Administration. An official there is accused of blocking the biden transition funds. Heres what senator lankford said last wednesday. Theres nothing wrong with Vice President biden getting the briefings to be able to prepare himself and so that he can be ready. There is no loss from him getting the briefings and to be able to do that, and if thats not occurring by friday, i will step in as well and to be able to push and say this needs to occur so that regardless of the outcome of the election, whichever way that it goes, people can be ready for that actual task. Again, senator lankford last week made the case for biden to get the briefings, saying if thats not occurring by friday, ill step in as well and to be able to push them and say this needs to occur. Friday came and went. This is what senator lankford said on newsmax tv on saturday. Im not in a hurry necessarily to get joe biden these briefings. Its been interesting how the media, the national media, not this network, but others have twisted this term step in. Pushback there from the senator. Now another seeming turn. The senator says he did, quote, step in with the gsa and talk with them on friday over the biden transition. He declined to say who he spoke with and what they had to say. The news continues right now. I want it hand over to chris for cuomo prime time. State tv has got some new competition. Its going to be very interesting to see how the narrative unfolds. For people like us, we do the job based on whos in power. But this is going to be very interesting. You notice what lankford said there. How the media, not this network, is playing his words, which were he would get involved. And now he isnt, and we know why. He has no good reason. Thank you, my brother, for bringing it to light. I am chris cuomo, and welcome to prime time. There is good news tonight, and there is bad news. And you know what . Having both is already progress by recent standards, is it not . The good news, we potentially have a second vaccine. The moderna vaccine. Maybe 95 nearly effective. And it does not need to be stored, theyre telling us, at these extremely cold temperatures like the pfizer drug. Makes it easier to distribute. Good. I would like to say the cavalry is coming, but that metaphor is not ripe, and thats the bad news. There is a difference between having a vaccine that can work, which it seems we may, and getting all of you vaccinated. A huge difference. Experts say the plan to distribute and track is way behind. The president elect gets this and gets whats making matters worse. More people may die if we dont coordinate. I am hopeful that the president will be mildly more enlightened before we get to january 20th. Look, the planning needs to be done now. Why . This country has never dealt with getting 300 Million People, all ages, stages, regions, you know, different living situations a vaccine and tracked it and figured out followups. Never. And it is an epic task. It demands coordination with the outgoing and Incoming Administrations. What are they supposed to just come in, bring some people in, and say, so whats the plan . It will never work. Yet for two weeks theres been no effort by the trumpers except to put trumps Political Health first, not your health. Literally trumpers are risking the fates of so many of you because trump is upset about his own fate. Hes saying it in his tweets. Look, i dont think theyre worth reading, okay . You can look at them if you want. Theyre there. But, again, theres good and bad news in this. Trump can lie. He can say he won, but he cant compromise your votes. The problem is he can compromise your safety. And what were seeing is every day he gets more desperate. So do his words and deeds. The latest, the New York Times is reporting tonight pence, pompeo, milley, who is the head of the joint chiefs of staff, and others had to talk trump out of a military strike on irans main nuclear site in the coming weeks. Seriously . Again, we know his judgment on iran is no more competent than his lies about the election. But, again, i submit to you the problem is bigger than him. Thats why i say trumpers. And the trumpers will be here after trump. You cannot forget the men and women in power who are empowering trump to delay this transition. And the key part, they have no basis in fact to do so. They have no justification. It is absolutely okay to go to court to point out, litigate, argue, politicize proof of problems. Weve had over a dozen lawsuits. No court, no republican state officials, no evidence offered by any credible source justifies any questions about the legitimacy of the outcome. So how do republicans in washington justify saying, well, there are questions. Has any of them given you proof to back them up . None. Well, we should let the process play out. First, they want to play a victim. You know, when you say remember them, i say remember them. They say, hes targeting us. Yeah, you are being targeted. But not because youre victims. Because youre victimizing the rest of us, and people must remember and hold you to account when trump is no longer there to somehow, in your perverse reality, spread the sunshine on you. You know this time is supposed to be for biden to get up to speed, and you know the need for that is unique right now. And yet the trumpers are keeping biden back with so many in this country literally dying from a lack of leadership. And by the way, while theyre saying let the process play out, theyre not doing anything with their own legislative process to give you relief, are they . Why not . Remember what they did for trump and remember what they didnt do for you. Proof of my argument. Senator lankford. Didnt this guy take an oath to have faith and allegiance to the constitution and his duties thereunder . I didnt see trumps name in the oath. So why does senator James Lankford break his promise . If they dont give biden these briefings by the end of the week, ill have to step in. Now hes going on newsmax, you know, the new competitor to state news over there, to figure out who has, you know, trumps best interests at heart, saying, oh, the media had it wrong. Im in no hurry to help biden. That means hes in no hurry to help you. Once again, clarity on the situation. Fresh eyes. This time its former first Lady Michelle obama. To play around with these groundless conspiracy theories, whether for personal or political gain, it to put our countrys health and security in danger. This isnt a game. This is the 14th day in this country of more than 100,000 new cases per day. 25 states saw their highest sevenday averages for new daily cases yesterday. And, no, its not because we test too much. Its because we dont care enough, me included. We all have not done what we need to do. Take a look at this scene in dallas this weekend. Look at these cars. Not a trump rally, but this is a result of trump. You know what this is . These are cars lined up to collect groceries at a food bank. I want you to keep looking at this. Look at all the cars. Look how far back the lines go. This is america, okay . This isnt post a hurricane. This is status quo for months for millions of people in this country. Weve never seen anything like it since the new deal, since the depression. Still think its a hoax . Still think masks are a joke . Still think its okay because you can catch someone like me not wearing one every minute of the day so you never have to . When people are starving because trump likes that, that you show youre strong and that you dont need a mask . Look at this. This is your country, and its not going to end anytime soon because nobodys making it end. And you know what the trumpers tell you . Instead of seeing this and saying, hey, we got to get to a better place, dr. Atlas, okay . A guy with no pandemic experience. He literally would know more if he stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night. Hes saying, hey, you in michigan, these measures to help try and control the spread, fight back. Are you kidding me . Shame on you. What kind of doctor would tell people to rise up and resist the only kind of prophylaxis that can help them . What the hell is the matter with this person . Rise up . You rise up and do your job or get the hell out. How could you give this kind of advice . Of course fauci was being measured. He says, i dont agree with his position. This isnt faucis fight. The science is obvious. This is about trump and the trumpers. Hes going to have his main health guy stand up and say, fight back against the regulations that keep you safe . Listen to him. Im not making it up. And this kind of isolation is one of the unspoken tragedies of the elderly, who are now being told, dont see your family at thanksgiving. For many people, this is their final thanksgiving, believe it or not. What are we doing here . What the hell are you doing here . Yeah, it could be their last thanksgiving. If you expose them to people who arent wearing masks, who arent socially distancing and havent been doing so and havent gotten tested because they somehow think they dont want to get in on the con of covid. You know, you want to hide on state news, you do it. But someday youre going to have to deal with real questions. And either youre going to come on a show and do it, but you know what . We may go back to old school and maybe the questions will come find you. Maybe when youre living your life nice and ease because you dont have the concerns that these same people that youre telling to rise up, that they have. Maybe the questions will come and find you because you have to answer for that kind of guidance, let alone its a doctor. Do no harm . Invite grandma . This could be her last thanksgiving . Yeah, if you invite her to a place where she can get sick and die. Thanksgivings right around the corner, and you know what . We do have to think about what were thankful for. And we also have to think about what were thankful for getting past because this ignoring the science, this is crazy. Were past 11 million cases. It will disappear in the spring. It only took six days for a million more to get sick. It had taken weeks and weeks. Now it just took us a week. Why . Because were not all together as one fighting with the desperation that is what you must have before the vaccine. 65 days are a lifetime for too many people in this country. Thats how long trump has left. Trumpers, remember you took an oath to this country and your constituents, not to him. Do your damn job. Now, what should that be looking like versus what is the legit state of play . Excellent insight and information for you right now. David axelrod, kaitlan collins. So, kaitlan, we laid out some of the state of play there. We understand whats going on. We saw the New York Times reporting. This idea that the president has plans of what he wants to do in these 65 days that are almost scarier than what he wants to do to contest the election, what are you hearing . Well, the president has obviously been looking to make a lot of changes that started with last monday when he started purging the leadership at the pentagon. But of course the question is now what are they going to do in the next two months . That has a range of topics where its the president continuing to fight the results of this election, urging his team to keep this fight going even though we say as its playing out in each of the different courts and different states, their chances of success are dwindling, not that they were ever that strong to begin with. Were already seeing the struggles theyre facing there. Youve got to look at the question what does the president do in the next two months . The question of the transition is more than just the president conceding the race and recognizing joe bidens victory, but its also whether or not the president is checked out from the coronavirus response. Thats something that were hearing increasing concerns about because if youve noticed, the president gave an update on operation warp speed last friday. That was really one of the only times weve heard from the president talk about the pandemic without, you know, accusing pfizer of holding data on a vaccine to hurt him politically or things of that nature, those kind of conspiracy theories that the president has been pushing. So i think thats a big question that people have is what does the president not do over the next two months when it comes to coronavirus, and how does that affect or damage really the standing of where the nation is and what the Biden Administration is going to be coming into . All right. So, ax, just in terms of the particulars of it, the idea that he may begin the leasing process for arctic drilling, im not that worried about that. I think there are policy discussions to have there, but that can be undone, whatever he does. Thats a protracted process. What is also protracted but a little more difficult to manage once its put into effect is troop drawdowns from afghanistan and iraq. Weve seen at the end of a term people put more troops in. Weve never seen them start taking them out. I know its a protracted process to pull them out, but what kind of complication does that stake in situations that are still very unstable . Great complications. Look, i think there are two dangers here, what the president isnt doing and what the president will do as kaitlan said. 65 days is an eternity, and theres so much power in that office and so much of an ability to do things that are really dangerous for the country. War in iran, for example, would be an enormously costly decision and dangerous decision and certainly not one you should make on your way out the door. Withdrawing troops is a fateful decision, and there are consequences that may be paid for that if its not done the right way. You know, so these things are these things are worrisome, you know, along with what he is not doing. This could not be worse timing. We are entering the worst phase of this pandemic, and the danger, we should look, i have dr. Atlas was pandering to the feeling of people of isolation, of not being with their family on thanksgiving, of all the sacrifices that people have to make. I am sympathetic to that. But the reality is hospitals across this country are being overwhelmed by this pandemic. And within a few weeks, we may have people who are literally dying in the streets because they cannot get into a hospital. This is a national emergency, and its not getting any attention from the president of the United States. So, you know, on the one hand hes contemplating all these rash actions that are subversive and could create real danger for us, and hes ignoring the gravest danger that we face right now, which is this virus. Its really a tragic circumstance here. Kaitlan, any word on the lower levels that there will be some interface between the Current Administration and the incoming on the vaccination process and Distribution Plan . Well, theyre struggling with how to approach this. Even though who are more maybe career officials or people who actually do want this process to go smoothly because theyve worked on it for the last nine months or so is that they cant even really talk about it because the president himself hasnt recognized it. And thats not even just on the lower levels. We saw it with the hhs secretary this morning who wouldnt even acknowledge the fact that there is going to be a transition to another administration because the president himself has, of course, denied that and put all of his deputies in a terrible spot where they feel like if they acknowledge it, of course, theyre going to get the treatment that Robert Obrien did today where hes just simply recognizing reality and pointing that out, or they just act like its not going to happen and then look ridiculous later on. So this is something they are concerned about. This is something people do want to go smoothly because they dont want it to undo all the work theyve done on the vaccine over the last several months and the Distribution Process that theyve been working on within operation warp speed. But of course that is a struggle when your boss cannot admit that he lost the election, at least not publicly in a sense like that to where they can properly be ready for that, though they have assured us they will be ready if a transition does happen, which are the words that azar used today. Of course we know its not if. Its when. Kaitlan, thank you. Ax, last word to you and also weigh in on this a little bit. I see this like this is going to be worse than what you dealt with, with the republicans when you came in. I mean they are holding up this transition at a time they know is life and death, and they have no basis, not even cruz is offering the guy is a champion debater and litigator and Supreme Court know it all. He cant offer any legitimate grounds for litigation right now. The cases are failing all over the place. It looks like its in its death gasp in pennsylvania. If this is their spirit of opposition, what is biden looking at with this Republican Senate in control . No, i agree. Every Single Person in washington, including senator cruz, knows the reality of what the situation is. This election was over a long time ago, and theyre playing this out because the president demands they do. Heres what worries me. What we didnt face, yes, that is scary the opposition in the congress is worrisome for biden. But we didnt have donald trump sitting down the street setting up camp and leading the resistance from some, you know, rightwing television outpost, and thats whats going to happen here. And what you see on the part of these republican politicians is abject fear, not so much fear of trump but fear of the base that he commands. And that is what bidens going to face whenever there comes a question of cooperation. I think that, you know, at a time when we desperately need cooperation, youre going to have trump banging on the door day after day, calling people traitors if they make any move to work with the people that the United States elected. Thank you. Appreciate you. All right. Major concerns in the runup to inauguration day. What is this with iran . Why would trump think to do this on the way out . He had a lot of time to do it. He has never wanted to do anything like it since we had that moment years ago. Why pull out troops now and threaten destabilizing the region . You had years to do it. Why now . Great timing to have his former National Security adviser on here and also for just an understanding, theyre playing politics. The military is in charge of figuring out distribution. Policy versus politics can be a world of difference. H. R. Mcmaster, next. How about no no uh uh, no way come on, no no nnnnono only discover has no an