scale. >> susan, would you agree at the direct order of putin? >> erin, it appears that way. and i would say that you know, vladimir putin, a former kgb lieutenant occcolonel, they are aware that other countries would have been aware. and that only russia uses this type of chemical weapon. it's something that the russian state had a hand in and the evidence is powerful that turned up in the investigation. >> all right, thank you so much, i appreciate your time. and also, appreciate all of yours for watching anderson is now. a second covid vaccine takes the last bigstep toward emergency approval. great news to be sure. but it comes in the end of another searing day in the middle of a nightmare. john berman in for anderson and

this nightmare is the kind in which screams go unheard, or unheeded by those that care. and it's a nightmare that did not need to happen. six months and one day ago, the self proclaimed effort against the outbreak said it would not happen. here is what ran under mike pence's name. the piece was outlined, there isn't a coronavirus second wave. yetting now, thanks to the leadership of president trump and the courage andcompassion of the american people, our public health system is far stronger than it was four months ago and we are winning the fight against the invisible enemy. that is 190,000 american deaths

ago. nearly 2900 ethdeaths reported t so is far tonight, on top of the 3600 last night. nearly quarter million new cases in a record number of people hospitalized. no mention of any of that for the man whose name is on the op-ed, we will have the inside story of it shortly, by the way. and no mention either by the president. not a peep. nothing acknowledging that california today reported the highest number of covid fatalities ever, 379 in a single day, and by contrast, just 634 south koreans have died in the entire pandemic. not one word about that. or the fact that icu availability in california is at zero %, no capacity at all. nothing from the president either about florida, his intended new home, reporting 13,000 new cases today, the most since july. no word from the president on that or even a had hint of

encouragement for all the people who were working so hard to save lives, including his own. being surrounded by death, everier day, in the critical care units in a way that we had not previously experienced, and having patients so isolated from family members, and often with the nursing staff being the only bridge between a dying patient and their family in the outside world put tremendous stresses on all levels of care providers. i'm very worried we are going to have a pro long althoughed tale here of a lot of providers flat out leaving the profession. >> it's a terrifying prospect. if the president cares a bit about it, we are not aware on it. what we know he is big on projection, falsely accusing others of his own bad deed. that and telegraphing his next move. shortly before going radio silent before covid, he was saying this this. >> covid, covid, covid, covid,

by the wha, on november 4th, you won't hear about it anymore. you turn on the news, covid, cohave you had, covid, we like to talk about covid, it's covid, covid, covid no matter what happens. that's all i hear, on television. covid, covid, covid, a plane goes down, 500 people dead, they don't talk about it. i guarantee you this, on november 4th, you will not be hearing as much about this. here's what happens, november 4th, you won't hear too much about it. you won't hear too much about it. >> you won't hear about it anymore, he said and he was right. we have not heart squat from him, which is too bad, it's not even that hard to do the right thing. just ask chris christie who was infected with krcoronavirus and picked up a bit of per speckty. ? lying in isolation in the icu, i

thought about how wrong i was to remove my mask that day at the white house and how wrong it is to divide us. now that we know that you are twice as likely to get covid-19 if you do not wear a mask. if you don't do the right thing, we could all end up on the wrong side of history. please, wear a mask. >> more from jim acosta, jim, we have not seen the president today and on twitter his preferred method of communication, he only mentioned the vaccine in a stock market and stimulus tweet. do we know what he did today? >> you know how it is with short timers they take a long lunch, and take off early. he has turned that in to the an art form. he the did it today. he was in the oval office for a bill signing. cameras and media was not allowed in. he does not want to take questions about how he lost the election and bogus election

challenges. he was apparently briefed on the suspected russian cyber hacking of the u.s. government, although the president has not come out and weighed in and condemned vladimir put inand the russians for being behind the attack. so, it's the song remaining the same over here at the white house, john. in many ways, this is a nation without a president today. because the president did not use the bully pulpit to show any sympathy for the thousands of people who lost their lives from the coronavirus and are going to continue to use it from the coronavirus in from here forward. >> president elect biden on could get it as early as next week. and we don't know whenner or if president trump will get it. what's the reasoning behind that? >> yeah, john, in a way, vice president pence has taken on the role of the president from a bully pulpit perspective. he is going to be out in front of the cameras tomorrow morning

at around 8:00 a.m., he is going to get the coronavirus vaccine, they have made it clear that he wants to do it to show the american people that they can have confidence in the vaccine. vice president biden who is going to bepresident biden is doing it for the same reason. they will only say that president trump is still enjoying the benefits of the treatments he has received from the treatment given when he the virus. we are receiving no guidance about it and we are not being able to ask minimum the question. we know all too wil, if he gets out there and said, i will take the coronavirus vaccine, that will go a long way in instilling confidence in millions his supporters that it is okay to be vaccinated. he is just not doing that at this point. just in the same way he is not leading on russia. john, it has been one of the confounding things we have seen throughout the presidency. one of the through lines of the presidency.

how he has been at times anti-science and pro russia. >> gkeep pushing, stay safe. >> you bet. >> more about the "wall street journal" op-ed, published under pence's name saying there will be no second wave, we know it was false assurance and our next guest had her own objections before it ran. olivia troy served as covid tskk force adviser, and has left the administration and broken with it publically. we are happy to have her tonight. i know you were against the op-ed being publish readare -- published, do you know where it originated? >> i do not know where it originated but i first got word of it from the chief of staff. he informed our speech writer

and myself that we needed to work on it together and the way it works is usually with remarks or things like this, is take the lead on drafting and they will run it by the adviser and that was me at the time. and we were forced to take on this impossible task knowing that the data and the science and what the experts on the task force, you know, i ran it by about dr. birx and it was not there. >> mark short is known to be skeptical of kroen from tcoronc the beginning. how involved was the vice president in putting it together? >> from my recollection, yeah, i don't know what conversations mark short had with the vice president directly, i was not in the room for that discussion. if i had been i personally would have told the vice president myself that it was a bad idea.

and that it with would, you know, follow him for a very long time because this was the -- the facts were not there had and i was known for briefing him and sticking to the facts. so i don't know in the end, i do know that the vice president reviews things and remarks carefully as they go out. but i don't know what happened on the back end there. and i don't know if it was katie miller or mark short who made the final approval. >> after it was published what was the vice president's reaction? >> he was upset. he was upset at the headline on it. and he was upset at thepublic back lash on it, but i don't know what else he would have expected. right? we knew it was -- well, those of us who were saying, this is ridiculous, including dr. birx, knew that this was going to be insane when we were watching case numbers spike and the following week i remember that vividly, the numbers soared in

the south. and that was really from what i recall the turning point for the messaging and everything where h there was afull on, full-court press for people to open up. see the white house pressuring governors and the president getting on calls saying you have though get in li -- you have to get in line. you have to get in line on this, you have to back this. it's about the economy, we have the election coming up. >> that was 190,000 deaths ago when that op-ed was published. so, looking back on what's happened since then, olivia, and to an extent how the administration has walked away from even talking about the deaths, how does it make you feel tonight? >> you know, i grieve every day for what is happening in the country and how much hurt is happening.

i ka carry thcarry that with me back to every moment on the task force and a lot of really hard situations that happen behind the scenes and it is infuriating to me and it's devastating to me had that these people don't care. and you know, they have never cared, some of the people never took it seriously and they never thought the it was real and their behavior was kcavalier, which made it impossible for those of us like experts that were trying to actively do the right thing but it was impossible given the fact that it was a white houses that was never going to accept and take it seriously because they knew they were on the losing end on it, and it's tragic. >> do you put mike pence in that group of people, i mean, did he review this piece before it was published? what responsibility does he have for that message? >> you know, you can't be the head of the coronavirus task force, and especially more

recently. i have been appauled with his behavior with staff being infected and outbreaks with the events and holiday parties. i don't know how you can morally hook yourself in the mirror and say, this is okay. but, i, at the end of the day, i know who his boss is, and i know that he has always catered to that fact and i know he is in a tough situation, but at some point, when people are dying, and you are responsible if for the protection of the country, you really have a responsibility to take a stand. >> olivia troy, we appreciate you being with usse entonight, k you. >> so as we report at the top, welcome news on moderna's covid vaccine. the fda independent adviser

voted for emergency authorization. and snags out of the rolls of the pfizer vaccine, states are saying they are told to expect fewer doses that were slated. no shipments pfizer said are delayed or on hold. here to talk about it, sanjay gupta and dr. celine gounder, and serves on president elect joe biden's coronavirus task force. now that the fda advisory committee has authorizationed the moderna vaccine, what comes next and what are the differences between the pfizer and moderna vaccines. >> yeah, well, first of all, in terms of the calendar, it's going to feel familiar, it should familiar to what we went through last week. we can put up the calendar, the advisory committee meeting that happened today, very significant. it's a recommendation that they

make to the fda for authorization. it could happen tonight, with pfizer it happened the next day. over the weekend, there will be will additional committee meetings involving the cdc, that is the who, what, when, trying figure out how the moderna vaccine will roll out. we have a good idea of who they prioritize, the cdc for vaccine. and when you put it all together, the distribution and everything. you know, next week, john, monday, tuesday, kind of like we saw with the pfizerer vaccine, we could start to see people getting vaccinated again. so, it should happen fairly quickly and my understanding is there's between 5-6 million doses of the moderna vaccine available. >> really asounding that people can receive it as soon as next week. their vaccine, they said, involves no mixing or diluting. does that mean we will not get the extra benefit that we will not get extra doses per vial?

>> no, it's unlikely that the moderna vaccine will have the extra doses. what has happened with the pfizer vaccine, this is part of the fill and finish process. often times they put extra in the vial to account for what is lost as you draw it in the syringe and spillage and that extra was a fair enough, enough to make one or two extra doses. but the moderna vaccine is not being diluted by that. you may have a little extra fluid but unlikely to get extra doses from it. >> as i mentioned, twenty members voted in favor, one voted abstained, it's an education, the days where the panel looks at it. what were the concerns behind the abstintion? >> well, i think there were concerns around whether we needed to be collecting additional data and the form of the authorization that was

granted and you know, there's the emergency use authorization, which is how these vaccines are being granted authorization to. you have a full fda approval, and honestly, from my perspective, i think it's completely legitimate to offer emergency use authorization understanding that we will continue to collect data on both of these vaccines, as well as any other vaccines granted emergency use authorization to make sure that we continue to evaluate that they are safe and effective and eventually that data would be submitted to the fda, to get full approval down the line. >> so, sanjay, we promisedpare e transparency, and full perspective on it. so, in that vein, we learn today that four people in moderna's trial, developed a neuro muscular disease, again, these

are tiny numbers of people so that transparent part perspective. what does it mean to you? >> well, you know, one way that i think about these things. i think when you hear about the side effects, so bells palsy, i ask about what the background incidents are they, how often does it occur outside of a vaccine tile and the answer is somewhere between 15 and 20 for every 100,000 people. so you had 4 people out of 44,000, three of them were in the vaccinated group, and one in the placebo group. the overall incidence is not out of the norm. it does not seem to be a huge concern, but we should continue to look at that, and you know, ask part of the emergency use

authorizations as dr. gounder knows better than anybody. they have a vaccine adverse event reporting system, vaers system, which, which means that people will report these adverse events and maybe we will have more clarity on it. i have to tell you, looking at that and looking at theal al aa allergies, but it's not that worrisome. >> you are nodding in agreement. >> yes, these things happen from other causes. so, you have to compare the rates against what is common, what is normal in the general population. and so, what we are seeing is, it's kind of what you would expect. it would be like saying, well, somebody got vaccinated and then had a heart attack. well, some people are going to have heart attacks. so, just because the vaccination proceeded the heart attack, doesn't mean it's causation, it

goes back to the of course presentation, correlation is not causation, it's more than that. there's no causation. >> in terms of the pfizer vaccine, we are hearing from officials in iowa, illinois, and others that are told that they will receive is fewer doses than originally planned for, do you know why this is happening? what do you make of it? >> well, i do know in certain parts of the country, where i am in new york city, we are being hit by a pretty bad snow storm, and so that could get in the way of u.p.s. and fedex deliveries, they are two of the major transport ers of the vaccine in the moment. and i think it's bigger than that, and you know, it's not just about discovering a vac, they need to the distribute the vaccine and there's a lot of moving parts in it and there's many places where things could have gone wrong along the way.

>> our thanks to both of you, appreciate seeing you, we will see you tomorrow morning. there's breaking news tonight on the president elect's growing and history making cabinet. we are now with the latest on two more picks. jeff, what can you tell us? >> john, we are learning tonight as president elect biden continues filling the cabinet, there's two more history making picks. first the interior secretary. he is tapping new mexico congress woman db holland, she'd be the first native american to serve as a cabinet secretary if confirmed in a president's cabinet. but it's not any particular cabinet, this is the interior department. and of course, the long history with the interior department and native american lands across the country make it a interesting pick indeed. yes, this is somebody that will take away from the democratic majority in the house, but speaker nancy pelosi gave the

biden transition team the blessing. and now the democratic majority will be down to three votes. also, the head of the epa, michael reagen from north carolina, he heads the north carolina department of environmental quality. he will be the firsts african-american man to lead the epa, he will be had tasked with uncan doing a lot of what the trump administration, and both of the members of the cabinet are central players in the climate team that will be unveiled here in wilmington on saturday. these are two of the latest in a series of firsts. the first woman treasury secretary, janet yellen and lloyd austin, the first african-american there. the list goes on. this is most of cabinet and still key positions, supposed to be done by christmas. we will see. >> yeah. the keyest of the key positions, though that is not english, is attorney general. we could don't know yet who the pick will be, but we do know the top two contenders. what have you learned.

>> we do, john, and those, really, all eyes are on the attorney general position, who will lead the department of justice in the post trump era and we are told from a variety of sources that two of the leading contenders tonight are judge merit garland, you had will remember him, he was nominated by president obama to serve on the supreme court. he was blocked by senate republicans, mitch mcconnell in particular. he is being described by allies as somebody politically independent. he can rise above politics here, once source described him to me ask a boy scout. somebody who could answer all of the questions, and there's alabama senator douging jones, he is close to mr. biden has a long civil rights record as well. those are two of the main contenders, john, we are told the position will be announced next week and that of course is up to mr. biden to make the timing and the decision. >> stick around, i want to bring in cnn political commentator,

bicari sellers and senior political reporter, there's been gr grumbeling about some of president elect biden's cabinet choices. as we look at it now, it's a diverse group. very diverse group. which is what he pledged. so, what do you make of the choices? >> it's true in terms of racial diverse is i diversity, it's a diverse group, there were grumbelings early on about the initial roll-outs they did not seem that diverse, you heard pressure from several rights groups and jim clyburn ask well who were pushing him to make good on the promise. there was questions on ideological picks. i know the interior secretary

pick, people are liking that, that is the pick they wanted to see. so, we will is have to see, he has other picks to make, as you said, education to make, department of labor. so we will see how he rounds it out and whether or not the progressives who still have some complaining i think to do, and want some of the picks in the other cabinet positions, they want to see them get jobs as well. >> progressives are gushing about deb are ra h-- debra holl. joe biden owes the only nation, he would admit that to his group. he said in one of his many victory speeches, you have always had my back, i will have yours. now, as the cabinet is filled out. you have the first african-american nominees named.

is he proving that he has the backs of african-americans at least with the cabinet selections? >> i mean, look, you can't say that he is not doing what he promised he would do. i mean, michael regan at epa, marsha fudge at hud, general austin, secretary of defense and i will be completely honest. deb holland, i don't know if we are giving her the respect due. that's a b -- it's a huge deal to have the first native american person to be a part of a cabinet at the department of interior is huge. we cannot under score that, i have spoken to a lot of friends, ryan ramirez, keith harper the former u.n. ambassador to the human rights council who are lum narr luminaries in the native american council. this is a big deal, and for him to make the pick looms large. it took pressure, as neil was

saying, it takes pressure, that is why you have the groups. it's why you have the individuals pushing the cdc, the legacy civil rights organizations, everyone is applying the pressure. the respective cauticus can -- caucuses and that is what you do. he has put justice in the forefront. with the native american puick t the department of the interior and this is all you can ask for. we will wait and see what happens with the department of education and department of justice where the civil rights departments have gbeen gutted, p to this point, he has done everything that he promised he would do, you have to be proud about the moment we are in. >> lightning round, lloyd austin, having complications with the waivers because he is only four years retired from the military. what does that stand?

>> john, bottom line is, it would be surprising by everyone if he were not confirmed at the end of the day. yes, there's discussions about is he, has he been in the civilian sector long enough. the law is seven years. he has been out for four years, and he has been talking to dozens of members of congress, already, will be talking to more. that is a historic pick leading a diverse military. i would be surprised if he was not pucked. >> and pete buttigieg, it's a cabinet position and it's historic. he would be the first senate confirmed gay man to serve in the cabinet, what do you make of it? >> yeah, it's a big job for him, some people thought listen, maybe he would go to the u.n. maybe he would even be secretary of defense. some people thought of the ambassador to china, he landed here, it is a big job. and again, it's history. and we saw him obviously make history in his run in really

impress biden world with the things he was able to do in pitching the biden presidency all over the country. so, yeah, this is, this is a good move for pete buttigieg, who has national aspirations and presidential aspir a ations, two white men leading the -- where does it land to you? >> this is a sobering reality, no, i think doug jones stands head and shoulders above everyone else. he is the united states attorney, prosecuting the case against the 16 street church bombers. doug jones, being a u.s. senator, mayor garland, is great where he is. he should remain there. it's going to be hard to replace him there. i think this is doug jones opportunity to be attorney general and i think that doug jones thinks that justice is a

verb. i think he -- >> we have breaking news on something that at the trump has jet to say anything about. later, accusations that the government of florida republican governor ron desantis down played coronavirus numbers in the state as desantis tried to help president trump get personalized wealth planni at fidelity, you get personalized wealth planning

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more breaking news, president trump has been briefed on the suspected russian hack, on some of the highest levels of government agencies, as well as private companies we are learning now. and we are learning more about the hour about the breadth of the huge attack in the last few minutes. microsoft said they found 40 organizations around the world that were targeted and 80 were in the united states. they are saying that a certainty of the number of locations will only grow. the administration's former cybersecurity expert said at the worst possible time when the

u.s. is the most vulnerable in a presidential transition in a devastating public health crisis. the networks of the federal government are compromised. sources now say it includes the state department, certifies it was so insidious that mitt romney went out of his way today to asail both the country's cyber defenses. >> they had the capacity to show that our defense is extraordinarily inadequate. that our cyber warfare readiness is extraordinarily weak. that they think so hill of our ability to fight back from a cyber standpoint, that they do this with impunity, and so, our national, national security is extraordinarily vulnerable. and in this setting, not to have the white house aggressively speaking out and protesting and

taking a punative issue isly really quite extraordinary. >> joining me is jim hines, has been briefed on what is known so far, congressman, you were part of the briefing today. i know you cannot go in to it in too much detail, but can you tell us about the size and scope of this apparent russian hack? >> well, it's enormous. and it was very cleverley done. in the sense that it would appear that the people who did this, and the government is not yet prepared to make a formal at contribution, but the people that did it got in an american soft mare maker, solar wind and changed the code, the reason it's a big the deal. the government is good at seeing stuff that comes across the border. but this originated a u.s. company and infected the world through u.s. ip addresses and

boy, do we have a lot to learn about that. we don't know the extent of the damage. we still don't have a good sense of whether lots of data was taken out. we know however this infection was really very pervasive, will be global and we know, and i agree with senator romney on this, that if we don't take a very strong and clear stance and retaliate, and i mean retaliate in terms of cost to us, whoever pulled this off will do it again. >> so, you heard, part of what senator romney said there. and he mentioned that quote, a cyber hack of this nature is really the modern equivalent of almost russian bombers flying undetected over the entire country. so, you know, as we sit here tonight, how concerned should americans be about the skaurtec of our nation's most sensitive information? >> they should be concerned and we should be concerned and we

should not panic. gun, we know that this exploit got in to a lot of computer systems. what we don't know is what it was capable of doing. was it capable of exfiltreating, data, as we say, was it capable of damaging the networks. we don't have answers to that question. so, one way to think about it is, the perpetrators of the hack got in to everybody's home. what we don't know is what they did once they were in that home. but, again, we need to learn that information. i was not entirely satisfied about what the government knows today about how intense and severe the hack was. and then once we understand that, who ever did this, we meade to exact a very significant cost from that group, so that it does not happen again. if you will recall the russians in 2016, that hack, you know,

the obama administration did not retaliate in a way that was enough c enough cost to prevent it again. >> i think that the last person russia wants to see in office is donald trump because nobody's been tougher on russia than i have ever ever. >> that's not what -- >> i don't care what anybody says. i have been tougher on russia than any president, ever. you can ask putin, nobody has been rougher on russia than donald trump. nobody has been tougher on russia than i have. with the sanctions and everything else. and i guarantee you that in closed doors putin says that to his people. there's nobody been tougher on russia than i have. by the way, nobody has been tougher on rushing than me with sanctions. nobody has been tougher on russia than donald trump.

>> he has not said a single thing about this suspected russian hack. so, how tough can you be if you remain completely silent. >> well, that is exactly right, and if it turns out that it's confirmed, that the russians were behind this, the fact that the president elect joe biden is talking about this hack, but the current president of the united states is not, if it turns out to be the russians that sends the same signal that is sent to the russians and john, you will remember this, that was couple of months ago when there was allegations that the russians may have been paying people in afghanistan to kill our troops. i don't remember donald trump saying anything about that. and that sends a very, very strong signal. that silence sends a strong signal to the russian leadership. >> a pleasure on to see you, thank you for being with us tonight. >> thank you, john. >> speaking of all things russian. president vladimir putin denied today that he or any other

agency under his control had mission to do with poisoning of the russian dissident, and they said, if somebody had wanted to poison him, they would have finished him off. this is after they said it was a shameless disinformation campaign, it was in response in reporting by clarissa ward, who uncovered the russia security service, the fsb followed nuvalany's moves for years. >> so, were you surprised that vladimir putin did not deny the facts of your reporting. he went so far as to admit that n had uva amp -- that he was be followed by russian agents and could have killed him if they wanted to? >> yes, it's not the first time that something embarrassing has been revealed, but it's the

first time that i can remember where the response of the kremlin has not been to say this is outrageous, this is nonsense, this is ridiculous. but, actually torks say, sure, why wouldn't we follow him? and the reason that president putin gave for following him or allowing fsb operatives on to follow him was saying that he was working with u.s. intelligence services. the question that he didn't answer though, or the allegation in our reporting that he did not speak to, is the crucial one, which is, that these were not just normal fsb operatives they were experts in poisons, chemical weapons they were in regular contact with a lab in moscow that is known to be producing the poison. that part of it, he stayed away from. >> so putin said if he really wanted to do this, they would have done it right and finished the job. but, we should point outthe pilot had not made an emergency landing. if navalny was not taken to icu, he would have been assassinated, the the kremlin have anything to

say about that? >> well, no, and we have spoken to a lot of experts, and they agree. navalny should be dead and there's two reasons he is not dead. one of them, as you point out, that plane was diverted to a different city. it was supposed to be flying for three more hours. the med had i cics on the tarma life saving antedote. >> they are blaming your reporting on u.s. intelligence. how typical is it for russia to say something to muddy the waters? >> that is typical, and particularly with navalny, they are trying to cultivate the narrative that he is not russian, he is in cahoots with

western intelligence sources and a stooge for the cia, what was telling in this putin will never say his name. he called him the patient. and another point, he called him the blogger. he will not say his name. he will not allow him to be a person and that one can only assume is because he views navalny as a legitimate threat. >> there's something pathological about that. any sense of how your reporting is being received and how this press conference is being received by the russian people? >> well, it's just extraordinary, honestly, it's been radio silence. there's not even been the usual propaganda campaign against us. it's just been no one talking about it. except for some independent journalists. there are quiet a few of them here, they are incredibly brave, the work they do. they can get itn a lot more trouble than we can for speaking

out. but everyone is trying to turn a blind eye to it. even president putin. he was almost dismissive of it. move on, if we wanted to kill him, he would be dead. >> i have to say, it's incredible reporting. it keeps going. thank you for the work you are doing and thanks for being with us tonight. >> thanks, john. >> a hot more to get to including a conversation with ohio governor mike dewine, a republican about his party's continued resistance to president elect biden's victory and the surprise news that some states will get less vaccine than originally thought this year and a investigation in to desantis down playing the pandemic and misreporting the number of the dead as the election neared. , even when you're not working, so you can go from saving... to living. ♪ let's go

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with joe biden and kamala harris taking office in a month's time. several republicans have not wrapped their arms around that. mitt romney has warned his counterparts to not interfere with the counting of the electoral results. some are pressing forward with complaints. these are remarks that were said yesterday. >> every one of them, told me that they felt they had been diss enfranchised, that their votes had not mattered and the election was rigged. these are normal, reasonable people. these are not crazy people. they are reasonable people and who by the way have been

involved in politics. they have won. they lost. they have seen it all. theses are normal folks looufing normal lives, who firmly believe that they have been disenfranchised. >> so, the kind of here to discuss ohio republican governor mike dewine who last month due the ire of the president because he it the temerity to discuss joe biden as president-elect. we appreciate your time. i know you're working on all kinds of things. josh hawley uses this circular logic. he says there are so many people, so many republican voters who say that they think there was fraud. it's because people like josh hawley and president trump are out there screaming from the rooftops every day that there was widespread fraud. yet in the courtroom they haven't presented any kind of evidence that's been convincing in any way. so what's the takeaway? >> well, john, i've said all through this that i think we should trust our systems, we

should trust our judicial system. the president had every right to go into court, his campaign had every right to go into court. courts do a good job discerning what the facts are and what the law is. the same way we should trust our election system. and i think what should come out of this is people should say look, this works, the system has worked. we have acrimonious campaigns. we've had them in the past. we'll have them in the future. but in the end americans do this pretty well. we've done it for a long time. we know how to have a peaceful transfer of power. we know how to accept elections and get ready to go fight again. that's what you do when you lose an election. i've lost a couple myself. so i think rather than, you know, worrying about the system, the system has worked. and it's worked very well this time. it works well. you know, there's flaws, there's mistakes, there's things that happen. but by and large we do it pretty well in this country and we

should accept that and be glad about it. >> what have the courts and the system said, just to be clear? >> well, you saw the -- look, courts make decisions. i can't keep track of all the different decisions. but look, they have been reported and the supreme court finally, for all the people who thought that the trump appointees to the united states supreme court could not be trusted, and frankly we heard some of that, look, they made a decision. and they made a decision. they called balls and strikes. they do what judges do. they made a decision. so the system works. you know, i spend my day not worrying about that. i spend my day worrying about the coronavirus, which is spreading, you know, rapidly and in the state of ohio we've got in our hospitals 1/4 of every patient is a covid patient. 1/3 of every patient in the icu is a covid patient. and frankly, that's what my

focus is on every day. >> i want to ask you about ohio and coronavirus in just one second. but i just want to ask one last question about the republican party in general. mitt romney, senator romney, former governor romney, former presidential nominee mitt romney, was saying the republican party is different now than the republican party that nominated him to be president in 2012. how different is it, do you think? >> well, i don't know about that. i don't know what to make of that statement. what i see is at least in ohio but i think also across the country republicans are -- we're winning in blue-collar communities in ohio that ten years ago we didn't have any chance of winning. we would have laughed at the idea that we could have won in steubenville, ohio or that we could have won jefferson county, belmont county, the whole eastern side of the mahoning valley. we're winning in those areas. and not only did the president win but a lot of local

republican officials won. that's the positive. the negative is, you know, we're falling back in franklin county, columbus. we're falling back in some suburbs. so you know, we constantly, both parties, constantly try to -- >> i don't want to cut off but -- >> and meet people's needs -- >> i don't want to cut you off but i do want to talk about coronavirus. >> sure. >> we've heard reports that some states are now being told they wouldn't get the vaccines, as much of the pfizer vaccine as they expected. what are you hearing on that front? and just give me a sense of what you want people in ohio to know in this week before christmas. >> well, the good news is tomorrow morning 7:30 we start vaccinating people in nursing homes. thank god. this is where we've seen the biggest number of people who have died. we can't get them vaccinated fast enough. we started several days ago vaccinating people who are our frontline defenders. and so we're moving forward.

we've not heard any change in the amount from pfizer. they've delivered. in fact, they actually delivered more because we're getting it six and seven doses out of the five dose. so we're moving forward. >> good. governor dewine, thank you for being with us. we wish you the best of luck in these tough weeks dealing with the pandemic. the republican governor of another state won by president trump taking a different approach. ron desantis still intent on keeping as much of his state open as possible. that's despite reporting the most new cases today since july. as we mentioned earlier, that's more than 13,000. and tonight there are questions surrounding just how forthright his government has been with the state's coronavirus data. specifically deaths reported near election day. as the governor and trump loyalist tried to help secure the president's re-election. the details from cnn's senior investigative correspondent drew griffin. >> hey, ron, how are we doing? >> reporter: in the weeks surrounding the november 3rd election florida's department of health all but stopped reporting deaths that had taken place more than a month earlier, making

overall death numbers appear much lower. days after the election? the department went back to reporting those backlogged deaths as first reported by the "sun sentinel" newspaper. why? the state isn't saying. but cnn has interviewed more than a dozen state officials and experts and finds governor ron desantis's administration has sidelined health experts, promoted questionable science and left some county officials feeling muzzled from raising the alarm about rising cases. >> they are not necessarily at liberty to release all the information that they might want to release. >> reporter: dr. eileen marte, an infectious disease expert at florida international university, says the governor's approach to the virus has made it worse. >> it's counterproductive. >> is it also deadly? >> it leads people toward behavior that increases transmission. bottom line, it leads to more deaths. >> reporter: in recent weeks governor ron desantis has defiantly kept restaurants and

bars open, joined the maskless crowd tweeting this picture from a high school football game, and scoffed at the notion of more government-mandated shutdowns no matter how bad the virus. >> if they want to shut down businesses, i'm going to stand in the way. >> reporter: what he has rarely done is mentioned the 20,000 floridians who have died or the more than 1 million who've been infected. seemingly, say critics, to downplay the virus, keep florida's economy open in an effort to win an election for one person. >> we're with the governor of florida, ron desantis, who's done a spectacular job in florida. >> he's doing a miserable job when it comes to this issue here with coronavirus in the state of florida. and i'll tell him to his face. >> reporter: the governor's executive order has prevented county officials and mayors like carlos hernandez, the republican mayor of hialeah, from enforcing mask regulations or other restriction that's could have slowed the virus's spread. >> maybe he has a number in mind that it's okay for that amount of people to die or not.

i don't know. but i think there's a lot more we could be doing as a state. >> reporter: instead health experts like u.s.s. dr. marisa levine say desantis's administration controls the messaging about the response. >> all of those decisions are made in tallahassee, and i suspect at the governor's office. >> reporter: two department of health employees tell cnn in late september they were told to not focus on covid-19 in their public messaging. both workers, who asked not to be named, said they were afraid of being fired. "we are putting politics in front of lives," one said. and sure enough, the state's public messages about coronavirus almost entirely vanished. the florida department of health's website and social media accounts used to be filled with covid information and advice, but on september 25th, the day the governor signed his order that fully reopened florida, all of that changed overnight. the tweets and facebook posts suddenly were about infant hearing loss, carbon monoxide poisoning, and the flu shot. up until thursday the department of health's website was filled

with a weeks-old image promoting national diabetes awareness month, which was november. to find the latest news on covid-19 you need to click on a link. >> the governor made up his mind about what the right thing to do was, found people who supported that, and then went ahead. the problem is it was kind of an all or nothing and it undermined a lot of the local efforts. >> reporter: florida's governor's office and state health department refused to answer any questions. >> and drew griffin joins us now. drew, what's going on here just seems to be governor desantis, as president trump has done, treating a pandemic like a divisive political issue. >> reporter: no doubt, john. we talked to that one health official who said this is politics in front of lives. today, john, over 100 deaths recorded in florida. 13,000 new covid cases. that's the most daily case load they've had since july. the governor put out one tweet today. another one about high school football.

john? >> drew griffin, thank you very much. and just as we leave air this evening, some new numbers. 2,995 reported deaths so far tod today. another grim count that is sadly not over. the news continues. so let's hand it over to chris for "cuomo prime time." >> all right. thank you, john. appreciate it. i am chris cuomo and welcome to "prime time." we all know that we are under attack. and our president is absent at best and part of the problem in the main. we have cyber attacks from abroad, from russia, and they are being ignored. we have political broadsides from within that this president underscores. even the vaccine he celebrated, distribution is faltering and he is nowhere. cronies are doing more planning on how to make things worse than how to deliver the drug that can make things better. proof. >> listen to me now.