the headline, why biden is crowdfunding his transition. theree to leave it >> life today, a discussion about u.s. russian relations, live starting at 11:00 a.m. eastern on c-span. later the michigan bureau of election needs to certify the state election results, the board is required by law to certify the results today. watch live coverage of the meeting at 1:00 p.m. eastern here on c-span. >> today, a live conversation with former president obama in his newly published memoir reflecting on his life and political career. he is interviewed by washington post.

former president obama come alive today at 11:30 a.m. eastern time on book tv. >> tonight on the communicators withke a look at issues the president and ceo of aca connects, and boy, vision president. it >> our members have done a the needsof serving of americans, connected with so many of our members stepping up to adopt the pledge to keep americans connected. we have also recognized that there are still continuing needs to serve students, to work with withls, a need to work hospitals and medical facility so we can improve telehealth, ways to increase the broadband

network >> watch tonight 8:00 eastern on c-span 2. host: joining us is michael health and human services secretary in george former inistration and utah governor republican from 2003.to you have worn many hats and one is also helping a campaign for a transition. you did that for mitt roll think. he didn't win the election but explain the process for when the campaigns start thinking about a possible transition of hour. it is an interesting history. real 2010 there was no legal requirement for the ampaigns to prepare and in twe2010 the presidential transition act assed and it provided it was

not just something they could do ut a responsibility of candidates who were representing ajor parties to organize transitions. so transitioning generally start summer by mayril, because there's too much to do in the izing the days ment to do it in 75 between the election and august ration. o it is a surprisingly sophisticated, can be, operation and large. what does it entail? guest: there are really four responsibilities. to put a o prepare team on the field, to organize a cabinet to staff, fill the first couple hundred and important apoisoned senate confirmed posts. they have to be cleared so etting a running start is important. second is to prepare the first

of the 00 days administration to fulfill the that the romises candidate represented to the public. that actually gets down to writing executive orders, and so g legislation forth. hird is to begin to organize the departments to be able to igin to think through how you want act with congress. lastly, is with we are seeing president-elect today where he is supported by ssentially his transition because the white house staff do not exist and they don't have or trappings or facilities any of the normal organization. things e the four major the transition does. host: how much money has been we just in this and read for our viewers the the ine that president-elect is crowd funding raising ition cost

already $10 million. guest: the transition between begins in the spring until they become the resident-elect is funded through private sources. it is regulated if you will by g.s.a., general services administration. for a maximum of $5,000 any one person and i think the iden transition raised about $10 million prior to the election. is an he election there s proposition of money that is made. don't know exactly what it is today. i think it changed over time. hen i was organizing a transition it was about $6 million. likely more than this now the but upon successful certify tanment they are to transfer it. because the g.s.a. has not

the former vice president and now as the t-elect successful candidate that money is not happening and they are public to n the fulfill it and i'm confident they are raising lots of money. >> you headed up the transition team for then presidential mitt romney and wrote about that experience. what were the lessons learned? there were a lot of them because the truth is that a had never been organized under the 2010 transition act prior to 2012. so up to that point most been done in a much less formal way. after 2010, beginning 2012 government space for example was allotted. computer and technology.

access to federal agencies. the bock goes through the process that wae came to by actually executing the law. of technical issues raised there but mostly it is how can you organize stand up the federal government in advance so that when you hit the ground you running. it is a real relay as opposed to hard stop to hand the baton off. if you had walked down the halls of our transition you would see department of state. department of interior, department of treasury and there ould be people in the transition office the that orked there before and understood the lay of the land and how it works and you create government in miniature that you can get a running start. ost: we want to take your comments and questions about the transition of power.

overnor michael leavitt is our guest. you you live in the eastern part of the here are the numbers you can call. 202-748-8000 we are also talking about the mpact of this delay on the covid-19 pandemic response. .edical provider year health and human services secretary hat on as problems couldof his delay present for responding to the pandemic, whether that is distribution of other areas? guest: i think the area people concerned most about would e the handoff of the vaccine distributi distribution. i think it would be vastly direct f there was cooperation between the teams. think that is a big part of

meaning the outgoing and incoming administration. we ought not to see it as a complete collapse. if you're a mechanical providered a looking for that to come, i still think were of that will happen. i think there is a quit sophisticated operation that by private ucted sector vendors and i'm talking about big medical distributors going to every clinic, doctor's ital, every office on a regular basis to deliver this. i want to emphasize i think it would be better if there was conversation but i'm contractorsat those are having contact with the biden team and there's going to at least a degree of assistance they will provide. host: alan in hawaii, you are up first. morning, a long time since i have called in and gotten your voice.

tangents that maybe michael can help us with. one is about a doctor that i you should get on named article inust had an "time" magazine and well known for a is a big proponent whole group of rapid antigen tests. the government to produce them person a bunch to each and they are almost look pregnancy tests where you can or he is -- he is an epidemiologist and use them least twice a day for every person and get them out to 50% population and statistically on the studies infection one the would decline, the transmission would decline rapidly. question.art one of my part two is you need to get alan dershowitz because he wrote a

on the internet and it is called trump's only road which is basically he's actually expressing the trump has an actual strategy behind what he is doing that is he is not intending electors to get to the electoral college and for a situation that happened he said twice in the the most ry which was -- thing dershowitz used is the b. hayes electoral house ere they were the of representatives. i know that maybe outside the set but i think that is why it would be get him on to elaborate. governor, do you havity thoughts on that? he is first e alan question with respect to testing, testing is an evolving

increasingly sophisticated and increasingly and easy and inexpensive. we have seen that happen already -- we have to continue it. what he describes is what many flow efer to as a lateral test 2 is inexpensive and he test where pregnancy the dilemma we are having with antigen tests generally is they proven to be as accurate and there are lots of tests and i don't mean to characterize them all. testing, abundant testing will make it a lot better. 'm thinking of a little outing my family has for christmas and would not it be great if i had to have a home test and everybody tested every morning. thing.s a good if you could get it down to a dollar or two it would be worth helpful. as for with respect to the

electoral college was an elector and know the process reasonably don't d may i say i personally see any particular effort for the trump that can succeed. speaking candidly i find that if we were to kiss we were to disrupt that that was not reflect christopher of what happened in at the ballot box i think that would be a disruption american cal institution. nd so we are all seeing it unfold and i feel quite confident it will work its way out. host: do you think the president should concede? guest: well, i think the right nt does have every to pursue whatever remedy that s available under the law and concession that is basically a a legal is not proposition. i do think it would be were etter if he did transition

activities and whatever process he is going to go through simultaneously. they couldn't on co-exist. host: brian in organize. yes.r: host: go ahead. through your k phone. you have to turn the television down. just a second. host: go ahead, please. i'm a republican and i am a little disheartened by acting this way with joe biden and not allowing he is nsition because putting our country in danger and joe biden within the people voted, they voted him in. i voted for trump. we lost. think that he's to be responsible and allow this transition to proceed because it at danger ur country and he is continuing on

these, in these courts and there's to path for him to win. over.all so i don't understand why he ust proceed and let joe biden have his transition. tkpwhost: let me go to nancy in houston. caller: hi. i have been following the and with like to invest different vaccines and i was listening to the news and there were saying that the hard tion may not be as because of the corps of engineers are the ones that will be working on that. it is not going to be bad.cted as is that true? guest: i'm not aware of the role corps of engineers would play. it is possible, i suppose, that certain ld be government assets. there was a time when i think there was discussion of having

involved in the distribution. i think what they are going to is there'sready have already an infrastructure in vaccine. distribute the they are called distributors and like ameris panies or mckesson or cardinal health ho every day send trucks full f supplies, they are the part of the supply chain that goes from a warehouse right into the hospital.ner office or they are doing that every day now. so i think they are going to to say let'seffort use that existing distribution. the natural way and most effective way in my own they nt and i think that have doubtedly had those contracts in place for quite a while. you also led the development of a federal

plan after these 2005 avian flu outbreak. you learn? guest: the first thing we learned is we were not very well prepared. we didn't have sufficient vaccine manufacturing capacity. of our capacity was on contracts that were outside the united states. can see the danger of that now if the only place we could et manufacturing done was outside the u.s. it would be danger that the countries who somehow want ght the vaccine before it got to the states. so, we went to congress and said a pandemic will happen. maybe it one or another one. not well es we are prepared and congress appropriated $8 billion. was a good piece of insight by president bush. we spent a lot of time and effort developing what is now

the national pandemic plan. it has been changed and enhanced that occurred. but much of what has happened i of that a reflection work. host: what is in place to this current pandemic that you saw that you outlined 2005?r work in guest: i mentioned the vaccine capacity.ring we are now seeing the benefit of that. and or ot done that things that have affected it, echnology effected it with the way they manufacture it and type a virus this is, but we put lot of emphasis and work on having the capacity to manufacture vaccines and we had will be a modern miracle in being able to see manufactured, developed, tested, manufactured, remarkable, a a remarkably short period of time.

a lot of effort developing a new york of labors virus the world so if a develops we are able to gain ccess it vaccine and -- the virus and develop a vaccine. we spent a lot of energy focused local public health capacity. ould i just say this is a really big problem that has been pandemic.by our public health infrastructure over the course of time has been go to seed and we have not invested in public health infrastructure and had revealed and we are seeing why that is so important. we spent a lot of feels focused that. but it has to be on going -- ongoing. then not e invest and invest. if there is a lesson we can to 2000 it is we this kind of emergency, have to treat it like an insurance policy. ou don't make a claim every

year but you need to invest over and over so when these things to en you have the capacity respond. host: what kind of investments re needed 1234 guest: well, again, i think vaccine manufacturing continue , we need it to do that. to continue to invest in it. the type of virus it can be a bigger problem but public nts in who will health. what has occurred is as up thcare costs have gone state legislatures -- will the public health y is not a federal issue. it is a concern but it is not an issue that is controlled by the congress on appropriating states. to but when it comes down to it, assets are in local and state governments and multiple decades we have invested more in people g health care it

who are already sick and less in or public health that will happen people stay healthy. jumps in k at the big our believe health, they came and 1980's 970's when we were cleaning the air, the water and 4r57bd. the s -- i ran environmental protection agency at one time and what i learned that it was a public health issue agency. is all about cleaning air, leaning water and increasing human health. i think the agency is going to its 50th ting anniversary next week. that is what i learned. judy in lawrence, massachusetts. caller: good morning. donald trump do not want to concede for the system fact that back a while back when there were doing the investigation on

mueller case they said there were going to indict im when he becomes a normal citizen and he is afraid to leave the white house because he nows he is going to be indicted. host: we will go to susan in florida.s, caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. a couple of points. i will get to the covid but first of all i would like to all the politicians from local all the way up to the court, ouse and supreme they are all employees, not employers. the money that they utilityize and throw here and there doesn't them. to it belongs to we the people who taxes.l and who pay their wages. as far as the covid goes, was around for the poll yo vaccine as a kid. grew up in alleys of the was

of cleveland, ohio. they used us as experiments. lined up one day and parent didn't know. we got injected. knew why. and the other thing that you understand is that this does not happen overnight and people who do not believe in it at least wearing a mask and requests for basic social distancing, hand washing, things, these are common sense and people who don't believe in science. have the governor jump in. made some very good points. one is that everyone who is in need to beice we all remi reminded, i'm a former public exactly what we were and are, public servants. the need for us as citizens to keep the basic

comes down to it government can do many things fighting thiss in pandemic will boil down to our willingness as individuals to do the things that necessary to fight this virus. host: john in beaverton, oregon. just had a philosophical statement and question. to me it is a transfer of power and to serve. governor leavitt what fact will this have on agencies it meet their missions and serve the public? guest: i think that the most problem that not having access to the agencys is than relationship issue it is an actual legal or honor jest calendar issue. any time there's an administration change the people

day to the departments day have apprehensions and they in t know what will happen hange and there's a lot of settling that happens when a group of human beings come and eye andlook them in the it is on both side. there are those who are going to the transition referred to as the landing team and begin ely when they access they are going to find out that these are human beings do the same and takes it out of the political practical. in more that is an important part. louise in vincent, ohio. wondering how common is it for senators to joined the ey just for the vaccine and i thought that was interesting because it seemed to

it was proven that efficacy.95% and how common is that? talking about e distribution and i'm a senior underlooking ve conditions and i would love to have the vaccine right away. that common for senators to trials after nothing how effective they are? i'm not war of any direct report that you are referencing comment more generally. i think it willance your question. one of the important things the federal government must do in distribution of vaccine is determine how to prioritize a limited supply. now, we are going to be manufacturing hundreds of among the doses various manufacturers, i think. -- who gets it first 1234

first? it is pretty evident that the hooker oup are the health care workers who are putting themselves in harm's way those who t care for are ill and need help. the next group will likely be people who are in categories and you would be one of them if you have an underlying health condition and at an age where you ould -- i think that would be among the second group of those two to receive t. so help is on way. but i would also say that there groups who have special significance. again i'm not -- i don't know of any particular thing that rompted your comment but it would be a veried about thing for the united states if -- a the united ng for states if congress could not unction because of a pandemic

so it is not surprising that you might look for key government whose performance is required to make the care -- to all oal of us of us. that is possible where that could be. disciplined well set of priorities on how that vaccine will be administered. will go hink it perfectly. people will be -- but it will happen in phases. host: issues referring to led lines like this steve gains senator from month has covid-19 antibodies after pfizer ating in a typhoon trial. i think so i saw rob portman as well. i'm sure they probably volunteered. jeff from ll go to new york, a medical provider. thank you. thank you for taking my call. i want to pick up on a point regarding the need it always be prepared even

i guess it was an insurance policy to be purchased pandemic in preparedness and response weren't we have seen when rises investments and willing to have public health messa declines and we become vulnerable. excess extension threat. n 1913 congress had the wisdom to realize that those threats eeded to be addressed with the federal reserve. e amend the g that wao food reserve to include funding pandemic preparedness response. in.: jeff, let me jump governor, what do you think? first, federal reserve -- i'm not well enough acquainted for the federal reserve statute surrounding the tprfrb

-- federal reserve to know what we would need to do. i do ngue is worth re -- think it is worth reflecting the 2 1/2 reserve jumped to or 3 trillion dollars of put forward a quite dramatic effort to keep going.onomy so i would have to know more about that. does point out something that you think is worth commenting on for us as a generation. we reflected some on my efforts a prepare the country for pandemic in 2016 and 2007 and 2008. and you asked what i learned. ne continuing i learned is anything you sa say in advance a sound locker roomist. alarmist. but anything you have done after

seems ts to prep for it inadequate. that is the dilemma. dealing with so many needs that we have as a discipline ing the to regularly invest in what we could experiencing but and that could disrupt us is a very significant discipline that i hope is a lesson that will come from what we experience now 2020 and 2021. host: what are your thoughts on being l capacity stretched across the country and in some rural areas? a matter ofnk it is eventuality. it is going to happen. at our circumstances it y and we went through march, april and may what we complicated very and some areas it was new york and ike other imagine cities. but the hit of prance is that

there's a second wave. nd fairly often it is more virulent and widespread than the before. and we are experiencing the first wave. it to begin to stop? the only things that will allow there havebecause been people who have not been infected and this virus has an insatiable need to replicate itself -- what will stop it? our behavior. we can stop it by doing the things we're told by public health officials over and over to do. the second is the vaccine. it's on the way. it will take time for that to occur. and so in the course of that

toe, we have got to begin continue to work our way through . headline out of utah, local leaders urge people not to gather for thanksgiving as utah again smashes local record. doublewe are seeing this every two or three weeks and if it were to double again, it would clearly exceed our capacity. we are right at the breaking point now. so i'm asking the question, as i .id before inc.'s. the state has asked that citizens not