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. welcome back.

i'm brianna keilar. we start this hour with sobering numbers, where joe biden says the plan is to ask all american people to mask up for the first 100 days in office. that alone could save tens of thousands of lives if people listen. thursday, the u.s. had a record-breaking number of new cases, hospitalizationings and deaths. more han 217,000 new cases fueled by nine states that set their own records for new cases. wednesday we saw the first-ever day of more than 100 hospitalizations, 100,000 hospitalizations, and a 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 post-thanksgiving surge. >> we have not yet seen the post-thanksgiving peak. that's the concerning thing. the numbers are alarming and

realize it's likely we'll see more of the surge as we get two to three weeks past the thanksgiving holiday. the thing that concerns me is that abuts onto the christmas holiday as people start to travel, shop and congregate. first on cnn this afternoon, news that the department of health and human services has just launched a national ad campaign to promote the covid vaccine. kristin holmes is following this for us. this is really interesting. what is this going to entail, kristin? >> that's right, brie aca. this came after a week of talking to health care experts, people across the health industry who are wringing their hands that there was no form of a national education campaign and we were getting so close to the first phase of distribution. so just to be clear, this is a very small portion of what they say will be a big education campaign, but they have started streaming ads on youtube, a small buy, about $150,000. these adding will have snippets

of a public service announcement featuring dr. fauci talking about how safe the vaccine is, and stephen hahn. they are telling me, administration officials, that they expect to have a big push as early as next week that will be as, and partly an education campaign across digital and social media, and they want this to start again, so the public can start preparing. the big question is this. when are they going to create part of this campaign that lets people know when they get the vaccine. that's what we're having a bit of trouble get answers on. we know when health care workers are getting it, but it looks like the timeline is very lengthy, and there are still concerns across the industry that people are going to show up on december 15 when the first batch of vaccines arrive, and think that they can get the

vaccine. so i'm asking, pushing on this, trying to see when they're going to start incorporate those dates, when they can get the vaccine as well. kristin, you may not know the answer to this question, but we did just hear from a recent equality writer, about how suspicious the african-american community and the hispanic-american community is about the vaccine. do we know if there's anything that they're planning to specifically target those populations who have been particularly hard-hit, and yet have suspicions about the federal government when it comes to this vaccine? >> that will still by part of the later roll-out. we know that part of the reason they're using dr. fauci is because of the fact that he has such a high trust rating among the american public overall, and so that is part of the reason they're using him as the face of the now campaign. in terms of if they are going to try to diversify, get that out

there, that is information we don't have yet, but something that we'll certainly by following up on and trying to get the details as we get closer and closer to the phase one distribution. >> it's so essential. we'll see if they heed that advice. thank you for the great report. in canada, one elected official is making a direction plea to stay home for christmas. the manitoba congressman saying -- >> i do what i believe is right. right now we need to save lives. if you don't think that covid is real right now, you're an idiot. you need to understand that we're all in this together. you cannot fail to understand this. stay apart. so i'mle guy who has to tell you to stay apart at christmas and the holiday season that you

celebrate, with your faith or without your faith. that you celebrate normally with friends and 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. i hope in years to come, you might respect me to have the guts to tell you the right thing. here's the right things. 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 for

christmas. >> in the uk, scotland and wales will be the first places to make doses of the vaccine available. this is happening soon, next week, but the speed of this operation is being met with some skepticism. salma abdelaziz has more. >> it's being distributed to storage facilities across the uk. the very first people to get vaccinated is medical workers. 50 hospitals will be injecting their own staff, as well as people over 80 with an appointment. there was an exchange of words between officials here and dr. fauci who initially criticized regulators who said they approved it too soon. and one dr. fauci did apologize and express confidence, but this

all to show that it will be closely scrutinized. >> the only way it works to end the pandemic is if people take it, they get vaccinated. the incoming administration says it's going to work to promote confidence in the safety of the shot. >> are you confident that, if and when the fda does give that approval, it will be safe and effective and will you take it? >> of course i will. >> do you plan to get vaccinated before inauguration day? will you do it in public the way previous presidents have suggested? >> i'll be happy to do that. once it's declared to safe, and i think obama suns fauci says it's safe, that's my measure, obviously i'll take it. it's important to communicate that it's safe to do this. >> so in agreeing to take this vaccine publicly, the president-elect and others are taking a page out of the book of elvis presley.

back in 1956, he took a polio vaccine backstage at the ed sullivan show to encourage teenagers to get vaccinated. we have a rheumatologist and clinical professor at florida university. i know you had a wonderful thanksgiving. we talked about doing it virtually. i took your advice and did that, but now this phase we're moving into, the vaccine phase, does it work, dr. gee, having a celebrity taking a vaccine -- >> first i'm glad you stayed at home this thanksgiving and didn't burt your bubble. elvis presley was one of the most inspiring leaders of his time. everyone wanted to be him, look like him. some people still say he's still alive and want to look exactly like him. when he took the polio vaccine on the ed sullivan show, people

lined up like it was the newest iphone. they were happy to wait and they were inspine. we need inspirational leaders to help build trust. some of us by religious leaders, some of is by our family, some of us have celebrity crushes. matthew mcconaughey is mine, i know brianna, you have one, too, let's also building that community trust, but also not forget the local celebrities you should by leaning on, which is your local doctor, set up a video visit, start that conversation about why you are perhaps debating the vaccine, debating where and when and how you can get it. start that conversation right now with your doc. >> do you think that this administration currently and the incoming administration, do they need to have thought out a plan? like a pr strategy for ambassadors in a way that they

can enlist who people will pay attention to. we're talking about elvis, but you can think about folks who are popular to different age groups, for instance, different sports, different athletes who would be popular. is that something they need to be thinking about here? >> it's 100% what we need to be thinking about, right? we've got a vaccine. we've got a vaccine in the works. we're going to figure out the logistical distribution issues. we're going to manufacture everything we need to. there might be bumps along the road, but human behavior is impossible to change. it takes time. starting the drumbeat now, relying on trusted partners in the community, minority communities like to hear from minorities, right? we want to make sure that everyone feels that, one, they have someone to aspire to, to look to, and we want to make sure we are also relying on our

physicians. our new surgeon general will be a perfect example, and we need the opportunity to have those conversations at any time online, with our without insurance. it is a very important, pr, science needs pr. that's the piece that needs to be done in parallel. >> you brought that up before. dr. g, thank you so much for coming on. >> thank for having me. cnn is committed to answering all your questions about the covid vaccine. you can join act, and sanjay gupta, for a live townhall tonight. this hour, vice president pence is set to hold a rally in georgia, and president trump is set to head there tomorrow, but there is concern that his appearance could backfire. and a new lawsuit will be

waiting the president when he leaves office. this is a scheme to raise rents on their new york tenants. why was the white house liaison to the justice department banned from the justice department building? we're going to tell you why. see yourself. welcome back to the mirror. and know you're not alone because this. come on jessie one more. is the reflection of an unstoppable community in the mirror. - [announcer] grubhub perks give you the kind

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and keeping them safe, private and secure, there's webex. ♪ ♪ beautiful. president-elect joe biden's margin over donald trump in the popular vote has just topped 7 million. that number is expected to grow. harry e harry enten is here with us. this is actually the second largest since 2000. so tell us who has the largest? look, it's barack obama back in

2008. he topped over 52% of the vote. this gives you a real understanding of since 2000, our elections have been really close. candidates tend to trade within a narrow band. the fact he's over 51% is quite impressive. look where donald trump's two runs for president lists, the second and third worth popular. only john mccain was worse, and mitt romney, who donald trump likes to blast consistently got the largest share of his vote when he was the nominee, in either of trump's two performances this year or last time around. this is another popular vote win for democrats which seems to be happening a lot lately. >> if you go back to 1992, they have won -- if you go all the way back since 1888 when the

democratic party was founded there's never been a streak of seven out of eight times where they won the popular vote. >> harry, happy friday. thanks for breaking that all down for us. happy friday as well. thank you. georgia's election recount is expected to be certified today, but all eyes are on the runoff elections next month. tomorrow president trump heads there for the first post-election rally for the races that will determine the balance of power in washington. cnn's abby phillip is here with us on this. there is some concern that because president trump has been making baseless claims of voter fraud, it may hurt republicans in their fight to maintain control. how do you see his visit impacting these races? >> brianna, i think it totally

depending on what he says and does when he gets there. so far he's been given republican voters a lot of mixed signals. he's going down to georgia, but still talking about a rigged election. republicans in that state really need him to send a clear message to his supporters they need to get out and vote. they need to trust the process and trust the system. by all accounts they runoff election are also going to be really high levels of may-in voting as well, and it's the case that republican voters are not voting by mail in large numbers, and also not showing up in person because of these conspiracy theories, that's a disaster for republicans. this is all about turnout. they need to get their voters out. it's not about persuasion of anyone. it's about getting the diehards out to the ballot boxes. that's president trump's number one job. >> the money in these races being injected into these races are just crazy. we're looking at $320 million

combined. does that even make a difference here? >> you know, it's a really good question. a lot of this is ad spending on the air waves and on television. you know, one of the interesting things, this cycle, talking to both republicans, they talk about how important it is to actually ensure that voters get out of their homes and cast a ballot or return their mail-in ballot, and doing that is a time-intensive thing. it takes labor, people calling and texting, knocking on doors, and so i have a lot of questions about whether this ad spending will translate into anything substantive for these candidates on either side of the aisle, but using there's anything you can do to stop it from ha up. when you talk to campaigns, what they know is in turnout elections, it's about making sure your people go do what they say they're going to do. one of the best weighing to ensure that is have your people

having connections with them. that's a labor intensive task. barack obama is holding a rally for georgia's senate candidates. tell us about how they're handling things on the democratic side, which seems to be different. >> the chief senate candidates on the democratic side are really running a joint campaign. they're trying to do thing as hand in than as possible, but democrats, of course, are trying to be a lot more mindful about the issue of the coronavirus. they're not holding massive campaign rallies you'll see propresident trump over the weekend. that is part of the messaging as well. in the state of georgia, you know, they're trying to convince the voters who came out for joe biden, who came out in november, to come back again. many of those voters were probably dissatisfied with how the coronavirus was being handled, dissatisfied with the

idea of the indifference that seems to come from the white house on this issue. so democrats have always been trying to thread this line, but i will tell you, there's also an acknowledgement that a lot of the voters that they need to get out to the ballot boxes, or they need to cast their ballots altogether, really need to be interacted with. so trying to figure out how to do that, how to do it safely is a higher priority for democrats than it is for the republicans on that side. >> abby, great to see you. thank you for the report. a reminder that the candidates, rafael warnock and senator kelly loeffler will face off on sunday night. and you can watch it right here on cnn. the just department said a white house staffer was trying to access sensitive information about election investigations. now she's been banned from the building. plus, hear how the trump

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and get $300 off when you buy the samsung galaxy note20 ultra 5g. learn more at xfinitymobile.com. president trump is facing a slew of court ballotses when he leaves office, among them a campaign finance case out of the southern district of new york, also an investigation into the trump organization. there's also two defamation

lawsuits. a fraud lawsuit filed business his own niece, and there's a new one, a group of tenants in buildings once owned by the president's father that is suing as well. cnn's polo sandoval has the details for us. >> reporter: the lawsuit could be a serious financial threat to donald trump in a personal capacity as well as siblings, really the whole trump administration. i'll explain ways in a second. some background on this lawsuit that was filed by residents in rent-regulated apartments, they said they were overcharged for years of rent, claiming a corporation was set up by the trumps to act as a purchasing agent for materials and supplies to be used in those buildings, and prices for those materials were allegedly inflated to allow fred trump to justify increasing those rents in rent-stabilized apartments. cnn has reached out to the trump organization actually named in that lawsuit as well, and we're

waiting to hear back. if a new york state supreme court judge rules -- at least considers this as a class-action lawsuit that would potentially add thousands of residents to this civil action going back to 1992. >> polo, thank you so much. just in, a spokeswoman for the trump family called the lawsuit completely frivolous saying not only are the allegations completely unsupported by any evidence, but they relate to events that go back 30 years, yet never once raced by anyone at any time only to be conveniently filed just one month before the 2020 presidential election. cnn has learned that the white house liaison to the justice department has been barred from entering the justice department building. cnn's jeremy diamond is covering this from the white house. this is an unusual story, jeremy. tell us what's going on.

>> reporter: this is a highly unusual move, brianna. essentially the white house's eyes and ears it is justice department, she's been barred from entering the building. according to a source family with the matter, chef attempted to access information about the voter fraud cases that the justice department was investigating. this is the latest attempt of trying to meddle, to bolster the president's baseless allegations that the results could be changed if indeed there was enough voter fraud in this election. it comes obviously as there's a lot of tension already between the president and the attorney general bill barr. the president this week has declined to say whether he has confidence in his attorney general, saying that that's a question he would like to answer in a matter of weeks. barr said this week there's not, at least to date, any evidence

of widespread voter fraud that would change the result of the election. this is notable that this has happened. it comes a couple months after the white house changed the function of the liaisons. they were largely responsible for things like coordinating political appointments to those agency, but in september mark meadows alongside johnny mcintee, they coordinated to have those people replaced, reporting directly to the white house, solidifying that position as the eyes and ears of the white house. know they see potential one of these individuals, heidi stirrup was getting information for the white house about these cases. it's a remarkable development. >> it certainly is. jeremy diamond, thank you. joining me is harry litman,

i mean, harry, this is incredibly unusual for a liaison to try to access information like this. >> it's incredibly unusual as of 2016. the truth is this supposed barrier has been a very permeable membrane in the trump years. what is really noteworthy here is the assertion by department of justice career officials of the normal order of not letting political folks, and heidi stirrup is an acolite of stephen miller, she came in reportedly was very heavy-handed, told people what jobs they could have, demanded this information. that's the sort of thing that leaked out to the white house improperly for many years, and this is a bit of a restoration of the normal order, along with bill barr saying this week there's nothing to these widespread allegations of fraud.

>> harry, i wanted to ask you about michael flynn. the president recently pardoned him, and he's wasted no time amplifying conspiracy theories about the election being stolen. if you you look at just this week, he supports a call for martial law to hold a new election. we should know that flynn's attorney is sydney powell. sydney powell was just dropped from the trump legal team, so thee continuing very much to fight for the cause that allies her with the trump legal team. what do you make of flynn's actions here? how do you read these? >> i think the legal term for them, brianna, is he's nuts. if you read the rhetoric here, basically it's 1776 again, and we're going to take to the streets and it will be an armed battle. it feels to me less the kind of a democrat/republican dynamic and more of a sane/insane. this is the sort of rhetoric you

hear before mass suicides, or crazy kind of waco takeovers. to me it raises the question of is, is this a new development? or was the man who was supposed to be our national security adviser always prone to these real flights of fancy. this is not mere dissent. this is out there hallucinations, it seems to me. >> we also, harry, now know that the president is considering pardons, possibly pardoning family members, possibly pardoning even himself. what do you think is going on behind closed doors at the southern district of new york right now as the potential pardons are being discussed? >> i think the southern district of new york think it has to gird to possibly let investigations go, but i think down the street at the manhattan district attorney, they're preparing cases against trump and possibly family members, and i think

given the law there, they'll be all the more likely to bring it. they passed a law that says if the pardons happened it would not bar a suit from new york, so it's almost like a stick in the hornet's nest if he does that. whether the pardons would fly, i've indicated they're improper, but the question is whether the department would challenge them, try to get a holding in court, so i think that part is unlikely. if a pardon happens, all eyes urn it to cyrus vance jr. >> he definitely has a pathway. harry, thank you so much. next, disturbing details coming out about the president's nominee for a top pentagon post. what cnn uncovered when we reviewed his social media and media appearances. moments from now, president-elect biden will be speaking live about the economy as the pandemic worsens. will he take questions?

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cnn has learned that trump as nominees has a history of spreading debunked conspiracy theories and degrading top military and intelligence officials. scott o'grady was nominated to be assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs at the pentagon. that nomination was sent to the senate on monday. cnn's pentagon reporter ryan brown is joining us now. what more can you tell you about o'grady? and what are the odds he'll be confirmed when we have just 47 days to go in the president's presidency? >> reporter: that's a key point. there isn't much time left in trump's presidency. it's hard to imagine that there could be a confirmation vote installing o'grady at the senior pentagon post. that being said, our cnn's k-file team has discovered a series of retweets and other statements by o'grady that have

propagated some pretty outlandish and fringe conspiracy theories, accusing opponents of president trump of attempting a coup, retweeting a proposal by retired general mike flynn to institute some kind of martial law to rerun the election. he was consistently pushing these theories despite being nominated. it's unlikely he'll be installed, but it shows it's the latest of officials that the trump administration has attempted to put at senior positions or seen as arch political loyalists. ograde would chaired veterans for trump, a former fighter pilot shot down behind enemy lines during the balkans

intervention, bud also been propagating these theories despite being nominated for the position. tell us the satire you've been tracking about the trump administration purging another pentagon advisory board. >> this has been a series of steps for the trump administration where they've been sacking senior pentagon leaders, we saw the secretary of defense was fired, several senior policy officials and intelligence officials have been replaced with loyalists. there are these two advisory boards, first the advisory board, some possession were placed on it, and now yet another board, the defense business board, we're learning several members were pushed off of it. in their stead, people like cory lieu want douse we, david bossie, part sans, put in advisory positions that's supposed to help pentagon

navigate things in the business world and innovation. >> ryan, thank you so much, ryan browne at the pentagon. he will speak to buffett parents now seeing the state of california and the federal government over remote learning. why they believi putsing minority students at a disadvantage. and president-elect joe biden will be speaking live. stay tuned for that. the time to choose your coverage... begins october 15th and ends december 7th. so call unitedhealthcare... and take advantage of a wide choice of plans... including an aarp medicare advantage plan from unitedhealthcare. it can combine your hospital and doctor coverage... with part d prescription drug coverage, and more, all in one simple plan... for a low monthly premium or in some areas, no plan premium at all. take advantage of $0 copays on all primary care doctor visits,

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on our show yesterday we brought attention to a tampa bay

death last year. these are the faces of people who died at theodore square in pennsylvania. they interviewed dozens of families who lost loved ones as well as former and current employees who said they felt that proper protocols weren't followed and communication about the outbreak was lacking. we asked for a response from the facility, and they did send us one today, so we want to share it with you. in part it says, at the onset of this crisis, freedom square, like others across the nation, struggled to maintain personnel and personal protective equipment. we remained vigilant in tracking and implementing infectious disease protocols as guidelines from experts became available. our staff continued to work around the clock to do whatever they believed was necessary to protect our community. we have continually evolved our practices through the pandemic based on new knowledge and information. it is impossible to quantify the pain and sadness that our

community has experienced as a result of the lives lost to this disease. we continue to send our heartfelt condolences to the ones affected, and we vow to do in our power what we can to combat this disease while being open and transparent in our communication. some people in the state are suing the state and government over the quality of schoolwork. they believe they don't have the digital tools or the support to succeed. the school said, the state's abdication of responsibility and insufficient response to the challenges of remote learning have denied plaintiffs the basic educational equality guaranteed to them by the california constitution. california is one of three states with recorded 1 million

coronavirus infections. lakeisha young is one of the plaintiffs in the suit. she is a mother of three. she is the cofounder and executive director of oakland reach which is a parent-run group that advocates for high-quality schools in underserved communities and she said the local community groups had to step in to provide the support she believes is missing from the state. lakeisha, thanks so much for coming on to talk with us about what is going on in the schools in your area. can you just tell us a little bit more about why you filed this lawsuit and what your specific concerns are with what you're witnessing among students? >> brianna, yeah, thank you for having me. so we filed this lawsuit because we are holding the state of california accountable for just not serving our students well. i also want to note that this is a preexisting condition, so prior to covid, black and brown students, especially low-income students, were being underserved in california. and the remote learning

conditions have just deepened that gap. so part of that is to hold the state of california accountable. the other part of that is that we had to step into the gap as a parent group. i'm a mom. the others had to step into the gap to create a virtual hub which we just started two months after covid to really provide our kids with the type of instruction that they needed. so what we would like to see is we would like to see solutions and models like ours scaled across california and even the country to support more students in families like ours. >> you're doing it on a small scale. you want to see it done on a larger scale. can you speak just specifically to when you see disproportionately communities of color being impacted when it comes to education? what are you talking about in very real terms? >> that's a great question. in terms of our families being

disproportionately impacted, it's really that, you know, as i'm sitting here thinking about it, i'm just channelling so many stories of our families across oakland and what they've shared. i think so many of the issues that we've seen, brianna, really comes from the mamas and grandmamas of oakland reach. they attended schools in oakland and those schools did not serve them well, right? and we've had mothers and grandmothers who graduated from high school not being able to read. if you graduate from high school not being able to read, and then you become a parent, that gets passed down. >> okay, i'm so sorry, we've actually had a problem here with our connection being terminated. this is an incredibly important story. we're going to try to get lakisha young. we're running out of time today. we'll try to get her back on if

we can on monday. i want to thank you so much for that, lakisha. there was a response to this lawsuit that was sent to the l.a. times to california's governor, gavin newsom's office. it said, throughout the pandemic, this administration has taken important actions to protect student learning while also taking necessary steps to protect public health. we will defend our position in court. president-elect joe biden will take the podium to talk about the pandemic. we will be watching to see if he takes any questions. stand by. i felt like... ...i was just fighting an uphill battle in my career. so when i heard about the applied digital skills courses, i'm thinking i can become more marketable. you don't need to be a computer expert to be great at this. these are skills lots of people can learn. i feel hopeful about the future now.

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. hi there, i'm brooke baldwin. it is friday afternoon. thank you so much for being with me. president-elect joe biden will be speaking in moments about the final unemployment report that we're getting here of 2020, ask we' -- and we'll bring that to you live the second we see him step behind that podium. the jobs unemployment list is less than we thought. the pandemic obviously a factor here. the pandemic continues to shatter records. another 2800 american deaths were reported yesterday.

a 9/11 size death toll day after day. i will say again these are mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, grandparents, and friends, loved ones lost to this brutal virus. more than is 100,000 americans are hospitalized, more than 2,700 new cases were reported yesterday. and yes, although we are getting closer and closer to a massive vaccine rollout in this country, a top research model is now predicting deaths will double in the u.s. in just the next four months. with just 47 days left in office, president trump is not executing any sort of plan to mitigate those terrifying numbers, but president-elect joe biden is going ahead with his plan. >> i'm going to ask the public for 100 days to mask. just 100 days to mask. not forever, 100 days. and i think we'll see a significant reduction. >> experts agree,