washington state was 97. a dedicated and caring mother who treasured spending time with her family. she was very independent and always put others before herself. may they rest in peace and may their memories be a blessing. thanks very much for watching. i'm wolf blitzer. i'll be back tomorrow 4:00 p.m. eastern for special coverage of the georgia senate runoffs. erin burnett "outfront" starts right now. "outfront" next, a brutal takedown of president trump. georgia's top election official blowing up trump's conspiracy theories one at a time. he's our guest. plus breaking news. more senators tonight say they back the effort to object to certifying joe biden's win in the house on wednesday. and new york announces its first case of the highly contagious coronavirus strain as scientists race to find out whether vaccines work against several new strains. let's go out front. and good evening. i'm erin burnett. "outfront" tonight, a blistering

and methodical takedown of trump. georgia's election chief, who will join me in just a moment, today blew up trump's conspiracy theories and lies about the election one by one. from a doctored video from a georgia election facility which purports to show election fraud. take a look at this. >> the tape that we're going to release, it's devastating. and by the way, that one event, that one event is much more than the 11,000 votes that we're talking about. >> the tape. okay. that was trump. and he's talking in a 60-minute phone call with georgia election officials, republicans. so he talks about this video, this stunning thing. right? you're going to see it all. okay. then there are facts. and here's the georgia election chief, gabe sterling's response today. >> the president's legal team had the entire tape. they watched the entire tape and from our point of view intentionally misled the state senate, voters and the people of the united states about this.

it was intentional. it was obvious. and anybody watching this knows that. anyone watching it knows that. >> the president i guess is hoping people don't watch it, just hear what he says. because it wasn't the only completely bogus conspiracy theory that trump threw out on that call. >> so dead people voted. and i think the number is in the -- close to 5,000 people. >> the truth? again, from gabe sterling. >> county by county shows potentially two. so far two. >> two. or close to 5,000. i mean, this is ridiculous. and by the way, when it comes to ballots, the president on that call pushed this baseless claim. >> we hear they're shredding thousands and thousands of ballots. and now what they're saying oh, we're just cleaning up the office. >> sterling again forced to

clean up that lie. >> there is no shredding of ballots going on. that's not real. >> and when it comes to one of the most absurd lies from the president, this tweet about georgia's secretary of state brad raffensperger that his followers called wrong. let's just take a look at this. trump tweets "now it turns out that brad r's brother works for china and they definitely don't want trump." i guess he's putting out there if you saw this tweet, right? that clearly the secretary of state of georgia brad raffensperger is working for china because he has a brother who works for china. it doesn't add up in any way, shape or form. again, the facts. >> secretary raffensperger does not have a brother named ron raffensperger. that is also not real. the president tweeted that out as well. >> okay. that is not real. and speaking of brad raffensperger, the secretary of state of georgia, he too has refused to take this from the president. during that call on saturday you can hear him again and again

calmly pausing and then shutting down the president. >> we don't agree that you have won. >> well, mr. president, the challenge that you have is the data you have is wrong. >> and why did they put the votes in three times? you know, they put them in three times. >> mr. president, they did not put that three -- we did an audit of that and we proved conclusively they were not scanned three times. >> mr. president, the problem you have with social media, people can say -- >> no. this isn't social -- this is trump media. >> okay. well, there's the one true thing he said. it is trump media. and it is currently full of conspiracies and lies believed by, spread by, sometimes even created by donald j. trump himself. these things that trump is saying are all factually untrue and totally fabricated. the problem is a lot of people believe them. and yet whether this is a sick game or the sign of a deeply sick mind, trump is parroting

something that is a lie again and again. on that phone call saying that he won, he won, he won. we won the state. i have won the state. we won this election. you know we won the state. it's pretty clear we won. we won the election. i mean, again and again and again. so whether it's a sick game or the president of the united states has a sickness of the mind, it's doing damage. and he's about to do it again. moments away from making his last campaign speech as president in georgia, and he says it will be full of the likes of what you just heard. kaitlan collins is out front in dalton, georgia where the president is holding a rally tonight. so kaitlan, what is the president's mindset right now coming into this speech? >> reporter: well, if you talk to people who speak to the president, erin, he says he is much more focused on relitigating his election loss than he is on securing a win for republicans here in georgia tomorrow. and one piece of evidence of that is is that we are now learning from sources the president debated canceling this rally here tonight, which of course means so much to david perdue and kelly loeffler as they are in this high stakes

race. because he is so upset about how that call with the georgia secretary of state went on saturday. so of course that just kind of gives you a worldview into what the president's mindset is right now as he is making his way through these final days in office. and if you listen to that hour-long call it's basically just the president speaking the entire time. he cuts off his own attorneys who are asking the secretary of state's office to give them the data that they have about these votes, and these are attorneys that we should note the president's own staff are having trouble keeping up with because there have been so many new faces as the president has gone throughout this journey. and on top of that there are fewer senior staffers around the president because they're either lining up new jobs after he does leave the white house at the end of this month or they're basically just checked out from the west wing. so you're seeing the president surrounded by a smaller circle that is really fueling his theories he has continued to push in light of even election officials like gabriel sterling saying the president is wrong.

but of course the concern is that the president is going to take down the republican senate majority with him by making this all about himself, by discouraging republican voters from going to the polls tomorrow because even just here a few moments ago at this rally they played a new video where they were saying that the election was rife with fraud, that it was overwhelming, which of course even his own election officials have said is not the case, yet that is what the president is pushing and that is what his supporters tonight are hearing one day ahead of that senate race. >> thank you very much, kaitlan. and that crowd behind kaitlan, you can assume a lot of people, and this is why this is so deeply damaging, believe what trump is saying. "outfront" now, top georgia election official, voting system implementation manager republican gabe sterling, as i promised, with me. so gabe, i -- well, i'm glad to talk to you in one way. i'm not in another because it means this is still happening. so you went through the video. you went through the shredded ballots. you went through the dead people. you went through the brother who doesn't exist who isn't named ron to begin with. point by point, taking down that

call. the president's claims. you felt it important to do so. what compelled you to do it? >> well, thanks, erin. again -- well, it's good to talk to you. again, the circumstances aren't exactly ideal. one of the big reasons is the president's actions and the statements and those of his team are essentially suppressing the vote in georgia. and what's happening is he's telling them your vote doesn't count. and we're trying to explain to people diligently, with facts, as calmly as we can, as transparently as we can, your vote counts and if you want to see your values and your policies reflected and you want to vote go vote. and then like i said today, if you really deeply believe that somebody cheated, it's your obligation to go vote to make it harder for them to cheat even though we have really no evidence of that at all. >> right. so he goes and says 5,000 dead people voted. and you said two. he says there are shredded ballots. there aren't. he says there's this video, he's kept talking about it -- it doesn't show that.

these things just didn't happen. but when you hear an hour-long phone call and you hear him saying this stuff again and again just cutting people off and plowing over them, what is your first reaction when you he actually heard it out of his mouth, you know, conspiracy after conspiracy? >> well, this isn't the first time we heard this. i remember you asked before if you were surprised by this. no, i'm not surprised. and you're not surprised. none of us are surprised. i mean, i do -- when i was listening to the audio, i basically yelled at the computer a couple times and then when i was driving in to work today there was a radio ad paid for by trump for president talking about state farm arena and suitcases of ballots. and i'm like, that didn't happen. you know that didn't happen. and i keep on explaining this over and over again. like i said, it's like groundhog day. >> right. and here's the problem. as i say, people believe it. and there's this bizarre thing that the more you put out facts sometimes people believe there's a cover-up. right? that conspiracy theory damaging world that some people live in. and the president had been trying to call -- you know, call raffensperger i guess to rake him over the coals here.

18 times, we understand, that he had tried to call him 18 times. were you aware of that, that trump has tried to call him nearly 20 times? >> well, i heard that today for the first time. what we found out is the staff was calling our press line, which is sort of manned by the intern of the day. and if you get a call from the white house on the press line usually you're not going to believe it. and there's people in the white house who have the secretary's number, who have the deputy secretary's number, and finally they hooked up. but i mean, it's not like they're hard to get to. you kind of know where these people are. if you're calling the press line it kind of says something about the staff going on. >> that's incredible. they're literally calling the staff line when there are people in the white house who have -- you're right, it does say something pretty significant about how this is all being handled. i want to ask you about one other thing, gabe, that i didn't get to play in the beginning of the show, and that is trump talking about this whole recording of the call itself. so jack o'donnell used to work for trump. he was a casino executive for

him. for years. and has talked about it extensively. and he told us tonight, and i quote jack, "i was warned early on after i joined the organization," talking about the trump organization, "to be cautious on all my calls with donald. i was told to assume all calls were being recorded. it is just what he does, his m.o." gabe, i can tell you, i've been in an office with trump. not when he was president. before president. he would always -- oh, don't say anything. i'm going to call this person. be quiet when you're in the room listening. i mean, i've seen it myself. we know the president records everything. but the republican senator david perdue, who is obviously on the ballot tomorrow, said this to fox news about raffensperger recording his conversation with trump. >> to have a statewide elected official, regardless of party, tape -- to tape without disclosing a conversation, private conversation with the president of the united states and then leaking it to the press is disgusting. you know -- >> i mean, disgusting, obviously

the president does it himself all the time. were you surprised that raffensperger felt it necessary to record his call with the president and that the audio was leaked? >> as i stated earlier today, there is a history of the president not necessarily characterizing things the way they actually are. so having a backup recording is probably the better part of valor for most anybody who's going to be discussing anything with him. and as you said, he has a history of recording these things. and the reason i think -- it was leaked by multiple sources i believe. but the president put out a tweet totally mischaracterizing what happened on the call. so i think now through transparency people have seen what happened on that call. and it was inappropriate in many people's minds. i think it's better to have that information out there. i disagree with the senator's characterization of this as disgusting. i mean, and let's be fair, one other thing that the secretary said earlier today, the day that the secretary -- that the senator and his colleague, senator loeffler, called for the

secretary's resignation was the day that brad raffensperger's wife started getting sexualized violent texts and so far i think neither of them have talked about that to brad directly to apologize for what happened on that front. and that's what's more disgusting than anything. >> yeah. well, gabe, thank you very much. as always. >> thank you, erin. please, one thing. if you're in georgia, your vote's going to count. please get out and vote. >> yes. i hope every single person in georgia who hasn't voted does vote. it is important. we want your vote to be heard. people should understand that. as you said, you've had the most secure election. that last election you had, every single one of those ballots gave you you said it again it & again, paper trail. people should know it's safe and secure and they should vote. >> all right. thank you. >> thanks, gabe. and one of the nation's preeminent constitutional law scholars, harvard law professor laurence tribe-s back with me now. he was part of al gore's legal team during the 2000 election recount. professor, you've been with me again and again through all this just as gabe has and he's come out again and again debunked

methodically every single one of these claims. now, i want you to look at this from a legal perspective. when you listen to the 60 minutes, right? of call and the president saying he won and putting all these falsehoods out there and saying at one point very clearly that, quote, "there's nothing wrong with saying that, you know, that you've recalculated" to the georgia secretary of state, did the president commit a crime? >> it sure sounds like it. i've almost never heard a crime committed on a live tape, let alone by the president of the united states. but this very much looks like a violation of the federal extortion statute because he was basically threatening to get this raffensperger prosecuted criminally unless he did him the favor of saying he had recalculated. it was also the federal crime of

false ballot tabulation, encouraging false ballot tabulation under 52 usc 20511. it also looks like it violated the criminal laws of georgia, which are well beyond the president's pardon powers. it's staggering. it really was like listening to a crime boss but not a very smart one just commit crimes for an hour on a live audio. my jaw couldn't have fallen farther. it was just staggering. and what's sad is how all of these republicans are going to line up behind him anyway. it won't matter. it won't change anything on the 6th of january. but it sure as hell will set a terrible precedent. >> so you know, let me ask you about this. when you say you think clearly a crime. you list several of them. okay. so on the federal level i know you've made it clear, you don't

think that the president could pardon himself. but putting that aside for a moment, you're making the point that he could have violated georgia law. so what would be the repercussions of that if that is pursued by the state of georgia? >> right. and no one suggests that the president can wipe away state crimes with the pardon power. the georgia d.a. locally or the georgia attorney general manages somehow to look the other way, there's also the manhattan prosecution and the letitia james prosecution in new york state. so no wonder this president is so desperate and delusionally desperate to hold on to power beyond january 20th. the moment he pulls down that presidential shield, it looks like an orange jumpsuit awaits him. it's really scary for him, i'm sure. >> okay. so let me ask you about this, though. when you hear that call. you know, there's been reporting

all the way along, and i know people who have been in the oval office with the president, say well, he knew, he kind of got the game, he got that he lost. and then one of those people told me a few weeks ago that something has changed, that the president now no longer believes that he lost, that he truly believes some of this stuff. so when you hear him going on talking about a video that gabe sterling has repeatedly gone through frame by frame, you know, it's b.s., right? shredding ballots, it didn't happen. 5,000 dead people voted. 2 dead people voted. ballots counted three times. it didn't happen. all of this has been debunked so carefully and yet he still does it. so do you think he's playing a game here? do you think he has a mental issue at this point? what explains this? >> he obviously has some kind of mental issue. he's delusional. he's desperate. but that's not going to be a compelling defense. i heard george conway use a great analogy this morning. he said if i break into your house and i say well, i thought it was my house.

and you say well, what made you think that? and you say, well, i told everybody i thought that. that's not going to be very convincing. in this case even if he's managed to convince himself that he's invincible, he couldn't possibly have lost, he says look, you know, everybody thinks i won and so i won and i've said i won and so i've won, in the end that's not much of an insanity defense. but that's about the only defense he has. and it's really terrifying to have a president so delusional that the only argument in response to the claim that he's a deliberate intentional criminal is that we've got a crazy man with his hands on the nuclear button turning around the aircraft carrier "nimitz" over the decision of his pentagon in the persian gulf at a time when who knows what he might try to do in order to stave off facing the music. this is not a happy time in our

country. and i'm confident for the long run, but for the next 16 days i think we've got to put on our seat belts. >> all right. professor tribe, thank you as always. >> thanks. and next, breaking news. new video of president trump just before leaving the white house heading to georgia tonight. you can see him speaking pretty animatedly to the vice president, mike pence, who is about to preside over the final confirmation of biden's win. and pence said something very interesting today about that. plus president trump about to speak in georgia. does he even want the republican candidates to win there? what one georgia republican is telling cnn tonight. and then this. this is what ted cruz used to think of trump. >> donald, you're a sniffling coward and leave heidi the hell alone. >> now he's, you know, his biggest sycophant. what changed? new projects means new project managers.

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to customizes yourcan gocar insurancetual.com so you only pay for what you need? really? i didn't-- aah! ok. i'm on vibrate. aaah! only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ breaking news. new video just in to cnn of president trump meeting with vice president pence at the white house tonight. that's just hours after trump's personal lawyer rudy giuliani said they would be meeting to discuss what pence will do when he presides over the certification of the electoral college results on wednesday. now, his role there is really ceremonial. so what are they planning? but we do know that at least 13 republicans are now planning to object to the electoral college results. the latest is the result senator kelly loeffler of georgia who announced she'll challenge the results just moments ago.

that is 13 more senators than mitch mcconnell thought he'd have because he asked them all to stop all this nonsense. yet there are now 13. not zero. 13. and they are in addition to at least 140 house republicans that jake tapper's reported will object on the house side of things. out front now republican will hurd. he just retired from congress this weekend. congressman, i appreciate your time. let me just start off with, you know, we just saw this video of trump and pence and they're speaking very animatedly. rudy giuliani had made that comment. pence was earlier at a rally in georgia where he said i promise you come this wednesday we'll have our day in congress. we'll hear the objections, we'll hear the evidence. i mean, his role is purely ceremonial here. do you have any concern over what he may try to do? >> well, he may hear objections because i think the senators get to stand up and object. but his job is to certify the election. as you say, this is a ceremonial issue. what's wild to me is that i

never thought i would say that some conservative colleagues of mine would be looking to the former superprogressive california senator barbara boxer as a example of how to operate on the senate floor. this has gotten out of control. what upsets me is i've been in difficult races. every race i had was difficult. my last election, it took 20 days after the election for it to be decided. and the people that are involved in counting the votes, certifying the votes at the state level, republicans and democrats, take their job very seriously. i think we see how serious that the folks in georgia take this. and when you criticize them and you talk about fraud, it only hurts the broader system. and i think the only person perpetuating fraud is the person

that can't get over the fact that he lost. we're playing -- this has broader implications rather than just an election tomorrow. it could suppress votes, voters to come out. we have a consequential election. republicans need to have that check in the senate against a president-elect biden. but it also has ramifications in the international arena because our adversaries are looking at this and using this as an excuse to erode our trust with allies and folks around the world. so this is disappointing all around. >> so to this point when i mentioned 13 senators and now 140 house republicans, republican senator ben sasse, he's not in that group. right? he's opposing the effort. he says let the will of the people be heard. he says that in private conversations he has not had one conversation with a republican who actually will admit that they believe any of this.

right? so basically, they're all doing it for whatever -- i don't know why. let me ask you this. have you had any conversations where any of them actually say they believe all of these things that we all know to be blatantly false? and if you haven't, then why do you think so many of them are on board with it? >> so i haven't spoken to anybody that believes this and thinks this is the right thing. i can't say i've spoken to a large cross-section of people that are going to vote on this. and i don't understand it either. some have said and opined that it's because they're worried about the next election. well, almost every single republican that won in the last election outperformed donald trump. donald trump was a drag up and down the ballot. we were successful despite of that. like the fact that we picked up seats in the house, us being republicans, the fact that nancy pelosi has such a small margin,

we should be focused on that. and we think if there's fraud in the election having the most diverse freshman class in republican history, was that a fraud? i don't think it was. so i can't give any insights into why this is the case. but i think there's a broader issue here about this erosion of trust in many of our institutions. the fact that something like this can be perpetuated as long as it has. this is a serious issue that we have to address. and guess what, we've got to address it in the media, we've got to address it in government, we've got to address it in civil society because this is important in how our democracy operates. >> well, congressman hurd, i'm glad to talk to you. i know you obviously retired from congress. you've got a lot more ahead. and i look forward to speaking with you. thank you. >> thank you, erin. happy new year.

>> all right. you too. and next, trump is about to take the stage there in georgia. as a republican mayor tells us what's happening in his state is an absolute bleep show. we're live in georgia. and breaking news. the first case of a highly contagious strain of coronavirus now discovered in new york. (burke) deep-sea driving, i see... (customer) something like that... (burke) well, here's something else: with your farmer's policy perk, new car replacement, you can get a new one. (customer) that is something else. (burke) get a whole lot of something with farmers policy perks. ♪ we are farmers. bum-pa-dum, bum-bum-bum-bum ♪

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you're looking at live pictures of president trump's rally in dalton, georgia where he will be speaking in just over an hour. and the big question, will he use the final hours of the campaign to help the republican candidates in tight senate runoff elections and will decide the balance of power? or will he keep making false

claims about the november election that he lost? kyung lah is out front. >> reporter: on this final full day of the georgia senate runoff campaign the two democratic challengers are on the attack, using president trump against his own party. >> the president of the united states on the phone trying to intimidate georgia's election officials to throw out your votes. let's send a message. >> he is being aided and abetted by two united states senators, kelly loeffler and david perdue. >> reporter: on the republican side senator loeffler dodged direct questions about trump's recorded phone call while senator david perdue turned his fire on the recipient of trump's phone call, georgia's republican secretary of state. >> to have a statewide elected official regardless of party take -- to tape without disclosing a conversation, private conversation with the

president of the united states, and then leaking it to the press, now is disgusting. >> reporter: even as senator perdue defends a sitting president attempting to undermine an election, there's little sign it matters to the gop faithful. at least among those who came to see vice president mike pence in milner, georgia. they claim they haven't heard anything about this call. >> no, i haven't. >> no, i haven't. >> i know there was election fraud. have a good day. >> it's whack-a-mole again. it is groundhog day again. >> reporter: georgia is split into two worlds. claim versus fact. say exasperated georgia state election officials. the secretary of state's office displayed this poster-size message at its first press conference since saturday's controversial phone call. >> a lot of people aren't going out to vote. and a lot of republicans are going to vote negative because they hate what you did to the president. okay? they hate it. and they're going to vote. you would be respected, really respected if this thing could be straightened out before the

election. >> reporter: democratic voters who say they all heard the trump phone call? >> i did. >> yes, i've heard it. >> yes, i've read about the tapes. most certainly. >> reporter: admits they don't know if it will change tuesday's election. >> i think it's incredibly disappoint sxig hope it galvanizes people to turn out for the democratic candidates but i'm not optimistic it will make that much of a difference. >> reporter: okay. but the wild card in all of this is what happens tonight. when president trump steps on the stage, what is he going to say? and the people who are very concerned about this are the republicans here in the state of georgia. one source telling cnn if disaster is avoided tonight, erin, it will be, quote, sheer dumb luck. erin? >> all right, kyung, thank you very much. well, if it's anything like the phone call, right? we know what we're going to hear. a whole lot of things that are not true.

seth herndon has been on the ground covering these races. he's at the president's rally now. and michael smerconish, host of smerconish and of course political comment cator. asted, you're there in dalton. president has said he's going to be talking about election fraud tonight, warning in a tweet "you'll see the real numbers tonight during my speech." of course there are no real numbers which show any fraud. you've just heard congressman will hurd say the only person putting out fraud at this point is the person who lost the election, donald trump. but the point is what effect does this have, asted? if he goes out tonight and goes crazy taking down the republican leadership of georgia, what's the impact on the voting tomorrow? >> that's the huge question we have here. what we know is that president trump is in northeast georgia because republicans need to boost the turnout out here. but this rally is not really about kelly loeffler or about david perdue, it's about president trump. the voters here are saying over and over that they are looking to president trump about those voter fraud claims and they

think this is an election that was stolen. now, they're trying to juice turnout in these northeast portions of the state because democrats have done so well in their urban areas during early voting. will the president even focus on the senators or will he focus his attention on his own grievances? i think that's what everyone's looking for. >> well, of course, if past is precedent it's going to be the latter. so michael, republicans increasingly worry about what the president may say at the rally. right? he said he's going to have numbers. he's made it clear this is going to be about himself. one georgia republican tells cnn, "the likelihood of a total complete absolute beep show is off the charts. if disaster is averted, it will be sheer dumb luck." michael, elaborate as to what's at stake here. >> well, i really think there's political malpractice taking place as we speak because the president's, i'll use a nice word, on ststinance, in not

accepting the election results, that's georgia republicans' best argument they have. think about it, erin, to rally that base what do you say? you say that loeffler and perdue are the bulwark, the only thing standing in the way of total democratic leadership, joe biden, nancy pelosi, chuck schumer, throw in the squad and a couple of references to c communism or socialism. but because of this whole emperor has no clothes dance that argument is not being made. i mean, the president by rights tonight should say we ran a hell of a race, we came close, we didn't win, but now you've got to return these two to the senate or all is lost for the next several years. but of course, he'll never say that. >> no, no. and instead what he's telling them is it's all corrupt and it's rigged and it's rigged against you so why bother voting? i mean, that's the emphasis here. so astead, on this point, though, early votes, right? you've heard from kyung's report. you've seen it yourself because

i know you've been covering this for a long time. 3 million early votes cast already, a record for a runoff in georgia. it would seem that that's benefiting democrats so far. black turnout up. turnout down in white rural areas. so what is the energy you're feeling on the ground right now coming into tomorrow? >> you know, it was kind of a prerequisite that democrats improve on their november showings in many of those urban areas if they were going to have a shot in the runoffs. they did that in early voting. we saw that increased vote shares in democratic counties, fulton, cobb and the like and we also saw that black vote share increased, young voters increased and they found a number of voters who did not vote in the november election who came out for the runoffs. those are reprerequisites for the runoffs. but we know republican voters are not trusting the early vote system so republicans are banking on the in person vote to make it up on tuesday.

particularly in regions like dalton. and that's why president up from is here. republicans think that they are in a kind of trouble but they also are banking on this closer president trump to boost that turnout especially in these regions. >> to this point, michael, that astead is making, that you were also making about what's at stake here, prominent georgia conservative talk radio host erick erickson, we all know him, he wrote today about president trump, "some republicans are convinced he'd rather the gop lose georgia. otherwise, it is hard to claim the democrats could engage in a transcontinental conspiracy to steal the presidency but couldn't use the same voting machines in georgia to steal the senate." and therein is the problem, michael, that you were hinting at. if he wins and he has to say oh, we just -- we eked it out here and no shredding, it was all good this time, but not last time. do you think it's possible that he'd rather lose the whole thing, lose it for the gop, to back up his own claims? >> i don't think so. because if they lose, and i think it will be all or nothing, if they lose he'll be tagged with the loss and he'll be

tagged with the loss because of this conflict of saying it's all rigged. oh, by the way, come out and vote in a rigged election. so i don't buy into that. >> all right. thank you both very much. we'll be talking to you tomorrow. thanks so much. and next, breaking news. new york just reporting its first case of the new highly contagious strain of coronavirus, first known case. and there are now concerns that current vaccines may not work against another highly contagious strain. plus, what led to this tense exchange between florida's governor and cnn? >> with all due respect, governor -- >> you asked a question, i'm going to answer it. >> i'm trying to finish my question. >> you're not -- no. introducing letsgetchecked health testing you do at home. know your health. know yourself. order now at letsgetchecked dot com but before we sign i gotta ask... sure, anything. we searched you online and maybe you can explain this?

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breaking news tonight about the two new strains of the coronavirus that everyone's been talking about, both highly contagious. new york announcing its first known case of the uk variant. and meantime, the british health secretary warning that the new south african variant is "even more of a problem." there are growing concerns about whether the current vaccines will work on at least the south african strain. "outfront" now, dr. william schaffner, former cdc official and president professor of infectious disease at vanderbilt university. dr. schaffner, let me start with the british prime minister boris johnson now announcing a lockdown for england all the way through at least mid february. they've had a 30% increase in hospitalizations in one week.

from their new variant. and we've now found new york has discovered that it has a case which of course means there's many more. i ask this for a very specific reason. you could have a more transmissible version of this and see a whole lot more death than you would if you actually had a deadlier version which was not more transmissible. right? the amount of death you could see from this could be horrific. are you concerned about the impact here in the u.s. at this point? >> oh, of course. we're always concerned, erin. and you're exactly right. now, let's make it clear for our viewers, this is a more contagious strain but it's not more apt to make you seriously ill. however, it's so contagious that it could spread to so many people and find older people, people with diabetes and heart disease, that it's likely to make many of them so sick that they have to go to the hospital. and of course the risk of dying goes up.

simply because it's spread so readily. so yes, it's a strain that we have to be careful about. but remember, masks work, even against this strain. social distancing, avoiding groups, staying at home, and hygiene, all those good things work against even this more contagious strain, and all the more reason for all of us to do that. >> right. and okay. so you could still have a lot more death from a more transmissible version as opposed to the old transmissible version that was deadlier. but all of this would be pred kated on you're going of it a vaccine coming soon. that's what everyone says, we've got a vaccine coming soon. but now we don't know, doshlth, whether the current vaccines will work against any of these new variants. but there have been some now real concerns raised specifically about the south african variant, that it has substantial changes from the original and that at least in south africa they have raised serious questions as to whether

the vaccines will work against it. and i should note that it of course is highly transmissible like the uk version. do you have concerns about this? >> well, erin, they're concerned so obviously i'm concerned too. we don't want that strain to start running around the world and causing more damage. we're interested in what the virologists will tell you over the next three to four weeks, tell all of us, about exactly how much of a match there is between this new strain in south africa and our vaccines. if there's not a match or there's sufficient deviation, then the manufacturers will have to go back to work and create yet another vaccine, hopefully one that will cover both strains. >> yeah. of course it does raise a lot of concerns, you know, around the world as people have been saying well, okay, now there's a vaccine in sight. this has the potential to dramatically change the way people see this. when it comes to the vaccine,

doctor, right now according to the cdc only 4.5 million americans have received their first dose. that is literally a needle in the haystack. but they've repeatedly vowed that there's going to be more than that, we were going to have 20 million by the end of december. right? so we're at 4.5 million. how can we increase the pace of vaccinations? >> well, those were aspirational goals and they were much too high when they were made. now that we're in the new year, we started slow, we started carefully. and now we're expanding. we need to have more vaccine come through the pipeline. and then the local and state health departments need resources so they can really open up the vaccination program. we ought to be vaccinating saturdays, sundays, down to 8:00 or 9:00 at night, starting at 5:00 in the morning. so there's simply more opportunities. but they need the resources to do that. human beings push the plungers

on those syringes. they need salaries. >> and of course that has not been part of what we've gotten yet out of washington. thank you so much, doctor. >> thank you. and next, donald trump and ted cruz, you remember, they hated each other with a virulence. but now cruz is leading, the standard bearer for trump's charge to overturn the election. what happened? and the question that sparked this back and forth between cnn and florida governor desantis. >> why was -- like

president trump is lashing out on republican leaders who are not joining his victory. cruz is one of his rivals and the biggest creditics and the 26 campaign. tom foreman ins os out front. >> we have seen unprecedented allegation of voter fraud. >> reporter: ted cruz is blasting away at the courts and

the dams and anyoemocrats and a says trump lost fair and square. >> i am angry. >> lying ted cruz. lying ted cruz. >> reporter: trump claimed fa e falsely cruz's father was tied to the kennedy assassination. cruz born in canada could not occupy the office, trump criticized cruz's wife at the time. >> he hinted that a trump's ties to organize crimes and calling trump a pathological liar. >> the idea of our daughter coming home and repeating any words that man says horrified me. >> reporter: that ted cruz is nowhere to be seen these days,

he helped trump fights impeachment and fighting for the white house. >> president trump called me and said would you do the argument in this case if the court takes it. i told the president absolutely and i would be happy to do it. >> reporter: why? after embracing trump, cruz saw his name floated as attorney general or a candidate for president down the line. >> reporter: cruz says he wants to clear up any disputes of the election. as a republican it is his responsibility to tend to the president and do what needs to be done here but of course that is what he's saying now. erin. >> all right, thank you very much. ron desantis defending the

vaccines roll ouing-out. he had a heated conversation with flores. >> excuse me, if i can finish my question. >> you just said what's wrong. >> reporter: ai am trying to finish my question. >> no, you are giving a speech. you asked a question. >> reporter: i am trying to ask you a question. >> you got three? they only got one question. >> reporter: i am just asking if i can finish my question. >> you finished the question. >> reporter: i did not. what was wrong with the vaccines when we see the jam and websites crashed and senior citizens waiting over night for the vaccine. >> where was that at? >> reporter: in duval and broward. >> why did it happen?

>> reporter: did you investigate why? >> you didn't investigate why? why was there a big line? did you investigate why? >> reporter: could you tell us why? >> we distributed vaccines to hospitals and the hospitals said first come first serve and if you show up, we'll do it. they did not use a registration system and there is a lot of demand for it. >> reporter: no plans from the state to make sure senior citizens did not wait outside over night? >> the state is not dictating the hospitals, we are not dictating how montgoya how he runs it here. these guys are much confident. we are empowering the hospitals, 80% of the initial doses of the first three weeks. you see places like jackson takes the bull by the horns.

if there is an issue like that, i think the hospital made a course correction, they decided to do it differently. ho here is the thing. if you are 74 years old in the state of florida, we made a decision that we want you to get vaccinated. >> rosa flores is out front. rosa, obviously these lines that you talk about people camping out over night and the governor is trying to imply that well it is all going to correct, what's the reality on the ground? >> reporter: the reality is those pictures that we show you, our cameras were rolling. senior citizens waiting over night to get vaccinated. this included the parents of dr. sanjay gupta's. they were there and they'll tell you that's the reality in the state. governor desantis can try to wash his hands from responsibility but he sent the vaccine to counties and counties

in the state of florida are run by the florida's department of state. they are run by the states. this weekend when the website crashed in broward county, erin, that was the florida department of health directing seniors in their 70s and 80s to go to the website to get an appointment and a vaccine and the website kept crashing. that's the reality, erin. >> rosa. thank you very much. a powerful picture reporting. thanks to you all for watching us as well. anderson starts now. good evening, the president is in georgia tonight ahead of tomorrow's senate run-off there. he'll be in the city of dalton. he spent most of the last two months publicly challenging and privately tampering it. we know likely he won't be spending much time campaigning for the two candidates because that would bget in the way of hm ri