is another state really controlled by the republicans, so, of course, you know, that is something that is similar to the state of georgia, where the president has repeatedly railed on the governor there. this is something that, you know, for many weeks now, almost a month now after election day, come tomorrow, either have recounts after tallies, states the only thing is they're still contesting this with zero evident. officially now a red state turning it blue for the first time, putting an end to

complains there. chirp never materialized at all. >> contesting results without bringing any facts to the table, and they're doing this over and over again, so they know -- they know what they're doing they know why their strategy is failing so what outcome are they really looking for here? >> look, brianna, the outcome is president trump's repeated attempt to delegitimatize the election. part that more than 300, nearly 400 we have seen in e-mails trying to raise money.

we have seen state after state where republicans are stepping up. and the republican governor of arizona as well is also signing off on the certification. >> they are being crime out. thank you for the great report i ing. it is the top of the hour. i am brianna keilar. there's new hope that an effective vaccine is closer.

with millions of doses just weeks away. this is why a successful november is the worst month of the pandemic so far with more than 4 million cases report ed more 93,000 hospitalizations were reported. the rise in cases and hospitalizations has been followed, of course, by a rise in deaths. for the past 19 days, the united states has averaged at least 1,000 deaths a day from covid. it's a grim reality for too many families in this country and around the world. there could be some relief on the horizon, as we're getting good news on the vaccine front. moderna planning to ask the fda today for emergency use authorization, as it shares new

details. here's what the data is showing. it's proving to be around 94% effective, but 100% effective against severe coronavirus infections. by the end of the year. moderna hopes you want to 20 million doses available in the united states. because it's a double dose, that would be enough to 10 million people. health and human services secretary alex azar spoke about next steps. >> general perna says we'll ship one hours of authorization, so we could see vaccines out and getting into people's arms before christmas. i want to bring in elizabeth cohen. i think, elizabeth, as we're getting closer to the reality, here hear so many questions. who gets them and when does the

average person get a vaccine? >> right. so the first folks to get the vaccine will be high-risk people. it will likely be folks who are frontline healthcare workers, and also people who are residents of nursing homes. those are the first two groups we think will be able to get a covid-19 vaccine. >> then what about vulnerable people? elderly who aren't in nursing homes? children who have preexisting conditions who may be, say, just out of a cancer battle? what about that group? >> so the next batch will be basically that group. it would be essentially workers like police officers, those kinds of folks. it would also be elderly who are not in nursing homes. also folks who have underlying medical conditions. those are huge groups. that won't happen all at one time, but it would be prioritized. that's expected to happen

january, february, march, people who are not in one of these high-risk groups, they likely won't be able to get a vaccine until starting the end of april. that's what we're being told know, end of april at the earlie earliest. >> tell us how the vaccine will be distributed. >> so it's distributed to states. states will distribute it to sites within their states. so the states decide, okay, whether it goes to this site or that site. the initial vaccine we believe will come out is pfizer. it's unusual. it has to be kept super-cold. pharmacists don't have freezers that go that cold. doctors don't have freezers that go that cold, only research hospitals pretty much have those, only sort of the big research hospitals. so they will likely be sent to those places and given out from there.

>> then we're talking double doses today? the two vaccines we think will get approval, those are double-dose vaccine. and then three to four weeks later, you get a second dose. >> how much will it cost? i know that's a big concern for a lot of people. >> so americans should not have to pay anything for vaccines. that's the way it's supposed to work. basically we already pay for it. we paid for the government to purchase these vaccines, so we're not going to have to pay for it twice. your tax dollars went to purchase the vaccines. now you should be able to show up and get a shot. >> wow. okay. after getting the vaccine does everything just go back to normal? do people still need to wear masks?

>> it would be wonderful if the minute the vaccine came out everything went back to normal. unfortunately that's not the case. the vaccination will roll out pretty slowly, i mean starting we think in december, but it's going to take months and months. in the meantime since not everyone will be vaccinated, you still have to wear a mask. you still have to practice social distancing. as far as getting back to so-called normal, where you can throw away your mask and hug everybody you meet. that likely won't be the summer or fall. >> summer or fall for hugs. if you have three vaccines or maybe more that come online, which one do you get? which one should you get? you might not have a choice, but in the beginning there's likely just pfizer, and then maybe a week or two later wee have moderna. in the beginning there's going to be just pfizer and moderna. these vaccines are very, very

similar. they are made pretty much the same way. in that regard you don't need to worry about making a choice. other vaccines will not come online for months. so right now, don't worry about what you're going to get. right now there's only two choices and essentially they're kind of the same vaccine. >> elizabeth cohen, hugs in the summer, i'm writing it on my calendar. thank you so much for answering all of our questions. . cvs and walgreens says they are preparing to give the vaccines. the mayo clinic also preparing for vaccine delivery. the mayo clinic say the first shipments will arrive in early january. jason craig is the regional chair for the mayo clinic health care system in northwest wisconsin. thank you so much for being with us to talk about this incredibly important topic, you say the vaccine is giving you hope. i know a lot of people are

watching the news and feeling the same way. walk us through how you're going to administer the doses you receive. >> sure, thank you for having me on. very much as described previously, the federal government will be determining the distribution -- will be facilitating the distribution to the states and then we of course will work closely with state authorities to distribute and administer those vaccines throughout the state and throughout the regions that we serve it's likely we're planning on the fact that the initial prioritization will be health care workers. those, of course, on the front lines working with covid-positive patients, and then progressing thereon after to the general population. >> jason, i know a lot of people have -- they've been having some experience with the consumer behavior we have seen of the pandemic. they probably wonder, how isn't

this just going to be the way toilet paper and paper tolwels have been operating, right? i want to get it at the store. i make an order or go to pick it up and it's not there. is that going to happen with the vaccine? >> certainly we're hopeful that that will not be the case. i think it's reasonable to assume, however, the vaccination supply at the earliest availability will be somewhat constrained. we know that those manufacturers of the vaccine are working diligently to provide as much supply as is required to vaccinate those who want to be vaccinated, but our assumption in the early plannings, the supply will somewhat limited. >> that important need to prioritize. there are 19 states reporting a record number of hospitalizations. how are the rising numbers being felt there in your facilities?

>> our facilities have been very, very constrained for a number of weeks. we have been reporting full beds, in fact in excess of our bed capacity for the last several weeks our health care system is very, very strained here, but within our five hospital system, we have a continual state of roughly 100% occupancy. with roughly 50% with covid. our system is being very, very severely strained right now. >> right now caring for covid patients, it's not the same as treating every other patient, especially because covid patients are alone, they don't have family members who are able to be there with them. we've heard about the fears of burnout.

i think it's admirable, amazing work, but it's hard to imagine at this point in time without them really getting a break that this isn't taking an incredible toll on them. >> yeah, our staff have been unbelievably resilient. their commitment has never been on fuller display than over the course of the pandemic. they certainly are strained. they certainly are feeling the full effects of the emotional effects of caring for covid-positive patients here within our walls, but then of course our employees have their own personal lives. because they are members of our community, they're also affected by covid within their personal lives, within their families and they're having to address the covid challenges, and in many instances address similar if nor mott complicated factors when returning to home.

it is hard work they are doing thank you. >> thank you. president-elect joe biden getting his first presidential intelligence briefing today, as cnn learns who's on the short list to be defense secretary, who is on the list to be his cia director. plus he unveils his economic team and there's already one name that could face a tough confirmation case. and the assassination may have been carried out with a remote-controlled machine gun.

president-elect joe biden's

cabinet is taking place. biden has named hi secretary of state tony blinken. treasury secretary janet yellin. he's also collected his chief of staff, ron klain, and neera tanden, but there's a lot more big decisions outstanding. who will be his attorney general, for instance? what about secretary of labor? who will take the reins of health and human services in the midst of a historic pandemic. another critical pick is defense secretary, but were learning more who is at the top of his list. jeff zeleny has been working on this and more. what can you tell us about this story? >> reporter: hey, brianna. we do know president-elect biden and vice president-elect harris going over these names.

in the past month they have been working, and i'm told president-elect has been having some conversations with finalists. there are still some key openings. as you said, defense secretary is at the front of the that list. of course, it was not announced last week when the national security team was announced. that's racing some questions as to what is going on in the defense department. we are told that there are three final contenders here for the defense secretary. all of them would be history making officials. one is michelle flournoy. she was widely seen as one of the topicses, but now has competent 'tis. we're told that jeh johnson, from the obama administration, who also served as general counsel in the pentagon, is also being considered, as well as lloyd austin, a retired four-star army general, in

charge of centcom. he retired in 2016. we're told he is on the list as well. one woman, two african-american men, none of whom have ever led the pentagon. that would be a history-making pick. we're told that decision could come later this week or perhaps next week, but certainly early in the month of december. we're also learning some finalists for the cia director, a central post, of course, and some of the final names are vince stewart. he is one of the former defense officials there, a former marine corps general, actually, as well a sue gordon. she was a defense intelligence expert in the trump administration, and then again jeh johnson. you're seeing his name on a list of potential appointments.

and mike morel, he's also in the mix, but we also have our eye on the attorney general. that is something that the biden transition team is also hoping to work out in the next week or so, we're told. for all these cabinet options, they're coming to a head on some of them, but still many more to go here. >> jeff zeleny, thank you. now to the names and faces on joe biden's economic team it is diverse. this team has a huge challenge ahead, get americans back to work, put money in their pockets, keep roofs over their heads. ranna, janet yellin needs

confirmation, but tell us why she is the perfect person for the moment? >> shy a labor economist. she's always about main street rather than wall street, but she's also middle of the road. she cares about debt, she cares about things that more fiscal conservatives care about. she's in the middle, and she's also been in charge of the fed. if you remember she was very successful arts the chair of the federal reserve. at this time they're going to have to work together so what

this this team going to focus on for stimulus? >> well, it's going to be interesting. there are a lot of levers, particularly that janet yellen can push. she's head of the oversight committee. she could roll back some deregulation moves, can get the fed to push them more on main street than wall street. i think you'll see her setting a tonal shift. it's not going to be about unleashing animal spirits, bolstering the stock market, all the things that president trump cared a lot about. it's going to be about jobs, it's going to be about income. i think she's also the sort of person to articulate the economic side of build back better. what does this really mean? how are we going to connect jobs up with educators?

how do we bring money off of the coasts, where it's concentrated right now and into the regional hubs. these are things she's thought about for a long time. >> perhaps the person that's inspired the most controversy is the budget director pick, neera tanden. tell us why. >> she's an interesting person. she was an adviser to hillary clinton in 2016. she's been deep inside the democratic party for a long time. she's more associated with the corporatist clinton wing of the party, so ironically she may face grilling from more progressive democrats who supported bernie sanders. she may also face some grilling from republicans, because she's been a very outspoken critic of president trump. so in a funny way she's going to be sandwiched on both sides, both of right and the left may have questions. >> rana, we know you will be

watching. that's not too far off. thank you. >> thank you. the president asserting absurd claims about the election, but only a handful of republican lawmakers are calling him out. one of them, who says he's sick of the lies, will join me next. it's moving day. and while her friends

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lawmakers have remained silent on the president's baseless clai claims, a few brave republicans have defended the results and congratulated joe biden on his win. at least one republican congressman is lounloading on t president, saying he's sick of it. denver riggleman is from virginia. congressman, thank you so much for being with us. i do want to tell our viewers you're a former air force intel contractor and contra officers and contractor for the in. sa. he claimed actually that the fbi and the justice department may have helped rig the election against him. of course, there's no evidence of that. what's your reaction to that, and also the fact that there are aren't many republicans like you who are calling this what it is?

>> i worked, as you know -- i was in nsa, thank you for talking about that. but i looked at a lot of agencies where we did counter-intelligence management, when you have a bunch of people who are disparaged, it got under my skin. i've been trying to lower the temperature. it upsets me in a way because of the oaths that we took to the constitution, and a lot of these conspiracy theories are just hogwash, i'm on the board of the ncri, and co-author on something that just using data and statistics that talks about the danger of conspiracy theories. the working title is how disinformation works and conspiracy theories subvert or democracy and national security. we use analytics to disprove. that's where i'm going next, trying to use my background in intelligence, whether it was a ceo are doing cyberand

non-kinetic type of options, and also my background in air force intelligence, trying to get ahead of this using data and analytics. >> that's a worthy goal, obviously so needed, as we hear people wondering what to believe, and certainly their faith in institutions and information is being undermined. i do want to ask you, though, your party you're a rarity. you have -- you're a rarity. they seem very worried that it is what it is, it's not true. do you still consider yourself a republican? >> i don't think as far as defining myself, but as far as the state and the gop.

>> he know they're untrue or impossible. i refuse to join another tribe. that's the part of the great thing of being an american. those who haven't spoken up i think are incredible people. they're worried about jobs, votes, the base, but i had this freedom. you know why i'm here. to be the first republican to officiate a same-sex wedding, is why i got thrown out in a church parking lot. i'm to be outspoken. i'm not a politician. i just love to serve. as military, intelligence, i got to be a congressman, my goodness, if i can't sit here and spit facts, if i'm so afraid

of my own shadow or being part of a tribe that i don't have the ability -- i don't know -- i know for me, my own, you know -- i've had my own friends and people close to me who have said awful things. that's why i'm trying to sort of shut the heat down a bit, and come at it from a more analytic way. and it really is hurting. >> so what do you say to mitch mcconnell, someone who's in a position of power? where disinformation is huge. >> it seems in politics there's always a compromise. i learned that. i think no store mcconnell, we'll have a new president in, what, 50 days or so? with that new president, we've

got to make sure that foundations and transmission is what we have done in the past. we can have arguments about maybe specific cases of voters fraud, but you can come out and say, listen, the fact we're talking about systemic fraud, the national security agency, we're talking about sharpie-gate, watermarks and white vans driving up and night add dumping ballots. you can say a lot of this stuff is not correct, we're going to have a new president. we can look at one another if there's small cases, but right now we need to move on with the transition government and realize what this is. i don't know what the difficulty of that is, brianna, to say that. i guess i'm having a tough time with that. it seems like this is what we're doing as americans. where we're looking at things based on fact, and not on things that are fantasy. congressman riggleman, good luck

with your next endeavor. >> i appreciate you. thank you, ma'am. the balance of power in the senate is coming down to two senate races in georgia. nearly $300 million has already been spent on ads. this sunday night two of the candidates will face off in person. one final time, you can watch it live sunday at 7:00 p.m. eastern. iran is vowing retaliation today as the funeral takes place for its top nuclear scientist, and there are new details about how this brazen assassination was carried out. plus covid cases threatening the nfl season with just a month to go before the playoffs. tonight...i'll be eating crab cakes with spicy aioli.

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it's national frederik pleitgek is joining us now. what is iran saying about the weapons that were used in the atta attack. >> reporter: they say that the armored car he was in was hit by a bullet that he apparently got out to inspect the damage, and at that point was hit in the back by several bullets, one of his bodyguards was hit and killed as well. apparently after that happened, the truck that the radio-controlled gun was allegedly on, then self-destructed. the iranians, one of top security officials said day there was not a single perpetrator at the scene that, as they inspected it afterwards. so the iranians obviously blaming israel for this. they say that the debris they

found had the make and the specifications of an israeli-made, anything else to back that up. >> has israel responded to that? >> reporter: that's the big thing we've been looking for. so far the israelis today have given us no comment. there was one israeli official who came out a couple days ago and said israel and he have no idea who killed iran's top scientist. he called it an embarrassment for iran. however, the iranians see that differently. they point the finger, the when to respond to this especially since all of this is taking place in the final days of the trump administration, and they do hope that many could be better days ahead with the u.s.

and iran with a biden administration in i've in the not-too-distant future, brianna. >> thank you so much for that. next, the nfl slaps the new orleans saints with a half million fine and a lost draft pick. and we just learned that the patriots have been fined as well. we're going to discuss whether the league needs a change of strategy as the playoffs near. hi susan! honey? yeah? i respect that. but that cough looks pretty bad... try this new robitussin honey severe. the real honey you love... plus, the powerful cough relief you need. mind if i root through your trash? new robitussin honey severe. strong relief for your severe symptoms.

cnn aviation correspondent

pete montein has the numbers. >> reporter: thanksgiving travelers said a new travel record of the pandemic. what's so interesting is the tsa thought this would happen. even in speed of the cdc, warning people to not travel during the holiday. they passed skeet, the tsa says even still people did not cancel their trips en masse. the cdc issued that warning a week before thanksgiving, totalling up all the day since, 9 million people flee in the middle this pandemic.

is the broncos had to look to a receiver to be quarterback in last night's game. also punishes teams for breaking the super bowl, mind you, is just 2 1/2 months away. one sports columnist, jerry brewer of the "washington post" putting the situation this way, "the coronavirus is laughing at the nfl's attempt at resistance. the coronavirus is the stout defensive line that the league can't move. every future attempt and direct attack will prove futile. it's time for some clever strategy." joining me now, jonathan jones, senior nfl reporter for cbs sports. jerry brewer said that all is neither well nor under control in the nfl. i wonder what your assessment is of how things are going in the league. >> yeah, i mean, they're going about as well as they're going in the country right now, right? what's happening in the nfl is reflective of society at large. and that's what we're dealing

with right now. the nfl has been bracing for a post-thanksgiving spike with its covid numbers. they certainly thought it would happen about ten days after thanksgiving, and, you know, covid got a jump on the league, but that's why they have been refining their protocols for the last few months. that's why the protocols are certainly more stringent than they once were, so, too, is testing with daily testing including on game days, they're trying to get these results back as quickly as possible. and the league has been saying for months now they want to be able to identify and isolate the virus, to prevent and control the spread of that throughout teams' facilities, and we have seen with very few exceptions, tennessee and baltimore being those two, that they have, for the most part, been able to do that. guys are going to test positive, and if we were never going to play this season, if we believed that no one would test positive, but what you want to prevent is what's happening in baltimore, where a strength coach no reporting symptoms is able to potentially spread that to any number of players that puts a

game in danger of not being played, but right now the league is hoping that they can confidently field a game between two teams understanding that no one on the field has tested positive for the virus. >> the broncos did not have a dedicated quarterback to play in yesterday's game which i think may be a symbol for what this season in the nfl is like. all four of their quarterbacks watched tape together and they did it, i mean, they put all of their eggs in one basket and they weren't wearing masks. they weren't social distancing. presumably, they were indoors, and they were sidelined by someone testing positive. what -- what does that do to how the teams are -- they, you know, they say they're taking precautions, but then you see something like this. >> yeah, it's up to all the individual teams, and this is sort of what happens if you don't follow the protocols. the league has said this hasn't

been a failure of protocols, this has been a failure of compliance. i would tepnd to agree with the. listen, everyone should operate under the assumption and belief of the nfl is the nfl is always watching. the first time you let your mask slip, that will be the time they catch you. the league summoned surveillance footage from the broncos' team facility to see those guys, one quarterback tested positive, the others tested negative but saw on the film they weren't wearing masks so they decided that the other quarterbacks who tested negative were high-risk close contacts that they could potentially test positive. the league has seen that any number of times already this season where somebody tested positive, those close to them were negative up until the moment they tested positive and then potentially got others infected with the virus. and so the nfl, i go back to the san francisco 49ers from a few weeks ago, they had to go out there and play with a bunch of practice squad wide receivers because covid-19 hit that

position group pretty hard. well, that happened to the denver broncos. it just so happened to occur at the most important position in all of sports, so that was what happened with the league. excuse me, with the broncos. and that's the consequences that they were dealt. >> yeah, what protects health protects the game is what we're seeing. we'll see if that kind of gets through after all of this. jonathan jones, thank you so much. there are millions of people who are reacting to a heartbreaking photo. it is of a front line physician confide comforting an elderly patient with coronavirus and a picture that was taken on thanksgiving day inside a houston hospital. see a doctor taking a moment to hug his patient as they cry. the doctor had worked for 256 days straight. that's more than eight months without a day off. and he told our john berman about how this precious moment unfolded. >> as i'm going inside my covid unit, i see that this elderly patient is out of his bed and trying to get out of the room

and he's crying. so i get close to him and i tell him, why are you crying? and the man says, i want to be with my wife. so i just grabbed him, i hold him. i did not know that i was being photographed at the time and, you know, he was just crying and eventually, he got -- he felt better and he stopped crying. >> now, dr. varon said his medical unit always has someone from the media on site following team members in their effort to be transparent and to show people what is going on. we have more on our breaking news, arizona certifying joe biden's win. the state's announcement came during a meetinging in the state that featured rudy giuliani making baseless fraud claims. te! get a freshly made footlong, from subway®! you can even order on the subway® app! did i just get picked off by deion sanders? you sure did! now in the app, get a free footlong when you buy two. because it's footlong season™!

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hi there, you're watching cnn on fthis monday. i'm brooke baldwin. thank you for being here. a second vaccine maker is filing for emergency use authorization today. a u.s. expert is making a prediction on how soon the shots could be rolled out. >> operation warp speed said we'll ship within 24 hours of fda authorization, so we could be seeing both of these vaccines out and getting into people's arms before christmas. >> to be clear,