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us in the united states and around the world. you're watching cnn newsroom. just ahead -- >> there's no way we lost georgia. there's no way. that was a rigged election. >> president trump keeps pedalling falsehoods about an election he lost as georgia gets ready to decide who will hold the u.s. senate. the covid situation in california gets worse. now ambulance crews in los angeles are being forced to make life and death decisions. and england returns to lockdown for a third time after cases there skyrocket. good to have you with us. georgia is in the spotlight again. in just a few hours, people will head to the polls to vote in crucial elections.

democrats are hoping the state that turned blue for president-elect joe biden will do the same again during today's senate runoffs. a lot hinges on the vote because the outcome will decide who controls the u.s. senate and in turn the fate of biden's first term as president. already more than 3 million votes have been cast, smashing a 2004 record. u.s. president donald trump and biden spent monday campaigning in the state despite the controversy over his weekend phone call with georgia officials, mr. trump spent the rally complaining about his election loss again. >> i hope mike pence comes through for us. i have to tell you. i hope our great vice president -- our great vice president comes through for us. he's a great guy. of course if he doesn't come through, i won't like him quite as much. no. mike is a great guy.

he's a -- he's a wonderful man and a smart man and a man that i like a lot. he's going to have a lot to say about it. you know one thing with him, you'll get straight shots. he's going to call it straight. >> he also mocked georgia officials who did not bow down to his pressure tactics to tilt the election in his favor. >> you know, your governor -- your governor and your secretary of state, they're petrified of stacey abrams. what's that all about? did you see this consent decree they signed with signature verification? you can forget about it. they say they're republicans. i really don't think they are. they can't be. i'll be here in a year and a half and i'm going to be campaigning against your governor and your crazy secretary of state. >> in stark contrast biden's message to voters was one of hope and inspiration.

>> we need you to vote again in record numbers. this is not an exaggeration, georgia, the whole nation is looking to you. the power is literally in your hands unlike any time in my career. one state, one state can chart the course not just for the next four years, but for the next generation. >> biden's election win is due to be certified on wednesday, but a number of republican lawmakers including georgia senator kelly loeffler who is on the ballot today are planning to object. president trump's comments about stacey abrams did not go unnoticed by the former georgia gubernatorial candidate. here was her rebuke to the president's phone call with georgia officials asking them to find votes and sway the election in his favor. >> he only wants the voters he likes to be heard.

he's doing his best to dismantle the system. he's arguing against a system we fixed through fair fight and through the democratic party which meant no matter where you lived in the state of georgia if you filed an absentee ballot and you needed to fix a mistake, you were notified. i'm making sure voter access is always available and he's fighting to make himself the victor by disallowing voters he doesn't care for. >> though abrams was not on the ballot in 2020, much of the credit for rallying the vote for president-elect joe biden in georgia goes to her. and it's not just democrats calling out president trump over his wild conspiracy theories. some republicans in georgia are doing the same. take a listen to this top election official as he shoots down mr. trump's allegations about the state's voting system. >> they say there's 2,423 people who voted without being registered. let's be clear about this. you can't do it. then there's the claim that

66,248 people below the age of 18 voted. the actual number is zero. 4,920 voted past the registration deadline, again, zero. there's no shredding of ballots going on. that's not real. not happening. potential hacking of dominion equipment during a senate hearing last week. that did not happen either. ahead of today's critical georgia runoffs president-elect joe biden emphasized the need for a democratic victory to break political gridlock in washington. biden also slammed senators david perdue and kelly loeffler for being loyal to the president but not to the people of georgia and here's what he told the crowd in atlanta about mr. trump . >> the president spends more time whining and complaining than doing something about the problem. i don't know why he still wants the job. he doesn't want to do the work. >> was president trump's phone

call even legal? georgia officials said the matter has been referred to the fbi, some experts say so lilicig election fraud is potentially a crime. ben ginsburg says it would be a tough case to pursue, but that doesn't make it okay. >> look, what the president did was wrong both legally and morally and as a matter of principle. it would clearly be a crime if the secretary of state or a georgia election official did what the president asked. but the truth is no act has been committed. if a prosecutor were to take a look at that and to put together a case takes weeks if not months and even years, by that point there would probably be prosecutorial discretion to not actually bring criminal charges no matter how wrong what the president did. but none of that should take

away from the absolute wrong nature of this call and how dismaying it is and how harmful to the country that their commander in chief, their president would ask for votes to be fraudulently taken. >> eve evan mcmullen is a stand republican and also the former chief policy director for the house republican conference. he joins us now. good to have you with us. >> good to be with you. >> so, on the eve of the georgia runoff vote, top state election official and republican gabrielle sterling said president trump's call to the secretary of state demanding 11,870 votes be found to flip the state in his favor. he called it falsehoods and information impacting turnout for the vote and he debunked all of trump's conspiracy theories

point by point. how important is such a methodical fact-checking process like this and what impact could it have on tuesday's election turnout and efforts on wednesday to overturn free and fair elections? >> it's certainly important for the health of our democracy, for the health of elections in georgia and for our elections more broadly in the country. we have a president who was caught red handed trying to undermine the results of the presidential election in this cycle. you have -- you see georgia officials like sterling today trying to say the votes are free and fair and every vote has been counted. that's important for our democracy, but also sterling is a republican and he is worrying about republican voters in georgia and whether or not they will turn out in tomorrow's election. if they're convinced by the

president and his allies that the presidential election was not legitimate, they'll be less inclined to turn out and vote why would they if their votes are not being counted or if that's what they believe. so that's what gabriel is trying to do. it's a smart political move but also good for our democracy. >> yeah. sterling also said that trump and his officials intentionally misled the public about conspiracy theories despite no evidence of widespread voter fraud in georgia. what should the consequences be of trump's call demanding votes be found to turn his loss into a win? is it criminal? is it extortion? is it a coup? what do you call this behavior? >> it's certainly an attempt to overturn the will of the american people and it cannot be tolerated.

if the president were going to be in office for a longer period of time i think the house would need to look at impeachment again, but that's not the case. the president only has a limited number of days left. so i don't see that as realistic. i do think that if he broke any laws, whether state or federal, that those should be investigated and considered after he leaves office. and it's not to simply -- or simply political retribution or retaliation but we have a need in this country to uphold the integrity of our elections. we can't have a president or other politicians putting pressure on officials to "find more votes" to help them win and hope to hold on to our democracy. there must be consequences if laws were broken. it seems to me they may have been, but that will be up for prosecutors and legal experts to decide. >> evan mcmullen, thank you very

much for being with us. >> thank you. cnn is covering this all-important election in georgia all day on tuesday. tune in for special coverage right here on cnn. police in washington, d.c. have arrested the leader of the far-right group the proud boys after he dared them to do so. in an online post, henry enrique tarreo admitted burning a black lives matter sign taken from a black church last month. he wrote come get me if you feel like what i did was wrong. when police came and got him they found him with two high capacity gun magazines. he's charged with that and destruction of property. still ahead, california faces a human disaster. why ambulance crews are being told to leave the sickest at home. that is next on cnn newsroom. don't settle for silver #1 for diabetic dry skin* #1 for psoriasis symptom relief*

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with our retirement. i'm skeptical, so i did some research and called coventry direct. they explained life insurance is a valuable asset that can be sold. we learned that we can sell all of our policy or keep part of it with no future payments, who knew? we sold our policy. now we can relax and enjoy our retirement as we had planned. if you have one hundred thousand dollars or more of life insurance you may qualify to sell your policy. don't cancel or let your policy lapse without finding out what it's worth. visit conventrydirect.com to find out if you policy qualifies. or call the number on your screen. coventry direct, redefining insurance. the post-holiday surge has arrived in the united states, and it is hitting the most populous state, california, especially hard. the crisis in california begins here with surging case numbers in recent weeks leading to

overwhelmed hospitals. it's so bad ambulance crews in los angeles have been told not to transport patients with little hope of survival and to conserve oxygen. but the state has had stringent measures in place for months aimed at controlling covid-19. why is it being hit so hard now? cnn's brian todd explains. >> reporter: a grim view from california's front lines. >> patients are dying like flies. we're full. we're at max capacity. we have no resources. we have no staff. our doctors can't even intubate because they have, like, 40 patients each. it's like a war zone. >> reporter: the number of people hospitalized in california has reached alarming new levels, straining hospital capacity. the number of deaths per day has spiked. in l.a. county, the new epicenter of the virus in the united states, hospitals are so overwhelmed they're looking at

rationing care. >> so we're able to get the equipment because somebody else, you know, had died. and that sounds gruesome and horrific, but that's where we are today. >> reporter: in l.a. county one person dies of coronavirus as often as every ten minutes. as for the rates of infection -- >> we're seeing a person every six seconds contract covid-19 here in los angeles county, the nation's largest county, 10 million people. >> reporter: the l.a. county health services director who warned hospitals in her county are being pushed to the brink of catastrophe says the dense population is one reason for the spikes in the los angeles area and also cited the work patterns of many county residents. >> we have a lot of low-income workers, a lot of essential workers working outside of their homes. >> reporter: experts say in california often more people are living inside a given home and one expert points to the dynamics of family living among many groups in the state. >> the hispanic people have multi generational living, and

what we've seen is that the huge inequity in both health care and living and bias is coming to roost. there are people having to work multiple jobs. >> reporter: early in the pandemic california's leaders received praise for attacking the surge with stock markay-at- order s, closures of bars and restaurants. florida allowed many businesses to stay open. why is california's unraveling worse than florida's? one expert points to the ratio of hospital beds per person. >> california really does have one of the lower rates of hospital beds. that is a good reason why we're seeing our hospitals overwhelmed more quickly than hospitals in other states that have more hospital beds per capita. >> reporter: and one analyst says californians living with stay-at-home orders longer than most of the country have been burned out with all the restrictions. >> i think covid fatigue is a real factor here, where we are 10, 11 months into the pandemic,

and folks have not had the support to stay at home because they live paycheck to paycheck. >> reporter: two experts we spoke to also point to the problems of homelessness in cities like los angeles and san francisco. cities where the homeless populations have spiked in recent years. people living in shelters, in tighter spaces they say, have contributed to the surge in california. brian todd, cnn, washington. so let's bring in dr. scott miskovich, a family physician and a national consultant for covid-19 testing. thank you for being with us and for all that you do. >> thank you. >> so covid-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths are at record levels in this country with one person dying of covid every 33 seconds. the holiday period of course is expected to make matters worse. all of this as vaccinations fell well short of the government goal of 20 million by the end of the year. only 4.5 million people

immunized so far. why so few and how can this be done better? >> well, we are observing this, and i'll admit i've had my first vaccine shot and i have another one next week. but i'm working on this all over the united states. our group has been working with the vaccine administration, and there's a lot of finger pointing going on. there's finger pointing by the states at the federal government and the federal government is saying the states, we gave you everything you need. at the county level they're looking and saying we need a way for people to just get out of our way. so i blame it on a lack of leadership. there are some states who have done a great job, but the federal government had an obligation to step up and give guidance to the states. i'm looking at this and saying why haven't we created a national health service corps extension where we have the federal government step up four months ago and be prepared to do something like this? we have another six to eight months where we'll be dealing

with covid throughout this country. and trying to vaccinate everyone in every corner of america. a lot more has to be done by the federal government. >> yeah. it's a massive challenge, isn't it? in the u.s. the problem less about supply of the vaccine, more about having enough medical staff available to administer shots because most are trying to save lives right now. so why not use fema, the national guard or the military to get this job done en masse? >> exactly. and part of the problem is, for example, here in hawaii and other areas across the country the national guard has been activated and they actually are on the front lines of trying to assist a lot of the testing efforts going on. you are exactly correct. i think most of us look to the federal government and say you had your opportunity. there should have been a larger scale mobilization, look at all the people who are out of work right now. we should have pulled people together and been able to train

these individuals and created an effort that could actually go past covid to help our country because, let's face it, we're still just going to be beginning to understand the effects this will have in our country and other areas we have not even determined. but i concur completely with you. >> doctor, officials in the u.s. had considered half-doses of moderna for 18-year-olds to 55-year-olds in order to try to get as many people vaccinated as possible and worry about the second dose later. the uk also considering this. the food and drug administration insisting everyone must get the full doses. was that the right call? >> i completely disagree. i believe that what they've announced in the uk is acceptable. when you really look at the data, if we could have a single full dose -- a perfect example is southern california where they have zero icu beds. if we could take as many vaccine doses as possible and immunize the large portion of the entire

population, we might be able to save lives and save beds. that will give you 85% immunity. what that means is that there's enough of that antibody in your body to start fighting infection where you might not have an infection severe enough that will put you in and use an icu bed. so i think we need to be creative. the time to just sit back and say, well, the book says do it this way, it may be different. there may be different regions in our country where we need to step up to save lives. >> my thanks there to dr. scott miscovich. england is entering its third national lockdown as covid-19 cases soar. we go live to london next. these folks, they don't have time to go to the post office

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welcome back. british prime minister boris johnson reimposed a lockdown in england as covid-19 cases soar. the new more transmissible variant fueled a surge in infections and hospitalizations across the country. under the new restrictions many schools will be closed and people can only leave their homes to shop for essentials, attend work and for medical assistance. the prime minister is hopeful the lockdown and increased vaccinations will help slow the spread of the virus. >> it's clear that we need to do more together to bring this new variant under control while our vaccines are rolled out. in england we must therefore go into a national lockdown which

is tough enough to contain this variant. that means the government is once again instructing you to stay at home. >> wales and northern ireland are already in lockdown, and scotland started a lockdown of its own earlier today. we're just outside of 10 downing street in london. good to see you, selma. what's the latest on this tough new lockdown across england and the vaccination rollout? >> in some ways the prime minister's address yesterday seemed inevitable. the data, the numbers, the figures were record breaking. that's how the prime minister started his statement. he started by laying out the health crisis in the country. he said the health care system here is being challenged, it's under pressure like at no point before during this pandemic. that there is a 40% rise in the number of people in hospital with coronavirus. 40% higher than it was at the peak in march. at the highest point of this

pandemic. 40% more patients. absolutely overwhelmed. he said we're stretched to the limit. i have no more options. i have to put a lockdown across england in place and it will be in place for a few weeks or until february. a lot of people will tell you, look, we've been living under england's toughest restrictions now. three quarters of the nation was under lockdown. what's the difference? schools. schools were a matter of concern. there was a spike in cases there just before the christmas holiday. they couldn't have that additional variable of kids going back to school in a couple weeks time and causing a surge and more people to end up in hospitals. the question is this enough? the government is facing a tough, very defiant enemy in the form of this variant which the prime minister said yesterday is between 50% to 70% more transmissible. that's how much more easily you can get it and you can spread it. they used all the tools in the toolkit at this point by putting in this lockdown.

the prime minister indicated during his address that the only way out is through the vaccination program. let's talk about that. the vaccination program. focused on a key portion of the population. prime minister boris johnson indicating that those most vulnerable groups, priority groups would need to be vaccinated by mid-february in order for things to get better and in order for restrictions to be eased. you're looking at 14 million people having to be vaccinated in the next six weeks. it's ambitious. some say unrealistic. we know the toughest weeks are ahead of us. >> yeah. most definitely. selma joining us live there. many things. now to some of the other coronavirus stories around the world. austria is extending its restrictions until january 24th. it's scrapping plans to allow people who tested negative to start moving out of lockdown early. the french health minister has just announced plans to excacce

vaccine program. france's data indicated just over 500 people were vaccinated as of january 1st. compare that to an estimated 265,000 in germany. in south korea the death toll has passed 1,000, a sad milestone in a country held up as a standard dealing with this pandemic. a south korean destroyer has reached the strait of hormuz after iran seized a south korean flagged chemical tanker. you can see on the right side of your screen there an iranian patrol boat approaching the tanker. and this comes as tehran says it has completed its first batch of uranium which is enriched to 20% purity. that's far beyond the cap imposed in the 2015 nuclear deal. for more on this, sam kylie is following developments in

jerusalem, first paula hancocks joins us. what is the latest on that seized south korean flagged tanker? >> we're hearing from the south korean foreign ministry they've been told by the iranian authorities that the sailors are safe. we understand the iranian ambassador to south korea was summoned this monday afternoon saying the sailors are safe but that it's a simple technical issue. so the iranians are sticking to their story that the reason that they had to detain this particular tanker was because it was being an environmental polluter and certainly this is what the south korean ambassador to tehran was told by authorities as well. again, saying the sailors were safe. we know there were 20 sailors on board. five of them of korean nationality. certainly analysts would point you to the fact that there are frozen funds, an estimated $7 billion of frozen funds, iranian assets in south korean banks at

this point. so certainly that would raise a question mark as to whether or not this detention was more than environmental but was, in fact, political. we understand from the dm shipping, the owner of this particular ship, that they lost contact as soon as the ship was detained. they say those on board had 10 to 20 minutes warning by the vhf radio and then the armed soldiers came on board and detained the ship. so really what the south koreans are looking at at this point is the relationship between them and iran has been deteriorating we know because of these extra sanctions that the united states and the trump administration has been putting on iran and in particular on the iranian oil imports. iran oil imports have been a key part of what south korea was using until fairly recently. they seem to have found themselves in the middle of this

tension between the u.s. and iran, and the foreign ministry simply calling for the sailors and this tanker to be released very soon. >> all right. thanks, paula. sam, to you now, this comes as iran ramps up uranium enrichment and its biggest breach yet of the uranium deal and what's the reaction from the region? >> as you might expect, the reaction from the israelis is to repeat their mantra, it's one that they're deeply committed to in the case of benjamin netanyahu, but i think there's nationwide support that they will never allow the iranian regime to develop a nuclear weapons capability. now, in order to do that, the iranians would have to enrich uranium to some 90 plus percent. but the 20% level is a very significant increase.

it's the iranians who said they would be doing this. the government was instructed to begin this. they are officially doing this in a subterranean facility they have. and the israelis are saying they're committed to and supportive of the international atomic energy authority's continued inspections there, which the iranians have said that they are much less committed to. the context of this and as we heard again from paula is all part of the collapse of the jcpoa, the nuclear deal that was struck after many years of diplomacy under the obama administration, but with support of key players around the world, key international players around the world to get the iranians to dial back very substantially on their nuclear program in return for a lifting of sanctions. only the united states has imposed sanctions on iran, it's

what they call part of their maximum pressure campaign. but this has paralyzed many nations ability to do business with iran even though they would like to see iran get some kind of incentive to stick to what was the nuclear deal. that has been somewhat blown up by the trump administration and the iranians continued destabilizing efforts across the region. so it has severely ramped up tensions once again here. >> all right. sam and paula, many thanks to you both. despite the controversy over president trump's phone call with georgia officials, some voters in the state say they've not even heard about it. details next. nothing kills more viruses, including the covid-19 virus, on more surfaces than lysol disinfectant spray. lysol. what it takes to protect.

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much of which he repeated to georgia voters just hours ago. but so far it doesn't seem to matter much to republicans. cnn's kyung lah has our report. >> 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 do 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, tape -- to tape without disclosing a conversation, private conversation with the president of the united states and leaking it to the press 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. >> 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-sized message at its first press conference since the presidential phone call. >> a lot of people are going to go out to vote and a lot of republicans will vote negative

because they hate what you did to the president. they'll 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 heard it. >> yes, i read about the tapes. >> reporter: admit they don't know if it will change tuesday's election. >> i think it's incredibly disappointing. i 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: senator loeffler tweeted she will object to president-elect joe biden's college electoral win on january 6th. senator perdue indicated he supports the efforts though he cannot officially vote because his term ended on january 3rd. kyung lah, cnn, atlanta. joining me now from atlanta is comedian and political pundit kyle special k. douglas and the head comedy writer for the ricky

smiley morning show. thanks for joining us. >> nice to be here. >> reporter: so you went out to atlanta's hip-hop community and spearheaded a voter drive that flipped georgia from red to blue. now you're trying to do the same in tuesday's two crucial senate runoff elections. do you think you can do it again? >> well, yeah, i would like for most if not all of that credit to go to stacey abrams and her organization who kind of spearheaded everything. we just followed her lead. but i do feel very confident we have over 3 million votes that have already been cast in this runoff election, which if i'm not mistaken which is a historic achievement. that's an astronomical number for a runoff. i really think people are energized. i think people do understand what is at stake right now. >> so what all did you do to convince atlanta's black community to get out and vote and show them that their vote

counted? >> well, one of the things we've done on the morning show, on the ricky smiley morning show, we have made even sense before the general election, we made a concentrated effort to really just drive home the message with, you know, various other pundits, legal friends that we have, political pundits, politicians, everybody from the former president obama to the former first lady, to james clyburn, to -- just a whole host of people that we would have on the show every single week and we just pound home the message of how important it is that not only do we vote in the general election for the president, but we also have to get a senate in place that is going to, you know, work for our agenda, for our community, which i think is going to benefit the community -- the community at large, but in particular the

black community needs to get engaged in these down ballot elections. i think we did a good job of driving that message home. >> was it a hard sell at times to people to convince their vote doesn't count? >> yeah. i think -- sadly i think that even though we have made great strides, i think since the days of barack obama, we made great strides in our community to get people to understand the importance of these elections, but, you know, there's still some people, there's still a thought process out there that does think that, you know, the parties are the same and that our votes don't necessarily matter. and so that's just a hurdle that we anticipated going in. and again, it's just rinse, repe repeat, rinse, repeat, rinse, repeat. we keep driving the same message home. me personally i try to get people to understand even if

you're voting from a selfish motive that politics involves every aspect of your life. it's affected by politics. so i try to drive it home at a base level, you know. your health care, your job, your taxes, your police reform, you know, i try to hit home everything that is important to people in our community to get them to understand that this stuff does matter. >> right. why did you decide that you needed to do this? what did you learn from the whole experience? >> well, because i had been a political person since i was barely out of diapers. my father was very active with politics. in the '70s he worked for jimmy carter's campaign. politics has been in my blood.

i always understood the importance of it. i like to share it with other people to fully understand you have to get engaged, even if you don't do anything but vote, you know, i say at the bear minimum just vote. i'm not saying you have to be a pundit, you have to be educated on every single issue and every single candidate, but at least educate yourself enough to go out and make a vote that makes sense. >> kyle special k. douglas, great to talk with you. >> thank you. and still to come, as mexico sees cases spike, the country's covid czar is spotted at a beach restaurant. critics say it would be like anthony fauci dining out in miami. details next.

the man leading mexico's covid response is being accused of hypocrisy after seen ignoring safety guidelines. as matt rivers reports, it comes as the country deals with its worst wave of the pandemic. >> reporter: imagine for a moment if dr. anthony fauci of

the united states went to the beach in miami. sat outside in an ocean-front restaurant. critics in mexico are saying the basic equivalent of that happened over this past weekend because of what we saw from dr. hugo lopez gotel. he was seen in the beach town of zepolito. those photographs went viral and manyhypocrisy. what we heard from him for months now is people to avoid spreading this disease should stay in their homes when at all possible and only leave when it's essential to do so. he addressed the controversy at a press conference monday night admitting that he went on this trip. he said he went to visit friends, close relatives that lived there. he said he had nothing to hide. but based on what he said, it would seem that that trip would be nonessential and that would mean that he is not following

his own advice, which is only to leave your house for essential activities. he also took this trip at a particularly fraught time in mexico during this pandemic. cases have been on the rise, deaths have been on the rise since the beginning of october. in mexico city, for example, the occupancy levels of hospitals is a huge issue, nearly 30 public hospitals here in mexico city are reporting capacity levels at 100% and more hospitals could soon be to come. matt rivers, cnn, mexico city. thanks so much for your company. "early start" is up next. have yourselves a wonderful day. these folks, they don't have time to go to the post office

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welcome to our viewers in the united states and all around the world. we have reports this morning from paris. i'm laura jarrett. >> and i'm christine romans. it's tuesday, january 5th. it's finally january 5th. it's 5:00 a.m. in new york. and georgia is the center of the political universe today. senate runoffs there will decide the balance of power. what happens there today is everything for the biden ma administration agenda. po