>> whit johnson starting us off from new york. whit, thank you. you heard that urgent plea from the cdc to stay home, not to travel this thanksgiving. authorities are now warning those negative tests are not a pass to do what you would like. they're urging caution with all these test results. here's our chief national affairs correspondent tom llamas in boston tonight. >> reporter: tonight as families debate how to spend thanksgiving, millions are rushing to get tested. and now the cdc with that warning strongly urging americans not to travel for the holiday and only celebrate with people in their own households. the guidance creating a particular challenge for families who want to see their kids away at college. >> i think i'll get a test before i leave just so i don't put my family in danger. >> reporter: but experts caution testing could provide a false sense of security. >> a single negative test is not a pass to say i am fine, i can now go do whatever i want. you could still be infected and incubating. you can't test your way into thanksgivin

>> all right, whit johnson. whit, thank you so much. and i should note that what we showed there during whit's report are one of these live cameras that have been set up at some of these counting sites, just to show how transparent election authorities want these to be as we continue on this process. i've been reporting here since the top on lawsuits from the trump campaign, we know two of them have already been dismissed, one in michigan, one in georgia. so, let's bring in our chief legal analyst tonight, dan abrams, for more on this. first of all, dan, i know in talking with you off-air that you weren't surprised that those cases were tossed. why not? >> well, first of all, the president mentioned illegal votes today. you would think that the place he would present that evidence would be in a courtroom. and to answer your question, the reason he's losing is because thus far, they haven't been able to back up speculation and possibilities. particularly when you're talking about some of the larger allegations, voter fraud, irregularitie

mona and kenneth. >> whit johnson, thank you. the developments are coming in by the hour. >>> we spoke overnight to former virginia congresswoman barbara comstock and amanda renteria, former political director for the clinton campaign to get their perspectives. i want to start with you, barbara. the president had a stunning news conference earlier this afternoon in which the president claims that he wins only if legal votes are counted without any evidence of fraud. he also said -- made allegations of illegal voting in neveda. i want to get your reaction on the president's claims. >> it was reprehensible and it not only was graceless, you know, sore loser or anticipating being a loser, it is dangerous to our election integrity, and i'm part of a group called the national council on election integrity, and i'd like to just read a little bit of their statement that they put out tonight in response to it. it's, quote, the president spent 15 minutes this evening using the podium of the white house to make false claims that undermine

mona. >> kenneth. >> all right, whit johnson there in arizona. thank you. >>> while results continue to trickle in this morning there's a lot still up in the air. >> but one thing we know for sure, enthusiasm at the polls has never been higher than it was on election day 2020. here's abc's will ganss. ♪ >> reporter: a dance party at 8:04:00 a.m. on election day. voters fired up bright and early in hyde park, massachusetts. similar in philadelphia, a nonpartisan group called joy to the polls brought just that. ♪ their goal to make voting a celebration. across the country voters sharing pics of their prized i voted stickers. in l.a. they come with lakers and kings logo. in georgia, a peach. in michigan females front and center following the 100th anniversary. the 19th amendment. stickers only a smart part of election day outfits. the stars, the stripes and the bunny costumes? this first-time voter not throwing away his shot to dress as alexander hamilton from pacific to atlantic voters under a red, white and blue empire state building. >> we need t

so, let's get to whit johnson. he's live in phoenix tonight, and whit, what should we be watching as we head into the evening tonight. >> reporter: david, joe biden is still trying to hold onto that lead here in arizona, but as you mentioned, there are still about 600,000 outstanding ballots. most of them from right here in maricopa county. and these are absentee ballots that people actually dropped off in person at the polls either on election day or over the weekend prior. we do expect to start getting results from those ballots later on tonight. in the meantime, in nevada, where 86% of the vote is reporting, joe biden is holding onto just the narrowest of leads, we're talking just about 7,600 votes separating him from donald trump. but there are still mail-in ballots left to be counted, mostly from areas around las vegas and reno. david? >> all right, whit johnson with us tonight. again, that image being repeated across the nation in so many of these battlegrounds. thank you, whit. >>> when we come back here toni

let's get to whit johnson. he's live in phoenix tonight. what should we be watching as we head into the evening tonight? >> reporter: well, david, biden is still holding onto that lead here in arizona, but as you mentioned, there is still about 600,000 outstanding ballots, most of them from right here in maricopa county, and we're talking about absentee ballots that people actually dropped off in person at the polls on election day or over the weekend. we do expect to start getting some of the results from those ballots later on tonight. and you mentioned nevada, where 86% of the vote is now reporting. joe biden holding the narrowest of leads there, just about 7,600 votes separating him from donald trump, but we do expect to get more mail-in ballot results, mostly from areas around hlas vegas and reno. david? >> whit johnson tonight, thank you. >>> when we come back here tonight, the battle for control of the senate. and the key senate race that made so many national headlines decided today. these are real people, not actors, who've got the

whit johnson is in phoenix. expecting more votes within the next hour. >> reporter: that's right, george. about 30 minutes from now we expect the latest dump of results from maricopa county. we've been getting these two times per day, in the morning and the evening. the big question is though, is will it be enough to tip the scales from one candidate to the other. it has been sort of this drip, drip, and joe biden's lead has been shrinking. right now he is still up about 36,000 points, but results are also trickling in from counties outside the area. we know maricopa county says they will continue to tabulate results into tomorrow, and then they will reassess. but you also have some other big counties out there in pima and pinell. they still have thousands of ballots left to go through there. a lot of questions. democrats feeling confident, but republicans say that they believe at the end of the day they're going to have the votes. i do want to talk about the senate race real quick because we projected mark kell

want to go to whit johnson. what are you hearing there? >> reporter: the biden campaign is feeling good about the early results and what they're seeing although this is what they expected early in the night. we had the huge voter turnout. 85% of the ballots cast early. democrats knew that they needed to take an early lead. but on the flipside, republicans were counting on today, the trump campaign told us that they had data that showed them they would outnumber biden supporters at the polls on election day by a ratio of 4-1. i can tell you by talking to voters, trump has strong support. david was talking about the independent support women spoke to three self-proclaimed independent voters who voted for obama previously but this time voted for a second time for president donald trump. and one of them actually split the ticket. you might be hearing quite a bit about that in arizona. he voted for donald trump but also for the democrat mark kelly for the senate. two years ago in 2018, 150,000 voters in arizona voted for the republican ducey bu

whit johnson is in phoenix with more on that side of the story, good morning, whit. >> reporter: robin, good morning to you. democrats are feeling very confident here where as you mentioned in arizona, biden is still holding on to that slight lead. now, i can tell you that the republicans on the other hand are trying to make sure that every vote is counted here because it could still be close. we knew that biden was going to do well in those early votes that came in and that donald trump was going to do well in the votes on election day. so the republicans are urging caution to make sure every vote is counted but if biden were to win it would be the first time a democrat could turn this traditionally red state blue in a presidential election since 1996 but as i mentioned there are still votes to be counted specifically right here in maricopa county and they could total several hundred thousands, absentee ballots that people brought to the polls on election day or in the couple days leading up to election day. i also want to make sure we mention senate race as well to fill the seat of t

abc's whit johnson leading us off in new york. >> reporter: tonight, the cdc is recommending against travel this thanksgiving as it now forecasts another 46,000 americans could die by december 12th. a staggering potential toll of 300,000 people. a vaccine can't come soon enough. the white house coronavirus task force, briefing for the first time since july. dr. anthony fauci touting the effectiveness of the pfizer and moderna vaccines and reassuring americans they will be safe. >> we need to put to rest any concept that this was rushed in an inappropriate way. this is really solid. >> reporter: the general in charge of distribution for operation warp speed promising the vaccines, if approved, will be on the move immediately. >> i can look you in the face and say to you, the eua comes, 24 hours later, vaccines will be distributed out to the american people and be ready for administration. >> reporter: hospitalizations are now climbing in all 50 states. nearly 80,000 patients, a new record. icus hit hard in south dakota, where new cases have surged by 400% in the last two months. still

whit johnson leads us off. >> reporter: tonight, from coast to coast, long lines for testing, looming holiday restrictions, and a mounting death toll. nearly 2,000 in 24 hours as the coronavirus spirals out of control. >> when you look at the number of infections that are going up, they're really breaking records in hospitalizations and numbers of infections per day. >> reporter: but today, the first vaccine nearing the finish line. pfizer and its german partner biontech officially applying for fda emergency use authorization. the government has already stockpiled 40 million doses from pfizer and moderna. if approved, the first round could be shipped out by mid-december. >> we developed a very extensive plan. we're going to get it down to the states. the states are going to tell us exactly where they want it to be. >> reporter: still, the immediate concern is thanksgiving. the cdc urging americans not to travel. every day, new crackdowns. in california, an overnight curfew goes into effect this weekend for most of the state after its worst day of the pandemic. over 13,000 new cases. n

let's get to whit johnson in phoenix. what are you seeing? >> reporter: joe biden saw his lead shrink a little bit today. he's up just about 39,000 votes but there are still 260,000 outstanding ballots. we do expect more results later today, but donald trump would need to earn about 60% of those votes to get the win, david. >> not undoable, but steep. second question, we were just talking about the senate, the control of the senate with steve osunsami, really a steep climb for democrats if they want to try to take over control based on the senate races in georgia. but there was news overnight in the senate race in arizona. >> reporter: that's right, david. arizona is sending a second democrat to the u.s. senate -- mark kelly, the astronaut, the husband of former congresswoman gabby giffords who was shot and nearly killed back in 2011. martha mcsally struggled to distance herself from the president late in the campaign stretch. during a debate she would not say three times whether she supported donald trump. mark kelly will fill the seat of th

whit johnson from phoenix tonight. >> reporter: tonight, in the battleground state of arizona, incumbent republican senator martha mcsally lagging in the polls against democrat mark kelly as she tries to hold onto the seat once held by the late john mccain. mcsally challenged by a booming latino population that tends to vote democratic and her ties to president trump. >> are you proud of your support for president trump? >> i'm proud to be fighting for arizona every single day. >> reporter: mcsally's not alone. maine republican susan collins struggling, as well, after infuriating many with her vote to confirm brett kavanaugh to the supreme court. and facing pressure, being the only republican to vote against the confirmation of amy coney barrett. here in arizona, they've been counting early ballots for two weeks and the secretary of state tells me they plan to release a chunk of those early vote numbers after the polls close. >> big night for the state of arizona and whit, we'll see you in just a moment. >>> when we come back here tonight, the other senate races to watch. they are close.

. >> whit johnson, the vote is just trickling in, that remaining vote. >> reporter: we're getting more clarity on the outstanding ballots that exist. we just talked to maricopa county officials again and we keep going back to them because as we mentioned maricopa county makes up at least 60% of the vote here in arizona. within the next ten minutes but talking to my producer, it still hasn't come up they were trying to do the final dump of results and this is the in-person votes from today. they were counting those throughout the night and thought they were going to finish that up so could get those results at any moment but there are still several hundred thousand outstanding ballots and they gave us some clarity on that. we talked about the near 250,000 absentee ballots that people dropped off in person. some of those were actually dropped off over the weekend. if you remember the early voting period stopped on october 30th, some people dropped off their ballots over the weekend and then you have a separate category of people who walked into the polling locations today and dropped off

abc's whit johnson has more from phoenix. >> reporter: this race gets tighter and tighter here in arizona. joe biden le donald trump leading joe biden by 46,000 votes. we are starting to see protesters outside the county reporter's office. some showed up with guns and some people tried to get inside saying they wanted to monitor the ballot counting that was taking place and they were eventually removed by authorities. the secretary of state has said they just want to make sure people are safe, and they don't want to interrupt the ballot counting process. along with the sheriff's department here, they actually put up fencing outside the recorder's office with a sign that says, free speech zone. we still have some time here before we know who won the state of arizona, but certainly getting closer by the day. mona and kenneth? >> thank you. >>> the developments are coming in by the hour. >> we spoke to barbara comstock and amanda renteria, former political director for the clinton campaign to get their perspectives. >> i want to start with you, barbara. the president had a stunning news conf

whit johnson is there. w drop of votes from maricopa county, major county in arizona. >> that's right, we're getting numbers and di secting them right now. marco pa county released another 73,000 ballots and donald trump has moved within one percentage point of joe biden. biden now up by 29,000 votes. he was at 36,000 votes. so now the number of outstanding ballots across the state drops bl below 200,000. we haven't been able to calculate this math yet, but coming in, donald trump needed to earn about 60% of the remaining votes in order to get the win. but right here, again, the margin continues to slim. and there are a couple of things to keep in mind here -- maricopa county tells us they're hoping to give their final round of results tomorrow morning, but there are some counties out there we're not going to hear from until next week. pinal county, which generally leans republican still has 30,000 votes out there and they're not planning to count them other the weekend. they won't start until monday or tues

whit johnson joins us from laguardia airport with the latest. e for emergency authorization of its vaccine. health officials were expecting this but the major concern remains, what happens between now and when people actually start getting their shots. so the cdc is out with unprecedented recommendations urging people to avoid thanksgiving travel altogether. avoid the airports, the roads and asking people not to gather with anybody outside your immediate households as cases continue to surge to record levels across the country. the white house coronavirus task force held a press briefing for the first time since july. dr. anthony fauci promising help is on the way trying to reassure americans that the top vaccine candidates, pfizer and moderna, are safe and effective and could be approved for emergency use by late december. now, the general in charge of distributing that vaccine says that the infrastructure is already in place, that they will be able to deliver it to the entire united states within 24 hours of authorization. cecelia? >> okay, whi

whit johnson is in phoenix and has the latest on the count. good morning, whit. >> reporter: robin, good morning to you. we're live here in the wrest, where the race in arizona has just gotten tighter. new results from overnight showing joe biden leading donald trump just over 68,000. all united states are on maricopa county and those 275,000 outstanding ballots, most of those absentee ballots that voters dropped off at the on election day. democrats are increasingly confident that joe biden will be able to turn this red state blue. protesters gathering outside the county recorder, some of them armed, some tried to get inside to monitor the vote count, before they were turned away by authorities. we do expect more results later tonight. michael. thank you so much. >>> next we go to nevada which was quiet on wednesday and now joe biden with a slight lead there this morning. our chief national correspondent matt gutman is in las vegas with more. good morning, matt. >> reporter: hey, good morning, michael. it's quiet no more. the margin is paper t

whit johnson begins our coverage outside a school here in manhattan. good morning, whit. >> reporter: george, good morning to you. the new york city school closure is expected to last at least through the thanksgiving holiday. many parents though are fighting back, arguing it doesn't make sense to keep the kids at home while places like bars and gyms can remain open, but the governor warns if the numbers keep going in the wrong direction, those could be next to shut down. this morning, a major setback for new york city. the largest school district in the country shutting down in-person learning again. >> no one is happy about this decision. we all, in fact, are feeling very sad about this decision. >> reporter: the big apple hitting its self-imposed threshold of a 3% positivity rate on a seven-day average and the school closures impacting 300,000 students, infuriating some parents. >> restaurants continue to be open at full capacity. but we have 0.2% positivity in our schools. so the city may have hit 3%, but it turns out that our schools are the safest

whit johnson is there. we're expecting more votes from maricopa county? >> reporter: george, that's right. keep your eye on arizona. within the next 30 minutes we're expecting the next dump of results. because the race is so close here, it could give us a clear picture of what we're looking at. let me break down the numbers. joe biden still leading donald trump by about 47,000 votes. outstanding, roughly 260,000 ballots across the state. if you do some rough math, donald trump would have to get in the ballpark of 60%, maybe more of the remaining votes to be able to overtake joe biden. democrats this morning are telling us they're very confident. when you look throughout the state you have pima county, it leans democrat, there are a number of outstanding ballots there. the republicans talk about pinal county, where they have ballots outstanding. both sides are looking at the numbers closely. once again, it all comes down to maricopa, the most populated county in the state, shifting demographics. one of the fastest growing latino populations in the country.

. >> whit johnson is in new york city with a look at what's ahead. >> hey. good morning to you both. it's good to be with you this morning. coming up on "gma," the latest on the coronavirus crisis. cases and hospitalizations in the u.s. shattering records. states cracking down as cases rise. this morning former surgeon general and co-chair of president-elect biden's covid advisory board joins us live. and with temperatures dropping, how safe is outdoor dining? an exclusive look at how covid can travel from table to table. expert advice for reducing your risk. >>> and also ahead, that blockbuster "grey's anatomy" moment that has everyone talking. ellen pompeo joining us on "gma," she's telling us everything about that stunning reunion. plus tory johnson has amazing deals and steals for everyone on your holiday shopping list. it's all ahead on "gma." >> thank you. >> now i have to go home and watch "grey's anatomy." >> the drama. >> always. >>> helping kids cope with covid. doctors say it's really taking a toll on children's mental health. the warning signs th

let's go to whit johnson in norwalk, connecticut, where the line for testing is already . >> reporter's right, robin. good morning to you. connecticut, like many states across the country, dealing with both a spike in cases and the positivity rate and this is the result. take a look from above. our drone camera over this park here. a long line of people waiting to get a test, cars started lining up at this connect the gates ev. this morning, demand for covid testing soaring. the week before thanksgiving, massive lines across the country. from illinois to ohio, california, to this hospital outside boston, where hundreds of people waited up to five hours. >> i passed the two-hour mark an hour ago. >> reporter: over the past week the u.s. averaging more than 1.5 million covid tests a day, nearly double the number of daily tests three months ago and significantly higher than any other time during the pandemic. and with more people taking than ever before, some di 50% more people than it was in september, saying the laboratory industry as a whole is experiencing increasing constraints on s

whit, thank you. it's now time for "deals & steals." tory johnsonand we have this really cool code there on your screen that you can point your cell phone at and take advantage of these deals. tory, tell us what we got this morning. >> we got a whole bunch of great stuff, eva. let's start with a cool company called uncommon gourmet. they make exquisite balsamics and extra virgin olive oils. what i love about them, they are truly the finest of their kind and also come in really beautiful packaging so as more people are cooking at home these make awesome gift, especially today because the whole assortment is 50% off and starts at $9.50. >> then i've been smelling these cookies over here. this looks amazing. >> it's really fun. this is called the dirty cookie company and they make an edible shot glass for any age so it's a little teeny cookie shot glass lined with chocolate. you can then fill it with any beverage of your choice or mousse or whipped cream, whatever you want and make fun do it yourself kits so if you want to have some decorating fun, tha