Fear of a Holiday Season surge the critical next steps and the plans being put in place certified one month after the election, all key battleground states have signed off on the results. President elect biden building his new White House TeamPresident Trump still making baseless claims of fraud this morning our interview with the fired head of elections security, weighing in on the voting, the president s failing challenges and what every american should know about the safety of our ballots. Al is tracking the first significant snowstorm of the season in the midwest and massive Power Outages from another nasty storm that hit millions on the east coast. Fact versus fiction. The British Government calls out netflixs show the crown over its depiction of the royal family those stories, plus seahawks soar hes trying to stay on his feet and hell get there seattle takes down philadelphia. The nfl covid troubles mount, forcing the league to ask fans, are you ready for some wednesday afternoon football today, tuesday, december 1st, 2020 announcer from nbc news, this is today with Savannah Guthrie and hoda kotb, live from studio 1a in rockefeller plaza. Hey, everybody, welcome to today. So happy youre joining us on this Tuesday Morning. Weve got a busy one ahead. Including just ahead, a first live interview with chris krebs, the official who ran the elections cybersecurity efforts. His office declaring november 3rd the most secure election in american history, and then he was fired by the president over twitter. Were going to get his take on everything that went on before the election, how he knows its secure and whats happened in the month thats followed. Lets begin with the coronavirus. New developments on several front to tell you about, with two drugmakers now waiting on emergency authorizations for their vaccines today a Cdc Advisory Committee meets to decide who should get the vaccine first. But any encouraging news comes with new warnings that the nation is on the verge of a grim Holiday Season when it comes to cases and hospitalizations nbcs tom costello has it all covered this morning good morning. Good morning. So there are now six vaccines that are looking good, two awaiting fda approval, two more likely in january or february and two more in may. Americans wont pay for them the government will pick up the tab. And now this outside Advisory Panel is looking at who should get prioritized. With two covid vaccines potentially just weeks away from being ready for distribution, today a critical next step the Cdc Advisory Committee meets to decide who should get vaccinated first the Committee Chair says Health Care Workers are a top priority. Not just the nurses and doctors, but also the support personnel, housekeeping, persons who deliver food to patients. Reporter also likely to be at the front of the line, people working and living in Nursing Homes. After the fastest Vaccine Development program in history, operation warp speeds distribution challenge is now in the hands of the military. The key thing is to rehearse, rehearse, rehearse number one, you have to have a plan and then you have to rehearse it with the states. Reporter both pfizer and moderna are awaiting fda authorization. The panel meets on december 10th approval could come within days or weeks Nbcs Lester Holt talked to the top three drug execs once approval comes, how quickly can moderna spring into action and begin shipping the product . Like the others, were partnered with the general and his team at operation warp speed. Ive been told they want trucks rolling within hours, if not a day. Reporter already a Massive Global Network is taking shape, rushing vaccine doses across the globe, anticipating fda approval United Airlines receiving special permission to increase the dry ice load to carry pfizers vaccine, which must be kept arctic cold to handle the increased demand for cargo, american is taking passenger planes like e 78th and flying medical supplies nationwide pharmaceuticals that require cold temperatures are shipped in Battery Powered mobile freezers that are constantly tracked. Any slight variation in temperature sets off alarms. And while the nations top experts warn of a surge in cases over the coming weeks, this morning new signs. Rather than getting discouraged, which is an understandable emotion to a terrible ordeal that weve all been through hang in there, the end is in sight. The end is in sight, tom. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is also giving a stark warning about what is going on in new york city where the hospitals are concerned. What can you tell us reporter yeah, the crisis is worsening here and thats clearly the case in new york right now. Listen to this number. Hospitalizations up 3,500 over the weekend. An astonishing number. And the governor is now saying if that doesnt change let me say that again the governor now saying that that number is the highest since may. We are now worried about overwhelming the Hospital System and if those numbers continue to increase, which we expect they will, you will see serious stress on the Hospital System. Reporter so the governor saying if that doesnt change, if the situation continues to worsen, he may in fact be forced to impose more restrictions, a lockdown or a pause like he did back in the spring the situation becoming quite critical back to you. Tom, thank you. Now to the president ial transition, president elect biden introduces more members of his White House Team, while President Trumps legal Team Continues to push false allegations of widespread fraud in the election. In a moment, were going to have a live interview with chris krebs, the trumpappointed and now fired head of the election cybersecurity effort first lets get to nbc white house correspondent, Kristen Welker with the latest on where things stand. Reporter good morning to you. President elect joe biden is forging ahead, set to officially announce more nominees today including yellen for treasury secretary, who would become the first woman in the role if confirmed. It comes amid President Trumps unsuccessful attempts to overturn the Election Results. This morning president elect joe biden is moving forward with his transition, poised to introduce key members of his Economic Team later today. All as the president is again trying to cast doubt on the Election Results but monday, two key states that President Trump has contested certified or determined their Election Results arizona and wisconsin. In wisconsin, bidens lead expanded by 87 votes after the president s campaign spent 3 million on a partial recount there. The Washington Post reporting this morning that President Trump has raised more than 150 million since election day to fund his attempts to overturn the Election Results meantime in arizona, President Trumps legal Team Fighting a losing battle. Still pushing conspiracy theories about widespread fraud without any evidence. I call this the mccarthy era on steroids. Reporter President Trump even calling into that meeting between his lawyers and lawmakers in arizona. Weve got 74 million and we didnt win reporter arizonas republican governor, doug ducey, officially naming joe biden the winner there on monday. We do elections well here in arizona. The system is strong and thats why i have bragged on it so much. Reporter that prompting the president to take fresh aim overnight, tweeting what is going on with doug ducey, republicans will long remember and the president is lashing out at georgias republican governor, brian kemp, after the governor and georgias republican secretary of state, brad raffensperger, refused the president s calls to overturn the Election Results, after biden was certified as the winner there more than a week ago. Raffensperger speaking out on monday. There are those who exploit the emotions of Trump Supporters with fantastic claims, half truths, misinformation, and, frankly, they are misleading the president as well, apparently. Reporter meanwhile, overnight one of the president s campaign lawyers took aim at the former dhs cybersecurity director, chris krebs, who was fired by President Trump after krebs called the 2020 election the most secure in american history. He said during a radio interview that krebs should be, quote, drawn and quartered, taken out at dawn and shot we have reached out to the white house, but so far no response, savannah. Kristen, thank you. Chris krebs joins us now his first live interview since being fired as director of the cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency known as sisa. Good morning to you. Unfortunately, we have to start right there. The reaction to your speaking out, particularly one of the president s own lawyers suggesting you should be executed it is obviously disturbing and outrageous how concerned are you about comments like that its certainly more dangerous language, more dangerous behavior, and the way i look at it is that we are a nation of laws, and i plan to take advantage of those laws. Ive got an Exceptional Team of lawyers that win in court and i think theyre probably going to be busy. You feel like theres legal action that might arise from comments like that were taking a look at all our available opportunities. Are you worried about your safety, sir . This is not the first death threat, unfortunately. You know, im not going to give them the benefit of knowing how im reacting to this they can know that there are things coming, though. Lets talk about this election news that took place overnight, arizona officially certifying its Election Results. The president immediately lashing out at the republican governor, doug ducey, who is a supporter of the president , essentially accusing him of a betrayal is there any reason to doubt the election result in arizona so secretary hobbs, the secretary of state in arizona, was a great partner of ours as we were working to support states in securing our systems, and based on what we understand, based on the checks, the controls, the security measures in place at all points throughout the election from registration through certification, weve got a lot of confidence in the security, not just of the arizona results, but throughout the country. And i want to ask you about that of course you were in charge of the cybersecurity effort you worked for years on this nine days after the election, your office put out a statement stating that the november 3rd election was the most secure election in u. S. History since then, the Trump Campaign has filed lawsuits, raiseda rthms and widespre allegations of algorithms, vote being flipped, widespread fraud. Is there anything thats been surfaced by the Trump Campaign or any supporter thats made you question the integrity of the election or the conclusion you reached . Well, the first thing is that that statement is that was issued on november 12th was not just my agency, sisa it was a community of everyone involved in the elections from state and local election officials, other federal agencies in fact, the vendors that support elections. That was a community assessment. And i am yet to see anything based in reality that would change my opinion. Now, theres certainly opportunities Going Forward where they can prove a case, but, again, based on the controls that are in place across the system, we have confidence that was a secure election it is important, though, to distinguish between the security of the systems and the ability to resist foreign interference and foreign tampering and machine algorithms and fraud fraud is a criminal act that will be dealt with and investigated by the appropriate Law Enforcement entities. And there have been allegations and lawsuits none has been successful to date they can continue if theres merit to them. You know, in a survey out monday, only about 20 of republicans said they considered the Biden Victory to be the true result you know, there is a lot of misinformation out there and there are people of good faith who are hearing that misinformation so im asking you, sir, in a way to show your work. How do you know, how do you know this election was secure its kind of a keep it simple, stupid, approach paper, paper ballots 90 to 95 of votes cast in the 2020 election had a voter verifiable paper audit trail and that means that the voters intent is registered on the paper, the voter can check that. And then, regardless of what happens next in the subsequent canvass, audit and recount process, if there is some sort of machine thats mpromised, theres subsequent checks, including like what we just saw in georgia with a hand recount of every ballot, and the outcome was consistent so, again, the ability to go back, you effectively have the receipts and you can check the outcomes lets talk about what happened to you. As mentioned, your office, this Community Statement of many officials stating that the election was secure happened, but then the president tweeted about it he singled you out and he fired you in a tweet when you signed on to that statement, when you stuck your neck out and said this was a secure election, did you think im probably going to get fired . I honestly im not sure necessarily it crossed my mind what we adopted, the approach that we took from the beginning in terms of securing the 2020 election was a nonpartisan approach, and effectively what that means is regardless of who you are, where you are, country over party and were seeing that play out in secretaries of state across the country, where theyre democrat or republican, country over party so that statement was important to put out, again, by a Community Involved in the Election Security and the Election Administration space, to reinforce confidence from the people that actually administered the election, that were involved in the election, to, again, reinforce confidence in the American People that we were actively seeing undermind i have to ask you because there are some watching saying president. What do you say to that, you work for the Bush Administration and you were appointed by the trum there it is, the deep state, a and you were appointed by President Trump. Are you a supporter of his im a lifelong republican ive served in two republican administrations. I served with honor in the Trump Administration and i will always be thankful to President Trump for the opportunity to lead, as we call them, the citizens, and thats an honor of a career and i will always be thankful for that when you enter federal service, you pledge an oath to uphold and defend the constitution from threats, foreign and domestic, country over party thats what we did we approached it in a nonpartisan way and we did it right. Do you consider this election misinformation thats bei misinformation from the highest levels of our government to be a domestic threat, to use your terminology . Again, we took a nonpartisan approach, regardless of where the information came from, the themes that were emerging that were ultimately corrosive to confidence in the process. We felt that it was important to get facts out on how elections work and the controls, the security measures in place, and ultimately, again, the importance, the value of paper ballots. And we need to invest more in our nations elections to uphold and restore that confidence. Last thing, i just have a few seconds left the president has gone after arizonas republican governor against the republican secretary of state of georgia, who is a trump supporter and said he donated to the Trump Campaign. Are you surprised that more republicans, and particularly republicans in congress, havent stood up, spoken out on behalf of the integrity of our election well, ive certainly heard from a number of them, a number of supporters that i think we had a really successful run at sisa i did when i was there in terms of bipartisan support for our nonpartisan efforts. I do wish that we could hear a little bit more, the congressional representatives, that they could reach out and engage their constituents and let them know that the election was secure. Christopher krebs, thank you for your service, thank you for your time this morning we really appreciate it. Thank you it is now 18 minutes after the hour i think its a good time to check on the weather mr. Roker, youve got a storm. Thats right, we started telling you about it yesterday this is northeastern ohio, currently bedford heights, ohio. Our good buddy simon brewer getting this video you can see the snow is coming down