House task force and dr. Atul gawande now advising the biden team. Plus, former National Security john bolton. And former Homeland Security jeh johnson on the lack of white house conversation. With all eyes on georgia the Senate Majority hanging in the balance. We talk to Democratic Senate candidate jon ossoff. Announcer from abc news its this week. Here now coanchor martha raddatz. Good morning and welcome to this week. 306 to 232. That is where the Electoral College stands with projections now in from all 50 states and d. C. Joe biden with the same number of electoral votes donald trump claimed victory with four years ago. At the time trump called it a landslide. As we come on the air this morning, after refusing to accept the results, the president seems closer to admitting he lost. Trump tweeting his opponent won because, quote, the election was rigged. He did use the word won. Although he has not conceded and the president continues to spread falsehoods without evidence. It comes as his administration stalls the transition process. A growing number of republicans have come out in support of biden receiving the Intelligence Briefings traditionally afforded to president select. Trumps actions have the potential to affect the country long after he leaves office, whether he admits defeat or not, likely to make it harder to bring together a nation joe biden has promised to unite. While the president elect has been calling for unity this election is over. Time to put aside the partisanship and the rhetoric that designs to demonize one another. Its not going to be easy as the president refuses to concede and continues to inflame his 70 million plus voters with the false message that the election is rigged. Ill never accept joe biden as president. If thats your question, thats my answer. I dont believe hes right for our country. You think donald trump has won . Absolutely i do. For me to believe that joe biden got 78 million votes, got the most votes of any president ever in the history of voting i find that very hard to believe. Its never going to be accepted. Never going to be accepted. On a late fall afternoon in a middle class neighborhood in youngstown, ohio i talked to geno, tony and laird. Geno and tony were democrats until 2016. We said if we ever had a person that talked like us, that ran for president or ran for office we were voting for that person. Thats what trump is. As trump continues to baselessly declare he won the election, thats all they need to hear. Theres a recipe for disaster when they decided to have these mailin votes. I dont think theres any way of proving the person that mailed that in is the person that actually did it. You look at what secretaries of state have said. Theyve seen no evidence of massive fraud. From my Vantage Point theres too many smoke and mirrors of ballots appearing here and there. Where theres smoke and fire. Where we deal with liberalism, i put nothing past them. Theres no way. Huhuh. Doesnt smell right. Too many irregularities. Even though trumps own Homeland Security department is calling this the most secure election in history, mother of four carrie pascal. Believes the election was rigged. He was winning. It goes into nighttime. The next day you wake up and the state that was red was blue. So many people voted absentee. You dont trust those votes . They kept finding them. How come youre finding them here and there . You werent finding them in big republican districts. How is it 100 biden . She gets along with her neighbor mike hall, a navy veteran and biden supporter when they dont talk politics. He worries carrie will never be swayed by biden. Can he bring the country together . I think he can do a heck of a lot better than the current president is doing. One man is not going to heal this country. Theres too much divide. Here to talk about the divide former National Security advisor to President Trump ambassador john bolton. Good morning, ambassador. You heard what those voters said about the election. More than 72 million are not seeing the outcome they wanted. The nation really is deeply divided. There were thousands of Trump Supporters marching in d. C. Yesterday. How does your party, the Republican Party, address that . Well, i think its very important for leaders of the Republican Party to explain to our voters, who are not as stupid as the democrats think, that, in fact, trump has lost the election and his claims of Election Fraud are baseless. The fact is weve seen litigation in all the key Battle Ground states and it has failed consistently. The Trump Campaign is doing the legal equivalent of pitching pennies. Where are the silver dollars . Wheres the evidence . As every day goes by, its clearer there isnt any evidence. If the Republican Voters are only hearing Donald Trumps misrepresentations, its not surprising they believe it. Its critical for other Republican Leaders to stand up and explain what actually happened. Donald trump lost by any evidence we have so far by a free and fair election. You havent seen that by Republican Leaders. Very few of them are accepting the results. So what happens . You can talk about that all you want, but theyre not doing it. Well, i think theyre getting ready to do it. I said i think this is a character test for the Republican Party. I dont buy the argument that donald trump has hypnotized Republican Voters or theyre not capable of accepting the truth. This is a myth thats being perpetrated thats not true. It requires people to explain what happened. The Trump Campaign simply has no evidence. Their basic argument is this was a conspiracy so vast and so successful that theres no evidence of it. If thats true, i really want to know who the people are who pulled this off. We need to hire them at the cia. The fact is this is all blue smoke and mirrors. I think people will accept that if they see leaders they respect explain it to them. Probably not the voters i talked to. You worked for President Trump. You know his demeanor and temperament. What do you make of his refusal to concede this race . Well, if he had any character, i would say its perfectly in character. It displeases him when reality doesnt conform to the image that he has of it. I dont expect him to go graciously. I do expect him to go. I think pretty soon well get the stab in the back theories. Well get the dark conspiracy theories continued. He will make life as difficult as he can for the incoming biden administration. I think that harms the country. Ive been through five separate transitions. I know how difficult it is coming in and going out. Every day he delays under the pretense that hes asking for his legal remedies ultimately is to the countrys disadvantage. Certainly in the National Security space. I think given the coronavirus pandemic and the effective distribution of the vaccine and a range of other things as well. This is something he needs to get over. I think we need republicans to explain in the nature of things we need a transition and we should proceed with it as soon as we can. Lets talk about National Security. You say its a danger. Biden has not received the daily president ial briefing. Do you believe its a real National Security concern . Well, i think it goes beyond that. Trump doesnt pay any attention to the daily briefings either. It will be a plus for the country when we have a president who cares to know whats going on in the rest of the world. Its much more complicated than the president. The National SecurityDecision Making process is cumbersome. Everybody agrees with that. Theres a lot of different perspectives and different information that has to be considered. The transition process itself at the state department, at the defense department, in Homeland Security, in the intelligence community, really across the whole government, not just for the Transition Team to be sure they understand the issues the new administration will face, but to move forward with the Selection Process for cabinet secretaries, white house advisers, teams at various departments, this nomination and confirmation process is already beyond description in how lengthy and time consuming it is to do. Ambassador, i want to talk about what the president did this week, that purging at the pentagon, at the nsa, at Homeland Security. What do you think hes up to . Is this trying to get troops out of afghanistan rapidly . Is it a planned strike on iran . What do you think hes up to and how dangerous or not is that . The primary motivation is personal peak. I hope thats right. There are rumors about other things, perhaps creating facts on the ground for the Obama Administration sorry, freudian slip for the biden administration, releasing documents relating to the russia collusion charge. Its hard to say. Its destructive. When you decapitate the top leadership in the office of the secretary of defense with less than ten weeks to go in the administration, really its very damaging, not just for the current minutes, but the Incoming Administration as well. Thank you so much for joining us this morning, ambassador bolton. Always great to see you. Thanks for having me. Joining me now is jeh johnson, the Homeland Security secretary under president obama. Secretary johnson, i know you just heard what ambassador bolton said. What concerns do you have about the purge at the pentagon, department of Homeland Security, nsa . How does the biden team need to address that . Im greatly concerned, martha. Thanks for having me on. The pentagon is typically an island of stability in our u. S. Government. To see the secretary of defense fired just weeks before he would have left office anyway is greatly concerning. Im quite sure its concerning to our military leadership. We can all speculate about the reasons for it. If its got something to do with afghanistan, the president needs to recognize battle field reality doesnt comport with a political calendar. If he wants troops out of afghanistan, as i know most americans do, we have to do it in a way that makes sense, in an orderly manner and that comports with battlefield reality. Donald trump the deal maker should also appreciate in trying to strike a deal you dont unilaterally surrender your greatest point of leverage by withdrawing troops before the Afghanistan Government and the taliban have struck a deal. This is very concerning. If i were in the biden Transition Team right now, i would be very focussed as priority a on restoring stability in our National Security. How crucial is this period of president ial transition . Biden has said, for example, its not critical for him to have classified intelligence right now because theres nothing he can act on. Whats your opinion on that . Martha, a new government cannot start on january 20th from a standing still position. This is what transitions are for. Intelligence briefings, pdbs, when your in office, are your eyes and ears. Respectfully the media, what we read in newspapers and the like, is simply so we understand how the medias covering what we know to be reality. Intelligence briefings are your eyes and ears. President trump himself should appreciate that. During the transition four years ago i personally visited trump tower to tell him things before he became president i thought he ought to hear directly from the director of Homeland Security. I know he appreciated it. Its a disservice to the american public. Its a disservice to our National Security to make the incoming government wait until january 20th to get up to speed on a myriad of issues. Lets talk about the division in the country. You heard those voters as well. You were Homeland Security secretary. How should bidens Homeland Security team address these kinds of Bitter Division . I want to give you one more fact. In the first year of Barack Obamas term the number of antigovernment patriot groups more than tripled according to the southern poverty law center. What do you do about these divisions . What do you do about these groups . Martha, this is going to be a top priority for a biden administration. Our nation is divided right now. There are over 70 Million People bitterly disappointed in the election result. This is going to be a time for healing. When i was in office as secretary of Homeland Security i made a point of talking to all groups. I made a point of visiting, for example, arizona ranchers on our southern border who were upset about Border Security so they would understand all the things that the department of Homeland Security was doing on their behalf. Its the instinct of joe biden, i know from a number of years in public office, to try to bridge the divide, to try to heal the rift that exists in our nation right now. Im quite sure hell make that a priority. I hope he puts in place people in the department of Homeland Security who will do the same thing and follow that lead. Lets talk about putting people in place. Its been widely reported youre a candidate on the short list for the biden administration, possibly secretary of defense. I know you dont want to lobby for the job. What would you bring to the job and would you accept it if offered . Martha, ive been in Public Service four separate times now. Im in private life. Im enjoying private life. If asked to take on certain positions in government, i would seriously consider it. Ive been appointed to senateconfirmed positions three times in National Security. As a patriotic american, i would have to seriously consider anything. But ive had a range of experience in National Security and, if i dont serve in a biden administration, i would of course be pleased to advise whoever is serving. Okay. Thank you very much for your comments this morning, secretary johnson. Good luck to you. Up next two key members of the teams fighting the coronavirus Admiral Brett Giroir and dr. Atul gawande of the president elects covid advisory team. Well ask them both what it will take to get a surging coronavirus back under control. Shh i took mucinex dm for mye phlegmy cough. What about robs dry cough . Works on that too, and lasts 12 hours. 12 hours . who studies that long . Mucinex dm relieves wet and dry coughs. Find a stock basedtech. On your interests or whats trending. 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Airborne. Your daily dose of confidence. Were still facing a very dark winter. The projections indicate we could lose 200,000 more lives in the coming months before a vaccine can be made widely available. We cant forego the important work that needs done between now and then to get our country through the worst wave of this pandemic. President elect biden warning of the dark winter ahead as the u. S. Sets records every day for new coronavirus. This past week nearly 1 Million People in this country diagnosed with the virus and just yesterday the nation surpassed 245,000 covid19 deaths. As i spoke with americans in the aftermath of the election, i found many who continue to downplay the pandemic. Do you not wear a mask because donald trump absolutely not. Thats i just dont believe in them. Same thing with me. Can the masks defend a microbe coming through the weaving of the fiber . I doubt it. I really doubt it. Do you guys not believe the scientists . Covid is real. 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