hello, everyone, i'm kate bal kate bolduan. thank you for joining us. congress appears to be on the verge of a deal for much-awaited, long overdue coronavirus relief. and on the vaccine front, an fda committee is meeting tomorrow to decide whether or not to recommend moderna's emergency vaccination use. all signs pointing to quick authorization as the panel did find the vaccine is safe and effective. and that can't come soon enough. let's check in with what the numbers look like today. more than 3,000 americans have reported dead yesterday from covid-19. the third highest death toll since the pandemic began. hospitalizations hit a record high for the 10th straight day with more than 112,000 americans now hospitalized with the virus.

despite these really horrific numbers, there are still political leaders downplaying the severity or even the existence of the pandemic. to that, one of the top federal officials overseeing the pandemic response had this to say this morning to cnn's john berman. >> we have hundreds of thousands of dead americans. we'll have millions of people around the world. this is not phony, this is not fake. it is serious. >> it is serious. and today we're going to focus in on not only hospitals getting hammered right now and also the hope these vaccines are bringing, but also on the wider ripple effects of the pandemic. restaurants forced to close their doors, schools trying the best to -- the best they can to keep their doors open as we enter this dark winter. let's turn first to capitol hill. the top leaders in congress are offering up clear signs that they are confident a covid relief bill is coming but, yes, you have heard this before. no, they don't have a lot of time left.

cnn's manu raju is tracking this and joining us right now from capitol hill. manu, what are you hearing this morning? >> well, we're learning new details about this emerging deal, it's around $900 million, about twice the amount senate republicans wanted to spend but a fraction of what house democrats pushed for nancy pelosi before the election, wanted more than $2 trillion. but this $900 million relief package will be very significant. we do expect it to expand jobless benefits that are expiring, that will help a lot of people who are concerned about losing those benefits by the end of the year. we were just told by the senate majority john thune the additional jobless benefits are expected to be about $300 a week, something the two sides have been discussing for some time. remember $600 a week in jobless benefits expired earlier this summer. so that's what we're hearing from the republican leadership. in addition to that there will be a new round of stimulus checks. that had not been part of the initial discussions going in.

but because of a bipartisan push as well as the president's demands, there appears to be some agreement on that. what thune just told reporters he expects it to be like $600 for stimulus checks, that's less than the $1,200 for individuals under a certain income in the previous law that -- and, that, of course, occurred back in the spring. we will see if that is enough to win over some people, particularly on the left who had been pushing for the $1,200 in stimulus checks. in addition we expect money for vaccine distribution to be a part of this deal. we do not expect state and local aid to be anywhere in this proposal. democrats had been pushing for that to help with cash-strapped cities and local governments. that will not get in there because of republican opposition. nancy pelosi on a conference called i'm told blamed public assistance on seeking lawsuit protection for businesses hurt during the pandemic, she's

concerned about their language. that did not get in the deal. state and local money did not get in the deal. she said they will try it again when biden becomes president. but this is coming through quickly and expected to be voted in the house as soon as tomorrow, potentially the senate friday, but all members have to agree to the quick vote. if not, they're facing the possibility of a shutdown by the end of the week without cooperation. a lot of moving parts here but potentially a deal within reach here finally. >> which an important update, manu, thank you. things are moving fast there today. let's get to the latest on moderna esavacci moderna's vaccine and big fda meeting tomorrow. joining me now is the director of infectious diseases at cincinnati medical center and a member of the fda advisory we he had been talking about here. he will not be returning to the committee because he's currently running more than one covid trial. thank you for coming on.

you're busy. what do you expect to happen tomorrow? what questions do you have on the moderna vaccine? >> well, kate, if we look at the efficacy of the moderna vaccine, it looks very, very comparable to the pfizer-biontech vaccine. the numbers are very impressive. for someone who loves working in the vaccine field, this almost makes us giddy with this kind of efficacy. efficacy came down to 94.1%. what that means for people listening, and they had 11 covid cases in the vaccinated group and 185 in the placebo group. if you look at severe disease in this group, there were none in the vaccinated group and 30 cases of severe covid in the placebo group. you don't need to be a statistician to see how wonderfully effective this vaccine is. equally important, the safety record looks very, very good. it was comparable to sort of standard vaccines. no increase in very serious add

verse events in those who received the vaccine versus placebo. so we're all very impressed with the numbers for moderna. >> you are impressed. did you think that also then means the vaccine will win the recommendation of the board and also get authorization by the fda? >> so i can't speak for all of my colleagues, but, yes, i do. it really looks like a terrifically effective vaccine with a good safety record and it will very, very likely get the thumb's up from the committee tomorrow. >> i spoke with the chief adviser yesterday and he said something like you just did, the safety efficacy of the moderna vaccine is similar to what you saw then to pfizer. i wonder what it means more broadly, doctor, to have two vaccines rolling out, becoming

available for the public in the fight against this pandemic? >> that's a very good question actually, kate. i don't think this has ever happened before. we know the rapid development of vaccines that has taken place during this pandemic, that has never happened before. i have been impressed with the companies that have pursued these vaccines and fda processes and trials themselves, that safety does not look like it's at all been compromised. i think it's been comforting to those in dire need of getting this vaccine and our country certainly is with the rising cases and high numbers of deaths each day now as you just reported. >> an interesting element of both pfizer and moderna vaccines is they are approved for use in 16 and up or 18 and up, as they would be for the moderna vaccine.

you're running a pfizer trial now on how that vaccine works among adolescents, which is an very important element for this going forward. what are you seeing? what can you tell us? >> so pfizer made the decision a while back to go down to age 60 and, of course, the authorization that came out for the pfizer vaccine, authorized the vaccine in those as young as 60. but even before that, they made the decision to go down to age 12 and to study this vaccine in younger ages. right now we're studying the vaccine in age 12 to 15 to find out if there's any difference in the immune responses or safety profile. so far i don't think there's any signal we've heard about but there's a lot of blinded data out there. i expect it to be effective in this age group but we want to get all of the complete data. and on that note, we're also interested, of course, going down to younger and younger ages in terms of testing these

vaccines. it was very natural to start in adults because adults are by far the hardest hit, especially the elderly and others with serious conditions that make their mortality rate higher. now it's time to go into other special groups to try to really evaluate the safety and efficacy of these vaccines, in pediatrics, pregnant women and special groups. >> doctor, do you know the timetable for your trial, when it would wrap? >> i'm sorry, i don't know the actual end point. i think we have about 200 more to enroll nationally to get down to age 12, and then you can kind of listen for future vaccine trials where we will be going down in the ages that are evaluated for this vaccine and for other vaccines. >> fascinating and so important. thank you, doctor. >> you're very welcome. good to be with you. coming up for us -- more than 100,000 restaurants closed this year because of the pandemic. restaurant workers and owners are pleading with congress for

help. what is going to happen if they don't get it? plus, it's being called a national emergency. kids shut out of the classroom because of the pandemic. now superintendents from three of the largest school districts in the nation say they need a plan, and they need it now. ♪ irresistibly smooth chocolate. to put the world on pause. lindor. made to melt you. by the lindt master chocolatier.

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♪ did you put some ah, kale in the greens? ♪ we didn't forget about you! welcome to the family. thank you. wooooow. ♪ we are watching capitol hill. congressional leaders are signaling their close to a deal on much-needed coronavirus relief packages. but many small business owners are anticipating, even in the face of that, the worse of the pandemic is still ahead. the u.s. chamber of commerce surveyed entrepreneurs and half responded by saying they expect to close permanently in a year or less if things don't change.

here in new york restaurant workers and owners took to the streets to protect the closing of indoor dining. the national restaurant service found in a new survey, 100,0 100,000,000 closed, 10,000% since september. joining me now the ceo of scarpetta wine and co-founder of the independent restaurant collision and shawn feeney, co-founder of grove house and owner of big restaurants here 00 in new york like lily and meesy's. good to see you both. thank you for being here. it looks like congress will get something done. we heard it at the top of the show but this reminds me of a familiar dance we've seen from congress. they're hard up against the deadline and members of congress are being frank, they don't want to work over christmas, so they get it done. i wonder how it feels after ten

months of what you and your workers have been going through? >> yes, kate, thank you for having me on. yes, they're saying they're going to get something done but they pushed it so long and so many families are hurting so badly and quite frankly, we don't have anything in there for restaurants. this is the largest private sector job creator in the u.s. we're in the middle of winter. people across the country from iowa to georgia to new york to san francisco to colorado are suffering and they're doing nothing for the restaurants. and this is tragic and criminal. >> shawn, new york city just shutdown indoor dining again. outdoor dining is becoming much harder with the weather. can you describe what it is like in the restaurant industry right now, and what happens if no aid comes? >> the government's sad response

to the challenges we face has lacked creativity and compassion. these are the two words that define our industry. this failure of leadership, which has been in new york city, it's been in every level of government so far, has put a million lives at risk again heading into the holiday season. the government has picked industries like airlines and music venues to bail out, with ceos who get paid no matter what, union contracts protecting their employees. our elected officials left independent restaurants to die. this sadly leaves our communities without hearts, owners with nothing and most importantly their teams, the ones who make our industry beat, our communities beat, fighting for survival while trying to feed their families. >> bobby, there are independent restaurants in every congressional district if i have to put it that way in the country. and this is not something new, the alarm you have been

sounding. i have been following your outspoken advocacy on this since the shutdowns really began. and i'm curious, you have been reaching out to members of congress. what don't they get, or what are they telling you? >> well, you know, that's a great question, kate. i have been working on this with my fellow members of the restaurant coalition. i have talked to hundreds of staff members, congressmen and senators. and they're playing hot potato with the issue. it doesn't matter if you're republican, they blame it on pelosi and dems blame it on mcconnell. what they do to is realize this industry is too big. they never for us until this year because we're suchb a bootstrap injury. but we've been given a set of challenges no other industry has. the pain we're feeling is too much and they've got to get in the room, they've got to get to work and they've got to get the restaurant act passed in this package. there's no more excuses.

i would love, kate, for this congress to work as hard as the restaurant industry has and be as creative and learn to pivot like we are and i would like them to pivot from being politicians and be leaders and save 15 million jobs and pass the senate. >> kate, the failure in leadership has essentially should have been met with conventions, failures, that should have been met and foster togetherness and collaboration in our communities and it has not happened. and that's something we rely on in our industry to succeed in the future and that's what we need now. >> i have to say, i hear you both. bobby, what we are hearing from capitol hill is right now we don't know the details of the relief bill they're putting together or necessarily all of it, but it sure doesn't sound

like there's anything targeted to the restaurant industry in it and it doesn't seem like when you look at the deadline they're up against, it doesn't look like there's any appetite to get a separate bill of anything else done like the restaurant act you guys are looking for. i'm just curious if i have to be harsh, it doesn't look like you're going to get this. what's going to happen? >> kate, you're right, i don't think we're going to get this. marco rubio is too fixated that the ppe works for everybody. it does not work for restaurants. i think you're going to see tens of thousands of restaurants and their families supported by them closing each week until they finally get their act together. if they don't do it this week, they're going to push this and make this industry that is so suffering try to hang on until february. that's not going to work. you're going to ruin hundreds of thousands of lives, millions of

lives. >> sean, real quick, because we've got to wrap. at some point are you getting to the place where you don't think it's worth it to try to fight this out? >> oh, no, no. every day is a good day and i'm so grateful for the gift to wake up every morning to fight for something that means so much to me, that means so much to my family and to new yorkers. i think my restaurants are made up of really amazing people. culinary students working on their crafts, striving for greatness. ivy league graduates, artists, teachers, single mothers raising children with special needs. i have formally incarcerated individuals who are optimistically starting a new chapter in life, heroic veterans who have defended our freedom looking for a new way to serve, 16-year-old high school students with the miraculous passion for hospitality and also responsibility to earn a wage for their family who lives in poverty. i can't stop fighting for that. that's what makes our city great. that's what makes our country great and that's why we have to

save this industry. unfortunately, leadership has failed us, but they can change it now, and they need to, because we have to save the second largest private employer in our country. they are what is at stake. >> it is remarkable what is at stake actually. sean feeney, bob write stuckey, thank you. >> thank you, kate. thanks, bobby. >> thanks, sean. president trump turns on senate majority leader mitch mcconnell after mcconnell finally acknowledges joe biden's win. what does this mean for the rebalancing of power as trump gets ready to make his exit? proven ingredients that fuel 5 indicators of brain performance. memory, focus, accuracy, learning, and concentration. try our new gummies for 30 days and see the difference.

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any minute now president trump will be meeting with his cabinet in the waning days of his presidency. one member will not be attending in person, as secretary of state mike pompeo is now in quarantine after coming in contact with somebody with the coronavirus. it also sets the stage for a potentially awkward face to face, as attorney general bill barr submitted his resignation days ago, and will be leaving next week amid the tension with

the president over barr's refusal to go along with trump's baseless voter fraud claim. also receiving trump hate tweets, senator mitch mcconnell after he acknowledged the reality yesterday that joe biden won the election. let's go over to cnn's john harwood. he's at the white house now. john, after mcdonnell's declaration, what does it mean for the rebalancing and shuffling in washington as trump is leaving office? >> i think, kate, we're getting a little closer back to the kind of transition that we've been accustomed. very belatedly, should have happened a long time ago. but nevertheless mitch mcconnell recognized reality. the way he did it, surrounding it with praise for the president, giving him advanced heads up, generated a fairly muted response by trump's standards on twitter to mitch mcconnell. and the in fact now the four leaders in congress, democrat and republican, house and

senate, appear to be getting close to a deal with the white house on some covid relief, desperately needed by families in for a lot of suffering without it, that is a sign things are getting to what passes for normal in the end of the trump era but obviously, with this cabinet meeting going on, we have a president in psychological distress over having locked the election, having trouble accepting it. he fired his defense secretary. his attorney general is leaving. we don't know what else he is going to do in terms of pardons or ordering the new acting attorney general to install a special counsel on hunter biden or voter fraud. the president is unpredictable at this point. with fienk weeve weeks to go, te a lot of things he can still do. nevertheless, we're moving towards the biden administration

and mitch mcconnell advanced that a modest amount with the step he took this week. >> keeping an eye to see if anything comes out of the cabinet meeting today, john, thank you. going back to the pandemic and what you can call a national emergency. millions of school students are following behind. rockefeller report saying -- we are running out of time. perhaps no institution in american life is more important to the present and future functioning of society than its k through 12 school systems. they're calling for a massive boost in covid-19 testing, 300 million tests for students, teachers and staff in order to reopen and keep open 100,000 schools. it comes as superintendents from the nation's three largest school districts, new york, los angeles and chicago are now calling for a marshal plan for schools. joining me now is the superintendent for the l.a. unified school district, austin beutner. thank you for coming back on. this report first, the

rockefeller report, calling for a huge ramp-up in testing to keep the schools open, i thought of you because you had been offering testing to your students since august. we talked about it. your schools are still right now online only. how do you square these two things then? >> well, the front door if you will starts with the level of covid in the community. in los angeles we're 15 times the state and ard for opening schools, more than three times of new york. we have to address that first. once that's addressed as the superintendents of new york, chicago and i agree, we listen carefully to our colleagues and schools, we need a marshal plan. we need the same concerted effort we bring to other national emergencies, fire, hurricane and flood and that's comprised of four parts, make sure the environment is safe, cleaning and personal protective equipment. we need to test so we can identify and isolate quickly anyone in school who might have the virus. we need money for mental health

support because an enormous challenge will come with students back to school. we need to make sure funding is there so every person, every student, every teacher can be in summer school in person in summer. >> i think every person can understand, mr. superintendent, if you're comparing it to funding to post world war ii reconstruction, it's a massive plan you're talking about, holistic plan, all aspects of school that you're looking for funding for and planning for. what is missing right now? why do schools need this so much? >> i think you said at the outset as the rockefeller foundation said quite well, schools are the foundation of the community. we are what provide hope and opportunity to the next generation of our country. we know so many children are struggling with online learning. heroic efforts being made by teachers and principals and everyone who works in the school but we know it's better back in the school and it will take that

same all tided-together effort. i was listening to conversations in washington about a relief effort and i didn't hear any mention of schools. not by you but leaders working on this. schools have to be the priority. they support students and our future and working families that we serve. >> i was actually just going to ask you about that. we don't know the details of the covid relief bill that is coming together, but i would wonder what you would say to members of congress and leadership if there isn't any help for schools in there. >> i probably would come back on your show with the third grader i spoke with yesterday who's struggling. his family is struggling. they've had someone in the family become gravely ill because of the virus. this child struggles to log on to a zoom because someone is missing in their household. someone else in the household had lost work. i ask leadership, what can we do

for that child? the answer is staring us right in the face, do all that we can to support schools, make them the priority. it builds the found aks for the economy to reopen, foundation of the future, opportunity for children, it's just the right thing. it has to be the priority. >> you really put a bright spotlight on where it needs to be, on just all of the pressures and all that is really on the shoulders of these young kids and what they're dealing with at home. it's not just trying to get on zoom but what their entire family is dealing with. they can't be inoculated or hidden from that. >> and as you said, they lack voice. is it because they don't have a lobbyist? is it because children don't vote? because we're serving those most in need? more than 80% of families we serve are living in poverty. three quarters have lost work due to covid-19. more than 80% of the families are families of color. families may lack voice in the communities we serve, their children may lack voice. i think we're here today to make sure policymakers to understand

schools and persons in schools have to be the priority. >> and you have also -- ds and fs have gone up in your school district 15% amongst high schoolers. some of the information you also put out reading proficiency among elementary school kids has fallen 10%. how does that hit you as a superintendent? we're talking about why, what is driving this for these poor kids, why they are falling behind but it really -- go ahead. >> i was going to say, when we know that, we can see it, diagnostic. a grade is a diagnostic. it doesn't mean the child lost capacity, it doesn't mean the child lost desire, it means this way of learning connecting via screen not the best way for many children, young learners, students with different disabilities, those learning english and might have been struggling before schools were closed are struggling more. we know that. we can see that. the question is, what can we do

about it? we can provide more one-on-one support and things like that but it doesn't get to the root cause. we need students back in school with their teachers and custodians and bus drivers as soon as possible. it will take an all-hands-on-deck experience. >> joe biden said within the first 100 days of his administration, he wants to have the majority of the schools in the country reopened for in-person learning. from what you person, do you think that's possible? >> it will take this all-hands-on-deck effort, and 345ik schools not just part of the relief plan but school bus drivers, custodians, school principals get early doses of the vaccine. let's make sure we think of schools as part of the system to provide vaccine to children as was done for polio. we did a little bit of a test case in one of the communities we serve, high-needs community. within 10 square miles, quarter

million people, 30 schools, three drugstores, two fire stations. begs to reason the place to provide the vaccine to students and their families is the place they trust the most, where they are almost every day, they're local neighborhood school. >> that's very, very interesting. austin beutner, thank you for coming on. >> thank you. coming up for us, they went head to head during the primary. now former presidential candidate pete buttigieg is about to join joe biden's team. we'll go live to wilmington. the but we didn't stop there. we made a cloud flexible enough to adapt to any size business. no matter what it does, or how it changes. and we kept going. so you only pay for what you use. because at dell technologies, we stop...at nothing. ♪

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. moments from now, president-elect joe biden is set to announce more members of his cabinet. among them biden will be nominating former presidential rival and mayor pete buttigieg as his transportation secretary. cnn's mj lee is in wilmington and joining us now. what are you hearing about mayor pete? >> this is a barrier breaking nomination. if mayor pete is confirmed, he would be the first lgbtq member of the u.s. cabinet and he also brings a different kind of diversity toot cabinet if he's confirmed too. he's just 38 years old. we've seen a slew of other

appointments and many of them come from a different generation than the former mayor. also just in terms of the path he will have ahead, biden has made very clear getting some sort of deal done, big package on structure, will be a big priority. we certainly expect the person who is the transportation secretary to play a big role in that. climate change is also another issue under the purview of the transportation secretary as well. and in terms of just the personal dynamics that we're about to see in the room as well, remember these two men were 2020 rivals and then when buttigieg eventually dropped out of the race, he immediately endorsed biden and that was very important for him in his race. and biden has publicly shown a lot of affection towards the former mayor, even at one point comparing him to his late son beau. hee made clear that is one of the biggest compliments he could pay to somebody. >> and also there's a lingering

question as to when they will be getting coronavirus vaccines. what are you hearing? >> zr anthony fauci said this week he thinks it's very important for joe biden and kamala harris to be vaccinated as soon as possible and it is pointed that will likely happen. an announcement on how that exactly will come about will be coming soon. in terms of biden making clear when this vaccination happens, he intends to do it in public. this gets to the public trust piece of this. this is a future administration that very much understands there are people across the country who have a lot of questions and are feeling wary about the vaccine, that's why we saw kamala harris saying in a new interview this morning she particularly wants to make sure she's reaching out to people of color because she knows there are people of color distrustful of even getting a vaccine at all. >> mj, thank you. we also want to highlight now an example of what it can

look like when misinformation gets out of control, especially when it's about the election. a former houston police officer was just charged with running a man off the road and holding him at gunpoint, allegedly because this former officer had bought in to president trump's false claims of voter fraud and was trying to investigate them. cnn's josh campbell has the details on this and he's joining me right now. josh, what is going on with this? >> good morning, kate. those of us who track national security threats have been warning for months these baseless claims of mass voter fraud are not happening in a vacuum, there are real consequences. that include potential danger, and that appears to be what happened in houston, occurred just before the election. prosecutors say this former police captain, who was hired to investigate alleged voter fraud by a private group called liberty center, began surveillance on an unidentified man. this former officer thought this unidentified man was a so-called master mooipd of ballot fraud,

began surveying him, followed him, crashed his suv into the man's vehicle and ordered him down to the ground at gunpoint. it gets even more bizarre because what the former man thought, this former cop inside this vehicle, were 750,000 fraudulent ballots. of course, authorities say there were no fraudulent ballots inside the vehicle. the man was an innocent air conditioner repairman held down at gunpoint. the attorney for the former police officer is saying his client is and in the. he said these charges will be fought in court. however, the prosecutor standing by her case in a statement, she says this former officer, mark aguri, crossed the line from dirty politics to commission of a violent crime and we're lucky no one was killed. his alleged investigation was backward from the start, first alleging a crime occurred and then trying to prove it happened. now it's also worth pointing out, kate, this man was not acting alone. we've talked to representatives of this liberty center, this group who was trying to find

incidents of voter fraud and they tell us this man was one of 20 investigators that were hired to privately look into these mass voter fraud claims. of course, despite those efforts, we continue to see new proof of mass voter fraud. but this one example of how some of this rhetoric and how some of these baseless claims can actually escalate into violence. kate? >> josh, thank you. coming up -- an extraordinary cnn investigation reveals a top-secret mission against one of vladimir putin's chief critics. the russian government is now responding. we're live in moscow next. and take. it. on... ...with rinvoq. rinvoq a once-daily pill... ...can dramatically improve symptoms... rinvoq helps tame pain, stiffness, swelling. and for some... rinvoq can even significantly reduce ra fatigue. that's rinvoq relief. with ra, your overactive immune system attacks your joints. rinvoq regulates it to help stop the attack. rinvoq can lower your ability to fight infections,

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we now have ton officials

here in the united states and in russia speaking out and responding to the investigation by cnn and the group billing cat that uncovered new details on the poisoning of russian opposition leader. navalny nearly died clarissa ward uncovered that russian operatives had pain trailing in a valnavalny for years. so how is the kremlin responding? >> reporter: well, it has been astonishing. we've waited more than 48 hours now, we haven't had any real proper response until just a few hours ago where the russian foreign minister sergey lavrov told journalists that essentially he found this report, quote, it is funny to me is what he said. enwent on to say we're used to this type of thing from the west. he also said that people shouldn't make the mistake of

concluding that moscow's silence for two days means that that is somehow an admission of ghiluil. but what he doesn't come is gheo the heart of the issue and answer the aeltsllegations. and secretary of state mike pompeo saying that the white house already weighed in, although they haven't really done anything in the lines of what we've seen fromment eu and uk. and we've also heard from purchase congressman mike mccaul who said that this new reporting uncovers truly disturbing information about the putin regime's culpability and pois poisoning navalny. and they must complete the investigation and release the findings immediately so the united states can hold those responsible to account for this

inexcusable behavior. but there is no sense that that is coming to any swift conclusion. and navalny telling us that he kneels frustrated that the u.s. is not on the right side of history as he calls it on this important issue. >> and just about vladimir putin, do you expect -- is there any chance that you expect him to respond directly? >> tomorrow is the big annual vladimir putin press conference that takes place every year, it runs four or five hours even sometimes. and many different outlets are allowed to ask questions, but they do cherry pick in advance which questions they can ask. i'm not allowed to ask a question this year because i don't have the propered creden. but the fact that this unit was trailing navalny for years, the

fact that they had expertise in the use of chemical weapons that they were in regular contact with a lab that produces novichok, these are important questions that need to be answered and we can only hope that vladimir putin will answer them tomorrow. >> clarissa, thank you for your fantastic reporting. coming up for us, moments from now, president-elect joe biden is set to make another big announcement with regard to his cabinet. he will be announcing pete buttigieg as his transportation secretary. we'll bring to you live. every year, we set out to do one thing: help the world believe in holiday magic. and this year was harder than ever. and yet, somehow, you all found a way to pull it off. it's not about the toys or the ornaments but about coming together.

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we are closely following coach. s surroundevelopments surroundi vaccines and stimulus. after months of a bitter stalemate in congress, we're told leaders could announce a stimulus deal as early as today. in plain english, help could finally be on the way. they are said to be looking at a package close to $900 billion that would priovide relief