Raging all over this country, the one that he still leads. The Vice President led a public Coronavirus Task force briefing yesterday, the first in months. And the message from the doctors is that we are in a dangerous moment that requires vigilance. The numbers underline the life or death stakes of the next few months. Thursday, 187,000 new cases, a record setting pandemic total, and 2,000 american deaths. 80,000 americans are in hospitals with the virus, and dr. Anthony fauci says that number will explode if americans dont rethink their thanksgiving plans. Take a look at your family and say do i have a person there who is an elderly person, a person with an underlying medical condition that might put them at increased risk of a severe outcome if they infected. Today, the drug maker pfizer says it will apply for an emergency use authorization for its covid19 vaccine. The hope is that some doses will be ready by december. But when the vaccine will be available for everyone is a top line concern, one made bigger by the delay in transitioning to the new administration. So theres been no slow down because you cant communicate with bidens Transition Team . Absolutely not. Clear, concise guidance. Get safe and effective vaccines to the american people. The president s election denial hovers over the whole government but the challenge itself is spiraling, the bumbling nature of the mission includes error filled legal filings, no actual assertion of widespread fraud in court, and Rudy Giuliani had a rambling and evidence Free Press Conference that caused alarm, even among trumps closest allies. The latest set back to the president s case, concrete confirmation he lost georgia. Like other republicans, im disappointed our candidate didnt win georgias electoral votes. Close election so distressed. People feel their side was cheated. I live by the motto that numbers dont lie. As secretary of state, i believe that the numbers that we have presented today are correct. Numbers dont lie from somebody who supported President Trump early on. And the intrigue and alarm today surrounds a white house meeting that some say may actually break the law. Shame on you shame on you shame on you thats jeering this morning at the airport as senior michigan lawmakers arrive here in washington. One lawmaker and another senior Michigan Republican will meet with the president today at the white house. The face to face is part of the president s campaign to subvert the election outcome in michigan and elsewhere. Lets get straight to the white house and Kaitlan Collins is there. Youre learning more information, not just michigan lawmakers the president is trying to bring to the white house to have discussions about getting rid of election outcomes. Reporter thats right. Theyre the only ones that have gotten invitations. We are told there are discussions about doing the same in other states, one at the top of the president s list is pennsylvania. Thats a consideration that apparently has been under way here, that the president has been discussing. We dont think those invitations have been extended based on what we heard from republicans in pennsylvania, but dana, this is a brazen step by the president to invite this delegation of republican state leaders in michigan here to the white house this afternoon. White house officials are not saying much about whats going to happen at the meeting or what the president s message will be. It is not a meeting on his official schedule, but we think it will take place later on this afternoon. This is part of a broader effort where the president is grasping at everything he can to try to overturn results of the election, though it never seemed likely he would do that, it is only getting more and more unlikely by the day. You saw them waiting on votes to come in in places like arizona and nevada, then pursuing litigation, lost a dozen court cases so far. Now of course the president is taking this extra step by inviting people to the white house, hoping they could potentially appoint protrump electors, have them override what voters in places like michigan have said where biden has a margin of 150,000 votes. Those are really the questions the white house is facing. I am in the Briefing Room, somewhere we havent been in a long time, dana. We havent gotten a briefing from the press secretary since october 1st. Yesterday we were in here when the Vice President and task force took no questions. It has been this broader pattern of people in the federal government refusing to take questions because of course they dont want to talk about the president s attempts to overturn results of the election. Well see if we get factual answers to your questions which will no doubt be right on. Kaitlan, thank you for that reporting. Today, evidence of a clear and growing fracture in the Republican Party, between those who bolster the president s Conspiracy Theory and those who are beginning to acknowledge reality in public the way they have in private. A growing number of republican senators say it is the president s duty to start the transition. This from senator Lamar Alexander who is retiring. He put this out this morning saying if there is any chance whatsoever that joe biden will be the next president , and looks like he has a very good chance, the Trump Administration should provide the biden team with all transition materials, resources, meetings necessary to ensure a smooth transition so that both sides are ready on day one. Lets get straight to capitol hill and cnns lauren fox. Lauren, you heard or saw that from Lamar Alexander, the beginning of the statement, looks like joe biden may be president of the United States. He is going to be. Even he retiring feels he needs to couch what he is saying which is start the transition process. I am told there are a handful of republican senators who saw what happened yesterday, the combination of the guiliani press conference and michigan meddling, and theres growing alarm and theyre talking about ways to break their silence and be more forceful in a way that is effective with a mer cure yal president. What are you hearing on capitol hill from republicans. Reporter i think in the last 24 hours, we started to see the dam break with really the rank and file members. Remember that leadership, theyre in sort of a different position here. We have not heard from mcconnell telling the president to concede at this point. Of course, he has his eyes on that very important election, two elections in georgia coming in january. Dana, i want to read some of the rank and file comments weve had. There are alarming ones. This one from mitt romney, a republican from utah saying it is difficult to imagine a worse, more undemocratic action by a sitting american president. Senator ben sasse. Obviously rudy and his buddies should not pressure electors to ignore certification obligations under the statute. We are a nation of laws, not tweets. Senator joniernst, saying there was a conspiracy democrats and republicans were involved in, she said to insinuate that republicans and Democratic Candidates paid to throw off this election i think is absolutely outrageous, and i do take offense to that. Senator dan sullivan. They have a high bar to make and they have to prove it in court. Representative fred upton said, quote, no one has seen any real identification of any real fraud. I think its all said and done. And a few moments ago, i talked to representative greg walden who told me while he thinks the president has a right to pursue his legal strategy in court, he said at this point he is not very impressed with that legal strategy and ultimately it will be good for the Republican Party to get this behind them. Dana . Yeah. Not impressed is a very diplomatic way to say what im sure youre hearing behind the scenes from republicans that theyre baffled by the attempt to pursue this in court because it seems to be kind of a keystone cop situation. Lauren, thank you so much for that. The president s election defiance is an affront to voters and puts joe biden in a tough spot, unable to fully begin his transition, as of now, unwilling to pursue legal action to force the president to start transfer of power. Thursday, the president elect gave his most direct condemnation of the president s actions. Let me choose my words here. I think we are witnessing incredible irresponsibility, incredibly damaging messages being sent to the rest of the world about how democracy functions. I dont know his motive, but i think it is totally irresponsible. Joining the conversation, chief correspondent for the washington post, dan balls. Thank you for coming on. I was told that the president is telling his allies that his resistance is in part retribution against democrats that never considered him legitimate as a president , and my colleague goloria bore injur, trump has been heard from a multitude of friends who have urging him to at least let the transition begin. Dan, you are plugged in in this town. What are you hearing from sources about the president s actions or lack thereof . Well, i think the president s actions are quite clear based on the way he is operating. I think this is much larger than whether the transition starts this week or next week or in a couple of weeks. I think this has much more to do with whats in his head at this point which seems to be an effort to delegitimize the biden presidency. This is not just a short term battle thats raging now. Obviously it is raging now, but this is a potentially longer term fight that he wants to undertake. I think everything that he is doing points in that direction. So this is something that is likely to continue even after biden takes the oath of office in january. As you know and Everybody Knows at this point the president s legal team held a marathon News Conference yesterday, led by Rudy Giuliani. Lets listen to part of it and talk about it on the other side. You cannot allow these crooks, because thats what they are, to steal an election from the american people. They elected donald trump. They didnt elect joe biden. So theres absolutely no evidence to match what Rudy Giuliani just said, we want to make that very clear. The recently fired Homeland Security official in charge of election security, a trump official, said the following in a tweet, said the most dangerous one hour and 45 minutes of television he called that press conference, the most dangerous one hour, 45 minutes of television he has seen in his life. I am hearing from Senate Sources that the press conference and unprecedented meeting were going to see at the white house later today of michigan lawmakers who he is trying to coordinate with somehow to undermine the Election Results there, even though it doesnt seem he has an avenue to do that, but that this might finally cause republicans to speak out even more aggressively. What are you hearing from republicans . Well, i mean, dana, if this doesnt begin to turn republicans, we all know privately many of them are, whether alarmed or truly alarmed, they see whats happening but they also recognize as they have shown throughout his presidency that there is tremendous cost of confronting him directly on these things. Thats why only a handful of people, some of whom have spoken out loudly about him in the past like mitt romney who voted to convict him during impeachment trial, those are voices he heard before and dismisses those. But it will take much more and bigger volume of republicans to have any influence on him, if even that has much influence on him. I just dont think hes in a position where hes paying attention to that kind of thing. The press conference that Rudy Giuliani held yesterday was as chris krebs said totally alarming. The allegations he threw out, again, as you said without any shred of evidence are among the most bald faced allegations made about an election in the history of this country, and if republicans cant begin to step up in a more direct way, then you have to say whats the future of the Republican Party. What will this country be even after Trump Leaves Office, doesnt leave the scene. Youre exactly right. I dont know that anybody will have an impact on him at this point. It is a question of them putting themselves on the right side of history on the record finally after four years of not doing that for the most part. Speaking history, quickly, michael besh laush has a quote taking the long view, frames the current moments in a way thats rattling, frankly, saying that this is a president abusing his very great powers to try to stay in office, even though its obvious to everyone that he has been defeated in the polls. I dont want to be an alarmist, but i do think it is our job as citizens to keep watch on every one of these things with an eye to the ultimate dread of the founders which is that a president rejected by voters would use his powers to try to stay in office anyway. Your thoughts on that. I think michael as always is right on point on this. This many is an abuse of his power and i think over the next 50 plus, 60 days between now and january 20th, he can do great damage. Weve seen moves that he has made, whether at the pentagon or firing Christopher Krebs or anything like that, he has more time to do that, in essence to kind of lay waste to the executive branch in advance of biden coming in and having to take over. I mean, he can kind of poison the atmosphere for joe biden as he becomes the next president of the United States. It is a great abuse of power and i think people, most people recognize that and republicans need to recognize it in a more substantial and volume way. Very well said as always. Dan balz, good to talk to you, get your reporting and insights. Have a good weekend. And up next, dr. Sanjay gupta joins me to talk about his exclusive interview with dr. Deborah birx. And to show how important the two Georgia Senate runoff races are, look who made an appearance at a rap battle watched around the world. This is stacey abrams. We can make sure everyone shows up to vote. We have two senators to make sure we have Covid Response and stimulus money coming back to georgia. Thats right. We got you, baby. Lets get it. We going to stand up for you. When i was in high school, this was the theater i came to quite often. The support weve had over the last few months has been amazing. Its not just a work environment. Everyone here is family. If you are ready to open your heart and your home, check us out. We thought for sure that we were done. And this town said not today. And now your copilot. Still a father. But now a friend. Still an electric car. Just more electrifying. Still a night out. But everything fits in. Still hard work. Just a little easier. Still a legend. Just more legendary. Chevrolet. Making lifes journey, just better. Every day now we get a new reminder the coronavirus pandemic is not under control in america. Cases are surging at a disturbing clip. Nearly 188,000 new cases added yesterday. Thats a record, a record broken 17 times just this month. More than 80,000 people were sick enough to be admitted to a hospital yesterday, and thats another broken record. In 13 states, hospitalizations have never been higher. And here is the most painful of all those painful statistics, the deaths of more than 2,000 americans were reported yesterday. Thats 2,000 americans in one day alone. Thats the highest number since may. Covid19 has now killed more than 252,000 americans and counting. And institute for Health Metrics and evaluation at the university of washington now projects that the number will grow to 471,000 americans by march. At this moment of unprecedented crisis, the white house Coronavirus Task force did have a briefing yesterday, but didnt take any questions from reporters. It was the first time we saw them in months. But Task Force Coordinator dr. Deborah birx did speak exclusively with chief medical correspondent dr. Sanjay gupta. Was this a failure in this country . I mean, did you expect it to go this way . I always worry when we have an outcome that none of us want and none of us wanted. Did we miss a communication, did we say it the wrong way, and i think really thats part of the reason why i went out into the states is really understand what they were hearing when we were speaking and really being in a dialogue and a partnership to really understand how we could do this better together. Dr. Sanjay gupta joins me now. Youre wearing a mask, so you didnt have to keep a straight face when she said did we miss a communication, how about wear a mask from the president of the United States, but thats me talking for the record, not you. But the white house has faced a lot of criticism to say the least, rightly so, about how they communicated or not communicated throughout this crisis. What was your take away from your conversation with dr. Birx . Well, you know, shes so careful, youve seen. This is the most candid i have seen her. No one likes to be asked if coordinator of a response and asked look, did it fail. I realize these are tough questions, but i think she was basically acknowledging it. We had a longer discussion comparatively to other countries how did we do. Obviously the best we could do is be the worst in the world. She acknowledged that. She was in the dakotas the end of october, beating the drum on masks and things and numbers have tripled since she left in terms of new cases and sadly new deaths in north dakota. It is tough. So i think there was acknowledgment of failure for all sorts of different reasons, but also this idea that, you know, were still in the middle of it, right . We keep looking, saying what do we have to learn. Were still very much in the thros of it. Theres a lot of miscommunication going on. One of the issues is masks which i asked her about.