Attacks. This week, the daily reported death toll from covid in america was almost as high. On multidays. Vaccines are coming soon, but so is a dark and tragic winter. How can we reverse the terrible trends the u. S. Is seeing and can we do it before christmas . Harvards michael mina has a plan. Finally, the president and his allies continue to spread lies about widespread election fraud. At the highest level, it was a rigged election. Think its all innocuous . Think again. One great political lie helped bring about the downfall of german democracy in the 1930s. The great historian Margaret Macmillan will explain. But first, heres my take. Its much too soon to be thinking about a posttrump america. Donald trump remains the most popular figure among republicans and he will continue to play a huge role in american politics in the years to come. But it is not too soon to begin thinking about a posttrump democracy. An american political system that learns from the challenges and threats it has endured over the last four years. To those who think this concern is overblown, i would simply say, look out the window. Even thousand the president of the United States is attempting to use the powers of his office and public platform to overturn the results of an election. Trumps efforts have not born fruit. The courts have refused to bend the rules. Even republicanappointed judges have followed the law, local officials did their job. All of this is encouraging. Even so, the past month has exposed fundamental weaknesses in americas electoral system. American elections are mostly run not by apolitical federal officials but by local politicians, elected or appointed, representatives of both parties monitor elections and most collectively sign off on them. The system has worked because both sides have upheld their duty to certify Election Results that were free and fair, no matter the winner. But, in this election, the Republican Party, the president , the Partys National chair, key senators and state party bosses put unrelenting pressure on these local officials to delay or reject the routine certification of results. In georgia, the states two current republican senators called on secretary of state Brad Raffensperger to resign simply because he affirmed the truth, that the states vote was free and fair. In michigan, which biden won by 150,000 votes, Republican Party officials hounded the two republicans on the fourperson board of canvassers that certifies results. In the face of this assault, one of the twofolding, it was only because one republican, aaron van langvelde, stood his ground that the results were certified. And the story is not over yet. In all likelihood, donald trump will keep up his attacks on those republican officials in the key swing state who is refuse to do his bidding. If raffensperger and van langvelde are drummed out of politics, the message to republican officials in the next close election will be clear, put party over country or you can say goodbye to your career. The next set of local officials might prove to be less honorable, so might a younger and more partisan batch of judges. Americas election arrangements are rooted in a venerable anglosaxon system in which citizens are called upon to perform official functions. The anglosaxon approach contrasts with the french continental system in which the state has more control. But this anglosaxon system depends on the idea that citizens will place the Public Interest ahead of their private interest. Donald trump has put that assumption to the test, plunging our democracy into crisis. We need a set of posttrump reforms to bolster american democracy. Independent, nonpartisan boards should be established to manage elections rather than partisan officials. Standardized rules should be set about voter registration, mailin voting, ballot challenges and the reporting of results. We need a broader set of reforms that draw on the experience of the trump years, ones that codify into law what have been traditions and norms and practices. Candidates should have to disclose their tax returns so that the public can be aware of any potential conflicts of interest. Winners must be required to place any of their businesses or assets into genuine blind trusts. We can now see that the lag between the election and inauguration is much too long, far longer than most other countries where its often a day or two. The incumbent enjoys far too much power during this transition period. The Trump Administration has made the dangers clear by initially with Holding Funds for the transition and refusing to provide Intelligence Briefings to biden. Laws should be written to ensure a smooth transition and minimize the possibility that the outgoing president can act to enhance his personal fortunes or cripple his successor. By assaulting american democracy in so many ways, donald trump has shown a light shoene a l the weakens. If donald trump himself in four years trying to pervert the system again, american democracy this time will be better equipped to withstand it. Go to cnn. Com fareed to a link to my Washington Post column for this week. Lets get started. Israel was behind the assassination of irans chief nuclear scientist, a senior Trump Administration official told cnn. That killing was carried out on a road outside teheran last friday and irans supreme leader, president and other officials have vowed revenge for it. What comes next . Joining me now are three experts on these two sworn enemies, Dina Esfandiary is a fellow at the century foundation. She studies irans foreign relations. Martin indyk was a top diplomat in the middle east and Ronen Bergman has filed investigate reports on the assassination for the new york times. Welcome all. Let me start with you, ronen. It seems unclear whether or not the most dramatic James Bondlike account is correct. That is that the israelis used a robot, no human beings involved, in this assassination. But what im struck by is that the Iranian Revolutionary guard seems to argue or present the case that that was in fact what happened. What do you think is going on . Why is the Iranian Revolutionary guard putting out the story that it was done by robots . Thank you, fareed, for the invite. The revolutionary guards are spreading stories, the first one to tweet the story is the relative of one of the top commanders of the revolutionary guard that this was a completely Remote Controlled assassination that was done with no assassins on site. That can explain part of their security lapse in protecting. They were the ones who were supposed to protect one of the people that were directly threatened by israel and by the United States, a person designated by the united nations. They were supposed to guard him and they fail asked they also failed to kill or harm or arrest anyone of the assassins. If there was only a robot on site, it might explain some of their failures. But this Science Fiction version, that there was no one and it was just robots controlled, they claim, by satellite from israel, i think nobody in iran really buys that. However, i think that hopefully we will be able to report soon on the full details of the assassination and how this was done, this complicated, there was a nissan parked on site. That nissan indeed had a machine gun control, automatic machine gun controlled by a Remote Control from somewhere else, possibly a command room. After that being used, the nissan exploded, it was used as a base for the heavy machine gun and then as a car bomb in order to intensify the effect and destroy the evidence. I dont think that anyone would leave such a complicated site just for a Remote Control sender that would possibly be other posts where most more people, more assassins would be present. And yesterday in an interview, the son of the late fakhrizadeh said they are sure that there were assassins on site. The family of the killed scientist do not accept the version released by his body guards and security details and they say, no, there were assassins implicating, hinting that the revolutionary guard failed to arrest them or kill them on site. Dina, what do you think this does in iran . Ive seen accounts that say this will not display the Nuclear Program much. Its a 25 year old program, there are hundreds of scientists involved. Will iran feel the need to retaliate . Youre absolutely right, i dont think the effect on the Nuclear Program is going to be significant at all. This is one man in the Nuclear Program, as you said, is a massive program with many scientists involved in it. So i dont think that the goal was to have any Significant Impact on Irans Nuclear plan. I think will have have an impact internally on iran because theres going to be real pressure, particularly from the hardline camps in politics in iran to retaliate, to do something in return. Its going to be difficult for the those officials that are in power in the moment under the Rouhani Administration to hold them back. So i think they will want to because i think they wont want to jeopardize the risk of jeopardize any kind of dialogue with the Incoming Biden Administration from january onwards. They dont want escalation at the moment. But its going to be hard for them to hold those powers back and ignore that pressure thats going to be coming from all quarters in tehran. Martin, so far it seems the iranians have been restrained in their responses. They didnt really respond to the soleimani assassination. And if you think about the places they could ramp up pressure, the militias in iraq, yemen, syria, theyve been trying to outlast the Trump Administration. Is that the strategy or is there Something Else going on . I think thats very much the strategy. President rouhani has said that theyre exercising what he calls strategic patience. And clearly from his point of view, this was designed to provoke them so as to complicate what they hope is their trump card, which is to negotiate with the Biden Administration, the lifting of sanctions that are having such an impact, profound impact, on the iranian economy. So i think that theres a struggle within iran about how to respond. But those who argue that this would just be playing into the hands of trump and netanyahu, their efforts to scuttle any potential return to negotiations and the lifting of sanctions i think are likely to prevail. Stay with us. Next im going to ask this great panel what happens when joe biden who says he wants to rejoin the Iran Nuclear Agreement takes office. Will it work with tensions so high . T with this. And relieve it with this. But new preparation h soothing relief is the 21st century way to do all three. Everyday. Preparation h. Get comfortable with it. [anthat can leave cleaning gaps and wrap hair. So shark replaced them with flexible power fins to directly engage floors and dig deep into carpets. Pick up more on every pass with no hair wrap. Shark vertex with duoclean power fins. But im not a new customer. A deal on a smartphone, well, actually now, new and existing customers can get our best smartphone deal. Its historic. That is historic. Which means. Im making history, right . Yea, i dont know if id exactly sa wow. Me, dave brown. Existing customer who got the greatest deal in history. Just like every other customer gets. Oh thats cool too. Its not complicated. At t is making history. Everyone gets our best smartphone deals. Is often unseen. Because the pain youre feeling could be a sign of irreversible joint damage. Every day you live with pain, swelling, and stiffness. You risk not being able to do the things you love. Especially in these times, its important to keep up with your rheumatologist. Schedule an appointment today. Less sick days cold coming on . Zicam® is clinically proven to shorten colds highly recommend it zifans love zicams unique zinc formula. It shortens colds zicam zinc that cold and we are back with Dina Esfandiary, martin indyk and Ronen Bergman. Martin, let me ask you to explain what is going on here from the point of view of bibi netanyahu. He authorized this assassination which complicates joe bidens life at a time when hes trying to rejoin the iran deal, renegotiate it, perhaps. Hes also been fairly straight forward and blatant in opposing things that the Biden Administration has said even before hes had a chance to talk to the president elect in any serious depth about this. What is going on and is it worth us noticing that there is a possible election going to take place in israel one more time . Thats right, fareed. It looks likely that israel will go to a fourth election, fourth in two years, probably in march of next year. And so certainly netanyahu cannot exclude that possibility. And i think hes basically preparing for it. And it seems to me, at least the way hes positioning himself, that hes planning actually to run against biden. He benefitted in the last three elections, although not sufficiently, from having the support of donald trump, whether it was recognition of israels annexation of the Golan Heights or movement of the embassy to jerusalem or the trump deal of the century, all of that advantaged him dramatically. But now hes facing a Biden Administration that is committed to returning to the jcpoa, the nuclear deal with iran. And for him, that is something that is acceptable. He made it clear in two public statements that he will oppose that just like he opposed the original deal, even by going to a joint session of congress to speak against president obama. So it looks like hes preparing to run against President Biden on the issue of iran, which he enjoys broad support in israel across the political spectrum, theres a feeling that the nuclear deal was a bad deal from israels perspective. So its not a bad political tactic for him. But israels relations with a new american president in his first 100 days in office, if thats what transpires. Dina, what about in iran . You have potential Upcoming Elections there as well. Is it likely that all this tension results in a much more hardline president , does it matter . Hardliners are, in fact, in control anyway. Yes, the elections in iran are a major issue and there is a lot of tension at the moment inside iran to figure out which way the elections are going to go or that the hardliners hold most of the levers of power at the moment. The key issue with the Incoming Biden Administration is going to be however that the iranians know theyre going to have to have some kind of dialogue with the United States. The problem that were going to have is the sequencing of that dialogue. The iranians understand that they were in compliance of the deal and so dialogue must come only once the United States has rejoined the jcpoa first and then the iranians will embark on some kind of engagement and dialogue to talk about a range of issues and return to compliance, of course, with the nuclear deal. Whereas i think the Biden Administration has a different viewpoint. I think what they want is for iran to return to compliance first and then for them to join the nuclear deal after that. Of course, how that discussion goes, how theyre able to resolve that difference, will have a Significant Impact on the way the elections go in iran in a few months time. Ronen, all of this assumes that the iranians exercised the strategic patience that they have been exercising. But i assume that in israel, they are on high alert and i wanted to ask you whether you think there are dangers of a retaliation, for example, martin told me before the show began that israelis are planning to go to dubai for the winter break. They think about 50,000 israelis will be in dubai. Dubai is a place where theres a large iranian presence. Is that a potential area where theres a real vulnerability . Yes, indeed, fareed. Its going to be less than 50,000 because many of those people, hearing the alerts from the National Security council saying theres threat in dubai have canceled their future plans for holy day. The uae is designated as a green state. No need to go to isolation when coming back to israel. People are planning that and canceling it. The israeli authorities have warned former Nuclear Scientists to be aware and limit their travel if at all during covid because of the iranian retaliation. But in general, israel doesnt Israeli Intelligence doesnt assess that the iranians are going to retaliate. They think they want to past the next months, a little bit more than a month, in basically maintaining low profile including have their the militias that they support in iraq calm down, not doing anything in order to pass the time and not play, according to what they believe, into the President Trumps hand, maybe giving him a reason to attack iran. Iran has maintained a very, very restrained approach. Israel is a little bit concerned that president elect biden will call Prime Minister netanyahu and say whatever