Million doses of the Pfizer Vaccine. Experts warn the key to stopping the virus is scrap those big holiday gatherings. So far people are not heeding that warning based on what we are seeing at the airports now. Lets begin at the white house with john harwood. John, why is the president suddenly so interested in this bill now when he stayed on the sidelines in large part for months while it was being negotiated . Well, we know pam its not because of the content of the bill itself. The president could care less about that. If he did, he would have been involved. We also do not know whether the president is simply harmlessly making noise trying to make himself look good, trying to smack around political adversaries, the people who understand that theyre going to be working with joe biden very soon, or whether hes actually trying to be destructive, cause a government shutdown, cause the American People to lose this relief. The president is erratic, unpredictable. He cant handle in a sensible, mature way hes defeated by joe biden, so hes pushing this delusion he actually won the election. Thats not going anywhere. At some level he knows that. And were just going to have to wait and see. Is this a one off, or is he trying to take it down . Well be watching. Senior political analyst john avlon is also here. John, it is true that its anyones guess which way this will go because of the erratic behavior from this president. What are the millions of people sitting at home looking forward to some relief after a very stressful year now anxious, not knowing whats going to happen, what are they supposed to think this morning . That we have a completely incoherent, borderline, incompetent president , undercutting his own partys negotiations in this deal in a speech full of lies where he ends up speaking and acting as if he will have a second term when he will not. But this is a very dangerous time for our country. He can be swimming around the lap of luxury at maralago while people are suffering in the wake of christmas in the absence of this bill. If he wanted a better bill, if he wanted a higher number, he should have negotiated for it. Instead, the house passed its own version in the summer. This finally got through the senate because of a bipartisan effort but his team negotiated. To attack it and undercut it now is simply cruelty as we face christmas for all of the people depending on something to help people through this period as the covid gets worse. The timing of this, john, last night i was reporting on the latest wave of pardons and in around 15 minutes this video was released that had us all sort of scratching our heads. What can you tell us about the latest wave of pardons issued by the president . I imagine this is just the beginning from what i have been hearing. It is just the beginning, pam. What this first installment shows is the president is determined to use the power of office as he gets ready to leave to protect his friends, his allies and himself. So he pardoned these three corrupt republican congressmen who were early endorsers of his campaign. He does this at a time when hes trying to get House Republicans to back his bid to challenge the election results. He pardoned those four blackwater guards who worked for eric prin erik prince when they murdered those people in iraq. Erik prince later tried to bribe officials to cover up what happened and that ended up not working and hes also the brother to betsy devos, the secretary of education under President Trump. Most importantly he pardoned these two people convicted in the Mueller Probe of trump in his relationship with russia. His overarching goal is to escape political and legal accountability for his relationship with Vladimir Putin for the health that they provided him and whatever hes done in return for that. Of course, were ending his administration on a massive hack of u. S. Government agencies and business, which the president has tried to absolve russia of and points to china. But the alex van der zwaan and george popolopodus are just a continuation of what happened with the commuting of the sentence of roger stone, with the pardoning of mike flynn. We expect more with Paul Manafort, his campaign manager, and the president may try to pardon himself. Well have to see. What do you think about these pardons hours before attorney general barr leaves . Well, thats an indication that this is not just the beginning but these might be the most palatable of the pardon spree the president is about to go on. But you see a couple clear themes in addition to what john harwood just laid out. Look, hes pardoning me trying to make money, steal money out of campaigns, people who lied to investigators or congress. These are clearly things the president is reflecting a degree of projection on, he lies all the time, how much money hes made off the office of president and pardon of political cronies against the backdrop of the russia investigation. This is going to get worse. It is a complete insult to the intentions of the founders when they came up with pardon power, who worried explicitly not only about constraining a it ran cal executive but if the president would try to pardon people they put up to crimes. What the president s been talking about in all of the corruption surrounding his administration, sedition, trying to overthrow an election and in the case of the russian hack, which he refused to condemn the kremlin for, one of the dozens of times he refused to accuse the kremlin, got asked why these giving a hostile foreign power comfort . In ee effect hes aiding the enemy. Hes constrained by the constitution on january 20th. Hes constrained by the fact the administration are getting orders to move on but hes doubling down with conspiracy theorists and plotting in the white house to overturn our election, every democratic norm he can possibly destroy before he leaves town. The connected tissue with some of the more highprofile pardons are the fact theyve been brought to the attention of the white house then pushed by gop allies of the president on capitol hill and conservative c media. This is the idea of draining the swamp, but john harwood, is this reflective of that . The president never had the slightest intention of draining the swamp. The ethos of donald trump is whats in it for me . When he said drain the swamp, what he meant was, im going to go get mine and do what i can to help people who help me get mine. So you cant take that term at face value. The president s tried to make money off the presidency and here we see with these pardons hes trying to protect his friends and allies. John harwood and john avlon, thank you very much. This Morning Health and Human Services secretary alex azar announced the u. S. Is buying an additional 100 million doses of the Pfizer Vaccine and they expect to receive all of those doses by august. Lets bring in cnn senior medical correspondent elizabeth cohen. Elizabeth, how significant is this . Its definitely significant. Way back, pam, i remember you and i talking back in the spring or summer, they were sort of preordering these vaccines. They didnt know how much to order of which, because some of them might not work. Pfizers and modernas turned out to work better than anyone expected so now theyre buying more. The secretary of health and Human Services, alex azar, has said with pfizer and moderna, those two purchases together add up to 400 million. You have to cut that in half when you look at how many people that takes care of because Everybody Needs 200 doses so enough for 200 Million People. Lets look at something secretary azar put in a press release. I think this was sort of the bottom line here. He said, this new federal purchase could give americans even more confidence that we will have enough supplies to vaccinate every american who wants it by july 2021. So what hes saying here is the intention is that if you want it, youll be able to get it by july of 2021. So not immediate. People are going to have to wait, but we can look forward to hopefully a summer where everyone who wants a vaccine will be able to get one. Pam . Hopefully. And then there are these travel restrictions that are continuing to tighten around the uk as we try to learn more about this new variant. What have we learned so far . So we know that other countries, many other countries, have said we dont basically we dont want flights coming in from the uk and the u. S. Has not chosen to go that route. Cnn spoke earlier this morning with dr. Rochelle va lensky, the incoming cdc director under president elect biden, and she said he thats a consideration. It sounds like its on the list of possibilities but she said there might be other things done as well. Quarantining people coming in from the uk, testing them, doing some combination of that. So i dont know that we are going to see a travel ban. The u. S. May stand not alone but almost alone in not putting in restrictions. But consider this, it appears this variant is already here. So do you really need to have a travel ban whether we know it is likely already here . I have spoken to scientists who say probably hundreds of people in the u. S. Have this uk variant, which we know is likely to transmit more quickly. Now, we dont have documentation that americans have this uk variant but really thats because the Surveillance System in this country is not so great. We havent caught it yet but we know its likely here. Pamela . Okay, elizabeth cohen, thank you so much. Still to come this morning, President Trump calls the carefully crafted stimulus bill a disgrace. Could his position put relief for millions of americans in jeopardy and cause the government to shut down . President elect biden laid the blame for the massive cyberattack squarely on President Trump. Ill talk to a top democrat on the House Intelligence Committee up next. And President Trump has pardoned military contractors involved in the massacre of iraqi civilians. A survivor of that attack is now speaking out. Stay with us. This morning right now as we speak, will americans facing food and rent evictions get the help they desperately need . The president now says he wont sign a compromised bill that finally passed after months of congressional bickering unless changes are made. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is in favor of one big change he wants. With me now is congresswoman Jackie Speier from california. Thank you for coming on. President trump said he wants more money to go directly to americans, something democrats want too. Were you surprised when he did this, and do you welcome it . So, were surprised and gleeful about it, but hes been awa awol during these negotiations for the last two weeks while he was trying to overturn the elections by the American People. So coming out with this magnanimous offer is terrific, its exactly what we wanted, but we werent allowed to get it because of the republicans in the senate in particular. So they were only interested in doing this package at all because of the georgia elections and that is what has motivated them. So lets just talk about that. As with he know Speaker Pelosi thumbed her nose from the proposal of the white house at one point 8 trillion before the election. Now the democrats seem to like the idea of putting money more in americans pockets and what the president is proposing. Why is that, why was she against it before the election and now for this . First of all, she was always for a minimum of 1,200 of economic stimulus and republicans said that was out of the question. They were more interested in a threemartini lunch 100 deduction when restaurants are closed and people are not going out for lunch, nor is that one of the priorities of democrats. Before the election, she was also fighting tooth and nail to get money for state and local governments because weve had so many people that have been laid off, and were talking about police, fire, teachers as a result of the pain and suffering that states and local governments have endured. So thats what she was fighting for. After the election, we were still negotiating for that and they made it absolutely clear that wasnt going to be the deal. The only way we were going to get anything was this pittance of 600 per person, and that was a tradeoff for not giving money to state and local governments. It where does this go from here . Will you be voting on a new measure today, given where things stand with the president s message . We will take this the president , whom had no interest in negotiating or being part of helping americans, but now that hes offered 2,000, we will actually take that bill up on the house floor tomorrow and give the republicans the opportunity to embrace it. They have typically not done so. Okay. I want to move on to another Big Development that came out last night and that was this pardon spree, including two men who pleaded guilty in Robert Muellers investigation. Three former congressmen who had been convicted of corruption and four blackwater guards involved in the iraq mass car. These are just some of the people the president pardoned, along with several nonviolent drug offenders. What is your reaction . It turns my stomach, to be quite honest with you. The president will pardon you if you lie for him. The president will pardon you if you are one of the first members that endorsed him. The president will pardon you even though you killed 17 civilians in a noncombative setting and a trial that took place three times. This is a president who does not provide pardons based on mercy and repentance in the sense of people who have kind of paid their dues. He does it because it reflects on him. If youre going to lie for him, youre going to get a pardon. Look forward to seeing Paul Manafort pardoned soon and others within his orbit who have been willing to lie for him or who have been engrandizers to him. Is i want to get to the russian hack before we let you go. There was a massive rush hack of private companies. Heres what joe biden said last night. This has all happened on Donald Trumps watch when he wasnt watching. Its still his responsibility as president to defend American Interest for the next four weeks. Rest assured that even if he does not take it seriously, i will. What does the incoming biden team need to do to deter them, stop them, when sanctions have already been ramped up so much . Theres so much more we need to do. And the president has been absolutely silent. And putting our National Security at great risk. This is like an act of war. We know that theyve gone into our networks. The we dont know if theyre just occupying the networks or if they have taken control of the networks. This is so serious and yet the president hasnt said a peep. He hasnt said a peep when it was alleged russia put bounties on american soldiers in afghanistan. He didnt say a peep when the russian Opposition Leader was poisoned. This president loves autocrats and he loves those who have shown him an interest in wanting to do business with him. Whether its a hotel in moscow or trump hotel in istanbul or erdogan was given the opportunity to go ahead and invade syria and go after the kurds, who have been our allies in shutting down isis. This man has no more fiber and it is time for us to get a real president of the united states. Thank god january 20th. You called it an act of war, congresswoman speier. Joe biden was asked if he viewed it as an act of war. He used forceful language but he didnt come outright and say, yes, this was an act of war. Would you have liked to see him be more forceful on this hack that everybody in intelligence thinks came from russia . I think the president elect will be very forceful once he has the reins of power. Its very difficult when you are a president in waiting. We always only have one president at a time. So i think hes using language that hes very careful about the language hes using. I would be very surprised if he doesnt characterize this as an act of war. It clearly is. Okay, congresswoman speier, thank you. Despite several warnings against holiday travel, tsa says 5 Million People passed through security airport checkpoints since friday. Why experts are raising the alarm, up next. Xfinity customers, stream hbo and more with the new hbo max app on xfinity. Watch the greatest collection of shows, movies and new max originals. Enjoy hbo favorites you know and love like game of thrones and the undoing. With exclusive max originals like the flight attendant. And blockbuster movies like dolittle. Just say hbo max into your voice remote to sign into your hbo account or sign up. Tv made simple, easy, awesome. The tsa says nearly 1 Million People travel through u. S. Airports again on tuesday. This marks the fifth straight day that around a Million People pass through security checkpoints despite several warnings from the cdc against holiday travel. Cnns at Wilmington International airport in virginia. Pete, what are you seeing there . How are the crowds . Pamela, its possible we can see another big bump in air numbers today and Health Experts are worried that could lead to another surge of the virus. More than a Million People passed through airports on friday, saturday and again sunday. Nearly a million on monday and tuesday, but its the threeday streak thats so interesting, something we have not seen before since the pandemic, not even around the thanksgiving holiday. We know the thanksgiving holiday led to a surge in the virus and dr. Anthony fauci says these new numbers are concerning. This type of travel is risky, particularly if people started congregating when they get to the destination in larger crowds in indoor settings. Im afraid if in fact we see this happen, we will have a surge that superimposed upon a difficult situation that we are already in. So it could be a very difficult january coming up if these things ha