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this is cnn breaking news. you're in the cnn newsroom. i'm dana bash in washington. breaking news out of nashville this hour where authorities now believe yesterday's explosion was the likely result of a suicide bombing. that's according to two law enforcement sources with direct knowledge of the investigation. the blast which happened in the early hours of christmas morning shook the city, damaged dozens of buildings and injured at least three people. and now video obtained by cnn appears to show the same rv at the center of the explosion in downtown nashville previously parked outside this home in antioch, tennessee. cnn crime and justice correspondent shimon prokupecz is on the scene for us in nashville and shimon, the fact that this may have been a suicide bombing, how has that changed the investigation?

>> reporter: well, for one thing it's done, there's no manhunt. there's no one to search for in connection with the bombing and at least the threat has been minimized and we've heard that from the fbi today and from the police here. this was something that they really wanted to stress. while they weren't confirming any information publicly, they did want to stress that there was no threat and that people should try to go on living their lives and they should not be afraid, certainly of being downtown in nashville. so that was the big message here from law enforcement. they're continuing their investigation, sifting through a lot of the debris. the belief is that the person responsible for this likely died during this bombing. they have human remains. they are trying to confirm the identity of the person with dna, so they have human tissue, they have some other items they've collected. so they're waiting for dna and other evidence to try to confirm the identity of the person.

one thing though that we've seen a lot here today is that law enforcement has actually been calm for them here. we haven't seen any kind of searches. we haven't seen any kind of activity from law enforcement. all that they've been really doing here from the fbi to the atf is combing through the debris, which stretches for blocks and they're now going to really start in the coming days, focusing in on the blast site where this explosion took place outside that at&t transmission building. that is also a focus for investigators. they want to see if that building, dana, was the target. >> shimon, thank you so much for that reporting. appreciate it. joining me now is jim schulman, vice mayor of nashville. mr. vice mayor, thank you so much for joining me. what is the latest that you were hearing about this investigation? >> well, so the investigation is moving fairly quickly. we just have heard that there's been a lot of activity down in antioch, which is southeast

nashville. law enforcement is going through this house very, very carefully and we'll see. they have not said exactly, you know, they haven't really given us firm answers yet. i know they spent a lot of time also downtown on second avenue where the explosion happened and they're trying to piece this thing together. i will say that they seem to be moving fairly quickly on it though. >> are you hearing anything about a motive? >> no. you know, we heard there was a press conference today at 1:00. i think everybody watching hoping that they would get some answers. i think the authorities are being very careful moving quickly, but also not willing to say anything quite yet until they can figure this thing out. such a strange event, where it was located and obviously, right across from the at&t communication data center.

>> yeah, and are you hearing anything about that, about the location in which this apparent suicide bombing happened? >> no. i was listening just a little while ago and they were thinking maybe if it was a suicide bombing and they haven't indicated that either, maybe they might find some information. they haven't really disclosed anything about what they found in this individual's house. i think we're just going to have to wait and see. and we may know sooner rather than later. they really have moved fairly quickly. they just haven't provided a lot of specific detail. a lot of the information we're getting is from twitter information that's being expressed in different ways. we're trying to keep up just like everybody else. >> so i got to ask about the residents in nashville. people must be really shaken up by this. >> i think nashville is tired.

just like the rest of the country. but we had a tornado, if you remember back in march. that just devastated lots of areas of the city and so we started having to try to get through that and then we immediately got hit right about the same time with the pandemic, and so people, we're still trying to clean up from the tornado. at some point, a couple of months later, we had some major whip storms that came through and here we come at the end of 2020 and we finally are seeing the light of a new year and getting hopeful that we can get back on our feet. our tourism industry has really taken a tremendous hit, and now we have this. and it's just, it's just something else. >> absolutely. i mean, you just went through so many things that your city has gone through. i mean, the whole country, the whole world is going through a lot but if you add the tornadoes and the wind storm that you talked about and the pandemic, it's really wreaking havoc down

there in nashville. what is your message to the residents of nashville right now? >> so i would tell you that i lived through the 2010 flood and through the tornado. people are very strong here. they find ways to come back very quickly. i give you an example. i went over to the east community center this afternoon which was set up by the american red cross to deal with everybody who needed either resources or a place to stay and they had just a couple of people come through. it was really nice that the red cross did it. it was a great place to have it. it was close to downtown, but people are resilient. you know, we've lived through this before. they've recovered. that's a good thing if you can say anything but, nashville is a

very strong place and we work together very quickly and we'll get through this like we have every other thing that's come through. >> nashville is a great town, one of my favorite towns in the country. i appreciate it and you're right, especially looking at those photos and the video of the damage, it is remarkable, really a miracle that more human damage wasn't done. so thank you so much. jim schulman, the vice mayor of nashville, appreciate it. >> thank you. and i want to go now to phil mudd to get reaction on the investigation. he is a cnn counterterrorism analyst and former senior intelligence adviser at the fbi. phil. good to see you. merry christmas to you. >> thank you. >> given what we know so far from sources to our shimon prokupecz to evan perez, what are you putting your

investigators hat on, what are you looking for next? >> boy, the pieces of this, dana, are coming together pretty quickly. obviously, the first piece today was the identification of the individual and appears with the dna material and the search of the house with the identification is probably done or close to done. once that happens, the investigation is going to blow up in a couple of directions. first, it's going to be the imminent threat. is anybody else involved in this conspiracy? the sense in terms of the law enforcement talking to nashville telling people to relax a bit tells you that they don't think there's a broader conspiracy. then you have follow-on questions about whether people were aware of this, where did the explosive material come from, did anyone know about this in terms of a conversation with the individual who did this and are those individuals partly responsible for this and of course, the question i think is already answered, i would have immediately, is there an overseas nexus involved in training somebody else. a ton of questions moving

quickly on but don't have quite answered yet. >> we're sure we know the answer to the last point you made? i mean, we know, we believe there's no active manhunt going on. that's according to law enforcement sources. but just because we can't see it doesn't mean that there isn't something along those lines going on behind the scenes, right? >> i agree with you. and i would say even if you're 99% certain there's not a follow-on tale, you're still going to search the 1%. when i was in the business, we'd talk about the 1%. but the fact that professionals are coming out and reassuring the local community tells me that they're pretty confident. even if you have a sort of hint of a concern that there's an overse overse overse overseas nexus year, i wouldn't want to go out to the national and say it's okay on the 26 of december. we have work to do before you clean up and reassure people,

dana. >> what's next in the investigation? >> there's a ton at work. regardless of whether you determine whether this was one individual who has a motivation might include somebody who's emotionally disturbed, remembering the las vegas case, the huge shooting a few years ago. i would have bet my paycheck you could figure out a motivation. the fbi never really figured that one out. a ton of work here. obviously, the work in the neighborhood to figure out what all the materials were. there are going to be a lot of people doing the physical information. what was the explosive? how was the explosive put together? the interviews of people, family, friends, neighbors who knew this individual looking for everything from the potential for conspiracy to motivations, looking through social media, laptops, cell phones. even if tomorrow we think on the outside that we have a pretty good picture, they got weeks of work on the inside. >> you mentioned explosives. i mean, that right there, looking at the damage. this was, i don't know if you call it sophisticated but a very

powerful explosive device or devices that this apparent suicide bomber used. what is the way that it looks, given your experience? what does it tell you about what was used and how easily it could have been obtained? >> the way it looks doesn't tell me much yet. if you look at things like, for example, going many years, oklahoma city, you don't necessarily need a sophisticated device to get this kind of damage, but there are a lot of questions you've got to answer. the first, of course, is did anybody help in the creation of the device but then there's a broader question that goes into how you put out warnings to people. for example, if this is a kind of material that's readily available, for example, in a store that might sell fertilize, is there anything that feds or locals can do to say, we should be controlling this more? there's bigger policy questions that emanate from this but right now, i think the immediate question is going to be on that conspiracy.

people doing explosives are often in a different room. >> oh, and do you think it's possible, maybe i'm asking you an unanswerable, but you do have a lot of experience with this kind of thing. that this person could have acted alone to cause this kind of damage without any help from anyone else? >> yes, i do. we had a category of person we called edps, emotionally disturbed persons. american people, myself included on this evening, the day after christmas saying, why did this happen? a lot of stuff i saw is what we call edp, somebody who had a motivation that made sense to themselves, they might have some basic technical skills to get fertilize and a bomb and a timer. you could find some of that stuff on the internet. i think there's a decent chance this person could have acted alone, but you've got to go through a lot of interviews and then read interviews when you find discrepancies between people. >> thank you so much for your experti

expertise. appreciate it. and president trump has the coronavirus relief bill hanging in the balance with millions of americans set to lose critical benefits if he doesn't sign the bill tonight. you're live in the cnn newsroom. wedding day, huh boys? been there, done that. twice your cousin. from boston. karen, i'm just gonna say what everyone here is thinking. you look smokin. total smokeshow. and they never did find his finger. they had to close the pool for like an hour. ♪ i brought a date. name's sam. dig in. love is like boston lager. rich, complex and it's over too soon. right, chrissy? oh my god. ♪ unfortunately, we are still limiting in-person appointments due to the pandemic and we'll need to move your father's visit to a later date. we're sorry.

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so that's what we give you. introducing career services for life. learn more at phoenix.edu president trump on any number of topics, all but ignoring the crisis that is just hours from hitting 12 million americans. after months of negotiations and a bipartisan bill that has gone through congress, none may matter because for 12 million people, unemployment is about to run out. the stimulus relief payment they were counting on isn't coming at least for now in any amount and the eviction protection that many need is not coming. it is disappearing and that is possibly going to happen if the president continues his christmas getaway in mar-a-lago

without signing the bill or even vetoing this bill now with him in florida. also with him is jeremy diamond in west palm beach, florida. any sign that we'll hear from or see the president this evening on what he plans to do here? >> reporter: there is a lid for the day. we're not expecting any public appearances by the president but there's a possibility he could take to twitter as he did throughout the day. we know the massive piece of legislation was flown down from washington, dc but whether or not the president will actually sign that legislation or veto it, we still do not know. we do know, however, that the president does appear to be digging his heels in four days after the threat to torpedo $900 million of desperately needed coronavirus relief, taking to twitter today to say this. i simply want to get our great people $2,000 rather than the measly $600 that is now in the

bill. but if that were true, the president could have acted on this weeks ago or months ago by getting on the phone with house speaker nancy pelosi and mitch mcconnell but he only started complaining about it, calling it a disgrace after it was passed by a bipartisan majority in both houses of congress and we cannot overstate the kind of impact that the president's refusal or even just delay to sign this legislation is having. 20 plus million americans currently unemployed and slipped into poverty over the last six months. and the president could provide some relief, perhaps not as much as many americans hoping for but some relief for those americans with unemployment benefits, for those americans hoping to get stimulus checks whether it w$2, or $600 but for now, the president's goal here is to sew

chaos and lash out at those leaders in congress who have abandoned him in his fight to try to overturn the results of the 2020 election which he lost. >> very important last point, explains a lot. jeremy, i agree with you. thank you so much for that report. and i want to bring in senior political analyst ron brownstein, senior editor at "the atlantic." thank you for joining me. the president is saying what he's saying on twitter. you saw what jeremy is referring to. as far as we know, he hasn't picked up the phone to call mitch mcconnell. saying the democrats on monday, two days from now, are going to call his bluff because they agree with him that people should get more money, not $600 but $2,000 in stimulus relief payments. is there any chance that this play that he's got could work, there's enough support for the

president and what he wants that republicans will back what he's doing and rush something like this through? any chance? >> so far, it seems very unlikely. the votes to underturn the vove other direction seems problemat problematic. torpedoing this at 11:59. the pardons to cronies. the efforts to overturn the election and demands on outgoing attorney generals and political opponents. if you add up all the pieces, it really feels like the final hours of some dictatorship abroad, a final hours, the walls closing in.

angry, addled and an embarrassment for america at this point. >> the pardons are one thing for what we're talking about here is a lifeline. literally, a lifeline. for so many americans whom he is still the president of the united states. as you said, he's said for some time, he wanted more money. republicans his fellow ones are the ones resisting. does he actually think he's going to make a difference here or is it possible, i know i'm asking you to look into a crystal ball you may or may not have, you are good, ron brownstein, but is it possible he's got to get it out and sign it at some point? >> it's hard to imagine he thinks it will change the bill. the fact he was disengaged from these negotiations for months is

a piece. it's parallel to the fact he's essentially walked away from dealing with the pandemic at all. we are living through a pearl harbor or 9/11 a day. case loads that were really unimaginable even in the worst days of the spring and the president essentially walked away. he's awol from the job and leading americans on his own and the same way in these negotiations. so the thought he's doing this out of some principled desire to change the trajectory of the bill as opposed to kind of lashing out again, as part of all the ways i've seen the election and tearing at the fabric of the democracy, you know, it's just hard for me to imagine he's going to get what he wants here. the choices will be to sign the bill or let it die and impose hardship on 10 to 14 million people whose unemployment will

expire. 9 million or so americans behind on their rent by the best estimates and their eviction protection ends. we're talking about mass disruption and chaos but consistent with the way he's approached all of this looking through the lens of what it can do for me. >> our colleague reported last week it was that mitch mcconnell, senate majority leader said to colleagues that part of the reason why they finally agreed to push it through, what they actually did get passed was because of the fact two republicans on the ballot for the special election in georgia were hearing about it and they were hearing, they were getting pressure because they're incumbent republicans to actually get something done. so what impact do you think this delay or maybe even the death of this will have on those two races which will determine the balance of power in the senate? >> look, i mean, the senate

races have become so tribal, so tied to attitudes about the president that the effect may not be great. in the last two presidential cycles. 16 and 20, we literally have one race so far that did not go the same way as the presidential race. but the idea that this level of chaos could go, to put the country in this position by waiting so long to make a deal. so close to the deadline of the benefits lapsing. you've got to think at the margin, that's a powerful argument for the two democrats that basically have been centering their case on the argument that if mitch mcconnell continues to control the senate, will not get the coronavirus

relief it needs and if this falls through, it could be exhibit "a" in their case. >> ron brownstein, always good to talk to you. thank you so much. appreciate it. sq >> happy holidays. >> a sobering statistic in the coronavirus pandemic. one in 1,000 americans have now died from covid-19 and even with the vaccine distribution, we're not out of the woods. more on that ahead. you're live in the cnn newsroom. nicorette knows, quitting smoking is freaking hard. you get advice like: try hypnosis... or... quit cold turkey. kidding me?! instead, start small. with nicorette. which can lead to something big. start stopping with nicorette

we're following breaking news out of nashville where

investigators believe the christmas morning rv explosion that injured three and damaged dozens of buildings was likely a suicide bombing. that's according to two law enforcement sources. this is brand-new video taken from a nearby restaurant's security camera that shows fresh footage of the blast impact as it happened. earlier today, authorities were at a home in antioch, tennessee, south of nashville to carry out what they're calling court-authorized activities. the rv in a photo released by law enforcement appears to match an rv seen at this site in a google street view. it led law enforcement to this location. a heartbreaking line was crossed in the united states. the coronavirus pandemic killed one out of every 1,000 people in this country. the number of covid deaths in the u.s. today hit 331,000 and

it keeps rising. also today, data from johns hopkins university shows that this month, december, is now the deadliest month in the united states since the pandemic began. 63,500 people in the u.s. have died from month from covid and there are still five days left in december. pope francis is pleading with those in control of distributing the coronavirus vaccines to make them available to everyone. in his annual christmas message, the pope begged countries to put competition aside and share vaccines with the world's most vulnerable and needy. let's talk about the vaccine rollout with our medical analyst dr. william and dr. chu. we have confirmation this month

of december is now the deadliest of the whole pandemic. two vaccines rolling out, there is hope and it's happening across the country and a few places overseas but the question is, is the distribution of the vaccine, is it moving in a satisfactory manner? is it moving fast enough? >> well, it seems like it's moving a little slower every time we come back to it. of course, we had this initial optimistic projection we might have as much as 300 million doses in january, every time we read the number, it goes down and then 40 million in december and then of course, only distributed a little over a million doses so far this month and i think it's just a very complicated thing. at every step, there's a complexity and possibility for a delay, whether it comes, whether it's individual state planning, allocation, training, supply of vaccine, storage, which is

complicated. there's just so many factors at this stage. so i think it's probably best to underpromise and overdeliver if we can. but we need to be prepared for the fact that it is going to be a slow rollout in many places and that it will not change our behaviors or necessarily the trajectory of the pandemic in this country in the short-term. >> and dr., people published with underlying conditions whether they should receive the vaccine. what is that guidance? what are those conditions and to whom does it apply? >> well, dana, the prior prioritization scheme started with providers and then added people who are residents of nursing homes and once we get through the phase one, we'll go into phase two, which will include many essential workers and people age 75 and older, and then beyond that, we will have

people with many underlying conditions. heart disease, lung disease, diabetes, immune compromised. there's a great list of underlying illnesses. as dr. choo says, as the vaccine comes out, we'll be working to spread it out according to the prioritization scheme. every state do it slightly differently but all trying to harmonize and singing off the same sheet of music, as it were. >> and dr. choo, what about people who have gotten the pirs do first dose of the vaccine? should they consider themselves immune or does that not happen fully until the second dose and can they still transmit the virus even after they get the vaccine? >> it's likely that the first dose gives you something but the

vaccine was developed as a two dose course and only after the second dose we know it has the efficacy that was reported out, which of course, for the pfizer and the moderna vaccines, was incredibly high. 90% efficacy for avoiding getting symptomatic covid-19, and so it's very important and this is part of the public health messaging we really think of it as a bundle. we plan on getting two doses and consider ourselves vaccinated afterwards. the question you ask about whether we can still transmit disease, not just get sick from it ourselves if we get the vaccine is the question, and again, that's not an end point that has been reported out in these studies. you would think that they would also decrease transmission, but we don't know that for sure. so we need to wait on more data and that is why we have to act like even with vaccine in our system, we have to act like we still can carry it and pass it

on to other people, so face masks, hand washing, social distancing will still be a very important part of pandemic control until we know better. >> we'll be in masks for a long time. and dr. schaffner, i've got to ask about this reported variant of the virus that is showing up in europe, in south africa. what are you learning about this and how will that impact the current vaccine if at all? >> well, it does appear that there are at least a couple of variants that are, if you could believe it, even more contagious than this current virus. and they're spreading in south africa, in england. there have been exportations to europe, and likely already some to the united states. the important thing to emphasize is that the masks, the social distancing, the avoiding groups will reduce transmissions.

the studies are under way but so far the predictions are that the vaccine will work against these new strains, perhaps not quite as effectively as the old strains but those data are not here yet. let's be patient and let the people in the laboratory sort that out. we ought to learn about that very quickly. but we are optimistic. vaccines are going to help us get out but as dr. choo said, it's part of a package. we've got to do all of these things together in order to flatten the proverbial curve. >> dr. william schaffner, dr. esther choo, thank you. happy holidays. >> thank you. >> and to you. >> tune in tomorrow morning for my interview with dr. anthony fauci at 9:00 a.m. on state of the union right here on cnn. still ahead, president trump won the white house in 2016

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at the season of audi sales event. get exceptional offers now. the trump administration is rushing to finish building at least 450 miles of wall along the u.s. mexico border before trump's presidency ends. this as activists document an

environmental catastrophe unfolding along the border. cnn's ed lavandera has the details. >> reporter: if you want a taste of life on the arizona/mexico border, ride shotgun in kelly's 1992 desert beaten ford pickup truck. >> we're not big time ranchers. we have a couple of cattle ranches. we make a living. we love the lifestyle. >> reporter: that's hard to tell where the united states ends and mexico begins in southeast arizona. this year, that changed. the trump administration is carving a 19 mile wall right through this wide open valley. what's it like to see this massive construction project on your property? >> we did not think it was necessary. >> reporter: construction crews moved in about a year ago. this is what the wall looked like across the san bernardino valley in february. this is what it looks like today. some see it as a long scar.

>> the american taxpayer doesn't see. they hear build that wall, it's going to secure this country. i promise you, it's never going to secure the country. not any better than it's already secure. >> reporter: in the final weeks of the trump presidency, the rush is on to build at least 450 miles of the border wall. customs and border protection officials say at least 438 miles of that are now complete. as the coronavirus pandemic raged this year, border wall construction never stopped. for months, anti-wall activists document what they describe as an environmental catastrophe unfolding along the southern border. crews blasting and bulldozing through rugged mountainous terrain. border patrol officials say the new walls are vital to patrolling these remote regions. >> good infrastructure buys us more time and gives us the critical seconds and minutes we need to get to an area, but as of now, a lot is erected and

hoping it pays off dividends in the future. >> reporter: eight border wall projects have been finished with crews actively working around the clock on 37 projects. >> good evening my fellow americans. >> reporter: what happens when president-elect joe biden takes office? biden has pledged he would not build another foot of border wall. >> if construction is taking place, it's going to go up this mountain. >> reporter: brandon leads the border patrol council vocal ally of president trump. judd said it would be foolish for biden to stop the construction now. >> you can see that trench that goes straight up the line. you're just going to throw that away? that doesn't make sense because now you're just throwing money down the toilet. >> reporter: halting construction isn't enough for some anti-wall activists. >> take the wall down in the areas that we need it to be taken down right away. >> reporter: we hiked to this border wall gate stretching the san pedro river bed in arizona

with environmentalist kate scott who said it's a deadly threat to wildlife that migrates through this area. >> i can tell you, we wake up, we cry. we steady ourselves, and we get to work. because it's been so painful for me to witness this monstrosity. >> reporter: the wall isn't being built fast enough for jim. >> international boundary. >> reporter: this isn't the kind of wall you want? >> no. >> reporter: his ranch spans out across 50,000 acres in arizona. chilton is lobbying for a wall on this spot. he said it's a low priority area because it's so remote but does have the ear of the border wall's biggest cheerleader. president trump put shchilton i the spotlight during a rally last year. >> mr. president, we need a wall. i offered the federal government ten acres of land over here from my private property to have a forward operation base.

i offered it for a dollar a year. and i even told them, i'll give you the dollar if you can't find one. >> reporter: you've made the border patrol, the federal government an offer you thought they couldn't refuse. >> they said they would study it. that was four years ago. >> reporter: chilton's ranch sits between a 25 mile gap of existing border wall and says it's prime to reign for drug smugglers. deploying hidden cameras to capture what he says are more than a thousand images of camouflaged smugglers marching across. >> it's actually been controlled by the cartel. >> reporter: lincoln has spent the years sounding the alarm about border wall construction in arizona. >> this wall is purely political theatre. it does nothing to actually stop people or drugs from crossing the border. >> reporter: drove us around texas monument, in the heart of the sonoran desert. the tranquility of the landscape

is broken by the sounds of crews building more than 60 miles of wall, part of it through this national park. calls himself a disaster tour guide. >> they're pulling out all the stops to rush this project through. >> reporter: he used to work as a u.s. national park ranger at the oregon pike national monument in arizona. resigned after president trump took office. >> it's an insult for those of us who live down here. we see communities ripped apart, these eco-systems be destroyed well. don't care what you call it, this thing is a disaster. >> reporter: ed lavandera, along the arizona-mexico border. >> nine months into a pandemic, millions of americans are jobless and increasingly desperate for many food banks have become a vital lifeline including families who have never imagined needing this kind of help. we're going to take a closer look at what it takes to feed so many hungry people. you're live in the cnn newsroom.

we all have seasons in our lives where something takes us to a place where we need to ask for help; and that's what food banks are here for. i asked dale if walmart would partner with us and he said, "absolutely, let's figure out how to get this done." when you start working in an area and you're out in the stores, and in the community, you see the need. it was just the right thing to do. ♪ ♪

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president trump has yet to sign that $900 billion covid relief package, leaving americans in limbo with 12 million set to lose critical unemployment benefits without his signature on that bill. in the midst of the winter, in the midst of this deadly pandemic. tricia cunningham is the president and ceo of the north texas food bank, just one of many organizations trying to fill the gaps that are leaving so many americans in dire straits. tricia, welcome. thank you so much for joining me this evening. and i want to show a snapshot of things in the north texas food bank that you accomplished

between march 30th and the end of november. you distributed more than 80 million pounds of food, provided more than 17 million s.n.a.p. meals, and this is really remarkable. at least 40 of the people you helped were new clients. they've never needed to turn to a food bank like yours before. so talk to me about what you are seeing, and obviously, the precedent that you're seeing set. >> dan, it's really unfortunate what we're seeing right now. we have about 900,000 people here in the 13 counties that we serve in north texas that are food insecure. and that means that they really don't know where their next nutritious meal is coming from, and it's every zip code. it's urban and suburban and rural america. i can tell you, probably most everyone knows someone who has been economically impacted by this pandemic. >> and how worried are you about what's going on here in washington? i mean, being here in washington, working here,

covering politics and policy and legislation for so many years, there are times when you know that what you're covering and what they're talking about matters so much to people in their everyday lives. i can't think of something that has been so important to people as what is going on right now that congress passed this relief bill and the president is saying that he is not going to sign it because he wants more. but even the basics, the $600 payment that is in the current bill, i'm guessing that for the people who visit your food bank, that would be something. >> you know, it would be great. first of all, we could not have gotten to where we are today if it were not for the assistance of the government. i mean, we saw nonpartisan support. i have not met an elected official yet that wants anyone to go hungry. but we do need this bill passed. we need assistance for families. because the role of food banks is to fill the gap.

and unfortunately, that gap gets a lot bigger if families don't get assistance from the government. one of the other great things that's been part of this new legislation that's coming up is an increase in s.n.a.p. benefits. there is a 15% increase for six months. we've been legislating and advocating for that for several months because we know the people that take advantage of those s.n.a.p. benefits need it now more than ever, because costs have gone up, but their benefits have not. so with that, with the $600, the additional unemployment benefits, and some additional food for food banks, it will really help us to be able to serve those needs. >> have you been able to help everybody who has come to your food bank seeking help, seeking food? >> you know, it depends on where the distribution is. we had our largest distribution ever at fair park just before thanksgiving. we served 25,000 people over 600,000 pounds of food. you see these lines that are just long, and people are

concerned. they're concerned that they're not going have additional help. and so they're coming to food banks to try to help offset some of the expenses they have. there was a teacher we met at the distribution. she was working two jobs, but she quit her second job because she didn't want to take the chance of getting her students sick. i'm use my money to pay for everything else, but i don't have enough money for food. you have these professionals that are suffering in silence like teachers that are out there that need assistance. and they just need a little extra hope right now from food banks. >> the fact that teachers who we rely on to educate our children have to, a, get a second job, or b, quit that second job and go to a food bank in order to survive is just astounding and reprehensible. thank you for everything that you and your organization, everything you do. thank you, tricia cunningham. i appreciate it.

>> thank you, dana. >> and we'll be right back. ♪ these days you need more than an education. so that's what we give you. introducing career services for life. learn more at phoenix.edu

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i'm dana bash in washington. i'll be back tomorrow speaking with dr. anthony fauci and here in the cnn newsroom at 7:00 p.m. eastern. before i go, i want to mark the passing solve someone in the cnn family, and this is a tough

one. 9-month-old francesca was the daughter of andrew kaszynski and his wife rachel. she passed away on christmas eve of complications from cancer. words are inadequate to describe how we feel for andrew and rachel, who are dealing with the unimaginable. somehow they found the strength to write a beautiful tribute to their baby girl, who the family called bean, beanie or beans. in her short life, francesca was an outgoing, bold, and curious baby. she had huge, deep brown eyes that followed whatever her parents were doing. she loved eating and being held close, particularly in the evenings. they go on to write francesca showed her parents a kind of love they never knew before and will never forget. in lieu of flowers, food, or gifts of any kind, donations can be made in honor of francesca to the pmc winter cycle charity event. the represents every dollar to

the dana farber cancer institute. you can find more information on andrew's twitter account at k file. may francesca rest in peace, and mayher memory be a blessing. [ cheers ] there are a few first ladies who really are milestones, cultural milestones. who help us understand what's going on in larger society. >> it took me some time doing a little dreaming to be standing right here today. >> she hasn't forgotten that journey and the challenges that she faced. >> in this great country, where you've worked hard and don