one is iran, as the trump administration pulled out of the that the obama administration and other four nations had jointly negotiated thehe closing months of obama administration. then, of course, you have the syrian civil war still underway, still exacting an incredible humanitarian toll on the region, and the spillover of the syrian refugee crisis, which we have seen less of in the news in the last year, but that does not mean the crisis has abated. in some ways, the middle east is apparently more secure today, in some ways the middle east is still treated -- still deeply troubled and deeply insecure. i think one of the areas you will see joe biden take a different path is confronting saudi arabia as a regional power there. remember, saudi arabia during the trump administration killed jamalan journalist khashoggi and faced very little cost to that. i think you are going to see joe biden attempt to reset some of that relationship with saudi arabia. host: let's go to ron, west chesterfield, new hampshire. the craddick -- democratic caller. caller: thank you very much for your time and

old, who is now the intelligence chief at the pentagon, who is seen as too nuts for even the trump administration at one point and was forced out of the national security council job he had in the trump white house after he got caught trying to sell all that nonsense about how obama was doing the wiretapping and the unmasking scandal and all that other made-up nonsense. he was literally laughed out of even the trump administration, but they brought him back. and after the election, installed him as intelligence chief at the pentagon. he's also at the same time now the acting assistant secretary of defense for special operations and low-intensity conflict. did i mention he is 34 years old? i should also mention that the new guy trump just installed after the election as defense secretary unilaterally changed the structure of the military so that special operations, like you know, navy s.e.a.l.s, right? special operations now report directly to the civilian leadership at the pentagon, which means, specifically, that u.s. military special operations now report specifically to this kid, this 34-year-

iran as the trump administration holds out on the , that the obama administration and foreign nationsntly negotiated in of the obamas administration and then you have still ann civil war incredible humanitarian toll on spillover ofnd the whichrian refugee crisis, we have seen less of in the news in the last year, but it does not mean the crisis has abated. in some ways, the middle east is apparently more secure and in some ways, the middle east is deeply insecure and one area where you will see joe biden take a different path is confronting saudi arabia as a regional power. saudi arabia during the trump aninistration killed american journalist, jamal khashoggi, and faced very little cost to that. i think you will see joe biden attempt to reset some of the relationship with saudi arabia. ron, new hampshire, democratic caller. you for your program. an awesome show. i may. question if the obama transition, obama congratulated trump one after trump's win. he had trump at the white house giving him briefings for two days, and that was a tough loss for obama. onto socialism, it seems that r

and tonight, right now, the trump administration is in the process of destroying those planes while they are on their way out the door to be replaced by the biden administration. tonight within the past few hours, it looks like president trump has finally decided that he can't just keep pretending that he didn't lose the election to joe biden. he's still not conceding. he's still keeping up this public facade that there's something going on with trump campaign legal challenges that's going to result in him magically being proclaimed the winner, right? our case strongly continues. i believe we will prevail. but the trump appointee at the head of the gsa, the general services administration, has relented, and today she finally agreed to ascertain that joe biden's the apparent winner of the presidential election even though she's still not calling him president-elect. what this means in practical terms is that the federal money that pays for the transition is being released to biden's team to actually start the transition, and it also means the trump administration is supposed to start form

it was the trump administration that recognized sovereignty in the golan heights. pompeo, the trump administration, for settlers, prime minister benjamin netanyahu, and from pompeo's perspective, the evangelical christian. worth noting in the last couple of days, netanyahu who didn't acknowledge biden's victory at first has spoken with president-elect joe biden something that pompeo has not acknowledged on this whirlwind tour at the end of the trump administration. it's also worth pointing out that pompeo has a couple more stops on the trip, qatar and saudi arabia. >> thank you so much for that. appreciate it. >>> it's time for three questions in three minutes, let's bring in cnn senior political analyst john avlon. great to have you as always. >> good morning. >> cnn is reporting that there are actually some current and former trump administration officials, so people still there who have started privately reaching out to the biden transition team trying to help out some back channels here. what does it tell you? >> it tells you they're scared to do the right thin

he said there will be a smooth transition to a second trump administration. we full well know that there should be a transition under way to a biden administration right now. and it's important to note, brianna, there are national security implications here. this is a department having to turn over a tremendous amount of information to an incoming team and they're prevented from doing that right now. it's important to note the secretary was asked about the credibility of america continuing to call for free and fair elections internationally, and to call for people to step down and accept the realities of votes in other countries, and he was asked if those efforts are undermined by what president trump is doing here. contesting election results based and no evidence. he called that question ridiculous. but it's important to note that my sources tell me diplomats in other countries, they are concerned about the action being taken by president trump undermining the work that they are doing internationally. now, secretary pompeo is very close with president trump,

this is why the senate and trump administration have been on the case for months. as part of the historic cares act, we created operation warp speed and combine government work with public partnerships. this was a 21st century manhattan project for a covid vaccine. help fund research and development with several firms. we committed billions of dollars in advanced purchase agreement. we've had regulatory barriers to speed the process. we provided backings so companies can mass-produce vaccine before google trials fully concluded. we have a head start on whatever wound up working. we hope to have a safe and effective vaccine and timeframe that will be historic. president trump's administration and the congress should take huge pride in the groundwork that l we like. some are finding it challenging. simply upload this unambiguous big news. the democratic governor of new york, a few days ago, it's bad news. the vaccine breakthrough may have been reached because ecpresident trump is still in office i understand governor cuomo found the time during this pandemic to write

it's not just the trump administration. there were a number of trends that go back way before that, that have contributed to this, but the hemorrhage of senior officers, we aged out and so that's not important that people my age group flat. the problem is american taxpayers have invested enormous amounts of money getting people ready to send the most senior positions and they are not there now. just a giant void. you can't make that up by just saying we will promote the 40 and 45-year-olds because this because this is a business where experience and long development of subject matter expertise and familiarity actually means a lot. it matters dramatically. the state department is going to require really a kind of ten to 15 year rebuild. when we entered the foreign service there were roughly 22,000 people a year taking the foreign service exam. last year it was 7000. and so there's going to have to be a lot of work done and a lot of effort i think probably we haven't, the last on the foreign service got looked at by the legis

the trump administration is also continuing to vet new political appointees for jobs in a second trump term. this after the white house warned any current political appointees that they will be fired if they are caught looking for a new job, because why would you need a new job if this administration is continuing into a second term? a day after firing the defense secretary president trump has installed loyalists in several pentagon top jobs today. the new active defense secretary's chief of staff will be cash patel who is mostly known for helping republican congressman devin nunes in his attempts to diz credit the russia investigation. trump also installed a guy as under-secretary of defense for policy whom he tried to failed to put into the pentagon earlier this year because he was too controversial even for the republican senate. this politico headline sums it up. an official who once called obama a terrorist leader takes over pentagon policy. okay, that's defense. let's go over to justice department. no one quite knew what to make of trump's attorney general issuing a memo yesterda

trump. president-elect joe biden moving forward tonight to build his new administration. even as president trump and republicans try complicating his transition to power. >> i just think it is an embarrassment quite frankly, how can i say this tactfully, i think it will not help the president's legacy. >> reporter: 71 days to inauguration, reality is settling in that biden faces new road blocks as the trump administration refuses to cooperate with the time-honored tradition of peaceful transition. but biden also taking pains to cool the temperature, saying he could still begin forming a government without access to federal funding or intelligence briefings. he down played the possibility of taking legal action. >> we can get through without the funding. we're in a position that we feel very good about. there's nothing that slows up our efforts to put things together. >> reporter: at his first news conference since the election, he playfully smiled at the republican resistance. >> have you spoken to your long time friend in the senate, mr. mcconnell, and what do you make of

the trump administration took the 1920 approach saying we have to go back to the old days so that we pollute. with a bonded administration, we will move forward, but you have to do with the right way, and we will be back in the 20th century. for california, it is not a choice. we cannot afford to pollute our air more than it is. david: you played a fair amount of defense over the years. let's go to offense. that theis something biden administration wants to work with you on, what would you want to work on affirmatively? xavier: we just touched on one, moving fast and aggressively on climate change. we have lost four years and mother nature does not wait. we have to catch up. -- thesea has proved bonfires we are experiencing, that is not normal. the floods that the south are experiencing are not normal. hurricanes where you run out of letters in the alphabet is not normal. these super tornadoes in the midwest, none of that is normal. secondly, it's time to settle this immigration issue so we know who has a right to be in the country and who doesn't. let's have an orderly process, not

bring riyadh and abu dhabi and everybody else knocking on the door, just as it was when the trump administration came in, by the way. one of the reasons that they went all-in for trump is because they felt fairly or unfairly betrayed and abandoned by an obama administration that conducted secret diplomacy without telling them with the iranians, and made noises about leaving the saudis and iranians to work out their own. so, how does biden, you know, how does biden put those pieces together? pursue some kind of diplomatic engagement with iran without creating the perception that, i think, would be incorrect but is quite likely among these hypersensitive regional partners, that biden is just being the anti-trump and switching sides, back to the iranians? and of course, there are plenty of republican critics in the united states who would jump on that as well. so, you know, i think it would be to his advantage to find a way to kick the nuclear can down the road a little bit, and adjust the allies' immediate concerns, and our immediate concerns, about nuclear activity in iraq, about the ability to d

let's go to the white house for how the trump administration is responding to this. boris is there live for us. boris, what are you hearing from the team today? >> reporter: much of the same thing, brooke. the president is stalling, he's dragging his feet. according to sources who spoke with cnn across government agencies, he has put out the word through his staff that government agencies are not to cooperate in any way with the biden team on a transition that would install joe biden, the president-elect, as commander in chief. the president has also let federal agencies know that he doesn't want them to do anything that would even imply that joe biden won last week's election. so throu as for where the president's head is at, we haven't seen him since last thursday when he took the podium and spouted nonsense about how he is the legitimate winner of the election. he has been very vocal on twitter. but we've heard from sources that the president has noted that biden himself has taken on a much more public profile and appearing more presidential, doing these briefings

joe we heard from the biden orbit, that may be sanctions put on by the trump administration should be used as leverage when negotiations with iran appen, and to delay return to the nuclear deal, which i don't think is a good idea. i think the biden administration should prioritize returning to the nuclear deal and make it fast and clean, to continue following negotiations. ideaand what about the that the imeu is putting on december 27, 2008, israel launched a massive 22 day military assault on the gaza strip. the ferocity of the attack was unprecedented in the more than six decade old conflict, killing some 1400 palestinians, most of them civilian. -- in thes aftermath of that, the u.n. found strong evidence of war crimes and crimes against amenity committed by both the israeli military and palestinian relations -- palestinian militias. this also a critical period, where you had barack obama elected, but he was just about to take office, and a tremendous amount of attention was being paid to that, as in this lame-duck period in the united states. negar: i agree. i think there can be s

i think the administration used the term "leading from behind," the antithesis of what president trump has done. we have been realistic. moving the embassy to jerusalem or taking down qassem soleimani or reducing the threat from iran or recognizing for the first time in 40 years that the chinese communist party presented in a normal threat to the security of the american people and frankly jobs and arty american economy. i think that things that the obama administration did put americans into worse place. i think people's jobs and lives were less secure than they had been for these past four years and i hope that a president who comes into office in the middle of january next year will have a much more robust, marketable, more confident national security approach than what they have for those eight years. >> bret: which is the more imminent threat? iran, russia, china? >> those are hard questions to answer and when i think about the challenges that america is presented over the next five or ten years, the chinese communist party is the central threat. they are here. they are influencin

and the baseless claims that have not been proven, the trump administration has lost legal case afteral case in state after state after state. and so this is going to be a challenging time because donald trump doesn't have many stages of grief. he just has one right now, which is denial. and i think that that is going to mean that this is going to be a very rocky days and weeks ahead. but amidst it all, you're seeing something really incredible, which is almost a hopeful sign for the resurrection of grace in the white house. you saw joe biden today not take shots at the outrageous statements by people like secretary pompeo. he didn't even attack donald trump. he showed grace and honor and showed us what our expectations can be for a president that is not going to get into the gutter. you know, you cannot wrestle with a pig without yourself getting muddy. he's going to try to take all of us, democrats, republicans and independen independen independents to a higher level by demonstrating elements of grace, not falling into argument, accusation and reaction. >> let's explore that for a s

trump administration?think there will be a difference? >> no, i'm not hoping for much. let me tell you why. in 2009 when israeli took over our home the first time they did so under the obama administration with biden as vp. the second reason i'm skeptical of a biden administration, not because we have a problem with biden per se, but biden, obama and trump are just an acceleration of an out standing american support for israel that has never been questioned. >> let me ask you about the international community's role in this. another headline today was the u.s. secretary of state saying that bds to try to end the occupation in the west bank is anti-semitic. what do you think the international community needs to do to bring about change for the palestinian people affected by these policies? >> i think international community is important. bds has a lot of potential. it's important to point out that i want to speak to the american people, i want to speak to the american tax payer. do you want to pay $3.8 mill

, trump administration reversed a longstanding u.s. foreign policy by recognizing israel serenity over the occupied golan heights. and that was not the only stopover earlier on. he went, as you saw in the report, to the settlement sagar, to visit the binary, which had released even a wind last name with named after pump a 0. and there he made another surprising announcement off a new u.s. policy that allows basically products from settlement in the occupied west bank to be lay those made in israel. and that again is a very controversial move. and it's also in line that trump administration last year said they're no longer seeing settlements as illegal the per se. now of course for palestinians, this was a very provocative visit, but they also have the sense, you know, this is the end of the trump administration, which even leaves to question what impact this all has announcing. also, this new u.s. policy and budget will set a president and his prayer into lines. what is permissible in international law, or we knew so much of this polic

>> there will smooth transition to a second trump administration. we are ready. amy: secretary of state mike pompeo is backing president trump's refusal to concede the election. is this how the coup begins or is this just the trump administration delaying the inevitable? we will speak to the slate's dahlia lithwick about trump's attempts to overturn the election and the supreme court oral arguments on the affordable care act. the conservative court appears poised to uphold it. >> agree with you on this very straightforward case for separability under our precedents, meaning we would has the mandate and leave the rest of the act in place. amy: but first, as joe biden's lead in the popular vote surpasses 5 million, juan gonzalez analyzes the explosive growth of the latinx boat and unity's overwhelming support for biden. plus, we look at the election results in puerto rico. all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'm amy goodman. president trump continues to contest the results of last week's election after co

the trump administration has called for its allies to boost defense spending. and its negotiators had been widely expected to ask japan to pay more in base costs. but it's unclear if this month's election results could prompt a policy shift. foreign and defense officials from the two countries met in washington on monday and tuesday following prior consultations in october. japan's chief cabinet secretary said the two countries hope to come up with a mutually beneficial conclusion. >> translator: both nations reaffirm that japanese financial support for u.s. troops has played an important role in ensuring smooth and effective operations which are central to the japan-u.s. alliance. >> japan aims to maiain its financial burden at the current level for at least the next fiscal year considering the u.s. presidential transition period. it hopes to conclude the negotiations by the end of december with the agreement set to expire in march. >>> the trump administration has officially announced a plan to sell more than $23 billion in advance defense systems to the unit

not with anybody working in the trump administration. my quarrel is with trump. robert: would you encourage krebs to speak out like you have? personalis a very decision. i can understand why certain have not spoken out, i would not mind company. this is very difficult. you have a lot of people who went into the administration because they wanted to serve the country and thought they could make a contribution. they ran into the first president who i think in our history has not appreciated the weight of his responsibilities and the gravity of the job. left under varying circumstances for different reason. some of these people, i've had my own disagreements with, but i've never doubted their patriotism and devotion to the constitution. i cannot speak to what is on their mind to what they are spoken are not written about -- ultimately marble come out. everybody has a lot of factors to weigh and each will judge what is best for them. robert: each judges what is best for them, are you disappointed by her longtime friend majority leader mitch mcconnell for he is handle

between the ceos and the administration will be happening now when he think of the things the trump administration is going to do or excuse me, biden administration plans to do during its first few days in office rolling back a lot of the trump administration exec to borders on immigration and these types of things will play really well and in some ways some of the biggest fiery issues that you see on the front page of the papers every day will be read or collaboration between industry in this administration but the continued scrutiny perhaps increased scrutiny on antitrust privacy and harmful content on social media. >> kyle daily. >> yeah, i think they both nailed it. quantifying it sure, let's say a seven but john mentioned steadiness and that's exactly it. on the big toppling stuff we will see a similar orientation and it will be still one antitrust lawsuit and we are waiting at this point any day now potentially next week for the ftc to possibly deliver one against facebook and to see if not cases the continued scrutiny and continued scrutiny of do we need to review section 230 but it's a mat

nerdier talking points we were used to talking about more in the tech policy world prior to the trump administration. i think a lot of the high-profile showdowns we have seen between the ceos and the administration won't be happening now. thinking of things the biden administration plans to do during its first few days in office, rolling back a lot of the trump administration's executive orders on immigration, these type of things are going to play well in silicon valley. the big issues you see on the front page of the papers, there will be greater collaboration between the industry and this administration. what continued scrutiny, perhaps increased scrutiny on antitrust, privacy, and harmful content on social media. kyle: cat and john both nailed it. quantifying it, sure, let's say a seven. john mentioned steadiness. that is exactly it. on some of the big topline stuff, we will see a similar orientation. there is going to be still at least one major antitrust lawsuit. we are waiting at this point, any day now, potentially next week, for the ftc to possibly deliver one against facebook. we are going

he's been meeting with health care workers and warning that the trump administration's refusal to cooperatem could put the nation's covid response behind by weeks or even months. but president trump isn't budging at all. he remains bunkered in the white house, attacking the election and democracy, spewing false claims about the vote and firing a top official who disputed his baseless allegations of fraud. let's go right to our senior washington correspondent jeff zeleny. jeff, the united states sadly has just passed a quarter of a million covid-19 deaths since january as the president-elect is preparing for his administration. >> wolf, these are grim and staggering numbers. a quarter of a million people. that is what is driving the urgency of president-elect joe biden to try and get his armed around this situation. it's also driving the frustration between the biden team and the trump team, which is still not recognizing the fact that he indeed won the election. but wolf, we are learning new information tonight. my colleague evan perez and i are learning that there are a growing number of p

what the trump administration is what mr. is repeating clinton did for the george w. bush administration which is to provide that transition team with all the intelligence information that vice president goer was already receiving as vice president. host: the new york times writing about the lack of concession complicating security handoff. let's hear from iris in south michigan. talking about the presidential transition, iris on the independent line. caller: good morning. that there is not too much security in this whole transition stuff. changed overat are have to learn everything from scratch. it's like starting a new business every four years. it's like always playing catch-up and it does not have a smooth flow. i never knew this occurred, i thought that you get a job in the white house and it is pretty good. it gives you longevity. it doesn't seem to be that way. you have to change people -- there doesn't seem to be any job security in all this. i never knew this occurred. i thought a new president gets to select their own people and nobody else has acknowledged i

how much of a change are we going to see from the trump administration to the incoming biden administrationhen it comes to tech policy and communication? ven.: i would say a solid se it will be a lot of different tactics used, but similar objectives. you will see a different tone when it comes to things like perceived anti-conservative bias on the platforms. when it comes to issues like the size of the companies, concern of how companies are moderated, there is a lot of consensus. there is consensus of wanting to get more money out for broadband and ensure there is enough spectrum for 5g, that we have an alternative to china's huawei. i think when it comes to being ahead on these issues, from ai to 5g to keeping tech leadership in different ways, there will be the same push. tactics will look different. ultimately a lot of these issues have been bipartisan, they have just been a lot more fiery under the last year or two. they have pretty powerful sticking points. cat: i would give it an eight. similarly there is this general consensus on what the top issues are. i think we will go from a lo

when it comes to iran, what the trump administration is trying to do right now is to impose as many sanctions as they can before inauguration day. with the calculation that this will make it next to impossible for the biden administration to undo and as a result had make it impossible for the biden administration to revive the jcpoa, the iran nuclear deal. i don't think they're going to succeed, but i think it is quite telling that their intention is to sabotage is, which then tells us all of this talk that sanctions were just there in order to get the iranians to the table, not at all, they're doing it just to sabotage things. >> what if biden does move to tangibly improve relations with iran, heaven forbid, normalization, let's go right out there, what would be the likely fallout with nations that trump courted so assiduously, the arab emirates, israel and so on. >> i think it's important to understand, many of these states have their own rivalries with iran. they have their legitimate concerns about iran. but, u.s. national interests is a separate thing. the united states and iran have not

may have rejected the annexation, but for pompeo and the trump administration, this is is really land -- israeli land. >> you cannot stare out at what is across the border and deny the central thing that president trump recognized that pres ash previous presidents have refused to do, that this is a central part of israel. >> and another unprecedented move, he made a stop to a settlement in the west bank, angering some palestinians who say it legitimizes what they view as illegal israeli sediments. pompeo had no scheduled meetings with leaders. some have called the trip a victory lap of sorts, a chance for the administration to highlight what it sees as a devil medic success in the region including taking steps to legitize isrlis settlements. >> for the long time the state department took the wrong view of settlements, it did not recognize the history of this special place and instead today, the united states department of state stands strongly in the recognition of settlements that can be done in a way that are lawful and appropriate and proper. >> a stance the puts the u.s. at odds w

thank you both. >>> and up next, former trump administration official jaron smith will tell us what itike to be a rare high-ranking black official in the trump white house and what he thinks about trump's baseless election fraud allegations. stay with us. darrell's family uses gain flings now so their laundry smells more amazing than ever. isn't that the dog's towel? hey, me towel su towel. more gain scent plus oxi boost and febreze in every gain fling. dove moisture renew blendshing is different. these beads represent dove moisturizers and work with your skin to produce new moisturizers. unlike others, that don't. proven lasting care for the skin you live in. intronew advil dual action. the world of pain relief: advil targets pain at the source. acetaminophen blocks pain signals. new advil dual action with acetaminophen. ♪ wel♪ before i shopgonna anywhere else online. ♪ ♪ get so much cash back it will be like ♪ ♪ whoa whoa whoa whoa-ah... i shop on rakuten. ♪ ♪ rakuten ♪ all the perfect gifts right from my phone. ♪ ♪ rakuten ♪ am i the smartest shopper ever known? ♪ ♪ rakuten! -[narra

national security experts today despite being blocked from formal classified briefings from the trump administration as president trump stews over at the white house sowing chaos. multiple states have improved new restrictions as the virus surges across the country. but there is some additional promise on the vaccine front. pfizer has just announced its vaccine has reached a safety milestone and is preparing to file for an emergency use authorization from the fda. let's start off with kaitlan collins. the pentagon announced the troop draw down as the president continued to completely stay out of sight again. >> reporter: he's staying out of site b sight but he's not staying quiet. this two-month period is the number of days the president will be in office but he's making it clear and announced that troops are going to be withdrawn out of iraq and afghanistan. those decisions are coming as the president is staying behind closed doors. he's making clear the next few months he's basically going to get everything he didn't get done in his first few years in office on his way as he's on his way out. with

tonight biden leaving open the possibility he may take legal action against the trump administration although leaning against it. >> my judgment is that it is -- we'll get further along by actually working with our republican colleagues now it's an open question. it could change. >> reporter: you haven't ruled it out you haven't ruled out legal action against the trump administration, against the gsa? >> we haven't ruled it out. >> reporter: nbc news learning from four people familiar with the discussions whil biden is growing impatient his team is worried if a court ruled against them the move could backfire. it comes as both biden and the trump administration hosting dueling pres conferences on the pandemic, includin the first white house task force briefing since july dr. fauci touting progress on vaccines. >> so we need to put to rest any concept that this was rushed in an inappropriate way. this is really solid. >> reporter: vice present idnce delivering this message from the president. >> our task force, this administration and our president does not support another national lo

what is the trump administration during freedom will repeat this. the comments of the majority leader made but one in particular, his refusal the gsa to give this ascertainment to say, congress is coming together and transition we can start spending some of the biden team inc. who would harm if they did that for it if they wanted to fight the court battles they can still do that . would harm along the biden transition team this most challenging times to start working on these significant issues. it would harm nobody that is coming everybody that they are just giving in to the whims of just a short president of the disappointed. i'm disappointed in my republican colleagues. this is hurting our national security. when you see the president ignoring the advice of everyone in the pentagon and a setting that we gotta do it to withdrawal for, five days before early. we've always said that withdrawals should be conditional space. and not arbitrary. but this is worse than arbitrary date, is purely political based. that is leading republican colleagues to go

harris already has the security clearance that she needs to be part of the briefings, but the trump administrationically the jane real services administration, has yet to sign off on that. also they're putting together a covid relief plan, a vaccine distribution plan. they're trying to figure out how to get these vaccines out to millions of people by next spring, and biden is saying it would be easier if the trump administration cooperates. >> what do you see as the biggest threat to your transition right now given president trump's unprecedent attempt to disrupt and delay a smooth transition of power >> more people may die if we don't coordinate, if we have to wait until january 20th to actually become operational. that's a shame, but maybe that's the only way to get it done. >>. >> reporter: the president also considering withdrawing troops from afghanistan and other countries before he leaves office he's getting some pushback on that even from some of his closest allies on capitol hill like senate majority leader mitch mcconnell who said terrorists would like nothing more than to have u.s. troo

to hollow out government agencies. >> one of the big things the trump administration has been all aboutwhat steve bannon referred to as the deconstruction of the administrative state. but that means is trying to destroy as much of the federal bureaucracy as possible. they been quite successful at that in particular pockets. the state department has been talking about that a lot. the environmental protection agency and many agencies have seen the departure of many civil servants. a big part of what the biden administration will have to spend the first term in office is rebuilding all of the administrative infrastructure. and they need to figure out what has been destroyed. all of this has happened behind closed doors. anchor: this is a question i put to our correspondent, but do you think we are likely to see more establishment republicans coming out saying, ok, it's time donald trump concedes? or do you think trumps apparent when -- win will allow them to take their foot off the gas? >> i think the elected republicans are a bunch of penguins on the ice flow. they don't want to be near t

. >> there will be a smooth transition to a second trump administration. >> the new push from the trump administration to move ahead with plans for the next year despite losing the election. plus, a legal setback for the trump campaign, and this morning, the purge at the pentagon. the top officials on their way out. >>> doorbell dangers. the sweeping recall of a popular security camera due to a fire hazard. >>> plus, britney's battle. ♪ toxic >> the new court ruling in the pop star's fight to break free from her father. >>> hornets hatching. the new discovery inside a nest of murder hornets. why experts are worried more queens on the loose. >>> and good grief, the decorating disappointment that has one city facing a charlie brown christmas. >>> good wednesday morning, everyone, on this veterans day. i'm kenneth moton. >> i'm erielle reshef. mona is off today. >>> we're following developments in two major stories this morning. the coronavirus pandemic and the growing uncertainty in washington. >> we learned overnight that nearly 62,000 people are in the hospital with covid-19 right now.

amy: can you talk about the trump administration refusing to communicate with the incoming biden administrationhat exactly this means? that emily murphy, who day-to-day is deciding what to do. yes, she must take orders from the trump administration but every individual can make your own decision about what they want to do if it involves, for example, saving lives. where she would do the sign off on an ascertainment that means that the biden administration can start to plan like a relay race where you don't stop and then take a baton and run, you're running alongside the runner behind you and you take the baton from them. we are at a point right now where biden is saying this could set back, for example, the distribution of the vaccine not only weeks, but by months. that ijust one part of this. talk about the significance of this as president trump hides away in the white house. >> it is just another of a long trumpf decisions that the administration has made that has severely hampered the u.s.'s ability to control this very controllable, very preventable prices. none of this should be played ou

biden administration will be able to do with all of these hard line policies it appears the trump administrationen a lot of guessing that president-elect biden would be able to lift some of those policies if he so wanted to, but the biden administration is expected to have a tough stance of its own and might end up using some of those hardline policies as leverage on the chinese. >> very interesting and coinciding a better economic story out of china only country g10 set to see growth in 2020 >>> the pandemic not slowing down u.s. consumer spending ahead of today's cyber monday. according to adobe analytics consumer spending $9 billion online that's a 22% increase over the same day last year and the second largest one-line spending day in u.s. history behind cyber monday 2019 let's see if we can top that today. bertha coombs with a preview of cyber monday good morning, bertha. >> good morning, seema one of the things you have to watch for is memberships video services get us to subscribe with must-see content. retailers the holidays are like a block buster membership event. it's a game amazon ha

the trump administration agreed to provide pfizer with $1.95 billion to manufacture and distribute theirovid vaccine, allowing this vaccine to be provided free for the american people. while democrats were pursuing a highly divisive and entirely baseless impeachment endeavo,r as far back as january 13, this president, the trump administration and the nonstudent -- national institute of health were partnering with moderna to work on this vaccine. this administration has remain engaged on the development and distribution of a safe and effective vaccine throughout the year. it began in january and continued thereafter. on may 15, operation warp speed was launched. out some temer 16th, we released -- september 16, we tw releasedo documents that were the strategic distribution overview and interim playbook for state, tribal, territorial and local health programs and partners. on september 23, we provided $200 million to jurisdictions to support plans for eventual distribution. on october 14, we provided $31 million for vaccine related consumable products. on october 16, we made agreements wit

so has the trump administration. it was a half-dozen years after his westminster address. president trump -- president reagan returned to england and executed division he outlined in 1982. he said his foreign-policy was one of strength and candor. both principles guided president trump's policy too. take a look at the things we have done so far. in the middle east, america's strength is replaced. we killed baghdadi and soleimani -- restored the effort against the islamic iran.ic of american diplomatic strength conveyed our relationships with our gulf partners, the closest they have ever been. recognizing the golan heights is part of israel. to the chagrin of some in town, he delivered peace through the abraham accords. but we are not finished yet. strength are of also the foundation for america's policy for the chinese communist party. i have spoken about this at great length and followed president reagan in how we think about this challenge. steered ars plus, we course for action. we changed. we ignored all the contrary evidence that showed the regime in beijing is authori

>> there will be a smooth transition to a second trump administration. all right. we're ready. >> and so far, there is no evidence of the any of the assertions made by the president or secretary of state pompeo. secretary of state pompeo. >> wow, the president-elect moves forward with his transition, despite the trump administration's road blockbloc. no recognition of the transition, and so far no cooperation between the biden team and the trump people. the three questions, how long will republicans allow the president to keep this up? how vulnerable is the u.s. right now? and how does this look to the rest of the world? it's definitely "way too early" for this. good morning. and welcome to "way too early," the show that can definitely feel ken dilanian's pain. i'm kasie hunt, on this wednesday, november 11th, veterans day. we'll start with the news, we'll start with president trump's continued refusal to concede the election. and some coming out that joe biden may not have won after all. he did, spoiler. >> until the electoral college votes, anyone who is running f