m.j. lee is in wilmington, delaware. m.j., what are we learning? >> reporter: we just learned this afternoon that president-elect joe biden was taken to the doctor's office because yesterday while he was playing with his dog, major, he slipped and twisted his ankle. this is according to his office, so what we know so far is that he was taken to an orthopedist in newark, delaware. we're still awaiting word on exactly what the doctor's examination will show. of course you'll remember that he had spent the thanksgiving weekend out in rohoboth beach. that's where we were yesterday. and then earlier today he returned home here to wilmington, delaware. interesting that we actually haven't seen him out in public, even going out for a bike ride or something like that, which is not unusual which he has a more quiet weekend. but, again, the office did say that this was simply out of an abundance of caution, that he was being tab to see a doctor. obviously, boris, any time we're talking about a sitting p

let's go to cnn's m.j. lee, delaware, nice to see you this morning, m.j. >> good to see you, too. five days later, still no confession from president trump, but the biden team is full steam ahead with their transition everies he efforts in wilmington. biden announced he's naming ron klain as his chief of staff in the white house. this is somebody he has known for decades and worked with for decades. he served as chief of staff to biden when he was vice president and importantly he was the ebola czar under president obama and you'll notice in recent months he has been very critical and vocal in taking on president trump and his handling of the coronavirus pandemic. now, another sign that things are moving ahead here in wilmington, biden continuing to have phone calls with foreign leaders who are congratulating him on his victory. last night, he spoke with the leaders of south korea, japan, and australia, but important side note here, there are other messages cnn is learning from other foreign leaders that are ba

let's start this half hour with the latest from the biden headquarters and bring in cnn's m.j. leem.j., nice to see you this morning. it's interesting. i felt like biden was trying to downplay some of what's going on here seeming confident and cool and collected about all of this. obviously behind the scenes his transition is not getting any help. >> reporter: that's absolutely right. he has been in wilmington, delaware, here all week. we have seen him publicly move forward with the transition process just this week. he announced his covid advisory board. yesterday he held a press conference and the meetings with the transition officials will continue. he's not getting much help from the trump administration. yesterday when he was pressed on this he did try to project a sense of calm though he did have these pointed words when asked about the president's refusal to accept the results of the election. >> well, i just think it's an embarrassment, quite frankly. the only thing that -- how can i say this tactfully? i think it will not help the president's legacy. i think that -- i know

cnn's m.j. lee is in philadelphia, which is one of the bluest cities there in pennsylvania. m.j., the fact this is where biden is spending the second to the last day of the campaign, more proof this isn't about changing minds today, it's really about driving voters turnout. how is the biden campaign feeling about pennsylvania right now? >> reporter: well, ana, the biden campaign could not be making it more clear that pennsylvania is a critical, critical state for the campaign. the campaign actually just announced what the final 24 hours of their campaign is going to look like tomorrow, and essential the entire campaign is going to be fanned out across the state of pennsylvania. just listen to this list of events that biden himself has tomorrow. he will be in beaver county with union and labor leaders, then heads to pittsburgh where he will have a drive-in events with african-american community leaders. then his final election night event will be a drive-in event in pittsburgh. those notable, you may recall that his first-ever event as a campaign candidate was actually in pitt

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it's go to m.j. lee. president-elect biden is pushing ahead with his transition efforts including who he may announce as part of his cabinet. >> president-elect biden has been spending the holiday weekend here in delaware. while things have been quiet, we expect a busy week next week. on monday he is going to receive the presidential daily briefing for the first time since he became the president-elect. there has been a bit of a delay as the biden time waited for the gsa to officially ascertain he was the winner this election. now that it has happened the meetings are going to regularly take place. and he is going to be announcing some members of his economic team. we don't know exactly custom positions are going to be announced next week, but we do know that janet yellen the former federal reserve chairwoman is expected to be named joe biden's treasury secretary. earlier this week you remember he did announce some members of his national security team. but there were two porno missions. we still don't kn

so for all of that let's go to cnn political correspondent m.j. lee. who did he announce today as part of his team? >> reporter: well, brooke, this is such a critical team because this is the team that will be spearheading biden's efforts on the economic recovery in the middle of this ongoing covid-19 pandemic. a couple names worth mentioning, janet yellen is being chosen as his treasury secretary pick. we have been reporting this name for a while. she would be making history, if she is confirmed, serving as the first woman in that role. we also have nerra tanden. for the office of management and budget. we have cecilia rouse, a princeton economic, chosen to be biden's head of the council of economic advisers. the roles i just mentioned will require congressional approval. now, while the announcement came today, we also expect an in-person event tomorrow introducing some of these folks. so that should be taking place tomorrow here in wilmington, delaware, brooke. >> what about secretary of defense? we haven't had an announcement just yet. who are names

also hearing from joe biden's newly named chief of staff for the first time since the election, m.j. lee is live this morning, and m.j., this projection for arizona, a week and a half later, shows you how tight some of these states are, how they're carefully counting these votes and now statistically, the math just is undeniable. >> reporter: that's right, christine, and i think we should be emphatic about just what a remarkable political feat this is for joe biden. remember, this is a state that a democratic presidential candidate hasn't won since 1996. this was bill clinton, and it speaks so much to the growing and changing demographics in the state of arizona over the last few years including, of course, and we have reported on this a lot, a growing hispanic population across the state, and we saw biden's campaign really try to harness the fact that those demographics have been changing and really went all in in trying to flip this state, and now overnight, we have learned that he, in fact, has. now, this of course means in the bigger picture that it only further cements biden's decla

m.j. lee, thanks so much. >>> for every single minute that passes today, on average, one american life is lost to the coronavirus pandemic. the daily number of doubts could double by next weekend because of thanksgiving weekend full of family gatherings and travel is bound to have consequences. >> i want to be straight with the american people. it's going to get worse over the next several weeks as we go for the next couple of weeks into december that we might see a surge super posted upon the surge we're already in. >> a reminder more than 13 million americans have been infected with covid-19 and a quarter of a million lives have been lost that number reflecting family members, and friends. the president is still in fight mode against non-exist tablet electi -- non-existent election fraud and spent the time on cable news this morning. >> this is total fraud and how the fbi and department of justice, i don't know, maybe they're involved but how people are allowed to get away with this stuff is

keep us updated, m.j. lee, in case we get any news from the president-elect. we wish him a speedy recovery as well. >>> let's get back to our conversation with josh regarding this piece in which he reported out, along with a group of other reporters at "the washington post," some of the denials and, frankly, madness ongoing at the white house as the president tries to cope with his election loss. you write in the piece, josh -- by the way, thank you for hanging in there with us as we got the breaking news. you write in the piece about how everything sort of culminated with the trump legal team on november 19th when this elite strikeforce of lawyers, rudy giulia giuliani, sidney powell, et cetera, when they gave this press conference at the rnc and they essentially floated a ton of conspiracy theories that even president trump was sort of embarrassed by, and he was also embarrassed by the image of rudy giuliani up there sweating the way he did. >> right. the lead up to that was the president decided to change his legal strategy and go with giuliani and ellis an

let's begin our reporting with our m.j. lee who is following president-elect biden's camp in delaware. morning, m.j. >> reporter: good morning, poppy. while this race was called on saturday but still no concession from president trump. here in wilmington, delaware, biden is continuing on with his transition efforts. earlier this week we saw him announce his covid advisory council, yesterday he gave a press conference and talked about the future of health care. today he is going to be meeting with transition advisers as well and yesterday what we saw was biden trying to project a sense of calm and what cnn is being told is that this reflects the mindset of his advisers as well, basically that they feel like they shouldn't be too aggressive right now because that could backfire, but we also heard biden using some pointed words towards the president and his refusal to concede. take a listen. >> well, i just think it's an embarrassment, quite frankly. the only thing that -- how can i say this tactfully? i think it will not help the

m.j. lee is in philadelphia where joe biden will host his first event of the day in just a few hours. how is the biden campaign feeling about its efforts to turn out the vote? >> reporter: well, fred, joe biden is ending his campaign where it all started, and that is here in the state of pennsylvania. remember, his first-ever campaign rally as a candidate took place in pittsburgh. his campaign headquarters as you know is based here in philadelphia. this is where we are going to see him just behind me at a baptist church speak in just a few hours. of course, you know he was also born in scranton, pennsylvania. so there are actually a number of reasons why it would make sense for the biden campaign to focus on this state in these final 48 hours. but of course there is also an important electoral reason for this, as well. one of the most obvious paths that the biden campaign sees to getting to 270 electoral votes is through here. the rustbelt states including the state of pennsylvania which, as y

our m.j. lee has been following the biden transition for us.at can we expect in the coming days? >> reporter: hey, boris. well, it has been a relatively quiet couple of days here in delaware where the president-elect has been spending his thanksgiving weekend, skipping his usual tradition of traveling to nantucket to have a bigger family gathering, but you're absolutely right that next week is expected to be quite busy. on monday, as you mentioned, he is planning to receive his first presidential daily briefing. this is a very critical, classified briefing, that has basically been on hold for a couple of weeks until the gsa could formally ascertain that he was, in fact, the winner of this election, and then some point later this week as well, he is expected to announce some members of his economic team. now, one of those people, even though we don't quite know exactly which positions will be announced, one of those people could be federal -- former federal reserve chairwoman janet yellen, who is expected to be named joe biden's treasury secreta

m.j. lee is in delaware, where biden is spending the holiday weekend., the transition work. one of these new additions to the covid team is from a community that has been devastated by coronavirus. tell us more about that. >> reporter: that's right. so far it's been a relatively quiet weekend here in rahobeth beach, but the transition team just announced several additional members to serve on its covid-19 advisory board, and one of those names is a member of the navajo nation and executive director of the navajo nation department of health. the reason this stands out and is so notable is because this is one of the hardest hit communities by the covid-19 pandemic. if you look at the numbers, around 8,600 cases per 100,000 people in that community. this community has been forced to go on lockdown until december 6. so, again, beefing up its covid-19 advisory board, the biden transition team. it's one of the many things happening behind the scenes. i will also note that we do expect a relatively busy week ahead for the biden transition team. joe biden himse

let's check in with m.j. lee in pittsburgh.he biden campaign reviews pennsylvania as a critical win for them. >> reporter: that is absolutely right, wolf. they could not be more clear in these final hours how important pennsylvania is. i think we are seeing pictures now of joe biden with lady gaga. they are going to end tonight with actually campaign rally together here in pittsburgh and we should be hearing him in just a few minutes speak at another drive-in rally in pittsburgh behind me. this is an event geared towards the african-american community. we saw him campaign all day yesterday in the philadelphia area and the campaign just announced that tomorrow, on actual election day, he is going to be visiting scranton and also going back to philadelphia. again, a critical, critical state for joe biden. earlier today, as he made this final push in this state, we saw him reference his working class roots and he tried to paint president trump as being somebody who is out of touch. >> so many people are worried. i've never forgott

m.j. lee is with joe biden tonight. and i want to go to you, m.j., in pittsburgh. what is biden's closing message in these final hours? >> reporter: well, erin, joe biden has been campaigning all day in western pennsylvania and tomorrow he will be in scranton and philadelphia. just a critical state. we are seeing him of course pull out all the stops. just earlier lady gaga making a surprise appearance on a college campus with the former vice president. and we are about to see her perform at a drive-in rally in pittsburgh. as for his closing message he is bringing it all back to here. scranton, pennsylvania, his birthplace, talking about his working-class roots and talking about people who he says cares about kindness, cares about decency. this is all an attempt to draw that contrast between himself and president trump, who he is describing as being somebody who is out of touch, who is divisive. and we heard biden say earlier today wall street did not build this country, working-class people did. so very, very clear what kinds of people he is trying to get out to vo

the boyden team from meeting with the current administration's top health officials today as cnn's m.j. lee reports. >> america is not going to lose this war. we will get our lives back. >> reporter: president-elect joe biden sharing a thanksgiving message with the nation on wednesday. >> i know that this time of year can be especially difficult. believe me. i know. i remember that first thanksgiving, the empty chair, the silence, it takes your breath away. it's really hard to care. it's hard to give thanks. it's hard to even think of looking forward. it's so hard to hope. i understand. >> reporter: speaking from wilmington, delaware, biden discussing the sacrifices americans are making as coronavirus cases surge across the country. >> we fought nearly a year-long battle with the virus that has devastated this nation. it's brought us pain and loss and frustration and it's cost so many lives. we need to remember we are at war with the virus, not with one another, not with each other. this is the moment where we need to steal our spines and redouble our efforts, and recommit ourselves to the

that takes us to m.j. lee in wilmington. what's the response?er: well, chris, we have just gotten an official response from the biden campaign to the president's speech prematurely declaring victory and casting doubt on the democratic process. let me read a part of that statement. this is from the campaign manager jenn o'malley dillon. she said the president's statement about trying to cut down the country was outrageous, unprecedented and incorrect. it was outrageous because it is a naked effort to take away the democratic rights of american citizens. she goes on to say that the country simply will not stop -- the counting simply will not stop. what the president is suggesting, that the counting now needs to stop because it's no longer election day, obviously the biden campaign is dismissing that. i just want to point out that the amazing thing is that the biden campaign actually exactly predicted this kind of scenario, that this kind of speech very well might come from the president on election night. they have been predicting for days that th

let's now check in with m.j. lee.n has reserved to celebrate if he wins the election. will he get to do that? we'll see. what is the word out of the camp? >> it is word underscoring what a huge political feat this would be if he were to win georgia. as you pointed out a couple of times, a democratic presidential candidate hadn't won georgia since 1992. how did the biden campaign get there? think decided to go all in on the state in the final weeks of the campaign. joe biden himself went there and campaigned in georgia one week before election day. his running mate was dispatched to go there before election day and former president barack obama spent the monday before election day campaigning in atlanta. so, clearly, this was a purposeful decision by the campaign which saw that they actually had a real chance at taking this state. and what would that mean ultimately for biden if he were to win georgia? it would mean that he is expanding the map, that they saw multiple paths to getting to 270. and they wanted the extra