hi there. i'm kristen sze. welcome to our daily program called "getting answers." we're asking experts your questions every day at 6:00. we're going to talk with the artist behind this piece showing the new vice president-elect kamala harris in a silhouette of a young ruby bridges when she became the first black student to immigrate in the south. they're from the bay area and we're going to talk to them. we're also going to talk about the trump administration. so far, the campaign seemingly not waning to concede and seemingly blocking the transition efforts. we'll talk to a uc berkeley

professor about it. first, t many people are famili with her work, mernlt and her goals, a goals. here is san francisco lawyer and member of the democratic committee, susie loftis. good to see you. >> good to see you. thank you for having me. >> i know you must be thrilled but on a scale of one to ten, what is it? >> i reject it. i think it's a historic home. for somebody who has been so importa important. it's incredible at a time when this country needs it. i'm delighted.

>> i thought you'd say that. i was expecting you to say a hundred but that works, too. you work for kamala harris when they but the relationship began before that. >> i met her before she was elected when she was a deputy city attorney here in san francisco facing unbloebl odds. they met her, thought she was impressive. she was deep in third place and we campaigned for her back in front of the marina safeway in 2002 and 2003. look where she is now. it's remarkable. >> knowing what you know about her work style, having worked for her and seeing firsthand her strengths and weaknesses, although you might say she doesn't have any. what kind of vice president do you think she'll be? >> i think she'll be exactly the type of vice president we need right now. she's indicated that she wants to be the type of v.p. that

biden was to obama, and certainly this country has a lot of work ahead of it. we see the numbers of the covid-19 cases on the rise without a clear plan. we know that our kids aren't back to school yet. the economy has stold. they talk about their interest in fighting racial inequality, addressing climbed change, so there's a big agenda. as you know, kamala harris has tackled big agendas. so she's the kind of person who can step into a crisis and be very focused and tremendously effective. that's what our country needs right now. >> many americans know her at the tough senator during the senate judiciary meetings but the tough debater on the stage. what are the layers of her personality that other people may not see that you've gotten to see? >> what i think is really powerful about the way she thinks about issues is she comes from a family -- her mother was a scientist, a breast cancer

researcher. she always wants to understand the issue before taking action. what does the data tell us? what does the science tell us. i think that's a big comfort to many americans who feel like the administration has been making decisions based on fear tactics and it's not working. i look forward to her methodical approach to sort of get us back on track. >> can you talk about the historic aspect, obviously, first woman to be vmpltd p., first black, first asian american to be in that role. about her trail blazing and what that means for those who may come after her. >> so many women have come after her. so she was the first woman ever to be elected as district attorney, first black woman, first south asian woman. same when she was our attorney general in california, one of the most diverse states in the nation. she has a track record of being

the first but she's also prioritized lifting women up. women like rebecca prozan who was her first campaign manager, debbie meslo. denali. venous johnson who's the number two at the district attorney's office. what i think is remarkable about -- i love saying this -- vice president-elect harris is that she has also demonstrated in the years she's been in office that she's building up a team of women who are doing incredible work. >> you expect to see a lot of women in her staff as well? >> that's always been the case. she really emphasizes diversity of experience and gets the best and the brightest, but if history -- if past is pro log, you'll see a top notch team that includes freeman all

backgrounds. >> a lot of people are fascinated by him. what's he like and what do you think he'll bring to that role? >> you necessity, doug is really -- what's remarkable about doug is what you see is what you get. he's really a nice affable guy who loves his wife. incredibly and is just come into this role of being the spouse of, you know, when she was the attorney general and a senator and a vice president-elect. i think he's the perfect guy to be the first second gentleman. did i get that right? >> first second gentleman. that's right. he's the first-ever second gentlemen. i think he meets all the qualifications. he believes in her. he believes in this country and he's always willing to roll up his sleeves and get to work. that was a powerful force in the campaign.

>> great to see you. thanks so much for sharing your insight. >> thank you so much. great to see you, too. >> up next we'll talk about the trump administration and what legally can and

welcome back. the trump administration's refusal to accept the outcome of the presidential election so far and the length he's going to to prevent a smooth transition, how long can the administration delay things? what does that mean for americans in terms of security? what options are available to ao

president-elect. good to see you. >> thanks for having me on. >> you're an expert on the constitution, vote suppression and democracy. all very pertinent right now. ordinarily after an election has been called, the loser concedes and congratulates the winner. he invites the winner to the white house. none of those things have happened yet. is there any indication that that norm, that message that hey, the election is over, we'll be coming anytime soon. >> it was an are extraordinary four years under president trump and i guess we should look for more of the same. he has month interest or home run to concede at this point. they're pursuing all their legal avenues to challenge the election. i haven't seen anything emerge that's particularly viable right now. but nevertheless, donald trump

and his allies suggest that there's nor litigation ahead before there's any thought of continental session. >> that is true. i want to dive into the litigation in a little bit but right now i want to ask you this. it's not just the niceties. once the outcome is clear, the transition process is supposed to begin. explain to our viewers what is entailed in that process. what is joe biden supposed to be getting that he's not. >> there's about 9.9 million allotted for transition work for a new administration. without those resources it makes the transition harder. another piece of transition is information, information about classified materials, information necessary to make from agencies that the third part has to do with fbi clearances for the new

members, for the members of the team who might ultimately be in administration. you cannot initiate the process without the resource from the fbi. >> all right. so there is a national security concern in terms of not getting the intelligence briefings and all that. do you think he might be failing to concede because of the lawsuits against him? >> there are civil and possibly criminal investigations that are -- that pose a threat to president trump. it's not clear what his real emotions are about the delayed transition. it's not going to stop the investigations from continuing. it's a mobility but it's hard to understand what's really motivating the president at this point. >> to follow up on that question, there are people who conjecture whether he could pardon himself or get v.p. pence to become president and pardon him. there's no preemptive hardening.

>> i imagine that if he decides to pursue this channel they'll make arguments that it is allowed and will apply to any future crimes. i doubt that that argument will hold up in court. ultimately there's another issue in the sense that some of these investigations are happening at the state level and there's no ability of the president to pardon himself from any future prosecution. >> we have two months so this could all resolve itself. mike wants to know will the military possibly grab trump out of the white house on january 20th if need be. >> i don't think the military wishes to be in that position. they expressed the opinion that they didn't want to be involved. it's unclear if, for example, he decides he will not leave the white house on january 20th when he is -- when president biden is supposed to be sworn in, the

oath of the presidency. i don't know who ultimately steps in the the military does not. but i know the military is very reluctant to play any role in the transfer of power. we'll see. >> that makes sense. look, these days it's all very partisan. republicans right now looking at this saying, al gore didn't concede for 36 days. hey, hillary clinton faced a similar outcome. she conceded immediately. which is the valid way to look at this? >> i think the better comparison is 2016 versus 2000. in 2000 we had an election nfl the election was extraordinarily close in florida. florida closer than in any of the contested states in this election. so there were questions about the ballot at that point that was real legal questions that were -- had viability and validity to them.

whereas we haven't seen any proof of wrongdoing. it's dmimpt that respect. the vote count in the states that president-elect biden won is bigger in terms of the differences between president trump and president biden. any claim of allegations of fraud would have to overturn many more ballots than were at issue in the florida election. >> i want to bring up forge william ambassador's memo saying prosecutors can pursue election probes. today came out one of his top prosecutors because of that. a t lo of people, including myself, are not totally clear on what that means. explain to us. >> the department of justice prior to this election was a election fraud should not be conducted until the votes are certified. what william barr did in a recent memo was authorize

investigations prior to the certification of the election. the reason for this policy originally was to avoid embroiling the department of justice in any kind of partisan dispute. william barr says -- suggests it's unnecessary for the department -- necessary for the department to stay out of this investigation. now, what director -- the director richard pilger and his investigation e-mail said this basically poses a threat to the integrity of the department of justice. he thread section which was supposed to be responsible for investigating fraud and he ultimately decides to stand aside because he didn't want to be involved in any such investigations that would implicate the department of justice. >> so many norms broken at the moment. but tom batter op has a question

on facebook live. will trump lawsuits change the vote and also change the outcome? >> there is so far no -- none of the lawsuits have been filed involve enough ballots that would change the outcome of this election. remember in pennsylvania right now president-elect biden is ahead by 45,000. in arizona about 15,000 and in georgia about 12,000. what president trump would need to do is overturn the election results in two of those states. so far none of the lawsuits bring allegations that would lead to the questioning of enough ballots that would lead to president trump being declared victor in two of these two states. right now it doesn't seem like there's a viable path for over turning the results. >> if that's the case, "the new york times" reporting today the law firm representing the frump cam main, jones day, several of their lawyers signal that the

main goal is not to win but to erode public confidence in the results. does that benefit either party? >> it certainly doesn't benefit democracy. i think the republicans are banking on the calculation and say if he sowed distrust in this election, you undermine the legitimacy of the biden trump administration and you potentially undercut and support future elections. i think that's what they're banking on in terms of delaying the election results. they suggest that this is a bit of a tit-for-tat for their claim that the democrats never really recognized. ultimately, i don't know if it benefits the republican party but it's very harmful for the american democracy. >> all right. well, in georgia, two republican senators in a run off, calling on the republican secretary of state to resign, alleging that he failed to deliver honest and transparent election. he, of course, strongly denied

it and explained after they're all done with the recount and audit, there will be some minor streps. explain to people why it doesn't necessarily mean something nefarious is afoot? >> there's a lot of paper and writing and potential for, you know, scrivener's mistakes, minor officials might make as far as writing down the tabulation of the vote. there might be a discrepancy arising from that. those are almost immediately corrected and are not impactful on the result. i'm not sure what the real basis of the republican allegations are in the sense that they haven't been filed in a lawsuit of sort, so they're really grasping at strawsed to undermine the legitimacy of the erection. they're even going after theirself own co-partisan, the second of state when there's no evidence to suggest.

the only thing he seems to have done wrong according to the republicans is not deliver an election victory for president trump in that state. but that's not wrongdoing by the secretary of state. >> all right. uc berkeley's chancellor's professor of law. thanks for sharing. >> nice to be here. >> up next, it's a piece that spread all over social media. i'm sure you've seen ...this one's for you.

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welcome back. chances are you've seen our next guest work recently. take a look. this of course is the new president-elect harris and ruby bridges when she became the first black student to integrate in the south. joining us are the local bay area creators behind the piece. breeja and gordon. thanks for joining us, you guys.

>> thank you for allowing us to be here and be talked to about the ming that we, you know, put together. >> are you kidding? pulled together. that was a wow. my gosh. i think that's the reaction we all had when we saw it. iconic image from kamala harris's rise from parents to v.p. of the united states. how much does it mean-to-people appreciate this? >> you're asking me? >> whoever wants to jump in. it's kinds of a conversation among friends. >> it's numbing, because when we did this, we -- our whole mantra has been to just do organic political satire to hem calm down some of this polarization going on across the country. i've been doing it since 2017, an people were enjoying it at all the different provide tests

i was attending. the me too movement, i did the protest for the muslim ban and the you in danger, girl. friends and i wore the shirts. the first thing people would say is laugh. you know. they would laugh. we just wanted to continue to try to make people feel good and empower. >> bria talk about seeing bridges there, 1960. norman rockwell took that image. she integrated into an all white school and to go from there to kamala harris, that little girl was me. talk about the power of ju juxtaposing those two and what it means to america about winning? >> that's exactly what gored and i were doing. when he initially reach out to me, said he wanted to put the

two of them right next to each other and have that dialogue be a story of them together. they're both women who are standing strong despite opposition and people who don't want them to succeed. >> and black women. >> yep. and finding a lot of really, really hard battles that a lot of people are going to benefit from because of them. they're taking the brunt of the both the criticism and the work, so i think he wanted to hon o both of they will and be true to their roots and history, just women and black women and what it's like to overcome this stuff. but yeah, he had the idea and actually i've been trying to make that super clear. yeah, he just -- he wanted to see the two of them together and inspire young women. >> yeah. >> it certainly has and i can't tell you how many women have reposted that image. was the vice president-elect

reached out to either one of you about it? >> we are working on it, but i think she has friends and familifamily in the bay area. she's been busy campaigning. >> but rube imbridges, the little girl in the picture, she's a 60-year-old woman now. did she say something about it? >> she gave a positive comment on insta gram. we're not out to try to take advantage of anything. people are thinking we're out to make money on it. no. we wanted to try to push this to help try to make this a better world. it's been a tough four years, you know. it's been a real tough four years for us and people of color. >> well, i love the name of your business, good trouble. a tribute to john lewis of course. making good trouble when you need to to accomplish something that helps us all.

by the way, you do have a website. you're not out there to make money but i want you to share your website. >> the website is goodtrouble.com and we are also -- >> is it on a t-shirt yet? is this image available as a t-shirt or just the poster? >> it's on t-shirts and hoodies. you can find us on t spring if you want mugs and masks and a lot of other things that we have on the goodtrouble.com. we came out with request posters as well. >> we're working on them at the moment. bria and gordon, thank you for this inspiration and creating this pow

all right. thank you fo j tonight, several developing headlines as we come on the air. the numbers just in. 165,000 new cases of coronavirus in just 24 hours. and tonight, the news, cases are now on the rise in all 50 states. by one estimate, 74 americans diagnosed every minute. tonight, the refrigerated trucks we have not seen since the spring. the hospitals in the heartland running out of beds. and news on that pfizer vaccine tonight. when could it be widely available and when americans will likely get this. and how they'll have to transport it. it needs to be kept at 112 degrees below zero. also tonight, the other breaking headline. 24 hours after president trump fired his defense secretary in a tweet, tonight, three more top pentagon officials out. martha raddatz standing