Joined now by manu raju, and one of president now ear hearing from senators, theres a change in their tune. Theres a lot of concern about the National Security element of this, and denying joe biden the necessary briefings could hurt the countrys ability to transition safely and securely come january 20th. The fact that republican senators, while theyre publicly siding with the president who is disputing the election results, they see the numbers. They now hoe difficult, if not impossible, it would be for the president to change the fact he has lost this election and joe biden will be. While theyre giving him space to mount the legal challenges, theyre making it clear that some of the transition needs to take place. Lindsey graham being one them, also john thune, and Chuck Grassley also told me that should occur. Some of the republican senators making clear that the General Services administration should at least sign off on the requisite paperworks to allow the process to begin. Others even recognizing joe biden as president elect. We know, pam, a lot of republicans have refused to call him that. Even the president s close allies in the Republican Leadership like jan barrasso says it would be a very narrow chance for the president to win. Theyre giving him space, but the question will be will the president concede . If he doesnt, how will the republicans to respond . Because they expect him to step aside then. What is the president s mindset right now . Reporter today the press secretary was asked about some of those comments, and she referred that question back to the white house, because she was appearing in her personal capacity, as theyre calling it, as a 2020 campaign adviser. If its confusing to people at home, its just as confusing to the reporters here, why the White House Press secretary is referring questions back to the white house. It comes as the people around the president are trying to delicately balancing this, even though our reporting show that more and more advisers believe they do not have a path to success to the legal challenges. And even the president himself has recognized privately, yes, he has lost this election, he just hasnt done so publicly, pam, so the question is, how long will the president run the clock out on this. Some people say days, some people believe it could be weeks, but we wonder the republican support, or lack of, will affect the president s timeline. It may make him double down or make him realize this has a pretty short life cycle. But we should note, what we are hearing in the president s orbit, they believe when he finally knows the results, he will tease a 2024 run just to keep people on the edge of their seats. I do not find that surprising. Thank you both for that great reporting. First, as the president focusing on his own fate, the coronavirus problem in this country is spiraling as we speak, right now more than 142,000 cases were reported yesterday. Over 65,000 americans are currently hospitalized with covid. That too is a record. The president has produced no plan publicly to stop its spread. Instead the administration is taking action to notch political wins and obstruct bidens transition. Lets check in with our correspondents in washington for those details. Reporter theres a stack of message from foreign leaders around the world sitting in there building for president elect joe biden, but hes unable to access them. Traditionally the state Department Operation sets up the phone calls between president elect and these foreign leaders, but gsa has not formally recognized joe biden as the winner of the election, so theyre being set up without the support of the state department, leading foreign leaders to have to navigate an unfamiliar maze just to get in touch with president elect in the united states. Im babb bra starr, a new senior divorce has been appointed, he is a retired u. S. Army colonel. Hes getting a lot of attention for various reasons. He has a track record of racist and xenophobic comments, but also advocated for rapidly pulling ought troops out of afghanistan, something President Trump wants to do, but something his own military advisers say is a bad idea, that u. S. Troops are still needed in that country for some time to come. Im going to bring in Gloria Borger now and dan ebberhart. The silence from republicans over the last few days have been deaf eni deafening. I think its the beginning of the end. I think the cracks are widening. What these republicans are saying when they say, you know, allow joe biden to have access to the intelligence is start the transition, mr. President , understand this is over. This is not a president you with go to and say its time to resign like Barry Goldwater did to richard nixon. This is a president you have to sort of take care of make sure hes okay, and then do this in a gradual way without sort of stepping all over him and getting him angry. This is one way to do it, gradu gradually they have to see the intelligence, transition has to start. Dan, what about the republicans who continue to egg on the republicans . What is it in for them . I think theyre in a hard spot, some of them are. Most of the people in the party are really about the Georgia Senate elections. I know Mitch Mcconnell is, so theyre trying not to anger trump and have him storm out the door by slamming and really causing more consternation, because trump is the number one thing the Republican Party has for a turn outof. And all eyes are on georgia for this next month, notwithstanding the biden transition, but its past time for trump respect for the country, respect for the election, its time for him to acknowledge it, open the doors so biden can start getting the keys to take over on january 20th and the country can heal and move on. I think that trumps holding out is damaging the republican brand for the future. I know republicans are in a tough spot, but as we talked about earlier, we saw this coming. This is not a surprise that the president is behaving this way, not accepting the results of the election. Are the republicans putting their party over the country, over the good of this country by essential enabling the president . You know, i dont really think were at that point yet. I think people are still trying to absorb this, trying to understand what happen, but my point is the senate republicans, Senate Leadership really need to move on and allow biden to get the keys to the kingdom. Trump needs to understand this is the point of president ial leadership, admitting he was a warrior, but defeated in battle, and allowing the country to heal and move forward is what is needed. Thats what i call upon him to do. Hi needs to step aside. So that the country can keep moving. You know, in sports, sometimes you win, sometimes you sluice, but when you lose, you have to respect the sport, the game, your opponents, and ablow the victory to sink in. Gloria . Heres the thing. They dont want to poke the bear. Theyre afraid the bear will get angry and not help them in georgia. I totally understand that, but donald trump exactly. But donald trump will never admit defeat. He will say the election is rigged, i would have won if the election werent rigged. I want to point out theres been a audit in more than half of the places in arizona where they say biden is up 11,000 and theres no hankypanky going on, but hell still say that and throw out there, by the way, i might run in 2024, and he will freeze the republican president ial race to replace him. So the republicans have to placate him, by make no mistake. He doesnt care about the future of the Republican Party as much as he cares about his own. Go ahead, dan. I agree with most of what you said, but i think the Trump Administration is a melting ice cube, so i dont think it will freed the field for 24. People like josh hawley, nikki haley, tom cotton will come in, and his star will fade. Its time for the country to move on. I hope i supported trump, im conservative at heart. He fought the good fight, he just came up a bit short, but the country needs leadership. Unfortunately for my standpoint thats joe biden, but we need to embrace that and we need to move on and allow joe biden to plan, wish him the best luck for all of us as a country. We need to put did you want over party right now. Dan eberhart, Gloria Borger, thank you. Two department of Homeland Security officials have been forced to resign by the white house. The details are just ahead. Plus well talk about pardons and whether the president is preparing for an onslaught of them, including a potential pardon for himself. Plus the plan in charge of the plan to distribute a vaccine. Youre watching cnns live special coverage. Your journey requires liberty mutual. They customize your Car Insurance so you only pay for what you need. Wow. That will save me lots of money. This games boring. Only pay for what you need. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Tech every customer has their own safelite story. This couple was on a camping trip. When their windshield got a chip. They drove to safelite for a sameday repair. And with their insurance, it was no cost to them. Woman really . Tech thats service you can trust. Singers safelite repair, safelite replace. See yourself. Welcome back to the mirror. And know youre not alone because this. Come on jessie one more. Is the reflection of an Unstoppable Community in the mirror. At tmobile, we believe you should get more. Thats why weve merged with sprint. Now its about to get even better. And as we work to integrate sprints network, our nationwide 5g keeps getting stronger. With the capacity and coverage to reach more people and places across the country. Who says you cant have it all. Now is the time for 5g. Now is the time to join tmobile. Cnn has learned that President Trump may have a list of working names. Another potential name on that list is the president himself. Yes, thats right, cnn sources are saying that President Trump is considering pardoning him. Former Administration Officials tell cnn that trump has been asking aides about pardons for himself and his family since 2017. Paul has an oped on cnn. Com about how these pardon strategies might work. Thanks for coming on. What is your reaction to this idea of the president pardoning himself. How would that even work . You know, im not surprised at all about it, given his history of sort of gaming the court system. He had no hesitation about filing for bankruptcy or paying as low a tax rate as possible, because he said, hey, the law allows me to do that. So why would he approach a pardon in a different way . Theres several ways it can be done. One is the concept of selfpardon. He just pardons himself. Its never been done. Its a risky maneuver. A lot of legal scholars think, if you took that into court, it might be thrown out, as the pardon power was really not intended for you to use on yourself. But there are other avenues that could be explored. In fact, pam, they were explored around the time of the nixon pardon back in 1984. And one is this is a strange one, something called a congressional pardon. Allowing them to pardon a sitting president , if they wanted to. That would get around the selfpardon problem. Under the 25 amendment, the president could resign and then hope that pence, the Vice President who would be acting president , would pardon him. Those are all three interesting and very, very different possibilities of how a pardon would be handled. So sources we have spoken to really have been split on whether he would do this. Some say they wouldnt be surprised at all that hes been interested in this idea since 2017. Others i have spoken to said he wouldnt do that, because it would be an admission of guilt. Wouldnt a president ial part be an admission of that, that you have done something wrong . It would not be an explicit admission. The constitution doesnt require somebody to admit guilt in order to get or accept a pardon. However, i think that if a new, lets say, acting president pence after trump resigns for a couple days before the inauguration of biden would be foolish. Congress would be foolish to let them get away with taking a pardon without confessing guilt. Otherwise, hell try to make a comeback. The whole reason to pardon a president is so the country can move on. Thats what happened when nixon resigned, you know. It was a situation the vietnam war had gone on for a long time. The watergate scandal had embroiled the country, much like whats going on today. Gerald ford ultimately said we need a break from this, we have to move on. If trump resigns, leaves office, and then continues with the twitter feed and accusation of a stolen election it will dominate for years to come. I think that might be the way to go with former President Trump. All right. Paul, thank you for breaking it down for us. Thank you, pam. Nice being with you. Officials are saying halloween parties are partly to blame, in as new york cracks down on restaurants again, forcing them to close at 10 00 p. M. Ill speak to a man who says that will destroy his business. Before we talk about taxsmart investing, whats new . Audreys expecting. Twins wed be closer to the twins. Change in plans. At fidelity, a change in plans is always part of the plan. Well, the coronavirus stole 1,893 american lives yesterday. As the country set new reports for covid infections and hospitalizations, this is a fivealarm fire were going there. Wednesday marked the ninth consecutive day of more than 100,000 new infections. Yesterday was a record high. And theres no end in sight. 49 states are reporting growing or steady numbers of cases. We are also setting a Record Number of hospitalizations. As of last night more than 65,000 americans are hospitalized. Some states are warning their hospitals are nearing capacity. In fact tennessee says theres 191 intensive care unit beds across the state. Thats just 9 . Also today, new Jersey Health officials are saying multiple outbreaks in the state are linked to halloween parties. Cnns jean casarez is taking a look. Pamela, the new Jersey Department of health is telling cnn there have been at least five covid outbreaks from halloween parties. Theyre saying there are 70 cases associated with those parties and other social gather gatherings. It is also being advised that theyre a concern. If you let your guard now, you could be exposed and not even know it by being around asymptomatic individuals. Pamela . Thanks so much, jean. Strahan and bar owners are slamming governor cuomos new 10 00 p. M. Restaurant closing times and restrictions aimed at tamping down covid19. Starting friday night, restaurants and bars will be required to close at 10 00 p. M. Daily. Theyll still be allowed to do foodonly pickup and delivery after 10 00, but they will not be permitted to serve alcohol to go. I want to bring in butch omall omalley. Thanks so much for coming on. I know this is a difficult time for you. You were closed about seven months for the pandemic. How will it impact your business and staff . Its going to have a very heavy impact on us. I understand where hes coming from. Safety is first, and were going to support his decision and go with it, but it doesnt help. We couldnt give you the same experience to our guests over the past seven months. We finally gave 50 to long island, 25 in the city of our capacity. People started to get used to the new norm as our guests and our staff. Now with this shutdown, it has a whole new set of rules. People dont realize in a catering hall, if we have to be closed by 10 00, out the door is what theyre saying, we have to stop parties by 9 30. Theres weddings that have alreadyic heavily limited, but if you go to a wedding or regular party, all you can do is sit there. You cant congregate, you cant dance, you have to wear a mask if you get up, you cant go to the bar. Just sit there and eat until the time is over and you go home. Not much of a party, but people were accepting it. Theyre saying this is what it is and well do our best. Now we have to call these very same people and say, you have to leave the premises by 9 30 in order for us to be out of there by 10 00. Theyre not happy by it, but again theyre accepting it. Its like a trickledown effect. Our attach has less hours. There will be less people who want to do parties. S they have to have time to eat dinner, drink, a desert, so the latest is 8 00 to sit them down to get them out by 10 00. If you could talk to the governor, what would you suggest . Is it. Maybe limit the days their open, not so much the hours. To close at 10 00, i dont know what that proves the virus doesnt know after 10 001 comes out in the open. If we closed mondays and tuesdays, and maybe theres a curfew, maybe we know you can tell the staff well book a party where we know we can be open to 10 00, 11 00. We were also part of sandy. At least we knew it was over and we could rebuild. Here we dont know when its going to be over. This could be the start of another wave and another closure, and we cant sustain any more closures. I have big places, and its very expensive to keep them going. I would plead, talk to the restaurant originals and come up with a plan thats safe first, hopefully slow it down or stop it, and we can survive. Otherwise were just going to have to close. That will be the end of us. Youre in such a difficult spot. That would obviously the worst case for you. Butch yamalii. Thank you for sharing your perspective. Thank you for inviting me. Breaking news at this hour, sources are telling cnn two officials have been forced to resign by the white house. Those details coming up. Bad news for the president s baseless claims. What arizona just revealed in its audit of election day. Ever wonder what retinol dermatologists use to fight wrinkles . Its what i use neutrogena®. The 1 retinol brand used most by dermatologists. Rapid wrinkle repair® visibly smooths fine lines in 1 week. Deep wrinkles in 4. So you can kiss wrinkles. And other wrinkle creams goodbye rapid wrinkle repair®. Pair with our most concentrated retinol ever for 2x the power. Neutrogena®. The annual Enrollment Period is here. The time to choose your coverage. Begins october 15th and ends december 7th. So call unitedhealthcare. And take