recently that his loyal vice president mike pence isn't doing enough to help him overturn the election. perhaps that is because there is nothing that mike pence can actually do. we are learning now that the two men met yesterday for over an hour in the oval office right before trump left for florida. and then trump retweeted from air force one a call-out that pence should reject the electoral college votes when he presides over a joint session of congress in january. something mike pence cannot do. but while the president focuses on his fantasy, the reality is the american people desperately need a president who is -- who in fact will work tirelessly on their behalf, not on his own behalf. because right now 27.4 million american adults don't have enough to eat. nearly 8 million more americans are in poverty since june. more than 20 million americans are now dependent on their

unemployment benefits, and 12 million of them are about to lose those benefits after christmas if the president doesn't sign the covid relief bill, as he is suggesting. that is creating chaos. that is not working tirelessly. and president-elect joe biden will soon be facing clearly a mess to clean up, a fact that he seems concerned about right now, telling journalists according to "the washington post" this -- many of the people with the competence to be able to tell us what exactly is going on in the justice department or the energy department, they've either been fired or they left, but they are not there. and so i think it's going to take a while to find out where the intentional as well as unintentional land mines are. they seem more and more intentional by the day. jessica dean is "outfront" in wilmington, delaware covering president-elect joe biden. jeremy diamond is "outfront" near the president's mar-a-lago

resort in florida. any indication, jeremy, that the president is planning to give the country some clarity on what's next for the covid relief bill? >> well we know that that bill was actually flown to palm beach today. the question, though, is whether that is for the president to sign that legislation or whether he intends to veto it. the white house so far has declined to answer our requests for comment on this very question. and today, though, if you're reading the tea leaves, the president wasn't focused on this relief bill at all. he was golfing. he was meeting with some of his wealthy friends who belong to his golf club, and he was talking not about the coronavirus relief bill, but talking about contesting the election and those efforts that the president has continued to engage in and be single mindedly focused on. i'm told by a person familiar with the matter that the president was talking about the fact that he intends to continue to contest this election. this person said that the president seemed to be very resolute in continuing to contest this election, believing that things are not over. but where the president is not

resolute is in trying to fix this, the problems that he seems to have or that he says he claims to have with this piece of legislation. and perhaps that's because chaos is simply the objective here, kate. the president doesn't seem like he is not making phone calls to republican members of congress, to the congressional leadership. certainly not to the house speaker nancy pelosi, who he hasn't spoken with in over a year. and perhaps ultimately the object sieve not only chaos, but making joe biden's job as president and his first days as president, his first weeks of president that much more difficult. >> jeremy, thank you. let me go over to jessica now. jessica, joe biden is clearly gearing up for battle when he takes office now. >> yeah, kate, you just read that excerpt from what he told journalists yesterday where he talked about these intentional and unintentional land mines that he knows he is going to find and that his administration is going to find when they go into office on january 20th. and that is very particular.

he was addressing president trump and his political appointees when he was talking about that. what's interesting is also in that conversation with journalists he did continue to hammer home his bipartisan message when it came to congressional republicans, kate. he really still believes that they can get some deals done, that they will be willing to find some middle ground where they can get some things done. and of course much of what he wants to do has to go through congress in order to get done. what he said was he is ready to fight. he is willing to fight, but he said in his experience, that if you get into one of these blood matches, nothing gets done. so he's talking about his decades of experience in the senate. but of course, kate, and he acknowledges this as well, some people have called him naive saying that the senate is not the same place that it was even when he and president obama were in office. of course, we'll see what happens january 20th and beyond. kate? >> that's for sure. jessica, thank you. all right. "outfront" with me now is ron brownstein, cnn senior political analyst and senior editor for the "atlantic." david cay johnston, who has been

covering donald trump for over 30 years, and brittany shepherd, white house correspondent for yahoo news. ron, when joe biden says that donald trump is leaving land mines behind, how big could those be? >> look, there have been very few occasions in american history where we have changed chief executives in the middle of a full-scale national crisis. you can argue that the pandemic is the most serious national security challenge we have faced since world war ii. and other than richard nixon succeeding lyndon johnson in 1968, very rarely have we changed commanders in chief during wartime. it's an unusually large challenge to begin with. and on the other side, we're seeing less cooperation, more active hostility in the transition than we have probably ever experienced in american history. maybe buchanan and lincoln was comparable leading into the civil war. so the challenge is at the high end. the lack of cooperation, the amount of cooperation is at the low end. so you can see where this is

becoming a situation that is enormously challenging not only for joe biden, but for the country. >> he is clearly laying that out if he is telling that to reporters now, you know he has to be concerned. that's what i want to ask you, brittney. you have been coffering the biden transition. how concerned are they really about the chaos and mess that could be left behind, or is it just president trump or does that extend down through staff? >> well, kate, there is frustration at every rung of the biden transition right now, and they're so upset that they're not even able to be frustrated about the big things. it's the small things too i think. joe biden is not a politician known to be hot under the collar, but look at his christmas address earlier this week. it was supposed to be a address about goodwill, saying everyone should stay home and he was going to get the vaccine, but it slowly became a frustrating speech about how the transition, especially the pentagon,

department of defense were not giving the transition adequate information about the huge solar wind cyber hack which is not just a cyber issue, it can be an issue of domestic and international terrorism. and they have to go to the press and go to the american people to point out the malfeasance that they wish they could just keep private. aides have been telling me that they can't even be banging a drum about this when they're banging the drum about really small petty things coming from trump appointees. they're pointing mostly towards this twitter passover that usually happens when administrations change hands. usually you get to keep all of the followers you gained. and now the trump administration is saying you have to start at bulls-eye. you have to start at zero. and aides are texting the expletive saying we can't -- if this is his floor of pettiness, where is his ceiling going to be as lives are on the line? and they don't know what they can do beyond scream and yell and hope that the american people retaliate in due time. >> that is -- that is a definition of petty.

david, we saw -- but david, you have some more insight in this. because when it does come to twitter followers, that is no small thing when it comes to president trump. that's like the entire ball game. and we saw the president today, david, golfing, but there is no reporting of him actually dealing with the crisis that he just created that will be impacting millions of americans with this covid relief bill. and since there is a tweet for everything, this seems a good occasion to bring one out. october 23rd, 2014, donald trump tweets "president obama has a major meeting on the new york city ebola outbreak with people flying in from all over the country, but decided to play golf." irony is definitely completely lost on him. >> yes, not to mention that he said if he was elected president, he would never play golf while he was in office. three years ago, i wrote that if a virus were to hopscotch around the planet on jetliners and

cause a worldwide pandemic, donald trump would not know what to do. well, we've seen exactly that. he doesn't know what to do. and he is doing here what he did when he was in financial trouble 30 years ago. when he should have been dealing with people he owed money to, trump was sitting in his office going over swatches of cloth on what fabric to pick for one of his casinos. he is running away from responsibility because he's a con man, and he does not know, kate, what to do in a situation like this. he has absolutely no idea. >> but -- but david, this is not a casino. he knows this isn't a casino. these are millions of people's lives. he has had multiple briefings. he has pushed for -- he has been -- he knows all of this. we don't even need to go into all of the examples. >> correct. >> this is not a casino. >> right. but he doesn't -- the point is that he doesn't have any real executive skill.

he has always hired people to run his businesses for him. his tv show, to anybody who understands how business works, it may have made him a hero and a star to a large audience of people who have never been in any dealings with high level executives, but to executives, it's a ridiculous show. and he simply doesn't have the skill to assign people, to demand results because he really doesn't know how to manage. it's all a skcon. his whole life has been bullying, making claims and hiring people then to do things on his behalf. >> ron, other than golf, it does seem that the other thing that the president is focused on is pardons. and at the top of his list is anyone that is wrapped up in the russia investigation who stayed loyal to him. i want to read you something that senator lindsey graham said to manu raju nearly two years ago about pardoning folks related to the russia

investigation. lindsey graham told manu pardoning paul manafort would be seen as a political disaster for the president. there may come a day down the road after the politics have changed that you'd want to consider an application of him, like everybody else, but now would be a disaster. that day came. >> yes. >> was it a disaster for the president? >> well, you know, we're going to see. but it is a disaster for the country i think. it is absolutely embarrassing and demeaning to america's standing in the world. we literally send people all over the globe trying to teach countries how to stand up democracies. the national democratic institute says it's worked in 156 countries. now we have a president who is literally trying to tear down our own democracy, both through his attempts to subvert the election since november, these pardons for cronies and confederates, people who have worked with him. the efforts to pressure the justice department into launching independent counsels against his political rivals.

this is the kind of thing, kate, that you see in a third world country when the walls are closing in. samosa or trujillo or noriega. this is kind of the last gasp, really, of strongman who knows that the days are numbered, who is addled, who is erratic, who is vengeful, who is angry, and what is most striking about this is the continued reluctance of almost all republicans to call out what the president is doing. they have enabled him for four years. they have allowed him to develop the assumption that no matter how far he goes, there will not be effective sanction. and you're seeing the results of that every day, and probably we're going to see it even more outrageous ways between now and the inauguration. >> ron's actually getting at something i'm curious about, brittany. when it comes to the pardons, the president does not care about the fallout, clearly. do people around him care at this point? >> well, i think people around him are kind of looking for the

door. aides are privately sending their resumes around, trying to land somewhere normal. i think there is lots of worry in washington that folks that work for trump won't be able to have a job again. i do think it's important for us to remember who donald trump is. he is a man who's personal orbit has gotten smaller and smaller over the year. he is someone very big on loyalty. those he thought were friends have sold him up the river in books. as he feels that he can't get net a win in his mind and in his aides' minds, he is just going to help his friends out. that's why we haven't seen michael cohen pardoned but we have seen papadopoulos and manafort pardoned. he thinks himself a hero. he is someone who believes in these big gregarious comic book narratives. this is a television producer, and those in his wake understand that. they know they don't want to be on the firing line, they're

going keep it out. >> last hour has me thinking the way you're describing the president, he likes to be the white knight, even if it's manufactured, right? he is the arsonist that lights the fire hand then comes in and puts out the fire. do you think that's what this is? that when it comes even to the extent of when you're talking about million of people's livelihoods that really need help, and these benefits are going to be expiring right after christmas, that he is planning some grand entrance, and he thinks he is going to get credit for it? >> kate, i actually think one of the smarter things donald has done politically for his own future is saying that $600 is not enough. the check should be $2,000. something he could have said a long time ago, but says now. and what does that do? well, to people who really need $2,000 rather than $600, he is a hero. secondly, he can blame any delay on mitch mcconnell, and of course a key to donald's

campaign and political position is that i'm note part of washington. i'm not part of this imaginary deep state. so it really helps him position himself going forward where he is going to try and be a sort of government critic in exile or create a new tv career for himself. and i don't see any loss for him in this because if there isn't passage quickly of a revised bill, he can, a, decide not to veto it and say well, i did everything i could for you folks, or he is going to veto it and say take it up with the establishment republicans. it's their fault. >> it's all branding. thank you all very much. "outfront" for us next, the u.s. hitting record hospitalizations for the fourth day in a row, creating a crisis for health care workers. we're going speak to two doctors on the front lines on this christmas eve. plus, the kremlin tonight is spinning quite a story about the massive hack into u.s. agencies. it's not us, they claim.

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the fourth straight day that the u.s. has hit this very grim milestone, and at least a dozen states are also reporting record high hospitalizations. so let's go there. "outfront" right now, two doctors on the front lines this evening, working in oliveview ucla medical center. and an er doctor at hospitals in multiple place -- multiple states, including arizona. thank you both for being here tonight. according to the covid tracking project, which everyone keeps a close eye on, of course, california is one of the top two places in the world, nation or state for new covid infections. the other one is tennessee, which is really startling. in the world, california now has 23 straight days of record hospitalizations. icu capacity is basically zero. it's down to 1% now.

these are all very startling numbers, but they are just numbers that people have become numb to. how do you describe what you are seeing in your hospital? >> it is nothing short of horrific. as you're alluding to, california is obviously in a state of major surge, and certainly los angeles county is the epicenter of that surge. and, you know, it's something else to be dealing with this disease on a day-to-day basis with these extremely ill patients. you know, i've never been in a war zone, but just from reading about it and seeing films, this is as close as it gets sometimes to being in a war zone, and it's something that none of us will ever forget. it is extremely humbling, challenging, and it takes really every bit of will and energy

that health care providers, physicians, nurses, respiratory therapists have to really to get us through this. and we're all seeing some light at the end of the tunnel with the initiation of vaccinations broadly, but that -- but we have many months to go for there to be any effect. and right now we're in the midst of this horrific surge. and our hospitals in los angeles county, including those in the system that i work for, the department of health services, are at a real breaking point. >> today arizona reported another record of coronavirus hospitalizations. back in the summer when you were on this show, you had said that the virus was spreading so fast that virtually every single patient you had was testing positive. can you compare this summer to what you're looking at now? >> yeah, kate, it basically

feels like groundhog's day. i thought it was getting better but we're right back to where we started if not worse. same old thing. lots of patients coming with covid symptoms. similar thing where we test them, they're all frequently positive. similar thing where we can't get a bed in the icu. the ship i just left, i signed out a patient to my colleague who has been there since yesterday. and covid which means she died, was resuscitated and brought back and the next day is still in the emergency department. patients who die and get resuscitated usually go straight to the icu. but there are so few beds and so many cases that she is still in the e.r. it's a horrific thing to have to happen, and you can imagine the downstream effect it causes on all patients, whether covid or not. it's really troubling. >> and that's the thing, it's not just the covid patient, unfortunately. it's everyone else that needs to come in for anything. i had a family member who needed

to go into the hospital recently, and they were concerned about bed space, and she was not a covid patient. absolutely, as the doctor said, we're seeing in los angeles county about 50% of hospital admissions right now are covid patients. in our icu in particular, we're about 80% are covid patients. and there is less and less room for patients that have other conditions, because certainly we're in a time of year where we see a lot of more illnesses and we just are getting to a point where we have no capacity to care for those patients. and this is despite us having limited elective procedures, surgeries, and put a lot of those on the back burner while we're fighting this pandemic. there is a real worrying concern that as things get worse, we're not even going to be able to

take care of the patients we have, especially with some of the forecast models suggesting that things certainly could get worse before they get better. >> for sure. doctor, what is bringing people in to the hospital with covid at this point? is there a common thread? is it -- do they -- is it -- is there a common -- are they breaking protocols? do they have covid fatigue, and then they went out? are you hearing anything from patients of now almost a year into this, what it is among the patients that are making it into your hospital? >> yeah, you know, part of it is almost predictable from the public health perspective. we knew that the gatherings on thanksgiving would cause a spike. we moo that the worst would happen about four weeks later in terms of hospitalizations. we're at almost exactly that point right now with christmas coming up. so part of it is unfortunately what people are going to be doing today and tomorrow, which is gathering, which is what we don't want, but they'll be doing

it. they were doing it. they're going continue to do it. it's really unfortunate. that's part of it is that it is predictable. the other thing that is interesting -- i don't know if it's interesting or more upsetting than anything is they seem to be more, this is anecdotal, but they seem to be more from household contacts. my brother hated, my mother had it and now the patient coming in has it. early in the summer a lot were coming from nursing homes or congregate segments as well as from the community. but not a lot of people coming in saying boy, my sister or brother had it. i didn't think i would get it this bad. it's anecdotal. no matter how you get it, it's bad. the best way of treating covid is to just not get it. and i wish people, even acting selfishly, look out for themselves and try to take care of themselves so as to not get themselves sick and not spread it. >> i want to play for this for both you have what a nurse out of houston told one of my colleagues, miguel marquez, when

he was in their icu unit last week. >> it's like we're nonexistent. and 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 been forgotten, truly. >> just speaking to the fatigue, just the exhaustion over such a long period of time, do you feel the same way? >> absolutely. and i see it unfortunately every day on the faces of health care workers, nurses, respiratory therapists, our residents, our fellows who are working so hard that that sense of frustration and almost sometimes outrage at what they're seeing still happening out in the community at large where people are still gathering, where people are still outside occasionally not wearing masks and really not abiding by the protocols that are in place. and there is almost this

disconnect where people are not recognizing what is happening really at the hospitals. and if they themselves or their loved ones were to get sick, that they may not be able to receive the care that they need. and i think it's an important message to really enforce in that now that we see a light at the end of the tunnel, you know, i think people can really take it upon themselves to really be more vigilant these next few days over the holidays. do everything they can to stay at home, not see their loved ones, recognizing that in a few months to come, that things hopefully will change and to give those of us that are taking care of these patients a better opportunity to give the patients we care for the care that they really need and deserve. >> thank you both so much. >> thank you for having us. >> you're welcome. thank you. thank you for having me.

"outfront" for us next, russia saying the hack into u.s. government agencies being blamed on them is an effort actually to undermine the relationship with joe biden. uh-huh. and a chicago institution fights to survive in these very tough times. but it's more than just a restaurant to customers and employees. >> it's like coming to work and being with your family, you know, especially now it's important, more so than ever. some hot cocoa? mom, look! are you okay? head home this holiday with the one you love. visit your local mercedes-benz dealer today for exceptional lease and financing offers at the mercedes-benz winter event. vicks vapopatch. easy to wear with soothing vicks vapors for her,

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new tonight, a top official for the kremlin is trying to bat down claims russia is behind the massive cyber attack on the u.s. a foreign ministry spokeswoman now claiming that the massive breach could be a plot to hurt relations with the incoming biden administration. this is just one day after putin's spokesman said that russia expects nothing positive from biden as president. "outfront" now former cia chief of russia operations steve hall, and former senior adviser to the national security adviser under president obama, samantha vinograd. steve, what do you make of this defense from russia tonight?

someone else did it, and they're trying to put the blame on us. >> yeah, this is standard operating procedure, kate, for the kremlin. they're going to admit nothing. they're going to deny everything and make counter accusations. that's always what they do. the really interesting part for me is the excuse. somebody is trying to queer the relationship with the incoming biden administration, which actually to me indicates that they are concerned about it, as well they should be, because of course incoming president-elect biden understands, having seen it firsthand during the obama administration just what the russians are all about. so they should be worried about it. and it sounds like they are. >> yeah, definitely. when you read between those lines. sam, i want to ask you about the incoming administration, but first, about the outgoing. i talked earlier this week with president obama's former cia director john brennan, and i want to play for you what he said about what president trump has done here, which is downplaying russia's role in this hack. >> i think it's because he doesn't see russia as a threat to him personally. in fact, i think he realizes

that russia has helped him prior to the 2016 election and even afterward, which is why he has given them a pass. now i must also say the most dangerous times for an autocrat in terms of what they might do is when they are seeking power as well as when they're on the verge of being deposed from power. that's what i think we see right now with donald trump. >> it's very interesting. do you think an attack on this scale, sam, would have been attempted had president trump stood up to putin in any of the last four years? >> certainly not. if president trump had not had an insatiable fixation on keeping vladimir putin happy, he would not have given him a life-long get out of jail free card. president trump's personal failure to stand up to putin made putin feel omnipotent. it made putin feel like he could quite literally get away with murder. but by the same token, kate, president trump, because of his allergy to intelligence and because of his desire to play

indicate putin, president trump did not bring to bear the full weight of the u.s. government when it comes to countering malign russian behavior. we did not see a strategy. we still haven't even for example sanctioned officials involved in the navalny poisoning. and the overall u.s. approach to countering russia was hindered. i spent more hours than i can count with president-elect biden, jake sul vin and other incoming officials and i can tell you this. president biden isn't scared of putin. president-elect biden in the time i dealt with him relies on intelligence to form foreign policy decisions and relies heavily on something that president trump finds to be anathema, which is working with our allies. with president bush biden, i think we can expect that putin's personal feelings won't factor into any decision that affects u.s. national security. >> steve, i asked you earlier this week about when the u.s.

could actually get this cyber attack under control and kind of even wrap their arms around it. you told me it's not going to be overnight because the russians are really good at this. and now we've learned from the u.s. cyber security agency that this attack is even impacting state and local governments they're now learning. how far is this going reach? >> well, it's going reach, kate, as far as the russians can get it to reach. as we were discussing earlier in the week, they are very good at this and they will try to get to every level of the government, not necessarily perhaps because they're interested in what is going on in a particular state, but because once you get inside a system, you're able to maintain some permanence there. and a lot of the russian intrusion sets actually just sort of sit there for a month or two, mapping out the terrain before they move forward. but again, as we were discussing earlier, nsa and other parts of the u.s. intelligence community have gotten better over the past four years and are really, really good now at detecting

this stuff and getting it out. it's not going happen overnight. it's complicated, and the russians are very good at hiding things. but eventually, probably in weeks or months, we'll be able to clean the system out. and hopefully focus on protecting against the next russia attack, which is certain to happen. >> one coming right up. it's good to see you both. thank you very much. "outfront" for us next, so many restaurants barely holding on. i'm going speak to one restaurant own were a message for lawmakers. and the challenge of getting americans to vaccination points in some communities it's literally a matter of life and death. okay, you hear gunshots, you know. you have to get out of your car. carjackings.

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tonight, it's one of chicago's most iconic restaurants, an institution barack obama dined at just days after being elected president, but now it faces one of the biggest challenges in its nearly 80-year history because of the coronavirus. adrienne broaddus is "outfront." >> reporter: if history is a

teacher -- >> there is manny. that was my grandfather, and then my dad. >> reporter: the owner of manny's deli has learned the only thing constant. >> i'm not done changing it. >> reporter: is change. chicago's iconic jewish deli was started by the raskin brothers before the u.s. entered world war ii. >> i am dan raskin. i'm the fourth generation owner/operator here at manny's. we've been in business for 79 years. >> reporter: manny's. >> old traditional delicatessen that you cannot find in many cities in the world. >> for 44 years has been the place where i go to clog my arteries and clear my head. >> reporter: manny's closing its doors for good because of covid-19 would be like someone you love dying. >> i think a lot of people would cry. a nostalgic place would be gone, and we're losing enough of them. >> reporter: inside, the walls hold history. >> i definitely think my favorite memory was when president obama came in.

>> reporter: days after obama was elected in 2008, his first public stop was at manny's. >> he wanted to come in and get a corned beef sandwich and some cherry pie. >> best corned beef you'll find, sliced by the best corn beef man behind the counter you'll find anywhere, gino. >> reporter: the kitchen is 70-year-old gino's second home. >> it's like coming to work and being with your family, you know, especially now it's important. more so than ever, you know. >> reporter: the empty chairs and declining revenue are reminders of what the pandemic has stolen. >> it's been hard. especially businesses downtown, there is not a lot of people working in the city. this is just manny checking out a customer. >> reporter: memories can't protect manny's from the pitfalls of the pandemic. on twitter, dan asked for help, and customers came to the rescue.

>> at certain times during the pandemic, there have definitely been low lows. >> reporter: decades before covid, manny's faced challenges. >> the riots in the '60s. >> reporter: that was following the assassination of dr. martin luther king jr. it forced the company to pivot. dan's father ken shared stories about cutting hours. >> he said when the riots started then, he said that they decided to close because it wasn't safe and there was curfews. >> get extra bread. >> reporter: fast forward to 2020. >> it was heartbreaking. >> reporter: unrest following the police killing of george floyd forced manny's to adapt again. >> the last eight months when you look back at all the events, it's not just covid, but it's the rioting, the -- everything just compiles on top of each other and just happy to survive it. >> reporter: survival is in dan's dna. he found a way to keep business

going by delivering to chicago suburbs, a model involving more labor to pack everything up and go. and it costs more, but means 43 employees continue working. and with each meal, dan delivers hope. >> we will survive and we'll get through it. so we're very fortunate. we had some great support and people are understanding that we're working under different conditions and we're here for people to place orders. >> reporter: and dan says as he prepares to end what has been a difficult year, he can't wait to start creating new memories inside with his customers. of course that's once the indoor dining restrictions are listed. kate? >> adrienne, thank you so much. and restaurants like this one across the country are in desperate need of help, and many now are depending on the federal government to pass the coronavirus relief package. yesterday i spoke with the ceo of eureka restaurant group.

he has had to lay off more than 1500 employees so far, and i asked him how it feels now to see this relief stalled. >> well, what i'd like to say is i don't want to bite the hand that feeds us, but we need relief, and we need it now, and we needed it frankly two months ago even as certain cities were closed. so we need the relief fast. we're going need more than even what's in the current bill, and we need it yesterday because, again, as you said, we've unfortunately taken a lot of people off the schedule and are not working in the holidays, and the guests want to dine at our restaurants, and we're trying to serve them the best way we can to go, but i would say just hurry up because every day that passes another smaller restaurant group similar to ours is shutting and probably not going to reopen. >> you know, so this bill includes about $284 billion for small businesses, but that's all small businesses.

and i'm curious if you think it's going to be enough. because i know a lot of small businesses had trouble accessing the ppp loans in the earlier round. i mean, describe what it's like right now for you guys, what it has been like in these months. >> so while we may appear to be big, we're actually quite small. we got denied on the first round of financing with ppp, and we're scrambling for a bank to support us, and it's not enough. right now it is full triage crisis mode. we've got managers back in role whether bagging groceries, cooking on the line, and doing whatever it takes to keep kind of the eureka dream alive. my heart goes out to them. as you said, we've lost a lot of our loyal team members, some of which have been with us more than ten years, which is amazing. and what the bill doesn't recognize is the cost of retrain people, and will they be available? have they left the workforce? have they moved to another

market? >> restaurants are the lifeblood of so many communities, and when you look at what congress has provided, there is money specifically targeting certain industries like airlines and live event venues and movie theaters even. nothing specifically really to the food and beverage industry. why do you think that is? >> i think what's unique about the restaurant industry is it's fragmented. and i think we're just not organized enough. i find it odd that, you know, you can fly on an airplane six inches from a random stranger while you eat peanuts and drink coke or any other beverage, but you can't sit six feet here in california from a strange were a divider. i think it's a function of a lot of small entrepreneurs that are hustlers, and the industry is made up of truly the blood and sweat of america. and it's kind of sad that we can't all band together in every state and every city. but the reality is we think about it but we're not

as much as the lobbying efforts that they try to do at the state and national level, it's obviously not as big as some of these larger industries. and my hearts go out to them as well. they've been suffering. but i think the restaurant industry and the hospitality industry's been suffering almost the most. and we need someone to help us here. >> donald trump is heading out the door. his administration is on their way out. joe biden has said on his way in that he wants congress to pass another relief bill. he wants to see another round when he's coming in. he's going to be taking over in weeks. what is your message to him? >> what i would say is, again, we're not alone. the schools are impacted. various charities are impacted. the world has been impacted. but for businesses that have been asked to shut down for the greater good of society and maybe that's the right decision, maybe that's the wrong decision, that's not for me to decide. but if you're going to ask us to

shut down, just like if you're going to, you know, buy my house and take it and build a road via maybe eminent domain, you've got to subsidize us at the same time and it can't happen one month or two month or three months later. it's got to happen immediately. even as biden enters office, it will be too late for some of our peers. so there needs to be swift action specifically focused on any industry that's been asked to shut down. that's what i would say. whether that's us or a hair salon, focus immediately on cash in the bank that's forgivable so that we can maintain our people because without them we have nothing. >> justin nedleman, thank you. >> thank you. >> out front for us next, fighting coronavirus in some communities isn't just about disease. >> we're experiencing three types of pandemics. and that's violence, racism, as well as covid-19. ♪

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♪ ♪ light it up like dynamite ♪ (this is ah) ♪ light it up like dynamite ♪ so watch me light the fire and set the night alight (alright) ♪ ♪ shining through the city...

tonight, as the coronavirus vaccine rolls out across the country, black americans in

communities lacking grocery stores and pharmacies, even adequate transportation, they're worried they will be left behind. omar jimenez is out front. >> how long have you lived in this neighborhood? >> all my life. 55 years. it's changed a whole lot. if they're going to roll out a vaccine and they're going to roll it out to grocery stores and pharmacies, i see a problem. >> reporter: you feel just because the vaccine is available it's not necessarily going to be accessible. >> that is correct. >> reporter: rochelle sykes lives in the predominantly black west side chicago neighborhood of austin and is in a zip code that has among the highest covid-19 death rates in the city. and the barriers to getting a vaccine are already taking shape, ranging anywhere from distance to pharmacies, confidence in health care, and even personal safety, as austin is also among the city's most violent neighborhoods. >> is it even worth the time? okay? you hear gunshots, you know, you

have to get out of your car, they're doing carjacking and if you don't feel safe you don't do it. >> reporter: just down the street loretto hospital was host to the city's first covid-19 vaccination. and the first to set up a west side community testing site back in april, one they plan to soon turn into a community vaccination site. >> in order to stop this virus eventually we all have to do our part and we want to make sure we involve everybody. we're experiencing three types of pandemics and that's violence, racism as well as covid-19. >> it's an issue leadership continues to wrestle with. >> where any part of the city is not supported enough, it indirectly impacts the entire city. not just that this is a let's make sure that we treat covid. it's about what are the root causes that have made these neighborhoods, these subgroups in chicago more vulnerable? >> reporter: parts of the downtown chicago area have a life expectancy of up to 90 years old according to an

analysis out of nyu. then just about ten miles down the road near here on chicago's south side the life expectancy goes down to 59.9. that's a difference of about 30 years, which that same nyu analysis says is the largest gap in the country. >> all of a sudden this virus came and took my sister away. >> reporter: emma washington is almost 80 years old. she lost her sister to covid-19 in september and her brother to covid the day before christmas eve. and now she's considering what getting a vaccine is going to look like. with her pharmacy over a mile away and no car to get her there. >> i have to take one bus and then i have to take another bus because it was only one place around, walgreen's, around my area. >> reporter: now she mostly has her medication delivered, but this isn't a new phenomenon. one study based on data from 2000 and 2012 found over 50% of the city's black dmuncommunitie

were so-called pharmacy deserts, low-income communities where pharmacies are far from the population and people don't have regular access to vehicles, compared with just 5% in white communities. >> this is not something that's going to get solved in a year or in five years. but how do we take the covid conversation and turn it into the conversation that links to chronic disease and homicide and infant mortality and hiv and opioid overdose? those are the five main drivers of our, you know, disparate life expectancies in chicago, and covid has indirectly impacted all of those. >> reporter: but when it comes to covid for sykes along with those in washington's community the vaccine shot is about more than medicine. it's about getting a fair shot without it being a long shot. >> we're in a life boat. they're in a cruiser. if you can come up with a vaccine within a year, why are we sitting in a community where there's no grocery store with fresh fruits and vegetables?

>> reporter: omar jimenez, cnn, chicago. >> omar, thank you so much for that. a programming note for all of you. you can say good-bye to 2020 finally and hello to 2021 with anderson cooper and andy cohen live from times square new year's eve starting at 8:00 p.m. eastern on cnn. thank you so much for joining me. i'm kate bolduan. happy new year. merry christmas. the cnn special "bats: the mystery behind covid" starts now. >> announcer: the following is a cnn special report. bats throughout human history seem to have this image as evil, dark and dangerous. they seem to have got this bad impression in our cultures. there is definitely something odd about them. but just because they're odd