captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening, i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight, the transition: president-elect joe biden announces his picks hir top jobs iadministration despite president trump's refusal to concede. then, an alarming surge-- coronavirus infections and deaths keep rising across the united states. we talk with dr. anthony fauci about the perils of holiday g travel aherings. >> evaluate the risk for your family unit to see if it's worth something that obvious is very pleasant and that you ok forward to, but the risk might ak more than you'd like to >> woouff: and, after the storms-- nicaragua and its

central american neighbors face a daunting recovery in the wake of two devastating hurricanes.th and more on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> change in plans. >> changin plans. >> mom, are you painting again? you could sell these. >> let me gues change in plans? >> atidelity, changing plans is always part of the plan

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public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: there'll the e weeks oof ection a key player in the trump administration has signed off on the start of cooperation wth president-elect biden. the head of the government services administration cleared the way late toay for the biden transition team to receive essential resources and access. afterwards, president trump tweeted that it is "in the best interest of our country." white house correspondent yamiche alcindor begins our coverage. >> reporter: today the first wave of president-elect biden's cabinet announcement. >> (indiscernibl. because it's not the security. >> the news came from wilmington, delaware where bidn spent the day addressing a

virtual mayor confence. his pick tony blinken a top phicial as secretary of state, jake sullivan asnational security adviser and linda thomas-genfield as the united nations ambassador, and a pair of firsts, avril haines for director of imagine. the first woman to head the intelligence commuty. and alejandro mayorkas to be secretary of the department of homeland security, the filart no to hold this position.me in addition fosecretary of state john kerry will serve as special presidential envoy on climate change and widely reported janet yellen federal reserve chair will be treasury secretary, the first woman in that role. thsipredent-elect will formally introduce his picsa tomorrow evehe continues to wait for the transition to begin. on sunday ron klain urged the trump administration to begin the transition. >> a record number of americans rejected the trump presidency and since then donald trump's

en rejected democracy. it's corrosive, it's harmful, but as mitt romney said, it's not going to change the outcome >> reporter: understand scoring that point the michigan state board of cnvassers met and certified the state's presidentiallection results. >> we have a duty to certify based on the returns and were limited with these returns and i'm not going to argue we'rno >>eporter: the trump campaign kept pursuing legal challenges including in pennsylvania. sunday a federal judge sternly rejected allegations voters were allowed to wrong lecorrect ballots. republicans senator pat toomey statementayinga released a "president trump has exhausted ltl plausible legal options to challenge the ref the presidential race in pennsylvania. another republican, ohio senator rob portman, also uoke he

called for the transition to begin with full intelligence and pandemic briefings for the biden team. in a newspaper opinion piece todahe wrote "there is no evidence of wired fraud orla irreguties that would change the result in any state." president trump's legal efforts in sweeping unfounded claims of fraud and conspiracy drew criticism sunday from former new jersey governor chris christie. >> the confidence of the a national embarrassment.s been i have been a supporter of the president. i voted for him b twicut elections have consequences and we cannot continue to act as if something happened here that didn't happen. trump campaign issued ae statement saying attorney sidney powell is not representing the president. during a news conference last week she ma some of the most inflammatory claims including that ven wezuelan leadere trying to rig the u.s. election. >> woodruff:and yamiche joins me now. it appears that a number of

these developments at today's certification in michigan of the vote, tatements by more although not all republican lawmakers by any means saying that it's time for thesi tron move has finally come togeer and the woman in charge of the general services administration has given a green light for the trnsition go ahead. >> reporter: that's right the moment that presiden -elect joe bi well as supporters and many republicans and democrats in washington and all over thisr cowere waiting for has finally arrived. emily murphy, head of the general services administration, haas finally said this transition can officially begin meing joe biden will be getting $6.3 million to started the process, resources that he will be able to use to staff up, to use office space to, really t the trnsition underway. we should also note that this means that there will be a clearing possible, a clearing shortly of cabinet officials. s joe biden announce a

number of cabinet officials, but now they can actually get the background checks and thoseco ersation about them possibly getting senate confirmed can officially begin ao.p. senators have that. i should say that the president surprisingly is saying he's s.a.rsing the move by the g. though keeping up legal challenges. the president wrote on tbitter , few moments want to thank emily murphy at g.s.a. forea ast dedication and loyalty to our country. she has been harassed, threatened and abused and i do not want to see this happen tor mily or employees at g.s.a. our case strongly continues. we will keep upgood fight and i believe we will prevail. nevertless, in the best interest of our country i am recommending emily and her team dohat needs to be done with regard to initial protocols and have told my team to do the same. emily murphy the head of the g.s.a. refused a bit oft that. she says she came to thed decision iependently and said she was never pressured to delay this by the white ause orny other officials in government.

another thing to note is she s sae is defending her delaying this process saying shi 't want to get ahead headof the constitutional process. the bottle line is joe biden who already started moving forward with his transition can >> woodruff: and that's right, yamiche, and there will be more reporting about exactly what went on bind thescenes with regard to emily murphy delaying this decision. but, yamiche, as you were significant announcements today by president-elect biden, the people he wants some of the top jocks in his administration. tell us a little bit about whawt earned from that. >> reporter: that's right, and a point on your comments at the top of this, emily murphy, she eys that she was not pssured, we are going to be looking more into that because this was completely unprecedented, completely not the way that been more than two weeks after joe biden was the progeeked winn here, but joe biden has

said that he was going to go full speed ahead. we saw him annoug names including the secretary of state, his nominee, as well as treasury sectary, the drector of national intelligence. we also saw him talk about thef heade department of homeland security, and there was alejandr alejandro mayorkas. he is cuban american, the first latino to heaad thgency, it's a big deal because he was charged with implementing daca started fo immigrants brought to this country as minors as seen as a really big shift. he talked out john kerry being the presidential envoy for imate change, that also is a big deal because he is elevating the former secretary of state to that position. it also elevates the idea of climate change as a national security issue and joe biden said these cabinet officials slow diversity he's committed to

his white house. a number of plmen and peof color. we'll have to watch this space, but supporters of idjoe biden sa this is why they backed him because they wanted to se an administration that reflected america. >> woodruff: yamiche alcindor reporting both sides, both ends of this transition now, both the president-elect and the thank you, ymiche.on. >> woodruff: and nick schifrin takes a closer look at the members of president-elect biden's national security team. >> schifrin: thanks, judy. tony blinken will be the secretary of state nominee. he was the deputy secretary of state and deputy national security advisor during the he is also one of president isect biden's closest, and most long-standing, as. avril haines will be the nominee for director of national intelligence, which oversees all

u.s.' intelligence agencies. she is the former deputy director othe c.i.a. and was an aide to biden in congress. she would be highest ranking woman in the intelliitnce comms history. linda thomas-greenfield will be the nominee for u.n. ambassador. she is a longtime foreignwh service officewas the most senior black member of the stat departmeen she resigned at the beginning of the trump administration. and jake sullivan will be the national security adassor. hehen-vice president hiden's national security advisor in the w house and a senior advisor to then secretary of state clinton. he will be youngest national security advisor in 60 years. to talk about the new national security team, we turn to wendy erman, the former political affairs during the >> i think this team represents the diversity of america, theis profeson the experience, the seasoning that woe need in a time of enoous challenge so what i think this president-elect has done here is

put together the beginning of his team that can reach out across america and reach out across the world. tony blinken, the president-elect, the vice president elect all understand that 2021 is not 2016. the world has changed, america has changed and we've gt a lot of tough challenges ahead. >> reporter: you mentioned theit diveof the pics. what this is not is team of what this is not is team of rivals. president obama brought in his hief political priefl then secretary of stalary clinton. are you concerned among any group think among this group? >> i don't think so. a these are all people witen intellect who are ready to debate with each other. i have bn inside rooms with all of them. none are shrinking violets. they will all speak their mind. there will be rirous debate. there was t agreement among these players in the obama administration, i don't expect

there will always be agreement within the biden administration. >> reporter: the obama national security council was accused of micromanaging by multiple agencies especially the pentagon. do you bieve that will be a concern under jake sullivan? >> one of the things that's very positive here is jake sullivan was a senior advisor and head of policy planning for secretary clinton at the state department. hi he has been both at the house and inside a department. so we understand the push and pull. historically, nobody who sits in a department wants the white house to be operional. the white house always says it doesn't want to be operational, and then finds it hardometimes not to try to be. but i think that jake will wtot eflect the president-elect's point of view, what he's driving for, what he's striving for, working with the vice president elect. jake will run a very honest

process to hear om all parts to have the national security and foreign policy com, which is quite large, and he will want to take those views intot account. a >> blink the expected nominee for defense secretary michelle flor y started a strategic consulting firm after they left government, made a lot of money, gave them clients whose concerns were more profit than national security. is that revolving door an issue, do you think? >> i don't think so. we all have to be very transparent. i have been in the private sect, still do some nsulting, and if you go into government, you have to make it clear that you have done, who your clients have been. chthere are ethics rules w actually the biden-harris administration will follow about not beinengaged in decisions which might have affected your

pocketbook or ur firm's bioticbook. there are very googuidance around those ethics and i have no doubt they will follow those ethical rule >> reporter: avril haines she has talked about the increased drone strikes in afghanistan-pakistan, long time aid of joe biden. will she look for progressives and looking for the intelligence intedges community to be less politicized. >> no question in my mind avril haines is not about politics, she is about policy. she is both a physist and a lawyer. she is unbelievably thoughtful, rigorous in her assessment of a situation. she wi not play games with intelligence. she will want intelligence to have its rightful place at the

table but to understand the intelligence community does not make policy. she will make sure if there is another pandemic, she does notfo sit on that ation, that president-elect bind and harris know what's coming at them, she will not withhold information, d been transparent. >> reporter: thank you very much. >> thank you, >> woodruff: in the day's other news, astra-zeneca became their major company to report late breaking intelligence on the >> reporter: judy, the emolument we've all been waiting for president-elect joe biden

>> we urge yu one last time to think beyond this holiday and past yourself to the days yet to come, and doing all you can to make sure everyone you love will be able to se those celebrations. let's be safe, let's be smart. >> woodruff: somle3 million peravel by air in the u.s. over the weekend. that was the most sice mid march. but it was also down more than half from last year. w we'll discuss all this with infectious disease expfat dr. anthoni after the news summary. the world's greenhou emissions have fallen during the pandemic, but not enough to reduce record levels in the atmosphere. the u.n.'s world meteorological organization reported those findings today. it said the emissions dropny amounts to "a lip" over the long term.ra gemotors is abandoning a legal challenge to california's clean-air standards.

longer backs umpaid today it no administration's lawsuit against letting the state adopt its own rules instead, c.e.o. mary barra said g.m. agrees with president-elect biden's plan to expand use of electric vehicles. in ethiopia, the military began encircling the capital of the rebel tigray region today. federal troops were surrounding the city of mekelle after the gornment gave the tigray .eople's liberation front 72 hours to surrend >> the beginning of the end is within reach and that our defense forces, have now effectely encircled mekelle and now it is easy to target any military installations. >> woodruff: ethiopian state broadcasting showed government troops moving in. nearly three weeks of fighting has killed an unknown number ofd people aplaced thousands

more. israel was rife with reports today that prime minister benjamin netanyahu met sunday with sdi arabia's crown prince mohammed bin salman. it woulde the first confirmed meeting ever between israeli and saudi leaders. netanyahu declined to confirm the report, but his education minister did confirm i the saudis denied the meeting happened. china has taken a major new step in space, launching a mission to bring moon rocks and soil back to earth. an unmanned craft blasted off early tuesday morning chinese time. no other nation has brought back lunar material since u.s. and russian flights of the 1960' an70's. >> woodruff: dianne feinstein is stepping down back in this country, the

national highway traffic safetyi stration ordered a recall of seven million g.m. pickup trucks and s.u.v.'s. they have air bag inflators made by takata that can explode and spew bits of metal shrapnel. the problem is blamed for at least 27 deaths worldwide. and, on wall street, stocks rallied on news of another ntial covid vaccine. the dow jones industrial average gained27 points to close at 29,591. the nasdaq rose 25 points, and, the s&p 500 added . still to come on the newshour: we talk to dr. anthony faucipe about thls of holiday travel and gatherings. nicaragua faces a difficul recory following two devastating hurricanes.

tamara keith and amy walter break down the latest political nech. and ore. f: >> woodroronavirus cases and hospitalizations in the u.s. are reachingecord-breaking numbers at a staggering rate. for the 20th straight day, more than 100,000 new cases of covid ve been diagnosed daily, while hospitalization records have veen broken for 13 consecu days. this, as officials wton americantay home during what is usually the busiest travel week of the year.ho doctor a fauci, director of the national institute for selergy and infectious dis is one of those officials and he joins me now. dr. fauci, thank you so much for

joining again. these numbers are beyond disturbing. what most concerns you? >> well, what most concerns me now is, you know, the immediate situation with people traveling gom different places, com home for thanksgiving. when you leave a location and have to go to an airport or exposing yourself, and then going home to your home community for, you know, a wonderful, traditional thanksgiving holiday might actually, unfortunately, be a source of an even amplification of the surge that you already just accurately described, judy. i'm concerned about that in the very immediate future of the next few days, but i'm also d of the numbers that are going in the wrong direction

with regard to cases, wi hospitalizations, deaths, all the things, the warning parameters that we're in the middle of a really serio situation, and stherimpose upon hat, as we get further into the late fall aly winter with the weather being throughout most reof theple country to do things indoors more than outdoors, this is something that, u know, obviously at face value is a very, very challenging situation. so if we could just hang in there and adhere to these public health measures as we get more and more relief from thech vaccines will start to be available in december, i think we should use that as an incentive to not give up on this and to continue to push the public health measures. >> woodruff: that is true, but, in the near term, with people defying federal government c.d.c. guidelines't saying do home, don't go

to visit grandmother or family members, what should families know? if they are gathering, despite the best advice of the experts, what should they know? >> well, they should know that they're putting themselves and their mily members at risk because the critical issue -- and it's a difficult message to reason why we understand thatthe and not be critical of people, but to try and expin thatsp communitad, there's a considerable amount of that from people who have no symptoms. so what we ask people to do is to at least stop for a home and do what i call a risk-benefit assessment of what you want to do in the holiday, what you wano o for the seasons where you bring people in your home. if you have a person who's elderly, who has an underlying condition that makes them more

susceptible to the serious consequences of infection, do you really want to have that gathering or should you say, i know it hurts not to dit because this is such a t, you know, hang in there with us because there will be future times when you can do it. so maybe a sacrifice now of something that you really like would pay off in the protectiona of theh and safety of a loved one. >> woodruff: we certainly hope most people, if not everyoat, will heed dvice, but we know that some will not. but, dr. fauci, i want to ask you about what some healthcare leaders are sayinground the country, not just in urban areas, but theeader of a major althcare group in the state of idaho said today he's seriously concerned that, in coming weeks, they're going to have to decide who gets care and who doesn't. do you see these kinds of decisions potentially coming in the month ahead?

>> yeah. it is really conceivable that if we don't turn around the trajectory of this surge, judy, that that will happen. in fact, just about a week ago, there was a physician from a large -- the largest healthcare facility in montana who was saying tt they had 25 intensive care unit beds but over 40 intense care newton unit patients who had to beut in the recovery room or other about the difficulty they might have in not having enough trained staff. so we would want to avoid that to the best that we can, and the way you do that is to try and blunt the trajectory. the thing i find, in some respects, astounding, judy, isn that, evenaces where you have that kind of situation like you described in idaho and that i just described in montana is

that people in those environments still don't believe thathis is a problem. they say it's maybe fake news or it's just overexaggeration or it's se sort of a conspiracy. the data don't lie, judy. the data are real, and, each day, they come out from reliable sources, and what we see is that we're in a difficult sittion, that did we shouldn't -- that we shoulden though up our hands in despair because we can d something about it if we adhere to the public health measures we talk about. we don't have to inevi accept a dire situation because it is within our power to do something about it. >> woodruff: one very quick question abo the decision of ople to travel over thanksgiving. many colleges, in essence, have given students the green light to go home. was that a mistake? should more colleges and universities said students have to or should stay on campus?

>> well, you know, it really i don't think it's going to be a one size fits all because some of the colleges have done really well in that they've tested the students before they've come in, they've done surveillance testing, and the level of infection in several of those colleges that have done it right is really quite low. so, under those are circumstances, i think it's different from colleges that really don't know the status of many students. there could be a lot of undetected community spread with people that are asymptomatic. i think that's thishing you're d referring to about being careful about sending students home. buethe colleges that have d it really well and have a low level there, you know, you mighp say ple really need to goan home, theybut some might prefer to stay in the safe environment where they are.

it will be an individual deseason so there's not a one size fits all on that. >> woodruff: the vaccine, dr. fauci, good news, several manufacturers have said they have a vaccine that seems to be quite effective. k w pfizer, just three days ago, submitted a request for emergency use thorgz from the f.d.a. how quickly do you think that approval could be given and then how quickly could what other government approval has to happen be given so this vaccine could actually get in people's arms? >> the projection is, if all goes well with the application for an eua, the emergency use authorization, that there could be a vaccine delivered towar the middle and end of december and we project it is very likely that we will have vaccine doses in people's arms in december. the projection is that there will be 40 million doses for 20 million people, and then as we get into january, february

d march, that will increase incrementally so that, into the middle towards the end of the first quarter2021, you will have accounted for and vaccinated those who are in the higher prioroups, according to the recommendation of the c.d.c., so that, as you get into april and then may, you can really, in earnest, start to population vaccinaeneral but it's going to start, if things go as planned, in december, middle to end of december. idea, dr. fauci, for some governors to be making the decision on -- to doing thefe own vaccine review, as we know wve heard abo from governor cuomo of new york, >> well, you know, it isornia? understandable, though i disagree with it, judy, that some of these governors, you know, with maybe good intentions of wanting to make sure they

assure, you know, the safety of their citizenry, but what they're missing -- and i would appeal to them on that -- that, even though they have what they perceive and maybe the reality of mixed signals fm washington, that the process of the decision of ether or not a vaccine is safe and effective, that is made by a completely independent group, not by the federal government, not by the company, it's made by an independent group of scientists, vaccinologists, ethicists, stat tigs, they do -- sta status sta. and when they do that, the career scientists make the recommendation and the decision about ether it's safe to be distributed. sot what i think sun fortunate, judy, is that that is not fully appriated on the outside, an

that's why you have well meaning governs questioning it and saying, well, who's making this decision? is it being pressured in any n y? if we ke them understand that it is not being pressured, that it's donen an independent, transparent fashion, i hope they would then realize that that's good enough. ng>> woodruff: one other t how important is it that the biden transition team have access to informatio is now in the hands of the trump administration and its vaccine program? >> right. you know, judy, i go back to saying that, as u know, we've discussed this before, i have been involved and advised six administrations, and i have been through five transitions, and i can tell you that transitionse ally important. it is important to have that smooth passing on of the information. i've used, you know, the metaphor of a relay race that, when you really want to get a

really good, smooth relay race, when one person has the baton and is running along, you hand it to somebody who is also running along with you for a while, and then you give them the baton. if you were to stop and give it to someone who is stopped, yout woulwaste a time, so it's much more effico have a smooth transition from one administration to another. hacause, in my experience, has worked very well in the past. >> woouff: but that doesn't seem to be happening right now? >> well, obvbeusly, it's not use there's not the interaction with the trans--ion team tha have not had interaction with them. >> woodruff: dr. anthony fauci, thank you very muchor joining us. >> thank you, judy. thank you for having me again. i appreciate being on with you. >> woodruff: and a note, this interview with recorded earlier this afternoon before the news about the transition occurred. ve

>> woodruff:the past three weeks, two massive hurricanes, eta and iota, have slammed into central america, in the same location. hurricane season ends one week from today. and this one set records 30 named storms, and 13 hurricanes. for those living already under the specter of covid-19, after the storms, the question now is of sheer survival. nickifrin is back with this report. >> schifrin: this wae supposed to bvirginia morazan mesa and her family's journey home. instead, it's a returno nothing. >> (s translated ): here e kitchen. we had a living room, two bedroomsnd the hallway. >> schifrin: this beach is where their house once stood. >> ( translated s only

sand that's left. what else can i tell you? nothing was left, not even the pole, nothing. and it hurts because i've been le on the streets, entirely on the streets. >> schifrin: puerto ca also known as bilwi, bore the brunt of nicaragua strongest storm, ever. hurricane iota slammed nicaragua's east coast last week, with wind gust55 miles an hour. homes, pulverized into piles ofr lu streets, flooded. as water surged in, mesa and the residents in these low-lying areas, had no choice but to evacuate by boat. shelters to ride o storm, hoping their homes had survived. but many, didn't. >> ( translated ): i've been shaken. i'm not okay, i've been left hurricane, i felt, was very strong, too strong.>>chifrin: id category 4 storm that hit thest same cin two weeks.

hurricane eta struck just 15 o miles nortiota's landfall. the hurricanes' damatended well beyond northeastern nicaragua. from panama to southeastern mexico, torrential rai engorged rivers and left huge swaths of land under water. in some parts, the downpours triggered deadly landslides. in guatemala, the village of quejaá, a mountainside gave way, and buried dozens of people. after rescue efforts were called off, the area was deemed "camposanto," sacred land for the dead. guatemalan government crews flew to isolated villages to stribute aid. but they haven't even reached places like san juan cotzal. so the local ixil maya community, have to sav themselves. on sunday, volunteers from the local catholichurch collected food and donations. but delivering that aid is a challenge, when the storms destroyed bridges that used to connect 20 communities. last week. tald to us late

>> ( translated ): there have been a lot of landslides, major losses to property and communities have now been left out of touch. toma visited homes to document the storms' impact. she kept the communapprised through a local media collective. they say the county never had the resources to ce with a orm the magnitude of eta. >> ( translated ): there are no firefighters, either vunteers or from the municipality. there are no relief agencies. temilies woke up only to sink their feet into that was already running inside the house. that's how etarpook us by >> schifrin: iota brought only more devastation. its rains lingered over the weekend, killing more livestock and turning the region's cornfields into lagoons, just weeks before harvest time. he ( translated ): t is a concern going into next year, 20, how will families eat? where will they get money to eat?ge where will thethe corn, the beans, what is most heavily s nsumed here?

>> schifrin: acre region, hundreds of thousand are living in shelters. their concerns of covid-19, put on pause. >> ( translated ): what are we to do if we re left without a home, without a bed, without dishes, we don't have anythi. >> with covid-19, it's always a balancing act between evacuating people safely and ensuringhat they're in higher ground or in shelters to protect them from thhazards of these kinds o hurricanes. >> schifrin: kayly ober manages refugees international's climate she fears authoritven't been able to offer covid mitigation, like hand washing, temperature checks, and social distancing. >> what wee seeing in the region here is, is a little more ad hoc and a little more haphazard, unfortunately. and so what we might find is more people have been put at risk to covid due to evacuation, but only time will tell to what extent that really, really is.n: >> schifarly reports in honduras, already show high positivity rates.of around the citan pedro sula, as many as 100,000 flood victims crammed into more than 80 shelters.

but even that's not enough. 500 people are n living under this highway overpass, with no running water. people are facing displacement due to the hurricanes and itwi be even harder for them to build back or bounce back from that devastation and impact because covid-19 has made their livelihoods pretty precarious and tenuous already. slammed by the year's most powerful atlantic hurricane, and the pandemic, storm victims fa road to recovery.tacherous and many of them have nowhere to for the pbs newhour, i'm nick schifrin. >> woodruff:hile the trump

>> woodruff: here to break down all the latest, i'joined by politics monday duo amy walter of the "cook political report" and host of public radio's "politics with amy walter," and tamera keith of npr, she also co-host the "npr politics podcast." very good to see the both of you. let's start about the news breaking this hour, tam. finally, the person in charge of the g.s.a., the generaices adrnistration, two weeks af joe biden was declared the winner othe election, the winner of the election just late today authorized the administration to go forward for the trump administraon to share resources with the biden campaign. but this happened only afterfi michigan cer the results of its vote and after a few morn republicanors spoke up. it didn't happen as a result of president trump. so it's taken a while but it's finally happened. >> that's correct, and the

n s. a.m. administrator in her letter to the bimpaign, the biden transition says she made this decision indepenntly based on precedent and that she faced absolutely no pressure from the trump administration or from the white house. that letter was published by c shortly before president trump tweeted that he was going to go ahead and recommend that she start the transition, even though he's planning to continue to fight. so president trump's tweet very much out of sync with the argument that the g.s.a. administrator is mining about thpendence with which she made the decision. but as you saypresident trump s had one loss after another, after another, numerous court losses, and today after the michigan brd of elections rtified the election results in michigan, a state where he was tryi to overturn the results, the trump campaign put

out a statement essentially saying, ah, certification that's just a procedural step. clearly it wasn't just a procedural step and it caused ap handful oflican senators to come forward and say, hey, get with it, and then, of course, this decision was made. it kind of feels like president trump said, i highly recoend that this boulder continue rolling down the hill. >> woodruff: and, amy, even though the president says he's going toontinue to fight, this is a significant -- verysi ificant, critical move, in fact, on the part of the government services t administratisay the transition will begin, there will be cooperation, but, boy, it's taken many daysish and what wh reported to be a lot of pressure from the house not to do this. >> yeah, i mean, judy, so much of this has been kabuki the whole time. it's been pretty clear pretty election was called that there

wasn't really a path for thees ent, and, you know, tam t noted thre were not that m many senators bers of congress who were reans who called out the fact that the g.s.a. was not moving this process along or called out the overturned this attempt to call into question the results. but i think one thing to take away from this, judy, is the fact that the guardrails of our system actually worked, and that you had republican secretary of state in georgia, for example, going against his party. many, obviously, the president and many in his party puing m to not certify or to question the integty of the results in georgia. you had, today in michigan, one abstention by a republican but

the other republican on the board voting to certify the election. you had judges who were appointed by republicans pushing them not credible and worthy.g so we have multiple instances where we can look back and say, at the end of the day, washington politicians may not have been particularly brave in stepping out and saying what was clear to everybody at the time,s but in local office, those o are doing the jo day-to-day job of keeping our democracy in tact did it. >> woodruff: and, as you say, leamy, most republican pol in washington are still not suppting the idea of a transition. but beforee wrap this up, tam, let's talk about what joe biden did today. , as he laid out his choice for some of the top jobsm

in hisistration, cabinet secretaries and so forth. what is this adding up to? what does it look like to you, the biden administration priorities will be? of well, there aren't a lo surprises on this list, in fact there are no surprises on this list. these are all people who have servedn multiple administrations, who have lying level experience, who are widely respected, and it's also a diverse group. you know, there's the first female director of national intelligence, the first latino homeland security director. so what you have is essentially what biden said he was going to do, and you have -- we also havt there that janet yellen would be named treasury secretary making her the first female treasury cretary following her previousas stinhe first female fed chair and also on the previous council of econo wc advisors. t you have is, you know, a

few people making history, and, also, you have people who are well known and well lith around the the world and here in the u.s. because people know for instance, tony blinken is biden's side for years.uf >> woo and, amy, what do these pics say to you about wha joe bints to do? >> well, to be sort of predictable and boring and bring in experience, and that was the sort of campaign theme. underneath it all is i will be the things that donald trump was not, which was predictable and boring. and remember, when present trump came in, the person who came in with no government experience thought that it would be important to bring people in who also didn't have a tremendous amount of experience. rex tillerson overt at secretary of state, ben carson over at h.u.d.

president-elect campaign, specifically on it's important to have experience, it's eoimportant to delegate toe 'so have done this work before and, also, what aying, judy, is to folks in washington, to the republicans, there's not lot here for you to object to, i'm not here throwing somebodys whking a statement to the political class, i'm puttingho somebody experienced. >> woodruff: exactly right. i mean, they may dispute the term "boring" but they cannot dispute the term experienced, somebody who knows their way or people who know their way around washington. all right, two women who know their way around washington, amy walter, tamera keith, thank you both. >> you're welcome.

>> woodruff: mexico has been hit hard by the covid-19 pandemic, and its economic fallout. the country's celebrated filmkers have helped rse funds for those who have lost jobs in the industry-- one with a rich history and recent remarkable international success. jeffrey brown traveled to mexico city earlier this year, before the pandemic, and continues his series on mexico'srt scene tonight, and the next two nights, as part of our ongoing arts and culture cov canvas. > brown: an introductory class at one of mexico's top film schools. this is the renowned "centro de capacitacion cinematographia, or c.c.c., in mexico city. today, young student tare lear finer points of camera work. audio, scripting, scene building. enrollment under 2t faces high demand, due in part to the stunning success and increased

international profile of mexican directors, three in particular: alfonso aron, guillermo del toro and alejandro gonzalez inarritu, who tother account for five of the last seven best director awards at the oscars. there's always the expectation of success. >> brown: alfredo loaezas the director of the c.c.c. >> "the shape of water," there were like 600 applicants, no? and then the next year it was like 500. you know, and then cuaron, and it's like 550. so it's, sometimes people are very appealed by, you know, the with the job.ey think comes >> brown: but loza, who's also a graduate of this school, is more focused on making se students find their own voices. >> some of them, they do want the expectation theyo want to win an oscar or want to be recognized eets or working with champagne or whatever.ro

>>: it's a bit of a paradox: enormous success for mexican filmmakers, the so- called "three amigos," but largely achieved after they left mexico. and until cuaron's "roma," about the life and struggles of a domestic worker in 1970s mexico city, none of those recent oscar-winning films were set here. fernanda solorzano, one of mexico's leading film critics, eys the success of the th amigos led to a renewal of cost.acinema, but at some >> many people only think othem when they think of mexico filmmakers. and there is a new generation, maybe two generatis already of filmmakers that have made goodn' movies that habeen that commented or look, you know, they don't have that spotlight. >> brown: there's a thriving film culture here in mexicoor city: we met sno at the sprawling cineteca nacional, a hub for mexican and international cinema, where ten theaters show films that often can't be seen elsewhere.

it'slso a shrine to the ilch history ofaking here, with facilities for delicate restoration and digitization, as well as archive vaults that house thousands of old film reels. it's a reminder of what's called the golden age of mexican cinema, between the 1930's and 1950's, after the bloody revolution, when the nation's film industry produced more than 100 films a year, like fernando de fuentes' "vamonos con pancho villa," reaching audiences throughout mexico and beyond. but at big-box movie theaters around mexico city, work bylm mexican fimakers can be hard to find. >> somest audiences arl a bit not a hollywood film, e theyou know, know that it's going to be entertaining or entertainment and they're not sure about the mexican film. so i think that's a that's a overcome as audiences. >> brown: part of the problem, inh country overwhelmed wit

corruption, is subject matter >> many people reject the fact of going to a movie and watching what they see in the news ev so it's hard for people to have a weekend, you know, like they want to enjoy. and so it's it's a tough sell. >> brown: fernanda valadez is one filmmaker addressi serious issues directly. a recent graduate of t c.c.c., her first feature film,'i identifying features,' won a pair of awards at the sundance film festival earlier this year. it's a gut wrenching story about a mother in search of her son, who's disappeared onis way to the u.s. valadez acknowledg the chlenge of showing films like hers in mexico, but is firm about their importance. i believe film and art in general can be enjoyable in a way. it's not entertaining, but canst l be enjoyable because you

have an emotional connection >> brown: she says the successee of the 'itmigos' has paved a path for mexican filmmakers. there's now even an expectationl at internatiilm festivals. >> it's like thbeing perhaps an america goes to the olympics and oh, it's american. so it's a good athlete. so for filmmakers, if you're mexican, oh, you must be a good filmmaker if you're mexican. but then every generation wants to make something different, of course. i believe it's good for us to think about doing films in for the pbs newshour, i'm jeffrey brown in mexico city. >> woodruff: on the newshour

>> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by:

>> supported by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation. committed to buildg a mored just, verdant aceful world. more information at macfound.org >> and with the ongoing support of these instutions ♪

♪ ♪ ♪ -today on "cook's country," taking a trip to the motor city. bryan and julia make the best bottom round roast beef with zip-style sauce, adam reveals his top pick for measuring spoons, and christie makes bridget a regional favorite -- that's all right here on "cook's country."