And this morning dr. Anthony fauci warning of a brutal month ahead after millions of americans ignored warnings not to travel over the holidays. In addition to the surge were going to have an increase superimposed upon that surge which could make january even worse than december. I hope not. I hope that doesnt happen, but it certainly is possible. Also today Vice President elect Kamala Harris and husband doug im who have set to receive the first dose of a covid19 vaccine. Its an important step in growing americans confidence in the vaccine itself. Critical as covid19 hospitalizations are at an alltime high. So dire in fact that in hard hit California Health experts are warning of rationing nurses and respirators. First lets get to cnn Suzanne Malveaux on capitol hill. What are we going to expect from the senate today . Any sense on whether majority leader mim will take up a vote on the did you mean lus checks. All eyes will be on Senate Majority leader Mitch Mcconnell in three hours or so thats when we will get a sense of which direction he is going. Notably it was the president who said that hes signed on to the 900 billion covid stimulus package on the condition that mcconnell would bring it up on the senate floor, but its far from certain whether or not he is actually going to commit to such a thing. We do know that Senate Minority leader Chuck Schumer will go ahead and introduce the 2,000 direct payment idea by unanimous consent. That means that all 100 senators cannot object to this in order for a quick passage. We dont expect that that is going to actually be successful. That will fail very likely senator ron johnson, republican from wisconsin, will object. There are many other republicans who dont support this big hike in this direct payment. There are some trump allies, however, who do say it would sign on Lindsey Graham and marco rubio, but it will take a good deal of the Republican Party to back this if that is going to happen. What could be an option for mcconnell is he no only introduces this as a standalone bill but attaches it to some provision or poison pill that the democrats simply cannot sign off on. We will see how all of this is playing out. We do know that mcconnell would like to start with a vote on overriding the veto for military funding bill that was done in the house. That may or may not happen depending on if senator Bernie Sanders holds true to his threat that hes going to hold up that vote until we deal with this direct stimulus check. Really pitting republicans against the president himself. Suzanne, thank you so much. Cnns Boris Sanchez is in West Palm Beach following the president. Boris, any reaction from the president following last nights votes . Reporter yeah, bianna, there is no question that President Trump is growing angry with his republican allies in congress. This rift between the president and republicans somewhat sparked by his repeated claims of Election Fraud and his frustration that the Republican Leadership is not pursuing these false claims fully exposed now with this vote, this pending vote to potentially override his defense spending bill veto. The president moments ago lashing out at the Republican Leadership on twitter. He calls them weak and tired. He writes leadership in quotation marks and he says, quote, negotiate a better bill or get better leaders now. Interesting that this is happening at this very time while the president is clearly closer to democrats on the issue of these 2,000 stimulus checks. I want to quickly point to this tweet the president sent at 2 00 a. M. , it sort of underscores where things stand right now. The president tweeting out a story about Bernie Sanders decision to try to filibuster a vote to overturn that defense spending bill until Mitch Mcconnell asks for a vote on the 2,000 stimulus checks. Trump writing, quote, give the people 2,000 not 600. They have suffered enough. The president here more closely aligned with senator Bernie Sanders tweeting out in support of him, a democratic socialist that he has frequently called crazy, this rift between republicans and the president obviously growing and on full display on twitter. Bianna . And couldnt come at a worse time for republicans given the runoff elections for those two senate seats next week, one week from today to be exact in georgia. Boris sanchez, thank you so much. Well, this morning the u. S. Hits a new coronavirus record again. 121,000 patients are hospitalized with covid19, thats the most since the pan d pandemic started. Health experts warn medical facilities may soon have to rags care. Hospitals in california are so overwhelmed that one hospital is putting patients in the gift shop and a chapel. Stephanie elam joins me from los angeles. Stephanie, so much concern about whats transpiring in that state right now. You had dr. Anthony fauci referencing it in his own concern this morning. Reporter yeah, for sure. When you look at these numbers you can see there is a problem. Nationwide you are talking about that 12,000 people who are hospitalized, that record there. People in mind thats the 27th day in a row that we have been over 100,000 hospitalizations in the United States right now and on top of that you look at december, we know its the deadliest month by far now of all of the pandemics and you see that number above 66,000 and we see the number of cases in december, its 5. 7 million ca s cases [ no audio ] not going the way that they should be going especially since people are definitely moving around. We saw the most people traveling the day on sunday out of all of this pandemic according to the tsa thats when they saw the most people go through their check points. All of this is factoring into what we are seeing here. You look at the california numbers and its just not what we want to see. You say those numbers in california as far as hospitalizations and the fact that some of these hospitals are treating people in places that they should not be, like the chapel and the gift shop, thats specifically happening in two regions it looks like, Southern California and san joaquin where they are out of icu beds. In fact, its so dire take a listen to what dr. Anthony fauci said about the situation here in california. The situation in california, which is very disturbing, you just hate to see that when you have Health Care Providers trying as best as they can, knocking themselves out to take care of people and theyre running out of beds. Reporter and its so bad that some of these patients are being treated in ambulances outside of the hospital, we know hospitals have put back up their tents outside to treat Covid Patients as well here in the Southern California region. All of this is leading many to believe that today california will extend the stayathome order for Southern California and also San Joaquin Valley where we see we have already run out of icu beds at this point and this surge upon a surge, bianna. A reminder for folks who are thinking about traveling, just take a look at those numbers, take a look at the headlines coming out of hospitals and fauci said as well he worries january could be even worse than december. Stephanie elam, thank you so much. We appreciate it. Well, president elect joe biden plans to call out the Trump Administration for the slower than expected pace of coronavirus vaccinations. The cdc says that less than 20 of the doses currently in the hands of the states have been administered to people. Cnns senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen is here. Elizabeth, why are the numbers so short of those initial expectations . Bianna, dr. Anthony fauci saying on our air very bluntly we are below where we want to be. Bianna, the number is very likely an underestimate, the number of shots in arms is likely an underestimate, not all states put in their data, there are reporting lags, its not necessarily up to the second, it was a holiday weekend. Theres a lot of hope that things will surge in january. But i think this really points to somethings that weve talked about on this show before, that these are two different processes, getting the vaccines out, getting fedex and u. P. S. And trucks to do what they need to do to get the vaccines out and then to get the vaccines into arms. Those are two different processes. Getting fedex and u. P. S. In the trucks to do what they need to do, they do that every day. Hospitals dont vaccinate their entire virtually their entire staffs every day. That is an unusual process, it is not something they do all the time. I for one am not surprised that these numbers are what they are. Its not an excuse but it makes you wonder as prepared as this country was to get those vaccines out, were they as prepared to get those shots into arms . It is a bit of a slog to vaccinate that many people in Nursing Homes and in hospitals. It is not easy and i think were seeing that now. Thats one of the reasons i think president elect biden said he would consider enacting the defense production act to expedite this process as well, far below those estimates of 20 million shots by the end of the year. Elizabeth cohen, thank you so much. We appreciate it. Thanks. Well, more transition turmoil. President elect biden says his team is not getting the information it needs on Key National Security issues. The impact this could have on the Incoming Administration and your safety. Plus one week from today Critical Senate runoffs in georgia. The power of the senate at stake, millions have already voted. Will the president s upcoming visit help or hurt republicans . So you want to make the best burger ever . Then make it that means selling everything. And eating nothing but cheese till you find the perfect slice. Even if everyone asks you. Another burger truck . Dont listen to them that means cooking day and night until you get. [ ding ] you got paid that means adding people to the payroll. Hi mom. That means. Best burger ever. Intuit quickbooks helps Small Businesses be more successful with payments, payroll, banking and live bookkeeping. New this morning, president elect joe biden is considering making cuts to the countrys Nuclear Modernization program. According to a Transition Team official. Biden is hoping to shift the u. S. Strategy putting more emphasis on arms control rather than enhancing americas current arsenal. Cnn National Security correspondent Vivian Salama joins me now. Good morning. This news comes as the clock particula ticks down on a critical cold war agreement with russia. Sources tell me that president elect joe biden is considering reducing reliance and spending on nuclear weapons. So folks at home may hear that and say uhoh, its a dangerous world, why are they thinking of doing that. Officials tell me that he really wants to place emphasis on arms control and not on developing these weapons and potentially having a threat. Its essentially a do as we do not as we say. This Program Actually started under Barack Obamas administration, its called the Nuclear Modernization strategy, and it was supposed to be enhancing and modernizing the Nuclear Arsenal that the United States has. Under the Trump Administration that ramped up significantly to the point that President Trump has advocating for the development of new modern weapons, he even went as far as to develop landbased Ballistic Missile which was very controversial. And that program is due at its current speed its due to cost the United States over the next 30 years over 1 trillion. So president elect biden and his advisers saying, listen, we have to scale this back. Obviously we need a deterrent, we need Strong Nuclear program, but we cant also just let this become this bloated uncontrolled program. So obviously this is something thats going to get a lot of push back from congress, a lot of hawks out there believe we need to develop new nuclear weapons, we need to have a strong program, and especially because as you said in the beginning 16 days after president elect Joe Biden Takes Office a very critical treaty with russia expires, a Nuclear Treaty with russia. A lot of people looking at that and saying what are you going to do next. We will wait and see, bianna. The new start treaty, president elect biden has suggested that he will extend that treaty, something that Vladimir Putin liked to hear as well and agreed with. Thank you so much. President elect biden is accusing the Current Administration of putting up road blocks to his president ial transition. He says Political Leadership in the Budget Office and Defense Department are to blame, calling their lack of transparency nothing sort of irresponsible. Christopher miller responded saying, quote, dods efforts already surpass those of recent administrations with over three weeks to go and we continue to schedule additional meetings for the remainder of the transition and answer any and all requests for information in our purview. Im joined now by rhode island democratic congressman david cicilline, he also serves on the Foreign Affairs and judiciary committees. Thank you so much for joining us. Lets begin with these transition road blocks that biden is calling out. What is going on here and how dangerous would it be for the incoming president to be playing catch up as he enters the white house, especially with a suspected russian hack still ongoing . Well, unfortunately this is a pattern of this president who has in every way obstructed the transition to the new president. He refuses to acknowledge that joe biden will be the president of the United States and has won the election and i think there have been a number of difficulties in terms of the sharing of information. Anything that is not shared that relates to our National Security obviously endangers the security and safety of our country. So there are real consequences to this. Thankfully the president elect has assembled an extraordinary National Security team and will of course catch up quickly, but this is just one more example of the sort of reckless, childish behavior of a president who lost an election and is not putting the best interests of the American People first. Yeah, this really stood out, though, because president elect biden for the most part has been rather reserved in terms of criticizing the Current Administration and yet to hear those words from him yesterday were pretty jarring. Lets move on to the other news yesterday, your chamber passed a pressure to increase stimulus checks to 2,000. Do you have any confidence that this measure will make it through to the senate . Well, it should. Look, we did two important things yesterday, we overrode the president s veto of the National Defense authorization bill to be sure our troops get the pay raise they deserve, that we take care of our veterans, that we protect the defense of our country and we also passed in a bipartisan way with over two thirds vote of the house to raise the survival checks to 2,000, the president says he supports that, he should be pressuring Mitch Mcconnell to bring that bill to the floor for a vote. I think if Mitch Mcconnell does that we will have the support from the democrats and enough republicans to make it a reality. Look, people are struggling, theyre facing difficulties paying their bills, paying rent or mortgage, putting food on the table. We are in the worst economic crisis of our lifetimes, the worst Pandemic Health crisis in 100 years and the federal government needs to do more to help struggling families. The 2,000, again s a down payment but i hope the senate will quickly pass it and give badly needed relief to the American People. We have already heard from some republican senators like senator rubio who said he would be in favor of 2,000 stimulus checks going out as well. On that house vote yesterday to override the president s veto of the National Defense billet me ask you about that because there seems to have been some road blocks in the sense that you got a curveball from Bernie Sande