at the president has fired this top election official, a continuation, and the scorched-earth policy he's implemented since lieus. chris krebs gone. he released a statement recently -- no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes or was in any way compromised. that flies in the face of the president's false claim that the election was rigged and dominated by widespread voter fraud that actually was not. >> chris crebs said the election was secure. so i think that's all feeds why he's in there and there's a loyalty purge going on in the last month in the white house. >> in michigan, a couple

republican election officials were trying to -- they refused first to certify the vote in wayne county. why wayne county? it went heavily for joe biden. he gave joy join michigan, and to let the voters be heard, for their votes to count. those election officials ultimately relented. >> well, the law is clear and the vote was overwhelming. joe biden won michigan by 14 times the number of votes that donald trump won michigan in 2016. we had a full, free fair and secure election. the will of the people will stand, and i think, you know, we have to go into this, of course, bracing ourselves for more shenanigans, but at the end of the gale, the will of the people will be respected. joe biden won michigan. >> now, there's also news today on the trump strategy in wisconsin. the trump campaign saying it will pay for a recount in two

heavily democratic counties. we'll have more on that ahead. republicans in wayne county did not wasn't to certify the results. they ended up flip flopping. one of the local officials was city clerk susan nash she called into the elections board meeting last night with a passionate message. >> i am so serious right now that you are not calling this election. the citizens of wayne county deserve better than this. the clerks of wayne county deserve better than this. the staff, the teams that worked -- >> your time has expired. >> -- deserve better. thank you. >> i'm joined now by city clerk susan nash. thanks for being with us today. what happened last night? >> it was unprecedented.

i couldn't believe it. first of all the meeting -- >> okay. i think unfortunately susan, i'm having a hard time with your connection right now. let me see if i can -- can you tell us what happened last night? >> i can tell you that they weren't going to certify. they were saying that the votes -- that there was some discrepancies, and there were, most of them were human error, nothing that would have changed any election, any results anywhere. it's not something that is new. it's something that has happened before. so to all of a sudden yesterday to say we're not going to certify this election, it was a -- it was just such a slap in the face. and as a clerk -- when i say clerk, i mean my whole team. we worked since january 1st for election today. we had a presidential primary in

march, an august primary, and then the election day in november. in the midst of this we also have covid. we have been working all year for this, and so have every other clerk's office. to have the canvassers say, no, we're not going to certify, it was just awful. the voters deserved better. as a clerk, that's my responsibility. how they vote is their responsibility, but my responsibility is to the voters. a lot of people spoke up s what do you do when you -- i mean, you have board members who can hold this up, who can stop this from proceeding. it's like an honor system, there's a lot of voters who are frustrated by that if people are not going to be honorable. they can gum up all the works.

>> they could be any more frustrated than i was last night's a clerk. they deserve it. they deserve to have their votes, their voices heard. we did everything we could for them, for the voters to be heard. they deserve to have whatever the outcome is. it doesn't matter to me. my responsibility is to the 81,000 registered voters in the ski. i take my oath of it office seriously. it was very upsetting for me to have this decision. to go forward, i don't know what -- there has to be some reform in someway when you have a board that's 2-2. >> what would that look like? what would a reform look like that could stop people from certifying an election that is legitimate? >> i don't know. i don't know. they're going to have to go through the legislators, maybe work with the secretary of state, jocelyn benson, and she

can reach out to the clerks in michig michigan. we are local clerks run election, and we work with the county clerks. so between the secretary of state, the county clerks and local clerks, maybe we can come up with something. it's the county clerk that runs the canvass. so they have worked the last two weeks tirelessly, 12, 14, 15 hour days, trying to get this ready to be certified yesterday. >> i'm glad you brought up your team, susan, your team is very emblematic of teams all across the country who are people behind the scenes, carrying out elections. we've gotten to know much more about them in this election than any other previous one. some of their efforts have been

maligned. how are you all holding up? >> we were a little tired. unfortunately i had to go into quarantine last week. a member of my family did test positive. i tested negative, but i had to be in quarantine. i'm still in it. it's kind of difficult, two weeks after an election, for a clerk to be in quarantine, but i trust in everybody that's part of the team back at city hall. they'll make sure that everything is done correctly. they have worked so hard to do this. we have gotten to hospitals to deliver ballots. we've got to nursing homes, gone to homes of covid patients to make sure they had ballots. we have walked ballots out and done curbside for an elderly or handicap resident. we've made sures they've gotten registered, made sure they have gotten ballots. this is a normal, everyday occurrence in a clerk's office. we're nothing special than the

other jurisdictions. >> i think you're all special, susan. thank you so much for joining us. we hope your family is doing as well as you join us from quarantine. thank you. >> we are. we're hanging in. thank you. keep hanging in there. election day, it was more than two weeks ago now. the trump administration is still refusing to say joe biden is president-elect. the money that biden needs for his white house transition is being held up because of that. cnn's kristin holmes is joining me now. gsa administrator emily murphy is in charge of this. , to biden's transition team. tell us. >> yeah, that's right. emily murphy is a trump accomplice cal appointee. this is the general services administration that has to sign

off on an election for several things to happen. we have talked to several people, who say that emily is struggling. she has received death threats from democrats and republicans, but she believes she's following precede precedent. the only time that gsa took over this role that has been a candidate that refused to concede is in 2000. when president bush and al gore were waiting for the recount. she believes even though she's following this precedent. we have spoken to many, as well as the gsa administrator in the clinton administration, who all say this is a completely different scenario. they say that biden has crossed the threshold to be the president. so the big question now is, what

exactly is going to put murphy over the tipping point? we have seen court case after court case get thrown out to make this final decision. >> i also know you're tracking another story. this has to do with what the trump administration is telling hhs staffers behind the scenes. >> now we're learning that some staffers were instructed if they were contacted by biden's team, they are not to have any communication, and they are to report that communication up to a superior. again, during a pandemic at a time in which there are millions of people's lives at risk. now, it's not immediately clear how many people got in guidance. we did reach out to hhs, who said we should reach out to the general services administration, who has not made their decision yet and not gotten back to us on this. >> kristin, thank you so much. such important reporting. as the trump administration

ignores reality, coronavirus is raging. governors are stepping in to fill the voight. we're going to check in on michigan where the governor has announced a three-week lockdown. pfizer announces its vaccine is 95% effective. we have details. and the two senate runoffs heating up in georgia. more than $125 million have already been spent. control of congress hangs in the balance here. you are watching c's live special coverage.

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promising trial results saying they are just days away from filing for emergency use authorization. this vaccine is not going to come soon enough for thousands upon thousands of americans who will die before a first dose can even be administered. we've been averaging 1100 deaths a day for the last week. the sea of orange on this map shows the more than 40 states seeing a rising trend in new infections. this means they're see more cases in the past week than the week before. the country also hid a new high for hospital sykesings. there are nearly 77,000 people hospitalized right now battling covid. this out-of-control virus is forcing governors to step in. they are rising to the challenge, issuing tougher restrictions. cnn's sara sidner is in grand rapids, michigan, where the governor just announced a

three-week pause. tell us what that means. restrictions have not always been well received there. >> reporter: that's right. the governor here today is the first day of what she was dubbed the three-week pause. that tells you they have to go back to some restriction that had happened very much earlier in the year that caused a lot of vitriol. she had an alleged kidnap plot, because those allegedly involved felt these restrictions were tie r tie rann tyrannical. others say thank you for keep michigan safe. if you look at coronavirus case in michigan and what has happened, look how they have zoomed up so high, higher than

they have seen even before, and this is really disturbing in part because not only more people getting it. their positivity rate is at more than 13% over a seven-day period. they want that rate to be at 3%. so look at that gap there. we're talking more than a 10% gap of people testing positive for coronavirus when we go to get that test. here's the real deal. the hospitalizations are also up. when you have hospitalizations up, you are also going to see thor death numbers up. look at the hospitalizations compared to when this virus was first really detected, and had taken hold in the united states. to now you're see the u-shaped curve. that is what the governor is trying to deal with. she tries to bring the numbers down along with the health officials. there's a lot of different fields here. not just to the elderly, but to others as well, who are

following all the rules. you also have businesses who are really, really struggling, and one of those businesses is the restaurant industry, which has been told you can no longer have indoor dining. they're pushing back, saying, look, we're taking all these precautions. we have to do this in order to stay solvent. some are saying, look, the restaurant association is saying, look, we're suing the state, because we believe we can do this safely. there are other places that are closed like high schools and colleges, they're going to online learning again. there's just a lot of frustration here, but there's fear here if they don't get this under control, they will see many, many more deaths before the end of all of this. sara sidner, thank you so much. i want to get to the specifics on pfizer's vaccine candidate, announcing via a nut release that it's 95% effective.

of the participants who came down with covid, 10 got severely sick. of those, one was only taking the vaccine the others were taking a placebo. joining me now is dr. ary yen bur rows. what stood out to you? i also want to put the caveat. this sunday the raw data, this is a press release. from what you can see, what do you think? >> based on what pfizer has released, it looks very, very promising. one of the things i was looking to see is if they had tested it in elder , so -- it seems like at least based on what they have sent out, they have tested, and they did fairly well.

>> this vaccine actually uses some new technology. so far no major safety issues. what about long term? do you have any concerns about what we could see over time as we sometimes do with new medicines? >> sure. so for your viewers, this particular vaccine, as well as one that moderna is working on, is using a different type of the dna of the virus. it's actually call messenger rna. there are no current vaccines that use messenger rna. it will be a bit different. it's definitely a new product. but i will tell people who are watching that the fda is going to definitely vet these vaccines to make sure they're safe. >> i want you to listen to rick bright. he's the pandemic adviser to president-elect biden. bright, of course, was ousted

from the trump administration as vaccine chief and then resigned citing the administration's disregard for scientific expertise. he says president trump is hindering the nation's recovery by refusing to give access to biden's team. let's listen. >> we haven't had any official contact between the transition team coming in and the current administration. it is really setting us back. we don't want to have to step back, rewrite a plan, fix the communication gap or do anything. we want to keep running and as efficiently as possible to make sure americans get the vaccine so they become available. >> do you have worries that the incoming administration is being handicapped, and therefore the country is being handicapped is being ability to get this vaccine out in the way they need to? >> i do. you know, i think that our -- the current administration needs to stop treating this as a

political issue. it's a public health issue, and as a provider of patient care to elderly population, and someone who has had covid, we need to have that information available to as many as possible so we can do what we can to stem this pandemic. we're about to witness right the greatest rise in coronavirus cases from this point going forward. we need to make sure hef all hands on detect. >> dr. burrows, thank you. up next, iowa senator chuck grassley tested positive, one day after speaking on the senate floor without a mask. plus president-elect joe biden is narrowing his list for hhs secretary. it's a key role in the fight against the coronavirus. we're back in a moment.

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positive for coronavirus. grassley is 87. that puts him in a vulnerable category. he spoke from minutes. he tweeted later, feeling good. i will work from home and look forward to resuming my normal schedule soon. his infection is raising new questions about the safety in the senate and not just for the safety of the senators. on monday alaska republican dan sullivan was presiding over the chamber. that is when sherrod brown opened his remarks by asking sullivan to put on his mask. >> i start by asking the presiding office to please wear a mask as he speaking and people below him, i can't tell you what to do, but i know that the behavior -- >> i don't wear a mask when i'm speaking, like most senators i

don't need your instruction. >> i know you don't need my instruction, but there clearly isn't much new jersey body in public health. this is what senator cruz tweeted. he said it was idiotic, that brown wears a mask to speak when no one is near near him. dan sullivan was 50 feet away. cruz, of course omitting a key fact there, that sullivan, look, he's within spitting distance of several staffers. senator brown pointed out there are others off-camera that are exposed. >> every time a senator stands up and speak there's a senate stenographer about six feet away, and senators who don't wear a mask are putting them at

risk. indeed is sounded like a kid being told to eat his vegetables. >> they just can't help themselves on their desire to want to lecture people on these issues, whether it's lecturing other u.s. senators or working families. i think it's a put-off. we'll get through these challenges, but to be lectured and preached to is something that i think is not -- i certainly didn't appreciate it. >> let's pause here to remind you. a senator spoke monday on the senate floor without a mask. on tuesday tested positive for the coronavirus. several senators have tested positive in recent months, disproportionately republican, yet these what dan sullivan

says. >> the senate should be showing the rest of the country that yes, we can work through the pandemic safely and still get the work of the country done. >> he says the senate should be showing the american people that it's still safe to work. well, the senate is showing the american people something. it's showing us what doctors and medical experts have been warning us for months not to do. it is a teachable moment, because it's a cautionary tale. ahead in north dakota the governor just issued a mask mandate i'll be speaking to the hospital of a hospital there who's building a covid -- plus trump campaign lawyers filed an official petition for a recount in ko counties in wisconsin. here how the biden team is responding, next. apps are used everywhere...

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we have some breaking news just into cnn. new york city schools are going

to start closing. they're going to be closing starting tomorrow. there are test positivity rates on the brink of 3% there, which is the key threshold as a second wave is developing. if any city knows, it's new york city. so tell us what let to this decision, bianna. >> it was a big setback for the city. so for those 300,000 that were in person learning, the mayor sent out a tweet. he said -- new york city has reached the 3% testing positive legitimate seven-day average threshold. unfortunately this means buildings will be closed tomorrow out an abundance of caution. we must fight back. the school chancellor sent a

similar e-mail to principals throughout the city. a really big setback for the city as well. even though we have seen a rise in positivity rates, we have not seen schools the vectors that many were concerned about. they're not the super spreaders. in fact the most recent data showed that just 1.7% tested positive through pool testing. the reason the mayor had said earlier he would be setting this 3% threshold was this was the arrangement he made with the unions. however, he says that he will look back and see if they can change that threshold, if there's any way to navigate a different threshold, giving the information they now now. there had been a lot of frustration today, because there had been a 10:30 a.m. press

conference. that never happened. four hours later, people had been waiting, and the governor had his own press conference. a lot of conflicting data. no one wanted to make the final decision until just now. parents will have to reorganize their schedules to have their children at home for the next few days at least. this is a big concern. if you think of the way that european countries are handling this, they are prioritizing keeping schools open throughout the second wave. a lot of people questioning why is in-radio many dining at restaurants still available when school children will be kept at home. so we'll be following this story, with a big setback. >> thank you. you've been doing great work tracking this. thank you. active cases have doubled in

north dakota, with a report number of hospitalization. sanford health bismarck is opening a covid 20-bed unit. doctor lebeau, you say that the opening of the facility should be a wake-up call. thanks for joining us, and tell us why. >> yeah, we've been working hard on figuring out how to work together as a state, as we look at current hospital beds, we're at a shortfall, so we're all working together to try to get new beds online. as far as a wake-up call, this is obviously nonextra disk at medicine, close to our footprint, but it's a separate building, with you we're opening up essential at will work. we hope it gets everybody's attention and really speaks to the need or importance of

limiting the spread. >> so, you know, when exactly is it opening? and can you just tell you how it's going to work? so, for starters, it's an old surgical building. there's three operating room and then a recovery room. we're going to take the recovery room first, and a ward with possibly ten beds, and then plan using the operating room for ten beds. it's about two blocks from our hospital. we are looking on the operational details real time. a group of about 40 people plus the entire corporation is -- it's been an aggressive plan. we are standing up an empty building in one week, so it takes a lot of people a lot of effort to get this done.

as far as who is there, we plan on moving our stable covid patients, and really i think that gives us just more flexibility as we take care of, you know, the rush of folks coming in. so this is like an annex a couple blocks from your medical -- your normal medical facility. so it sounds like the people, when you say they're stable, are those folks vonot on ventilator? >> correct. our plan is to take our stablest folks and use our special unit there, and we are working on icu capacity as well. this -- we hope this will off-load some of our current operations in our hospital and give us the ability to increase icu beds as well. >> well, doctor, thank you so much for being with us. it sounds like you're getting very creative. the good news is people across

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cnn has just learned that the trump campaign is seeking a partial recount in wisconsin, but it only involves two

counties, and they are both in democratic strongholds. cnn's jeff zeleny is following this for us. the trump campaign filed all of its paperwork moments ago. is there anything you can tell us about it at this point? >> reporter: well, they did file their paperwork and they are asking for a recount in two counties alone, the largest in the state. milwaukee and dayne county. they made claims of mistakes and fraud, but did not give any specific examples of mistakes or fraud. so this is one of the latest examples we have seen. i will point out that joe biden now has one about almost 21,000 or more so votes in the state of wisconsin, about the same margin that donald trump won over hillary clinton four years ago, so it's not a margin necessarily, but four years ago there was a recount in that race

produced by jill stein, 131 votes were affected overall, added to the president's tally. so that's how many votes in a statewide recount were impacted. there is no suggestion or evidence that there will be enough votes to be found in the recount of the two counties. the law allows the recount and they had to make >> and even though there is a lack of cooperation from the trump administration, president-elect biden's transition team is trying to push ahead with transition planning, and he actually just wrapped up a virtual roundtable with health care workers. he's warning that this delay could have real impacts on the covid response. tell us about this. >> reporter: brianna, he is doing exactly that. look, there is a growing reality settling in among most republicans in washington and even inside the white house, but the president still has not directed or allowed his general services administration, that

obscure federal agency, to ascertain the outcome of the election. that means transition funding is being withheld, and even more importantly, they're not allowed to have meetings between the biden advisers and the trump advisers. this matters the most on the planning of the vaccine, the distribution of the vaccine. a short time ago, the president-elect was speaking to health care workers on the front line. he said this about why his team needs access. >> soon we're going to be behind by weeks or months being able to put together the whole initiative relating to the biggest promise we have with two drug companies coming along and finding 95% effectiveness efficiency in the vaccine, which is enormous promise. i just want to tell you that that's the only slowdown right now. >> >> reporter: he's calling it a slowdown. he's also called it a matter of

life and death, and his advisers certainly speaking in much louder tones than that, imploring the governor to begin allowing this access. brianna, we are talmost two wees since the election was projected and still no movement from inside the gsa. the agency secretary said, look, we're not going to cooperate it until the gsa makes us ascertain it. all of this sits in the hands of the president who we still have not seen yet today, brianna. >> jeff zeleny, live for us from wilmington, thank you. next we're going to georgia where the wrap-up of votes are. and the two georgia senate races that are capturing a lot of attention and a lot of cash. home instead. to us, it's personal.

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georgia is on track to finish an audit of its election results today where cnn predicts joe biden will win. biden is now leading trump by more than 12,000 votes, and that is according to the republican secretary of state's office there in georgia. our cnn national correspondent kyung lah is with us now. kyung, tell us what the latest is. what's happening with this audit? >> reporter: the latest we're hearing from the top voting managers in the state are that they are on track to finish this hand audit, this hand count by 11:59 p.m. tonight. that is ahead of the state deadline for certification of the vote, and that deadline is

on friday. and of the counties that have already completed this audit, they haven't found anything unusual. it is typical that during a vote and if there is an audit or recount that you come across minor discrepancies. but as far as any whole-scale changes or anything large or widespread, brianna, not happening. the results are not expected to change here in georgia, brianna. >> and right now, after this is done, it's not like we're going to stop watching georgia. the whole country is watching georgia for the two senate runoff races there. more than $125 million have already been spent on ads, and we still have six weeks to go here. is georgia feeling the pressure with so much at stake? >> reporter: absolutely. you hear it from the voters, you certainly sense it from the campaigns. you mentioned that figure $125 million. that really speaks to how much is at stake. it is control of the senate, the

levers of government here, on whether or not -- which party will be able to control the senate. and so what we saw is a bit of an unusual ad, a joint ad from the republicans. take a look. >> if democrats win the two runoff elections in georgia, republicans lose control of the senate. this means radical liberal policies like the green new deal, medicare for all and defunding our police could become a reality. that's why i need your help. please visit gabattleground.com and donate so republicans win the georgia runoff. >> i'm david perdue. >> and i'm kelly loeffler. >> and we approve this message. >> reporter: so the message absolutely clear there, a joint message from the republican incumbent senators. we're seeing it on the campaign trail and joint appearances from republicans, but also on the democratic side from challengers jon ossoff and raphael warnick,

and we're hearing from ossoff attacking david perdue for deciding to skip the debate. here's jon ossoff. >> perdue is chicken. if david perdue doesn't want to answer questions in public about his record and debate his opponent, that's fine, he just shouldn't run for re-election to the u.s. senate. >> reporter: and, again, he is talking about senator david perdue. senator kelly loeffler has said she will show up at the debate to debate her democratic challenger, reverend warnick, and as far as what the people holding this debate are going to do, brianna, they decided to put an empty podium if senator perdue does not show. brianna? >> that would incentivize him. that would be very embarrassing. kyung lah, thank you so much for

your coverage from atlanta. our continued coverage will start right now with brooke baldwin. all right, we'll take it. i'm brooke baldwin. thank you so much for being with me. you're watching cnn. he may be on his way out and we may not be seeing very much of him these days, but the president is not going quietly and he's not doing anything about the pandemic oren shu ensa peaceful transition of power, and yes, he is still fighting the election results as biden's lead continues to grow. and the president's reaction seems to be firing anyone who disagrees with him. the latest today, a senior homeland security official who refuted his unfounded claims of voter fraud. i'm talking about chris krebs. he is out of a job today, much like the president come january. as the chaos ensues at the white house, president-elect joe biden is full steam ahead and gearing up for the most pressing battle at hand, defeating this