joining us now, denise turner roth, she served as the head of the gsa under president obama from 2015onald trump's inauguration in 2017. ms. turner roth, thank you for being with us this evening. suddenly your role that not many people knew about has become so important. we need to understand it. you had the same role in 2016 of deciding when to ascertain the election results for donald trump. what factors back then did you rely on to make that determination to sign the paper to get the transition started? >> well, thank you for having me this evening. it's good to be with you. there were a number of advisers and our general counsel that we were able to take a look at what actually was the circumstance, and we were looking at some key aspects. had the states called the election, what were the major networks reporting, and actually overnight there was a concession as well, so that made the direction much more clear. but we didn't have to have a concession in order to go forward. >> what's the issue here? there's been a lot of focus on things like office space. but clearly the biden adm

now, someone who has unique insight into the gsa and the transition process is denise turner roth. of the gsa under president obama, it was ms. turner roth who ascertained the results of the 2016 election between donald trump and hillary clinton. she did so on november 9th, 2016, one day after the election, triggering the official start of the transition period for then-president-elect trump. joining us now, agadenise turne roth, she served as the head of the gsa under president obama from 2015 until donald trump's inauguration in 2017. ms. turner roth, thank you for being with us this evening. suddenly your role that not many people knew about has become so important. we need to understand it. you had the same role in 2016 of deciding when to ascertain the election results for donald trump. what factors back then did you rely on to make that determination to sign the paper to get the transition started? >> well, thank you for having me this evening. it's good to be with you. there were a number of advisers and our general counsel that we were able to take a look at what actually w

. >> joining me now is denise turner roth. administrator for gsa and helped president trump's team trans ig to the white house in 2016. denise, thank you for joining us. >> thank you for having me, breanna. >> you wrote a very interesting op-ed for cnn.com. you talk about worrying about the implications of delayed transition. tell us what's at stake here? >> there's a great deal at stake. that's been pointed out. the agencies across the federal government, 100 agencies, will not start the process of transferring government from one administration to the next. that means major policy items addressed at these agencies are not being conferred between the two bodies. what you want at this point is for the team to be with the administration team talking about the existing policies, whether it's covering covid, infrastructure policy, what have you, wanting them to talk about what's happening currently, what's on the horizon and what are the things we need to plan for in the future. that is a concern whether it's a security agency, b

denise turner roth used to run the gsa. thank you very much for joining us. >> thank you, chris.s good to be with you. >> so some people have tried to assuage any fear. don't worry, there are lots of levels of government. this doesn't really matter. it kind of feels like it matters. should we be worried that the gsa hasn't signed off on the transition? >> well, it certainly is an important moment in terms of the history and transfer of government. gsa by law is responsible for the transition of government, and when we talk about the sides of government, remember, we're talking about, you know, 4 million employees including military, about 100 agencies in the running of those operations and the transition of leadership is very dependent on the transition process. i think one of the key aspects here is when do we ensure that the incoming president and that team has an understanding of the current operations and is able to take over day one. i think that's the biggest risk and challenge at this point. >> so what if you have a bunch of pros come in with you, and everybody has been in

denise turner roth, thank you for giving us context and understanding to why this matters. it's not just some bureaucratic checkmark on a list of to do things. thank you very much. appreciate you and appreciate your service to the country. >> thank you, good to be with you. >> okay. >>> now, again, i keep coming back to covid because covid is everything for us. economy, our kids, our livelihoods, our emotions, right, our well-being. shattering a record for hospitalizations. now there's a new study that i have to tell you about. i don't want to tell you about. we worked hard to make sure i had to tell you about it. but this long haul thing is getting worse and it's getting more insidious. it's getting more sneaky. it's manifesting itself in ways that people may not see. it's not just their body. it's their mind. with going to bring in the doctor to talk about new guidance that seems like it should have come out months ago and the study about long haulers and mental health that is not going to make a lot of people happy in this country tonight. next. at dell technologies, we

. >> joining our discussion now is denise turner roth. served as the head of the general services administration under president obama from 2015 until donald trump's inauguration in 2017. thank you very much for joining us tonight. you're one of the people who's been there before at this moment of transition. when you authorized, officially authorized the transition and the transition funding to begin in the last transition, when did you do that, and on what basis did you make that decision? >> that actually occurred the following morning. i'm thinking around 10:00 a.m. there were a couple of things that had happened before in the evening prior in terms of the state results was one thing we were looking at as well as the general major media outlet reporting. and then over the evening we had signals from the clinton campaign that they were going to concede. so all of those items together really fed into our decisions. but if you recall that evening lasted pretty late. i think it was around midnight that i decided we would wait till the nex

denise turner roth is a former general services administration official under president obama and shepoke to cnn about what the biden team will gain from this decision and the time they have already lost. >> we had an apparent winner. there has within time that's gone by, and because of that, that does impact the trump presidential transition team. of course the biden team has been working to get up to speed and obviously it's made a number of appointments and announcements, but at the end of the day, there's a hundred federal agencies, close to 4 million federal employees and a lot of policy and determination to understand and to take hold of before january 20th. and we want the presidential team to be prepared on day one. we don't want them playing catch up, and unfortunately they have lost about 20 days at this point. >> now that the transition is underway, one of the most urgent issues for the president-elect will be how he handles the pandemic. his team is hoping to get access to covid data and vaccine distribution plans by today. meanwhile, a key cdc team met monday to discuss h

. >> denise turner roth, thank you very much for your perspective on this tonight. really appreciate it. >> thank you. good to be with you. >> thank you. up next, we've now seen joe biden make his two most important presidential personnel decisions, a vice president and a white house chief of staff. what does that tell us about the man who will be the 46th president of the united states? evan os nos of "the new yorker," the author of a new biography of joe biden, joins us next. joe biden, joins us next shea b. all i wanted was to use your body wash and all i wanted was to have a body wash. my husband would have been on the sidelines. but not anymore! an alternative to pills voltaren is the first full prescription strength non-steroidal anti-inflammatory gel to target pain directly at the source for powerful arthritis pain relief. voltaren. the joy of movement. it's a dark, lonely place. this is art inspired by real stories of people living with bipolar depression. emptiness. a hopeless struggle. the lows of bipolar depression can disrupt your life and be hard to man

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