it's the top of the hour. i'm brianna keilar. i want to welcome our viewers here in the united states and around the world. before we get to breaking news on a second vaccine and stimulus deal meant to provide release for american families, i want to start with the most important thing. that's we are a nation in crisis. 3,656 americans who were reported to have lost their lives yesterday. that's in one day. it's a record. the deadliest day of the pandemic. that's on top of a new record also set for new cases and hospitalizations. paul and rosemary blackwell. they died this weeks, died in the same bed holding each other's hands and the hands of

their family. the children had to make the difficult decision to take them off life support. >> to is a good-bye to a parent, you know, it still just seems unreal. me and my brother were talking earlier. my like my mom and dad are going to walk through the door any second, but we know they're not. it's just hard decision that any child has to make. i'm just glad that my brother was there with me, and i was able to lean on him as he was able to lean on me. all the memories, my mom made christmas happen. my mom and dad, they both made christmas happen. they made every holiday happen. it's crazy, just like i said, it doesn't seem real. i remember this one time, my dad, when we were younger, he used to put fake giant bunny footprints through the house, lie the easter bunny came through when easter came around.

that's one of things i will always remember, like we have a home video of that. and sean, look, the easter bunny came, look. [ laughter ] >> i'm always going to remember that. that's one of the memories, i'm always going to remember. christmas will always be about family and my mom. my mom was family. sara finefrock lost her daddy. in a message in "the washington post." >> my mice american was my dad. hi name is george -- his name was george. he was funny, giving, frustrated me at times. he was overly proud of my brother and i, and he wore a may have been, and died of covid-19. to know him was to laugh with him. so why have i spent the last few

days worried he will just be a number each night? i worry george will be another anonymous statistic presented think jokes and memes how awful 2020 was. i want him to matter. the only path left to me is to tell you to take covid-19 seriously. don't end up clutching your person's hands as their body no longer accepts air. >> in new mexico third grade teacher fi eer fil eer filomenal the end. >> she referred to her students as her children. she would always mention one of her special students when she called.

that gave her life. that gave her focus. that took away all the pain she faced in the world. it was her life's calling. so when she was in the hospital the first time she wanted to go home, because her calling was to serve others. i have seen posts from many family members expressing condolences and thanking filomena for teaching their kids. so she definitely impacted their lives. >> despite his grief, he did not want to finish his interview without thanking all the frontline medical workers, who are risking their own lives to care for others. >> i understand that many of you provide the same care you would for family and are very tired, frustrated and have to bear the burden of loss now and forever. there's nothing i can give you in honor of your commitment,

courage and compassion. i can simply say i appreciate you and am thankful for all that you do. my next guest is one of the people who is on the front lines of this national crisis. carolyn mcnamara is in a hospital in central pennsylvania. thank you so much for coming on to talk to us. i know you are experiencing this pandemic from the professional side and from the personal side. you have seen more than a dozen of your family members get infected, including your father who has been in the icu that you work in. i do want to ask you about the vaccine. first about your dad, how is he doing? >> he's doing great. hopefully coming home today or tomorrow. he's made an amazing recovery. >> what has it been like? what has his treatment been like? >> i mean, this has been my worst nightmare since march when all of this started. now i'm seeing him get the same

treatment we've been doing for all the patients i've been taking care of the past couple months. it's been scary the entire time, but i have amazing co-workers taking care of him. i'm so thankful for them. >> was he on a ventilator at one point? >> yeah, he was on a ventilator for four days, i believe. >> i mean, that must be incredibly scary. i know you're watching this as a nurse to many patients and seeing your friends, your co-workers taking care of your dad, which i hope gave you comfort. i'm just so glad he's coming home. i'm sure it's been incredibly tough. this is your situation, as you are going to be getting the vaccine. tell us about that. >> yeah, we just got news of the vaccine has arrived. hopefully we're getting it tomorrow morning. i just think it giving so much hope for the future that patients won't be getting us sick and our staff won't be as sick. we'll have better ratios of

nurses to patients. i think it brings a lot of hope for us as nurses, as well as the community and these patients' family members. >> can you feel that among your colleagues? like a shift, knowing the vaccine has been distributed? >> definitely. almost like there's a bit of light at the end of the tunnel now. >> there certainly is. caroline, thank you very much. we wish you luck tomorrow and certainly are keeping your dad and your family in our thoughts and our hearts. we appreciate it. best of luck as you get your first vaccine dose tomorrow. there's a major meeting of an fda advisory board until way to review a second vaccine. this one is from moderna. a vaccine division official in the fda is saying that moderna's candidate is expected to get the go ahead as well. before these shots go into arms,

though, a final sign-off has to come from the fda and cdc. joining me is e.r. doctor esther chu at oregon health sciences university. you can hear that in the voice of nurse we spoke to. before most people get vaccines, they have to wait months. now there's a new cdc forecast, which ago great gates models, and estimates there could be 391,000 total dead by january 9th, which is another 80,000 people, i mean, in less than a month. is it possible we can stop this from happening? >> it seems impossible, brianna, particularly, because every holiday creates a new surge, almost despite ourselves. people, of course, are so dear

to gather, and it's hard to tell people you need to withdraw from your loved ones. we totally understand that, yet every time we gather, we see a surge in cases. and -- >> sorry, can you hear me, doctor? >> yes, i can hear you. i'm sorry. can you hear me okay? >> you said imtire that we gather we see a surge in cases. >> that's right. you know, i know it's hard to people in to see the record-breaking dates. they're not subtle records. we feel those surges in the hospitals, and those incredibly moving stories you just showed us, that's our day-to-day reality of every hour of every day across the country in hospitals everywhere.

so we don't know what to do in this moment except really urge people to say, yes, take hope from the vaccine, but remember we have to buckle down and also still try to control this pandemic with our individual behaviors like staying home whenever we can. that's the only way we'll get through without astronomical losses of loved ones. >> it's so important to remember that. during this fda panel today, doctor, moderna announced it's creating a pression nance registry that would track pregnancies during i trial. what would you recommend to a pregnant patient? should she get the coronavirus vaccine if it becomes available to her? >> the major medical associations that specialize in women's health and in pregnant women's health are recommending that women don't specifically avoid the vaccine because they're pregnant or trying to get pregnant. this is not a live vaccine, so there's no specific concerns.

of course, this should be an individualized conversation between a woman and her ob/gyn. so it really overall i think we would like to see pregnant women get vaccinated and keep their entire pregnancy as safe as possible. hopefully people will feel more confident as that kind of data comes out. pfizer's vaccine is going to frontline workers and -- that the vials contain extra doses. i'm vial that should contain five doses, and in some they've been able to extract six or serve. the fda says that's normal. can you explain that to us? >> totally. for the multiuse vials, they put in extra often, because you can

imagine, as you're going in and out of a vial, there's a bit of slop, just depending on how big your needle is, maybe you just accidentally aspirate a bit too much. they want ra tiny bit of extra to correct for human error and just the variability with which people use the vials. this happens all the time. we don't pay a lot of attention to it because the little less is medication we have plenty of and you throw away the vial and don't think about it. but our very brilliant cling cal pharmacists in this wave, where we don't have enough we need, the pharmacist broached this question -- why don't we actually try to squeeze every extra dose we can out of they vials rather than simply tossing them aside? so this offers the opportunity for us to really take advantage of that little extra dose when we can. >> it is truly the elixir of

life. dr. ester choo, thank you so much. >> thank you brianna. next, another 885,000 people filing for unemployment last week, as congress continues to bicker over the covid relief bill. the size of stimulus checks seems to be the main sticking point right now. i'll speak live with senator tammy duckworth. a stay-at-home order is about to take effect in the san francisco bay area. and another senator refuses to admit that joe biden is the president-elect, nine times in a news conference. h tums chewy bi. beat heartburn fast tums chewy bites tired of daily insulin injections?

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the u.s. today hit another grim milestone, more than 17 million coronavirus cases as deaths, infections, hospitalizations have set new records. just five days ago we reached 16 million cases. that's 1 million new cases in less than a week. our reporters here in the u.s. and around the world have more on the pandemic's impact. i'm dan simon in san francisco, california. hospitalization and icu bets also at record levels. that's why the san francisco bay area, the entire region is under a stay-at-home order, because icu available has gotten below 15%. we are at ucsf where they're administration the pfizer vaccine, about a thousand doses

so far to frontline workers. it is an exciting day here in phoenix as hundreds of arizona's first responders gets their first enjection. i spoke to one firefighter who set he's getting the vaccination to help himself, his family and those he serves. he wants folks to trust the science. i'm melissa bell in paris. the french president has tested positive for covid-19 after beginning to display symptoms. he will be isolating the next seven days, and his wife isolating as well, though she does not have any symptoms, we're told. as for people he's come into contact with, the list is long.

and they will be cancelling a number of visits, and all of france's ministers who met with the president on wednesday will not have to be isolating. they are not contact cases, because social distancing was observed. >> next, every top republican senator has said it's time to acknowledge joe biden will be the next president. that message hasn't made it to one georgia senator in a critical runoff election. you have to see kelly loeffler's master class in -- when you shop with wayfair, you spend less and

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dodge, deny, deflect. it's what we've seen many republicans do since the reality of the trump loss has become a debate. where kelly loeffler is fighting to save her seat, it's a strategy. he deflected or just outright ignored several direct questions about the results of the eek, she did this not one, not twice, but nine times. >> reporter: senator, do you plan to join with members of the house to joe biden's electors --

>> january 6th is a long way off. the future of the. >> reporter: so you haven't decided on that? >> look, i haven't looked at it. january 6th is a long way off. >> reporter: northerly mcconnell has called to congratulate president-elect biden. is that something you've done? >> i'm focused on winning this race on january 5th. i talked too leader mcconnell this morning. we're focused on delivers relief. >> reporter: do you acknowledge that biden will be president? is. >> look, the president has a right to every legal resource. that's what's playing out right now. >> reporter: but have you acknowledged that biden is going to be president? >> look. my focus is on winning this race right now. >> reporter: have you ever acknowledged that biden will be president? >> there will be a time for that if it becomes true, but the president has a right to every legal resource. >> reporter: any concern at all if you don't acknowledge that

biden will be the president-elect, that the might lose some voters in the runoff? >> look, my focus right no is my race. it has to be. the american dream is on the ballot. >> reporter: are you worried that that stance mike backfire, as you were contending to be elected? >> i'm worried that we have free and fair elections that are trusted here in georgia. >> reporter: senator mcconnell has okay knowledged joe biden as the president-elect. you said you had a conversation with him this morning. was that a -- >> i'm the voice for georgians, and georgians want to know they have free and fair elections. that's what i'm fighting for. >> let's talk about this with s.e. cupp. it is stunning to watch that. i just wonder what you think. it seems like one of the compelling reasons that senator loeffler would have to tell people that they should elect her is to say, which is true,

joe biden's going to be the next president and i should be there to counter him. that is what she could be telling republican voters. >> sure. it's hard not to do the ed voice, nine times, but under the circumstances canny and dumbfounding to watch her. to you and i, and a lot of people, she sounds delusional. if you knew someone that refuses to acknowledge reality, you might be concerned for them, but putting her in context in her state, she's going on campaign stops for her reelection for runoff. she's being bombarded by trump supporters, who actually don't think she's gone far enough in her support of the president's, you know, fake legal challenges to losing his election. they want her to go farther in promoting that baseless lie.

if she wants to get reelected, she has to act like a lunatic to please trump and the rest of her supporters. >> she did look uncomfortable, which i imagine it would be. it looked like she knew what reality was, because she just wasn't going to say. she also left open the possibility she may object to the electoral college decision. is that something that's gone too far? >> it's mind blowing, and i think it's a huge slap in the face for georgia voters. think rafael warnock made this point. georgia voted. if you want their votes for you, you should be encouraging that instead of saying, well, that election was fraudulent. i'm going to oppose it in congress, but i'm going to trust that your vote for me will be fair and free and this election will be sound.

it makes no sentence strategically. it's nonsense. if i were a georgia voter, i would be pretty offended. >> the longtime republican mayor of dodge city, kansas, who recently left the republican party just resigned after receiving threats for publicly supporting a mask mandate. you have new cases that hit an all-time high in this country. why does this continue to be so political when we are confronted with in undenial death toll? >> it's political, and it's also, i should point out, sexist. i looked bag at a lot of 9 resignations, people put it around 70 resignationings of public health officials. they're not famous, high-paid people. these are county health directors. the majority of the ones who have resigned because of

threats, are women. they've been subjected to sexist attacks, being stalked, their kids being used. it's unfortunate and gross. this is a time when you want people in those jobs who know what they're doing and are not going to bow to political pressures or vigilanteism. we get attacks, but that should not come with those jobs. those jobs should be protected from that kind of vigilante mob justice. unfortunately we're seeing too many, too many recent ig nations of good, qualified women in public health. >> thank you for highlighting that, s.e. always good to talk with you. >> thanks. next, the senate majority leader says congress may have to work through the weekend to get a covid relief bill passed. i'm going to speak with senator duckworth about what the holdup is. ♪

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lawmakers are closing in on a second economic relief package after months of negotiations. we will, though, have to wait a few more days before a deal is finalized. here's the latest from the senate majority leader. >> for the information of all senators, we're going to stay right here, right here, until we are finished, even if that means working through the weekend, which is highly likely. if we need to further extend the friday funding deadline, i hope we'll extend it for a very, very short, short window of time. northerly mcconnell is referring to the friday shutdown deadline. i'm joined by senator duck complain wor

worth. are you confident that congress will avert a shutdown and there will be a small stopgap measure passed? >> i don't intend on stopping working until we have a stimulus deal. i also think that some sort of deal to respond to covid is also vitally important. i don't intend to stop working or celebrate christmas until we get this deal done. >> it looks like democrats have dropped state and local aid, which was a point of contention with republicans, but there is unemployment, there are stimulus checks for americans, there is assistance for small business. is it enough for what americans really need right now? >> well, it's not enough, but it

is better than nothing. so right now i think the goated number is around $600. we'll still discussing who gets those checks. also talking about some moan that democrats would like to put in there, about 40 million to go to states for distribution. there's some questions about that. i think some of the republicans don't support that. i do think we need to provide funding for our state governments, especially when it comes to pandemic response. so we will continue to negotiate and keep working on it. >> do you think there will be another similar rescue bill shortly before president-elect biden becomes president biden? >> i will push hard for another rescue bill. we desperately need to send money to state and local governments. i just got off a call with a half dozen of my mayors in

illinois they all said the same thing, we are now lays off first responders or not able to hire new first responders. we're at that point. if you don't spend money to help us, because we have lost tax revenue, we will not be able to provide something as bake as public health and safety. that's one thing i will be pushing very hard on with the biden administration. >> you are, of course, a combat veteran, a purple heart recipient. president trump tweeted again today he will veto the national defense authorization act, which is a critical military spending bill. what plans does the senate have to override that possible veto? >> we have enough votes to override that veto. it passed the senate by 80 vote or something, so we have enough to overvie the veto. it's shameful he would vote against or troops, that he would

veto a pay raise for our troops. there's funding in that bill for training, for equipment, for taking carry of military families. he is connecting he personal vendetta against social media companies to this budget. so we'll come back and override it. i'm not going to celebrate christmas until we get our job done here in washington. >> federal agencies revealed they were hacked and that it is, they believe, by russia, but at this point we haven't heard from the president. what's your reaction to that? i'm not surprised. we should. he's never called out russia or vladimir putin for their bad actions, and i'm not surprised. i can't believe in all the tweeting he's done, he has not

tweeted at least the very least of this condemnation it's basically cyberwar fare against multiple agencies. everything from healthcare to national defense. it's not surprising, but, you know, it's really sad that our president still, to this day won't stand up to the russians. >> i wanted to ask you about something that democratic congresswoman alexandria ocasio-cortez said. she had the democratic party needs new leadership. she also said there's been a failure to groom new democratic leaders, i think specifically she was also talking about the house, but to get rid of some of the democratic leaders that that would create a vacuum. so it's set up as a situation where it can't be done, but she says there should be new leadership. what do you think about what she said?

>> well, i think the democratic party is a large umbrella, and we welcome automatic voices and all diversity. i think that's the strength of the democratic party. i know, for example, i've been able to participate in the democratic party on everything from policy issues to helping pass legislation, even in a trump administration. i'm very comfortable with where we can come together and work together. that's my focus, to come together as a party to work for the american people. we still have to pass another stimulus bill. we still have to get our kids back in school safely. we have to get more vaccine, more vials of vaccine so that americans can get vaccinated. we have a lot of work in front of us. i would rather focus on that before we start sort of soul-searching for the democratic party. let's talk about the american people and what working families need first. >> do you want to see more young democratic talent groomed? >> well, there's a lot of

democratic talent out there. a lot of it is being groomed, but i will tell what you we need is a diversity of voices. folks from the middle of the country, the industrial midwest to talk about what the people in our country need, the desperation that exists among our farming families, desperation among places that used to have manufacturing that's now left. i do think we have those voices that are emerging within the party, but again, the first priority for me is let's get this covid response package passed, let's pass a defense budget. let's get back to work and get the american people the help they need. >> senator, thank you so much for being with us. we're looking to see what congress can achieve here in the coming days. >> thank you. >> senator tammy duckworth with us here. and next, a widespread and

and now one of the president trump's own former advisers is urging him to take action. plus vladimir putin responds to a cnn investigation about the poisoning of an opposition leader, by saying if he wanted the man dead, russia would have finished the job. at dell technologies, we started by making the cloud easier to manage. 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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at walmart. a massive cyberattack on the american government is affecting at least three major u.s. agencies, and the top suspect in this sophisticated large-scale hacking is russia. cnn has confirmed that systems belonging to the departments of agriculture, homeland security and commerce were all

compromised. "the washington post" reporting that the treasury department was also very impacted. president trump's former homeland security adviser tom bossert says the number of organizations that downloaded the corrupted update could be as many as 18,000 which includes most federal government unclassified networks and more than 425 fortune 500 companies. the magnitude of this ongoing attack is hard to overstate. bossert headed the trump administration's cybersecurity efforts before he was pushed out in april of 2018. i want to bring in cnn's senior national security alex marquardt to talk about this. alex, when you see it put into that context it is crazy. so how did this happen, and what's being done about it? >> you called it a sophisticated attack and that's right. this was extraordinarily sophisticated, and it was based on trusted software that is widely used, as you saw in that

bossert quote, by both the federal government and the private sector. the intruders didn't break in so much as they slipped in. they used a software update to get in, and now the question is, can you fix this? the first thing the cyberagency cisa said is take this offline. they're going to figure out to what extent this breach was -- allowed the intruders to get access to valuable information. and that could take a very long time. it could take months, more than a year. we may not know the full extent. that's how sophisticated it is but this was an ongoing attack. the government has said that. the russians are still inside these government systems. just a short time ago, we got another alarming alert from that cyberagency cisa. they said that removing the threat actor from compromised environments will be highly complex and challenging for

organizations. they also went on to say that there are ways that these actors got in that have not yet been revealed. tactics that have not yet been revealed. and that speaks to the complexity and the ongoing nature of this attack by, as you say, actors that are suspected from coming from russia. >> alex marquardt, thank you for your report. after days of silence, russian president vladimir putin is responding today to an exclusive investigation by cnn and bellingcat into last summer's poisoning of russian opposition leader alexey navalny. it uncovered evidence that an elite russian intelligence team specializing in nerve agents trailed navalny for years. putin today claimed if russian special services had wanted to kill the opposition leader, they would have, quote, finished it. >> in this case, of course, the special services should keep an eye on him. but it doesn't mean that he needs to be posseisoned.

if they wanted to, they probably would have followed it through. >> all right. joining me is cnn's chief international correspondent clarissa ward. it was an extraordinary response from vladimir putin. tell us more about how he and other key russian officials are responding to this exclusive reporting. >> well, first of all, it's important to point out that there was absolutely no response for almost 36 hours, and then finally today, we hear from the president himself. and essentially he's not really denying the core facts of our story. he's not denying that an elite team of fsb operative was trailing navalny's move, every single move for more than 30 trips over three years. the excuse he gave for that is the key. he said navalny was working with u.s. intelligence services and that because he was working with u.s. intelligence services, it would be reasonable for russian intelligence services to follow

him. but he stopped short of agreeing to admit that they had anything to do with the poisoning. as you said, you played that sound from him yourself. if we wanted to finish it or if they wanted to finish it they would have followed through. ie., alexey navalny would be dead. what's important to remember, if that pilot on that flight to moscow had not diverted to omsk, had continued to fly another three hours with navalny on board who at that time was extremely sick, almost every expert we've spoken to has said the same thing. alexey navalny would, in fact, be dead. one other interesting detail that also i found quite chilling just listening to president putin talking about navalny. he never calls him by his name. never. will only refer to him as the patient in berlin, referring to the fact, of course, he went for medical treatment after he was poisoned to berlin. and that, i think, gives you a sense of just how much of a threat he sees navalny as.

of course, on the major allegation of our piece, there was no real answer. and that is not just that he was being followed by a bunch of fsb operatives but that those fsb operatives were experts in chemistry. they were medics, doctors and they were in regular contact with a laboratory here in moscow, the signal institute, that cnn and bellingcat have determined is developing novichok. no response to that. >> your report is fascinating just in how many dots you connect there. and i know you've been digging into this case involving alexey navalny for a while now. what are the biggest unanswered questions remaining at this point? >> i mean, the main question remaining is, is there definitive proof available that those fsb operatives who we can place at the scene of the crime actually were the ones to place the poison somehow on or into navalny's person. i'm determined we will find out,

breanna p. we' breanna. >> we'll be watching, clarissa. we've been talking about your exclusive reporting. it has been phenomenal. we thank you again for being with us to talk about it. clarissa ward. next, at the fda meets to authorize a second vaccine, a powerful winter storm hitting the northeast. details on whether it's impacting the delivery of any vaccine shipments that are already on the road.

hi there. you're watching cnn on this thursday. i'm brooke baldwin. thank you for being here. we begin with what could be another historical moment in the fight against this pandemic. the fda's vaccine advisory panel is meeting to discuss issuing emergency authorization for moderna's vaccine against covid-19. and a vote could come at any moment. now, if it is authorized, that means tens of millions of more vials would come into circulation and that would be a welcome relief to a country that's, frankly, spiraling out of control. think about it this way. when future generations learn about the deadliest days in american history, they will learn about the galveston hurricane in 1900. they'll learn about the civil war and the battle of antietam and they'll learn about yesterday when 3,656 americans died from coronavirus in a 24-hour period