senator kelly loeffler and reverend raphael warnock debate sunday at 7:00 p.m. eastern. thank you so much for joining us. brianna keilar picks up coverage right now. hello, i am brianna keilar. welcome to viewers in the united states and around the world. we are starting with the new dire prediction on the coronavirus toll. a new model is estimating a half million americans will have died by april. thursday, the u.s. had a record breaking number of new cases and hospitalizations and deaths. more than 217,000 new cases fueled by nine states that set their own records for new cases. wednesday, we saw the first every day of more than 100,000 hospitalizations and repeat of that yesterday when 2,879 people died from coronavirus. as we see the numbers climb, a

warning from dr. anthony fauci that we haven't even entered the expected post thanksgiving surge. >> we have not yet seen the post thanksgiving peak. that's the concerning thing because the numbers in and of themselves are alarming. then you realize it is likely we'll see more of a surge as we get two to three weeks past the thanksgiving holiday, and the thing that concerns me is that abuts right on the christmas holiday as people start to travel, shop, congregate. >> now in florida where there have been more than 1 million confirmed coronavirus cases since the pandemic began, newly elected miami-dade mayor has a grave warning about the hospital systems as cases continue to surge. rosa flores is in nearby ft. lauderdale covering this. tell us what is the mayor's main concern? >> reporter: you know, brianna, she's very concerned about miami-dade reverting back to

where we were back in the summer, during the summer surge. i can paint the picture for you. there were more than 2,000 people hospitalized, the number of icu beds were depleted. they were having to convert regular beds into icu beds. the state of florida was having to send nurses here to this area in southeast florida just to meet demand. that's what she's afraid of. if you look at the data, if you look at the trend map in state of florida, it is clear we are in a new surge. if you look at it, you'll see there's a clear summer surge, lull in numbers, then resurgence. that's where we are right now. we know because experts have told us and we have seen it on the ground, as soon as the number of cases go up, so do hospitalizations. and that's what they're seeing in southeast florida. i just calculated the numbers for miami-dade county, the latest shows hospitalizations doing just that. that's what the mayor is concerned about. past two weeks, hospitalizations

increased by 40%. the number of icus used by 28%. and ventilator use by 30%. here is the other compounding effect. the positivity rate in this area is also increasing. the latest according to miami-dade county government is in the past two weeks, positivity rate ranged from 6 to 10%. past few days, it has been closer to 10%. yesterday at 9.4%. brianna, on top of all that, what local officials are worried and concerned about is they're almost fighting this pandemic with their hands tied behind their backs. why? because when governor ron desantis reopened the state, he clipped the power that local officials had to impose mitigating measures like, for example, imposing fines on mask violators. brianna, they can't do that.

per an emergency order issued by the governor of this state, local officials can't do that. so they're trying their best to impose mitigating measures, and what they're telling people to do in their communities is to wear masks, to social distance, do the basic things because they don't have more tools to impose more mitigating measures, even though they see the numbers and are increasing, hospitalizations are increasing as well, and they're here fighting this pandemic with their hands behind their back. >> rosa, thank you so much for telling us what is happening there in florida. the spike in cases is serious. alaska, arkansas, california, delaware, indiana, maine, massachusetts, new jersey, and pennsylvania all just reported the highest single days of new cases since the pandemic began. and it gets worse. cnn correspondent tom foreman is here to highlight some grim milestones. tom, start with the states that are really causing the greatest

amount of concern now. >> yeah, the top three states in terms of cases are the three most populous states as you might expect. california, texas, florida. add illinois and new york. look at the numbers on the right, total number. that, add it all up, is considerably bigger than the entire number of babies that will be born in the u.s. this year. that's a sense of what kind of sto scope. look what happened in california yesterday. they hit a new record there for cases in a single day, more than 21,000. look at the calendar, what's happening in texas. over the past 30 days about half the time they've had more than 10,000 cases a day. this is going through the roof. as rosa pointed out, you look at how it is expressing itself in terms of hospitalizations, look at that. the entire west coast having record hospitalizations plus utah and new mexico, come over to the east, you end up with

alabama, north carolina, west virginia, kentucky, pennsylvania, all record hospitalizations, and when you look at where people are in single day deaths, again, another list of states getting pounded by this, who i want people to notice when you look at all states that you named, brianna, and that i named showed on maps there, this is evidence that the entire nation is a hot spot. you're not in a good zone now or bad zone now, they're all bad now. as dr. fauci noted as we start seeing the thanksgiving infections show up, people heading to the holidays, that's the reason health officials are saying look at the numbers and do the right thing. brianna? >> we are awaiting those thanksgiving numbers. that expected spike on a spike from that. tom foreman live from washington, thank you. as president trump ignores the rising death toll and virus itself, here in the u.s., of course, canadians are hearing

something different. as painful as it may be not to celebrate with loved ones, gatherings come with deadly consequences. >> i will do what i believe is right and right now, we need to save lives. if you don't think covid is real right now, you're an idiot. you need to understand that we are all in this together. you cannot fail to understand this. stay apart. so i'm the guy who has to tell you to stay apart at christmas and in the holiday season you celebrate with your faith or without your faith, that you celebrate normally with friends and with family, where you share memories and build memories. i'm that guy. i'll say that because it will keep you safe. i'm the guy who's stealing

christmas to keep you safe because you need to do this now. you need to do the right thing because next year we'll have lots to celebrate, and we'll celebrate this year if we do the right thing this year. you don't need to like me. i hope in years to come, you might respect me for having the guts to tell you the right thing. and here's the right thing. stay safe. protect each other. love each other, care for each other. you have so many ways to show that. but don't get together this christmas. >> covid-19 has been the single biggest cause of death in the united states this week. according to institute for health metrics and evaluation, it killed more people than heart disease, cancer, and diabetes, and hospitals across the country are running out of beds. joining me now, dr. matthew, primary care physician and public health specialist, and doctor, as the american people

are hearing enough warnings or the proper warnings, do you think they're getting enough of them from the people in charge? >> you know, brianna, i just feel like people have given up. we are talking about approaching the spanish flu pandemic numbers. this last week i have diagnosed eight people in the aftermath of thanksgiving where the entire family is infected. a 19-year-old boy came back from college, the father gets sick two days later, the mother three days later, and the mother-in-law now being admitted to the hospital who is 90 years old. these are people that don't have to fall sick. brianna, these are people that don't have to die. we are talking 3 to 4,000 deaths in december and over a half million deaths by march of next year. i still think that we need to really look back and say listen, how important is it for us to get back to normalcy. and the only way to do that is to forget about christmas this year, to forget about new year's

next year, focus on the task ahead which is hunkering down, waiting for vaccines to come, and wearing that mask. >> you know, i wonder why is it so difficult for people? sometimes i think in the course of my work, i know in the course of your work, you have to give up holidays with family. at first it is difficult. then it is something that you start to get used to, start to put more emphasis on other holidays or other gatherings, and it is just something you do. it is incredibly difficult for americans. they are having mental health effects. so what is it that you can say to them to convince them not to have a repeat of thanksgiving at christmas, doctor. >> you know, sharing the stories i just shared. two weeks ago i diagnosed a 41-year-old male who was actually healthy, no high blood pressure, no diabetes, a body builder, he is in really good

shape. he called me back to thank me because he was happy that i told him to get tested and i suspected that loss of sense of taste and smell was probably covid, he thought it was nothing. just last week was admitted to the hospital with three blood clots, this is a 41-year-old guy we thought had recovered, two months later developed a blood clot. i think what we need to forget about is the short term gratifications. as a primary care doctor, brianna, patients come to me and say i need this problem taken care of today. it's almost like we don't have time tomorrow. with the way the covid effects us, how so many people are dying, unless we think about tomorrow, next week, next year, and act on these different measures that we have been talking about, we may not be able to celebrate christmas next year or thanksgiving next year. we need to forget about trying to sort of appease ourselves with short term gratifications.

it is all about long term results. listen, if we are not alive to get it or are too sick to get a vaccine, doesn't matter if you have an effective vaccine waiting for. >> such an important point. president-elect biden says when he is inaugurated, he will ask the american people to mask up for the next 100 days. how do you think americans will react to that? >> i think there's going to be mixed feelings. i would like to believe and say listen, it is a new administration, people realize that this is really not a hoax and that people will wear the mask. i still want to be optimistic. you can't mandate masks, but modeling behavior, a politician saying listen, i'm going to wear a mask. when the vaccine is ready, i'm going to get the vaccine, i think that type of modeling of behavior will make a difference. if you look at a couple of states back when stay at home orders were lifted, delaware and

arizona, the hospitalization rates went up by 100%. when the masks were mandated, within two to three weeks there was a huge difference. i think not even 100 days, two to three weeks of consistently wearing masks will make a huge difference. >> doctor, thank you so much. sounds like you are very much witnessing the grim reality on the ground and we appreciate you sharing the important stories with us. the president escalating his threat to not fund american troops over his beef with the tech giants. and my next guest says president trump is acting crazy, so why is america shrugging it off. we're going to discuss that. and president-elect joe biden says president trump should attend his inauguration for the country. do americans feel the same way? - [announcer] grubhub perks give you the kind

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president trump is threatening to veto and annual defense bill unless congress removes legal protections for social media companies, setting up a rare showdown between the president and republicans on capitol hill. lauren fox has more. >> reporter: brianna, the president is threatening to veto the national defense authorization act, a pentagon policy bill. for 59 years, it has passed with broad bipartisan support on capitol hill. now the question is whether or not there would be a veto proof majority, that requires two-thirds of both the house and senate to override the president's veto. all eyes are on republicans here and whether or not they're going to pick the president or the pentagon. brianna? >> all right. thank you. joining me to discuss this more, susan glasser, staff writer for "the new yorker" and global

affairs analyst. great to see you. this is one of the few times we have seen republicans take a stand against the president. do you think the president will follow through on his veto threat, force republicans to go on the record overriding his veto? >> well, that's a good question. in the past he threatened to veto things that he has not followed through with, brianna, and i think that if there were, i can't think of a more clear cut example of one's lame duck status than threatening members of your own party, having them failing to go along with you. he may not want to risk embarrassing defeat at the end of his tenure, but obviously trump sometimes seems to be immune from being embarrassed. he may go ahead with it. interestingly, he got support from lindsey graham, where some senators that lead the armed services committee are pushing back very hard. you're seeing a kind of inside

on the question of this. >> you see the line when it comes to the defense authorization that includes 3% pay raise for troops, republicans, that seems to be their line. they, however, remain silent on the president's baseless claims that the election was stolen from him which has enabled his erratic behavior. you have a piece where you ask this question. you say the president is acting crazy, so why are we shrugging it off. we see his power is waning, days are numbered. why are so many republicans looking the other way? >> that remains one of the essential questions of the trump era. i think first of all, day-in and day-out, seems to me they're being humiliated by republicans in states and localities that are in fact pushing back on president trump and his attack on the basic foundation of our

democracy which is the electoral system. so to me this juxtaposition has never been more apparent. republican election officials, some that say i voted for president trump, this is too far, too crazy. juxtapose that with republican members of the senate. there are fewer republican senators to this day who have publicly acknowledged that joe biden won the election than foreign leaders. that is beyond precedent. i think trump's speech the other day, 46 minutes of just pure destructive fantasy. if ever anything cried out for response, unified response on the part of our political system, this is it. again, i understand. i get it. there's trump fatigue, there's a sense look, the election is done, it doesn't matter what he says any more, but when we look back, brianna, don't you think what's happening after the election and the president attacking democracy, to me,

that's very likely to be in the list of the top things that he has done that are so outrageous to democracy. >> normally at this point in time, a lame duck president fades into the background. the president has ensured that he is not going to do that. i hear what you're saying, in your piece you talk about the desire to ignore what he is doing, but at the same time he is setting a dangerous precedent. >> well, that's right. imagine if the election were not so decisive. at the moment, it has been decisive. i believe joe biden's lead has gone above 7 million votes nationwide, looking at a 306 vote electoral college victory for biden. what if the election had been closer. what if some of the key states there were a few election officials that weren't so determined to stick with the rule of law, and i think if nothing else, he is showing us a play book for how a more

successful, competent would be authoritarian could undermine our elections. and again, this is something that's so unprecedented. i do understand, it feels like for four years he has been doing and saying crazy things, why should this be treated any differently, but it is just in the parade of unthinkables, this one deserves people's attention in my view. >> good point. a great column. susan, thank you so much for coming onto talk with us about it. >> thank you, brianna. cnn confronts president-elect biden on calls from democrats to diversify his cabinet. so who are the progressives that he is considering? plus, drama is unfolding after bill barr's justice department boots a white house liaison from the building for spying on the election investigations. and a 38-year-old comedian starts to chronicle his covid journey online, then he dies two days later. we're going to show you his last message. ♪ i'll be home for christmas

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president-elect's joe biden's vote margin grew to more than 7 million votes.

that's the second highest popular vote lead since the 2000 election, so 20 years. they're still counting some votes at this point in time. questions about the diversity of thought in biden's incoming cabinet are adding up. the president-elect and vice president-elect said this. >> who would you point to now as leading progressive voice in the cabinet? >> well, we're not done yet, jake. we're not even halfway there, so i think we should have this conversation when we're done. >> a lot of people are saying am i going to pick some very, very prominent and well known progressive who sits in the house or senate right now. as close as everything is in terms of the house and senate, they are tough decisions to make, to pull somebody i'm going to badly need out of the senate and we don't reelect or have appointment of somebody that's a

democrat. >> nina turner, cnn political commentator, former ohio state senator, former co-chair of bernie sanders's 2020 campaign. welcome. >> thanks, brianna. >> i wonder what you think, maybe you can answer that question. what do you think so far of the choices in the cabinet? >> well, many of those are not necessarily progressive. they're hitting diversity marks slowly, hopefully it will come more quickly and surely, but i think, brianna, more important is not just the symbol but the substance. what i mean is just checking off boxes, that's not enough. in the time of this kind of crisis in this country, we do need people, regardless of gender, their race or ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation that actually understand and are committed to doing those things that lift the greatest number of people in this country. so it is an and, not either or,

it is an and. >> i think a lot of people, nina, look at the picks so far. they see diversity, especially when you're comparing it to the outgoing trump administration. it seems like this is really about diversity of thought. >> absolutely. and you know what, we have to come to grips in this country about we know for a very long time those cabinet picks have always been of one gender and one racial dynamic, and that's mainly white men. it is not just comparison of the trump administration, it is comparison going all the way back to the first cabinets of any president. so all these things are relative but you are absolutely right, this is not just about female type diversity, this is about the diversity of ideology because again, when you have so many people facing eviction, so many people have lost their jobs, so many people have lost their health care on top of people who are already uninsured, underinsured, it is

just not nuf to say i am going to pick a woman. if that woman believes social security or mediciaid should be cut, what difference does it make whether or not you have a man or woman in there, black person or hispanic person, if in fact they do not believe that the power of government is there to allay, amill you're ate the problems in the united states of america. that's what we need in this moment. >> nina, let's talk names. if you listen, reading between the lines, what the president-elect is saying, someone like elizabeth warren or bernie sanders may be discounted. he doesn't want to lose people in the house and senate. put that aside. who do you want to see, give us names of people you would like to see in this cabinet to give it that diversity of thought you're calling for.

>> well, i knew you were going to ask me for names, i hesitate to get into naming folks. there's so many people on the battlefield of progressivism. one name comes to mind is dr. debra holden. epidemiologist from university of michigan. she certainly would be a good pick. your point about members of the house, you have people like congresswom congresswoman barbara lee and karen bass who would make good fits into the cabinet, but there are other people not necessarily in the congress at this moment who would be good. and if they want to find those folks, they're out there. not too far to go. >> you did give me a couple. >> i hesitate to start naming these people. it is a difficult challenge but one that can be met. not hard to do. brookings institute just wrote an article today and give very good recommendations about how

this administration can ensure diversity within their cabinet. but once you get the female type diversity, you have to go a little deeper and make sure that you are having people from diverse life experiences and not just people from wall street, not just people from ivy league institutions, but people who have lived the type of life where they can bring that experience, people from labor, for example. those types of people should be considered as well. people who have graduated from public colleges and universities should be considered as well. it is a misnomer you can only find the best people with experience on wall street. when you do that, you limit types of people you can bring to the fore. working class people should be part of that or people have not forgotten their working class roots. >> great to have you. thank you so much. >> thank you. >> nina turner with us today.

house speaker nancy pelosi defending her decision over not reaching a deal on a stimulus sooner. many black and latino americans say they don't trust the vaccine. hear the reasons. and 38 years old, comedian begins to document his covid infection online, two date later, he dies. his last message next. >> tech: every customer has their own safelite story. this couple was on a camping trip... ...when their windshield got a chip. they drove to safelite for a same-day repair. and with their insurance, it was no cost to them. >> woman: really?

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the economic pain of the pandemic is evident in the final unemployment report of the year. the u.s. adding 245,000 jobs last month, about half what was expected. the unemployment rate has inched down to 6.7%. overall, though, the economy is still down nearly 10 million jobs since the pandemic hit. while millions of americans are struggling to find work, pandemic unemployment benefits introduced by the cares act are going to expire the end of the month, unless congress takes action and fast. cnn senior correspondent manu raju is with us now on this story. manu, capitol hill negotiations heating up, lawmakers are pushing for an agreement that is stalled for months. the house speaker is defending her handling of the stimulus. you asked her about that. what more can you tell us? >> reporter: there are high level negotiations happening,

momentum on both sides. they're talking about a package around $900 billion. a lot of details. possible negotiations could extend not just next week but the week after. there's new optimism. the question is how they got to this point. nancy pelosi was pushing a larger package for some time. she had also rejected the idea of doing half a loaf, coming back doing the rest of the half at another point. made that position clear for some time. i asked her earlier today if that was a mistake. >> accept a half loaf months ago. you said i don't want to accept a half a loaf. >> don't characterize what we did before as a mistake as a preface to your question, if you want an answer. that was not a mistake. it was a decision and it has taken us to a place we can do the right thing without other shall we say considerations in the legislation that we don't want.

so we're very pleased where it is, and as i say, with a democratic president, committed to a scientific solution with the idea we will have a vaccine, that's a complete game changer from then. >> she said the big difference is joe biden is coming in as president and once president, they can get more of what they had been seeking at a later time which is why she says the posture, dynamics have changed on capitol hill. she's making no -- not showing remorse or regret for her position for some time, saying we'll eventually get the big package we have been looking for. what they're trying to do now, brianna, is tie the relief to a funding bill to keep the government open. time is ticking. they have to avoid government shutdown by next friday, try to get to that. if they can't get a deal by next friday, may have to punt another week, see if they can get a deal

that's been eluding the two sides for months. >> how does the deal she had but turned down months ago compare to this deal that's on the table now? >> reporter: she had been pushing for $2.2 trillion, down from more than $3 trillion in aid that the house passed in may. the senate republicans did not want to take up that $3 trillion package which is why she went down to $2.2 trillion, then the white house came back up, said they would be willing to go to $1.8 trillion. the white house package at the time, brianna, was not detailed. there were questions about what it would entail. pelosi didn't like the direction they were going, and senate republicans were resisting going to the level the white house wanted. pelosi was not willing to go with what the white house proposed at that time, which is what led to the breakdown before the elections. right now, what's clear is that this proposal if they accepted $900 billion is much less in

scope and size than what the speaker was pushing for some time, something that both sides believe they're going to do. >> manu raju, thank you for that. president trump adding another legal headache to his plate when he leaves office as tenants sue him over rent. and telling people not to vote in the elections that will decide control of the senate. will the president's visit to the state up end the situation. what a white house aide is accused of doing that got her barred from entering the justice department building. look, this isn't my first rodeo

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the fda is days away from authorizing a coronavirus vaccine, but lack of trust in the federal government is making some black and latino americans hesitant about taking a vaccine, according to a new study. nearly 40% of reported covid cases have been black and latino people, but this lack of trust could result in big swathes of vulnerable populations not getting vaccinated as the pandemic continues to batter their communities at disproportionate rates. i want to talk about it with senior writer for race and equality. it is easy to understand part of the findings you have here, which is that a lot of this has to do with what is a long history of racism in america when it comes to medical research. tell us about that and what else you found. >> i think it is important to note the research here. a study by covid collaborative found only 14% of black americans actually trust the

vaccine is safe. latino americans, however, were a bit more optimistic, 34% believing it would be safe. the concern here by health figures is that people simply won't be vaccinated, which is a huge concern, given these . since earlier this year. so those are staggering numbers, especially when you're talking about that 14%. what are you hearing when you talk to people who say they don't want to take it. >> i think there's two factors. one is a level of distrust in the federal government, and also noting the nation's history of racism in medical research, even going back to the experiment, the historic experiment where black men with syphilis were used as subjects in research, where they had the disease and

instead of treating them, doctors only tracked their progress while they died or became extremely sick. so i think this is sort has left a black cloud off the community. they don't want to be the first to take the vaccine. they would rather wait and see how it plays out over the first few months of the veeck being rolled out. >> so let's talk about, then, that trust issue. clearly that's something -- you can't erase decades of mistrust, but of course leaders and medical officials are working to build up this trust. what are they doing? >> yeah. i think it's a concerted effort by black and latino leaders who are trusted in these communities. your activists, pastors, mayors, council members, not only going out and taking the vaccine first and then sharing their experience, but also helping to build that trust, by educating

the community, by why the vaccine is necessary, why the vaccine is safe, to help people become more trustful of the vaccine. >> yeah, it's going to be very interesting to see that campaign and how -- it may have a positive effect. we know you'll be tracking that. thank you for that report. so we're going to talk about the numbers. the numbers of covid-19 cases, the numbers of hospitals overwhelmed. nearly 300,000, and behind those numbers are people, like joe luna, a father and a son. he is just one of these people he's a comedian. he thought he was doing everything right. he had stopped performing, stopped going out, but it took just one family dinner for him, his partner and two sons to get sick. after days in and out of the hospital, joe turned to social media to share his battle, and he warned, this is no joke.

the last clip you will see is joe's final message. he died the just hours after making it. >> so, i don't if you guys know, but i tested positive for covid. not only that, i have knew month what. not only do i have pneumonia, you know, i'm a double amputee, i'm diabetic, so i'm dealing with a lot, guys. a lot of just horrible feelings of what covid can do, man. let me tell you, man, when i hear people talk about what covid did to them, i think to myself, you know, man, i doubted it, but dude, i'll tell you right now, i've been fighting for my life. i got hit with it. i got hit with it, like, where you know, i shake, my body goes through convulsions. you know, i can't even taste

nothing. i'm literally going there just horrible, horrible symptoms. i had chest pains. as a matter of fact i just got released from the hospital on wednesday to come home, to only go back to, you know, how have the ambulance take me back to the hospital. then to find out, you know, that my girl -- my kids all have covid, you know, it's just an ugly feeling, man, to go through. i've been literally almost on my deathbed. if you think that covid is a joke, if you think that this won't be you, trust me -- it hits everybody different. i'm, you know, i'm in a battle where i know that i won't win unless i knock it out, unless he get lucky. sunday morning, there was a big

problem. i couldn't wake up. my heart pressure was very low, pneumon pneumonia. >> hi, guys, i'm going to -- bless you guys, much love. good morning, you know goal bless. >> he died just hours after leaving that message. >> joe luna's son told the local affiliate, they're putting together a show invite of a funeral. that's what his father would have wanted.

it's down to the wire, the team's been working around the clock. we've had to rethink our whole approach. we're going to give togetherness. logistically, it's been a nightmare. i'm not sure it's going to work. it'll work. i didn't know you were listening.

just in, the house just passed a bill to decriminalize marijuana at the federal level. it removes the list -- marijuana from the control substances list. today's vote is the first time that a chamber of commerce has voted on federal decriminalization of marijuana, but it has little chance of passing the republican-led senate.