enough. they need the details now and it could be long-term consequences if they don't have those briefings right now. >> kristen, thank you so much. i really appreciate it. thank you all so much for joining us for this special edition of "cnn newsroom" on christmas eve. bianna golodryga picks up our coverage right now. ♪ hello and welcome to a special edition of "newsroom." i'm bianna golodryga. whether you begun celebrating christmas or you will soon, please take a moment to think of the people who are directly affected by the pandemic today. nearly 120,000 americans are spending christmas eve in the hospital. and another 3,359 people just died of covid. nevertheless, the tsa says 1.2 million people boarded a plane yesterday, ignoring pleas from health officials to stay home. and even as 1 million have been vaccinated across the u.s., as

of today, a new research model suggests we will report 567,000 deaths in the next four months. but as the virus grows deadlier and the american worker grows more desperate, the president completely up ended the newly-passed coronavirus relief bill, refusing to sign it and then hopping on a plane to his golf resort in florida. and now congress is back at the drawing board and a government shutdown is now looming on the other side of the holiday. >> so we do not have unanimous consent. the house stands adjourned until 2:00 p.m. on monday, december 28th, 2020. merry christmas. >> cnn's phil mattingly is following developments. merry christmas indeed with that lump of coal. a lot of members are not happy with this. what's happening on the floor today? >> reporter: yeah, look, there's a lot of frustration. frankly a lot of confusion. and the reality, bianna, as it currently stands, nobody really

knows what's going to happen next. what you just watched on the house floor was an effort by democrats to essentially seize on what the president called for, expanding the direct payments in the stimulus piece of this legislative package from $600 to $2,000. they were very well aware republicans are going to block that effort. they will on monday attempt to bring it up for a full house floor vote, everybody up or down, but the reality is this, members have no control over what's happening right now. senators don't either. senator roy blunt, a top ally of mitch mcconnell, he san aappropriator as well told reporters he has no idea what the president is thinking and suggested perhaps we should ask him. when asked, roy blunt, what the next steps were in this process, he said the only real possible step is for the president to sign this bill he has not committed to signing. when asked what happens if he doesn't, i hope option one works. so the reality right now, bianna, there's no clear pathway

forward. everybody is waiting for the president to say what's next and the stakes are so enormous. this is the frustration you hear from both republicans and democrats given how long it took for them to find agreement on this package. it might not be what everybody wants. but when you have two federal unemployment programs set to expire on the 26th, that's two days from now, when you have direct payments that would be helpful, when you have federal unemployment benefits $300, eviction moratorium about to expire, food aid plussed up as well, given the economic issues so many americans are facing right now, this is a crucial moment for them. tag on to that, there's also a potential for government shutdown on monday as well. so, not a lot of answers. definitely a lot of frustration. when you talk to republicans, bianna, they're basically saying, this keep our heads down. just hope the president changes his mind. >> well that is a scary thought. he has been m.i.a. throughout this process. his own treasury secretary said the checks could go out next week. that is not going to happen. yet everyone is waiting on the president to act. unbelievable.

phil mattingly, thank you so much. merry christmas to you. well, the clock is running out on the trump administration and the president is busying himself in his final days by giving passes, pardons really, to his friends, his allies and criminals many of them overlapping. the latest round of pardons includes long-time trump adviser roger stone, former trump campaign manager paul manafort and his own in-law, charles kushner. joining me now is cnn senior justice correspondent evan perez and cnn legal analyst carey cordero. evan, as bad as this may look, it's hard to say any of these pardons are a surprise, specially last night. the president himself hinted at this throughout the mueller investigation, really don't talk and you'll be rewarded. and we're seeing that come to fruition now. >> you know, bianna, i think i would use one of the president's own words that he often wheels on twitter, it was rigged. all along he has been telegraphing in public that if

these people did not speak, if they did not cooperate with the special counsel investigation, if they had his back, he was going to take care of them. those are the exact words that paul manafort, the former chairman of the campaign, he told one of the witnesses rick gates, rick gates told this to prosecutors, to investigators he said one of the things that paul manafort told him was that he had had conversations with the president's attorneys and that they had assured him that if he did not flip, if he did not cooperate with the investigation, that they were going to be taken care of. i'll read you just one part of the special counsel report it says, quote, evidence concerning the president's conduct towards manafort indicates the president intended to encourage manafort to not cooperate with the government. that is exactly according to the special counsel what manafort did he pleaded guilty and when he was supposed to be cooperating with the investigators he was lying in the case of roger stone, we know

publicly he has said you know essentially that he -- the judge has said in his case that he was lying to protect the president. so now the reward comes to these men for doing exactly what the president was asked them to do. >> and i know at the time when trump was tweeting these sort of rewards, dangling the pardons, if you will, many legal experts like yourself were calling this obstruction of justice. now that this has played out, is that not the definition of what's transpired? >> i think that's right, bianna. i mean, the president was very open. it's not as if there were tapes that were released where he was making these promises and dangling these pardons behind the scenes or on private calls that then somehow were exposed. instead, what i think he realized over the course of his presidency is that if he did these things completely out in the open, in statements he made to members of the media, in

tweets, that it could have the same effect, the individuals he was trying to reach and communicate with, the individuals who were the defendants who he was trying to prevent their cooperation, they heard him and they adjusted their behavior accordingly. but, he was able to then use his pardon authority, which he does have broad executive authority to be able to do, to be able to basically obstruct those investigations, they with held their cooperation, they with held some information presumably that they could have provided to investigators. so what we're seeing is really the unraveling of the entire mueller investigation. >> and it gives you a sense, perhaps, evan, why bill barr decided to leave when he did. he was the president's biggest enabler and he couldn't stomach what was to come. we have a few more weeks of

this. who are the other possibilities who could receive a presidential pardon? >> the charles kushner pardon happened last night is i think a preview. the president was dipping his toe in the family pot and that's where we expect before this is all over that the president is going to go. we expect -- we know there's been conversations with the president inside the president's circle about issuing pardons preemptive pardons to his family members, to even himself. and so, that's where we eventually see this going. the question is how do you structure a preemptive pardon to cover everything? and i think that's going to be the legal hurdle that they're going to have to go through. we expect obviously there's some other characters including rudy giuliani who has been running around trying to do the president's bidding, to undermine the confidence in the election result. rudy giuliani is obviously one of the big names. and so is steve bannon suddenly

after being on the outs with the president is very chummy with him. he's having him on his podcast. those are the names that i think we're going to keep watching for. and we still have, bianna, we still have about 27 days left before this is all over. >> 27 long days. and for anyone that doesn't know what charles kushner went to prison for and pled guilty to, take a moment to look that up. it is one of the ugliest crimes as governor chris christie described it as he was then prosecuting it at the time. carrie, the big question is can we expect the president to pardon himself? ? an interview roger stone floated a possible scenario. take a listen. >> if the president does choose to pardon himself or if he decided to resign four hours early and vice president pence became president and pardoned the president, which i think might protect that movement --

that move legally a bit, you couldn't blame him. >> so carrie, what are the chances, this is a legal gray area, as are many things with this president what are the chances he can actually pardon himself? >> well, we really don't know because we haven't been in a situation where a president was in a position where he would be so self serving as to test the constitutional bounds of whether or not he could issue a self pardon. so whether or not he actually issues it, we will have to wait and see. the only way, though, that it could actually be challenged if he were to do it is if a later federal prosecution actually were to proceed. so, there is a possibility that if he were to do it it would just be sort of this anomaly that would hang out there and there would not necessarily be an avenue for it to be challenged in court. but it falls into the

self-serving category a little bit different than some of these other friends and family pardons that he might issue. but i just want to say, biannab also, i think perhaps the most fencive to the rule of law are the pardons -- >> and we lost carrie there. apologies with that tease. we'll have to see what the most egregious was with her in just a minute. evan perez, thanks to you. >> thanks. more than 9 million doses of the coronavirus have been distributed. but only about a million of those had been administered. why the gap between getting doses out of the bottle and into people. plus, california surpasses 2 million confirmed cases. more than some countries. how they're working to combat the surge. and president trump spending the day at his golf course after causing chaos in washington. so what will he do next? i'll speak with the man who literally wrote the book on trump.

subway is open and serving footlongs contact-free. order in the app for quick and easy pickup. or, get contact-free curbside pickup! staying home? get delivery! so many ways to get footlongs contact-free! subway. eat fresh. an herbal stress reliever ashwagandha, so many ways to get footlongs contact-free! that helps you turn the stressed life... into your best life. stress less and live more. with stressballs.

a model often sited by the white house is increasing its projection for deaths from coronavirus. the institute for health metrics and evaluation now believes the u.s. will suffer a total of 567,000 deaths by april 1st. but the model is also forecasting as many as 33,000 lives could be saved by the projected vaccine rollout. more than 1 million people in the u.s. have already been vaccinated. but notice vaccinations administered is falling behind the number of doses delivered. it's clear the u.s. will not meet initial goal of 20 million

shots in arms by year end. great to see you, elizabeth coh cohen. why is this growing gap between vaccinations delivered and vaccinations that are administered. >> bianna, i think what we're just seeing is reality. that you can put the doses out there, you can put the shots out there, but it takes time to administer them. there are various logistical hurdles that need to be overcome. this is not a bad thing. this is just the way that it is. unfortunately health officials over the past month created this impression we would have 20 million vaccinated americans by the end of the year. well, the chances of us vaccinating 19 million people in the next week is very small. you would have to be santa on his sleigh to get that done. it's probably not going to happen. as i said, it's unfortunate they created this impression because really, bianna, what you and i should be talking about is the fact they vaccinated 1 million people in ten days. that's pretty amazing. i don't know that that's ever been done in this country before. >> so they overshot the estimate, pun intended.

you get where i'm going and i hear you instead of focussing on the numbers and ministered obviously they perhaps were too optimistic about how many people would be vaccinated at this point. i know you spoke with dr. fauci recently. how long does he plan in staying in this fight? we need him selfishly, but you know, as we know, today is his birthday. he needs some time off. what is next for him? >> oh, bianna, i think he would disagree with you. he has been going strong. he turns 80 today. he said he always had high energy. he said he doesn't see that his energy has diminished since he was a young man. i said to him, it seems like you work 24/7. here is his response. >> well, not 24/7, but more like 18/7. >> do you think you'll ever retire? >> well, i think i have to be realistic. i think that sooner or later i'm going to have to do that. i don't see that right now

clearly in my future. the only thing i see ahead is the challenge that we are currently facing. >> dr. fauci says that this christmas and on his birthday he is practicing what he's been preaching. he is not traveling. he is not encouraging his family members to travel. he has three daughters who live in various places around the u.s. they are not coming in to help him celebrate this milestone birthday. he said they will wait until next year. he hopes by then they can all get together and then he said they will really make the most of it. bianna? >> 81 is the new 80. i for one am so thankful he was born and god bless him. happy birthday to him and happy holidays to him and his family. hopefully he'll get a few hours of downtown, you as well, elizabeth. appreciate it. after throwing coronavirus relief in doubt and pardoning convicted officials president trump is spending the holidays at mar-a-lago. what might come next as his

presidency winds down? plus an nba game postponed and a player fined $50,000 as the league tries to navigate life outside of bubble. and take. it. on... ...with rinvoq. rinvoq a once-daily pill... ...can dramatically improve symptoms... rinvoq helps tame pain, stiffness, swelling. and for some... rinvoq can even significantly reduce ra fatigue. that's rinvoq relief. with ra, your overactive immune system attacks your joints. rinvoq regulates it to help stop the attack. rinvoq can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious infections and blood clots, sometimes fatal, have occurred... ...as have certain cancers, including lymphoma, and tears in the stomach or intestines, and changes in lab results. your doctor should monitor your bloodwork. tell your doctor about any infections... and if you are or may become pregnant while taking rinvoq. take on ra talk to your rheumatologist about rinvoq relief.

rinvoq. make it your mission. if you can't afford your medicine, abbvie may be able to help.

new cnn reporting this hour regarding an oval office meeting on wednesday. the president spent more than an hour with vice president pence right before the president tweeted out a plea for pence to

reject the results of the election. one person inside the pre-get away meeting says the discussion was entirely unrelated to the president's fight to subvert the november results. but sources say that president trump has complained in recent days that pence is doing too little to fight for him as his presidency draws to a close. joining me now is trump biographer michael dantonio. thank you for joining us. author of the new book. michael, what do you make of this news, oval office meeting. typically a meeting with his vice president would be normal but these are not normal times marly the last month. >> what we know about mike pence is that he's caught in a trap. so he's committed himself to this abjectly servile role he fulfilled for four years hoping that some of donald trump's magic and some of the loyalty of his followers will rub off on

him because he has his own designs on the oval office, whether it would be in 2024 or 2028. but he's also someone who understands the institutions of washington. he's a creature of the legislature. he knows that his role is not to disrupt the final accounting and do something to prevent joe biden from becoming president. so, he's in this very difficult spot. and donald trump knows nothing else but to threaten and pressure people to do what he wants. >> well, let's just say that if he -- and i'm sure he will, ratify the votes come january 6th, that that's not some measure of a profile of courage, right? that is what he is supposed to be doing. i can't believe we're at this point yet here we are. and let's get the president's rejection of the covid relief bill some context right now. this president is preventing millions of americans from

getting the financial aid they desperately need and once again throwing his own party under the bus. try to explain why this is anything but political suicide for him if, in fact, he does want to run again in 2024? >> well, i have a lot of doubt about whether he truly wants to run in 2024. i think he'll make noise about it for a long time, but i don't expect him to actually do it. so what we're seeing here are two keys to understanding donald trump. the first is that he's surrounded by death, suffering, hunger of americans who have been devastated by the covid pandemic. he could go within five miles of mar-a-lago and find two different food pantries open today on christmas eve that are seeing lines out the door. but he doesn't care about that suffering. what he cares about is his own

ego. and his own grievance. the other thing that we're noticing is that he's perfectly willing to pursue his own interests. by this i mean his own drifting interest, his interest in creating an empire that's a personal, political empire that millions of followers will donate to while throwing the gop under the bus. the republican establishment is saying that they will lose the senate if donald trump doesn't come through with covid aid. the georgians who are voting in a few weeks are really fed up with this. and yet he doesn't care. he is bigger than the party, and i think he considers himself bigger than the country. >> michael dantonio, unfortunately we have to end on that note. we appreciate it. happy holidays to you. >> thank you. happy holidays. >> thank you. california sees its second highest death toll since the

pandemic began. officials there say their icu capacity is near zero. so what can be done to get this surge under control? california health secretary joins me next. research shows that people remember commercials with exciting stunts. so to help you remember that liberty mutual customizes your home insurance, here's something you shouldn't try at home... look, liberty mutual customizes home insurance so we only pay for what we need. it's pretty cool. that is cool! grandma! very cool. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ life doesn't stop for a cold. [man] honey... [woman] honey that's why there's new dayquil severe honey.

it's maximum strength cold and flu medicine with soothing honey-licious taste. dayquil honey. the daytime coughing, aching, stuffy head, fever, power through your day medicine. robinwithout the commission fees. so, you can start

s. . who invented car vending machines and buying a car 100% online. now we've created a brand-new

way for you to sell your car. whether it's a year old or a few years old. we wanna buy your car. so go to carvana and enter your license plate answer a few questions. and our techno wizardry calculates your car's value and gives you a real offer in seconds. when you're ready, we'll come to you, pay you on the spot and pick up your car, that's it. so ditch the old way of selling your car, and say hello to the new way at carvana. california has become the first state to surpass 2 million cases of coronavirus. that means the single state of california has more infections than the entire nations of germany or spain or mexico.

just follow that redline. cnn's dan simon joins me now from san francisco. unfortunately, dan, that red line is going in the wrong direction. any sense that the stricter measures that the state has taken are making an impact? >> reporter: well, it's a little bit of a mixed picture, bianna. we'll get to the numbers in a minute, but of course there is the concern with people holding gatherings over the next few days and people congregating at shopping malls. we'll have to see what happens in the weeks ahead. in the meantime, let's go through some of the statistics. 361 deaths yesterday that the second highest since the beginning of the pandemic. the record was actually set on december 16th with 379 deaths. now, the state did record nearly 40,000 cases yesterday. that is a huge number by any stretch. nonetheless, it is down 27% from the previous week. so there is some good news there. the state's seven day positivity rate also slightly down. it's 12.6% down by about 1%.

this is how governor gavin newsom is framing these current numbers. take a look. >> it's a modest indication of a possible sign of some good news, but again, we have to be mindful of what we're walking into over the course of the next number of days into christmas holiday season more broadly. >> reporter: and despite that possible good news, icu capacities statewide has continued to go down. it's now just at 1.1% as many state officials have acknowledged. right now we're in a surge on top of a surge. >> everyone is anticipating a post holiday surge as well as the governor there alluded to. dan simon, thank you. well, let me turn now to dr. mark gally, secretary of the california health and human services agency. this is a very busy time for you, doctor. thank you for coming on with us. why do you think the state is going through the most severe

surge in the nation despite having rather tough restrictions in place for most of the year? >> yeah. it's a question we're all working on very hard here in california, but i think it comes down to the fact that covid, if you give it an inch, it will take a mile. some of our fatigue and the gatherings that we saw over the thanksgiving holiday and the days since have caused us to have this real increase in case numbers. and the measures the state is taking to try to bring that back down, as you just heard, are starting to show some signs of working, but, we know the next couple weeks is going to be very concerning. >> yeah. i want to pick up on that because more than 1 million people are traveling through airports just yesterday alone for the holiday. what are you doing to prepare for what may come from this holiday travel these next couple of weeks? >> well, it's two things. it's first, continuing to point

out our number one defense is that people don't travel, that they decide to stay at home and not mix with others outside of their household. but then on the other side it's really the preparation of the hospitals. we've done a lot in california to prepare. although we're seeing this incredible surge now, we continue to work with our hospital systems up and down the state to make sure that they can handle patients that come in. so far we've been able to do that, but we're worried over the next couple weeks. >> we know and we've been reporting that hospitals there so many are at near full capacity and the relentless work done by the nurses and doctors there. hats off to them and you. you have some of the best of the best in the country there and we're all wishing you, you know, as much of a speedy recovery in terms of getting those numbers down as possible. dr. ghaly, thank you. >> thank you. and still ahead, after losing their wife and daughter to coronavirus, one family turns

their grief into action. how they're hoping to help other families detect the virus early and hopefully save someone else's life. burger ever? then m! that means selling everything. and eating nothing but cheese till you find the perfect slice... even if everyone asks you... another burger truck? don't listen to them! that means cooking day and night until you get... [ ding ] you got paid! that means adding people to the payroll. hi mom. that means... best burger ever. intuit quickbooks helps small businesses be more successful with payments, payroll, banking and live bookkeeping. special guest flo challenges the hand models to show off the ease of comparing rates with progressive's home quote explorer. international hand model jon-jon gets personal. your wayward pinky is grotesque. then a high stakes patty-cake battle royale ends in triumph. you have the upper hands!

it's a race to the lowest rate, and so much more. only on "the upper hands." it's a race to the lowest rate, and so much more. you can do better, steve! get a freshly made footlong, from subway®! you can even order on the subway® app! did i just get picked off by deion sanders? you sure did! now in the app, get a free footlong when you buy two. because it's footlong season™!

s ska. over time, you go noseblind to the odors in your home. (background music) but others smell this... (upbeat music) that's why febreze plug has two alternating scents and eliminate odors for 1200 hours. ♪breathe happy febreze... ♪la la la la la.

after covid-19 took the life of 30-year-old danielle cater of bloomington, illinois, her parents and husband decided to

turn their grief into something positive. they partnered with a local health care group to start the covid-19 care kits fund. their hope is that the kits that will this fund provides will help others in their community detect the coronavirus early. more than 1,000 kits are being handed out. in them, something called a pulse oximeter which is family believes is missing link when the virus turns bad. i'm joined by danielle cater's parents and her husband. let me begin by saying how sorry i am for your loss. how are you doing during this holiday season without your danny? let me begin with mom and dad. >> well, thanks for having us, bianna. we're banding together with our friends and family to make the best of our situation. >> and tim, i know you met danielle while you were both in high school. you were high school

sweethearts, or did that come later? >> no, you're absolutely right on that. >> tim, can you talk about what happened then when your young wife got sick and when you realized that she was actually in dire trouble? >> yeah. so, she got sick on a tuesday and it was just a loss of smell and taste, which is covid right away. it wasn't until that weekend that she had a little bit of a harder time breathing, but we just thought that was part of it. and we didn't know that, you know, this was something that we should be in the hospital for. so we were trying to fight it at home. it wasn't until we learned about the pulseoximeter and got the first reading off one of those that this wasn't something we should fight at home. so we got her to the hospital. and the doctors put her on a ventilator. she passed away less than 24 hours later. >> it's hard to square what you're just describing as we see these pictures of a young

vivacious, beautiful dani. your wedding photos, travels around the world. obviously gone way too soon and from a parent's perspective, she's always going to be your baby. mrs. ruben, i can't imagine the loss of a child, but to take that moment and to turn it around into a way you could help others is just entirely selfless. can you talk to us about the fund that you've set up, including the kits that you're providing and i know you're holding right there? >> sure. so the evening that we were at the hospital, one of the nurse liaison kind of family liaison, you know, one of the questions we asked her was how do you keep doing this everyday? you know, and especially seeing someone so young. and she pretty much pleaded with us, you know, please be an advocate for her. so right away i got to thinking,

you know, that there's got to be some way that we could take our story, get these pulse ox's out into the public. i had never heard of them. i didn't know you could buy them over the counter. so, we right away started trying to think how could we do this. and i had in mind that maybe we could put a kit together of some sort with instructions of symptoms. so, after just a few phone calls i got in touch with the foundation that we're working with and they described to me before i could even describe what i was thinking of getting a kit, having instructions, maybe a thermometer as well, have one of the pulse ox's monitors available in the kit. and within a week they had their

website updated with the memorial and this is the kit. you can see it. >> uh-huh. >> available for distribution. and now we're about $75,000 at last count that the foundation has been able to raise through the community. we were present for passing those out to some healthcare workers who were then delivering them to patients that have gotten news that they are positive. so what this will allow them to do is to monitor their symptoms so we kind of look at this as being two ways of helping. one it allows them to know when they're in trouble. but like wise, we're hoping that it will also help the healthcare workers in the fact that they

don't have people up needlessly if they're not truly in need of healthcare. so it hopefully will relieve the efforts from a healthcare standpoint as well. >> and it's a life-saving tool no doubt. and hopefully folks at home watching will pay attention now and do their research as to why that pulse oximeter is so vital. tim, you're 30, you're young. you and your wife were healthy and traveling around the world, had so many plans. when you hear people down play this virus, say that this only impacts elderly, sick people, those with an immune system that's compromised. what is your message to them given what unfortunately you've just experienced? >> yeah. it's not true. it can happen to anyone. you know, we were kind of in that boat. we took all the precautions, but we didn't expect that it would

happen to us. that i would lose my wife over it. but here it is. >> bob, ftina and tim, may her memory be a blessing and thank you for advocating on her behalf, her memory to hopefully save other's lives. we appreciate it. happy holidays to you. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> thank you for the opportunity. and please visit their website to learn more about the memorial fund at www.backslash the dani ruben memorial fund for care. well, an nba game is called off and one player is slapped with a $50,000 fine for violating protocol all just two days into the new season. the challenges facing the nba without the protection of the bubble. that's coming up next. ...and unique needs. ..

chapstick® has you covered. chapstick®. put your lips first®.

especially for guys who tend to get razor bumps with ordinarya razors.my shave. but now there's gillette skinguard. it flattens the skin and lifts the blades for a shave that's close, but not too close for comfort.

on the second day of the new nba season, a houston rockets/oklahoma city thunder game was postponed due to covid-19. also the nba fining james harden $50,000 for violating health protocols by reportedly attending a private indoor party on monday. he can play this weekend if he

continues to test negative. four others are quarantining. joining me is cnn sports analyst christine brennan, also a sports columnist for "usa today." i'm not going to be objective here. i'm a houston rockets girl. that's my home team, but i am going to tell you i'm very disappointed in what's transpired, especially with james harden. what does this say for the challenges ahead for the nba season, given what happened tonight? >> bianna, this is not the way the nba wanted to kick off this new season. this is the complete opposite of what they wanted to have happen. it shows when the nba was not in a bubble -- and boy, was that a success, one of the highlights, the way they pulled it off. but they could could do it this time, with the issues, how difficult it was.

the owners wanted to try to have fans at some point and recoup some of the revenue. now they're doing it the way the other leagues have tried to do it in college sports. we have seen over and over again how difficult it is. my guess is, bianna, we will continue to see the stops and starts. we have 158-page protocol for health and safety. they know how to do it. they did it right the first time, about you this is a whole different situation, and i think it's going to be difficult to have a smooth kind of season the way they did during the bubble. >> that bubble was one of the only few successes in the sports world of 2020. now you do have a situation it appears each team and each arena somewhere their own protocols and own guidelines in terms of how many fans can attend and what have you. how is this going to work? are we going to have these stops and starts? financially, what impact does that have for the league? >> we are going to have stops and starts. i think it's going to be very acottic.

i hope i'm wrong. >> me too. >> i've said it over and over. you're a fan, exactly. what you're describing is the reason we want to try to have sports. especially during the dar days of the pandemic, people unable to travel. a game is fun, interesting, it takes you somewhere else for a few hours and you can enjoy that. that's the whole goal. the question is the coexistence with a team in its city and being good citizens and following protocols. james harden obviously did not do that. for an mvp of the league a few years ago and multiple-time all-star to mess of badly right away, shows how difficult it will be. though he knows better, he's also had other issues, he's disgruntled in many ways with houston, but it shows these players are human. it's very, very hard for these young athletes to toe the line,

even though what a gift they've been given to play their sport and they should know better. >> i'm one of james harden's fan, and i'm disappointed with his entire attitude the last few months, and especially this case, not even apologizing. given what the league did in fining him, is this a sense of what could happen with home court big names, other big egos if they do similar things that harden apparently did? >> absolutely. expect more of this. frankly, the $50,000 fine for a guy that's making million is a bit of a slap on the wrist. he's lucky that the game was postponed, because he would have lost his entire paycheck had it not been they were missing other players. all the contact tracing, el feel like a broken record. it's the exact same thing we

talked about with nfl, college football and basketball, men's and women's. they do need to send a signal. the nba has a shining reputation from the bubble, and in the history -- when we look back at 2020, the nba and wnba will be a part of those headlines. i wrote a column talking about when they shut down on march 11th. that triggered everything, not jest in the sports, but our culture. will the nba be or north start this time? or the problem child? i think that's the decision and choice the players have to make. adam silver has a long road ahead of him, a lot on his plate. he doesn't need to hear it from james harden and his attitude. he disappointed my 8-year-old last night. i can tell you that. christine brennan, thank you. always great to have you on. i appreciate it. >> bianna, thank you.

a pleasure. pope francis is holding a scaled-back christmas eve mass, presiding over st. peter's basilica. according to the vatican, he's deliver his christmas 50e67 message two hours earlier, to allow the limited number of people to return home by italy's 10:00 p.m. curfew. hello, everyone. i'm bianna golodryga in for brianna keilar. the day before christmas and the u.s. is already reporting today at least 370 people have died from coronavirus. more confirmation of how this holiday will be unlike any other, as so many americans will be missed seeing a loved one at the dinner table. wednesday alone the nation recorded 3,359 lives lost. right now, nearly