hello, everyone. i'm alison kosik. welcome to cnn "newsroom." happy new year. it is a new year. the country is facing the same crisis we have been dealing with for ten months. instead of getting better, the pandemic is only getting worse. the u.s. is fast approaching 20 million cases with more than 125,000 people currently in the hospital with the virus. that's a new record. and if that's not horrific enough, the u.s. reported more than 10,000 deaths from the virus in the final three days of

2020. the covid crisis is effecting the georgia state senate runoff, now four days away. georgia senator david perdue is quarantining with his wife after coming into contact with someone that tested positive for coronavirus. it is not clear how long his quarantine will last or how it will effect his last minute campaigning against democrat jon ossoff. one thing that is clear, a battle is brewing over congress' electoral college vote wednesday. cnn learned at least 140 house republicans plan to vote to throw out electoral votes from swing states that president-elect joe biden won. a lot to discuss here. let's start with the latest on the covid crisis, new concerns about a variant strain of the virus discovered in multiple states, including california and now possibly florida. cnn senior medical correspondent elizabeth cohen is covering this for us. happy new year. let's talk about the realities

of what's happening here. tell us more about the spread of the new covid strain. >> alison, it is generally agreed this strain is probably in many, many places in the united states, it is just that the surveillance system here is so, well, poor, that it is only catching it in some places. so let's take a look at a map. so far the strain has been caught or possible cases have been caught, four in california, one in colorado, one in florida. experts tell me there could be hundreds of cases of the strain in the united states in various places and let me show you why. actually, first talk about californ california. in california, two men in their 40s, one in his 50s. two of them had no known travel outside the country. the third yet to be fully interviewed. two out of the three we know didn't leave the united states, obviously they caught it here from somebody else. and these folks, the three men have no known interaction with each other. county health officials believe

the new strain is widespread in the community because they're seeing that these people did not travel to catch it, they caught it in the community. now let's take a look where this strain is all over the world. that's 29 countries. that means that it is widespread all over the world, likely widespread in this country, too. this variant doesn't make you any sicker, seems, not for sure, but appears it spreads faster. >> you mention cases around the world. we learned that there's another covid strain from south africa that could potentially be resistant to the vaccines already in production. what are you hearing from experts? >> so i spoke to the scientists in south africa that discovered the variant. he said look, it is possible, maybe the vaccine will work fine, maybe there could be a problem. we don't know. and that's why we need to test it. it is being tested now to see if the vaccine will work.

it has been found in eight countries, including south africa, again to the point i made earlier when you see it is in the uk, switzerland, france, in places where people go from there to the u.s., there's an excellent chance it is in the united states as well. we just haven't found it. >> elizabeth cohen, thanks for the latest. get back to drama on capitol hill. 140 house republicans plan to join president trump's fight to overturn election results when congress meets for the electoral college vote wednesday. cnn international correspondent phil mattingly joins us now. walk us through, how is this going to play out? >> reporter: it is going to be a long day. best way to put it. i think it is important to preface what's going on with this is not changing the outcome. joe biden will be counted as the president-elect when congress finishes its job january 6th or 7th, depending how long it goes,

he will be inaugurated january 20th. you have dozens of house republicans, probably 140 may be on the low end, at least one republican senator. what that means is if you have a house member and senator that both object, both chambers have to recess, debate objections up to two hours, and then vote on the objections. democrats control the house and a number of senate republicans made clear they believe biden is the president-elect. so every single objection will be voted down, but each individual objection is another two hours maximum of debate and another vote. so while this used to be a proforma exercise where everybody acknowledged reality and moved on, could finish in an hour or two, couple hours, this will be a long process as they go through the process. i think the big question now is why. i think the answer clearly, look at the president's tweet, the incentives line up if you're a republican that wants to reach out to the base, maybe has grander ambitions and who

recognizes there's no necessarily down side to doing this if all you care about is the politics. one republican told me, alison, easy to engage with this when you're not playing with live ammo. they know it won't overturn the election, they're looking at political incentives, despite how short sided it may be. >> during a conference call, senate majority leader mitch mcconnell called out senator josh hawley for objecting to the electoral college vote. you know about this. what did he say? >> yeah, sources i talked to on the call or briefed on the call made clear what mcconnell was trying to do is essentially channel what he was hearing from his members. there are a number of senate republicans furious that josh hawley decided to go down this path, go down this path against warnings of senate majority leader mcconnell a few weeks prior. mcconnell was asking josh hawley to layout his rationale and plan. why, why are you going down this pathway. and give some frustrated members an opportunity to weigh in on that plan. josh hawley was not on the call

which made for an awkward silence, mcconnell tried a couple times to reach out to him for that answer. what was interesting is what happened when hawley didn't answer. one of the people that did was pat toomey, a pennsylvania republican, one of the states josh hawley pointed to as his genesis for moving through the objection, thinking there's irregularities there. pat toomey laid out a detailed retort, making clear he believed the pennsylvania electoral slate was valid, election was valid, joe biden was the president-elect. there's a lot of back and forth inside the republican conference now, underscoring the difficulty republicans are facing either embracing reality or what to do with soon to be ex-president trump. >> my advice to you, phil mattingly, get lots of sleep, grab lots of coffee for wednesday since you said it will be a long day. thanks for joining us, though. >> thanks. vice president mike pence has rejected a last ditch effort by republicans to get him to overturn president-elect joe biden's victory. the vice president asking a

federal judge to throw out a request from texas republican congressman louie gohmert that attempts to force pence to ignore electoral votes of several key states. kaitlan collins is live at the white house with the latest. kaitlan, what else did pence's lawyers say and did it come as a surprise to the white house? >> reporter: no, we're told pat cippolone and mark meadows were aware this would be the filing coming on behalf of pence by the justice department, asking the federal judge to reject this lawsuit, basically invalidating the argument by the president's own republican allies, louie gohmert and others that filed suit against the vice president. in this argument they're basically saying you've got the wrong defendant. you should be suing the house and senate if you're trying to make this argument here. what we could see with the justice department filing, depending what the judge does, it could alleviate pressure you see building on the vice president from the president and his republican allies.

the president we are told by sources, alison, has taken outside focus on the vice president's role, so if they come back and the federal judge says no, his role is purely procedural as we have noted here and ceremonial, he can't actually change the outcome of this, it could help pence be able to shift to that court ruling and not necessarily let it fall to him. that's something that is an active conversation inside the white house now about what it is he is going to do next week. we are told the president has been complaining pence isn't doing enough to fight for him, and is expected to take a bigger role when you see what will happen next week, the showdown phil was talking about. >> kaitlan collins, live from the white house. thanks so much. coming up, state and local health systems under pressure to pick up pace of the coronavirus vaccine rollout. what needs to happen to make that a reality? later, i talk with a south carolina man who is recovering from effects of coronavirus after spending 63 days in the hospital. why he says his wife is the

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the nation welcomes in the new year, but the u.s. is behind schedule on vaccinations. while pressure is mounting for states to pick up the pace, republican senator mitt romney is calling out the federal government for poor planning saying in part it was unrealistic to assume the health care workers already overburdened with covid care could take on a massive vaccination program that comprehensive vaccination plans have not been developed at the federal level and sent to the states as models is as incomprehensible as it is inexcusable. kristin holmes is in washington tracking all of this.

kristin, the big question, why is distribution of vaccines taking longer than expected? >> well, that's a big question. that's why we are turning focus to the states to see what exactly is going on. when you look at the numbers, over 12 million vaccines have been distributed to the states. when it comes to actual shots in arms, we're only at 2.7 million. what is the discrepancy? state officials i talk to say this is a huge undertaking. as you heard mitt romney say, state officials agree. that they're very stretched thin now because of coronavirus and all of the health complications, that community is stretched incredibly thin. now they have to take on this rollout. a lot of it involves things like having infrastructure in place to deal with a complicated vaccine. this is not just a normal vaccine or normal drug, it has to be stored, has to be transported. there's a lot of problems states are having training people and getting through that, and they're wanting more resources

to help. >> you're also getting new details about how the vaccine has been mishandled in some states. >> that's right, alison. it goes to show you there's an infinite number of ways rollout of this magnitude can go sideways. i want to walk through some things we have seen. west virginia, 42 people thought they were getting a dose of the vaccine, instead turns out they were given covid-19 antibodies. health officials say they don't believe there's any harm that was done to these individuals, they cannot or will not explain how a mixup like that could happen. in terms of human error, human intention, in washington, d.c., safeway threw away two extra doses of vaccine, they had just vaccinated 28 people. there were two doses remaining. instead of keeping them, they threw them out. they're working with the health department to try to figure out what to do with that. in wisconsin, you talk about human intention, we know a pharmacist intentionally took out 500 doses of the vaccine from the refrigerator knowing

that it would render those useless. there's a lot going on here, again, can show you what can happen in a complicated process like this. >> complicated, one way to put it. kristin holmes, thanks so much. joining me, dr. rob davidson, emergency room physician in west michigan. good to see you. >> good morning. >> talk about how the vaccine rollout has been at your hospital so far? >> there have been a few hiccups. they're trying to get as many front line health care workers vaccinated as possible. we're doing a little changeup how they're doing scheduling to get more people. now reaching out to clinics outside the hospital to get those folks vaccinated, working with local health departments on the next level that people over 75, folks at nursing homes. you know, it is a huge undertaking and as our cases have been so high and hospitalizations high and number of staff out with covid, it has complicated it. >> and there's reporting among

the issues with these states rolling out vaccines, there's lack of planning, lack of direction from the federal government, leaving it to local hospitals that are already overwhelmed to figure it out. what more do you think you would like to hear from the trump administration to help distribute the vaccines? >> i guess i would like to hear a sense of urgency, a need for the federal government to be involved. at this point they've basically said we got you the vaccine, we'll get the doses, now states need to figure it out. saw the same with testing, have seen it since beginning of the pandemic, and we know that testing was woefully inadequate so long, still for the numbers of cases we have, still inadequate. it is just 19 days until a new administration, hopefully with new focus, new sense of ownership of this rollout. >> and because the rollout has been so slow, health experts like dr. anthony fauci suggested this idea of spreading out more first doses of the vaccine

instead of holding them back for people's second doses. the idea, get more vaccinated with the first shot, then circle back with the second. how risky an idea do you think it is? >> i think you are now going off the plan of how the studies were designed for the two vaccines, 21 or 28 days apart. the concern is if there's holdup in distribution and people aren't getting the shots, we know there's about 50% or so efficacy after one dose, but that's only up until people got the second dose. what if they go five, six, seven weeks. efficacy may really drop. we just don't know. then you're left with a lot of questions that are almost impossible to answer. >> you're thinking the idea probably is not a good idea? >> i think we should step up the production, step up the distribution so we can ensure we get the two doses at the intervals that have been tested. >> now you have more cases of the new covid variant popping up

across the country. how concerned should we be budget this at this time? >> listen, we should be extremely concerned. anytime you have a virus that mutated so many times and the strains we're seeing, it increases risk of more people catching it. luckily so far we see it isn't causing more severe disease, just tells the need to emphasize wearing masks and staying home, limiting interaction with people outside their household. this is the messaging we need up and down the board. and the new strain tells us that we need to redouble the efforts. >> keeping up the momentum, even if getting coronavirus fatigue at this point. dr. rob davidson, thanks very much. >> thanks, alison. still ahead, tension between tehran and washington are escalating approaching the one year mark since u.s. forces killed an iran general soleimani. (gong rings) - this is joe.

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a u.s. official says iran raise the readiness levels in the persian gulf, but latest intelligence is not clear whether it is an offensive move or defensive one. it is happening as the head of iran's elite military unit says america may soon face retaliation for killing a top general last year, hinting of

possible attack from within the u.s. so how would president trump respond in the waning days of his administration. tom nichols, professor at the u.s. naval war college argues the president could plan a final grand distraction before he is forced to relinquish the office. good to see you. >> good to be with you. >> tom, we're in the final stretch of the trump presidency. are you saying you envision president trump taking some sort of action on what's going on on the renewed tensions before he leaves office? >> i hope not. i should also add that i speak for the war college or the u.s. government. but i am concerned that the president relishes his role as commander in chief. we know that right after the election he was looking at options for striking iranian nuclear sites, he was apparently dissuaded from that by his aides, and it is a legitimate

concern. of course, the iranians are almost certainly up to no good and i think one of the things that most concerns me is this is the time when the president and incoming president-elect should be communicating with each other, sharing information, and consulting with each other and trump isn't doing any of that. i am genuinely concerned the president could be thinking about saddling president-elect biden with something going out the door. >> iran wants sanctions lifted, something an attack could jeopardize. maybe iran would wait to take action to see what the biden administration does about sanctions, wait for the new administration to take over, or do you see trump stepping in and doing something anyway? >> i'm not an expert on the internal antics of the iranian machine. coming up to one year

anniversary of killing of qassem soleimani which they vowed revenge for. it is possible the iranians could be planning something. on the other hand its been clear donald trump isn't a deep thinker about these issues, what he does in foreign or domestic policy arena is around what he thinks is best for donald trump. and when it comes to questions of war and peace, this is one place where a president can't afford to think that way, one of many places a president shouldn't think that way, this is a particularly dangerous place. because there's no transparency and because we simply have no way of knowing what the president is up to, i think that should raise some concerns, because of lack of transparency and coordination with the transition team and incoming biden administration. >> you mention iran could be up to no good at this point.

is there something we should be watching for, are there certain signals from iran or the pentagon that could come next? >> iran is always up to no good. that's the kind of regime it is. i think one of the things to watch for on our end are sudden bursts of activity at the white house of national security council, at the pentagon, which would indicate that people in our national defense establishment have spotted something that concerns them. you know, the problem here is that iran is a real problem. the president may well have to do something but to do this without consultation with the incoming administration, without coordinating through transition teams, without coming to the american people and congress to explain the exact nature of the danger, i think the problem here is that donald trump within the way he governed four years has not earned benefit of the doubt on these kinds of actions.

so i think if the country is going to have to face this kind of threat, they need to face it in a more united way. >> and you write in "the atlantic" how trump asked for actions against nuclear tarlgts after he lost the election, but was persuaded by aides. if they stopped him then, couldn't they do the same now? >> they could try, but you know, the president is the president until noon january 20th. the president's article 2 powers are not suddenly limited by losing the election. the president of the united states is the commander in chief right up until the last moment in office. that's the way the system was designed. that's why we have this kind of continuity of government and transition planning that we do. so possible, i doubt there are very many people, responsible people in the administration that want to start conflict with iran at this point, but on the other hand, the president fired a lot of people, put a lot of

acting secretaries who don't answer to anybody but donald trump, who are not senate confirmed, aren't going to be there to see this through later. whether they're going to try to take him out of it, who knows. >> tom nichols, great discussion. thanks for your time today. >> thank you. happy new year. >> happy new year. coming up, days before the georgia runoff, senator david perdue is in quarantine after exposure to coronavirus. early voting by democrats leaves republicans on edge. what will it mean for the final sprint of the campaign? from peanut farmer to rocking the white house, see how america's 39th president used his passion for music to win the 1976 election. cnn's film jamimmy carter, rock and roll president, premiers sunday night. >> one of the things that held america together was the music we share. >> jimmy carter used music in

politics. it had never been done quite that way. >> i want to introduce to you the allman brothers. >> he became a friend. he is a kindred spirit. a man you don't meet every day and you're lucky to meet if you ever do. >> jimmy and i basically come from the same spot. we went to the white house, we were welcomed in. >> his love for music makes sense to me. music is the voice of the heart. >> that was the music of change and dissidents. there was a political risk to it and it didn't matter to him. >> i think music is the best proof that people have one thing in common no matter where they live, what language they speak. >> jimmy carter, rock and roll president. sunday at 9:00 on cnn.

republican senator david perdue tested positive for coronavirus. it is taking him off the campaign trail days before the runoff against john ossoff. in a statement, perdue campaign says senator perdue and his wife

tested negative today, but following his doctor's recommendations, in accordance with cdc guidelines, they will quarantine. kyung lah joins me from atlanta. both perdue and kelly loeffler were set to campaign with trump monday ahead of the runoffs. how is this going to play out? >> reporter: the short answer is we simply don't know. there are a lot of questions about the senator, when he is coming back, when contact with the covid positive person was. we don't have that information now. the latest we are getting from senator perdue is the senator himself. here is what he tweeted. he tweeted this several hours after the news became public. he tweeted thanks to everyone that called, texted, reached out. bonnie and i are at home, feeling great, getting ready to ring in the new year with a whole lot of virtual campaigning. hope you all have a safe, happy,

healthy new year's eve. the emphasis there is on virtual campaigning. we're days away from the election that's going to determine the balance of power in the u.s. senate, alison, and we don't know if he is going to return to the trail. >> early voting ended yesterday. what are you hearing about that so far, about turnout and what numbers mean for democrats and republicans heading into election day tuesday? >> we're just getting this updated number from the secretary of state office in georgia. i want you to look at this number. this is extraordinary when you consider this is a state of georgia, these are senate runoffs. it is crossing 3 million in early voting. just for context, 3.9 million voted early in the state of georgia during the general election. so 3 million. that's incredible. and what democrats see in that number is very good news for

their side because democrats tend to vote early. there are early data points showing that black voters in the state are outperforming their population, and gop consultants tell cnn they're feeling nervous looking at the numbers. it puts added pressure on them, alison, to bring out their voters on election day. so a million voters did vote election day in november, alison. we have to see what turnout is. certainly that 3 million number tells us there's a lot of interest. >> a lot of interest for a high stakes election. kyung lah, thanks for breaking that down. it started with a cough, then turned into a medically induced coma. one man is sharing his story of survival after battling covid for months. he will join me next. re than ev, that's why the new myww+ is our most holistic weight loss program ever. the app helps you take the foods you have and gives you creative ideas for meals. you can choose any workout you want to fit within your time frame. there are a ton of zero point foods that i love.

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breaking news, the united states now has over 20 million cases of the coronavirus. the grim milestone further highlights the nation's distinction as world leader in cases. it took just five days to add 1 million more cases. this comes as hospitalizations once again reached new record highs. just yesterday the u.s. reported more than 125,000 hospitalizations. that's up 4,000 from just four days ago. nick valencia joins us from a convention center in atlanta that's being converted into a field hospital for covid patients. nick, the building was transformed into a field hospital during the height of the spring surge. how is the state of georgia back in this position? >> reporter: this is the third

time since start of the pandemic, alison, that georgia world congress center will be used as a makeshift temporary field hospital for overflow. we have been mentioning the surge in cases across the country. 2020 is in the rearview mirror, but it is sobering to think the worst of the pandemic could still be in front of us. talking about how bad georgia is, but nationwide, the last three days of 2020 johns hopkins releasing numbers this morning, shows 10,000 americans died as a result of the coronavirus just in the last three days. back here in georgia, numbers are so bad the governor, brian kemp, decided to use georgia world congress center as we are reporting as a field hospital. he issued a strong warning to those in the state that they need to take more personal responsibility, that everyone needs to do their part to keep each other safe. take a listen. >> if the people of georgia will hunker down a little bit longer, stay vigilant, do things we have been talking about, wearing a

mask, washing your hands, socially distancing themselves, following the health guidance in our executive orders, we can all have a safe, happy new year. >> reporter: this facility is expected to be operational until at least end of january. we talked to the governor's office this morning, they are start to go take patients today. the numbers are continuing to surge here. new phenomenon in georgia, 18 to 29-year-olds that are spreading the virus now. alison? >> now comes worry of another surge in coronavirus cases post holidays. >> reporter: that's right. >> for the rest of the month. nick valencia, thanks very much. the next story is about a man who knows all too well what it is like to be in the hospital with coronavirus. don gilmer, just 43 years old, was hospitalized back in july after testing positive. it started with a cough and before long he was on his way to the hospital where he was later

put into a medically induced coma. what he didn't realize is that hospital would be his home for the next two months. joining me now, don gilmer and his wife lacey. good to see you both smiling. don, i have to ask you, first of all, we are hasppy you're okay and out of the hospital. and how are you doing, how was the whole experience for you? >> we're doing okay. still doing a lot of physical therapy, i had to relearn to walk, i have some things i am dealing with, finally now getting to the point i start to feel like myself a little bit. i came home september 11th. so it is still taken this long to get to some type of normalcy. >> and lacey, this has been a long road for you as well. it has been 63 days of him in the hospital and you showed incredible strength at a time many people may not have been

able to. one point was he was on the ventilator, put into a medically induced coma, then you got a call from doctors. and they told you to come to the hospital. what happened next? >> yes. so they just told me they didn't know if he would make it through the night, if i could come up and spend a little time with him in case he didn't. so i drove to the hospital. they let me stay for a couple of hours. i just, you know, was there for him. told him that he was doing great, they were taking good care of him. everybody there was amazing. just spent some time with him. so -- >> don, what did you think. did you hear her talking to you? >> i did. anybody that knows lacey knows she has this sweet, tiny little voice. my father was there, too,

talking to me, holding my hands. i do recall hearing her voice and i really think that turned me around, gave me strength to keep fighting and to not let that be my last time. >> i hear that. lacey, was there ever a point before all of this that you thought this could happen to you and your family? >> absolutely not. i mean, we were being very careful, wearing masks, staying home pretty much. we would use the mask and hand sanitizer, socially distanced, we never thought it would happen to us. we actually didn't know anybody at that point that it happened to. it was very shocking he was as sick as he was. >> don, were you surprised you were in the hospital that long? did you realize what was

happening? obviously not when you were in a coma, but when you finally came out of it, what were you thinking? >> i was very confused. i couldn't see very well, i didn't have my glasses or contacts. i had a tracheotomy, so i couldn't speak. communication was very difficult. my ears were stopped up from being on oxygen so long and the left side of my body was not moving. i didn't really know what was happening. all i knew is what the nurses and doctors were telling me and just telling me to keep fighting and i was going to recover, it was going to take some time. then it got to where i was finally covid negative, and i moved to a step down unit, lacey was over to come see me after about 40 days at that point. i'll never forget staring out my hospital room door, i could hear her feet coming down the

hallway. just the feeling of finally seeing her again after that long. >> well, we're so glad you're on the road to recovery and thanks so much for telling your story to us today. don and lacey gilmer, thank you. >> thank you. >> thank you very much. health testing you do at home. know your health. know yourself. order now at letsgetchecked dot com

how abowhat a shame.wilson? so soon after retiring. i hear his wife needed help with the funeral expenses. that's ridiculous! -he had social security. -when my brother died, his wife received a check from social security, all right-- for $255! the funeral costs were well over $8,000. how on earth did she pay for it? fortunately, my brother bought additional life insurance -before he retired. -whew! i bet that cost a pretty penny, huh? not with colonial penn. coverage options start at just $9.95 a month. less than 35 cents a day. i have it myself. -we both do. -both of you? neither of us had to answer any health questions or take a physical exam. in fact, no one our age can be turned down. for any health reason. your rates go up every year, right? no, not at all. friends keep telling friends about guaranteed acceptance whole life insurance from colonial penn life insurance company.

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19 days until joe biden is inaugurated as the 46th president of the united states. although he expresses optimism about the road ahead, his transition team continues to call out the trump administration saying it is deliberately blocking access in key areas specifically. they accuse office of management

and budget and the pentagon of withholding critical information, some that could damage national security. president trump's defense and budget officials staunchly deny they're obstructing any progress. mj lee is with the biden transition in delaware. mj, what are some specific complaints you're hearing from the biden team? >> reporter: well, alison, this is just the latest back and forth between the trump administration and the biden transition team. let me explain what's going on. yesterday we saw the omb director writing a letter to the biden transition team saying your accusations of obstruction are completely false. i want to read part of the letter he wrote to the transition team. he said as the record shows, omb has fully participated in transition efforts. what we have not done and will not do is use current omb staff

to write the biden transition team legislative proposals to dismantle this administration's work. our system of government has one president and one administration at a time. omb will not participate in developing policies that will weaken border security, dismantle the president's deregulatory successes, and draft budgets that will bankrupt america. boiling that down, he essentially seems to be saying look, we're being fully cooperative with the transition process but there are certain things we are not willing to do, things i view as trying to dismantle or undo the work of the trump administration. so this prompted the biden transition team to put out a statement. let me read a little of what a spokesman wrote in this moment of unprecedented crisis when millions of american families are enduring terrible economic hardship, it is indefensible to hamstring the united states government's ability to prepare a budget and efficiently deliver help to those that need it most,

particularly out of explicit declared partisanship. now, all of this comes on top of the friction between the dod and biden transition team we have been reporting on all week. essentially biden transition saying we're not getting important national security information from the trump administration, we are not getting the meetings that we need during the transition process, while i will note as of last night, the pentagon saying there are now some 30 interviews scheduled between the biden agency review teams and the trump administration dod officials, so we're going to have to see whether this sort of means that a corner is being turned as far as at least dod is concerned. i will tell you, this really has been a messy transition process and a lot of back and forth like this coming all week, alison. >> cnn's mj lee, thank you. it is top of the hour. hello, i am alison kosik.

welcome to special new year's day edition of cnn "newsroom." only hours into the new year, the stage is set for a chaotic battle on capitol hill in a number of days. at least 140 house republicans are going to join in president trump's fight to overturn election results. they're planning to vote against counting the electoral votes january 6th, the day congress is expected to certify biden's victory. it is the latest in a series of last ditch efforts from the president and his allies. not taking the bait, vice president mike pence. he is pushing back against a lawsuit from republicans attempting to empower him to overturn the election results. while the president's attention is fixated on the election, the nation is suffering. we close out 2020 setting new chilling pandemic records. in the final three days of the year, over 10,000 americans died from covid. hospitalizations hit record