Interest if he starts coordinating on the virus with the biden team. Like it or not, the president didnt win. The fall out this morning with ron klain, plus insight and analysis from our power house round table. Announcer from abc news, its this week. Here now chief anchor George Stephanopoulos. Good morning and welcome to this week. We may not be surprised, but we should still be shocked. The Election Results have been clear for more than two weeks. Joe biden defeated donald trump. By recent standards it wasnt that close. More than 6 million votes nationwide. More than triple Donald Trumps 2016 margin in the key mid western battle grounds. Plus wins in georgia and arizona. 306 electoral votes. The same total trump called a landslide in 2016. Faced with those facts, the president and their allies have taken their baseless claims of voter fraud to court. Theyve lost 32 times. Last night in pennsylvania a judge dismissed their case with this words, the court has been presented with strained legal arguments. In the United States of america it cannot justify the choice of a single voter. Defeated in court, the trump team is telling out right lies in Television Interviews and press conferences. Forums where you dont face sanctions. The president is pressuring state officials to overturn the will of the voters. Here is how the last republican nominee for president mitt romney summed it up. Its difficult to imagine a more undemocratic action by a sitting american president. This assault on our election will not change the outcome. Joe biden will take the oath of office at 12 noon on january 20th. Donald trump will leave the white house sometime before then. How much damage will he do to our democracy on the way out . Can he cripple the biden presidency before its begun. What does it mean right now for the millions of americans confronting the covid pandemic and the economic turmoil. Well address all those questions this morning. We begin with the man president elect biden has chosen to be his chief of staff, ron klain. Thank you for joining us this morning. Thank you. Your colleague bob bower called the president s action dangerous. How much damage has the president done . How much damage can he do . Hes definitely setback the democratic norm in the United States. Hes been doing that for four years. He couldnt run on his record. The voters rejected his leadership. A Record Number of americans rejected the Trump Presidency. Since then donald trump has been rejecting democracy. As you said at the outset hes been launching baseless claims of voter frauders baseless litigation. Hes been rejected by 34 courts. Its corrosive, harmful. As mitt romney said, its not going to change the outcome of what happens here. At 12 noon on january 20th, joe biden will become the next president of the United States. Everything donald trump is doing now is bad for democracy. Its bad for our position, our image in the world. Its not going to change what happens here when we get a new president next year. 75 of republicans believe that biden won because of voter fraud. Are you worried that the president is trying to lock in a perception by his base than biden is an illegitimate president. Can this work . An overwhelming number of americans as a whole thought the election was fair and proper and joe biden was the rightful winner. We have to reach out to republicans and bring the country together. Thats the essence of joe bidens campaign, try to heal this nation, repair its soul, unite the country. Uniting the country d doing. He met with military leaders who served in democrat and republican administrations to talk about our National Security future. He met with golf novernorgoverns and republicans, to talk about the urgent needs of fighting covid. Hes bringing the country together. Donald trump is never going to change. He spent four years tearing the country apart. It seems hes determined to spend his final months doing the same thing. After that Pennsylvania Court decision last night, senator pat toomey said President Trump should accept the outcome of the election and facilitate the process. Is it time for Mitch Mcconnell and other gop lead rers to do t same . I hope they would. I was encouraged this week to see in addition to senator romneys statement was that Many Senate Republicans are talking about confirming joe bidens nominees and trying to get competent experienced people in the government in confirmed positions. I think were seeing encouraging signs. Washington will always be the last place to change. What i saw this week with the president elects interactions is outside washington, democrats and republicans are looking forward to january 20th. They want to Work Together to get things down. Now we have to get the job done here in d. C. As a practical matter your transition is challenged until the gsa declares a winner. The president elect says delay could cost american lives. What options do you have if the gsa continues to block the transition . Theres parts of the transition in our control. Were picking people to work in the white house and to work in the cabinet. Were building our policy plans. Were having high level meetings with leaders from around the country. Theres parts of the transition that are proceeding on pace and at recordsetting pace. There are other parts not in our control. The president elect and vicepresident elect are not getting the Intelligence Briefings theyre entitled to. Were not getting access to Agency Officials to develop our plans. Theres a lot of focus on the vaccine roll out plan that will be critical. We have no access to that. Were not getting background checks on cabinet nominees. There are definite impacts. Those impacts escalate every day. I hope the gsa will do her job. The law requires her to find who is the apparent victor of the election. I cant imagine theres any dispute that joe biden is the apparent winner of the president ial election. You talked about Vaccine Distribution. I talked to the general in charge of distribution of friday. He said the lack of cooperation isnt delaying distribution at all. Do you deny that . On january 20th joe biden will be in charge. If there isnt a seamless flow of information now so we know what were getting ourselves into, so we know what plans they made, so we know the gaps in the plans, i think theres risk that distribution as gaps starting january 20th. Although i respect many people involved in this effort, the fact of the matter is the Trump Administration has a history of failure in dealing with the covid crisis. Including a drastic failure on the testing challenge. So the Trump Administrations position is were supposed to trust them this is going to work out. I think its a hard sell to the American People. Weve seen good news on the vaccine. Pfizer and moderna emergency distribution. Should operation warp speed get credit for that . Everyone should get credit for that. It starts with the scientists who have done the work. Vaccines dont save lives. Vaccinations save lives. The scientific work thats been done to get the vaccine approved by the fda is just the first step. The much bigger step is getting those vaccinations to the American People. Thats hard. The Trump Administration has been at this for eight or nine months. In the course of that, fewer than one in three americans has gotten a covid test. The question is how can we get 100 of americans a vaccine in short order. Thats a challenge the American People are right to be skeptical about in the way the Trump Administration would handle it. Thats a challenge that will fall on the biden administration. The sooner we get briefed on those plans, the sooner we get our experts in with their experts and the more confidence everyone can have. Given the continued surge in covid, should we expect anything like a normal inauguration . No, george. Its going to definitely have to be changed. We started some consultations with house and Senate Leadership on that. Obviously this is not going to be the same kind of inauguration we had in the past. George, joe biden and Kamala Harris conducted this campaign with the safety of the American People in mind. They got a lot of grief for that. They got attacked relentlessly by President Trump for the way they campaigned safely to try to stop the spread of the disease. Theyll have an inauguration that honors the meaning of the moment, but also does not result in spread of the disease. Thats our goal. What does that mean . No parades, no big crowd on the mall, no big lunch in the rotunda . Ill let those plans unfold in consultation with folks in the capitol who organize that. We ran a very effective and, i think, engaging Democratic Convention in august in a way that was safe for the people to participate and watch and communicate with the American People. I think well have some mix of those techniques. Some mix of scaled down versions of the existing conditions. People have a lot to celebrate january 20th. We saw the day joe biden and Kamala Harris were announced as president and Vice President of the United States. People all over the world, particularly in america, dancing in the streets. We know people want to celebrate. Theres something here to celebrate. We want to find a way to do it as safely as possible. The clock is ticking on the Economic Relief package. A lot of programs expire on december 21st. Is the president willing to endorse a smaller package . Whats your reaction to secretary mnuchin allowing the other packages to expire . The president elect and vicepresident elect met on friday with leader schumer and Speaker Pelosi to talk about the best way to get that relief done. Theyre on point for negotiating this package and the president elect said he will support the best outcome they can achieve in these negotiations. Im very concerned. I think the president elect is very concerned that were at a real crisis in many households right now. Unemployment insurance runs out for many people at the end of the year, before joe biden takes office. The Eviction Moratorium runs out at the end of the year before joe biden takes office. If that and other problems will be fixed they have to be fixed right now under the Trump Presidency with the congressional lineup we have right now. I think the president elect will do whatever he can to be supportive of that outcome. I think its a shame secretary mnuchin did what he did with the funds that were made available by the congress and worked through the federal reserve. I think that obviously it raises the challenges were going to face when we take over on january 20th. Senate control is still up for grabs. Heres what the president elect told me about the importance of Senate Control in february. I think im more ready to be able to defeat donald trump and equally importantly, george, elect a Democratic Senate. Its not going to be enough just to beat him. We have to change the senate in order to get things done. Wasnt he right then . One former obama official its the difference between a transformational presidency versus having to negotiate everything with the Republican Senate. Winning those two seats in georgia is important. Well do everything we can to help those two great candidates in georgia. Weve already moved people who were working on the Biden Campaign over to be supportive in the field work for our two candidates down there. I expect youll see the president elect travel down there before election day. Its very important to win those seats. The reality of course is even if we win them both and i think we will well have a closely divided senate under any scenario. One challenge the president elect has taken on is trying to work with members of both parties to build consensus for actions on things like Economic Relief, like climate change, like dealing with our other crises, the racism crisis, the challenge of fixing the immigration laws and obviously fighting covid19. Well have a closely divided senate whatever happens in georgia. Obviously we want to win those seats. I want Chuck Schumer to be the next majority leader in the senate. I know he and the president elect have a great relake shr relationsh relationship. However that turns out, well deliver for the American People. Voters sent a clear sign in 2020. They want things to get done. They want action on covid, climate, health care costs. Well deal with whatever lineup were faced with in washington to get that done. It would be better if that was a Democratic Senate. If we lose those seats in georgia, well move forward with whatever senate gets elected. Theres going to be tension between getting unity, getting things done, working with republicans and investigating any wrong doing that occurred during the Trump Administration. The president elect said he doesnt want his presidency consumed by trump investigations. Thats raised some concern among democrats including this senator who had this to say, a repeat of those failures criminality and sends america down the path of lawlessness. There must be accountability. How do you balance moving forward with getting accountability . Lets be clear, jergeorge, t president elect spoke about this many times. Joe biden is not going to tell the Justice Department who to investigator or who not to investigate. Hes going to pick an excellent attorney general, an independent Justice Department and that department will make decisions independently, free of politics, free of political favor in either direction as to how to enforce the laws. Thats the way it should be. Thats the way its always been. Thats the way it needs to be if were going to have the kind of rule of law thats so important in our country. Are we going to see an attorney general, state department or treasury picked this week . Youre going to see the first of the president elects cabinet appointments tuesday this week, meeting the pace beating the pace set by the obama biden transition and the trump transition. Youll see the first cabinet picks this tuesday. If you want to know what they are or who they are, you have to wait for the president elect to say that tuesday. I was hoping me which ones. Thank you. We want people to tune in, george. Up next the top scientist on the operation warp speed Vaccine Program and our powerhouse round table. D vacci for a covid vaccine, and our powerhouse round table. Stay with us. A blast of immune support thats more than just vitamin c. Its a unique crafted blend of vitamins, zinc, other minerals, and herbs. Take on your day with airborne. Your daily dose of confidence. Find a stock basedtech. On your interests or whats trending. Get realtime insights in your customized view of the market. Its smarter Trading Technology for smarter trading decisions. Fidelity. If your gums bleed when you brush, the answer is yes. The clock may be ticking towards worse. Parodontax is 3x more effective at removing plaque, the main cause of bleeding gums parodontax unlike ordinary memory want supplementster . Neuriva has clinically proven ingredients that fuel 5 indicators of brain performance. Memory, focus, accuracy, learning, and concentration. Try our new gummies for 30 days and see the difference. Unlike ordinary memory want supplementster . Neuriva has clinically proven ingredients that fuel 5 indicators of brain performance. Memory, focus, accuracy, learning, and concentration. Try our new gummies for 30 days and see the difference. I mean, its a truck. Its not about inches. Whos thinking about the garage when youre shopping for a truck . Carmax is. Well let you bring it back for a full refund within the first seven days. The way it should be. Carmax. groans hmph. food grunting menacingly when the food you love doesnt love you back, stay smooth and fight heartburn fast with tums smoothies. Tum tumtum tum tums a blast of immune support thats more than just vitamin c. Its a unique crafted blend of vitamins, zinc, other minerals, and herbs. Take on your day with airborne. Your daily dose of confidence. You have said that if this transition doesnt get going, especially coordination on Vaccine Distribution, that lives will be lost. There is no excuse not to share the data and let us begin to plan because on day one, its going to take us time if we dont have access to all this data. Its going to put us behind the eight ball by a matter of a month or more, and thats lives. How many would be lost as a consequence to that, i cant tell you. President elect biden earlier this week. Lets talk now to the operation warp speed science adviser, moncef slaoui. Dr. Slaoui, thank you for joining us. You heard the president elect right there, and you heard thank you. You heard ron klain as well saying the failure to communicate with a transition wont affect Vaccine Distribution now, but it could affect it once joe biden i