it also, i don't know, we're guessing here, but is this more possibly about the critical role that georgia now plays in who controls the fate of the senate? >> reporter: no question the two key senate races that determine the next senate majority that occurs on january 5th and democrats again are going to be relying on their voters to vote by mail. and lindsey graham since the election day has been making clear that vote by mail is

something that he is going to go after in the new congress, assuming the republicans keep the majority. he said, if the republicans keep the majority, he wants to launch an investigation to -- into how mail-in voting is conducted across the country. he has suggested potentially more federal legislation in order to curb mail-in voting and, of course, democrats had a lot of success about voting by mail, which is why republicans and the president, his allies like lindsey graham are so concerned here. kate? >> i wonder if senator graham wants to get rid of all the votes that came in for him in his successful re-election battle in south carolina. >> a great question. another question would be if a democratic senator had done the same would lindsey graham be taking the position he's taking about this right now. still ahead, u.s. military commanders now on notice, president trump will likely announce troop cuts in iraq and

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there's 64 days left in donald trump's presidency and

"the new york times" is reporting that trump is looking for a scorcher strategy on his way out the door. the times revealing that the president asked senior aides about options for a potential military strike on an iranian military site. after iran was misleading about stock piles. ultimately he was talked down, but it's not just that. also reporting that the president is ordering a draw down of troops in afghanistan and iraq in his final days in office. ryan brown is joining me from d.c. with much more on this. what are you hearing from your sources inside the pentagon about the draw down? >> reporter: u.s. military officials tell cnn they expect an official order to be received in the coming days directing the military to cut troops in afghanistan and iraq. there are 4500 troops in afghanistan and about 3,000 in

iraq. those numbers in both countries will be reduced to about 2,500. it's really afghanistan has the dramatic reduction. this comes as they've already cut the troops in afghanistan by more than 50% after a deal with the taliban, a deal many officials believe the taliban are not adhering to. now the u.s. military actually advised against this additional draw down. we know because cnn has learned that secretary of defense mark esper sent a memo to the trump white house saying that conditions on the ground in afghanistan had not been met to warrant a further reduction that trump is now pursuing, saying that u.s. military commanders in afghanistan and the middle east both agreed with his assessment. despite that recommendation, the trump administration deciding to go ahead. in fact, trump sacked his secretary of defense, mark es p

per, who wrote that memo, replacing him and several other top issues, replacing them with loyalists, some of whom have engaged in conspiracy theory. so this could constrain president-elect biden as he m c cocomes in and sets his own policy for the region. joining me now is general wesley clark. general, thank you for jumping on. i appreciate it. first i'd like to get your reaction to what we -- what "the new york times" is reporting now about president trump asking about a military strike on iran. what do you think -- he was talked down from it, but what do you think of that when you look at the point that he is in his presidency in these final days? >> i think it would be an outrageous act, really. it's true the iranians are building up low enriched uranium and it's true they always had the potential to breakout. and it's true that they're

working around the edges of the agreement. but our allies are still supporting it. and so the biden administration or the biden team has indicated a willingness to reconsider and possibly bring that agreement back together again. so a strike by the united states risks war, escalation of conflict in the region, and is also a strike against the flexibility of the biden team to reengage iran in some more constructive fashion. >> and also -- not a good idea. let me ask you what you think about this idea. cnn is reporting as you were just hearing from ryan brown about military leaders anticipating an order from the president to draw a significant number of troops from iraq and afghanistan. especially when you look at afghanistan, afghanistan is a mess. afghanistan is a complex case that is not -- it's not easy to solve with a build up of troops or a draw down of troops.

it's not easy but is president trump doing the right thing here? >> i don't think there's any strategic rationale for what president trump is doing. it's not going to facilitate negotiations, it doesn't increase the security of the afghan government or our own forces. we have a lot of civilian contractors in there, many former military, so the 2,500 number is misleading. may have 10,000 americans there. but in order to be safe you have to have intelligence, you have to have the logistics, you have to have security, you have to have some offensive capability from armed helicopters, you can call in aircraft but they're based in the area so somebody is maintaining and flying those aircraft. so there's probably a minimum force size package i'm sure that general milly and secretary esper are aware of that and that's why they didn't want to call it down. here's the other thing, this has been since 2001 a series of

policy misjudgments and missteps all along the way. and this is really all about pakistan and india and their rivalry on the subcontinent. pakistan wants afghanistan as its rear area. india wants to check that to put more pressure on pakistan. they're nuclear armed nations, the united states has never constructed an effective policy to persuade pakistan to let afghanistan alone. so the taliban all along have been supporting, to one degree or another, and guided to one degree or another by pakistan. the current peace talks are stalled. the taliban has not broken relations successfully and completely with al qaeda. this is supposed to come to a conclusion in may of 2021. so this is, no matter the troops are pulled out or not, this is a

big headache for the biden administration because as you said it's a complex situation. you can't fix it by putting 10,000 more troops in. you can't fix it by pulling all the troops out. and there's still a terrorist threat so this is a dilemma for u.s. policy makers. the basic thing is, it's easy to start a war. it's really hard to stop it on the right condition. >> absolutely right, general. but in the immediate that you're looking at, right, trump is leaving office in two months. this is biden takes over january 20th. what can the biden team do on the -- in those first days, if this draw down happens to, i don't know, mitigate negative fall out. is there a way to slow walk a draw down? >> in this case the draw down probably will be slow walked. but maybe it will be completed by then. we don't know how the military is going to respond to the guidance. we don't know exactly what the guidance says. it may be possible to surge in

some temporary reinforcements if the security of the u.s. presence there is at risk. but the biden administration is going to look at the overall situation. they're going to look at where the peace talks are, what it would take to get a successful conclusion to the peace talks. what are the positive incentives, what are the negative incentives and see if there's any way to salvage this. no leader wants to say i'm walking away, the people that supported me, yes, they took money from me, some of them were corrupt, but we give up, that's not a good way to start. and for president trump to do this is sort of 30% sort of sabotage and probably 70% like i said i was going to get this done and i'm going to get this done so when i'm out of office i can say i didn't fail on this totally. >> i tell you, general, that

doesn't add up to any recipe of success on the way out the door. that's for sure. general, thank you so much for your time. really appreciate it. coming up for us, the nation's top medical groups with an urgent plea to the trump administration right now. what they're asking for, that's ahead. your experience matters. 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. 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. if you have medicare you may be able to get more benefits without paying more through a medicare advantage plan. call now to request this free guide. learn about plans that could give you more benefits from humana. a

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this just in to cnn. some of the nation's top medical groups now pleading with president trump and his administration to step up and coordinate with the biden transition on the response to the coronavirus pandemic. in a letter just released from the american medical association and the national associations representing hospitals and nurses, they collectively write this in part, quote, all information about the capacity of the strategic national stockpile assets from operation warp speed and plans for dissemination of therapeutics needs to be shared as quickly as possible to ensure there's continuity in planning so there's no lapse in our ability to care for ashts. it's from this front line  perspective we urge you to share

data and information as soon as possible. the president of the ama has also been speaking out on other fronts. this weekend speaking out about how doctors are forced in this moment of the pandemic to wage a war on two fronts. listen to this. >> never again should physicians have to fight a war on two fronts, caring for severely ill patients in a raging pandemic while at the same time battling a public relations war that questions the legitimacy of our work and our motives. this is unacceptable. and we will not go back. >> not mincing words joining me now is dr. susan bailey, the president of the american medical association. doctor, thank you for being here. i was struck by your words that we just played there. i want to ask you that in a second but first on the letter that was just put out. why did you all feel the need in this moment to speak up like this and call on the

administration to take that step and coordinate with the biden transition? >> thank you for having me. there just isn't a moment to waste. we are in a critical portion of the pandemic where hospitalizations are beginning to skyrocket again. there are twice as many people in the hospital now as there were in september we're afraid more deaths will follow. and we need to do everything we can to make sure that information is shared in a timely manner and that we are able to utilize all the tools in our tool box to fight this pandemic. we know that unnecessary hospitalizations will result, chronic diseases will resul. unnecessary deaths will result and we'll end up with unnecessarily empty chairs at holiday tables if we don't work together soon and remind everybody that even know we're excited about new vaccines on

the horizon, the tools that we have that work now are wearing masks, washing your hands, physically distancing and avoiding indoor gatherings. >> doctor, the trump administration has said consistently since the election that information is publically available in terms of vaccine distribution, that's for sure. they also said that they will -- that they'll -- the biden transition will be brought in and briefed when the time is appropriate. but that it's not yet that time. what kind of damage is actually going to be done if the trump team doesn't work with the biden team on this front? >> as i said, we are already in a surge and if we don't stop that quickly, we will see unnecessary deaths. it's important that all information be shared. doctors, nurses, other health care workers are putting their lives on the line every day to try to save lives. and we need our leaders to work

together regardless of party affiliation to make sure that we're doing everything we can to stop this virus now. >> and to your comments from last week about how the -- the fight that doctors are having to wage, a war on two fronts as you put it, you said we will not go back. it was striking. what is the impact of having to fight a war on these two fronts? not just against the actual virus but against misinformation? >> doctors are dying out there, caring for covid-19 patients, so are nurses, so are other health care professionals. and the ones that are still working are exhausted. they're struggling. they're burned out. they're still having a hard time in some cases getting personal protective equipment. and to have to deal with that type of unbearable stress and pressure and then realize that there are folks out there that

are challenging your ethics to take care of your patients that are questioning the science and the data that you're using to make your decisions it's incredibly demoralizing and this war on two fronts is simply intolerable. we need to work together to fight the coronavirus. we don't need to be fighting against ourselves. >> it can't go unsaid that, you know, one of the persons pushing this misinformation is the president himself. the impact of that. >> well, it's -- we've been fighting disinformation and misinformation from many different aspects during the pandemic. we think it's important to listen to our public health officials, to listen to the science, and to the data and all work together. we're really all on the same side when it comes to the coronavirus. we want to fight it and we want this pandemic to end as soon as it can. >> that's the most important reminder we are on the same side

on this one. thank you for being here, doctor. >> thank you. coming up next. despite set back after set back, president trump continues his legal fight against the election results. coming up new reporting on why he's doing it. he needed his insurance to get it done right, right away. usaa. what you're made of, we're made for. usaa and let me tell you something, usaa. what you're made of, we're made for. i wouldn't be here if i thought reverse mortgages took advantage of any american senior, or worse, that it was some way to take your home. it's just a loan designed for older homeowners, and, it's helped over a million americans. a reverse mortgage loan isn't some kind of trick to take your home. it's a loan, like any other. big difference is how you pay it back.

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nine cases friday, challenging the election, were denied or dropped. four cases yesterday also dropped. cnn has learned when president trump found out his attorneys were dropping a lawsuit in arizona, he was surprised according to sources, so much he summoned members of the team to the oval office, demanded to know why it appeared they were giving up the fight. the strategy appears to be

designed to cede conspiracy theories, maintain power over the republican party, delegitimize the republican party. good to see you, jim. let's get to it. if these are goals of the president in the final two months, what should the biden team be doing? if this was 2008, what would you be talking about internally? >> i think biden is doing what he should do, focus on his day to day job, talking to the american public about what he wants to do as president. focusing on the economy, focusing on covid and allowing president trump to sort of be out there delegitimizing himself. biden doesn't want to get in another fight. the country went through a campaign, elected democrats to run the house and white house and republicans to run the

senate. what does that say? they want everyone to work together. that's the opposite of what president trump is doing. long term, that's what the american public will see. >> if you look at the moves throughout the hour from the president in final moments, preparing to draw down troops, asking about military strike options against iran, selling oil leases in the wildlife refuge, looking at aggressive measures towards china to box in biden, if you're in the transition and watching this play out, what can you do about it? how easily can this be undone come january 20th. >> well, most of it can be undone. it was amazing, the opposite of what president bush did. he bent over backwards to make sure we were ready and worked closely with us. instead, trump is doing everything he can to undermine biden. most things he is going to do can be undone with executive orders. some of it will be a pain. it is all doable, all just a

distraction from a cranky guy who is upset he lost. >> when you say it is a distraction, but biden is doing the right thing keeping a steady hand on it, at some point the administration is not coordinating with the transition does go on too long, does become a problem. what point does that start to worry you? >> when the electoral college meets, after december 14th, if he continues this, then there's no grounds, then it really just is ridiculousness. i think the republican party is babying him, saying we need to let him slowly get to this. to your point, at some point we need to grow up and realize this is the united states. as your previous guest said, we are really in this together. we are americans and at some point we have to coordinate and get ready for the new incoming

administration that walks in historic challenges. >> what will you say, again, this is hypothetical, if trump decides to not take part in the inauguration. history will judge him harshly. 44 presidents in a row have done the right thing here. if he is going to do this, he will continue to burn his own legacy down, and it's all okay. >> there are so many days and it will feel like probably four years in the 64 days left before the transition happens. good to see you, jim. talk to you soon. still ahead, coronavirus hospitalizations at an all-time high, forcing governors and mayors across the country to enact stricter and stricter regulations. that's ahead. while keeping your business growing has you swamped. (♪ ) you need to hire i need indeed indeed you do. the moment you sponsor a job on indeed

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top of the hour, hello to viewers in the united states and around the world. john king in washington. thank you for sharing your day with us. a new warning from dr. fauci, vaccines can get the country out of the pandemic but not right now. >> there's light at the end of the tunnel. help is on the way. a vaccine should not help you make a decision, we will have a vaccine so we don't have to do anything else. the fact we have a vaccine means hang in there, help is on the way, which would motivate us to