situation room." you can always follow me on twitter and instagra instagram @wolfblitzer. you can tweet the sho show @cnnsitroom. erin burnett "outfront" starts right now. "outfront" next, trump silent on the pandemic that's ravaging the country. busy lying about the election. as his allies tell him don't concede, take the fight to the house floor in the new year. plus the u.s. closing in tonight on 15 million cases of coronavirus as "the new york times" reports this hour, the trump administration turned down an offer to purchase more life-saving vaccines. a member of biden's task force responds. and trump purges a department of defense advisory board. at this late hour purging the whole thing, putting in people like corey lewandowski. to do what? a member of the board who's resigning tonight is going to tell you what he thinks is happening. he's my guest. let's get out front.

and good evening. i'm erin burnett. "outfront" tonight, 1,269 americans are dead so far today from coronavirus. and i say so far because it's only 7:00 eastern time. and every 40 seconds another person is dying. we have record cases, record hospitalizations, and record deaths tonight. and we have a sitting president and here's what he said about it today. he actually did have plenty to say. >> it was a rigged election. you look at the different states, the election was totally rigged. it's a disgrace to our country. it's like a third world country. these ballots pouring in from everywhere. >> what's pouring in from everywhere in this country tonight are records on coronavirus. and we are like a third world country when it comes to the virus. actually, i'm wrong. we're not even, not even close to a third world country. countries like brazil, colombia, iran among many others considered, quote unquote, third

world are doing way better on death per capita than the united states of america. and yet trump continues to repeat lies about the election. that's how he spends his time. that he knows to be lies to his base. now, that is wrong. but trump has shown this nation over the past five weeks that when it comes to patriotism and honesty he is an empty vessel. empty of the character that makes any citizen great, not just any president. and tonight we're seeing some of trump's most well-placed allies not only not speaking truth to a man doing harm to his country, they're actually egging him on. they're telling him to take his refusal to concede to a whole new level. congressman jim jordan today was asked by cnn whether trump should concede. jim jordan's response, "no. no way. no way, no way. we should still try to figure out exactly what took place here. and as i said, that includes i think debates on the house floor, potentially on january 6th." jim jordan is the ranking member of the house judiciary committee. and he is a man who knows

exactly what took place, what the dhs has called the most secure election in american history. jim jordan is suggesting that the president and congress should overturn the will of the people when congress meets on january 6th to count the electoral votes. this craven behavior is giving trump cover now to keep spreading lies. yes, because guess what, trump is going back to georgia to double down on his rally this weekend. there was nothing else planned. now you've got people like jim jordan saying things like that and trump goes okay, i'm going to go back to georgia and keep saying garbage like this. >> they cheated and they rigged our presidential election. but we will still win it. we will still win it. >> again the facts. there is no evidence of any fraud that would impact the election. according to trump's own attorney general and according to republican and democratic governors in every state in this country. none. now, trump mentions wisconsin and georgia, you just heard there. both have certified their

results. georgia today actually certifying them for the second time after a georgia judge appointed by george w. bush today struck down yet another one of trump's baseless legal challenges. now, all of this should be enough to shut down this nonsense. but it's not. take for example this tweet. this is from congressman jodie heiss of georgia. here's the tweet. "yesterday we learned a forensics examination of a ware county dominion voting system found votes were switched from real donald trump to joe biden." okay, so that prompted georgia's elections chief gabe sterling, if you watch this show you've seen him a lot, to respond with the facts because it's really important because that's a total lie. "with all due respect, congressman, this is flat out disinformation and it is irresponsible for you to share it." and so he then explained. "the thing is, as a reporter covering georgia noticed, people were sharing what heiss was tweeting. heiss's tweet got more than 15,000 retweets.

sterling's with the actual facts, not some complete manufactured hogwash, got only 500 retweets. i mean, that is pretty stunning. people on social media seem to like the lies and the conspiracy theories and they spread a lot more. like a virus. a lot more than the truth. which may explain why when the "washington post" contacted 249 congressional republicans, 249, only 26 acknowledged joe biden won. there they are. 26. and i want you to look at the names and the faces on the screen. not just to notice who was there but to notice who is missing. the leaders of the republican party are not there. senate majority leader mitch mcconnell not there. the house minority leader kevin mccarthy not there. and their silence is dangerous. it's actually putting lives at risk. back to georgia. here's a state senator there today. >> the police have been doing a wonderful job to keep myself and my family safe after being attacked by donald trump's

facebook army. >> we've had death threats. my wife's had sexualized texts and things like that. >> a democrat and a republican. and in michigan the state's secretary of state said dozens of armed protesters descended on her home saturday night. and a black state representative said she's been receiving threatening phone calls after she participated in a hearing about voter fraud last wednesday. she participates in this hearing and then she gets a voicemail from a man who reportedly says "your time is coming. from the expletive gallows you'll be hanging." i want to go to kaitlan collins. she's out front live outside the white house. kaitlan, there are real world ramifications here in terms of people's physical safety and of course the safety of the entire democratic process. and the president is clearly fueling the fire. >> reporter: and that's why when you hear republicans like jim jordan say no, the president should keep contesting this and he should keep fighting this, on and on, humoring the president

is doing so much more damage than just that. what they've been doing for the last four years since donald trump took office, really taking almost every decision he's made, no matter how controversial it would be, if someone else was doing it, and stood by it. that is what makes it so different when they're doing it now in this situation where the president is undermining democracy, doing what he did earlier in the oval office, wrongly maintaining that he won this election and that he's 2-0 when it comes to presidential elections, which of course is not the case. and it's not just that. the president is also targeting these officials himself. he has repeatedly gone after the governor of georgia, brian kemp, of course a republican, who endorsed the president, who voted for the president, as well as these other state officials that the president has been tweeting. the lieutenant governor of georgia as well, who is also a republican and also said he voted for donald trump. what we found out today is the president is expected to make another trip to the state of georgia. and it's supposed to of course be about campaigning for those two republicans ahead of that senate runoff in january that's

going to determine which party it is that controls the senate. though if you watched the president's rally in valdosta, georgia on saturday night, erin, you saw it was much more about the president and how he's been consumed by his election loss than it was about maintaining that republican majority in the senate. and so i've talked to sources. they expect that to continue to be the case. but one thing that we should note is different is you've seen all these legal efforts coming from the trump campaign which of course have almost overwhelmingly been unsuccessful. and we are hearing from sources that internally they start to think that effort is going to start to wind down over the next few days. >> all right. thank you, kaitlan. i want to go now to the governor of michigan, democrat gretchen whitmer. governor whitmer, i appreciate your time tonight. you have armed protesters outside the home of your secretary of state chanting, shouting obscenities about overturning the results of the election. a democratic state representative who attended a hearing about trump's baseless election fraud claims getting a threat to lynch her. do you hold the president responsible? >> of course i do.

i think that the rhetoric that comes from our nation's leader has an impact. we've been seeing it for months. it's the first part of covid-19 when i said there's no national strategy and the president turned his ire toward me, that's when the death threats started for me. now we're seeing, whether it's threats against republican governor brian kemp or it is the secretary of state there in georgia or our secretary of state jocelyn benson here in michigan, it's unacceptable. it doesn't matter what party the person is in. it doesn't matter if they're an elected official or they are an official of some sort of capacity around public service. this is unacceptable and unlawful behavior and it is being stoked by the rhetoric that's coming out of the white house and it is wrong. and people of goodwill on both sides of the aisle need to take it on before it gets turned on them. >> so here's the thing. they aren't. at least not enough of them. right? back to the "washington post." i don't know if you just heard me, governor, but 223 republicans in congress will not say flat out that joe biden won.

this is a fact. every state in the country has certified their results, some more than once. only 26 of them would actually acknowledge him formally as the president-elect. and not among them mitch mcconnell, kevin mccarthy. these are not fringe republicans who are enabling the president. it's the vast majority. >> it's true. and there's no profile in courage there. we're not talking about something that's particularly a courageous thing to do. it is about saying that this election happened. the people of this country voted. we abide by the will of the people and we move on and every distraction, every effort to undermine hurts our ability to have a peaceful transition and to save lives. we are in the midst of a global pandemic that is raging out of control in this nation because the white house never got their arms around it. they've lost the election because of it. let's transition so we can get

the next administration in there and get our arms around this pandemic and get us back to work and make the united states a place to be envied as opposed to be pitied, which is what we are right now. >> you were just named today, governor, as a co-chair of president-elect biden's inaugural committee. now, we know president trump is -- well, he's trying to decide what to do to make a big splash, whether he should skip it, whether he should hold a dueling rally on the day of the inauguration, whether he should announce a run for 2024. who knows? he's considering all these options. obviously, the right thing for the country is for him to be there and be gracious and do what every president has done in american history. but he is unique. do you want president trump to attend joe biden's inauguration? >> well, what i personally want doesn't matter. i think what the nation needs is to see a peaceful transition of power. george h.w. bush did it with integrity and was a class act when he lost. and he turned over, you know, the reins of federal government

to bill clinton. the beauty, the promise of america transcends any individual person or any individual party. this is bigger than any of us individually. i am hopeful that the president will consider doing that. i'm not confident that he will. we will move forward with an inauguration that is worthy of the office, worthy of the man who's about to take that oath of office, and worthy of the american people. and we'll do it safely because we are still in the midst of this global pandemic. >> so governor, president trump's lawyer rudy giuliani, who has now tested positive for coronavirus, attended a house oversight hearing in michigan last week. right? as part of his efforts to spread what he knows to be lies and conspiracy theories about the election. that hearing, we just saw him there, the point is he had no mask on, it lasted more than four hours. there he is the whole time. and you know, he's posing, taking pictures with people. hours and hours.

no social distancing. are you concerned that he spread the virus in your state house? >> absolutely. now, we've been telling the people of michigan, the people of america, this virus is still very present. if you're inside with people from outside your household you've got to be masked up and you've got to limit the amount of time that you are and you certainly should not be unmasked at all. this was a farce. i mean, it was an unnecessary hearing. the election's settled. the people of michigan weighed in. it's a safe, secure election. this was an incredibly reckless thing to do. and now our legislature is canceling days that they should be meeting in these final days of 2020 when i'm trying to get stimulus dollars to the unemployed and to business that's are suffering. this has consequences. it was reckless and it was a potentially spreading event that we may not see the ramifications from for another week or two. >> governor whitmer, i appreciate your time, and thank you. and i want to go straight to our

senior political analyst john avlon because he also happened to be in a prior life the former speech your, chief speechwriter, to then new york city mayor rudy giuliani. so john, you know him. >> yeah. >> you don't know him very well. he does that, he's doing this with these things that he knows to be lies and conspiracy theories. he even laughed at that hearing at some of the things being said. but now a source tells us he's going to appear via zoom thursday at a georgia house hearing because he's just going to keep doing this to overturn the results there. they've now certified them twice. what is he thinking? >> rudy's judgment is not what it once was. rudy giuliani's someone who used to say that to be locked into partisan politics doesn't permit you to think clearly. and he's not been thinking clearly. he should be focusing on his health. he should be making amends for people he may have gotten sick in the result of this barnstorming tour. the problem is that the trump vortex that sucks everybody

in -- you know, the legal team's 40-1 right now, losing record. >> yeah. >> the problem is that the trump vortex encourages people to say even if you can't be a winner be seen as a fighter, even if that makes you a liar. and i suppose that some folks think maybe there's a pre-emptive pardon in it for them on the back end. but it's not too late to think -- to have a shred of decency to think about anything resembling a legacy and to do the right thing. because this is not going to end well for anybody. and the covid infection just punctuates that fact. the virus of lies and the virus itself that's consuming our country right now. >> so you know, it's 79 years since the attack on pearl harbor today. and that attack united this country. and obviously it was an act of war. but we're attacked now by a virus and every single blow divides us more. right? people literally don't see the same facts. and it is frightening to all of

us. what's changed? >> you know, i think the fundamental character of the country is still strong. but we have been deeply divided by leadership that has intentionally divided us from the white house in a way that we've never seen before. and i think one of the things this anniversary shows us is that we can't wait for a disaster or an attack to unite us as it did after pearl harbor, as it did after 9/11. we have to have fidelity to common facts but there are things we can learn from that history. you know, i was thinking about michigan. senator arthur vandenberg, a republican, who was a staunch isolationist, a harsh fdr critic. after pearl harbor he switched -- changed his tune. he backed the country. he coined the phrase partisan politics ought to end at the water's edge. he helped create the united nations. and then he helped work with harry truman to get the marshall plan passed along bipartisan lines. that's the tradition we need to memory. that muscle memory still exists in our democracy. but we've got to want to find it and we need leadership that aims for it, in senate and in the

presidency. >> and in those 223 republican members of the house who just can't seem to say those words, the president-elect. john, thank you. >> thank you, erin. next, the united states on the cusp of approving a vaccine. and yet republicans are about to hold a senate hearing with a doctor who is a vaccine skeptic. this is really happening? plus republican david perdue. he's running in one of georgia's senate runoffs. he has been avoiding debates and avoiding answering reporter questions. >> senator! senator, lu tawill you take a m? >> so what's the strategy there in? and then a cnn exclusive. we'll take you inside a hospital in venezuela covid is raging. we have a hospital where someone says if the disease doesn't kill you the conditions inside might. you're clearly someone...

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breaking news. we have new numbers just coming in. they are bad. the united states reporting more than 102,000 people in hospitals with coronavirus tonight. that is the sixth straight day with more than 100,000 hospitalizatio hospitalizations. amidst the surge "the new york times" is reporting that the trump administration turned down an offer to buy more doses of the pfizer vaccine over the summer. pfizer now says the united

states may have to wait for more doses until june as it gets the vaccine out to other countries according to the "times." the trump administration is denying the report saying they're in the middle of negotiations right now. "outfront" now, lois pace, a member of president-elect joe biden's coronavirus task force and executive director of the global health crisis. director pace, i want to give you a chance to respond to this reporting that they turned down an opportunity to buy more of this vaccine in the summer and that that may cause delays now by many months in getting the vaccine out. what's your reaction to this reporting? >> well, i think that, you know, a lot of us have been looking forward obviously to these innovations coming down the pike and so we're happy that we're in a situation where we have options when it comes to the forthcoming vaccines. the good news is that there are more in the pipeline and we also have other means in place whereby the u.s. can

additionally procure additional doses including from international cooperatives that exist for this very reason. so i think those of us on that transition advisory board are hopeful that we will not run into an issue with regards to a shortage. but i think we just have to get in and understand where we are with those plans and with supplies so that we can advise them accordingly. >> so i'm curious about where we are on that and how much you all know because obviously you're going to be responsible for this rollout and you need to know everything there is to know. yet last week joe biden, the president-elect, said he hadn't seen a detailed plan from the trump administration on vaccine distribution, on actually getting it into people's arms. do you know if the administration has now offered this information or does it exist? >> i think it's still in process. you know, what we know, what we're learning. i mean, we're learning real-time, of course, and i think those doors just opened in the past couple weeks and we're happy to have a seat at the table now to dig into those.

as you can imagine, it's pretty complex, right? because it's about the dosage of vaccine that's are available. it's about logistics in place. it's about the agreements that the federal government has or needs to have in place with states and local officials. and so it takes a lot to comb through all that. it's definitely still in process. and our hope is that we will learn that much more as quickly as possible. >> so the president-elect told our jake tapper last week that he's happy to get vaccinated in public. right? pull his sleeve up and get the shot. obviously the former presidents obama, bush and clinton have suggested they'll all do that as well. joe biden's about to be the president, right? someone who needs to be protected as much as possible. do you recommend that he gets the vaccine as soon as it's authorized by the fda? i mean, meaning within days he could be getting that first shot. do you think he should do that? >> i think whatever dr. anthony fauci tells us to do we will do. i think you saw that he's officially going to be serving as chief medical adviser on

covid, which is great. he's been in this role as sort of our -- as our confidant, as someone that we all trust and have come to know and love over the past year. and i think you've heard the president-elect talk about being reliant on dr. fauci's advice. and so i'm sure he'll defer to him on that for sure. >> all right. i thank you very much. i appreciate your time, director. >> of course. thank you. >> all right. now, it is just days until the fda will meet to consider the pfizer vaccine. the republican who leads the senate homeland security committee, ron johnson, just days away from this likely approval is holding a hearing. his hearing is going to be tomorrow. and there will be a doctor there who is skeptical of vaccines. now, this doctor is named jab orient. she told "the new york times" she opposes the government's bush for all americans to be vaccinated for the coronavirus saying "it seems to be reckless to be pushing people to take risks when you don't know what the risks are. people's rights should be respected. where is my body my choice when it comes to this?" when it comes to vaccines, don't

get me started as a parent of young children. you vaccinate because it's the right thing to do and it saves lives. front now, dr. ashish jha, dean of the college of public health. and dr. jonathan reiner advised the white house medical team under president george w. bush. dr. j ha, let me start with you. the republicans are giving this doctor a platform as dr. fauci, members of operation warp speed, are urging americans to get the vaccines, the vaccines are safe. okay? how dangerous is having a hearing like this -- well, frankly, again, as a parent of young children, and i vaccinate the second you're supposed to, at any time how dangerous is it, specifically right now? >> yes, erin, thank you for having me on. look, this hearing is really a platform for fringe elements of the medical community having a voice. now, look, i'd be totally comfortable, it would be reasonable to have a discussion

about the safety of the vaccine. by experts who understand safety, who understand data. let's talk about that openly. i have no concerns about that. that's not what senator johnson is doing. he's giving a platform to people who want to push hydroxychloroquine and other unproven therapies over the vaccine because that's their agenda. i don't totally understand why senator johnson is doing this. but it's not helpful at this moment in the pandemic. >> right. and you know, it's pretty incredible. as you say, kids are required when they go to school to have these vaccines. right? and that is so that they can get herd immunity. the whole thing goes against the science. let me ask but the point you just made, though, dr. jha about this committee and some of the fringe elements because you talk about hydroxychloroquine and you have testified before this committee about the the facts on hydroxychloroquine which study after study shows was ineffective at best on coronavirus. you were attacked by the chairman ron johnson. i want to play some of the

hearing. >> and there is now clear consensus in the medical and scientific community based on overwhelming evidence that hydroxychloroquine provide no benefit in treating covid-19. >> you can sit there with all the authoritative voice that you possibly have but we've got some gentlemen here that are treating patients within that empathy circle and they completely disagree with you. >> i think dr. jha's testimony is reckless and dangerous for the nation. >> the empathy circle. so that's different than the science and data circle. dr. jha, what do you make of what this committee and its chairman have been doing? >> yeah, so first of all, i think the biggest way to show empathy is to use scientist fickly proven therapies and not to be pushing things that have been shown to be discredited. i think what senator johnson is doing, and again, i'm reading a bit into it, he's platforming and giving opportunities for, as i said, not mainstream views and

robust debates that scientists have all the time but really fringe elements. and the broader theme here is to say to people don't worry about the pandemic, it's fine because we've got this life-saving therapy called hydroxychloroquine that the entire medical community is in a conspiracy to deny you. again, i don't understand the agenda for why this is what senate republicans want to be doing at this moment. i don't think this is at all helpful. i wish senator johnson would just stop. >> you know, dr. reiner, this comes as we're really going to need real leadership on this vaccine for people to get it. and you just heard loyce pace. she's on biden's task force. and she says if dr. fauci says biden should get the vaccine the minute it's approved by the fda he'll do it. that's what she said. do you think this is something biden should do given the robust debate that dr. jha is saying yes, we should have, but should biden be getting the shot within days, his first shot? >> well, erin, if the emergency

use authorization for the vaccine is issued let's say this thursday on december 10th, i would vaccinate the president-elect thursday evening, december 10th. i would vaccinate him right away. look, the president and vice president are surrounded by various types of protection. there's the physical protection that surrounds the white house and the vp, or the vice president's residence. there's the protection offered by his secret service and his vehicle is armored. but what a lot of folks don't know is that the president is also protected by the white house medical unit in a very active way. in the days after 9/11, in fact, president bush and vice president cheney were actually vaccinated for anthrax because there was concern about an anthrax attack that might be forthcoming. so think about it this way. we are under attack by this virus. we can protect the president-elect. this is a form of protection for him. i would vaccinate the

president-elect and the vice president-elect as soon as the vaccine is available. also, don't forget, with the pfizer vaccine you're not really truly immune until about a week after the boost. so the prime let's say would come december 10th, the boost three weeks later. about a week after that you're krim mun. immune. i want the president-elect immune by the time he takes office. and that's just a few days after that month period. so let's do it now. i would vaccinate him as soon as possible. >> so that makes sense. now, what about president trump? he tested positive for coronavirus. right? he was hospitalized for it for three nights. he was very sick. but he -- i guess the belief is that that would give some level of immunity. but he -- what do you think? should he be vaccinated as soon as it's approved? obviously he could go through those shots at the same time and that would be before he left

office. he would also of course set a very important example for his followers. >> well, i think the president is probably functionally immune for at least three months after his infection. but i would absolutely vaccinate the outgoing president and the outgoing vice president as soon as the vaccine is available. i would do all this publicly. it's a public service. they're not jumping the line. they're showing the public that they have confidence in the vaccine. so i would do that as soon as possible. i would do it by the end of this week. >> all right. i appreciate both of you. thank you. >> my pleasure. >> and next, the two republican candidates in georgia's runoff, either unable to say if trump lost the election or simply choosing to avoid the question altogether. >> senator perdue, kyung lah from cnn. can i just ask you a quick question -- >> thank you. >> plus trump purges a pentagon advisory board and fills it with loyalists including corey lewandowski at this late hour. now a member of that board is resigning.

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tonight president trump stepping up his ademttempts to delegitimize georgia's election results tweeting earlier the republican governor of georgia refuses to do signature verification which would give us an easy win. what's wrong with this guy? what is he hiding? well, let's just be clear. signature matching has been done already in georgia. any signature audit would have to be ordered by the court. that now has custody of the ballots. not by the governor. and as all eyes are on these hotly contested senate races one republican incumbent defending his senate seat is actively avoiding talking to the press in any way, shape or form. kyung lah is out front. >> reporter: the only debate night for the georgia senate runoffs began like this. >> senator perdue declined to participate in this debate and is represented by an empty podium. >> reporter: it's not that republican incumbent senator david perdue hasn't been campaigning. this is senator perdue's bus tour across georgia. like most of perdue's events, he

didn't post this on his public schedule. we found out because perdue's guest, representative dan crenshaw, tweeted this, then quickly deleted it. the senator took pictures with supporters who waited to meet him. as for us? >> senator, will you take a minute? senator. senator. senator perdue. senator. >> reporter: perdue's staff told us he would not take any questions. that was stop one of the senator's bus tour. at stop two senator perdue delivered his planned speech, and i talked to a staffer. >> excuse me. hey. i'm with cnn. >> yep. >> and could we just get a couple minutes with -- >> we'll see how the timing goes. >> reporter: perdue took pictures and then -- >> senator? senator? senator? hi, senator. senator. senator? i'm kyung lah from cnn. hey. hey. why don't you debate, senator? >> reporter: when it comes to the general public, only a select group is invited.

by contrast the senator was eager to appear next to president trump at his highly publicized, nearly fact-free georgia rally. >> i want to take literally just one second. >> reporter: as perdue spoke, the crowd drowned him out, shouting support for president trump. >> -- president trump personally -- >> reporter: who was leveling basic attacks against the voting system in georgia. >> they cheated is and they rigged our presidential election. but we will still win it. >> reporter: but perdue and fellow republican senator kelly loeffler need voters to use that system. plus republican enthusiasm. when loeffler was asked this in her debate. >> do you stand by his narrative that the election was rigged? >> reporter: she did not directly answer. >> and look, it's vitally important that georgians trust our election process. and the president has every right to every legal recourse. and that's what's taking place. >> reporter: the perdue campaign goes further in avoiding answers and avoiding nearly all media appearances. >> david perdue, senator, thank you for being here.

>> reporter: he did do this interview with laura ingraham on fox news. does that and scaping debates matter to his supporters? >> to me personally if doesn't because i know i'm going to vote for him. i know his policies. i know what he's said and i know exactly how he's been voting in the senate. >> i ask that you bless this election, that we will win georgia. >> reporter: back on senator perdue's bus tour, this is stop number three. i ask again. >> senator perdue, kyung lah from cnn. can i just ask you a quick question? >> thank you. >> sir? sir? >> reporter: and again. >> senator, can i get you to stop and answer a couple of questions about the debate? >> reporter: we continue to the fourth and final stop. >> senator? senator. >> reporter: this isn't just cnn. local tv stations, atlanta's largest paper says the senator has ducked reporters across georgia. now, he did decide to sit down tonight with newsmax.

it is an outlet that actively engages in conspiracy theories and lies. it is a favorite of president trump's. and the senator tonight said that his democratic challenger jon ossoff lost the debate even though the senator is the one who didn't show up. erin? >> all right, kyung, thank you very much. and i want to bring in erick erickson. familiar face to so many of you. conservative talk radio host, long-time georgia resident. so erick, you're in the midst of this. so president trump, you know, went for that rally over the weekend. we played a clip from, it but there was a lot more where that came from, saying in georgia they cheated, they rigged our presidential election, we'll still win it, we'll still win it. obviously your republican governor certified the results. your republican secretary of state. i don't need to go through the whole litany with you. but now he says he's going to go back and he's going to do more rallies in georgia and continue to say the same thing. what do you say to that? >> well, listen, a lot of his base does kind of internalize that yeah, maybe the race was stolen but they're going it try

to turn out for perdue and loeffler i hope as a conservative. the data seems to suggest the gop overwhelmingly has the numbers if they turn out. but this really isn't helpful. and you know, i've actually had a couple republicans mumble to me that maybe he wants them to lose because if they win it's going to be hard to say the race in georgia was stolen. >> so what do you make of what he has been doing in your state? saying that it's rigged. i've had on gabe sterling, your elections chief. right? he's been clear. he said this is the safest election we've ever had, the most secure election. there's a paper trail for every single ballot in georgia. a federal judge today, right? dismisses more challenges. the facts are the facts here. and what the president's saying is false. >> well, i mean, to give you an idea of just how cavalier they are with things, the president's team actually filed a lawsuit in georgia's state court on friday. they forgot to pay the filing fee or fill out the pipework to fi

so it got thrown out by a judge. i don't think they actually care. i think they want to whip people into a sense of grievance. the fact of the matter is people here understand we've got a great system and we've got ballots that print out. most of the outside voices i've dealt with here actually don't realize that the ballots in georgia are printed out with who you voted for on them. so it's very hard to actually say the machines were stolen. but we're kind of at a point where facts don't matter with a lot of people. >> which i think is really terrifying in a sense. erick, do you get a feeling that people -- how many people do you think really believe what the president's saying? >> you know, i actually think it's more like team sport. when your team loses you blame the refs. and people ultimately come around. in fact, i think the overwhelming majority of people who are saying that this was a stolen election, they really know it wasn't. but it's all part of being on the team. the problem is we had this situation several years ago where democratic rhetoric led to that man in virginia trying to kill republican members of congress. and i actually am worried that we're going to get to a point with the rhetoric in this election where some crazy people

internalize that it was stolen and decide to take action. that should bother all of us. what we've seen so far in this country in the last number of years. >> so erick, you know, you mentioned a federal judge in georgia. so today a federal judge in your state appointed by george w. bush dismissed two challenges by sidney powell that were team trump trying to dismiss the lawful election results in georgia. so the president then goes, right? to his rally in georgia and he's speaking out and telling people to vote for david perdue and kelly lovel effler. so he's -- it's rather contradictory. let me play what he said. >> you must go vote and vote early. starting december 14th. you have to do it. they cheated and they rigged our presidential election. and they're going to try and rig this election too. >> do people not see the contradiction, that he's telling them to vote in a rigged election?

or what? >> you know, so being in georgia for a long time in politics, they used to have a saying, common in other parts of the country, if it ain't close they can't cheat. trying to get people out. if you believe the race was stolen. the problem is the president says this over and over and over and has lin wood out there telling people don't vote until the governor summons a special session of the legislature. in a very tight election, which this could be, those numbers matter and you could see the republicans throw the race from themselves just by suppressing their own vote with this nonsense talk. >> interesting what you said there. some may my that's what the president wants. that's interesting scuttlebutt out there. i appreciate your time. i'm glad to see you. >> thank you. good to see you. >> and next, trump shakes up a pentagon advisory board, replacing some professionals with political lackeys like corey lewandowski. now one member who made it through the purge is resigning, standing strong, and sounding the alarm. he's my guest. plus we take you to a hospital inside venezuela, and you have to see this. no lights. no way to actually treat

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breaking news. cnn learning president-elect joe biden has picked retired general lloyd austin to be his defense secretary. if confirmed the general would be the first black man to run the pentagon. austin led central command during the obama administration. he would need a congressional waiver to be confirmed since he has not been out of the military for the required seven years. much like of course jim mattis did. and biden's pick to lead the pentagon comes amidst a purge there. a member of the pentagon's advisory board resigning after several of his colleagues were replaced with trump placing them with people with no experience in the defense ministry. people like corey lewandowski. the abrupt termination of half

of the business board and their replacement with political partisans have put the nation's safety and security at risk. department of defense, a service to the country, not to a party. steve blank joins me now. i appreciate your time. tell me what led you to not only resign from the board but to voice these concerns publicly? the last one is easy to do and explain. i thought one option is to hunker down and wait until january. then i thought i could not look at myself in the mirror every morning. defense business were one of se several advisory boards.

our job is to give the secretary defense the best non pattersono advise. the country is facing a set of challenges that we have not faced in a century. united states is no longer guaranteed to win the next war. that's nothing that any of us grew up with. the last 20 years the country focused on defeating terrorists and al-qaeda and isis and now we woke up to face china and russia and now north korea and iran and in addition to those non nation states. if you look at what's going on in those countries, those are countries that kind of repress their own people in china and the tibetans and hong kong and

uighu uighurs. it is a combination of all the other things that we do, diplomacy and information and intelligence. >> so that's. >> i think it is important to hear your character why you did this and why you believed it was important. i said to myself why would you be doing this now. you fired nine people and replaced them with trump's loyalists. no experience in the defense industry. why would you do this when there were fewer than 50 days left in the administration. >> i should point out this is the last that's happening. senior people were replaced on

all the advisory boards for the secretary of defense. obviously that's his right. this is the board he apoints po and reaches out to. for me you asked about my motivation, i grew up, we watched the soviet union and others requiring to a party. when we as a nation saw that we knew they did that because they were weak that their ideas and values could not stand discussions and in exchange and in contrast we kind of celebrated that what made the united states drawn was embrace diversity of thoughts and act collectively. >> i appreciate you takeing you time and sharing those thoughts

and insights with us. thank you, steve. >> tonight a worldwide exclusive, this is important to watch. this is venezuela hospital as that country continues to ravage by coronavirus. we are seeing the haunting images. isa soares is outside the caraccas hospital. >> reporter: here practically every floor, this hospital is empty. it tells me this hospital worker prefers to remain anonymous.

it is a risk only a few to take. this is the covid-19 war. only part of it is functional. the rest is completely run down after years of mismanagement. so it is no surprise many would rather face the pandemic outside these walls. choosing instead their homes and darkness taken over. >> this is intensive war. the reason i am holding up this light right here because there is no electricity in this hospital. look around. be bare bones and what i have been told by doctors around cararacu that this ises the situation day in and day out. >> reporter: even in the morgue

and with no electricity, the stench is unbearable. imagine having to face the pandemic in these conditions. that's why doctors are no longer afraid to pespeak out. >> reporter: i have friends of mine being charged for protesting the conditions. he does not hold back. in venezuela he tells me there are only as many recognized covid cases as the regime once. with limited to three government control labs, it is impossible to paint an accurate picture. with regards to covid, we don't know where we are. the government claims the pandemic is under control and says their strategy works. it is a lockdown strategy

employed by china which the government of maduro. venezuela shown immunity to the virus. the family of those who have died on the frontline may see it differently. 272 healthcare workers have lost their lives in venezuela as of november 30th. the people are over worked and not protected. this is evidence all around, as i walk this ward, i stopped to speak to a patient's daughter. she tells me her frail

69-years-old father is here because of malnamalnourishment. he needs supplement that the hospital does not have. >> this is what they have to work with here. nurses and doctors and syringes. they got nothing. there is a vast emptiness around. painful doubt for those of one of the wealthest in america is thousand teetering on the brink of survival. >> reporter: cnn reached out to the government here in venezuela for comment on the conditions we saw in those hospitals as well

as the extra crediticriticism. >> thank you so much for the report for going so much for sharing that with us. thank you all of you for watching. anderson starts now. good evening to you, 79 years ago, today the country was reeling from the lost of lives of pearl harbor. president roosevelt declared a war against japan. 243 americans died. right now the united states averaging more than 2200 covid deaths a day. that's nearly one pearl harbor every 22 hours. the pandemic will kill upward of