boris, thanks so much. hi there, thanks for being with me this friday. i am brooke baldwin, you're watching cnn. we begin with the 17th day the u.s. has broken a record for covid hospitalizations. more than 90,000 americans. despite the worsening pandemic, people potentially flocking to stores and malls on what is typically the biggest shopping day of the year. in the presidential transition, president-elect joe biden is staying home with family today while president trump is golfing, and then traveling to camp david this afternoon where his adult children spent thanksgiving. yesterday evening, he took questions for the first time since he lost the election, and just a quick reminder of that night, here's how it all started. >> frankly, we did win this election. >> 24 days later, here's how it is going. >> so if the electoral college elects joe biden, are you not

going to leave this building? >> certainly i will. certainly i will. and you know that. stop talking to me that way. you're just a lightweight. don't talk to me that way. i am the president of the united states. don't ever talk to the president that way. >> still on the hamster wheel of infantile narcissistic flag ran see, refusing to concede an election he lost by millions of votes. since that tantrum, we have been on a roller coaster with this president. he vowed he will indeed leave the white house. today he had something else to say, tweeting joe biden can enter the white house if he can prove his 80 million votes were legit. last night he questioned the integrity of georgia's voter system. but today, he is tweeting to get out the vote for two senate runoffs in georgia. but wait, there's more. he then flippantly told the american people on thanksgiving that a covid vaccine would be delivered next week.

>> we are rounding the curve, the vaccines are being delivered literally, will start next week and the week after. it will hit the front line workers and seniors and doctors, nurses, a lot of people, going to start, and we're going very quickly. >> but hang on, the fda has not yet given emergency use authorization to any vaccine candidate. and if there's anything the american people need now, it is honesty and transparency about one substance that can pull us all out of the pandemic. let's go to one of the cities where health care workers are desperately waiting for a vaccine. rosa flores is live in miami. what are the trends in florida today? >> reporter: brooke, what we're seeing here in the state of florida and miami-dade where i am is what we see around the country, that's an increase in the number of hospitalizations because that's the big news today, the u.s. shattering its covid-19 hospitalization record with more than 90,000 americans

waking up this morning in a hospital room with covid-19. that's a 35% increase in the number of hospitalizations in just two weeks. when you look at the numbers, the number of cases, you go to mid november and every day, every single day, the number of cases has been above 135,000. yesterday, it dipped to 110,000. why? well, about 20 states didn't report numbers on thanksgiving. that's why we are seeing a dip. same thing happened in the number of deaths yesterday. more than 1,200 deaths were reported, but again, it is because some states did not report their numbers. on top of that, we are expecting for the dip in numbers to continue for the next few days. be aware of this. also because during thanksgiving some testing sites around the country were closed. after that, we are expecting a

spike, but that's just normalization of numbers. then according to experts, it will be the surge they're expecting after thanksgiving. here in the state of florida, one of the states that didn't report their numbers yesterday, miami-dade county did report its number of hospitalizations, and it is exactly what other locations are seeing around the country. an increase. there was a 26% increase in the number of hospitalizations in the past two weeks here in miami-dade county, when you look at icus, ventilator use, 48%. brooke, i will leave you with this. there's a lot of frustration in miami-dade county and other parts of the state because local leaders are asking governor ron desantis to do more to help curb the spread of the virus. what they want him to do is give them the power that they had before he reopened the state in one swoop in late september. they want to be able to impose

some restrictions to stop the spread and be able to reinstate the finding of people that don't wear masks in public. of course, the governor not only is not allowing that, this week he extended the executive order that clips the powers from local leaders from being able to admit debating measures. brooke? >> right. local leaders want to say hey, we want to keep you and the community safe, issue a mask mandate, and the governor is not allowing for that. rosa flores, thank you for that u update in florida. dr. celine gounder is a member of the biden harris coronavirus board. the president's comments on the vaccine, the before shots are administered, the fda needs to discuss the emergency use application, that doesn't happen until december 10th. the president last night said

people are getting them next week. what's your understanding how this will proceed? >> the date for review to start at the fda is not until december 10th. people may ask why isn't it happening sooner. what happens is you have all of the data that gets distributed to various members of the team that will be doing the review. that's thousands of pages of data they have to review between now and then in advance of that meeting. so this is quite a tedious, long process that's starting to get under way. while they will be trying to do that as efficiently as possible, mid to late december is really the earliest this could get done by. >> you talk about all of the data they have to go through. tell me, what's the biggest risk that would emerge from rushing a vaccine through before it is ready? >> honestly, i think the single biggest risk of rushing approval would be that the american people do not trust the vaccine. it is essential that people feel

this is a safe and effective vaccine. we have already seen that the numbers, percentage of americans that feel nervous about it, who are reluctant to line up and get it is going down and down. more and more americans feeling nervous the last several months. it is really important this process be done as normally as possible by the regulations as possible. >> going back to the president speaking last night, not only did he give his version of the time line, then he also emphasized it is important for him to get credit for the vaccine. listen to this. >> don't let him take credit for the vaccines because the vaccines were me and i pushed people harder than they have ever been pushed before. >> you were on the biden advisory board. what do you make of that? >> well, look, politicians of either political party are not the ones that develop vaccines. vaccines are developed by scientists and doctors and public health workers, so this

is really not a win for either political party or either president trump or president-elect biden. this is really a testament to the really hard work that scientists and others have been doing over the last several months. >> last question for you. it is the day after thanksgiving, it is black friday. i know shopping this year is totally different than any year we had before, certainly a lot of brick and mortar stores are open, some stores limiting how many people can enter at a given time. what's your advice to people that want to shop, put more money back in the economy, support their local business but want to stay safe. >> i think this is where online shopping is a great option. in general, advice continues to be that you should as much as possible avoid crowds. if you are outside your household bubble, wear a mask. remain six feet from other people. and if you are going to be

around other people, try to do outdoors, not indoors. unfortunately whether it is a restaurant or the mall or place of worship, there are so many places right now that are not safe because they're crowded and they're not well ventilated. >> dr. celine gounder, thank you so much. great to see you today. hope you had a nice thanksgiving. >> you too. president trump is finally breaking his silence on whether he accepted his election loss. he appears to be walking back comments that he is ready to face reality. and president-elect biden is expected to announce more cabinet picks, but he is already facing from the nominee for the cia. we'll talk to the mayor of houston live coming up. you're watching cnn. i am brooke baldwin.

we are back. i am brooke baldwin. the president is trying to walk back commitment to american democracy. he says it is joe biden's job to prove his 80 million votes were not fraudulent if he wants to take office come january. big unsolvable problem, the president says. that statement is pure nonsense, like the president's repeated claims of nonexistent voter fraud. it also serves as attempt to get out of a corner the president put himself in with his answer to reporters. watch. >> if the electoral college elects joe biden, will you leave this building? >> certainly i will, and you know that. i think there will be a lot of things happening between now and

the 20th of january, a lot of things. >> let's go straight to cnn political analyst in politics, margaret, awesome to have you on. the president tells reporters on thanksgiving he will leave office and now this big caveat, why? >> it is messaging, brooke. he is signaling publicly what his advisers have been signaling for weeks now which is that he does, in fact, intend to leave at the end of his presidency, in a number of weeks, but i think we will not see him concede. that is i think the needle he is trying to thread. he will say up until the end the results aren't legitimate, that they shouldn't be seen as legitimate. but in the end, he is not going to have any choice but to accept the normal transfer of power, and some last ditch efforts we see which shocked a number of

republicans as well as democrats, the efforts to test whether there was support in state legislatures to change. as well as the lawsuits that haven't succeeded. he doesn't have levers left to pull. when we saw gsa do the ascertainment, that triggered the official transition process, that was the end of the effort to test the waters to see whether there was any way to remain president beyond january 20th. so now the question is what does the exit look like. >> on the exit, speaking of how few levers he has to pull now, he wouldn't say if he would attend a biden inauguration. do you take that as confirmation that he is not going? >> yeah. probably. although president trump as we all know kind of, he is a showman. likes to control messaging, he likes for the narrative to send signals he wants to send. in the past we have seen him do counter programming for some

events. i think the question is would he try to counter program joe biden's inauguration. what you think of as the traditional handoff where the new president comes to the white house, is greeted by the outgoing president, outgoing first lady, gifts are exchanged, there's a conversation and like the letter in the desk and all that stuff. i don't think anyone is expecting that. i also think in a pandemic year, optics aren't going to be on it anyway. so much of the inauguration will look different than if president trump doesn't want to do that, and if president-elect biden doesn't want to do that with him either, i think they're both going to be off the hook. the question is what messaging will he go for and we'll be watching. >> interesting thought. it will look so differently because of covid. almost like that could be part of the scapegoat. the president will rally supporters in georgia for senate races there. says there was massive election fraud in that state, his message to voters about that. >> i think you're dealing in a very fraudulent system. i am very worried about that.

they are tremendous people. kelly loeffler, david perdue, tremendous people. should be in the united states senate. they're desperately needed. i told them today, i said listen, you have a fraudulent system, a flick of a switch, putting in of a new chip can change the course of history. >> so the president then tried to course correct this morning, tweeting we must get out and help david and kelly. margaret, do the republican campaigns view the president's message as a plus or minus? >> i think the messaging right now, this messaging that votes are fraudulent, can't be trusted, republicans in georgia view it as a real minus as well as republicans in the senate. the concern is obvious, right? the concern is if to justify your own loss you have to say the election was rigged, you're telling people in this crucial state from your own party you may not bother turning up to

vote because you can't trust the results, right? georgia was won by biden by 12,000 votes. you can see in a state with millions of voters how narrow a margin this can turn on, how crucial it is for both parties to have turnout. if you tell everyone to turnout, what you're saying is you can trust the results. it is a pickle. in order for the president to bolster the argument about his loss, he has to diminish incentives to turnout. i think you'll see him messaging for both. despite all that, i think there's no doubt republicans in georgia, two candidates, perdue and loeffler, see the president's turnout as a way to boost turnout for them. he still has tremendous amount of support inside the state of georgia, in something like a special election in january, how do you bring people back to the polls, could be a big one. there was some doubt whether he would show up for a state that didn't elect him. he is signaling that he will,

and next weekend, december 5th, would be one to watch. >> margaret, thank you so much. >> thanks. the biden administration plans to announce more cabinet picks next week. there are already objections to choice to lead central intelligence agency. let's go to senior national security correspondent alex marquardt. alex, president-elect biden doesn't intend to keep the current director, gina haspel. and they call -- >> there's strong language about one of the potential choices for director of the cia. start with gina haspel. she's currently director of the cia, had a fraught relationship of late with president trump. there's an expectation if she is not fired between now and inauguration day, she would certainly resign her position and pave the way for president-elect biden to name

his own director. director of the cia position along with secretary of defense are the two main remaining major national security positions that the president-elect and his transition team have yet to name. emerging frontrunners for the cia, according to multiple sources are tom donlin. he is not a career intelligence professional, but would not be the first to not be a careerist, to lead the cia. mike morell is very much a career intelligence professional, well respected in the rank and file by those at langley, cia headquarters. he had a three decades long career there. he was twice acting director. he was the deputy director. as you point out, there is a bit of push back from ron wyden on

the senate intelligence committee. that's the committee that will have to vote on whoever is named by biden as director of the cia. morell was a senior official at the cia when they were using the so-called enhanced interrogation techniques which morell later admitted could be considered torture. like water boarding. he has also talked about their effectiveness and how it did work on al qaeda detainees. so morell, if named by biden, could potentially have a bumpy ride in terms of senate confirmation. brooke? >> thank you, alex marquardt in washington. good to see you. texas is shattering daily coronavirus case record. now the mayor of houston says he is not rolling out a curfew for the city. we talk to the mayor live next. some things are good to know. like where to find the cheapest gas in town and which supermarket gives you the most

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texas is facing a surge of new coronavirus cases and steady increase in hospitalizations just one day before thanksgiving. the state set a new daily record

of cases and in an effort to curb the spread, el paso, san antonio areas imposed curfews over the weekend. with me from houston, the mayor, sylvester turner. mayor turner, a pleasure. happy day after thanksgiving. welcome, welcome. >> thank you. >> you have not put in a curfew just yet in houston, but you are warning folks this could be coming. how will you decide? >> basically we're going to look at people's behavior, going to look at the degree of community spread, whether or not positivity rate continues to go up, and impact on the health care delivery system. if numbers continue to rise, seems as though we're going to turn to where we were in the summer, then -- brooke, i don't take anything off the table. we want people to be aware of behavior because it directly impacts community spread. >> i understand.

you were out and about yesterday volunteering, told me on commercial break, you handed out 20,000 meals to those in need. there's video of a long line yesterday. reporting from "the washington post" yesterday specifically on food insecurity issue in this country, they reported one in five adults in houston reported going hungry recently, including 3 in 10 adults in households with children. growth and hunger rate hit the hispanic and black households harder than white ones, devastating consequence of a weak economy that left so many trying to secure food, even during dangerous conditions. mr. mayor, would you tell me a story or two about folks you met in lines that are in need? >> i saw people in lines who have never been in lines before. they expressed that. this was the first time we are seeing intersection between covid-19, health care disparities, food insecurities. there were thousands of people that came in their vehicles and

in trucks and then thousands that walked up. let me tell you what got to me most. we were handing out turkeys, hams, food supplies for people to take home. for those individuals walking up, many of them turned down the turkeys because they did not have the facilities to prepare, to bake the turkeys. >> wow. >> we are going to do this again christmas eve. what we are going to do this time is we're going to partner with a number of restaurants in the city of houston, many of our restaurants through federal cares dollars are preparing 30,000 hot meals a week. we're going to partner with the super feast, bishop woodard, have them prepare hot meals and individually package them so individuals that come, walk up, they can have the hot meals and go and eat them wherever they are going.

that was the most -- >> heart wrenching. >> gut wrenching yesterday when people were walking up and were saying mayor, we can't do anything with the turkey. we don't have the facilities. >> wow. when you see that, that tells me maybe folks were evicted, don't have a kitchen or means to cook, darn turkey. you look at washington and look at the lack of movement that has happened with regard to the stimulus plan. >> it is unconscionable. >> thank you. go ahead. >> it is unconscionable. these are families that are hurting. they didn't ask to be put in this situation, they didn't ask for the pandemic. they are not looking for a handout. what they're asking is for assistance to bridge them from this moment in time until such time things get better.

for the federal government not to be moving quickly to respond to people's needs is simply unconscionable. when you are in these lines, i would encourage every elected official, every person in congress, every person in the senate, people in the administration, to be on the front line, listen to the stories, to see where people are stepping up, not because they want to, there were people in those lines, driving up who were embarrassed to be in those lines. what we said to them, there's no reason to be embarrassed, there's no need. but then for them to be in line and then to say no to the turkeys, you can have massive food distributions, but what we often times forget is that there are thousands of individuals that do not have the facilities, they're not in their homes, don't have an oven or stove or

kitchen to prepare the meals. so we are going to have to make some modifications for the next massive food distribution to take into account people who you can provide them with supplies but they just don't have the means. >> this is where we are in america in 2020. mayor turner, thank you for your candor and your words and your care. appreciate you. let's talk again about what you're doing around christmas time. >> thank you so much. well, iran meantime confirming one of its top nuclear scientists has been assassinated. what the united states is saying about the deadly attack next. i use rakuten to get cash back in-store and online. i just got to shop online and i get cash back. i love using rakuten during the holidays, because i can get the sale and i can get cash back. and it's so easy and the best way to start off the new year. sign up today and get cash back with rakuten.

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the only medicare advantage plans with the aarp name. [sfx: mnemonic] state run tv in iran is reporting that a top iranian nuclear scientist was assassinated outside of tehran. they say members of the security team were injured in the attack. barbara starr is with me. this scientist was considered to be the mastermind of iran's entire nuclear program. what is the u.s. saying? >> reporter: he had been involved for years according to western intelligence agencies,

benjamin netanyahu, leader of israel, of course, had even called him out publicly as being someone at the center of the nuclear program. today when this happened, we heard nothing from either the israelis or trump administration because the matter is so sensitive now. nobody is speaking out other than the iranians who claim the israelis did it. we simply do not know. what we do know is that both israel and the trump administration are keeping a sharp eye on iran's nuclear program. as the days of the trump administration wind down, one of the key questions is whether netanyahu had essentially some piece of business he wanted to finish with iran while trump was still in office. that's something to consider. the biden administration is thought to be open to the notion of resuming some kind of nuclear discussion with iran. right now, the question is what

may come next. concern about iran retaliating against israel, the u.s. concerned that president trump may want to launch some strike against iran before he leaves office. here at the pentagon, the view is watching it carefully, but unless they see direct provocation by iran, direct military provocation if you will, the military view expressed publicly by head of central command for now, they think deterrence is work, economic and diplomatic pressure against iran is making that regime understand that the u.s. is ready, will counter if they have to, but does not look for war with iran. and that's the message the pentagon still really wants to send, brooke. >> got it. barbara, thank you so much. i want to pivot to breaking news we're getting in. it is friday afternoon, just into us, an appeals court unanimously rejecting a trump

campaign legal challenge in pennsylvania. the opinion is authored by a trump appointee, and it is cut and dry, unsparing. quote, calling an election unfair does not make it so. charges require specific allegations and then proof. we have neither here. so let's go to cnn's jessica snyder, live with this one. yet another loss for this president. >> reporter: this is another take down, wholeheartedly, brooke, from federal court. this you mentioned, a trump appointee, one of the judges on circuit court for third circuit, this is a case that trump legal team said they will continue to take not only to third circuit which rejected their claim, they vowed to take it to the supreme court. so far, their track record is abysmal. to take you back, this is the case that rudy giuliani argued

in court just about two weeks ago, shortly thereafter, claims were completely rejected by a federal judge out of pennsylvania. he took the trump campaign, all their arguments out, line by line. the third circuit out of philadelphia doing the same as to this case. you read part of this decision, but let me read another part for you because it really sums it up here. this court saying the campaign's claims have no merit, the number of ballots it specifically challenges is far smaller than the roughly 81,000 vote margin of victory and it never claims fraud or that any votes were cast by illegal voters. that's been the big problem, brooke. the trump campaign, their legal team have repeatedly filed lawsuits all over the country, but most specifically in pennsylvania as one of the key battleground states. they have continually alleged wild allegations of fraud. the problem is that these judges repeatedly pointed out, there's

never evidence to back up claims. that's what the lower court, district court said in this case, now the circuit court. federal appellate court in pennsylvania saying look, trump campaign, you haven't backed up any of your wild speculation with any real evidence here. the trump campaign yet again taken down by federal court. really, we have been talking about the past week, all these states have been moving forward to certify. pretty much it is all buttoned up. the trump campaign continues to fight. this is another example of where they're not successful and being taken down by one of the president's own nominees to the federal circuit. >> it is a trend. they continue to lose these fights, they being team trump. jessica snyder, thank you for that update out of pennsylvania. the pandemic delivered another big blow to education. national standardized tests are pushed back to 2022. why that may be a problem for your children next. are you managing your diabetes...

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as covid continues to spread, standardized testing long used to gauge students's educational development has been pushed. students are suffering setbacks from online learning, they're more crucial. the commissioner of national center for education statistics administers the standardized testing, good to have you on. welcome. >> thank you, brooke. >> for people not familiar with all of the acronyms, explain which standardized testing you

are pushing back and what grades of young people this effects and why you're doing this. >> of course, brooke. so the national association of educational progress since 1969 within department of education, we use a representative sample of fourth grade and eighth graders in reading and math every two years is the current requirement. unfortunately with covid going on, we have been reaching out to schools that were part of the sample. based on attendance patterns, a lot of them are in hybrid or distance only mode, and looking at the number of covid cases around schools, it is not possible to conduct in spring, 2021 when scheduled and in a manner with representative sample across the country and also that will have sufficiently valid and reliable results. we feel like delaying one year to 2022 will allow things to settle more, allow us to get data quicker.

if we try to do 2021, aren't able to get good data, next time we can do it is 2023. by delaying a year, we get numbers a year earlier than we i'm sure the students may or may not miss the tests, but if there's no standard iced testing, how will parents and teachers know how far behind the kids get because of this pandemic? >> naep is managed and organized by the federal government to produce national levels and state-level tests. while the state-level tests will not have the same challenges as, that makes is very differents as we have seen with covid, we have hot spots in different parts of the country at different times. the state may still be able to work around their issue to say

do their state-levels tests we sent test proctors into the school. at this time you don't want people from outside of an area going into the schools, as they may bring covid with them or take covid out. >> that makes sense, and on the national issue that the be challenging, but it may allay parents' fears of not having their kids measured educationally, so a different version of tests will still be administered. thank you for coming on. i appreciate it. >> thank you, brooke. coming up next, an icu nurse and her facebook posts gets shared by thousands of people after detailing the horrors of treating covid patients. we will talk to her live, next. re-entering data that employees could enter themselves?

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as new covid hospitalizations continue to shatter records in this country, more than 90,000 americans admitted just yesterday, we're seeing more and more hospital staff breaking their silence and pleading with their communities to take more personal responsibility. here's a photo of carol williams. sheer an icu nurse in aurora, illinois, she posted this along

with a poignant description of what it's like to take care of patients. thank you for all that you do and welcome. >> thank you for having me. >> i think it's way more powerful coming from you that from me. will you read a business of your post? >> please imagine being the covid icu patient, the breathlessness, pain, fear, lonely his, hopelessness and sads in, the need to use all of your energy just to breathe, the true realization you may not get better and facing your own mortality. we do our best to calm fears, comfort and connect while providing the best care we can in their most vulnerable moments. >> tell me what was happening in your moment to post that in that photo, where you see the ppe

marks still on your face. >> just in that moment of that picture is when you realize that some patients, no matter what you do, they are not going to make it through. so that's where i was in that moment. >> and how many moments like that have you had? >> myself and my co-workers, nurses, doctors, respiratory therapists, we've countless moments of that. >> when i was reading your post, you wrote that anyone who asking you how things are going, you give them your unfiltered covid icu nurse answer, so let me ask you -- how are you? how are things going? >> that it's bad. that it's worse than the spring, that to see these patients come

in alone, deteriorate to the point of needing an icu, to just realize that they might not make it through, that's a heavy burden for them as the patient to face alone. that's a heavy burden for health care workers across the country to try to help them through. >> you mentioned now is worse than the spring, and you know this better than any of us, you know, health officials are now warning after thanksgiving, we're about to see a surge on top of the surge. you're already exhausted. how are you and your fellow nurses, staff, preparing for this potential inflection of patients this winter? >> we are all coming together. every day our hospital and across the country, we're all meeting and talking about how we're going to handle this

staffing-wise, patient-wise, where patients will go. we lean on each other. it's a family where we work. >> thank goodness for your family. just last quick question. the biden transition is happening, they have this entire covid advisory board. you are in the trenches. if you could tell the president-elect one thing to help your situation, what would it be? >> i wanted president-elect to take this pandemic as seriously as every single healthcare worker across the country that's actively caring for covid-19 patients in any fathom, either icus or regular covid floors. >> carol williams, bless you. thank you so much. be well. >> thank you. we continue on.