Who want to know what happens now. Why . Because the breaking news this possible 900 billion implosion thanks to one video. The president blindsided democrats, republicans, shocked his own staff releasing a video overnight that signals maybe he could veto the huge Coronavirus Relief package that has passed both houses of congress. This would mean direct aid to millions of americans. It does mean its in real jeopardy this morning. The president wasnt part of these negotiations. He was on the sidelines unclear if he knew about the intricacies at all. He was too busy trying to overturn an election, but he swooped in overnight and insisted that Congress Give americans 2,000 stimulus checks instead of the 600 thats in the deal now. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is trying to capitalize on this and secure that extra money immediately. We do have some new reporting on where this might be headed, but generally speaking its just one big giant mess. Indeed it is. Also overnight President Trump issuing a wave of new pardons, among them three corrupt former republican members of congress. Two men who pleaded guilty as part of the Mueller Investigation and four military contractors convicted in connection to the massacre of iraqi civilians, those contractors from the firm blackwater which is run by erik prince the brother of education secretary betsy devos. Meantime the other big story this morning, the virus, as it has been for months and the president as he has for some time still largely ignoring it. More than 3,400 deaths were reported on tuesday, that is the second highest daily death toll since the start of the pandemic. Lets begin with the fate of the stimulus bill and what we know about what might happen. Joining us john harwood, cnn White House Correspondent and Seung Min KimWhite House Reporter for the washington post. John, lets start with what we know about what might happen next. Is the president going to sign this . We dont know, and the question is is this the president just fulminating you know, he has been raging in private, mostly in private, because he has been hiding out from reporters, raging against his defeat and, you know, jeremy diamond, our colleague, reported an adviser told him yesterday this is a child having a temper tantrum. Im reminded of a mother mary trump his niece had in her book, which is as a child donald trump tormented his brother by threatening to destroy his toy trucks and the mother took the trucks away and hid them in the attic so donald trump couldnt do that. How destructive does donald trump really want to be . Is he blowing off steam . Is he angry at his defeat and, therefore, trying to blow up these negotiations through a gesture or is he actually intending to shut down the government and stop this covid relief, maybe lashing out against americans who voted against him. We just dont know how serious he is about it. Part of it, too, seung min, which john has pointed out and rightly so, i will speak to the fact that its not clear that the president actually understands how this process works, that he understands the legislative process and also just based on that video i dont think he understands the difference in the funding that was passed. Whats in the covid bill, whats, you know, in the funding bill and the fact that we also now have not only aid to millions of americans hanging in the balance, but there could be a government shutdown. Exactly. And thats why prompt action and attempts to reign the president back in from this is going to be so crucial over the next several days because this isnt a regular kind of bill goes down to the white house, the president signs or maybe vetoes and then it goes back to congress. We just dont simply have that kind of time because the government shuts down again december 28th. So you have a very limited amount of time to get this resolved. And youre right, and that extraordinary video last night the president conflated what was in a government funding package that has to pass every year to keep the federal Government Operations running with provisions in the covid relief bill package, but remember, the packaging of those two very big separate bills was green lighted by everyone, including members of his own administration to make this easier to pass right before the holidays, this very big complicated package. And the president is inserting himself into the negotiations, you know, at a time when its frankly too late. So well see if the president does back off. I did think it was very significant that he did not explicitly say the word veto in his video message last night, but we will see how far it goes. And, again, we dont have a lot of time. Seung min, what you were you hearing from your sources on hilt overnight . You worked in both places. How did they including Senior Republicans react to this . I got a lot of befuddled texts, a lot of gifs, a lot of texts saying i give up, im going on vacation. Because were just were floored here. I mean, everyone was caught offguard, Even White House aides were caught offguard, White House Press staff, who had been telling us and other reporters all day that, yes, once the bill arrives at the white house that he will sign it. So this seemed to just completely come out of the blue. Whats going to be really interesting to watch over the next couple of days is what role treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin takes to kind of calm the president down and how he p persuades the president to sign the bill. He was the chief em saer for the administration to congress to both democratic and republican leaders. We will see if mnuchin plays any role in being persuasive here. Getting to that point, john, it will be interesting to see who is there in the president s orbit because there are fewer and fewer people around him as we know. He always sort of does what he wants, but its really moving to a different degree at this point. No question about it. I want to go back to one thing you were just talking about with seung min. Im not sure the president was confused about the bill. Remember, the president is a massive liar and i think it is very possible that he was deliberately plucking items out of this omnibus spending bill, the entire government funding bill, the kind he signs every year to keep the government going, to discredit the covid bill struck by Mitch Mcconnell. Remember, Mitch Mcconnell and john thune, the another member of the republican leadership, have both said in recent days that the effort to overturn or to block the certification of Electoral College votes on january 6th in the congress is going nowhere and encouraging people not to support it. That angered the president because he still harbors this delusion that he is going to be preserved in office, which is encouraged by a lot of these cookie advisers that you were alluding to, rudy giuliani, sidney powell, mike flynn, the overstock. Com ceo guy, all these people who are feeding him crazy ideas about how he could stay in power. So i think he may have been doing that on purpose to try to discredit what mcconnell did. I dont think its going to change the outcome on january 6th, but we could have a big mess and a lot of broken china between now and then in washington, and for all those millions of people out in the country who are desperately waiting for extended unemployment checks, 600 stimulus check, protection from evicti eviction, Small Businesses looking for paycheck protection, the president can do a lot of damage if he is determined to do so. Just to be clear, nobody knows whats going to happen next is an awful sentence for millions of americans who are depending on these extended Unemployment Benefits or were hoping for this stimulus check. We dont know whats going to happen, that hits them right in the gut. I want to move on to pardons in just a minute but before i do whats the latest on whether the president is going to go on a plane and go to maralago today . Its on a schedule hes supposed to leave this afternoon. My guess is because the president is interested in himself to the exclusion of pretty much Everything Else that he will decide to go. For one thing, its warmer down there and he has better chance of playing golf. On the other hand, if he really does want to swing his sledgehammer around and break as many things as possible before joe biden takes over, maybe he will stay here and do some of that, but my bet is by the end of the day hes gone. We have these pardons as well which weve been talking about, look, we knew more pardons were coming from the president , seung min, but it is what we saw in this wave of pardons last night which really you know, i said this earlier but i think its worth saying again, this is contrary to everything that the president bills himself as. These are not about draining the swamp, this shows that apparently its fine to be in the swamp. These are not about law and order, but these are about the president doing what he can at least in a couple of cases to discredit the Mueller Investigation. All of that served up on a platter last night, seung min. It was pretty swampy if you go down the list of pardons that the president issued last night. Youre right a lot of it there are a lot of provision here, but one shes really doing whatever he can in the final days to discredit and undo the work of the Mueller Investigation by pardoning last night two figures connected to that as part of the russia probe which know he has railed on as an illegitimate investigation and we know was a very legitimate investigation. And you see how he, you know, rewards his allies and, you know, people who are loyal to him even if they have been convicted of serious federal crimes. Two of the former members of the congress who were pardoned last night, Chris Collins and duncan hurter were early supporters of his president ial bid. We saw this going all the way back to his first pardon of his presidency when he pardoned the controversial Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio who was convicted of contempt in his efforts towards cracking down against illegal immigration. He was a supporter of the president. Thats a message the president is giving here, if you are loyal to me i will reward you with the powers of my presidency, which is a pretty swampy message to be conveying on his way out. Indeed. I think Chris Collins and Duncan Hunter literally were the very first two house members to endorse donald trump. John harwood, you know from your days in financial reports, the phrase return on investment, roi, thats a pretty big roi for those endorsements of two members of congress. There is roi on the russia investigation and silence as well. No question about it. There was never the slightest bit of sincerity or merit to the president saying im going to drain the swamp. The president s ethos from the beginning, his entire life really is im going to get mine and thats what he has tried to do as president. Whats interesting about these pardons is on the one hand hes occupying this fantasy world in which he won the election and hes somehow convinced himself thats true, lying to people and raising money from them and that sort of thing. On the other hand these pardons show somebody who understands hes leaving office in a few days and he is going to use the unchallenged power he has to protect himself. Yes, he is pardoning early allies, those corrupt members of congress, yes, hes pardoning the blackwater guards who worked for erik prince, the brother of his education secretary, but the real mission for the president is to try to discredit, unravel the Mueller Investigation which lets just remember the stakes here. Russia was Donald Trumps financial ben factor before he ran for president , he hired a putinaligned campaign manager, there was an fbi investigation, russia helped him get elected. As soon as he got into office he fired the fbi director. Then we had the Mueller Investigation. In all of the meantime this president has taken actions to benefit russia by weakening the western alliance, raising questions about nato and now his administration is ending with a massive russian hack of the u. S. Government and u. S. Business which the president in response when his own secretary of state slammed russia, he defended russia and suggested it was china. There is a long pattern of this president being subservient to vladimir putin, thats how he started his presidency and thats how hes ending it. John harwood, Seung Min Kim, Merry Christmas . Thanks for being with us this morning . Nice to see you at a bare minimum. Appreciate it. Researchers now think that new coronavirus variant which is spreading in the uk is already here in the u. S. Likely hundreds of people already infected. Were going to take a closer look at what we know and also what we dont know. Thats next. Researchers set studying you the new variant of covid19 believe those in u. S. Could already be infected by the strain. Good to see both of you this morning. Dr. Schaffner, in some ways i feel like you hear that its likely already here and that probably is not a big surprise, hundreds maybe already infected. I am no expert as we know, it would almost seem like it needs to be a bigger number based on where were at and that it was first reported discovered in september in the uk. How should we be digesting all of this this morning . I think we all ought to look at it with some care, erica. You know, perhaps it is more transmissible, there is some computer models that suggest that it is. It may be here already and being transmitted. I know our colleagues in the uk traced these strains more he is do you sayly than we do here in the united states, but the important thing to remember is masking still works and we can reduce the spread of this strain and any other strain if we wear our masks, if we do social distancing and if we avoid groups and if we avoid a lot of travel during the holiday season. If we do all those things we can join together to dampen the spread of this virus and all the other strains of covid also. Dr. Jha, what would the impact be if there is a strain here that is more contagious, more infectious, able to spread more quickly particularly as, if some are still concerned, although i understand the science south on this, that children might be more susceptible to this variant of the disease . Yeah, so, john, good morning. Thanks for having me on. You know, i think the issue here is weve got so much spread already happening in the country that adding more fuel to that fire is certainly not going to be helpful. I think at this point theres a lot we need to sort out as dr. Schaffner said. What we need right now is people to really try to hunker down for the next six, eight weeks or so until the vaccine started getting more widely deployed and we start making a difference. But im absolutely i think we need to track this strain and make sure that it isnt spreading more substantially in this country. Just to follow up on your point, dr. Jha, that people need to hunker down for the next six to eight weeks. Thats not what were seeing. Weve been talking about covid fatigue, but this is really when its getting bad. Were asking people to hunker down now, a couple days before christmas. What do you think the reality is that people are going to listen . Yeah, so its a challenging situation because people have been sort of battered with so much misinformation about this pandemic. Im very sympathetic to that and im also sympathetic to the fact that its been a long pandemic already and people feel tired and they want to see their families. That is not only understandable its completely normal. The key here is unfortunately because we are in probably the hardest time in the pandemic i think people have to redouble their efforts. We need to hear from our political leaders the importance about doing these things. Again, we are not talking about forever, we are really talk being a short period of time until we can get to the other side of this tunnel. Dr. Schaffner, we just got word a few minutes ago that the administration has struck a new deal with pfizer for an additional 100 million doses of their vaccine by july 31st. Is that enough . Your reaction to that news. Well, its terrific. We would like more vaccine from both manufacturers. The more vaccine we have, the more quickly we can protect more people and of course the vaccine is a fabulous addition, a fabulous addition, to everything we can do to try to bring this outbreak, this pandemic under control. So more vaccine, im really enthusiastic about. In terms of more vaccine, some reporting, dr. Jha, from our colleague Elizabeth Cohen this morning found in her discussions with people that this new variant may take a modest hit i think were the words she used. So maybe the vaccines would be 80 to 85 effective against this new variant versus what were seeing in pfizer, moderna rates as high as 95 . How much of a concern is that, that modest hit, and based on that how many more americans may need to be vaccinated . Yeah, i think the science here is not at all clear, meaning first of all, im still optimistic that the vaccines will continue to be just as effective for this new variant, though we dont know. And if there is a bit of a hit, 80 , 85 is still quite good. As weve heard from the biontech ceo, they could make modest changes to the vaccine to make it more effective yet. I think we have a lot of tools in front of us on the vaccine, i certainly am not worried that the vaccine as an important way to get out of this pandemic will somehow be dampened by this new variant. Dr. Schaffner, are we getting people vaccinated quickly enough . By that i mean its amazing that we have the vaccines at all now. I get that. But operation warp speed has been trying to develop a Distribution Plan for some time. There is the issue of how many vaccines are allocated, but allocation and actually in your arm are two different things. So are they getting into peoples arms at the rate that you were hoping . Well, john, at the present time, you know, were vaccinating Health Care Providers and also residents of Long Term Care facilities as the First Priority group. Thats going very well. Right here in my own Medical Center people are lining up just as soon as their number is called, rolling up their sleeves and getting vaccinated. So i think were modeling this for the general population. When we start vaccinating more and more people in the general population i hope that they say, gee, those medical people all got vaccinated, they must know something. If theyre getting vaccinated, i should, too. So i hope that we provide this kind of reassurance to the general population that these vaccines are very effective and safe. I dont want to, you know, end on a down note, dr. Jha, but i do think its important to remember the hundreds of thousands of lives that have been lost in this country. More around the world. 3,400 deaths reported on tuesday. We know that residents of Long Term Care facilities were recommended to be in that first group because of the high number of deaths of residents, right, and overall deaths. As we look at whats happening now, these rising death tolls, do we have a better sense of who is succumbing to the disease . Are these changing . Yeah, its a mix. So we do have a sense that weve done a little bit of a better job on protecting people in Long Term Care facilities, though theres still a lot of infections and deaths happening in those facilities. Were also seeing a lot of people who live in the community, were seeing younger people get sick and die. This is not somehow the disease shifting, this is just about the fact that we have so much infection across the country that even younger people who are less likely to die still are investigate infected in unprecedented numbers. So this is a tough moment and, again, i think we will get i know we will get through this, but we just have to really focus for the next six to eight weeks on doing those Public Health things so we can get through this safely. Dr. Jha, dr. Schaffner, thank you both for being with us this morning and thank you both so much for the work that youre doing. Really appreciate it. Happy holidays. You, too. So something fascinating has been going on on television over the last few days. The threat of a lawsuit has these right wing Media Outlets clarifying in quotation marks some of the lies, some of the baseless claims theyve been making about the election for weeks. We will tell you what theyre saying now and why next. Among my patients, i often see them have teeth sensitivity as well as gum issues. Does it worry me . Absolutely. Sensodyne sensitivity gum gives us the dual action effect that really takes care of both our teeth sensitivity as well as our gum issues. Theres no question its something that i would recommend. Theres no question its something youre choosing to get connected to the most to xfinity mobile, Reliable Network nationwide, now with 5g included. Discover how to save up to 400 a year with shared data starting at 15 a month, or get the lowest price for one line of unlimited. Come into your local xfinity store to make the most of your mobile experience. You can shop the latest phones, bring your own device, or trade in for extra savings. Stop in or book an appointment to shop safely with peace of mind at your local xfinity store. So new this morning an executive at dominion voting systems says he is suing the trump campaign, some of the president s lawyers and several conservative Media Outlets for spreading baseless claims about Election Fraud that he says forced him into hiding. Er eric kumer says i filed a lawsuit in colorado in an attempt to unwind as much as damage as possible done to me, my family, my life and my livelihood as a result of the numerous false public statements that i was somehow responsible for rigging the 2020 president ial election. We do not yet have a response from the defendants. The question now is what can we expect to see in court. Joining us now cnn legal analyst elie honing and Brian Stelter anchor of reliable sources. Elie, first to you, how viable is this lawsuit . John, this is a legitimate lawsuit. So the First Amendment provides very broad protections for media organizations. Thats a good thing. Thats an important thing. Thats an important feature of our democracy. But the First Amendment protections are not unlimited. Look, media organizations are allowed to be provocative, they are allowed to ask questions, they are allowed to be opinionated, they are even allowed to make mistakes, as long as those mistakes arent made while ignoring the obvious reality. If you look at the case here what you cannot do is make a false statement or something that you claim is a true statement but a false statement when it is obviously false, when you knew it was false or you obviously should have known its false. Here when we are talking about these statements of a rigged election, i mean, look at all the sources who have said thats not the case. The attorney general, the fbi, dhs, dozens of courts around the country have said this election was not rigged. So its going to be hard to defend those statements as being true or something that was even made in good faith. Theres also this threat a 20page letter that said a lawsuit could be coming from another country, smarthatic. Among what is written in that letter is that fox news has engaged in, quote, converted Disinformation Campaign against smartmatic saying it was founded by hugo chavez and that it conspired with others to defraud the American People and fix the election. The company said its software was only being used in l. A. County not in any of the swing counties or the swung states or counties that were in question. It seems like it was facts be damned for a lot of these news outlets and now, brian, were seeing the attempt, i guess, at a retraction. I just want to play that moment before we hear from you. News max has found no evidence that either dominion or smartmatic owns the other or has any Business Association with each other. We have no evidence that dominion uses Smartmatic Software or vice versa. No evidence has been offered that dominion or smartmatic used software or reprogrammed software that manipulated votes in the 2020 election. They say now there is no evidence but for weeks, brian, the story has been the exact opposite in terms of what was being said. I wont say reported. What was being said on these networks. I mean, whats the impact of that . Legal stuff aside. This reckless rhetoric is now coming back to haunt these right wing networks, fox news, news max, one america news. One america news is named in that new lawsuit by the dominion employee, oen has not responded so far. Smartmatic a Different Company also threatening to knew. Thats why fox news and news max aired these wild seemingly things that sounded like corrections over the weekend and yet these corrections only made sense if you had been watching the programming in november and early december when they were spreading reckless rhetoric about these voting machine companies. This is a rare example of accountability in right wing media where theres actually a potential consequence. As elie said, you know, there is a lot of freedom for Media Outlets to report and opine and speculate, but these court cases if we do see more than one court case these could be really important in terms of defining what are the lines are and if any line exists for right wing media. By the way, you know, these election denialism claims these networks will find other ways to claim the election is stolen and come up with other ways to claim fraud but in these specific cases these companies could have solid legal ground. There are corrections and retractions from news organizations but im not quite sure i have ever seen anything like this. This was going on tv and saying everything weve been saying or weeks and weeks and weeks, its wrong. Pay no attention john does it have any legal merit . It might be charitable for them to call this a clarification. What theyre clarifying is everything weve been telling you hundreds of times, forget about it. This is a retraction and then some. And i think i have a sense of what the defense is going to be here if these cases continue to be filed. I think what were going to see is sort of what i will call the echo chamber defense. They are all going to point in a circle at one another. Theyre going to say we heard it from sidney powell, we heard it from rudy and on and on and they are all going to point at each other. Its a selfperpetuating echo chamber. Will that hold up . When you weigh that against the actual evidence thats out there, i think its an uphill climb. It will be an interesting really a sort of Ground Breaking type of series of case that is we could see here that as brian said are really aimed at some level, some minimal level of accountability in the media. And from a media point of view, this coverage was profoundly unethical. You know, think about for weeks and weeks these networks were feeding viewers fantasies, fictions, not facts. Trying to feed viewers what they wanted to hear, not what they needed to hear. Its profoundly irresponsible. Thats why its going to be so interesting to see if this goes forward. Bright stelter and elie honing, thank you. Thank you. Troubling new unemployment numbers just in. We have those breaking details for you next. When dehydration gets real. Hey thats mine. Ill buy you a pony. Advanced hydration isnt just for kids. Pedialyte helps you hydrate during recovery. With the kids at home and less money coming in, thered be no way we could afford health insurance. My kids think im a superhero. But even superheroes need help sometimes. We found help at covered california. And not just us. 9 out of 10 people who enrolled got financial help. Covered california. This way to health insurance. Enroll now at coveredca. Com announcer this is cnn breaking news. Breaking news, 40 weeks in a row of staggering jobless numbers. Cnn business and politics correspondent christina joins us with these new numbers what do they say . Slightly better than expected but still continuing this troubling trend of a stalled recovery. 803,000 people filed for firsttime initial jobless claim benefits this week. Again, this really underscores the need for immediate relief to the American People without delay. Take a look at this chart. It is a troubling trend. And on this is the initial claims number, you will see that its really the recovery is really stalled out here. The next chart shows continuing claims, these are the people who have continued to stay on unemployment for more than one week. That number 5. 3 million, john. When you count all of the people on traditional unemployment and the special Pandemic Program you are talking about 20. 3 Million People. Going forward all economists, all of my sources looking to the january jobs report which is going to be grim and the real worry is that we will actually start losing jobs in that monthly report. Now, the bottom line here is that america is very sick and until people stop traveling and gathering in large numbers indoor indoors we cannot have a healthy economy with 200,000 plus new cases a day. And also this package, this relief package weve been talking that youve been talking about all morning is welcome news to the American People but more needs to be done. The benefits for unemployed workers in this package are half of what they were in the first relief package in the spring. So undoubtedly the Biden Administration is going to put a huge priority on getting money out to people right now. You will see on your screen there direct payments of 600 is on the table and the people with direct deposit who have their information with the irs on file will get that money first followed by paper checks and those prepaid debit cards, erica. Christina leshy with the latest. Threw. Christmas two days away and airlines are seeing a surge of passengers despite warnings from Public Health officials to stay at home. Pete muntean is live at Reagan National airport just outside washington. Pete, good morning. Reporter good morning, erica. Its possible we could see another big bump in travel numbers today and Health Experts are worried that to lead to a big surge of the virus. The tsa says more than a Million People passed through security at americas airports on friday, on saturday and then again on sunday. Nearly a million on monday. Were still waiting on numbers for tuesday. But its that threeday million passenger streak thats so interesting, something we have not seen before during the pandemic, not even around the thanksgiving holiday. It was during that holiday that led to another big surge of the virus and dr. Anthony fauci tells our wolf blitzer that this kind of travel is concerning. This type of travel is risky, particularly if people start congregating when they get to their destination in larger crowds, in indoor settings. Im afraid that if, in fact, we see this happen we will have a surge thats superimposed upon the difficult situation we are already in. So it could be a very difficult january coming up if these things happen. Reporter now, remember, a lot of these numbers are people leaving for the holiday, but there is a concern that they could come back all at once. November 29th is still what holds the pandemic air travel record, thats the sunday after thanksgiving when more than 1. 1 Million People flew. Erica . Pete muntean with the latest from Reagan National. Thank you. Help for struggling American Workers is now in doubt. Thats because President Trump doesnt like the deal. Reaction from a Senate Democrat next. Research shows people remember commercials with nostalgia. So to help you remember that Liberty Mutual customizes your Home Insurance, heres one thatll really take you back. Wow whatd you get, ryan . Its customized Home Insurance from Liberty Mutual what does it do bud . It customizes our Home Insurance so we only pay for what we need and what did you get, mike . I got a bike. Only pay for what you need. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Ttheir love keeps you centered. Tell them. With a gift from the center of me collection. Exclusively at kay. Breaking news. The 900 billion stimulus bill just passed by congress, both houses of congress, the fate is now in doubt after President Trump seemed to suggest overnight in this video that perhaps he would veto it. Joining us now is democratic senator amy klobuchar. Thank you so much for being with us this morning. That video, i think, surprised all of us last night, surprised white house staff frankly. So whats your reaction to the notion that the president might not be on board here . As you just reported, john, we have millions of people who are out of work and this bill would help them immediately. It is help with getting the vaccine all over america, including in small rural towns in my state, billions of dollars to help with that, the second biggest stimulus package we have ever passed out of congress. Whats outrageous to me is i want to see more direct payments and im glad the speaker of the house is bringing this up tomorrow, but President Trump had his own people in the room where it happens or on the zoom where it happens or on the telephone. They were negotiated. Secretary mnuchin. So then suddenly he says, no, i dont like this, i dont like that. Well, what we need to do is he needs to sign this bill and then of course we can do additional payment, but it was his own party that was blocking them. Where was he . Where was he hiding out . And the point of this is through all the bickering and all the gridlock the Democratic Party stands behind getting help to people and we have to get this done. You said last night right after that its a slap in the face to all americans or working people. Your quibble isnt with the 2,000 that he is now calling for after the fact. Not at all. Would you support extra money going to people . I would love to see extra money going to people and so would a lot of people on the democratic side. But the point is we can do that, but what this president is talking about as he sat in the room through his representatives while he hid out in the white house, he is talking about vetoing this entire bill when, in fact, unemployment lapses for so many people the day after christmas, rent is due and this bill contains significant people for help for people with their rent. Moms are trying to balance their toddlers on their knees and their laptops on their desk, first graders are having to learn the mute button. America needs help now. His own head of the Federal Reserve said the economy cannot bounce back and that it would be tragic if we didnt do something by the end of the year. Thats exactly what this bipartisan negotiation was about. But this president wants to get attention at the end of the year, pardoning people left and right, showing the corruption that weve seen from the beginning of this administration in what he did last night with all those pardons for people who were committing white collar crimes and Money Laundering and ripping people off. Thats whats going on right now in the white house. I think its a travesty and i think the American People and the people of georgia as this senate race comes up are going to see right through it. The pardons that you just mentioned included confessed liars in the russia probe, george pap dop laos, corrupt poll significances, Chris Collins, duncan and also murderers, convicted murderers, Blackwater Contractors convicted of killing iraqis in a massacre there. What do you see as the through line with these pardons . Well, 88 of them a study was done of his pardons are somehow related to Donald Trumps interests or to his own political interests. So when you look at them, even though they all seem different as you point out about murderers, about Money Laundering, about a congress using Campaign Funds to send his pet rabbit on a trip true fact when you look through all of them what ties them together is corruption. It is corruption. So when you think of the pardon power, that is supposed to be about forgiveness and mercy. Its like when president obama pardoned josephine, a woman i had gotten to know who basically was given a life sentence when she didnt sell drugs or use drugs because she was in the middle. President obama pardoned that woman and she now says her goal in life is to be the best grandma ever and make up for lost time. Africanamerican woman. Thats what were talking about with pardons. But instead what does he do . He uses this to help out his buddies and, by the way, hes literally burning down the house of justice as he walks out the door. All the work of law enforcement, of fbi, of prosecutors, career people who worked on these cases so hard to take care of white collar criminals. He is basically telling them no, demeaning their work and thats why we need a new president and were getting to go it by joe biden. January 6 is when the congress will count the Electoral College. The Electoral College counted, joe biden has won again. Now we know the president has been meeting with members of the house, Vice President pence was there also, they say theyre going to raise objections to the electoral count. What do you think will happen on january 6th and what do you anticipate seeing from your republican colleagues in the senate . Well, im going to be up on the stage and working on this because im the ranking highest ranking democrat on the rules committee. So basically senator blunt and i in the senate are in charge of this. So we will actually be reporting on what each state says, then youre going to see where this occurs in the house of representatives. If house members object, which they seem to object to each state, then if they are joined by a senator and theres all kinds of rumors about the new senator from alabama tommy tuberville, if he joins them then what you see is two hours of debate in each house, then a vote, then you come back again. We could literally go through the roll call of states and it could take over a day to get this done. Do i think thats going to happen, john, no, but its my job to make sure that we get through and make very clear that joe biden won this election, our republican colleagues in the senate including Mitch Mcconnell have now said that thats the truth. I dont foresee this as stalling out in the end whatever plots they make that day and its embarrassing that theyre doing this, last ditch effort, but we will stand tall for democracy and i have every reason to believe we will come through. But i literally cannot believe they are not allowing for the peaceful transition of power and instead trying these frivolous lawsuits which are getting shot down by republican appointed, trump appointed judges all over this country. Lightning round. I thought we just did. Okay. That wasnt the lightning that was the molasses round. Listen, i want to ask you merrick garland, doug jones, president elect joe bidens leading choices for attorney general. Who do you like . No, not going there because theyre both such incredible leaders. I love both of them. I just know that joe biden will make the right choice and they both have incredible virtues and will serve our government in whatever role they have. All right. As part of this stimulus bill youve been a big supporter of money going to local theaters, performance centers. Why is that so important to you . They were the first to close, they are going to be the last to open. We cannot let the music die in america. And these are places like small Country Music venues in texas, they are places like the blue stem amphitheater that you probably never heard of in mother head, minnesota, and what were done here senator cornyn and i the republican from texas built a coalition working with these incredible people like dana frank at first avenue in minneapolis and we were able to hold this coalition together to help our small theaters and small venues because you cant go stand in a mosh pit in the middle of a pandemic. And that is exactly why we did this bill. And you cant stand arm to arm with your neighbors in a theater. So small venues so important. Where prince got his start, where so many musicians got their start we banded this together to get this done from Country Music to hip hop. We want them to be there when this pandemic is over. Listen, i was reflecting i was just thinking about this as i was coming in today. What year you have had. I mean, what a year you personally for 2020. I mean, a year ago at this time you were trotting through iowa and new hampshire, you had the primaries and the pandemic hit, your husband got sick with coronavirus. You are a senator from minnesota, obviously the killing of george floyd happened in your state. Then you went through what we all went through with the election, the pandemic and Everything Else. As you look back now, its december 23rd here, how are you going to remember this year . Well, the first thing like all of us im just thank god that my husband made it through this, my dad made it through it at age 92, he got coronavirus, and then i think of the other families that didnt, that are going to have that empty chair during the christmas holidays. People who are working on the front line every single day. So i am just grateful for americans, for pulling through this. I am grateful for ordinary people that are doing extraordinary things every day and i think they need a government and a president that has their back. So like everyone else i feel great relief. I know friends of mine that arent in politics, have nothing to do with government tell me they are just looking forward to a time where they dont have to lay in bed at midnight trying to figure out how to run the country. Okay, if trump doesnt do this, can we do that. I think were going to have competency back and for me as being a senator, a u. S. Senator, thats important, but mostly what im going to do is count my blessings and thats what people of america that stood tall through one of the most difficult years in the countrys history. Were glad your husband and father are doing well. Senator klobuchar, thank you for being with us. Merry christmas to you up in the north pole in minneapolis. Thanks, john. Its not that cold. We welcome you up here anytime. Thanks so much, senator. Appreciate it. We were just talking about it. What is going to happen with this 900 billion relief plan that so Many Americans are depending on . Were trying to figure it out. We will give you the very latest information next. soft chimes [announcer] forget about vacuuming for up to a month. Shark iq robot deep cleans and empties itself into a base you empty as little as once a month. And unlike standard robots that bounce around it cleans row by row. If its not a shark, its just a robot. 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