cnn tonight tonights now with none other than laura coats. good evening, you're the perfect person to have on to discuss this, especially all of these case after case after case being

thrown out or they're losing, the perfect person to analyze. it's been amazing to watch. you have been telling us all along that their pursuits were fr fruitless. >> i didn't know how to put it, i'm glad you have given me credit for that moment. i cannot believe all of the losses. i believe in persistence. i'm somebody who likes to be persistent but you have to know when to hold them, know when to fold them, know when to walk away, and it's time for them to run. that's where we are. >> it's time for them to run, and you know what, america is ready to move on right now. enough of the shenanigans, we're dealing with a pandemic. it's time for us to come together. it really is. >> i agree. and it's a time especially when the holidays are approaching and we're thinking and being reflective. it's a good time for people to start taking stock of what's important and priorities, and looking ahead to the future, and

how do they want to really live the rest of their lives. how do they want to explain the world to their kids. what we're seeing right now, we've got to move past. if i had a fast forward button, i would take it. i want a fast forward button, i want to get to the future. i want to see what happens and be happy. how about you? >> yeah. listen, same here, but listen, before i let you get on with your hour because i don't want to take too much. people are ready to move on. i know that people want the holidays to be normal, they want to get back to some degree of normalcy. little things you can do. instead of going and buying a bunch of gifts, super spreader situations, i was telling you in the break, i made thanksgiving cookies and put them in the cookie jar, and i hate half of them, but it's little things, but before i delivered them, i said, i know people are concerned. i texted my neighbors. i know you're concerned about

covid, and you know, you can't get it transmitted through food. if you would like to take them, and everybody said yes, we would love it. so as we spend this thanksgiving with our immediate families, nice things that you can do. deliver stuff to your neighbors. you can socially distance and have a good time without a big large group. >> don, let me call you out, how many did you bake, and how many were delivered to the neighbor? >> that's a secret. my suit jacket is a little tight. have a great show. >> vanilla short bread would be great. see you soon, don lemon. good evening, i'm laura coats, and breaking news tonight, president trump basically acknowledging that he lost the election to joe biden. the head of the general services administration letting biden's team know that the formal transition process can finally begin. that frees up millions of dollars, taxpayer dollars in

transition funding and allows trump administration officials to begin coordinating with biden's team. and the president-elect is already busy putting together his incoming administration naming key cabinet picks today. i want to bring in cnn white house correspondent john harwood and certain political analyst john brownstein. good to have you here on a night like this. john, let me begin with you, trump surprise surprise is trying to take credit for the gsa's decision, but he's also saying he's going to prevail, i think is the word he used. is this as close as we're going to get to a concession, so to speak, john? >> probably. but we can't predict what donald trump is going to do because we don't know. he's not a psychologically healthy person, he has poor impulse control, and he lurches from moment to moment on the

needs of his ego and what he thinks is in his self-interest. those calculations change. he has been kicking up dust about the election to cover the embarrassment of having lost to joe biden, to create a cause for a future campaign, to raise money for his followers. but as time has gone on, his cause has looked increasingly ridiculous. the cases are getting thrown out by judges. the legal team is embarrassing itself and fighting. republicans are starting to complain. the business community is starting to complain. the heat's rising and so the president is beating a little retreat today. the gsa has ascertained that joe biden is the president-elect. the president covered that retreat by saying he's going to continue to fight strongly. he thinks he'll prevail, which not coincidentally allows him to continue raising money for this legal fight. those calculations could kachan as we get closer to january 20th. he's got legal exposure as he

prepares to leave office. if donald trump thought it would help his cause, ease the thirst of prosecutors to go after him. if he said the word concede, no doubt he would say the word concede, but we just don't know how he's going to calibrate that as he gets closer to the end of his term. >> the money issue is one we're looking at and figuring out the real motivation, and we can recite the idea of you can't indict a sitting president. those last two words are looming overhead. ron brownstein, let me go to you, republicans are admitting behind the scenes that it's over, but publicly many won't acknowledge that biden is the president-elect. we have heard nothing from the likes of mitch mcconnell or marco rubio or cruz or graham. how long can this sort of thing last? >> it has lasted far longer than by any rational explanation. it should. everybody is kind of assuming

that republicans, so many republicans are refusing to acknowledge the obvious that biden won, you know, the sky is blue. gravity exists. they're doing that because they're afraid of trump. that's the argument. they're afraid of a tweet. they're afraid of a primary challenge if they step out against him. i think you have to allow the possibility that a fair number of them would have been perfectly okay with him finding a way to subvert the will of the voters if he could have pushed enough, you know, found a judge or state legislators who would have been willing to do so. mitch mcconnell's behavior this month is ominous about how he views his responsibility to the democracy as opposed to the party. again, joe biden is talking about unifying the country. if you watch the way republicans have behaved over the past month, with very few them, not only among congress but the government calling out trump for the transparent efforts to

subvert the will of the voters. it's an ominous signal of how they intend to orient themselves toward a biden presidency. >> due process is one thing but once the process is over, then respect is due to the people who have given their will and made it apparent. ron, i want to get to the incoming administration because today president-elect biden announced a big part of his national security team. you've got anthony blinken, secretary of state. linda thomas greenfield for u.n. ambassador, avril haynes who will become the first female national intelligence director. alejandro mayorquz, and what are these administrations telling you about how the administration of biden and harris intend to act and serve. >> and the indication of janet yellen at treasury, experience,

familiarity, stability, kind of restoring the ship after all of these turbulent waters of the past four years. what's missing so far i think is -- and john kerry as well in climate negotiator. what's missing so far is what biden promised frequently in the campaign, beginning in his last rally before covid shut down everything, he would be the transition to a new generation of democratic leaders, that kind of fresh approach, next generation, turning the page, hasn't done that yet, even if these win the two senate seats in georgia, it will be at best a 50/50 senate and narrow majority in the house. he's going to need a lot of creativity to advance his agenda in executive action. he has put together an i impressive team. the part is going to be where are the new thinkers taking these issues from a fresh perspective. hasn't done that yet, and i would look for that in some of the remaining appointments he

has available to him. >> he makes a good point. the reason the names are familiar is because they have been part of a prior administration, and part of a familiar group of people in washington. i want you to hear from somebody who's familiar in washington and beyond, here, the former president barack obama and what he had to say today, john. >> i suspect at least on the democratic side seeing donald trump eliminate all complexity, and just do whatever he wants regardless of the consequences and demonizing the other side prompts, i think, sometimes this sense of, yeah, that's what we should be doing too. we don't need some fancy over thinking poetic sensibility. we just need to be, you know, this is what we want, and we're going to go get it. i think that's a mistake because the outcome in terms of policy

ends up being really bad. >> a lot of progressives would like to see biden play hardball at the get go before the gsa decided to ascertain, so to speak, is that his style or is this going to miss the mark and fall upon deaf ears. >> i think joe biden is going to split the difference between poetic hardball and sensibility that president obama was talking about. joe biden is a solid veteran of washington. he is somebody who has deep relationships with republicans and experience on the other side. but he has shown some signs of getting the way the republican party has changed. i noticed today when he got a question from a reporter, are you going to get resistance from republicans on your cabinet nominations that you're announcing today, biden started laughing. obviously he's going to get resistance. he's going to get resistance to everything. i think joe biden's approach is

going to be to play out the string a little bit. see if it's possible to do something, especially if republicans end up winning one or both of the senate seats and have mitch mcconnell as majority leader, try to see if he can do something with mitch mcconnell and not have too long of a fuse before he moves on to other approaches as he sees what he can do in the first year. he doesn't have a lot of time. he could have a difficult midterm election in 2022. there's no guarantee he's going to have the house after 2022. so what he gets done is going to have to get done pretty quickly. that's a pattern for most presidents, even more so joe biden, and he brings a certain set of instincts to it, but he's had his eyes open during the eight years of obama administration, and i think there are people around him who also had their eyes open who will encourage him not to be too easy going about that.

>> there's a reason all eyes are on georgia, and that clock is always ticking. thank you for both of you being part of the show. i appreciate it. i want to bring in cnn national security analyst and former director of national intelligence james clapper. welcome to the show. how are you? >> i'm fine how are you. >> i'm glad you're here. we're hearing about the transition team and people who have been named. the biden transition team has already reached out to the pentagon and biden can get intel briefings. are you concerned, however, that because of the delay that took place with not transferring over that power, without acknowledging him as the president-elect that the briefings are only starting just now, that we might be behind a time line or, are we at risk of that?

>> i would be a lot more concerned about it if it weren't for the assemblage of hands that the president-elect is assembling. this is a team, varsity players that are experienced, professional. many have a long standing relationship with the president, which is huge. it would have been better to have those 20 days, but i think they can get a lot done and will be able to hit the ground running in any event because of the experience and these are people who are used to working with one another. so i'm very pleased about what's transparent. >> let's talk about those nominees, and their experience because there's a lot of firsts with his national security picks, although they have experience in this particular area. in some instances they're a well oiled machine. you have avril hain seres. do do you see it as a rebuke of

his administration? >> i think it is. i'm dating myself here, but this reminds me of the old 1950s radio show, the amateur hour which is over now, and with specific respect to avril, she's tremendous. i think it's a great choice, and you know, the reason it's a great choice is because of her competence, not necessarily because she's a woman. and so she will be welcome with open arms, by the way, from the intelligence community. i think it's great. i think there's more to come of this, and diversity is a strength of the country and that is being reflected in these nominees. >> you know, one of the things you talk about, the idea of how they will be received among the intelligence committee, and one of the concerns for every american going forward is how the u.s. will be received overseas, and one of the things you may have heard is the former defense secretary james mattis

now calling on biden to dimp president tru ditch president trump's america first policy, and you heard president obama say this today about our relationships abroad. take a listen. >> i think it's going to be important to recognize that the confidence that our allies had and the world had in american leadership is not going to be restored overnight. >> well, if not overnight, what's it going to take to restore these alliances? >> well, i think in the first instance, and avril will have a big role here, is reaching out to our closest allies and friends who have kind of been abused the last four years, and reaffirming our traditional relationships. and this is particularly true with respect to intelligence, and these partnerships, whatever the functional area are really

important. they're a strength for us, and it is not -- it is in our best interest to have these partnerships and important form relationships. yes, it will take time. i certainly agree with president obama about that, but i think there's a powerful message here that's being conveyed by the results of the election and the people the president-elect is assembling to help him carry out his agenda. >> we'll hope that message is well received abroad. thank you director clapper, i appreciate it. >> thanks, laura, happy thanksgiving. >> you too. the transition to president-elect's administration can finally begin but the current president is still refuse to go accept reality truthfully and concede the election. it's damaging to the country and damaging to the gop, and former president obama says this. >> there is going to be a

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the general services administration telling president-elect biden that his transition can officially begin. a trump adviser acknowledging to cnn tonight it's the end of the road. joining me now cnn political commentators alice stewart and amanda carpenter. i'm glad you're both here tonight, especially on a night like this. let me begin with alice here. you know, first of all, the president has been tweeting and here's what he's just tweeted today. what does gsa being allowed to preliminarily work with the dems have to do with continuing to

pursue our various cases in what will go down as the most corrupt len election in american political history. we're moving full speed ahead, we'll never concede to fake ballots and dominion. alice, does the president care what his behavior is doing to the country or the party? he's saying he's not going to concede and still pointing to dominion, the company that has technology over some of these actual tabulation scanners, right? >> clearly he wants to continue he has legal fight, and he said that right out of the gate earlier this evening when he did acknowled acknowledge that he was going to let the gsa move forward with the transition process, and following it up with the tweet you just said that he will continue the legal fight, and the important thing here is not about whether or not he will concede but that we proceed with the transition, and anyone who thought for one second thought he was going to utter the words, we have to understand he's not

your traditional politician, and offering an actual concession is more of a tradition than a requirement. people should go to the fact he is your nontraditional politician. he's not going to do this in a traditional way and i'm much more concerned he's going to do in the last 57 days than what he has done in the last three weeks, and i would like to see things go a little bit more smoothly in terms of the new position and transfer of power. >> he's not traditional but we have traditions like democracy, and election counting and tabulation, and certainly the idea, not just the semantics based notion of being able to say that you have lost the election, amanda, i want your take here but here's what a senior republican official said, based on calls today with heartbroken and angry trump supporters, i can tell you the damage he has done, by claiming this election was stolen, it's unparalleled and indefensible.

amanda, how is the gop going to recover from this? >> well, number one, republicans need to acknowledge that it is important that a president concede. i fully recognize that donald trump may not do it, but there's a reason why we expect presidents to do it, and why it's important. it signals to their base that the election is over, and it was settled in a fairway. so that base doesn't feel compelled to take matters into their own hands. this is a critical measure that democratic leaders take so that people don't resort to violence. political violence that we have seen spread under donald trump, and so number one, i thoroughly reject the idea that somehow it's okay for donald trump not to concede because he's a nontraditional guy. what he is doing, what he has done is convince a base. i don't know how many americans it is, is it 5%, 10%, 15%, that

our elections don't function. it's not a legal fight here. this is a joke designed to have a pr show that we keep talking about what he's doing in court and he keeps losing and losing because courts accept evidence. conspiracies based on nothing. people think the elections weren't run in a free and fair way, and this will outlast trump. i see a lot of high profile commentators saying, well, you know, they can't prove anything happened but they just feel like it wasn't won right, and they don't trust the mail-in ballots and they have no reason not to. this will continue. this is what trumpism is. it's conspiracies, it's lies and it's power at all costs. >> you're one of our high profile commentators, people are believing this. it's not an impact. it's more about a concession. he's making baseless claims that he hadn't thread any information about whatsoever, isn't it more

just a discussion about saying the word concede. this is actually having consequences in realtime, don't you think? >> i have said from day one on election night when the president questioned the integrity of this election, and questioned the outcome, i called that into question, i firmly believe in the democratic process. i believe in the elections and i have never had one bit of confidence in his claims about widespread voter fraud. i think it's important to instill the integrity of our election, instill confidence in our election process, and this show that rudy giuliani and the others having doing, i have had zero confidence in what they have been talking about because if there was bomb shell evidence of election fraud, i would like to see the bombs because i have not seen it, and these are very irresponsible claims but the important thing is to let voters know that every legal and legitimate vote will be counted. that is part of the process, and then we will move forward with

the transition into the new administration. i certainly wish this president would have done this from day one, but he clearly wants to make sure that this is done in a legal way, and legal and legitimate votes are counted, and i think that's important. i happen to believe, i'm one of those people that grew up playing team sports and when the game is over, the votes are counted, the clock has run out, you go on the field, you do the high five, good game, good game, i would like to see this if the do that. it's not going to happen, but i think the american people will do that once it's all said and done, and joe biden is sworn in as the next president. >> i hope to share your optimism but it sounds like we're past the good game, the stadium lights are off, the reves have gone home, the gatorade is taken away, and there are moments you're asking the referee to make a call.

crazier things have happened. and maybe we'll have that moment. thanks for your time. i appreciate it. the president's team has lost or withdrawn 30 lawsuits since election day alone. there's one thing they don't have no matter how many times they scream fraud, and that's evidence. that's next.

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president trump's ill fated attempts to overturn the election are fizzling out. two more big losses for him today. michigan certifying its election results, formally giving joe biden the state's 16 electoral votes, and pennsylvania's supreme court rejecting the trump campaign's effort to block the counting of absentee ballots in philadelphia and allegheny counties, ruling that technical violations of the state's election code don't warrant the

throwing out of thousands of votes. i feel like we're living in a perverse version of the wizard of oz here. there's still a beif you hfuddl behind the curtain pretending he's something he's not. >> there's tremendous litigation going on, and this is a case where they're trying to steal an election. >> no. what we have is a team of lawyers pretending to pull nonexistent levers of power to grant the wish of one person missing the one thing that's alluded him in every courtroom across the country. a victory. what's enraging is not just the total lack of sophistication or even competence. it's the duplicity of the arguments. they tell you the people one thing. >> i know this city has a sad

history of voter fraud. >> but they tell the courts the opposite. each time the curtain is drawn, the wizards wait to see which audience is staring back before deciding which lie to weave. if it's the court of public opinion, they'll shout words like widespread fraud as shrill as a wicked witch's cackle. they'll fire off tweets and press releases, hoping to steal your belief in the integrity of our elections and send democracy to hell in a dog's hand basket, and they hope that you will be lulled into a false sense of election insecurity, and a poppy field of misinformation and promises of evidence that just never seems to come to pass. >> you call a gigantic press conference like that, one that lasts an hour, and you announce

massive bomb shells, then you better have some bomb shells. they promised block buster stuff, and then nothing happened. and that's just, that's not, well, it's not good. >> not good. it's a tornado of innuendo, baseless and unsubstantiated claims threatening to drop a house on democracy. but if it's the court of law that draws back the curtain, and it's a judge who is the one asking the question, well, that's a horse of a different color. suddenly, there are no more allegations of fraud, there's no forthcoming data, no case law to support a single thing, and most of all, no evidence. none. they can click their heels as many times as they want, and they still won't have what wasn't, in fact, there all

along. evidence. after all, what makes a bald assertion turn into fact? evidence. what makes a frivolous lawsuit meritorious? evidence. what makes a legal claim sound? evidence. what makes an election overturn? evidence. but what's the one thing they ain't got? evidence. you can say that again. after all, just like the courts, the trump campaign and its own legal team have already said it more than 30 times. just not to you. but it takes courage to admit to being a cowardly lion, all roar with no bite. you know, next, i want you to take a look at this. what you're seeing there, that's a packed airport. millions of people flying this weekend despite the cdc pleading

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♪ ♪ heart monitors that let your doctor watch over you, just like you watch over your best friend. another life-changing technology from abbott, so you don't wait for life. you live it. the u.s. adding more than 158,000 new coronavirus cases today. 47 states are getting worse or holding steady. despite cdc guidance, recommending that people not travel for thanksgiving, these were the scenes at the airport throughout the country just this

weekend. over 3 million people passed through security check points. numbers frankly we haven't seen since march. the virus spreading at record levels including 21 days in a row with over 100,000 new cases. joining me now, cnn medical analyst, dr. jonathan reiner, the director of the -- >> thank you for having me. >> what goes through your mind when you see these massive crowds of people traveling with the numbers that i have just rattled off? >> you know, i really understand particularly this year why people crave to be with family, but this is worst possible time to do it. so as you said, the virus is really hot right now. it's never been this active in this country since the start of

the pandemic almost nine months ago. but the reasons not to travel now are to protect the people you love. you know, you may not know you have the virus. or you might contract the virus while you travel, and then transport the virus to people that are particularly vulnerable. i mean, this is a family holiday. a lot of multigenerational dinners, and you know, what will happen tragically, all across the country as a consequence of this thanksgiving is that people are going to inadvertently kill people they really love. i was going to say, this is the year to stay home. you know, we'll get together in the future. i'm really optimistic. i don't sound optimistic, but i'm really optimistic about the next few months. we're going to get through this dark period. then we're going to start vaccinating people, and we're going to start to get our lives

back, but we have to get to that point. now is not the time to travel. >> you know getting to that particular point, we're thinking about parts of the country reimposing bans. astrazeneca announced today that their vaccine has an average efficacy of 70%. it seems we're so close to really being able to start these vaccines. so does that make this latest surge all the more tragic to be so close to potentially vaccines that will help and solve this issue? >> it does. and, you know, personally, i can see the light at the end of the tunnel now, and for the first time in many many months, it's not an oncoming train, but that makes me want to be more careful. that makes the people -- that makes me want to convince the people that i really care about, my patience, my family, my country, to be more careful because we're going to have a vaccine. the vaccines are spectacularly effective. this is really a breathtaking achievement to have so many

vaccines created in less than a year. we'll turn this around, but we need to get this. now is not the time to be reckless. let's hunker down. we'll have a zoom thanksgiving. we'll have a lot of leftovers, and then we'll get together with the people we love, you know, in the springtime. our spring is going to be great in the country, and the summer is going to be even better. >> from your lips to god's ears. thank you so much for your time tonight. we're so close, we're all exhausted. it's time to do the things to make sure it ends, and one of the consequences you're seeing, huge lines at food banks across the country. my next guest not only works at one after being laid off, but for the first time is relying on it for her food. proven ingredients that fuel 5 indicators of brain performance. memory, focus, accuracy, learning, and concentration. try our new gummies for 30 days and see the difference.

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millions of americans are ouch work in the middle of this pandemic. and that's resulted in millions of people turning to food banks for the first time. take a look at these scenes from four of the largest cities in the country, new york, los angeles, dallas, and atlanta. monica wahlberg of wisconsin lost her job due to the pandemic and is now getting help from a food bank. she joins me now. monica, thank you for being here to talk to us about what you have been experiencing. it's such a powerful story. so thank you. >> you're very welcome. my pleasure to be here. >> you know, talk to me a little bit about your experience. you actually had your dream job

before it was cut back in june, and you ended up getting a part-time job at a food bank, and you ultimately had to collect food for yourself. so how are you getting by? how are you doing right now? >> i get by by the grace of god and the help of friends and family. it has been very challenging year, and, you know, it all started with so many of us back in march. given the pandemic and the community arts center where i was working, the board cut my salary in half. i still worked full-time. and i was able to get unemployment for part of that. and thankfully for my tax return and the federal stipend, i was able to pay my bills and all. in june, we had to cut the budget by 30%, and that's an awful lot for a small nonprofit.

i had a two-month severance, and was able to try to get by but when that was done, i went to go apply for unemployment, and as the weeks ticked on without any support, my pastor of my ucc church had suggested that i pick up food from a local food pantry that the church was sponsoring as a pop up, and that was the first time that i had actually been the recipient of. as a lot of middle class socioeconomic level, we volunteer, and we donate to such charities. but we're not always used to actually being the recipient. >> and that's a story of so many people for the first time in their lives being faced with this predicament at a time when they couldn't have foreseen it, they couldn't have planned around it, and we see these massive lines at food banks and people waiting hours and hours across the country.

so what are you hearing from people at your food bank. are a lot of people coming for the very first time like yourself? >> absolutely. so i was able to get connected with a federal program, wioa, d dislocated worker program, and they're actually the ones that connected me with the river food pran t pantry. it was a six week program that i could work 20 hours a week, and after the six weeks when i still didn't have a job, i have applied for over 50 positions in four states. there's just so much competition out there that it's very very hard, and they were able to extend my time at the river part-time, but we see people every day coming through the lines. in dane county alone, we have seen a 63% increase in food insecurity. i work in the kitchen and we help package fresh meals

together. so there's the marketplace, which is more what you might think of as a typical food pantry, and then there's the kitchen. that they used to offer community meals and of course we can't do that with covid, and we serve over, you know, 400 meals on a tuesday, and they're expecting over a thousand this week with thanksgiving. >> you know, your story is so much like so many others we're hearing about for the first time, and what's happening, and the idea of how much everyone wants things to change and how much it needs to change, and i thank you for your time, and i wish you a very warm thanksgiving, and i hope you find -- >> we have much to be thankful for. >> you are right. and thank you for saying that, and thank you for watching. our coverage continues. a live bookkeeper is helping customize quickbooks for me. okay, you're all set up. thanks!

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hello, and welcome to our viewers here in the united states and all around the world. you are watching "cnn newsroom" and i'm rosemary church. just ahead, three weeks out to the u.s. presidential election, the transition of power has finally begun. this hour, how the news affects the incoming biden administration, and what president trump has to say about his legal battles. plus, president-elect joe biden's cabinet is taking shape with a history making nominee for trashy secretary. what does it mean for the business world? and the chances