kind of result on january 5th. you have ivanka trump saying today that loeffler and perdue is doing everything they can. >> thank you so much for joining us tonight. "ac 360" starts now. this is not a drill. the president of the united states is weighing the kind of action you see in dictatorshipd. john berman here is in for the presiden anderson. tonight the evidence is growing that he is. another official told cnn today,

"no one is sure where this is hae headed." attorney sidney powell was at the white house, she was the theorist that was kicked off the president's election team after making allegations too wild for them. she wants the president to order the federal seizure of voting machines in swing states. so does the president's fired national security pardoned and admitted felon, michael flynn. here is what he told news max about the president's option. >> he can seize everyone sing se of these machines and he can order within the swing states if he wanted to. he can take military capabilities and basically rerun an election at each of those states. >> send in the troops, the

retired three-star general says and rerun the election at gunpoint. in the case if you are wondering if he's speaking hypothetically? he's not. it is all a bit much for another friend of the president. >> remember the thing that ronald reagan used to say. personnel is policy. the people that surrounds you and what they do will help determine policies. this is why michael flynn never belong near the white house and sidney powell. i have been talking about this since the transition of 2016. how dangerous i thought general flynn was. i sat in with him with security briefing with the then candidate donald trump and present donald trump. he's not fit to be giving advise to anyone.

>> he and powell were at the white house on friday. they were joined by patrick burns. he claims in his words funded a team of hackers and cyber slew. rudy giuliani attended the meeting by phone and spotted at the white house today. is there a drift between rudy giuliani and powell which makes the whole thing freakish. it is a cast of character that dismisses some kind of pathetic clown show. it is scary in an administration that tells us the president is

"obsessed" with scenarios for over turning the election. that includes naming sidney powell of some kind of special counsel. again, remember we are talking about the same sidney powell that the president and his legal team wanted nothing to do with a few weeks ago because she was seen as too extreme. now, in the president's eyes she's special councsel material. c cnn's evan perez asked william barr about this today. >> the idea of finding -- >> if i thought special counsel at this stage was the right tool was appropriate, i would name one but i have not and i am not going to. >> the country is safe until a

special counsel powell, that's until he leaves office two days from now. as for marshal law, the army chief of staff put out a joint statement, there is no role determining the outcome of the american election. welcome words until you consider this. jeremy diamond is joining us tu tonight. what are you hearing tonight? >> reporter: the president is no longer going through the motion processing and defeat. he's committed at this point trying to over turn the results of the election. there are little to no chance that he's going to be successful in those efforts but he's considering a range of options and the range from the kind of more sane legal challenges to delusional and unhinged efforts

to consider imposing marshal law in several key battleground states. the option floated by michael flynn, the president had been meeting with. you have to look at the different categories that the president is considering. he's considering some efforts that are more unhinged than put forward by the fringed elements of his political orb including flynn and powell. you have efforts by others who have been pushing back on those delusional efforts like the white house's chief of staff mark meadows and rudy giuliani. they are still supporting other efforts by the president to overturn the results of the election and one of those things was today, the president spending several hours meeting republican members of congress and mark meadows teweeted about this meeting. and so again it just kind of

depends what is your range of comfortablety with efforts to overturn the results of the election at this point. >> they can delay the vote on january 6th, there is no way they can stop it all together. just not going to happen. >> the president abandoned his day role at this point. the white house says he'll sign the coronavirus relief bill. what else is he trying to do besides trying to overturn the election? >> reporter: not much. it is all about certain to fail in congress overturning the results of the election. he spent several hours and we saw rudy giuliani coming to the white house and sidney powell coming to the white house. many of the president's meeting was focused on voter fraud. that's the president's single minded focus. the other issue is considering the pardons he's going to issue to his ally in the final weeks of his presidency. one thing that's clear and it is important to underscore this is

the change that we have heard from our sources over the last week in terms of the level of concern and alarm from people who are close to the president about the lengths which he appears to be taken this. the concern ant what the president is going to be doing with 30 days left in office. that's a lot of time. we have seen how much the president can do with a tweet and in a matter of moment. now we have 30 days remaining in his terms in office. >> jeremy, who knows what's going to happen tonight? thank you so much for being with us. >> adam schiff let impeachmed i against the president. he is what he is. there was a discussion inside the oval office. i take it from your statement of

the impeachment trial that you may not be surprised but how alarmed are you at this? >> this is the same situation that we all had with the trump presidency. this is who donald trump is. he would like to be an autocrat and staying in power by chaeatig or lying or stealing, he'll do il it. it is deeply damaging towards democracy. he's creating a permanent class of a grave american who thinks their election was stolen from them. he's going to go out of office the same way he came in like a wrecking ball destroying the foundation of our democracy.

>> what are the guard rails the next 30 days? >> i think we can expect the president is going to send in further madness as he sits the oval office and worrying about his own liability and financial debt and everything else. in terms of the guard rails, they're the same guard rails ultimately that we always had. the people of the government, will they stand up to him? some will and some have and all too many capitulated. these republicans went to the white house today among the most sycophants of the president. all of them doing damage to our democracy but i think there are enough good people in congress to stop any efforts to overturn the election. >> you had your own fair of issues with william barr.

what does it tell you we heard him talking to perez that he's not willing to sign on any of these crazy ideas. >> that's saying a lot. no one has politicized the office of attorney general. no one have broken the norms in that department more than bill barr. his tenure has been shameful but apparently there are lines that even bill barr won't cross. it is opportunizstic in the sene that he's leaving. good old barr, someone that's been carrying trump's dirty water for so long will not carry much more. >> the huge cyber attack on the u.s. government and multiple agencies, what's your reaction to the president not just down playing it but what he did and suggesting china may be behind

it instead of russia when even the secretary of state mike pompeo and william barr said it is mostly russia. >> first of all, it is bad enough that he's checked out of his office, that's the president not receiving his daily briefings and not really being brought up to speed on national security threats facing the country. that's bad enough but it is made worse when he deceives the country about this very serious hack in suggesting that it may have been the chinese, perfect echo of what he said four years ago of the russians interfering our election. he's letting putin and russia off the hook. he has done nothing of espionage or any malign conduct by russia. also when the president of the united states actively lie of something of this seriousness, it means that he's the president who cried wolf. china is a bad actor, and when

they do things they ought to be condemned. no one is going to believe donald trump because he was blaming china for something that was quite obvious that russia was behind. the president came into office running rhetorical interference for russia, and his office is doing the same. many chairm mr. chairman, do you have any explanation for why? >> well, i think there are a couple of plausible eck police station explanations. he's addi dictator and the othes financial reason. it may be a financial issue in the past but we are trying to get the deutsche bank's record to find out the case. when he tried the build it during the campaign and lied about it at that time was the most lucrative deal of his life. he still may want money and opportunity from putin. this is a president driven by nothing more than his desire for

more money. >> mr. chairman, his over effort of overturning the election, what's the danger of normalizing it and treating it as another entry on the trump's looper reel. >> it is dangerous. whether he runs again or does not, there is going to be someone running in the trump's lane, i don't care about the democracy lane. this president somehow made it normal and you can expect others to propose the same kind of cheating in elections and others trying to get foreign nations to help them cheat or electors or appeal to or partisan supreme cou

court. once it is set, it takes years and years and decades to obliterate that president. he's doing real harm and as i mentioned before, part of that harm is in creating this in groups of millions of americans who think they have their election stolen from them and won't accept the new administration the way they should. >> mr. chairman, thank you for being was. happy holidays and happy new year, sir. >> to you, too. stay healthy. >> next, it is all but impossible but to put it in some kind of perspective to talk about if anything can limit the damage the next 30 days could bring. later more from putin's remarkable story. see what happens when a poisoning victim dials his

alleged poisoner and gets one of them to talk. "anderson cooper 360" is brought to you by wonderful pistachios, no shells.

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looking at the white house, we are talking about the

president obsessed toover t ove the election. the leader of the free world is talking about or entertaining the idea of special counsel. sening in troops and imposing marshal law. such ideas never made it into the white house now for the last three out of four days, they have been there by invitation of the president. john dean and david gergen. >> you called what we have been seeing a bad nightmare playing out the president's fantasies. how concerned are you that this is gone beyond just make believe into reality? >> well, john, i don't think he can do anything that can indeed

fulfill his fantasies. i think he can wish and hope and some sort of psychological escape from his loss that he's grasping for. i don't think he can take it anywhere. i am stunned that the republicans have not braced him and told him enough is enough. he's still going on. i don't think it will go anywhere. >> what are the limits to these notions that are being discussed whether it is whether marshal law or seizing the voting machines or naming sidney powell as special counsel? >> the election is over. the electoral college has met. there is no avenue for the president to challenge this election anymore. whatever he's doing right now and whatever conversations he's having are just a distraction. they're not going to affect the outcome of the election. they're not going to change the fact that we'll be moving on

january 20th to a new administration. but, what it also is doing during this time is he's not doing the job as a president when there are important things going on right now, there is a national defense act that he should be signing that he's threatening to veto that's pending. that in collides all sorts of provision. and there are other things he should be doing but he's entertaining these conspiracy theories again. >> he could be doing something about the pandemic or addressing it in any way which he's not. david, you were there for nixon's final days. given the fact that you were there at that time, have you seen anything like what you are seeing now, so erratic? >> no, i never imagined that.

>> i never imagined that we would get to the point like this and here we are. i have a darker view i must say. it is bad enough -- joe bidwhate now is once again following the footsteps of a dangerous way and -- he's actually engaging in a power graph. that's what hitler did after he was elected. and now look at where it left the world. barr leaves office on wednesday.

he'll go along with these ideas appointing the special counsel or whatever it is and giving the near support that there is no moral view on the question of marshal law. you may see something like that. i don't think it is out of the question. when this woman, powell, at the white house the last four days presumably to see the president and -- you got to take it seriously. >> whether or not she got into the oval office, three out of the last four days she's been there and someone had her there to spew these bizarre thoughts that she has. john, to that point, what about this league of extraordinary

lo lunatics who's been signatuurro the president. sidney powell and michael flynn and steve bannon out there and not to mention rudy giuliani. what do you make of these people? >> certainly quite disappointing. it is going to haunt them for the rest of their lives. it seems to be a new norm of the republican party unfortunately. i think they're playing to the man who they are most attracted to and trying to puff his ego. i doubt it is working. and another time and another place, this would b be -- fortunately our supreme court talking of -- you need to

have violent behavior to implement it. that's what they like to do and i don't think as i said earlier they can get that far. >> rudy giuliani turned on sidney powell and mark meadows turned on flynn. there was a shouting match inside the white house where many argued against the martial law thing and there were other discussions to get to the special counsel idea and voting machines. you have been in the middle of all this for years, what's the rest of the world think about this when they see what's going on inside the white house? >> for four years especially our allies and intelligence partners around the world had been looking at this with a lot of concerns because there are

really important national security and alliances that we have and partnerships that we have. the entire trump presidency has been a period of uncertainty where our allies started to question those relationships. right now they are waiting for the next few weeks to past to see if they can resume a normal american presidency where there is truth that comes out of the white house where there is informed decision making where the president does not surround himself by conspiracy theorists. our allies and as well as americans right now as i do take some comfort in the fact that our military are not going to go along with these crazy ideas. it sounds as if there are individuals in the white house who have been spoupporters to t president and advising the president that's not going to go along with these crazy ideas.

does not mean we should look away or ignore them, he's the president after all. i think we are going to get to january 20th without these crazy ideas being implemented. that means that important things are not going to get done through leadership at the white hou house. >> 20 seconds or less. who do you see the responsibility to, who would you put your faith into keep this in line? >> mitch mcconnell and chief of staff of the white house. he's unfit for office right now. we should not put away on chance whether the next 30 days he's going to do something crazy.

people need to stand up to him now. >> if you are counting on mark meadows, that may be misplaced. he was bragging of holding this meeting with house members to object to the electoral count on january 6th moments ago. john dean and david gergen and karen cordero. thank you. more on coronavirus cases and growing concern of this new variant of coronavirus emerging in britain. that's next. 'tis the season to save a bundle. bundle auto and home, and save up to 25% with allstate. bundling just feels good this time of year.

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breaking news tonight on the pandemic. more than 18 million, let's repeat that, 18 million people have been infected by the virus. a total of 319,000 people have died. this as president-elect biden rolled up his sleeve receiving his first dose as promised on camera this afternoon. his wife jill biden received the vaccine as well. tonight mounting concerns in

britain and no out right ban to the united states on flights arriving from england but two officials telling cnn the white house is considering requiring travel of the u.k. to show proof of a negative test before entering the country. i am pleased to be joined by dr. hotez and dr. gounder. look, dr. hotez, i think a lot of people woke up to the news that britain was saying and boris johnson was saying cr christmas can't go on the way we had planned but how concerns should people be of this variant? there are concerns in the u.s. and the u.k. in the u.k. what happens starting around november and december, the u.k. has a sophisticated surveillance system that does the sequence of

the virus that isolates in the country. they noticed that half of the virus isolate in southeast england around k-- it had a lot of mutations more than expected. that raised a lot of concerns. it was in london. it seems to be this virus is out competing the other virus strain, that signals the alarm wondering if this virus is trans misable. the prime minister warned the issue that people in the u.k. to be careful when traveling during christmas. the question is what does it

mean for the u.s.? people are worried well we don't want this virus here. we know this virus has been circulating in the middle of september. there is a good chance this virus is in the united states and certainly in multiple areas of europe. really need to know and we should hear from the cdc director is what the actual frequency in places of various hubs and from the u.k. and houston and what will be the impact of travel bans compares to mathematical models that'll project how quickly this will take other virus strains in the u.s. or the u.k. everything is on the table. we have not seen a travel ban.

there is still a lot we don't know. we don't know how transferable this virus is. we don't know this new variant can cause more severe disease and most of those had been infected with this new variant were younger at the beginning of this. the data that we have is among younger people who tend to have the cases in general. whether this variant could evade that. we don't think so. again this variant could mutate. that's something we'll be looking into. with respect to travel restrictions, there are already are travel restrictions in the u.k. so you would be restricting

travel on them. i do think pretrial testing and quarantine upon arrival would make a lot of sense. that's also going to put a lot of stress on public health departments that are already really spread thin. >> talk to me about that. quarantine for 14 days because governor inslee is calling on that. do you think that's worth considering until we know more? >> i think all options should be on the table. that's one of the options that should be on the table. that does require some significance support by public health department to enforce that and support the people who are in quarantine in a hotel, you need to be bringing them food and other such things. i do think that option should be on the table. i think big picture if the virus is here in the united states which is already is, it is not just about travel bans with the u.k., it is travel within the

u.s. that could be dangerous. if there are any times for americans to be cancelling their plans it is now. this is really a precarious situation we are in. this is not the time to be traveling. >> dr. hotez, i mentioned president-elect biden got his first dose of the vaccine today. i know you got yours last week. dr. fauci is getting his tomorrow. dr. gounder, you are getting yours tomorrow or the next day. i am thrilled for all of this because you people are at the frontline and i am so glad you all there fighting for us. the reason this is being done with joe biden and other people because they are essential workers obviously but also to set an example for the rest of the country so everyone feels safe. how much do you think that's working so far? >> yeah, we have a new survey, john, from the kaiser family foundation out late last week shows a significant level of

what's called vaccine he hsitan it is particularly among two groups. it is now expanded into protests and social distancing and this whole information campaign led by scott atlas and created a real mess. this is one of the reasons why the southern states got hit so hard and essential part of the country this far and now they're resisting vaccines as well. we'll need leaders to demonstrate the safety of vaccines.

also targeting antivaccine dp p groups. this is a huge problem. we have not had a communication plan. this is going to be a priority for the biden administration to fix in the new year. >> dr. hotez and dr. gounder, i appreciate both being here tonight. thank you very much. >> thank you. you think you heard the last of that poison attack? the newest chapter is straight out of a novel. amazing reporting from clarissa ward when "360" continues. (kids laughing) (dog barking) ♪ sanctuary music

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a russian agent sent leader navaldy how he was poisoned in august. the nerve agent novichok was planted in the agent's underwear. the unit have trailed navlny for three years. clarissa ward is joining us now. >> this is real, cnn has been provided with this phone conversation where you hear this agent describing the details where the poison was placed in the underwear of his role in the clean up operation and what he does not know that the man on the other end of the phone is

navlny himself. >> an extraordinary scene. navlny, investigating the attempted assassination. t he reveals the poison was placed on navlny's under pants. well, imagine under pants and what place? >> the inside, the groin. >> the crotch of the under pants? >> well, the so-called flap, there are some seams there. so across the seams. >> the mission punches a gaping hole in the kremlin's repeated

denials that the russians played any role in the poisoning. one of the elite teams who trailed navlny for years. most of its members were doctors or scientists. when he was poisoned back in august, his flight was diverted. record shows five days later, he flew to that same city taking possession of >> yes, all is clean. visually it will not be visible. they did not remove.

there are no stains on them nothing? >> no, no, nothing. they're in good condition and clean. >> pants? >> there is the same inside area. perhaps something was left on it, too. we washed it off there also. but this is presumably because there is contact with the pants. perhaps there was something on there, too. >> the fsb toxins team trailed navalny on more than 30 trips around russia. five of its members flew to siberia around the same time as navalny during the fateful august trip when he was poisoned. toxicologists told cnn that navalny is lucky to be alive and the intention was almost certain to kill him, a point he appears to acknowledge. >> if you firmly belonged there and perhaps would not have landed so quickly and all, perhaps it would have all gone

differently. that is, had it not been for the prompt assistance for doctors and ambulances on the landing strip and so on. >> the plane landed after 40 minutes. basically, this should have been taken into account while planning the operation. it wasn't that the plane landed instantly. they calculated the wrong dose, the possibility. >> why? >> well, i can't say why. as i understand it, we added a bit extra. so -- >> how could you do this? >> at the end of the call, navalny and his team are elated that their sting operation has worked and despite everything he's discovered, he's still determined to return to russia as soon as possible. >> he told the whole story. >> it's just unreal that the man on the other end of the line was navalny. let's just stipulate that. it is crazy. you learn about some of the tactics his pursuers used to try and evade protection. what can you tell us about that?

>> yeah. it is so interesting because what you realize is these men had been following navalny for more than three years, so they knew everything about his habits. they knew he liked to switch rooms with other members of his team so they wouldn't know exactly what room he was sleeping in. they describe some of the measures they took as well, changing their clothes regularly. he also said they never flew on the same flight as navalny. they could always take parallel flights, same destination, but different flights, really giving you an insight into an operation that frankly was years in the making, john. >> and there has now been a denial from the fsb? >> yes. it's not that often we hear from the fsb, russian state security services are notoriously tight lipped. but they have come out after this explosive conversation. they have called it a fake. they have said that it is designed simply to make russian state security services look bad and they have also said that it

couldn't have been done if navalny didn't have the help of foreign special services. this is an aspersion they cast on him all the time, making him out to be a pawn of western intelligence services. we can hear more coming. >> do you think it is possible this story could get more intriguing, but it has. our thanks to you, clarissa ward. just ahead, live to capitol hill for the latest on that must pass $900 billion covid relief bill. but with walmart's low prices, you still know how to do it up. and keep costs down. let's end the year enjoying more. ♪ you are all i need baby baby to get by ♪

and through the woods this holiday season. remember, safe drivers save 40% with allstate. saving is easy when you're in good hands. call a local agent, or 1-800-allstate for a quote today.

a drink with friends can turn into a few. stop! it's easy to lose track. and getting a dui is easier than you think. plan ahead, call a cab. share a ride. if you choose to drink, choose a sober way to go. go safely, california.

a drink with friends can turn into two, and a prescription can be stronger than you thought. stop! there are a lot of ways to get a dui. and a lot of ways to go-- text a friend, call a cab, share a ride. whatever you choose to do, go safely, california. we are moments away from a final vote on a long awaited covid relief bill. the price tag $900 billion, including a $600 stimulus check to many americans. our senior congressional correspondent manu raju joins us now. what do we know about tonight's vote? >> the bill is about to pass the house in pretty overwhelming fashion. right now there are 320 votes in the affirmative to pass the bill, well and above the amount

needed to get this out of the house. they have not finished voting in that chamber, but then afterwards they will send it to the united states senate. the senate is expected to vote some time tonight to declare it and eventually it will go to the president's desk. it may take a couple days because this bill is 5,593 pages long. it's $900 billion in covid relief. $1.4 trillion to keep the government funded through september and that will take some time to get all the paperwork associated with it sent to the president's desk. members have had barely less than six hours to review it. >> if it takes a few days to get to the president's desk, what does that mean in terms of when americans will see the stimulus checks and who will qualify anyway? >> it will take a little time to get into the system. probably within a week the president is expected to sign this legislation and then afterwards those stimulus checks will go out. typically it took about two weeks, at least it did during

the last round of checks that went out. so we do expect that occur beginning for some folks in the next two weeks after the president signs it into law. people who will get that are individuals who earned less than $75,000 will get $600. if there was a family of four, $2,400 for them. but a wide range of other benefits in here, including to extend the expiring jobless benefits to the tune of $300 a week. that will start december 27. that is so critical here because millions of americans are about to see their relief dry up. and also the number of industries also could be helped here ranging from restaurants, from the farm industry and the like. the small business loans in this proposal are more than $284 billion here, john. so a significant piece of legislation finally that came together. looks like congress will get it out of both chambers tonight. >> it's about time.

5,000 pages, we'll let you get back to reading. don't miss "full circle." you can catch it streaming live or catch it there and on the cnn app at any time on demand. the news continues, so let's hand it over to chris for cuomo "prime time". >> thank you, chris. today is the winter solstice. days are only supposed to get brighter from here. but it is also the darkest day of the year. that is a fact as well. it is too true for too many and for too many reasons. there is a vote going on right now. that's what john and manu were talking about. the relief bill will finally become a law. but it is barely a visible shaft of light in the pandemic darkness. it is more about who's getting