their memories be a blessing. thanks very much for watching. i'm wolf blitzer in the swi situation room. you can always follow me on twitter and instagra instagram @wolfblitzer. "erin burnett outfront" starts right now. outfront next, the president spiraling downward tonight, still fixated on the election which he lost, and there's new concern at this hour about damage he could do in his final days. has donald trump let the conspiracy theorists take charge? plus a new and potentially more contagious strain of coronavirus is likely already in the u.s. according to dr. anthony fauci, as he warns about holiday travel dangers. how worried should we all be? and joe biden slamming the president for his response to the massive cyberattack on the government. the president-elect warning it's not under control. let's go outfront.

good evening, everyone. i'm kate bolduan in for erin burnett. people close to the president sounding the alarm, concerned about what they see as increasingly unhinged and delusional efforts to overturn the 2020 election. one senior republican close to the president telling our jeremy diamond tonight, quote, we're watching a petulant child not getting his way throw a tantrum. the problem here is that tantrum could have grave national security consequences for the country, something president-elect joe biden called out today at his year-end press conference saying he will handle the massive cyberattack against the u.s. because donald trump has not. >> this assault happened on donald trump's watch, when he wasn't watching. it's still his responsibility as president to defend american interests for the next four weeks. rest assured that even if he

does not take it seriously, i will. it is a grave risk and it continues. i see no evidence that it's under control. i've seen none. heard of none. >> anxiety is rising at the pentagon too tonight over what the president will do in his final days in office. the concern heightened by the fact that the president hasn't been seen publicly in days of the rather, he's been holed up inside the white house meeting with a variety of conspiracy theorists. i'm going to break in and get to all of this in just a second. i'm going to get over to pamela brown who has breaking news with regard to the very big issue of pardons. pamela? >> that's right. a press release just came out from the white house with president trump announcing nearly 20 pardons, including two defendants who pleaded guilty in the russia investigation. that would be george papadopoulos and alex vander swan. republican allies who served in

congress, chris collins and duncan hunter and four blackwater guards. also included in the batch are two border patrol agents convicted in 2006 after shooting and wounding an unarmed, undocumented immigrant and covering it up. also several people convicted of nonviolent drug crimes that have been serving lengthy sentences on this list of pardons. the more high-profile pardons that we're going through came at the recommendation of trump allies in congress and in some cases skaerv meaconservative me. many of them have been hailed by right-wing media as heroes who were treated unjustly. two pardons in the russia probe are notable, kate, because papadopoulos and vander swan were two of the first defendants charged in the probe and who pleaded guilty of lying to federal investigators. papadopoulos was an advisor to the trump campaign who pleaded guilty to lying about his discussions with russians. in the press release it is notable that the white house tonight says today's pardon

helps correct the wrong that mueller's team inflicted on so many people. the president is still clearly aggrieved by the russia probe into his campaign's contacts with russians and he's sending a clear message with these pardons that this is payback essentially, even though they had both pleaded guilty and this follows the pardon of trump's former national security advisor, michael flynn, who also pleaded guilty in the russia probe to lying. now, former republican congressman duncan hunter who was sentenced to 11 months for misuse of more than $200,000 in campaign funds for personal expenses will now not serve any time behind bars with this pardon today. and then you have former republican congressman chris collins who was an early ally of the president. he was sent to prison in october of this year for insider trading activity he engaged in while on white house grounds, according to investigators. and, kate, we should note you have nearly 20 today, but this is just the beginning of a flurry of pardons we expect from president trump before his term ends. >> absolutely.

pamela, on george papadopoulos, just specifically to call it out, i mean this is a name that became a very well-known household name with regard to the mueller report. but this is the man that was at the very beginning of why there was an fbi investigation into the potential of russia's interference in the 2016 election. and it's also noteworthy that his wife made a -- made a splash of trying to make a public plea for a pardon all along the way. >> yeah, absolutely. george papadopoulos was sort of thrust into the spotlight. first of all, being the first person in the russia probe to be charged. he pleaded guilty to lying to investigators about his contacts with russians. and you're right, the russia probe essentially originated with the conversation he had with the australian ambassador where he talked about his contacts with russians and the fact that they knew about hillary clinton's emails and they could be releasing dirt about them.

that's led to a slew of activity that then eventually formed into the russia probe that was taken over by special counsel robert mueller. now, george papadopoulos has been very outspoken. he has been very public about the fact he wanted a pardon from president trump. he also ran for congress along the way. and so in some ways that pardon in particular is not a surprise. we have expected the president to issue a pardon to george papadopoulos. we know that he has been looking at various people who were charged and convicted in the russia probe that he could pardon. george papadopoulos was on that list and now we're finding out today, just before christmas, that he is one of the nearly 20 people receiving a pardon by president trump. >> pamela is digging into this. pamela, thank you so much. with me right now is cnn senior justice correspondent, former counsel to the u.s. assistant attorney general and former

special watergate prosecutor nick akerman. counting up this list as we're getting this list, evan, 20 people on this list. what sticks out to you, because you do sense some themes throughout. >> yeah. one of the things in looking over this list, the first thing that occurred to me is that this appears to be a fox news list. this is -- a lot of these people are people who are celebrated on fox news and in right-wing media as having been wronged for some reason. we have, for instance, the blackwater guards who were convicted of war crimes. if you listen to a judge who said essentially -- sentenced them harsh sentences saying that he wanted them -- this to be an example, you know, to future generations to not commit war crimes. you have these border guards who were accused of firing on illegal immigrants. again, something that you hear on the right wing certainly a

lot of times that these border guards were wrongly prosecuted by the justice department. and of course you have the president's supporters, duncan hunter, chris collins. chris collins is one of the first members of congress to support the president in public. >> duncan hunter as well. >> and duncan hunter, right, at a time when he was not the favored candidate. chris collins, as pamela mentioned, according to prosecutors, committed some of his crimes while on white house grounds. i mean that is stunning for the president to turn around. he just finally showed up to prison in october, and he's going to be out. duncan hunter, who misused his campaign funds, he and his wife were accused of, accused of that, he wasn't supposed to show up until january. he's not going to serve any time in prison. now remember, kate, i talked to the prosecutor who prosecuted duncan hunter just a few weeks ago and he told me one reason

why he stuck around as long as he did, he was supposed to retire from the justice department earlier this year. he stuck around simply because he was fearful that trump was going to intervene and try to do something in his case as he did with others, like the roger stone case. so this is going to come as stunning news to the prosecutors and to the agents who worked that case. >> nick, what do you think of this? >> i think it's an absolute misuse of the pardon power. i mean as just mentioned, he's using it for political purposes to make political statements. but the real key here is what he is trying to do to undermine what robert mueller's investigation did. i mean he's starting now with two of the minor people. he's already pardoned his political advisor, roger stone, who was convicted of covering up for him. he's pardoned michael flynn, who was basically lied about his conversations with the russian ambassador on behalf of trump.

and the one person that's really missing from this list, which i believe will be pardoned before january 20th, is going to be paul manafort, the campaign manager, who was the in-between man between the russian government and the trump campaign in 2016 and dealt with the russian intelligence agent, konstantin kilimnick who was the person who took all of that polling data, that very granular data and took it back to st. petersburg where the russian operatives used it to suppress the hillary clinton vote. so i think you see it being used for political purposes. you see it being at the beginning to undermine what were the applicatccomplishments of t mueller investigation. the next person that's going to be on this list, mark my words, is paul manafort.

>> and this might not be over. this might be the middle of the ball game in terms of the pardons. >> these are the early innings, i think. >> however you want to play it, evan. >> but carrie, it's still 20 names on this list. what do you think of this? >> i agree that this is the first wave of pardon season that we're going to see. and i think about the pardons that i expect the president to give in three different categories. so the first category as nick was describing is the unraveling of the mueller investigation. so the president had already started that with prior pardons and now there's two more that he's added tonight. the second wave is those that he is willing to pardon based on lobbying from selecelebrities, political allies, maybe those fall into the category evan was describing in terms of fox news, folks who go on there, but individuals who he is lobbied by others in his political orbit to

pardon. and the third is friends and family, which is not part of this list. but those are the three categories that i see. i think that these 20 pardons generally we could put into the first couple categories. i do have to underscore that the blackwater guards in particular, i think, for those who have been involved in criminal prosecution, those who adhere to the rule of law and want to see the rule of law uphold, those are probably the most offensive on the list. it's not to minimize the white collar crime provisions that are being pardoned tonight, but those in particular i think are definitely aggressive and unusual use of the pardon power. >> you know, evan, there is some great reporting from our colleagues, pamela brown, jeremy diamond leading up to this about the flood coming to the white house for pardon requests. while the president has all but

given up governing and doing the job, this was something that he really did enjoy, going through -- but it speaks to what you have heard from the justice side for a long time. this is something that he really enjoys. he loves this power. it's something he cares deeply about. but there's also -- he's also been known to go around the regular process, which includes going through the justice department to vet all these. i wonder if any or how many of these went through that regular process? >> right. and that's one question we're trying to research right now, trying to figure out whether any of these went through the justice department. i'll tell you this, until -- before today, the vast majority of the president's clemencies have not gone through the justice department. this entire bureaucracy set up that's supposed to review these pardons. you know, you have to have -- for instance, you have to have been convicted or pleaded five years ago. you have to show that you're

sorry. you accept responsibility for what you did and that you basically -- you know, you're sorry for what you did. and some of the people on this list, like duncan hunter, chris collins, would definitely not qualify to even apply for clemency through the justice department process. the president -- this president has essentially used a much more unorthodox system, which is listening to the kardashians, listening to fox news hosts, rudy giuliani appears to be doing a brisk business in washington right now with people who are approaching, asking for help with pardons. he's got the ear of the president. so there's a lot of very unorthodox conduct happening. and, kate, you have to remember, the president's pardon power is unencumbered. you know, it's his power and this is one of the things that he's been fascinated with ever since he realized when he took office, he realized that this is something that congress cannot really touch him on. and so, look, one of the things we're waiting for is whether or not he decides to pardon

himself. and that is a big question that we might -- we'll see answered between now and january 20th. >> nick, that's a question i know i've discussed with you in the past, but we did hear from the attorney general -- well, the soon-to-be former attorney general as of tomorrow. he was asked about that this week in a press conference and bill barr, he dodged the question of self pardoning. he did not take the question. he said he wasn't going to weigh in on it. talk to me again about where you think this lands. do you think this could happen? >> it certainly could happen. if anybody were to do it, it would be donald trump who would do it. but is it valid? i don't think so. the constitution gives him the power to grant pardons. grant is a transitive verb, to somebody else -- >> but you forget, nick, that donald trump talks about himself in the third person all the

time. >> that's a good argument that they might try and make before the supreme court. but keep in mind, the odds of this being -- of actually ever being challenged, first of all, his biggest danger right now is prosecution by the state d.a. in manhattan for criminal tax violations. none of those can be reached by his own pardon of himself even if he were to step down and a president pence then pardoned him. he cannot be pardoned for state crimes. pardons don't reach that far. and the only way this is ever going to be challenged is if he actually is indicted for federal crimes and then interposes this pardon of himself as a defense. i mean it's very hypothetical. >> the first wave has happened. it's very -- but it's not going to be the last is what it sounds like.

thank you guys very much. we'll continue to follow the breaking news and see what more comes out of this for us tonight. outfront next, the growing concern in the white house. who the president is listening to. and dr. anthony fauci with a new warning heading into the holidays as concern grows about the new strain of the coronavirus. plus, the president-elect says that russia will pay the price for its apparent hack of america's government agencies. but what exactly does joe biden mean? i'm here to bring you all the news from across this great world of ours. "news of the world" is a lovingly crafted drama. little girl is lost. and i'm taking her home. it's soulful and stirring. how much you want for her? this child is not for sale. tom hanks is magnificent...

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as i started to say at the top of the show, our other breaking news tonight, people close to the president are sounding the alarm, concerned about what they see as his increasingly unhinged and delusional efforts to overturn the 2020 election. one senior republican telling our jeremy diamond tonight, quote, we're watching a petulant child not getting his way throw a tantrum. anxiety is rising at the pentagon too tonight over what the president will do in his final days in office. the concern heightened by the fact that the president hasn't been seen publicly in days. rather, he's been holed up inside the white house meeting with a variety of conspiracy theorists egging on the president in his increasingly unhinged push to try to overturn

the 2020 election results. sidney powell has visited the white house three of the last four days. the president has also met with rudy giuliani, michael flynn and also incoming congresswoman who has publicly supported qanon. jeremy diamond is outfront at the white house for us. jeremy, what more are people around the president telling you about this tonight? >> reporter: kate, there's a lot of concern among the president's top advisers and other people close to the president about the way in which he is handling these final weeks in office and these increasingly unhinged and desperate efforts to overturn the results of the election. you read off that quote that a senior republican official close to the president told me, which is that they are comparing the president to a petulant child who is throwing a tantrum. there is also concern about the people who are feeding the president this misinformation, the sycophants telling him that he can overturn the results of the election when there really is no viable path to actually

accomplishing that task. that a senior republican close to the president telling me that those people think they're helping the president but they're really hurting him. they are not serving him well by doing that. now, there is also growing hope inside the white house that this presidency will soon come to an end. they are eager, many people inside the white house are eager to see this presidency come to an end. brian lanza, a former trump campaign advisor who is still close to folks at the white house told me that the countdown calendar can't come fast enough for some, and so that really is the mindset over here at the white house as the president continues these efforts to try and overturn this election by any means possible. kate. >> jeremy, thank you. outfront with me now is republican congressman denver riggleman who's leaving congress at the ending of this term. juliette kayyem and john avlon, our senior political analyst. congressman, you've talked on the house floor about the need to in your words, and i remember them because they really stick

with me, inoculate the country from the social contagion of misinformation and conspiracy theories. but how can you do that when it's the president inviting this into the oval office? >> it's very difficult, and thanks for having me on. i think what we have right now when i saw who he invited to the oval office, a few of the people surprised me but you know birds of a feather flock together. who he's inviting are not those talking reasonable, talking about facts and talking about this transition and how it should happen as quickly as possible. you have to fight this with data. the only way to do that is to really use it as a blunt force facts. we just had a report come out from the network that back in may, i think president obama would want to know about this, that a troll actually created this obamagate hash tag. less than two days after that troll put that out, president trump actually tweeted it. that is very dangerous.

and what we're seeing, we're seeing trolls, almost a basement type of mythology actually creating policy in the oval office. i think that should frighten everybody. right now with me and my background in intel dealing with isis and how radicalization happens, that's why i've been screaming about this, even on the floor months ago with the qanon resolution. >> that is terrifying when you put it that way. john, i want to play for you what a long-time trump suppor r supporter, pat robertson said today now speaking out against the president. >> with all his talent and the ability to raise money and draw large crowds, the president still lives in an alternate reality. he really does. people say, well, he lies about this, that and the other. but no, he isn't lying. to him that's the truth. >> i think it's striking that pat robertson is now even saying trump is living in an alternate reality.

do you think with his enormous following that he could get through to the president? >> i don't think he can get through to the president. but when you've lost pat robertson, you've got a problem certainly with some evangelicals who will listen to him. this is the problem with trump acting much more than a petulant child or a sore loser but someone who fundamentally disrespects our democracy. robertson's language was interesting. he lives in an alternate reality. people say he lies but it's not true. this is about something jeremy diamond mentioned, the president is a petulant child. what we're witnessing is much worse than a president trying to overthrow an election, refusing to condemn a country that attacked our country. we're looking at the infantization of a president. when he's trying to feed his ego to overturn our election, the people who feed into that and afraid to call it out are absolutely complicit in this because he is plotting to commit

se dition and giving aid and comfort to an enemy. >> juliette, is this more concerning as the president and some of his supporters see this as something of a final stand? >> right. it is. it's much worse because this is about the peaceful transition of power. this is an affront -- let me begin with this. this is an embarrassment, i want to start with that. any person still working for donald trump is embarrassing themselves and embarrassing the united states of america. but it's also dangerous. and it's not dangerous for this 30-day period. i think we'll be okay. it will be crazy, but it's probably going to just result in pardons like what we just saw. it is dangerous for the biden presidency that we have a president who is not validating the next president of the united states. he's making the transition difficult. he's putting in crazy people into all of these commissions, into the defense department,

intelligence boards, and this is what he's leaving president biden. so this is an affront not to -- i mean this is an affront to america and to the oval office and what it means to be president of the united states. but it's actually an affront to all of us and our safety and security. i'll so tired of talking about trump's feelings. i mean we are going to inherit this mess between the russia hack, agitation in the pentagon, all of these losers in these positions throughout the government, covid, and it's going to sort of land on president-elect biden's plate on january 20th when it could have been so much better if trump could -- and his people could just stop looking at their belly buttons and recognize that there's something bigger. >> juliette mentioned, congressman, and i want to get your reaction to what we've been

reporting on this hour, the president's wave of pardons. we think there are three former members of congress on this list, caollins, hunter and stockman. what do you think of that? >> i don't think i'm shocked. i think it's wrong but i'm not shocked about it. i know some of those individuals like duncan and like chris. i know what they did. and for them to be pardoned for some of those things, you know, i'm sure they're happy tonight. but for our justice system, i think we should be a little bit shocked. when i look at george papadopoulos. you know, i read the mueller report. when i look that this guy was hired off linkedin with only a three or four day vetting period, you've got somebody that was not there with any type of bona fides to do the job and he was there for the grip. you talked about what was going on and john i was listening to you very closely. i think what he's surrounding himself with is they're making a lot of money, there's a grift going on here. that's what worries me. when you see the pardons, when you see the grift that's going

on and the behavior that's happening, all this comes together and when you talk about conspiracy theories, you talk about a sickness and that's overtaken the white house right now. >> looking through this, john, it does come full circle to our conversation. some of the members of congress that were at the white house last night plotting with the president for this last stand to disrupt the electoral college announcement, they're some of the people who are on the endorsements of these pardons and that's who the president is listening to. i mean what do these pardons tell you about what else is coming? >> very clear categories, right? political cronies, people who have profited off politics and people who have lied to investigators. all i think say a great deal about a president who engages in projection every day. and this is just the opening sal salvo. it will get worse. if you look at the president's pardoning power and what the founders wanted it to be used for, this is an absolute insult to that. the president will push it as

far as he can. but this is a disgrace of the up got political cronies, grifters and war criminals. that's who the president is choosing to give his pardon power to. >> juliette, every president has controversial pardons at the ending, though. give me your take. >> i'm focused on the blackwater and customs and border protection ones. to me those say to the military, to the contractors, to law enforcement, to people who may be radicalized by the president's talk, his unwillingness to have a peaceful transition, go be violent, go abuse the rule of law, and you could be forgiven. this is what is -- i think those pardons, i get -- in some ways i get the political ones because they have been -- you know, he's so corrupt from the beginning. these to me are scary because the blackwater ones in particular are about, you know, basically, you know, killing iraqi civilians. this is what he's approving and applauding that sort of abuse of power is something that trump

has always applauded. he's always liked it in law enforcement and the military and now he's giving it carte blanche. that's the one that i'm looking at a little bit -- you know, i can only be disappointed so much, but let's just say 29 days can't come soon enough. >> thank you all very much. outfront next, dr. anthony fauci warning about a possible surge upon a surge. doctors on the front lines of this covid crisis are already overwhelmed, though. >> what has 2020 been like for you? >> it's like hell and back. it's hard. i'm stressed. and joe biden slamming the president, blaming him for the dangerous cyberattack against the government. the president-elect promising to take action. (kids laughing) ♪ upbeat tempo ♪ sanctuary music

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again! again! your wireless. your rules. your way to stay closer together this holiday season. switch and save up to $400 a year on your wireless bill. and get $150 off when you buy a samsung a series phone. learn more at xfinitymobile.com. breaking news. dr. anthony fauci warning a dangerous surge could be coming after the holidays. fauci telling wolf blitzer just a short time ago that he is worried about the amount of travel that he's seeing. >> this type of travel is risky, particularly if people start

congregating when they get to their destination in larger crowds, in indoor settings. i'm afraid that if in fact we see this happen, we will have a surge that's superimposed upon the difficult situation we are already in. so it could be a very difficult january coming up if these things happen. >> this as british scientists are saying that they are highly confident that the new strain of coronavirus that they have seen could be up to 71% more transmi transmissable and that there is a hint it is also more transmissable in children. outfront with me now, ground breaking hiv and aids researc r researcher, professor william hazeltine, the author of "my lifelong fight against disease." and also with us dr. jonathan e reiner. it's great to see you both again. professor, when you hear all of

this, are you more or less worried about this new coronavirus strain this evening? >> i think we're all concerned. we're all on the alert. this is the -- actually one of two new strains. there's another one in south africa that seems to have very similar characteristics. much more highly transmissable, transmissable to children and capable of causing disease in children. we don't know if it's going to kill adults more and we don't know if it's going to evade vaccines, but both of those are possible. we just don't know yet. it's on top of this travel, on top of the big pandemic we already have, these are worrying times. >> dr. reiner, dr. fauci when he was speaking with wolf, the way he put it was it does not appear to have any impact on making the virus more deadly or more serious. we know there's research going on to see exactly how this virus really interacts. but being more infectious, do you think this means that we are going to need to see more, not

less restrictions in the coming weeks to slow the spread of the virus? >> i think we very well may need more restrictions in the hottest spots in the united states. when you look at places like los angeles where they have basically run out of icu capacity. in regions of the country like that, you have no choice but to increase restrictions. you know, there are parts of the country where there are really glimmers of hope that we're starting to sort of crest and see the beginnings of a decline in daily cases. places like the midwest where i think there's a clear decline in daily cases and maybe a sense in the northeast that the northeast has plateaued and also might be beginning to decline. unfortunately, this is christmas week. if people would stay home, we might be able to start to get our hands around this as we're starting to vaccinate now hundreds of thousands and soon millions and millions of people. but traveling is going to give us another spike.

if you stay home, you're not cancelling christmas. our hope is that by staying home and preventing the further spread of this virus, we're preventing people that we love, people that you love from being cancelled permanently. it's -- this is not the time to travel. people should stay home. >> professor, i have to admit i'm not really sure what to make of some of the new data that we're hearing from the uk when the scientists are saying that they're confident the strain is more infectious and that the data hints it's more transmissable in children. obviously we know how this has gone is maybe one of the silver linings of this virus so far is that children have been less affected by the coronavirus. i'm just wondering if this is now more concerning? >> it definitely is more concerning. and the reason for that is that it probably takes fewer numbers of virus for shorter periods of time to infect somebody. and what's happening with children may be a reflection of that. the virus can stick more tightly

to the receptors. although children have fewer receptor, it can find them, stick to those, get in and then start to cause trouble. and what we're seeing in south africa, let me repeat, there's another virus different from this one but having the same characteristics. already the health ministry there, i've just been reading the reports, are reporting that it's causing illness in children under 12 at a much higher rate than it was before. >> why is it -- >> go ahead. >> sorry, professor. why is it we've heard so much then about the uk strain, if you will, and the world has reacted so strongly to the uk strain, but not nearly as much about this other strain? >> well, the reason for that is the uk story came first. and of course the uk is a lot closer to us than south africa. we receive about, let me see, about 35 to 40 million visitors a month from the uk. nothing like that from south africa. so the chance of the virus they have got coming here is probably

already here is pretty high. that's one of the real differences. >> dr. reiner, the president-elect gave year-end remarks today. i have to say it was a really tough holiday message. i'd like to play just a bit of it for you. >> here's the simple truth. our darkest days in the battle against covid are ahead of us, not behind us. so we need to prepare ourselves to steel our spines. >> with all of that in mind now, what do you think the country is going to look like when joe biden takes over in 30 days? >> let's see, 30 days, perhaps 100,000 more deaths in this country at our current rate. hospitals filled. on the positive side, several million people in this country will have been vaccinated with more vaccine on the way.

and i think in 30 days we'll be well into starting to vaccinate non-first responders, people like the elderly over 75 or other high-risk groups. so we have to get through the next few months. we need to be vigilant against -- about new strains. there's a lot of science to do to understand whether vaccines need to be adjusted going forward to make sure they're potent against the new strains. we heard today from biontech saying they have the rapid ability to do that if necessary. but i think going forward we have the ability to return to more of a normal life by the summer. we have to get through this very dark time. but we can only do that by masking up and staying put. >> doctor, professor, thank you. so the u.s. is tragically nearing 3,000 coronavirus deaths already tonight. while in texas, hospitalizations are approaching previous record

highs and cases are up 55% from their july peak. miguel marquez is outfront. >> reporter: houston's united memorial medical center. patient after patient on a ventilator. their lungs devastated by covid-19. >> this is deep inside the lungs. this is covid. this is covid. this is what covid looks inside the lung. you can see a lot of mucus. >> reporter: the lungs swollen and red in this elderly patient. the sample will be sent to a lab to find out what else might be happening in their lungs. >> the question is, are they not healthy just because of covid or is there a secondary infection, which is common. >> reporter: we visited this same hospital in late june, then two wings of the hospital had been transformed into covid-19

wards. today, prepping for what's to come, there are three. >> the next six weeks are going to be the darkest weeks in modern american medical history. >> reporter: even though the vaccine is being rolled out? >> absolutely, think about it. the vaccine will take between six to eight weeks to get immunity. we're right during christmas where people are not listening. >> reporter: about 40% of patients at this houston hospital are from other parts of the state, reeling from overwhelming illness. across the lone star state, cases exploding. the seven-day average of positive cases hitting records far above where they were in june. walter was transferred from west texas, about 500 miles away. he thinks he and his wife picked up the virus at the supermarket. his wife has mild symptoms. today he's on the mend but when he arrived, he was almost put on a ventilator. >> her and i are the only ones

wearing the mask. the rest of the people are not wearing a mask. >> reporter: brie smith works with foreign exchange students and recently moved west of houston. >> it is the worst i ever felt. >> reporter: she too thinks she got the virus while shopping. she has a husband and three kids. she wasn't sure she'd see them again. >> i love you very much. and i miss you so much. i can't wait to come home. >> reporter: the staff here from dr. varon to nurses to those who clean up are tired and stressed. what has 2020 been like for you? >> it's like hell and back. it's hard. i'm stressed. >> reporter: we met icu nurse tanna ingraham in june. then she was a patient having picked up covid-19 while performing cpr on a patient. she got covid a second time. she's not sure how. after nine months of dealing with sickness and death, she's back at work with a message. >> it's like we're nonexistent.

it's like you do realize that we're still here taking care of these people, putting my life at risk, putting my kids' life at risk, my mom's life. i think we've -- we've been forgotten, truly. >> reporter: something else new from june, says dr. varon. patients are coming in sicker, having waited longer before seeking medical care. >> our average patient has spent about 20 days with symptoms before they come to us. so i mean even if i give them holy water, after 20 days of symptoms, it's going to be difficult for them to get better. >> reporter: richard gonzalez has a wife and five kids. he works two jobs and wasn't sure how he got it. he thought he could tough it out. >> i kind of like messed up. those symptoms that i got when i got it, i should have went to the e.r. room or the hospital right away but i didn't. i laid in bed thinking it was going to go away. >> for how long? >> for about a week. >> reporter: luis martinez' father, uncle and cousin died of

covid-19. the last thing he wanted to do was go to a hospital. >> they won't do it because you know how it is. whenever they put you in a hospital, sometimes you never make it. >> reporter: to listen to wanna corona trying to breathe is to understand everything one needs to know about covid-19. she's pretty certain she got it from her daughter at a birthday party. several other family members got it. her 26-year-old niece died. she says she's scared. like everyone we spoke to. those who could speak, they all hope for one thing, to be home for christmas. margaret evans says ten members of her family got covid-19, she thinks at a birthday party. >> how tough is it to be away from family like this? >> it's hard. it's hard. it's very, very, very, very hard. >> reporter: she has nine grandchildren she'd really like to see.

>> miguel is joining me now. miguel, my goodness. you've gone into so many hospitals in so many places for so many months. does this feel different? does this feel worse? >> reporter: yes and no. look, they're gotten better at treating the illness. they have gotten better at physically arranging their hospitals and ramping up and adding more beds. but the doctors, the nurses, the people who clean up the place, they have worked themselves to the bone. they are overstressed, they are overtired. to be completely honest, they are pissed off that the numbers are as high as they are right now and the worst is yet to come. kate. >> they have a reason to be. thank you, miguel. breaking news, we have more breaking news coming in tonight. president trump, he appears to be threatening just now to veto the $900 billion coronavirus relief bill that congress just passed overnight. jeremy diamond is outfront now joining me from the white house. jeremy, this took months for them to negotiate because they couldn't do their job, and now

the president is threatening this? why? >> reporter: months of negotiations without the president's direct involvement, kate, which is something to really highlight here. the president is now deciding to complain about this bill after both houses of congress have already passed it by overwhelming veto-proof majorities, this $900 billion coronavirus relief bill as well as this omnibus spending bill which have been merged together here and the president seems to be conflating the two as he complains about a series of the provisions that are not and we'll get it done. kate, this is absolutely remarkable what the president is doing here, signaling he'll not sign his legislation, $900 billion of relief for millions of americans of the worst point of this pandemic.

veto majorities on both of these so perhaps congress will be able toov to override that. >> joe biden blames trump and suggests that he'll retaliate, what will biden do to russia?

new tonight an assault of america, an attack all signs pointing to russia. biden is slamming president trump for his lack of response and promising there will be consequences. >> this is all happen on donald trump's watch when he was not watching. he's still has responsibility as president to defend american's interests the rest four weeks. rest assure even if he does not take it seriously, i will. >> joining me right now, former

cia chief, steve hall and susan glaser. that's strong words from the president-elect biden. the president has said nothing about this to down play the attack. >> it is exactly right. it is almost like he's been absent from his job. the president emerged on twitter briefly to cash out that it was russia and mike pompeo acknowledged that and all signs pointed to russia. this attack may not beover. we don't understand the extent of the damage yet and biden made clear in his remarks today and in fact that the defense department is refusing to brief the biden's transition on what's happening. the extent of the damage appears to gone to so many key government agencies. i saw one analyst calling it a nightmare scenario in terms of

our planning. biden's adviser suggested that whatever retaliations would be would be more than sanctions. this is an issue that would be defining the new administration and it is dealing with russia. >> president-elect biden did stop short of calling this an act of war when he was asked about it today. he did not want to lay down a marker if you will on how he's going to respond when he takes over. let me play how that mplayed ou. >> why not lay out those options publicly? is part of the issue here deterrence and russia felt soof what they have done here. >> we don't sit here and say that we are going to strike you with a nuclear weapon and so on. let us determine what the extent of the damage is.

i promise you there will be response. >> steve, what do you think of that? >> there is a lot of questions to whether or not this is is an act of war or do the united states have to act in a military type of capacity. this is a hybrid war attack. this is what the russians had been doing over the past couple of years. they know they can't go against the united states in a conventional war fashion so they'll do it using cyber att k attack. the president-elect biden is quite right of not projecting and giving the russians on a head start of defenses. there is got to be diplomacy. the russian intelligence organizations are the ones who have been offering these cyber attacks. its got to be a hard push back on a bunch of different levels. it sounds like that's what the president and his administration

is doing. >> biden's team had to wait weeks for a formal transition to begin. there was a spat against holiday pause and today biden says they also are not getting fully briefed, they're not getting briefed on this cyber attack. does all of this put biden at a disadvantage when it comes to spopding responding to this? >> there is no question. this is exactly what people have studied transitions from worried about for years, national security implementation, having one leaving and a new one coming in. we are in a whole different level in terms of disruptive transition, erin, this is what it means when you have an administration, the trump administration determined to salt the earth is how someone put it. this is such a risk to u.s. interests. it is not abstract and a matter and not getting a briefing book.

this is an ongoing national security crisis. we don't know the extent of the damage. this was a hack that occurred on donald trump's watch that apparently started back in march. we have only found out about it so it is almost the definition of the kind of scenario that we are worried about and we are not done yet. the trump administration, remember, donald trump fired secretary of defense in the after math of his election defeat. he continues to appoint acting fishes there and senior capacity who seems determined not to cooperate with the in coming administration. it is something quite alarming really. >> steve, the president-elect today said something that i thought was striking, he sees no sign that is the attack has stopped. let me play this. >> first of all, it is a great risk and it continues. i see no evidence that it is under control.

i see none. >> you compare that to president trump who over the weekend said that he been fully briefed and everything was well and completely under control. >> do you think this attack is under control yet? >> well, kate is hard to tell. the russians are good with this stuff and they gotten in. the one thing that i take a great deal of solis is my confidence of the nsa. they're extremely good of rooting this stuff out. i don't have any doubt they'll do that. it is not done over night or done quickly because the russians are really good at it. the differences is the nsa is a little better if finding it. we have our own offense of capabilities as well. that's something the russians need to remember before they continue their attack on this. final thought, susan? >> the point of this being ongoing and remember we still

have almost 30 days left in the trump administration, russia, russia was trump's obsession and it appears that it is at the end with these pardons denying interference, it is a theme. >> thank you both. "ac 360" starts now. it is a good night to be a corrupt republican congressman or a confessed liar or a convicted murder. john berman here is in for anderson. breaking news with 29 days left in office. the president issued a first big wave of what could be a tsunami of pardons. it includes former republican lawmakers and four military contractors involved in a massacre of civilians in iraq. all this begins of the headline speaking of what else the president is doing when not