hello to viewers in the united states and around the world. i am nia malika-henderson in washington. a third vaccine is effective and safe, but we enter thanksgiving week facing pandemic desperation. an average of 170,000 new cases per day, about 1500 americans are dying each day, and 83,000 covid-19 patients currently in hospitals. the surgeon general pleads for small and smart thanksgiving gatherings, governors beg for the trump administration to start the transition so vaccine

distribution doesn't lag. >> we're going to need help from the federal side. please, god, the trump and biden teams need to begin speaking asap. the notion we can casually hand the ball off midday on january 20th is a complete fallacy. this is really, really complicated. please, god, i ask the trump administration to open the books on the vaccine and virus generally to the biden team. >> more on the pandemic ahead, but first, the trump campaign's legal effort to overturn a clear election verdict is very much sputtering. legal losses are piling up. a pennsylvania judge dismissed the campaign's attempt to throw out millions of votes over the weekend, calling the campaign's claims unsupported by evidence. today, most pennsylvania counties will certify their 2020 results, some larger counties in the state have already done so. and the trump campaign now severing ties with one attorney,

sidney powell. "the washington post" reports he was too conspiratorial for team trump and the president didn't see her as useful any more. another critical election meeting next hour. michigan's canvassing board meets amid concerns over a deadlock, and after a pressure campaign by the president designed to undermine the outcome, a clear joe biden win in the state. let's get right to cnn's dianne gallagher in lansing, michigan. diane, thanks for joining us. do we expect any drama in michigan today? >> reporter: oh, nia, we had plenty of drama already. how many times can you say there's a protest before a board of canvassers meeting. tracks for 2020. we'll see what happens at 1:00 p.m. this is sort of how it breaks down. this is a mundane procedural vote in any other year, four person board, two republicans,

two democrats. you have to have at least three votes for the election to be certified. one of those republicans has already indicated to others, including a republican congressman, he doesn't know if he will certify. he is probably voting not to certify. all eyes are on the other republican member of the board. my producer, dan shepherd, actually went to the other member's home. his wife said look, he is not talking about it before the meeting at all. but there is concern, what if it is a deadlock 2-2 vote. if it is, expect a flurry of lawsuits immediately. it will go to the board, excuse me, to court of appeals. then potentially if court of appeals can't make them vote, it can go to the supreme court from the state. secretary of state says she has full confidence no matter what happens today, this will all work out.

>> i am confident, we haven't received any actual evidence of it, a lot of rumor and conjecture that everyone involved will do their job. i am confident either way whatever happens tomorrow, we've got protocols in place to move forward to ensure the will of the people will be certified one way or the other. >> reporter: so again, it is 2020, we are dealing in a lot of what ifs here. this has never happened before scenarios. if for some reason the courts can't make things happen and it goes to state legislature, we could see another outsized role for the governor. she has a lot of power here, nia, she can appoint new members, take members off. she appointed the members to begin with. more than anything, though, the people that are here in michigan say, especially those out here, that they are now paying close attention to mundane procedural events, even if it doesn't seem they're paying attention to the evidence that would lead for

something to actually happen out of the ordinary here. >> dianne, 150,000 vote margin for biden in that state. we will keep an eye on it. thank you so much. the transition holdup will snag a smooth running of government, but the biden administration is planning who will take over cabinet posts come day one. we have jeff zeleny in wilmington, delaware for us. jeff, your sources are telling you that the president-elect has decided who to nominate for critical cabinet level posts already, starting with the critical post, secretary of state. >> reporter: nia, we're told the announcement will formally come likely tomorrow. there's no surprise that the president-elect is starting with secretary of state. this is what has been his life work, the u.s. senate and foreign relations committee, indeed when he was vice president, traveling around the world. he wants to restore u.s. alliances. he is tapping tony blinken who

traveled many of those miles with him around the world really for the last 20 years or so, starting in the senate, then as vice president, tony blinken was deputy secretary of state in the obama administration, vice president's national security adviser, he is 58 years old. he is someone that can start the job immediately, even before that. he does not need on-the-job training. just a short time ago, heard from former president barack obama talking about jake sullivan also in line to be national security adviser. this is what the former president said about those. >> he's outstanding, smart, gracious, skilled diplomat, well regarded around the world. i know he is going to do a great job. reports are jake sullivan will serve as national security adviser. wicked smart, young, energetic,

and i think is going to be outstanding. you see a team develop i have great confidence in. >> there's no surprise, they're getting glowing praise from former president obama, because they both worked for him. part of the continuation of the obama administration. but let's look at the resumes of two key advisers. jake sullivan expected to be named national security adviser, someone that worked inside the white house, long time adviser to both, and to hillary clinton in the 2016 campaign, and importantly as well, united states ambassador greenfield. lifetime foreign service agent. she worked as a diplomat. she has had a specialty of the portfolio, she's expected to be to the u.n. that will likely be a cabinet position as well. clearly the president-elect is

moving forward, despite what we see in michigan. nia, also learning next up for cabinet picks, next week will be treasury secretary. i am told he is eyeing a history making choice in that regard. strongly considering as leading contenders two women. has not been a woman serve as treasury secretary in the u.s., and two top contenders are janet yellen, and layle brainard. current governor on federal reserve. she also worked with the obama administration. i am told that will come next week. tomorrow we believe secretary of state and other picks here in wilmington as well. >> jeff, we'll look for the formal announcement. thanks so much for the report. joining me now, washington bureau chief of "daily beast" and katherine lucy, white house reporter with "the wall street journal." thank you both for being here.

jackie. we have seen more republicans urging this president to give up the game, start the transition. chris christie called the trump legal team a national embarrassment, senator murkowski without merit called legal challenges, accept the outcomes, and past time to start transition. representative upton, it's over. and representative cheney, respect the sanctity of the electoral process, governor hogan, stop golfing and concede, he has told the president. do we think there's any chance this president will listen to any of those folks who are telling him to acknowledge reality at this point? >> no, i don't, but it does seem like there is more of a base building. also just in the last hour, rob portman, senator in ohio is up in 2022.

that's not someone you normally would associate some folks that you brought up, people that are normally speaking up and critical of the president with the exception of chris christie, he was more critical of the legal team. it seems like among republicans, they're starting to be concerned for the national security ramifications of not allowing the biden team to access some of the information and not to mention the security with the vote from republican voters, the need to tell them it is okay, their votes do count. these things need to move on as opposed to what some of the trump campaign legal team and what we're seeing now is trying to diminish the faith in the vote. it seems like they're trying to piece together a way to move on through this, with or without the president. >> i'm sure if you're republican, you want this president to focus on the georgia senate race as well, rather than fighting these

meritless legal cases. katherine, you have been reporting on trump legal challenges and their many struggles in court. do they have any venues left at this point to actually prove any level of fraud of the scale they would need to turn over this election to overturn results in states like michigan and states like wisconsin? >> they are still certainly pursuing the options they have. they're filing new appeals, seeking recount in georgia, obviously the president continues to put pressure on officials in key states, but their pathways are narrowing. hard to see how to overturn the number of votes they would need. one of the republicans you just mentioned, fred upton, representative in michigan said on cnn over the weekend this is over. this is over 100,000 votes. there's no sort of voting irregularities, they're not

going to make up the numbers. it is important to be clear that there have been no reports of widespread fraud. said the election was conducted safely, that there is no evidence of interference, and the legal team hasn't produced evidence that would suggest anything is going to change at this point. >> we should also note that the trump team which represents a president that's himself a conspiracy theorist decided one of its lawyers, sidney powell, she's too obsessed with conspiracies to speak on behalf of the campaign. here's a statement from the campaign. sydney powell is practicing law on her own. she is not a member of the trump legal team. she's also not a lawyer for the president in his personal capacity. flashback a couple of days ago, the president did announce she was part of his legal team. what do you make of this shift? >> yeah.

so the president tweeted she was part of the team, she appeared at the lengthy press conference alongside rudy giuliani last week. at that press conference and in an interview over the weekend, she aired a lot of unsupported claims about foreign interference, about problems with the voting systems. she also suggested that republican officials in georgia might need to be investigated. she brought up a lot of these theories without offering any evidence. so then we obviously saw this statement from guiliani, and there's been a distancing. she was saying she will sort of continue her work. certainly they are trying to put distance with this. we heard from people, got a story on this today, heard from a white house official unsolicited last night saying that this legal effort looks like a farce. so there are people around the president who are concerned about how this is looking.

>> and jackie, the president has let his lawyers be out front, make the case about voter fraud. they have been making the case publicly. he is making it mostly on twitter, but not really out in front of the cameras talking about it, calling into fox news as he would do all the time in weeks prior to this. why do you think he is behind the scenes, not out front carrying the message? >> doesn't seem like he wants to have a face to face confrontation about this issue. i mean, fact of the matter is there hasn't been fraud, his legal challenges are all failing, and to have to own up to that and receive adversarial questions about it isn't really the look in president is watching for or wants to be seen. it is much easier to stand behind twitter, go to the

podium, not take questions like he did last week, keep in a safe space, rather than be challenged on what we know to be true, which is that joe biden will be the next president of the united states next year. >> thank you so much. and up next, more good news on the vaccine front as covid-19 cases take an unprecedented climb.

thanksgiving is three days away. a stunning number of people are infected with coronavirus and in the hospital. the u.s. added more than 142,000 new cases just yesterday, a record for a sunday. just this month, more than 3.1 million new cases have been reported so far. for 13 straight days, record number of people are in the hospital, nearly 84,000 people are away from families now,

hospitalized with covid. and more than 256,000 families without a loved one this thanksgiving due to covid. the u.s. is now reporting on average 1500 deaths every single day. vaccines are very much the light at the end of the tunnel. that light is a bit brighter today. astra-zeneca says the vaccine developed with objection for the is highly effective. the company is now the third to announce positive efficacy results. we have senior medical correspondent elizabeth cohen who is following all of this for us. how effective is this particular vaccine candidate? >> nia, this vaccine is quite effect i hav effective. they have asked for vaccines to be at least 50% effective, and this is about 70% effective. that's better in many ways than

expected, still not as good as two other vaccines that released some data the past few weeks. let's look at the numbers so we can compare them. this vaccine making news today is from astra-zeneca. they found it was about on average 70% effective when you looked at study of 12,000 study participants. moderna's vaccine is 94.5% effective, that was a much larger group of people which gives it more heft. pfizer is similar, 95% effective, with 44,000 study participants. i will note all of the data is early. astra-zeneca's is particularly early, they have not yet finished trials in the u.s. data i showed you is based on results in other countries. we're still waiting to see a fuller data set from astra-zeneca and we'll see what the numbers come down to. it may be that the vaccine is particularly good for some groups and not for others, all of that remains to be seen.

>> i'm sure you're going to bring all of the news to us going forward. thank you so much for that report. coming up, breaking news from the biden team. his pick to lead the charge on the climate crisis. when i was in high school, this was the theater i came to quite often. the support we've had over the last few months has been amazing. it's not just a work environment. everyone here is family. if you are ready to open your heart and your home, check us out. we thought for sure that we were done. and this town said: not today. ♪ and this town said: not today. did you know prilosec otc can stop frequent heartburn before it begins? prilosec otc uses a unique delayed-release formula that works to turn down acid production, blocking heartburn at the source. with just one pill a day, you get 24-hour heartburn protection.

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this just into cnn.

the president-elect plans to announce a number of high profile picks tomorrow. among them, john kerry, 2004 presidential candidate, secretary of state will become mr. biden's new climate czar. we're going to get straight to jeff zeleny on this one. the kerry pick, it is a little let's get the old gang back together again. >> reporter: no question about it. this is an experienced slate of candidates, historic in many ways as well. we have been talking about announcements coming tomorrow. that's when we may see some of the picks. in fact, the biden transition department has made it official now. they just sent a release a few moments ago with several new members on it, trying to make the case again. they're pushing forward, trying to fill the cabinet and key positions as all of this is going on in michigan and elsewhere. these are some of the new people. john kerry, former secretary of state, of course, a long time

senator for massachusetts. he will be top presidential envoy for climate. we are told he will be a member of the national security council, first time someone dedicated strictly to climate is on national security council. interesting in that respect. also seeing new secretary of department of homeland security, and he is going to be the first latino and first immigrant to serve, be nominated to serve as secretary of department of homeland security. so that's sending a dramatic message after the last four years of the trump administration as well. moving on through this list that we're getting now, nia, we're getting the name of the new director for the director of national intelligence, leader of the intelligence community in the united states, avril haynes. former deputy director of the cia, so she would be the first woman to be in this position as well, veteran of the obama/biden administration. her name has been in the mix.

this is something that's clearly, you can see the cabinet taking shape before us. it is living up so far to the pledge that joe biden made that he is going to have a cabinet that looks like america. we're also getting some other names now, confirming what we reported earlier, tony bling on, secretary of state, jake sullivan, national security adviser, and again, ambassador to united nations, ambassador, excuse me, linda thomas greenfield, a 35 year veteran of foreign service administration. so this is clearly the first slate of cabinet picks we see. we'll see them officially tomorrow, we are hearing them officially now. busy day in wilmington. >> we have some old familiar faces and new names. again as you said, cabinet that looks like america, that was their pledge. jeff, thanks so much for bringing us that news. coming up, we have new reporting on trump's allies urging him to drop a member of his legal team. t uh sausage - you can do better, steve!

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this just in. president trump was pushed by allies over the weekend to drop controversial attorney sidney powell, arguing she was embarrassing, pushing unfounded theories. we're bringing in cnn white house correspondent kaitlan collins. so you've got new reporting on how sidney powell ended up on the outs with president trump. >> reporter: this has kind of been building awhile. while the president had been obsessed with a baseless conspiracy she was pushing about

voting machines that were used in several states which she claimed without any evidence, something she still hasn't provided, that they were changing votes from donald trump to joe biden. that's a theory the president became personally obsessed with. but the frustration started to grow. you're seeing trump allies, people normally back up the president like tucker carlson and others saying she had not provided any evidence of claims she was making, including at the press conference at the republican national committee last week where sidney powell appeared next to rudy giuliani and jenna ellis, also a trump campaign legal adviser. what we heard is that the president had been growingly frustrated. he started asking for evidence of this, we are told he wasn't presented with any either. that's what led to what you saw happen last night, which is when trump campaign put out a statement, trying to distance from powell, even though she had just participated in the press conference with his other attorneys, had been described by the president as a member of the legal team.

basically had gotten to a point where the president often lives in this world where he views things how they're -- not how they're happening but how they're being portrayed in the media. he was seeing people criticize sidney powell, chris christie, calling conduct of the legal team a national embarrassment after powell made completely unsubstantiated claims against the governor of georgia. so basically that's what culminated with this. the question is, is sidney powell still involved, does she still speak to rudy giuliani, that's something that remains to be seen. overall it comes as the president's legal efforts have been floundering, they've lost or withdrawn 30 or more cases since day of the election. i think what you're seeing, the question is how long does the president continue to keep this up. there is growing frustration in his circle that people like rudy giuliani and sidney powell are doing all of the talking here and they don't think it is working out for the president. >> and kaitlan, they're all making unsubstantiated claims

without evidence. the president, rudy giuliani, all of them i guess sidney powell was a bridge too far with all her conspiracy theories. thank you for that report. and we're going to bring in kim waily, law professor at university of baltimore, former assistant u.s. attorney. kim, the president as kaitlan mentioned lost a member of the legal team, also losses are piling up in terms of cases, but he is still pushing legal challenges. do you expect any of the results from the remaining legal battles to actually mean anything in any of these states? is there any possibility of overturning votes in the president's favor? >> no. none of these cases as far as i can tell even sought relief that would have produced that kind of outcome, let alone in multiple states which is what you would need. short of the relief requested as

kaitlan indicated, factual problems, legal problems. i am a law professor. these kinds of cases would not get past go in most courts. we saw saturday a federal judge from pennsylvania called one of the complaints a frankenstein's monster, that's strong language from a conservative judge, a member of the federalist society. the reason it is failing, courts are bound by rules of evidence and civil procedure. they cannot let things go forward with nothing there. >> and trump's legal team filed an appeal yesterday after the federal judge that you're mentioning in pennsylvania, he is a long time republican, he dismissed the case that sought to invalidate millions of voters. judge matthew brand of the district court in the middle district of pennsylvania wrote in his scathing order this court has been presented with strained legal arguments without merit

and speculative accusations, unpled in the operative complaint and unsupported by evidence. kim, given what the judge wrote can you explain what the outcome of appealing the case could actually be? is there any leg to stand on in terms of the appeal? >> no, no leg to stand on. actually, the appeal is weird in that it is limited. all they're appealing is the ability to go back and change their claims another time. they're not asking for certification process to be stopped, it is not a direct appeal of everything the court threw out. even if they win the appeal, which is highly unlikely because the complaint was so weak and the judge has a lot of discretion, it is not even asking for what could conceivably end up being a reversal of the lower court judge. there's zero chance this is going to go up the chain, zero chance the supreme court, and this moment will decide this

election. >> zero chance. that seems to be the case as long as we have been in this conversation about legal fights from this president. kim, thank you so much for that analysis. up next, millions hitting the airports for thanksgiving, despite pleas from the cdc to stay home this holiday.

holiday travel rush. passengers at the airports broke the record for air travel during the pandemic. that trend is very much at odds with a call from health experts and the cdc to absolutely avoid thanksgiving trips. we have cnn's adrian broadus joins us from chicago, o'hare international airport. walk us through the numbers we're seeing and what you're seeing there on the ground. >> reporter: well, 3 million, that's how many travelers passed through security check points at airports across the weekend. that's the highest number since the start of the pandemic. last time we saw more than a million travelers pass through tsa security check points was in october, ahead of columbus

holiday. here at chicago o'hare international, we have seen people wearing masks, some cases they have on a face shield. we have seen people without masks. in those instances, employees at the airport have taken surgical masks, handed it to the person without a mask to wear. the line behind me is relatively short now, in comparison to long lines we saw friday. indeed, we talked to travelers throughout the morning, families, college students, all saying they crave light at the end of the dark pandemic tunnel. they crave a hug from the people they love most. >> hug them. it would be nice to see my family, touch them again. >> only see them once a year. it is one of the main things i look forward to every year. it is one thing i can get out of this year that makes my life

better. >> reporter: and travelers we spoke with today said they aren't worried about the coronavirus. many of them telling me they're taking the necessary steps to protect themselves. for example, wearing a mask, washing their hands. one gentleman told me he gets tested frequently for covid. keep in mind, top doctors told us a negative covid test is not a green light to travel to see your friends and family. back to you. >> this is a troubling development. thank you for that report from chicago. as more americans prepare to travel and gather with family and friends in the coming days, the nation's leading health experts are warning against exactly that. take a listen. >> we're at a tire point in our fight with the virus by any measure, cases, positivity, hospitalizations, deaths. seeing more americans negatively impacted than ever before. >> one of the things we're really concerned about is that as we get into this thanksgiving

season, you're not going to see an increase until weeks later. things lag. what you don't want to see is another spike in cases, as we get colder and colder in december, then you start dealing with the christmas holiday. >> here to discuss, dr. rob davidson, an emergency room physician in michigan. dr. davidson, thanks for joining me. michigan was among 19 states that saw the highest seven day average of new cases just yesterday, according to johns hopkins university. how concerned are you going into thanksgiving and later on christmas? >> yeah. almost made me cringe thinking about four weeks from now. christmas is around the corner. another inevitable time people want to meet. i am in west michigan. test positive rates are around 20% now at every hospital in the region, either full or within a

few beds of being full. every shift i worked, i worked last night, working this afternoon, we start out or end full. the inevitable surge in cases with gatherings like thanksgiving and christmas would be tough enough. when we start out at such a critical point, i want people to understand the kind of risk they're taking for the community and their systems in health care. it is pretty dire. >> and covid tracking project tweeted that the midwest currently has more than twice as many people hospitalized per capita than the northeast and all regions are rising quickly. what are you seeing in your hospital? >> yeah, we are specifically seeing, every shift we may have a bed, give a call to the supervisor, it is not just beds, it is staff. we have 50 some staff a day going out with covid-19 positive

tests that go home, have to isolate and quarantine. hearing that from hospitals all over the region. even if there are beds, doesn't do much good if no one to staff the beds. >> you saw dr. scott gottlieb, former fda commissioner that serves on the board of pfizer, he had this to say about looming vaccines. >> gothere's light at the end o the tunnel. try not to be the person that gets infected in the last two or three months of the acute phase of the pandemic. >> do you also see that light at the end of the tunnel, even though it seems like it is going to be a long and dark tunnel for a lot of death and dying and sicknesses with americans across the country? >> absolutely. i will be first in line for a vaccine whether it is available. i hope we can make it quick as possible. but we have to be good communicators of public health

like dr. gottlieb is being. we have to let people know just because we have good news on vaccine, routine public health practices, masks, distancing, hygiene is what will save lives. vaccines won't save lives for awhile. it will be all of us working together. >> dr. davidson, thank you so much for that report. we'll be right back. >> thanks.

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we've got breaking news. general services administration,

gsa, has responded to congressional committees requesting a briefly on certifying the election. we have kristin holmes who joins me now with details. kristin? >> reporter: yeah, nia. this is a long time congress. democrats had been waiting for this. a little background. as we know, emily murphy, trump appointee, administrator of the general services administration, her job is to ascertain the election. what happens when she does that, this is usually a simple process, funds start going into the biden transition and those agencies are formally allowed to work with each other. she had yet to do this. democrats on capitol hill are getting frustrated, asking for briefings, giving her a deadline of today to respond. we have just gotten in her response. they say they will brief democrats on the committees, four of the requesting chair men and ranking members, but it won't be emily murphy, it will be her deputy. they're saying it will be next monday. in addition to that, they say

the gsa will hold in person only briefings for the senate appropriations committee as well as homeland security and governmental affairs committee as well as several of the committee staff. what does this mean? well, it is not going to rub democrats the right way, i can tell you that. i have spoken to at least two staffers that say this is not what they were expecting because by next monday, they were hoping this was going to be over and done with. we talked a lot about what exactly she is weighing in the decision. we know that she believes she's working off the precedent of bush v gore, the only other time a candidate did not concede the election. but experts say this is just simply not the same. we know again, offering a briefing next monday will have a lot of democrats pretty worked up. >> you have a lot of prominent republicans who have also been asking for this. you had ohio republican senator rob portman being the latest. what did he have to say?

>> yeah. this is striking. we're starting to see the cracks in the facade of the republican party, of the wall here. rob portman said there was no evidence of fraud and time for a smooth transition because again, the big thing to point out here, what her job is is not to necessarily certify the election anyway, it is just to start the formal transition process. when that doesn't start, it could hinder important things like one, national security, and two, creating a seamless response to the ongoing pandemic. >> kristin, do you have any sense of whether this kind of public pressure campaign is having any effect on emily murphy? you talked to people in her circle. >> we know that she believes she's doing the right thing, weighing all her options. she's looking at all of the court cases that trump is losing, that trump campaign is losing. she's looking at georgia, the recount, audit, certification. she's watching for certification in michigan and pennsylvania that we are expecting today.

those are all things she's looking at. she's under enormous pressure, facing death threats from both sides of the aisle. but it is unclear even to people we talked to closest to her, still talking to her, what that tipping point is going to be to get her to ascertain the election. >> i'm sure we'll hear more about this, republicans and democrats probably not going to be happy with the week long delay as you said and having them come before those committees next monday, probably not good enough. kristin holmes, thanks for that report. russian president vladimir putin is joining president trump and top republicans in holding off on congratulating president-elect joe biden. a spokesman for the kremlin says putin is waiting for all lawsuits to conclude and for president trump to concede. asked if a delay in sending congratulations would worsen relations between moscow and

washington, putin told a russian network you can't spoil a spoiled relationship. thanks for joining us. brianna keilar picks up coverage right now. i am brianna keilar. i want to welcome viewers here in the united states and around the world. we begin with breaking news as his predecessor refuses to concede, president-elect joe biden is moving forward with his transition, revealing first group of cabinet picks that focus on foreign policy and national security. his transition team confirming biden is having a familiar washington face, tony blinken, as secretary of state, and making good on the promise to have a diverse administration. biden is tapping may or kiss for department of homeland security, biden is going with a familiar face as climate czar, former secretary of state john kerry. we have cnn's jeff