Undemocratic, what some Top Republicans are saying about the president s latest efforts to sow doubt about the election. This wild press appearance from Rudy Giuliani. And crimes you dont have to smell, and you cant smell this one. And a week long recount by hand. And ready, set, shop. A surprising plus of the pandemic just ahead and why the thanksgiving meal will cost less this year, and the holiday deals are starting today, a full week ahead of black friday. And plus a we love a parade like none other, and what is being done to pull off the beloved macys day parade unlike no other. Today, friday, november 20th, 2020. From nbc news, this is today with Savannah Guthrie and hoda kotb. From studio 1a in rockefeller pla plaza. Hi, everybody, good morning. Happy friday and glad you are with us, and hoda is off and we have a lot of news. And potentially significant news. It is just breaking surrounding the vaccine and the coronavirus, and key step forward this morning. The Pfizer Company is going to be seeking approval that could lead to the first doses given in just weeks, and emergency use authorization of the vaccine of being submitted today to the fda. And the timing is growing more and more urgent. This week, 19 states setting new records for covid cases and seven on thursday alone and the United States is shattering the daily record with 193,000 new cases and nearly 2,000 deaths. Meanwhile, the cdc has now issued a new advisory for thanksgiving urging all americans to stay home. And take a look at this. As this country is heading into the holidays covid testing is being pushed to the brink. Once again with hours long lines in many cities from coast to coast. In a moment, we will speak live with two doctors on the front lines, but first Gabe Gutierrez is joining us from knoxville, iowa, one of the Rural Communities being hit by the virus very hard for the first time. Good morning, gabe. Good morning, savannah. Small hospitals like this one are hit to the brink from the global pandemic. Across the country, doctors and nurses are sounding the alarm. Reporter this morning 1 in 5 hospitals in the u. S. Is facing a staffing shortage, and the latest brutal statistic from the front lines in the war against covid. We may be super heroes, but we are not super human. Reporter in knoxville, iowa, these nurses never expect this, the protective suits, the grueling shifts and the sea of hallways. I have been with a couple of nurses crying and you get to tend of the shift, and we have done all we have done and consoling them that you are a great nurse, and we have done all we can do, and it is done. Reporter and so they have been preparing since the summer, but hoping they would never have to use this, but now they are. Their only ventilator on order. It has gone from the cusp of bad to horrible. That is where they are living. Reporter from big cities to small towns. We are turning the hospital areas into hospital areas, but if we dont have the people to take care of the patients, it doesnt matter. Reporter north dakota is allowing infected but asymptomatic people to treat patients. We are at the breaking point, so if we contract the virus, we continue to work. Reporter and 16 air force nurses are headed for backup. In utah where 85 of the icu beds are full, some hospitals are preparing to delay elective surgeries. At nebraska medicine, the staff are using handmade signs to beg the public to wear masks. Patients coming in for a heart attack or stroke, and we may not have the capacity to take care of that patient. Reporter the resources are stretched thin across the country. One of my biggest fears is that we will have to make difficult decisions about who gets the best quality care. The emotional and physical stress is exhausting. I dont know how we are getting through it. Reporter for many small communities, this pandemic has taken not just an emotional toll but a financial one. Across the country, 17 rural hospitals have closed in 2020. Savannah. All right. Gabe gutierrez, thank you. With us are two doctors on the front line. Dr. Nicole gail from broad lawns Medical Center in des moines, iowa. And dr. Greg spencer from Columbia UniversityMedical Center here in new york. Good morning to both of you. Dr. Gail, i have to start with you in iowa with the state the cases have gone up 77 in the last couple of weeks. How overwhelmed are the folks in your state . How worrisome is this . Its very, very busy, and certainly a critical time. We have been managing so far, but everybody is very concerned, because we continue to see the case counts, and we know that we are just starting to see the effects of the case counts from two weeks ago which is why when we say that right now, we are already at a breaking point, and we are very concerned about where it is going to go from here. I was reading that you spoke to the producer, and you said that you watch the case counts. We all watch the case counts, but as physicians and nurses and first responders, you are look at the case counts, and you know that in a couple of weeks a certain number of those are coming to you . Yeah, absolutely. We are trying to do the best we can do in terms of the planning, but what we are finding is that it is so unpredictable, so we are trying to take the examples of what happened in new york city in the beginning of the pandemic, and other areas, but it is just a really different situation this time. We have more testing which is wonderful, but the downside to that is that it is a big load on the Outpatient Clinics which means less staffing to pull from. Dr. Spencer, you were there in the e. R. In the early days of the pan dij whdemic when new yo was was hit so hard, and are you worried that we are seeing another big surge in the citys hospitals now . Yeah, absolutely. Everybody is worried and we are all worried that the cases are going to increase. As Everybody Knows new york city went through the worst of nit march and april and over the summer we largely controlled the spread here. Over the past few weeks we have seen the increase in the number of cases and hospitalizations. And even anyone walking outside of the testing clinics throughout new york city will see that lines have grown significantly in the past few weeks. So we are all quite worried and prepared. In new york city, we have experience and a lot of us have experience of taking care of the Covid Patients and in that sense, we are ready, but many of us are mentally exhausted of what we saw and did from the colleagues that we lost in march and april, and so there is an ominous feeling for many of us here that we are going to have to go through some measure of what we have gone through before. And dr. Gilg, there is a talk of the lack of ppe and it is a concern, but the most precious supply the doctors and the nurses and some are burned out and some are sick, and i have read of many, many instances of the Health Care Resources and the Personnel Resources put under a tremendous amount of strain. Absolutely. I think that the biggest concern is where are those piece coming from are they happening within the Health Care System meaning that maybe there are breaches in the ppe protocols . Are they happening outside because of the prevalence so high but it another worry on top of the worries that we already have. Real quick, dr. Gilg, you said something striking to me when you are looking around when people are not wearing the masks and making thanksgiving plans when they shouldnt and you are putting out the fires at the hospital, and you go out and people are still putting out fires. I appreciate that we are tired and the public is tired as well, and none of us want to be in this situation, but the hospitals are full. And so we need to look at what is the most preventable of what is filling the hospitals, and that is what is covid19. At this point, there is not a lot you can do about a heart attack if someone is going to have one tomorrow, but certainly, this is a preventable disease and that the mitigation strategies are working. Then you can have the last word, dr. Spencer, and your message to folks thinking of heading out for thanksgiving and tired the of wearing the mask, and man, we are tired of it, and nobody more tired than you working on the front lines. Absolutely. We all want to see our family and i have a 2yearold who has not seen their grandparents in a long time and we know that there is an end in sight, and we can get back to the base camp and safety, but we have to climb everest first and the next few weeks and months are difficult, and quite honestly, there is no foolproof way to make a visit to the family over the holidays zero risk. So we are encouraging everyone to stay home if you can, and do virtual this year, because we want to see you in person next year. Thank you for the work, dr. Gilg and dr. Spencer. We appreciate your time. Thank you. And now to the latest on the president ial transition. Overnight, georgias recount has confirmed that joe bidens win there, and both the president elect and some republicans are stepping up their criticism of President Trump while his Team Continues to challenge the outcome of the race. We have two reports this morning and starting with the White House Correspondent peter alexander, and good morning to you. Hey, craig, good morning. And on top of the president s refusal to concede the election and with the repeated challenges in court failing and now what is a repeated brazen strategy to upend the Electoral College process to upend joe bidens decisive victory. Reporter this morning President Trump is looking to intensify the efforts to overturn the election he lost after georgia overturned the hand count that confirmed joe bidens win there. They are to be certified today. President trump in an extraordinary move is to host Michigan Campaign workers at the white house after they stopped to certify the votes where joe biden won the votes. When asked, biden said that the act is outrageous. He going to go down in history as one of the most irresponsible president s in history. Reporter and trying to float the idea of getting the republican legislators to elect pro legislators to go against the voters, but one lawmaker said it is not going to happen backed up by the state governor. We have had a free and Fair Election and we need to certify the results. Reporter but the president has tried to personally intervene calling two of the gop canvassing Board Members who have certified the results for biden in the largest county that includes detroit. The next day, the two Board Members tried to rescind the certification, but the officials of the state said it would stand. Then one member said that the president did not urge her to change the vote. All of it as the president s attorney Rudy Giuliani alleged a nationwide conspiracy of voter fraud in large democratic cities. I know crimes. I can smell them. You dont have to smell this one, because ki prove it to you 18 different ways. Reporter but there is no evidence of widespread voter fraud, and giuliani visibly sweating did not offer proof. And the point is that i cannot put a witnesss life in jeopardy. Overnight, mitt romney and ben sasse in stress. Mitt romney says it is hard to imagine anything more undemocratic. And ben sasse says they have not alleged them in courts because it is consequences to lie to judges. And this erodes public trust. We are a nation of laws and not tweets. And following Rudy Giulianis press conference, chris krebs who was tapped for securing the security of the election called that the most dangerous hour and 45 minutes of television in american history. This afternoon, we will see President Trump for the first time all week when he is set to deliver remarks on Prescription Drug pricing. Peter alexander, thank you. Meanwhile, president elect joe biden has a key meeting with president ial leadership in delaware where we find Kristen Welker on this friday. Good morning. Hi, savannah, yes, that is right. Joe biden is going to meet with House Speaker nancy pelosi and house leader Chuck Schumer here, and they will discuss a list of things, but he wants them to get a covid relief package to be passed as quickly as possible even before he is in office because millions of americans are suffering. It comes with the president s refusal to concede and refusal to give him key briefings on National Security and on covid relief. Biden calling it damaging to the nations democracy. Savannah. Kristen, another issue, and i know that you had an exchange with the president elect about this whether or not the Biden Campaign is considering taking any legal action to force the transition to go forward. Thats right, savannah. I did press president elect biden on that matter, are they considering legal action to get the key briefings they believe is necessary. Take a listen. My judgment is that we will get further along by actually working with our republican colleagues now, but it is still an open question. It is an open question. It could change. So you have not ruled out legal action against the Trump Administration and the gsa. We have not ruled it out. Reporter and now four sources familiar with the matter tell nbc news that while biden is growing increasingly frustrated with the lack of briefings and lack of cooperation from the Trump Administration, he and the team are concerned about taking legal action worried that if it fails, it could backfire, and also worth noting that today is joe bidens 78th birthday. Savannah. Kristen, thank you very much. How is the weather looking as we head into the weekend of thanksgiving. Dylan is in with a first look of the forecast, and walking out, you saw that it is noticeably warmer. It makes the 60 degree days warmer and we wont get it in the northeast. We have a nice ridge in the jet stream and it is about to 10 to 15 degrees above average. Kansas city is 62, and 53 in milwaukee and charlotte is 66 and philly up to 62, and much, much better than the way we started off especially yesterday with the temperatures in the lower 20s with the windchill, too. And tomorrow we are going to be seeing the highs in the upper 60s and lower 70s and cooler in noshlg, but it is still 10 degrees above average and close to 60 degrees and going tone the nex going into the weekend and then more seasonable with minneapolis dropping into the 40 and hartford from 46 sunday and 55 monday and back into the 40s going into tuesday that is a look of the weather across the country, and we will get to your local forecast in the next 30 seconds. Good morning. Im meteorologist kari hall. We take a look at our temperatures for today. Expect a high reaching into the mid60s for our inland valleys and through the rest of the forecast a lot of mid60s for highs. Morning temperatures in the upper 30s, and we are going to see the dry weather continuing even into next week. We are also looking at some dry weather on thanksgiving with highs in the low 60s. And thats and thats your latest forecast. Back to you guys. Thank you, dylan. Coming up in a few moments, we will focus on covids impact on thanksgiving and everybody is talking about it how families with kids in college are handling the new travel warning and should they still come home, and what if they are already on the way . We will get advice on that. And plus the same parade that you know and love but with a few changes for safety we will go live to pull back the curtain on the macys anksgiving parade withth t businesses today are looking to tomorrow. Adapting. Innovating. Setting the course. 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