hello, everyone, i'm kate bolduan. welcome to a special edition of cnn "newsroom." thank you for joining us. christmas eve traditionally a quiet, peaceful day. or that is at least what everyone hopes for. but this is, of course, 2020 and the final days of donald trump's presidency. so instead you have a president focused on helping his friends, licking his wounds and leaving chaos in his wake. overnight president trump issued over two dozen new pardons for another group of his loyalists,

including his long-time ally, roger stone, former campaign chairman paul manafort, and jared kushner's dad, charles kushner. he also vetoed a defense bill, leaving in limbo things like pay raises for the military. and in doing so, the president is ignoring the millions of americans who are hurting and are going to be left in the lurch if, to add to this, the covid relief bill isn't signed into law. it's estimated nearly 5 million people could be pushed into poverty if benefits are allowed to expire the day after christmas. then the government shutdown that threatens the livelihoods of millions more, which is now a real threat. the president is also ignoring the pandemic that is only getting worse at the very worst time of the year. let's start with the mess that president trump continues to

create, starting on capitol hill. they're calling a vote next week to call the president's bluff on payments. they tried to pass the bill meaning it would pass if no one objected but republicans did object. so now a full floor house vote will be happening. phil mattingly joins me now with the details. democrats are scheduling this vote, house republicans are holding private calls to air their grievances. does anyone know what is going to happen here? >> reporter: i'm going to quote senator roy blunt, a member of senate republican leadership, she was very involved in the covid relief piece of this as well as the appropriations piece. i don't know what he is going to do. that is from a senior member on the republican side, close to mitch mcconnell, which encompasses where everything sits right now with the covid relief package, whether there's a government shutdown.

everyone is waiting for a signal from the president. you saw what democrats tried to do this morning, it was blocked. they'll try again on monday. and the reaction from democrats after their actions were blocked this morning, listen to steny hoyer. >> this is christmas eve. surely the president of the united states, whether he's in mar-a-lago or any place else, au ought to empathize with the deep angst the american people are feeling this christmas eve and sign this bill. as we saw today, republican congress and the white house can't agree on what they want. >> reporter: and kate, i want to go back to senator roy blunt here because what he said and props to my colleague kristen on the hill today talking to him for the senate session. what i've been hearing from the

republicans behind the scenes in the course of the last 36 hours, saying he had no idea what the president was going to do here. making it clear the republicans were told the president was going to sign the bill. having no idea who's talking to or influencing the president right now. and blunt is saying, quote, the best way out of this is for the president to sign the bill. when asked the alternative, he goes, let's hope the best way works. it's a hope and pray moment as one aide told me now. there's no clear pathway. >> what does this mean for americans waiting for this aid? waiting for these checks? the military waiting for the ndaa to get approved? what happens next? >> everything is in limbo it's at the whim of one individual. that's the wild part when you talk to both republicans and democrats on capitol hill, the unsettling part is, everything is at the whim of a president well known to be angry, feuding

with the top republican in the united states senate, feuding with the party in general, how does the party split over the course of the next week or two, and as this is happening, underneath all of it is people who need aid, whether it's the direct payments, food assistance, unemployment, everyone is watching and waiting, wondering, and the president is the only one with the answer. what is the president doing? we know he flew to florida yesterday. but other than that, nothing on his schedule. a trend the white house seems to be growing sensitive to as they added this note to the scheduling memo. as the holiday season approaches president trump will continue to work tirelessly for the american people. his schedule includes many meetings and calls. sarah westwood joins us now with more details. one thing we know the president is not doing is giving up on his push to overturn the election.

>> reporter: that's right. we are witnessing some truly erratic behavior from president trump in his final days in office here, particularly on the election related issues but also extending to his attacks on fellow republicans and that minute push to undermine the deal his own white house negotiated. last night as the president was arriving in florida he called for a special counsel to investigate his claims of voter fraud. and the timing of that was notable because it came during the last day that attorney general bill barr had in office and barr has said on multiple occasions he sees no evidence of the kind of widespread fraud that trump has alleged and no need to appoint a special counsel for that. but as trump as grasped at ways to overturn the election results, his ire has turned to his closest ally, vice president mike pence. sources tell cnn that privately trump has complained that pence hasn't done enough to overturn the outcome of the election and

last night he retweeted a call for pence to refuse to ratify the results when he provides over a joint session of congress on january 6th where the results will be certified. trump's efforts to cling to the spotlight go beyond this election-related conspiracies he has it extends to the series of controversial pardons he's issuing at the last minute for loyalists including paul manafort, roger stone. also to this last minute effort to up end the stimulus which some republicans have questioned whether that's an effort to exact revenge on senate republicans like mitch mcconnell who embraced the reality of a biden presidency. and even this mar-a-lago trip where the president is now golfing, was up in the air when aides questioned whether he was going to leave for it until he did. a lot of unpredictable behavior from trump during the last days of his presidency here. >> joining me now is ellie

hannis. he does have time to golf. let me ask you about the pardons that happened overnight. what do you think of these? >> we are by the day reaching new lows of corruption and abuse of power. when i say new lows, i don't mean relating to donald trump, i mean over american history. look at richard nixon, our colleague at cnn, a historian, wrote an interesting piece about how richard nixon seriously considered and wanted to issue pardons to his political aides, his advisers caught up in the watergate scandal but even richard nixon decided no. that's too dangerous to our democracy. that's too bad for me politically to my legacy. even richard nixon said i'm not going there. donald trump is going there and then some. he has openly, freely pardoning basically everyone involved in the robert mueller investigation with a key caveat, only those who stayed silent, refused to

cooperate. rick gates, michael cohen they testified they have not received a pardon. so donald trump is going beyond what richard nixon was willing to do. >> you write that these pardons increase trump's exposure to charges once he does leave office. what do you mean? >> here's my thinking. look, donald trump is -- robert mueller told us in his report, one of the things that donald trump did that could be obstruction of justice is he dangled pardons. he was tweeting, making public statements about michael flynn and maybe i'll pardon him, pardon roger stone. as a result of that, those people declined to corporaopera stopped cooperating. now he has delivered those pardons. look at the results, the people who he pardoned refused to corporate or really damning the people who started cooperating

and then stopped. that is the most self-destructive thing you can do, the best way to land yourself in prison for a long term, unless you expect to be saved on the back end and that could be what we're seeing here. >> a question about timing of all of this. bill barr, he left the job officially yesterday. last night trump drops these pardons, this wave of pardons with the high profile names, roger stone, paul manafort and the like. is that a coincidence? >> it's hard to say. i bet you bill barr is breathing a sigh of relief he's not around to deal with this. doj normally should have a part in the pardon process. there's an office called the office of the pardon attorney that donald trump has ignored throughout this process, essentially. that's important because pardons can be used for justice and mercy. one of the things that's so offensive about the pardons is there are countless people in

federal prison serving decades for drug sentences. then we get a pardon to charles kushner, committed vile crimes. i won't repeat the specifics of what we did hear. if you look at the white house press release describing why they were given it said to charles kushner he donated to charity. who are they fooling? it should say that is jared kushner's dad. that is repulsive self-dealing. >> one more question on bill barr, after barr -- on barr's last day, trump sends out this tweet that he wants a special counsel to investigate voter fraud. i was struck because bill barr was asked about this on monday in his final press conference and here's what he said. >> if i thought a special counsel at this stage was the right tool and was appropriate,

i -- i would do -- i would name one but i haven't and i'm not going to. >> what do you think this means for the new guy coming in? the new acting attorney general, jeffrey rosen. >> it's going to be a difficult decision. bill barr was right you can't appoint a special counsel where there's no fact. i wish bill barr hadn't spent the m months leading up to the election, echoing the false claims of voter fraud but in the end stage he did the right thing. jeffrey rosen is going to be in office for a few weeks, and he's going to be under real pressure from donald trump. the law says only the ag can appoint a special counsel so we'll see if jeffrey rosen has integrity and backbone. >> thank you. coming up for us, the u.s. has vaccinated 1 million people against the coronavirus. coming up we'll talk to a doctor and journalist who has concerns about the rollout, calling it a

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important benefits. depending on where you live, they could include dental, vision and hearing coverage. you may also get rides to plan-approved locations; home delivered meals after an in-patient hospital stay; a monthly allowance for purchasing healthy food and beverages; plus an allowance for health and wellness items. everything from over the counter medications and vitamins, to first aid items and personal care products. best of all, if you have medicare and medicaid, you may qualify for multiple opportunities throughout the year to enroll. so if you want more from medicare, call the number on your screen now to speak with a licensed humana sales agent. learn about humana plans that could give you more healthcare benefits. including coverage for prescription drugs, dental care, eye exams and glasses, hearing aids and more. a licensed humana sales agent will walk you through your options, answer any questions you have and, if you're eligible, help you enroll over

the phone. call today and we'll also send this free guide. humana, a more human way to healthcare. the united states has reached a milestone with coronavirus vaccines. more than 1 million people have now gotten their first shot. and there have been more than 9 million doses distributed to states so far with more on the way. those numbers fall far short of the goal set by operation warp speed to vaccinate 20 million americans by the end of december. still the head of the nih is

impressed by the pace so far. >> it's amazing it's gone as fast as it has so far. i think the effort is pretty amazing. if we don't get to quite 20 million people being vaccinated this month i hope people understand this is a logistic challenge of enormous proportion. >> let's get perspective on this. joining me is dr. elizabeth rosenthal, author of "an american sick". she has a new op-ed in "the new york times." you heard francis collins there saying he thinks the vaccine effort so far has been amazing. what do you see? >> i see lots of problems. i see problems with the way we're doing it. we're trusting the trickle down method where the federal government sends it to the state who sends it to counties who sends it to hospitals, nursing homes, and they're making their allocation decisions depending

on all sorts of algorithms. so instead of treating this as a team sport, which many countries are doing, we're -- it's really a mess in the sense of it's unfair, it's unequitable. at kaiser health we're hearing from a doctor in maine who, because she is not on staff at a hospital, is not getting -- has no idea when she's going to get it because she's not in the loop. we're hearing from a wealthy nursing home where all the residents have been inoculated and one not so wealthy 10 miles away who don't know when they're getting the vaccine. we're hearing there are people in hospitals in the coms departments getting it but the residents at the bedside treating patients have not gotten the shot. it's done in this hyper local

level and that's a terrible way to allocate this precious resource. >> you also pose -- i thought it was an interesting and important question -- how will essential workers who are then next in line, transit workers, teachers, grocery store employees and more, how will they know when it is their turn? were you able to figure it out? >> there is no way to know when it's your turn and that's the problem. i think the cdc has issued its recommendations, but, you know, states and counties and hospitals and cities are not necessarily following them. so it will be different in each place and how will you know? how will i know? i think that's a huge open question. you contrast that with other countries where there's central prioritization and people have already got little cards saying we will tell you when it's your turn. in some places, like israel, for example where they're prioritizing people over 65 they

have gotten a date and a time in early next year for an appointment to get their vaccination. so it's just, you know, vaccinating an entire country should be a team sport where we all agree on things. instead, it's, of course -- it's very local, there's potential for favoritism, for politics, for who you know to get in the way here. and it's very disturbing. it's disturbing to me to see unions and teachers and transit workers kind of jockeying and lobbying to see who should get it first. we need a central plan. >> let me play for you what dr. spencer said his fear is going forward about this. he told me this on the show. >> really the first step is going to be the easiest step in some respects. it's send to hospitals with a distribution system in place we know who is getting it.

we're not having as much of the fighting of who's going to get it next. we know front line workers should be prioritized. >> that made sense in how this could become a proproblem going forward. when you hear francis collins say it's gone amazing, what is he missing? >> he's missing the distribution problem we're seeing and how someone like me, a journalist and kaiser health news reporters all over the country, we're hearing from the places where sure thaw eey've gotten some vaccines but a lot of places only got 40% of what they were told they were going to get. and then they're each deciding according to their own methods where they're going to use them. i think that's what he's missing. this is not a way to run a distribution effort. it is amazing. maybe a footrace was a great way to get us the vaccine, all these companies competing to be first.

it's not a good way to distribute the vaccine. >> a lot to think about here, especially in the coming days. thank you for coming on. >> thanks for having me. coming up next for us, thousands going hungry, the country is in the midst of a food crisis and how one cleveland food bank is trying to handle the overwhelming crush of holiday need. ♪ the only thing a disaster can't destroy is hope.

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washington is once again at a stand still over the coronavirus relief package. that's not only a sign of dysfunction of congress right now but also a signal to millions of americans that help is not on the way. but we do know that the need is so great. perhaps the most striking sign of how many americans are hurting and how desperately this help is needed is the lines of hundreds of cars lined up at food banks across the country. you're looking at scenes from los angeles, fort worth, miami and san antonio. just look at the people. look at those cars. just last weekend, cnn was in boynton beach, florida a few minutes from president trump's private mar-a-lago club. people there started lining up for food before dawn. >> for people who have been here

since 4:30 in the morning have got to be desperate to come sit for almost five hours to get a box of food for their family. i would hate for me to get the last of something and the person behind me be in a worse position than i am. >> what a big heart on that woman. joining me right now is karen pazna, she's with the greater food bank in ohio. thank you for coming in. >> thank you. >> there were thousands of people waiting in line at your food bank yesterday. what are the stories you're hearing from folks right now? >> you know what, it's a similar situation that we're seeing across the country. we had, you know, lines that were over a mile long yesterday. and, you know, hours before our distribution started they just want to make sure that they get in line and they get that food that they need so desperately.

you know, people once they do receive the food and you see them driving through and starting to drive away, you can just see the relief on their face, and that just means so much to all of us that work there and all of our volunteers. >> absolutely. you see the sign from someone saying thank you. >> yeah. >> what are the stories that you're hearing, the circumstances you're hearing from folks why they need to wait for hours and miles in line to get your much, much needed food? >> yeah. you know, we are seeing so many people come to us for the first time that have never needed help before. about a third of the folks that we've been serving since the pandemic started are people coming for the first time. and i think -- >> wow that is heartbreaking. >> it is. it really is. i think, you know, people didn't know what to expect when this pandemic started. i don't know that people anticipated it lasting as long as it has.

and our need has continued to increase over the months. you know, yesterday we distributed over 4,000 boxes of food that will help serve thousands of people. and, you know, that is a -- become a common scene for us and our food bank. we do these distributions weekly. we've done them since the pandemic started way back in march. and we'll continue to do them well into the new year as the need is still there. >> i do wonder, the need at the food bank has been something that we have seen since the beginning of this pandemic. does the need feel even greater around the holidays? >>, you know, i think it does. you just want to make sure that everybody has a meal during the holidays. obviously, you know, the need is year round, but there is something special about making sure that everyone has the food that they need and especially here in our area as it's getting colder, you don't want people to have to make that choice between, you know, food and paying for heat or utilities.

and so, if that's one thing we can do is be able to provide that meal to them and that's one less thing they have to worry about, that's why we're here. >> i do not and will not drag you into politics here, but when you see that this relief money set for millions of americans to be going out approved by congress and now it's held up in limbo and held up and caught up in politics, i'm just curious what you would like to say about that? >>, you know, i think that people are scared. you know, they're scared, there's been so many people who have lost their jobs or had to take pay cuts. the need was great before the pandemic. it's continuing now. and i see it continuing well into the new year. and, you know, we're grateful because we've had a very generous community who has helped support us. we're just going to continue to need that support well into the new year.

>> no matter what aid or -- is coming or is not, you will be there. karen, thank you. >> absolutely. thanks. still ahead for us, forming a covid bubble with a small group of family and friends may sound safe but experts are warning those pandemic pods could be giving you a false sense of safety. ♪ it's velveeta versus the other guys. clearly, nothing melts like velveeta. ♪ clearly, nothing melts like velveeta. he used to have gum problems. now, he uses therabreath healthy gums oral rinse with clinically-proven ingredients and his gum problems have vanished. (crowd applauding) therabreath, it's a better mouthwash.

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benefits than you have today. depending on the plan you choose, you could have your doctor, hospital and prescription drug coverage in one convenient plan. from humana, a company with nearly 60 years of experience in the healthcare industry. you'll have lots of doctors and specialists to choose from. and, if you have medicare and medicaid, a humana plan may give you other important benefits. depending on where you live, they could include dental, vision and hearing coverage. you may also get rides to plan-approved locations; home delivered meals after an in-patient hospital stay; a monthly allowance for purchasing healthy food and beverages; plus an allowance for health and wellness items. everything from over the counter medications and vitamins, to first aid items and personal care products. best of all, if you have medicare and medicaid, you may qualify for multiple opportunities throughout the year to enroll. so if you want more from medicare, call the

number on your screen now to speak with a licensed humana sales agent. learn about humana plans that could give you more healthcare benefits. including coverage for prescription drugs, dental care, eye exams and glasses, hearing aids and more. a licensed humana sales agent will walk you through your options, answer any questions you have and, if you're eligible, help you enroll over the phone. call today and we'll also send this free guide. humana, a more human way to healthcare. for the sixth straight day, tsa screened around a million

people, nearly 1.2 million traveling through airport security yesterday. a new record since the start of the pandemic. a clear sign that despite warnings americans are traveling for the holidays. but what about those who are staying close to home? staying in their bubbles or pods with others to try to limit the risk of exposure to coronavirus? terms we have become familiar with this in quarantine covid era. a new report says all pods are not created equal. the headline, sorry to burst your quarantine bubble, pod means something different to everyone and that's the problem. joining me is the deputy managing editor for the atlantic magazine. she wrote this piece that had me thinking. thank you for coming in. as we looked at the long winter you looked at the effectiveness of the covid pods and bubbles. what are experts telling you about how effective they are?

>> thank you for having me. i've been hearing from public health experts and epidemiologists that in theory bubbles are a great idea they should reduce spread from the disease jumping between people. but in practice that's not what's going on. there's not really a ton of data on this. i spoke to a few people from around the country, just regular folks and found out the people they were calling pods are different. some people are in three people pods some are in 30 person pods. it ranges all over the place. >> is the concern from experts the number of people in the pod or, i don't know, the standards that these pods set? what are you finding from the families you spoke to? >> yeah. it's definitely both. the number of people in the pod is important. generally the fewer people you're exposed to the safer you'll be, it's intuitive.

but the behavior the people engage in the pods is also important. the pod is more effective if everyone is careful about masking and not going indoors with people not in the pods. the other thing that's important is pods be closed. if you're podded with your next door neighbors but they're podded with the cousins and the cousins are podded with someone who teaches their kid, that pod gets big really fast and you might not know whose germs you're exposed to. >> if pods can be broken, is the risk a false sense of security? >> a false sense of security is definitely a problem here. i think one of the other problems is communication. so, if two people are in the same pod, but they have different ideas of what's okay or who they can see, that means that they might really not know what they're being exposed to. and so, they could just not have a great sense of their own

safety, which could lead them to make decisions they might not want to make. >> rachel, if in theory pods and bubbles are quite effective and lord knows we all are desiring some form of socializing, what did you land on as the best form, the best way to form and keep a bubble safe? >> sure. the experts i spoke to said that about 10 people or fewer is your best bet and, of course, that's not possible for everybody just based on living situations but 10 people or fewer seem safest. the thing you need to remember, too, is that the transmission rates across the country and in your community are going to determine what's safer and what's not. so where we are right now, things are pretty bad, over 200,000 new cases yesterday and 3,000 deaths. you might want to keep your pod smaller than you did over the

summer. >> what was safe in the summer is definitely not so much safe now we're seeing that across the board. rachel, thank you very much. a 20-year-old gets coronavirus, she recovers after mild symptoms but then she suffers heart failure. what she wants everyone to learn from her story. dn't work. but we went to work. building an experience that lets you shop over 17,000 cars from home. creating a coast to coast network to deliver your car as soon as tomorrow. recruiting an army of customer advocates to make your experience incredible. and putting you in control of the whole thing with powerful technology. that's why we've become the nation's fastest growing retailer. because our customers love it. see for yourself, at carvana.com. until i found out what itust? it actually was.d me. dust mite droppings? ewww. dead skin cells? gross! so now, i grab my swiffer heavy duty seper and dusters. dusters extendto 6 feet to reach way up high... to grab, trap and lock away grosdust. nice!

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it was a mild case of

coronavirus until it almost killed her. a 20-year-old healthy college student at temple university in philadelphia got coronavirus and thought she recovered quickly, she quarantined, tested negative and went home for thanksgiving. that's when everything changed and she ended up in the hospital with heart failure, fighting for her life. she survived and she is now has a message. she's joining us now. m madeline, it's wonderful to meet you. your story is unbelievable. i really wanted to know after you recovered from your mild case, when did you suspect something was wrong? that not everything was right. what were you feeling? >> sure. i was actually walking the dog with my family over thanksgiving break. and i realized that i was having like some shortness of breath just walking. so i was like, wow, like i really must be out of shape. but actually, you know, over

thanksgiving it just kept getting a little bit worse. and then came intense, intense chest pain. and that's when i knew that something was seriously wrong. >> at the time did you think any of this was related to coronavirus or something else? >> i heard some people were getting pneumonia from having coronavirus so that's what i thought was happening to me, that it was just pneumonia. so we went to an urgent care and they prescribed antibiotics and i thought i was fine and it just kept progressively getting worse. so then i knew i needed to get to the emergency room. >> and then eventually you had to be air lifted to a bigger hospital in pennsylvania. >> right. >> and then at 20 years old you're diagnosed with congestive heart failure related to covid. when you heard that from your doctors, do you remember what you thought at the time? >> you know, i wasn't really letting myself go there.

like i wasn't really hearing it. i was just like, okay, so what are we going to do about it? it wasn't like, i'm in conge congestive heart failure. it was how do we fix this problem? it actually hit me afterwards, once i was in the hospital and feeling better it was like this happened to me. that kind of thing. >> did you hear from the doctors what it would have meant if you had not listened to your symptoms, if you had not gone and sought help? >> no, i wasn't asking those kinds of questions. you know, in my mind, i have an answer, it would be a very different story that you'd be telling today, i think. but i'm just -- i'm super grateful to the doctors at the university of pennsylvania. they did amazing >> how long have you been back home? and how are you feeling now? how has recovery been?

>> it's been about two weeks at home. recovery has been slow. some days i even forget and i feel so good. then i do a little bit too much and i'm like, whoa. you know? i'm tired. it's difficult for me to walk up the stairs or, like i said, take the dog for the walk around the block. i can't make it around the block yet. just things like that, taking a shower takes it out of me. it's really a weird feeling to be weak at 20, 21 years old. >> absolutely. i mean, you wanted to speak up and tell your story because you have a message for folks. who do you want to speak to? >> right. i just want people that aren't taking this as seriously as they should be, who believe that this is kind of just like the flu or, you know, are disappointed with the regulations happening across

the country to just kind of remember my story. remember the worst that can happen and that it can happen to anyone. and you know, i am just happy to be alive basically and i don't really mind the regulations anymore. it's just i'm just trying to share my perspective with people and have them realize that it could be a lot worse. >> yeah. madeline neville, thank you very much. good luck with your recovery. >> thank you so much. >> thank you. coming up next for us, 3 billion packages shipped this holiday season. nearly 19,000 postal workers in quarantine. those are two of the reasons so many christmas packages may not make it out on time. and real snow all the way d) from switzerland. (betsy) hmmhm... gonna be tough to top.

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if your christmas deliveries haven't arrived yet, you are not alone. so many people apart for the holidays, the u.s. postal service says it's overwhelmed with a record number of mail-in packag packages. here is the perfect storm. >> we just don't have enough rooms in the stations to deal with all the mail. >> reporter: new york postal union president jonathan smith says the post office is handling more mail than ever before.

this year, 3 billion parcels will be delivered during the peak holiday season by all major carriers. that's 800 million more than last year. >> it's an impossible task to keep up. >> reporter: and impacting christmas mornings around the country. >> things i ordered never came on time. they're not going to come on time. i ended up canceling or they said they were delivered and they weren't. >> reporter: the backlog affecting small business owners. she refunded $800 in sales of her hand painted aluminum wreaths because of postal delays. she's getting messages like this one from customers -- the wreath is not here yet. can you please find out where it is? >> i'm not counting on them because i had to shut my shop down because i can't rely on the flowers to get there before christmas. >> reporter: she is not alone. these photos show thousands of packages piling up at a postal processing center in philadelphia. a lot of anger directed at

postmaster general louis dejoy appointed by trump earlier this year. he faced criticism over the summer for removing large mail sorters and implementing cuts to overtime and post office hours. leading to concerns that election ballots would not arrive on time. he reversed course before the election. >> i think american people can feel comfortable that the postal service will deliver on this election. >> reporter: dejoy was even questioned about christmas during a congressional hearing this summer. >> do you have capacity now for christmas and mother's day? >> yes, we have capacity for christmas and mother's day. >> reporter: but some postal workers feel like dejoy made promises without supporting the monumental challenges they're facing now. >> all of the decisions that dejoy made is affecting the way that we are able to do our job. >> reporter: in a statement, a postal service spokeswoman told cnn unlike last year, we are managing through an historic record of holiday volume this

season, compounded by temporary employee shortages due to the pandemic. private carriers like fedex and u.p.s. are also feeling the heat, both have issued their own warnings about delays. u.p.s. even placing shipping limits on some of its largest retailers including nike and the gap. a luxury the united states postal service does not have. it does not impose limits and the agency often has to absorb the packages these private carriers turn down. what kind of stress have the u.p.s. and fedex restriction put on the u.s. postal service? >> the last few days we're receiving 6 million packages a day more than what they would have otherwise had handled if it was not for those restrictions. >> reporter: on top of the crush for demand, the impact of the coronavirus. as nearly 19,000 postal workers

are in quarantine. that's more than double the 8,000 workers before thanksgiving. >> i understand the frustration of the american public. we're doing the best we can. don't confuse a comma for a period because we will get you your packages. >> reporter: cristina alesci, cnn, new york. it is the top of the hour now. hel hello, everyone, i'm kate bolduan a special edition of "cnn newsroom." christmas eve a time for people to come together, although this year doing so virtually. but the president and his own party can't even seem to do that. and washington can't seem to do virtually anything at the moment. president trump is making it crystal clear right now it's him versus everyone. in a desperate attempt to cling to the false reality that the election can be overturned he's wreaking havoc on his own team, angry that his vice president according to "the new york times" aren't doing enough to defend him and his fantasy of

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