realize and be very clear about what's going on, and kate, one other republican, steve shabbat on the house judiciary committee said the legal strategy sort of sucks. >> to sum it up. good to see you. thanks for joining me. dana bash picks up our coverage right now. hello to viewers in the united states and around the world. i am dana bash in washington where we are at a very precarious moment. the president's morning tweets suggest we are moving towards a constitutional crisis. hoax and rigged are how the president continues to describe a fair and clear election outcome, but today it goes even further. he is now actively seeking to overturn results by any means, including summoning local officials to the white house. the president's conspiracy mongering is an object of his attention but it's not the only thing that perhaps he should be worried about. the biggest is the virus that is

raging all over this country, the one that he still leads. the vice president led a public coronavirus task force briefing yesterday, the first in months. and the message from the doctors is that we are in a dangerous moment that requires vigilance. the numbers underline the life or death stakes of the next few months. thursday, 187,000 new cases, a record setting pandemic total, and 2,000 american deaths. 80,000 americans are in hospitals with the virus, and dr. anthony fauci says that number will explode if americans don't rethink their thanksgiving plans. >> take a look at your family and say do i have a person there who is an elderly person, a person with an underlying medical condition that might put them at increased risk of a severe outcome if they infected. >> today, the drug maker pfizer says it will apply for an

emergency use authorization for its covid-19 vaccine. the hope is that some doses will be ready by december. but when the vaccine will be available for everyone is a top line concern, one made bigger by the delay in transitioning to the new administration. >> so there's been no slow down because you can't communicate with biden's transition team? >> absolutely not. clear, concise guidance. get safe and effective vaccines to the american people. >> the president's election denial hovers over the whole government but the challenge itself is spiraling, the bumbling nature of the mission includes error filled legal filings, no actual assertion of widespread fraud in court, and rudy giuliani had a rambling and evidence free press conference that caused alarm, even among trump's closest allies. the latest set back to the president's case, concrete

confirmation he lost georgia. >> like other republicans, i'm disappointed our candidate didn't win georgia's electoral votes. close election so distressed. people feel their side was cheated. i live by the motto that numbers don't lie. as secretary of state, i believe that the numbers that we have presented today are correct. >> numbers don't lie from somebody who supported president trump early on. and the intrigue and alarm today surrounds a white house meeting that some say may actually break the law. >> shame on you! shame on you! shame on you! >> that's jeering this morning at the airport as senior michigan lawmakers arrive here in washington. one lawmaker and another senior michigan republican will meet with the president today at the white house. the face to face is part of the president's campaign to subvert

the election outcome in michigan and elsewhere. let's get straight to the white house and kaitlan collins is there. you're learning more information, not just michigan lawmakers the president is trying to bring to the white house to have discussions about getting rid of election outcomes. >> reporter: that's right. they're the only ones that have gotten invitations. we are told there are discussions about doing the same in other states, one at the top of the president's list is pennsylvania. that's a consideration that apparently has been under way here, that the president has been discussing. we don't think those invitations have been extended based on what we heard from republicans in pennsylvania, but dana, this is a brazen step by the president to invite this delegation of republican state leaders in michigan here to the white house this afternoon. white house officials are not saying much about what's going to happen at the meeting or what the president's message will be. it is not a meeting on his official schedule, but we think it will take place later on this

afternoon. this is part of a broader effort where the president is grasping at everything he can to try to overturn results of the election, though it never seemed likely he would do that, it is only getting more and more unlikely by the day. you saw them waiting on votes to come in in places like arizona and nevada, then pursuing litigation, lost a dozen court cases so far. now of course the president is taking this extra step by inviting people to the white house, hoping they could potentially appoint pro-trump electors, have them override what voters in places like michigan have said where biden has a margin of 150,000 votes. those are really the questions the white house is facing. i am in the briefing room, somewhere we haven't been in a long time, dana. we haven't gotten a briefing from the press secretary since october 1st. yesterday we were in here when the vice president and task force took no questions. it has been this broader pattern of people in the federal government refusing to take

questions because of course they don't want to talk about the president's attempts to overturn results of the election. >> we'll see if we get factual answers to your questions which will no doubt be right on. kaitlan, thank you for that reporting. today, evidence of a clear and growing fracture in the republican party, between those who bolster the president's conspiracy theory and those who are beginning to acknowledge reality in public the way they have in private. a growing number of republican senators say it is the president's duty to start the transition. this from senator lamar alexander who is retiring. he put this out this morning saying if there is any chance whatsoever that joe biden will be the next president, and looks like he has a very good chance, the trump administration should provide the biden team with all transition materials, resources, meetings necessary to ensure a smooth transition so that both sides are ready on day one. let's get straight to capitol

hill and cnn's lauren fox. lauren, you heard or saw that from lamar alexander, the beginning of the statement, looks like joe biden may be president of the united states. he is going to be. even he retiring feels he needs to couch what he is saying which is start the transition process. i am told there are a handful of republican senators who saw what happened yesterday, the combination of the guiliani press conference and michigan meddling, and there's growing alarm and they're talking about ways to break their silence and be more forceful in a way that is effective with a mer cure yal president. what are you hearing on capitol hill from republicans. >> reporter: i think in the last 24 hours, we started to see the dam break with really the rank and file members. remember that leadership, they're in sort of a different position here. we have not heard from mcconnell telling the president to concede at this point. of course, he has his eyes on

that very important election, two elections in georgia coming in january. dana, i want to read some of the rank and file comments we've had. there are alarming ones. this one from mitt romney, a republican from utah saying it is difficult to imagine a worse, more undemocratic action by a sitting american president. senator ben sasse. obviously rudy and his buddies should not pressure electors to ignore certification obligations under the statute. we are a nation of laws, not tweets. senator joniernst, saying there was a conspiracy democrats and republicans were involved in, she said to insinuate that republicans and democratic candidates paid to throw off this election i think is absolutely outrageous, and i do take offense to that. senator dan sullivan. they have a high bar to make and they have to prove it in court. representative fred upton said, quote, no one has seen any real identification of any real fraud. i think it's all said and done.

and a few moments ago, i talked to representative greg walden who told me while he thinks the president has a right to pursue his legal strategy in court, he said at this point he is not very impressed with that legal strategy and ultimately it will be good for the republican party to get this behind them. dana? >> yeah. not impressed is a very diplomatic way to say what i'm sure you're hearing behind the scenes from republicans that they're baffled by the attempt to pursue this in court because it seems to be kind of a keystone cop situation. lauren, thank you so much for that. the president's election defiance is an affront to voters and puts joe biden in a tough spot, unable to fully begin his transition, as of now, unwilling to pursue legal action to force the president to start transfer of power. thursday, the president-elect gave his most direct condemnation of the president's

actions. >> let me choose my words here. i think we are witnessing incredible irresponsibility, incredibly damaging messages being sent to the rest of the world about how democracy functions. i don't know his motive, but i think it is totally irresponsible. >> joining the conversation, chief correspondent for "the washington post," dan balls. thank you for coming on. i was told that the president is telling his allies that his resistance is in part retribution against democrats that never considered him legitimate as a president, and my colleague goloria bore injur, trump has been heard from a multitude of friends who have urging him to at least let the transition begin. dan, you are plugged in in this town.

what are you hearing from sources about the president's actions or lack thereof? >> well, i think the president's actions are quite clear based on the way he is operating. i think this is much larger than whether the transition starts this week or next week or in a couple of weeks. i think this has much more to do with what's in his head at this point which seems to be an effort to delegitimize the biden presidency. this is not just a short term battle that's raging now. obviously it is raging now, but this is a potentially longer term fight that he wants to undertake. i think everything that he is doing points in that direction. so this is something that is likely to continue even after biden takes the oath of office in january. >> as you know and everybody knows at this point the president's legal team held a marathon news conference yesterday, led by rudy giuliani. let's listen to part of it and talk about it on the other side.

>> you cannot allow these crooks, because that's what they are, to steal an election from the american people. they elected donald trump. they didn't elect joe biden. >> so there's absolutely no evidence to match what rudy giuliani just said, we want to make that very clear. the recently fired homeland security official in charge of election security, a trump official, said the following in a tweet, said the most dangerous one hour and 45 minutes of television he called that press conference, the most dangerous one hour, 45 minutes of television he has seen in his life. i am hearing from senate sources that the press conference and unprecedented meeting we're going to see at the white house later today of michigan lawmakers who he is trying to coordinate with somehow to undermine the election results there, even though it doesn't seem he has an avenue to do that, but that this might

finally cause republicans to speak out even more aggressively. what are you hearing from republicans? >> well, i mean, dana, if this doesn't begin to turn republicans, we all know privately many of them are, whether alarmed or truly alarmed, they see what's happening but they also recognize as they have shown throughout his presidency that there is tremendous cost of confronting him directly on these things. that's why only a handful of people, some of whom have spoken out loudly about him in the past like mitt romney who voted to convict him during impeachment trial, those are voices he heard before and dismisses those. but it will take much more and bigger volume of republicans to have any influence on him, if even that has much influence on him. i just don't think he's in a position where he's paying attention to that kind of thing. the press conference that rudy

giuliani held yesterday was as chris krebs said totally alarming. the allegations he threw out, again, as you said without any shred of evidence are among the most bald faced allegations made about an election in the history of this country, and if republicans can't begin to step up in a more direct way, then you have to say what's the future of the republican party. what will this country be even after trump leaves office, doesn't leave the scene. >> you're exactly right. i don't know that anybody will have an impact on him at this point. it is a question of them putting themselves on the right side of history on the record finally after four years of not doing that for the most part. speaking history, quickly, michael besh laush has a quote taking the long view, frames the current moments in a way that's rattling, frankly, saying that

this is a president abusing his very great powers to try to stay in office, even though it's obvious to everyone that he has been defeated in the polls. i don't want to be an alarmist, but i do think it is our job as citizens to keep watch on every one of these things with an eye to the ultimate dread of the founders which is that a president rejected by voters would use his powers to try to stay in office anyway. your thoughts on that. >> i think michael as always is right on point on this. this many is an abuse of his power and i think over the next 50 plus, 60 days between now and january 20th, he can do great damage. we've seen moves that he has made, whether at the pentagon or firing christopher krebs or anything like that, he has more time to do that, in essence to kind of lay waste to the executive branch in advance of biden coming in and having to take over. i mean, he can kind of poison

the atmosphere for joe biden as he becomes the next president of the united states. it is a great abuse of power and i think people, most people recognize that and republicans need to recognize it in a more substantial and volume way. >> very well said as always. dan balz, good to talk to you, get your reporting and insights. have a good weekend. and up next, dr. sanjay gupta joins me to talk about his exclusive interview with dr. deborah birx. and to show how important the two georgia senate runoff races are, look who made an appearance at a rap battle watched around the world. >> this is stacey abrams. we can make sure everyone shows up to vote. we have two senators to make sure we have covid response and stimulus money coming back to georgia. >> that's right. we got you, baby. let's get it. we going to stand up for you.

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every day now we get a new reminder the coronavirus pandemic is not under control in america. cases are surging at a disturbing clip. nearly 188,000 new cases added yesterday. that's a record, a record broken 17 times just this month. more than 80,000 people were sick enough to be admitted to a hospital yesterday, and that's another broken record. in 13 states, hospitalizations have never been higher. and here is the most painful of all those painful statistics, the deaths of more than 2,000 americans were reported yesterday. that's 2,000 americans in one day alone. that's the highest number since may. covid-19 has now killed more than 252,000 americans and counting. and institute for health metrics and evaluation at the university of washington now projects that

the number will grow to 471,000 americans by march. at this moment of unprecedented crisis, the white house coronavirus task force did have a briefing yesterday, but didn't take any questions from reporters. it was the first time we saw them in months. but task force coordinator dr. deborah birx did speak exclusively with chief medical correspondent dr. sanjay gupta. >> was this a failure in this country? i mean, did you expect it to go this way? >> i always worry when we have an outcome that none of us want and none of us wanted. did we miss a communication, did we say it the wrong way, and i think really that's part of the reason why i went out into the states is really understand what they were hearing when we were speaking and really being in a dialogue and a partnership to really understand how we could do this better together. >> dr. sanjay gupta joins me

now. you're wearing a mask, so you didn't have to keep a straight face when she said did we miss a communication, how about wear a mask from the president of the united states, but that's me talking for the record, not you. but the white house has faced a lot of criticism to say the least, rightly so, about how they communicated or not communicated throughout this crisis. what was your take away from your conversation with dr. birx? >> well, you know, she's so careful, you've seen. this is the most candid i have seen her. no one likes to be asked if coordinator of a response and asked look, did it fail. i realize these are tough questions, but i think she was basically acknowledging it. we had a longer discussion comparatively to other countries how did we do. obviously the best we could do is be the worst in the world. she acknowledged that. she was in the dakotas the end of october, beating the drum on masks and things and numbers have tripled since she left in

terms of new cases and sadly new deaths in north dakota. it is tough. so i think there was acknowledgment of failure for all sorts of different reasons, but also this idea that, you know, we're still in the middle of it, right? we keep looking, saying what do we have to learn. we're still very much in the thros of it. there's a lot of miscommunication going on. one of the issues is masks which i asked her about. >> i think the thing that confuses americans, i have heard this in the rocky mountain states, when we tell people that these masks prevent transmission, they're not perfect, but when we tell them they prevent transmission and then close the spaces where people are 100% masked and leave open the spaces where people are unmasked, which we know is a transmission area, that's confusing to the american people. i understand why it is confusing. i worry about that because then it gives people the option to

say well, bars and restaurants are open then i can have 20 people over for thanksgiving. >> this came up, dana, in sort of the conversation about schools, right? and you and i had some conversations around that time. i was skeptical about schools. kids are germ factories, why would they not cause significant spreading events within schools, but so far if you look at surveillance testing in places like new york, really low positivity rate, .17%. give credit where credit is due. how can you simultaneously close schools while leaving areas with significant spread, restaurants and bars, leave them open. i have been living with that here in georgia for some time, this cognitive dissonance. that's part of the mixed messaging. everything is fine, bars and restaurants are open, yet we are closing schools. >> and the case in washington with a mayor that's been careful

and obviously seeing that in new york city, too. a fascinating interview, sanjay. i want to ask about another important, important piece of news which is a big step forward today with pfizer and biotech saying they'll ask for emergency use authorization for their coronavirus vaccine. listen to general perna of operation warp speed talking about the next big hurdle. >> we have about 40 million doses of vaccine, give or take exactly when the eua comes out, what we're going to do is execute fair and equitable distribution based on the population of the jurisdictions, jurisdictions identified as the 50 states, 8 territories, and 6 metropolitan cities. >> what a logistical challenge is in front of the government and the companies that are doing obviously a very, very good job getting the vaccines up and ready quicker than we've ever

seen. from your point of view does it seem like the government is approaching it the right way and how much further do we as citizens have to go do you think before accessing the doses that everybody needs to get this under control? >> well, dana, i think there's a lot of challenges with the distribution, it will be one of the largest distributions, logistical challenges we maybe faced as a world. there's a lot that can go wrong. having covered this story so long, i think what we see here is so much efforts of pandemic response has been focused on the vaccine. it is like we're going for the homerun, not worrying about singles and doubles, just a homerun. as a result there's a lot to celebrate. the idea there may be two vaccines that receive emergency use authorization, we'll see, looks promising, within the next few weeks is incredible. and i have spoken to operation

warp speed, they have been planning for some time. i am less worried about that. but other things fall by the wayside. we should still have more tests, seeing long lines in chicago, people waiting for tests. it is unbelievable in november we are still seeing that. still have this confusion on masks. the simpler things that would have had much bigger impact are getting ignored. with the vaccine to answer your question, i think 40 million doses by end of the year, two doses per person, maybe 20 million people, fast forward to april time frame, do the math, 150 million doses by end of march, april, 75 million people. obviously not enough for the country, but the manufacturing continues. and looking to end of summer, perhaps then young healthy people like yourself start to be in line to get the vaccine at that point. i think it does -- i think about my kids, i see everything through my kids' eyes with three

tween girls, going back to school, is it going to feel relatively normal? i think it might. i think it might. >> you are a national treasure and you always walk us through these very complicated, daunting scientific facts and figures and realities like nobody else. good to talk to you. >> i learned from you, dana, thank you. >> thanks. up next, president trump's largest target in his assault on american legal norms is the right to vote. largest and his latest. ♪ you can go your own way

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donald trump is undermining an election he clearly lost to joe biden and it has been happening now for a couple of weeks. the president's actions are part of a long history of scorning legal norms, which seem focused on assaulting americans' right to vote. a new piece on cnn.com, our legal analyst writes trump's disregard for the right to vote, particularly when it comes to that for blacks and latinos, culminates a pattern of scorning democratic norms that began four years ago. it is a pattern that's been deep and disturbing, yet somehow routine and predictable, fails to provoke wide scale public outrage. joan joins us now. talk about the pattern of

breaking norms that you write about in this great piece. >> thanks, dana. good to see you. >> you too. >> you know, it is such a familiar pattern and we just didn't know where it was going to go when we were back in 2017, but what we have seen over all these years is this pattern of dehumanizing people, delegitimizing institutions. think of what he did on the campaign trail when he derided a federal judge for his mexican heritage, man born in indiana, happened to be of mexican descent, sort of skorng him. so many statements he made during the campaign, we wondered would this fall away when he became president but right away we had the charlottesville incident where he talked about the white supremacists almost on equal terms as counter protesters, saying after a young

woman was killed in that car assault, there are very fine people on both sides. in fact, it's interesting, dana, that that's one of the reasons joe biden got into the race was the racial rhetoric of president trump back in 2017. so he was undermining individual judges and then really compromising due process, questioning whether there should be any kind of hearings for people that cross the border and are seeking asylum, questioning birth right citizenship, part of the constitution's 14th amendment. i think the thing we're seeing today as he attacks institutions of state election officials is this disregard for the safeguards of the guardrails of u.s. democracy. i remember when roger stone

faced his criminal charges and the president suggested maybe he just had a bad jury. and all his attacks on the fbi stemming from the time of former fbi leader james comey to the mueller report incidents, all these things just kept coming and coming and coming and now he's attacking what so many people regard as the most fundamental legal right and norm, the right to vote because if we don't have a fair set of elections, access to the ballot box, there isn't a chance for representation, and especially for blacks, latinos, other people of color who have come to depend on this as the sort of gateway to other rights that the originate with the right to vote, dana. >> no, you're absolutely right. the point you make in detailing all of this, which is that we have become kind of numb to this because it happens so often, and

in rapid fire fashion. and it has culminated in this undermining of something that everybody, no matter what your party should hold sacred. it is a fundamental of democracy. such a good piece. i encourage everybody to check it out on cnn.com. good to see you. still ahead, the white house defends its meeting with republican leaders from michigan. a live report from the white house. stay with us. ♪ irresistibly smooth chocolate. to put the world on pause. lindor. made to melt you. by the lindt master chocolatier.

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once again lying from the podium. she gave no answer on when the president intends to concede. she mislead on the coronavirus. she said president trump was never given an orderly transition when he came into office. none of that is true. let's get to kaitlan collins. there's a reason we didn't take it live, it is easier to explain after what was right and not than to do it on live television. >> reporter: that's right. it has been since october 1st since the press secretary briefed reporters in the briefing room. one of the things predictably she was asked about was the meeting that's going to happen at the white house this afternoon, incredibly unusual meeting where the president invited state lawmakers from michigan, republicans, of course, to the white house, and that comes amid questions about whether or not the president's team is going to pursue this incredibly dubious and seems long shot of an option to try to

convince legislators in these states to appoint protrump electors and basically override what the vote in the states is. in michigan, they voted for joe biden by 150,000 votes more than they voted for donald trump. when she was asked about the meeting, what the intent of the meeting is, given it was not listed on the president's schedule, kayleigh mcenany insisted it is not an advocacy meeting. >> we will be meeting later on, this is not an advocacy meeting, there will be no one from the campaign there. he routinely meets with lawmakers from all across the country. >> reporter: of course, dana, there's no other reason the president would be inviting republican legislators from the state of michigan to the white house days ahead of when the secretary of state is set to certify results after the canvassing board agreed to certify results in counties in that state other than he is unhappy with results of the election and is grasping at straus to try to change the outcome where it is not joe biden as the next president, it

is donald trump. obviously kayleigh mcenany only taking a handful of questions in the first briefing since october 1st. she didn't call on cnn. says she doesn't take questions from activists, of course there are no activists there, only reporters, and she chose not to call on cnn because she didn't want to answer our questions, unsurprising given she has not taken questions from reporters in several weeks. instead she has chosen to appear in what she calls personal capacity as a trump 2020 campaign adviser. today, she's back to appearing in her professional capacity but did not take questions and made that unprofessional remark at the end. >> people who feel they are on the right side of the facts and of history don't attack reporters for being activists, the only thing i would say you and those of us who seek the truth are active in trying to do is just that, get the truth, get the facts, report it out. thank you so much, kaitlan, for your awesome work. this just in.

in georgia, the secretary of state there is taking a big step towards making president-elect joe biden's win there official. let's get straight to amara walker who has been covering this. waes t what's the latest? >> reporter: hi there. it is official. secretary of state of georgia, brad raffensperger, certified results of the presidential election indeed certifying joe biden has won the state. his signature may end this chapter of the drama. it is not quite over and that is because president trump under law is allowed to request a recount. he has to do so by tuesday. secretary raffensperger tells me that he does expect that request to come through. they already procured high speed scanning millenials in every single county. that recount would take two to three days we are told, results are expected to be virtually identical to what we saw in the hand audit. the next step also is from the

governor, governor brian kemp. he has until saturday, 5:00 p.m., to certify the 16 democratic lelectors. we reached out, he is a staunch trump ally, has been sitting on the sidelines as we have seen the gop infighting break out in the state. we reached out to his office to ask does the governor intend to sign the certification. we haven't heard back yet, but we know by law he is required to do so, dana. >> he sure is. well, the trump campaign there, they're using their right by georgia law to challenge the results. as you said, there's no indication that it will be anything different than what was certified today, which is a big deal, as you know. you're in georgia which has not been certified for a democrat for president since 1992. so that's almost three decades. a big development there in georgia. thank you so much, amara. appreciate it. up next, serious concerns from the president-elect's team

about donald trump's attempt to overturn the election. we talk to a close friend of joe biden, the man who has his senate seat, chris comes. lunr that has spread and that tests positive for pd-l1 and does not have an abnormal egfr or alk gene. it's the first and only approved chemo-free combination of two immunotherapies that works together in different ways to harness the power of the immune system. opdivo plus yervoy equals a chance for more days. more nights. more beautiful weekends. more ugly sweaters. more big hugs. more small outings. opdivo and yervoy can cause your immune system to attack normal organs and tissues in your body and affect how they work. this may happen during or after treatment has ended and can become serious and lead to death. some of these problems may happen more often when opdivo is used with yervoy.

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president trump continues to stall the process for joe biden, blocking the transition team access to federal agencies, to

intelligence, top health officials. despite that or maybe because of that, president-elect biden is moving ahead aggressively with things he can do. announced members of white house senior staff today, will meet with house speaker nancy pelosi and senate minority leader chuck schumer in wilmington later today. but this is what he said about president trump's behavior. >> let me choose my words, i think we are witnessing incredible irresponsibility, incredibly damaging messages being sent to the rest of the world about how democracy functions. i don't know his motive but i just think it is totally irresponsible. >> joining me, senator chris coons of delaware, close friend of the president-elect, a man who holds his senate seat. thank you so much for joining me. i want to start with the white house press secretary. she just had a briefing for the first time in a long time.

she wouldn't say if the president would concede. she touted his popular vote total, even though as you well know, president-elect biden has nearly 6 million more votes than him at this time on a national level. what is your sense of the end in sight, where do you see it? >> dana, the end in sight is that president-elect biden and vice president elect harris are going to be sworn in in the inauguration in january and the challenge that we're facing as a nation which is making us less safe, less secure, less healthy, is that president trump and his facilitators and supporters continue to indulge in the fantasy that it is not harming our nation that they continue to resist cooperating with the transition. and i think a striking move, u.s. chamber of commerce, business round table, national association of manufacturers, not liberal groups, have all called on president trump to begin the transition promptly,

and developments in georgia today reinforce the fact that there is no fact pattern under which the outcome of the election could be reversed or changed. it is frankly past time for my republican colleagues in the senate and for president trump himself to accept this and begin the transition process in the interest of our nation's security and health. >> let's start with what you just mention about your republican colleagues in the senate. i know you have real relationships across the aisle. you talk to them in private. what is your sense from those behind the scenes conversations about when they will finally come out, a, and b, whether or not they think it will really have impact or thinking it is time to do that for history's sake. >> well, i keep making the argument with a dozen friends, colleagues who are republican senators that this is hurting us globally, that it is going to hurt us domestically and it is past time to make the case,

whether privately or publicly. some say they are urging a transition, communicating with the gsa head or communicating with the white house, but frankly relatively few have stood up publicly and said it's time. developments in georgia and developments in terms of the president's failed and flailing efforts at any litigation strategy i think strengthen the resolve of a number of them to be more forceful. frankly, it is past time. so i am testing some of the relationships and in some cases straining them by really pressing. but it is frankly, dana, an embarrassment and i am clear that this is hurting us around the world. our reputation as a democracy, where we have orderly, peaceful, responsible transitions is being sorely challenged by president trump's two week long temper

tantrum and refusal to cooperate with the transition and we're at a point this is having an impact that is significant and real. >> how so? >> we are not -- so president-elect biden is not receiving the presidential daily briefing, he's not getting access to the highest level of intelligence. his covid-19 team that is preparing for the handoff of responsibility for vaccinating more than 300 million americans is not getting robust and real time information about the challenges that operation warp speed may be facing. it's this odd kabuki where all of the senate got a briefing yesterday, those of us that joined the call, it was a very constructive and forthcoming call by the general and the doctor who are leading operation warp speed's preparations around vaccination, but that same information isn't being provided to the transition team in a

robust and thorough way. whether it is public health or security, those are harming us. but frankly there's also been actions taken by countries around the world, from china in hong kong to uganda, to egypt where human rights advocates or candidates for office are being arrested or harassed in a way i think shows that some of the nations that view themselves as being our potential allies or competitors are seeing this moment of transition as a moment of distraction in terms of america's leadership in advancing democracy on the world stage. >> the irony is that the vice president elect is a sitting senator, and she gets a briefing in a way that the president-elect is not privy to because the president won't allow it. i want to ask about a substantive issue when you talk about issues around the world. cnn is reporting the trump administration will take further steps in china before leaving office.

the administration official tells cnn newly installed acting defense secretary christopher miller has been told to focus in remaining months on cyber and irregular warfare and they hope to pressure china to come to the table for nuclear talks with the u.s. and russia before trump leaves office in january. i know, senator, you spoke this morning to halifax international security forum about u.s./china relations. what are your concerns with what i just reported from our sources? >> well, dana, there's been reporting across a number of different areas of effort, whether it's cyber actions with regards to china, a meeting that is reported to have occurred in the white house about potential action against iran, or ways in which our situation in the world in terms of humanitarian relief may be impacted by actions by the administration. all of these are concerning

because it suggests they may take bold action that will make certain situations worse or more complicated without consulting with the incoming administration. we need a smooth handoff. to be clear on a previous point you made, dana, vice president elect harris is not getting the presidential daily brief, she's only getting what senators get. >> that's what i meant. thank you so much. we are way out of time. thank you for joining me. thank you for watching. brianna keilar picks up coverage right now. hello, i am brianna keilar. i want to welcome viewers here in the united states and around the world. president trump is trying to overturn the election that he lost to joe biden by 74 electoral votes and almost 6 million popular votes. ess he is attempting to stop certification of votes in states biden beat him like michigan. trump invited state lawmakers to the white house, expected to meet