Ahead, reassuring the country that President Trumps refusal to concede wont derail the transition. I just think its an embarrassment, quite frankly. Hurricane watch. Eta on the move. Hardhit florida bracing for whiplash as the storm intensifies expected to make landfall again. Ginger tracking the path this morning. Sting operation. An alarming discovery in the hunt for murder hornets. Experts reveal what they found in that first nest uncovered in the u. S. Hundreds still alive and as many as 200 queens. What it means for the race to stop their spread. Also this morning, new details about Lori Loughlins life behind bars as she prepares to enter the general population after quarantining. And is her tv comeback already in the works for when shes released . Cant touch this and a hop and a skip. Cant touch this to a hole in one. A legendary shot at the masters. Whats being called the greatest golf shot youll ever see. My, my, my yes, were marveling at that shot as well. I could have done that. You could not have done that. Sure, it just wouldnt be on purpose. Good point. Very good point there, george. What a way to say good morning, america. Good to be with you on this wednesday morning as we honor veterans and their families today. Thats right. Take a look at the Vietnam Veterans memorial on this veterans day. The name of Service Women and servicemen etched in that granite honoring their service and sacrifice for the country. We owe a debt of gratitude to all our nations veterans and this morning we begin with the latest on the coronavirus emergency. Right now, nearly 62,000 americans are hospitalized with the virus, nearly 131,000 new cases reported in a single day. Both of these are u. S. Records. Chief National Correspondent matt gutman is in texas this morning where they just surpassed 1 million cases. Good morning, matt. Reporter hey, good morning, michael. Thats an alarming statistic. Another one as many people hospitalized in el paso as in many states. Brought in 1400 Health Care Workers but that hasnt stemmed the rise. Its mirrored across the country with cases and hospitalizations doubling since september. This morning, the u. S. Notching a trio of Records Highest number of cases, hospitalizations and for the first time all 50 states reporting an increase in cases at the same time. Infectious disease experts warn we are headed towards 200,000 cases a day. I mean, we are watching cases increase substantially in this country, far beyond what most people thought could happen. Reporter texas topping a million cases, the most in the nation and ground zero, el paso, crushed under a record of patients in icu care and deaths. Patients being treated in dozens of tents across the city and the state has sent in ten morgue trucks and county judge ricardo tells us more could be needed soon. So in two weeks youre going to have ten more trucks filled and youll need more. If we have the same trajectory, if we dont stop the increase. Reporter among those lost, football coach Charles Browning who loved the game but his family more. We were all telling him just keep fighting. And even that morning i said, you have to pinkie promise me that you will not stop fighting and he put his finger up there and when we every time when we ended a phone call, it was i love you and then he would wave to me like this and i would throw him kisses. Reporter in wisconsin, governor evers addressing the state about the growing crisis. 5,000 wisconsinites could be lost to covid19 by january 1st if no further actions are taken to get this virus under control. That means another 2500 people who might not be with us on new years day. Reporter and in north dakota, with hospitals already at 100 , the governor there allowing asymptomatic Health Care Workers and nurses to continue working and attending to patients in hospital covid19 units. At the age of 17, alvia ramirez, the youngest person in the state to lose her life to the virus, her mother watched her swift decline. I didnt think my daughter at 17 would die from a virus almost like a cold that you catch as easily as a cold. Reporter healthcare workers have been saying this for month, cdc is out with new guidelines saying that wearing a mask not only helps people around you but protects the wearer. So if you ever needed another reason to wear a mask, there you have it. Robin. There you have it. Hey, matt, thank you. Joining us is dr. Todd vento, Infectious Disease expert from Intermountain Health care from salt lake city. Doctor, thank you for your work, and we thank Health Care Workers all across the country, and i understand that in your area right now that youre saying that youre at a breaking point. Can you tell us what youre seeing firsthand, doctor . Certainly. And so we are actually hovering around mid200s to 300 cases in august and then after september, when schools went back and changing behaviors, we actually saw a steady increase to the point were at an exponential phase and pushed 3,000 cases, over 2500 cases a day over a sevenday rolling average and as a result, we actually see subsequent increase in our numbers of hospitalizations to the point where some of our hospitals have actually been at and over capacity at times in the past few weeks and so its putting an immense strain and stress on our Health Care System and our Health Care Workers. What you said there about being at capacity. Many hospitals not just you there in utah are at near or at capacity. What exactly does that mean when it comes to patient care . Sure, well, you know, in the capacity, it talks about the bed numbers, it doesnt talk about what that strain puts on individuals who are doing extra shifts or working past their shifts and things like that, but what it also means is that we cant at some point we get to the point where were not delivering to the care to the same standard we could be and we had a low mortality rate, death rate in utah in particular and thats great, but as we get more cases we cant provide the same level of care, therefore, what you can expect and see in other cities early in the pandemic that the mortality rate will go higher. The patients will have more severe illnesses and thats what were very concerned about and rightfully so. And utahs governor had just issued a statewide mask mandate and other issues including a twoweek on social gatherings, increased testing. Do you believe that these measures will be enough to flatten the curve, dr. Vento . I certainly hope so and time will tell. Well be looking at that closely and working very closely with the Governors Office on the task force, et cetera. Going to the universal mask mandate is important for another reason. The cdc has now stated that it not just protects you as a patient, it protects others, so we have clear data that masks work and so our governor decided that well make a universal mask mandate instead of chasing the transmission rates and changing that. Based off that transmission rate. Thats important but i think seeing that our spread in our community has come from social gatherings in particular, you know, maybe extended family and et cetera, thats where were targeting this pause in social gatherings, extracurricular activities, hoping that will make a dent in that part of our epidemic thats causing the increase in surge, but i do believe that we may very well have to go to stricter measures if we dont see the decrease in cases very soon. Doctor, you said something very interesting. You say youre not only fighting the virus but also misinformation. Explain what you mean. Yeah, i actually had to look up some of this myself. I looked up the term misinformation and disinformation and i think some of that can be maybe unintentional and harmless. Harmless in the sense that individuals just dont know. Maybe we have to educate folks to say, see, individuals can get sick and they can have multiple complications, its not just about the death rate being low, which is great, however, many patients and families suffered and have longterm symptom, athletes with inflammation of their heart, being able to perform, and individuals with symptoms that havent gone away for three, four months, so i think the misinformation there is people thinking, oh, well, it has a low death rate so i can just get it and its quite the opposite. If youre in a family with one of these patients who had that or a family that had someone die thats just a travesty its a tragic situation and i think thats the information that should be out there, not that its only a few people get really sick. Thank you so much, dr. Vento, for your insight and we appreciate the work that others are doing across the country. Stay well. Thank you, sir. Thank you. And in our next half hour, well speak with a top fedex executive about the plans to get the potential vaccine out to the public. To washington now, where President Trump is purging the top ranks of the pentagon after firing defense secretary mark esper, replacing officials with white house loyalists for this lame duck period of his presidency. Chief Global Affairs anchor Martha Raddatz has the latest. Good morning, martha. Reporter good morning, george. This has many inside and outside the pentagon very concerned. These were all key people at the pentagon. Their names are not familiar to most. But among those now out, the head of policy, the head of intelligence and security and the chief of staff, and the men replacing them controversial to say the least, including retired Brigadier General anthony tata whose nomination this summer for the pentagon policy job, was withdrawn and once calling president obama a terrorist leader. Tata will now fill that policy position and filling the chief of staff job kash patel. Who played a leading role trying to discredit the investigation into the Trump Campaign and russia. So why make these changes now . There is worry that the president may be planning a military operation possibly against iran, or the use of activeduty military troops to quell any civil unrest, something secretary esper publicly opposed. In an interview with military times, when his firing appeared imminent, esper said, whoever they put into his job would be a real yes man adding and then god help us. Michael. Powerful words there, thank you so much. And now were going to turn to the latest on President Trumps refusal to concede defeat, delaying the transition to a Biden Administration as his Campaign Challenges the ballot counts with no evidence of widespread fraud as president elect joe biden forges ahead. Mary bruce tracking the latest for us. Reporter as President Trump is digging in, president elect joe biden is trying to project calm and lower the temperature amid all of this uncertainty, but there is growing concern that the president s refusal to reckon with reality here could have serious repercussions. This morning, as President Trump continues to defy the outcome of the election, unwilling to admit defeet, president elect joe biden is trying to reassure americans trump wont derail his transition. We dont see anything thats slowing us down, quite frankly. Reporter forging ahead even though the president still insists we will win. Trump has been holed up in the white house filing longshot legal challenges but he has yet to provide any evidence of widespread fraud. His administration refusing to take key steps to begin the transfer of power. The nations top diplomat secretary of state mike pompeo perpetuating the false narrative that trump could still win. Is the state department currently preparing to engage with the Biden Transition Team and at what point does it hamper a smooth transition or pose a risk to a Nation Security . There will be a smooth transition to a second Trump Administration. Reporter while on the hill tuesday Vice President mike pence also at odds with reality refusing to comment or come to terms with the election results. Mr. Vice president , is it time to concede . Is there really any evidence of fraud . Reporter we asked the president elect how hes planning to move forward with the transition. How will you move ahead if the president continues to refuse to concede . Were going to do exactly what wed be doing if he had conceded and said we won, which we have, and so theres nothing really changing. But not ruling out legal action . No, i dont see a need for legal action, quite frankly. So far, there is no evidence of any of the assertions made by the president or secretary of state pompeo. Reporter and pressed on his message to americans worried about trumps refusal to concede. I just think its an embarrassment, quite frankly. The only thing that how can i say this tactfully . I think it will not help the president s legacy. Reporter now privately people close to the president tell us that he knows this race is over and yet, he is still perpetuating this false narrative and dangerously undermining a peaceful transition of power, george. Mary, we should underscore that this has never happened before in American History and democracies depend on losers accepting the results of the election. Yet, the white house is Going Forward with these challenges even though they know they cant succeed. Reporter george, they know the math here. They know that there is no pathway to win through litigation and so its hard to say if they really have a Clear Strategy here except to try and sow doubt in the legitimacy of a biden presidency. The question then becomes really how far is the president willing to go to undermine our electoral system and does it do lasting damage beyond just a biden presidency. Which was exactly the russians goal in interfering in the election. Thanks very much. To the Supreme Court now where the justices considered a case yesterday about the fate of obamacare. The Trump Administration and republican governors argued it should be struck down but key justices signaled that was unlikely with their questions. Senior National Correspondent terry moran has the latest. Reporter this morning, theres new hope for the Affordable Care act and the millions of americans with preexisting conditions who could be unable to qualify or pay for Health Insurance without it. The Supreme Court weighing arguments in a challenge brought by the Trump Administration and 18 republicanled states. They say that the acas individual mandate, which initially required most americans to have Health Insurance or pay a fine, should be struck down as unconstitutional and the whole law thrown out with it but two conservatives on the bench, chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett kavanaugh, signaled that even if they do strike down that mandate, the rest of the law could still stand. It does seem fairly clear that the proper remedy would be to sever the mandate provision and leave the rest of the act in place. The provisions regarding preexisting conditions and the rest. Reporter chief Justice Roberts also noting sharply that republicans in congress had the chance to repeal the whole act but couldnt muster the votes. I think its hard for you to argue that congress intended the entire act to fall if the mandate were struck down when the same congress that lowered the penalty to zero did not even try to repeal the rest of the act. I think, frankly, that they wanted the court to do that, but thats not our job. Reporter a decision in this crucial case is expected sometime early next year and while the justices questions suggest they wont strike down the aca its worth remembering questions arent rulings, robin. Got to keep that in mind. Thank you. Were going to turn to a special honor for sully, the service dog known for his loyalty to former president george h. W. Bush. And in recognition of veterans day, he was honored with a bronze lifesize statue. It was unveiled at a ceremony at americas vet dogs campus on long island. You can see sully, special guest of honor. Right there. Sully is not happy. You could tell. We are following a lot of other headlines, including new details on the pfizer covid vaccine. How they plan to ship it to the public. A top fedex exec joins us live. And the latest on the murder hornet hunt. What experts found inside. First to ginger, the latest on Tropical Storm eta. Good morning, ginger. Good morning, robin. Tropical storm eta is 130 miles or so just westsouthwest of ft. Myers and we have ana maria island to yankee town, including tampa bay, on hurricane watch. Conditions will deteriorate through the day today and tomorrow should be landfall. But look at that. Even gainesville to ft. Myers are on Tropical Storm warning. It is the next two days. Its going to make for a mess in parts of western florida as it already did in southeast florida. A quick look at how the path works and also the flood watches for up to six inches of rain and then the squeeze on the front have flood watches all the way up through North Carolina and virginia. Lets get your local weather in 30 seconds and the rainy cities sponsored by state farm. Good morning. Im abc 7 news meteorologist mike nicco. On this veterans day, a little mist this morning. A few sprinkles this afternoon and during the overnight hours, our best chance of rain will be friday night. Today, the clouds and sprinkles will