Told the president , no dice on this one. The u. S. Has started 2021 with some disturbing pandemic figures. They have surpassed the 20 million mark of coronavirus cases. The new, fasterspreading coronavirus variant now detected in colorado, california, maybe florida. L. A. County Officials Say hospitals are, quote, on the brink of catastrophe. Its like treading water from 100 feet below the surface. Youre already drowning but you have to keep trying because thats what you can do. We want to wish you a good morning on this saturday, january 2nd, 2021. Im going to say it again, 2021 because it just feels good, john avlon. It does feel good to say that. We are in a new year and i am in today for Victor Blackwell whos enjoying a day off. This new year brings new reminders though of what the u. S. Has yet to overcome in the coronavirus pandemic. Nearly 348,000 people have died due to covid19 in this country. And the u. S. Just topped 20 million cases yesterday with more than 125,000 people starting 2021 in the hospital fighting for their lives. The big concern now is that a more easily transmitted variant of covid19 first seen in the u. K. , the strain has now been detected in california, colorado, florida. President trump is focusing on lashing out with 18 days left in office. A federal judge yesterday threw out the doomed effort by one of his allies to interfere in the Electoral College count. The senate came together in a big bipartisan way and hit him with the first veto override of his presidency. Thats right. A lot to get to this morning. Lets begin with the pandemic. Cnns Palo Sandoval join us. We have a lot of pandemic uncertainty. Reporter and a lot of hospitalizations as well, john. Looking at about 125,000 people still in the hospital right now fighting covid. Of course, those numbers continue to climb. Then you also consider that prominent ihme model predicting 110,000 people could lose their lives due to covid in the next four weeks alone. Friday brought a new year, and with it another tragic milestone in the covid19 pandemic with the u. S. Surpassing 20 million total confirmed infections. Its a reminder the virus will keep ravaging parts of the country until ongoing vaccine efforts help to slow or stop the spread. There lies the challenge. Health officials in several states report difficulties in planning a vaccine rollout with no federal mandate in place dictating how to administer the vaccine. The result has been a flawed distribution leaving distribution figures far below the trump administrations goal. Mitt romney, a republican critic of the president , called that inexcusable. Texas reports the state has distributed 1 3 of the vaccine its received as of friday and some hospitals are trying to overcome the logistical challenges of administering the shot says rob davidson. Theyre trying to get as many Front Line Health Care workers vaj svaccinated as possible. Now reaching out to clinics outside of the hospital to get those folks vaccinated and working with local Health Departments on the next level for people over 75. Reporter data from the cdc shows new york is over performing on the vaccination front. Friday figures show 32 of new yorks allotted vaccine doses have been given. That is well above the National Average of 23 shots administered. The real crisis point remains out west in california which set a new daily record for covid19 deaths on friday. As one state official warned that californias on the brink of catastrophe. This new years eve crowd gathered in la county protesting masks and religious gatherings. Its so disheartening to see those over privileged having parties while others are struggling. I want to take a moment to thank the average americans who have sacrificed their family time and their jobs by doing the right thing day in and day out, by Wearing Masks and distancing. Dr. George rodriguez tells cnn some medical facilities are using Hospital Gift shops and chapless to care for their patients. Health officials will be reporting. Its still the same virus. Its not different in that, its just a new lineage here may be transmitting a little faster. Reporter new variant spreads the same way, social distancing and masks offer the best protection. You should include florida on states that appear to be over performing in terms of administering vaccines, at least when you compare it to where other states are. Other states are not where we want to be. There is that call by many states, john and christi, to have a federal mandate when it comes to montpelier gets that vaccine and where. The hope is that those numbers would begin to increase in terms of the vaccinations and then, of course, infections and hospitalizations potentially decrease with that. We certainly hope for all of that. Absolutely. Two tough losses for the president. A federal judge tossing a lawsuit attempting to overthrow the results of the election while the senate voted to override President Trumps veto of the Defense Authorization act. Cnns Sarah Westwood is at the white house this morning. Happy new year. Congressman louis gomert and several arizona republicans trying to force Vice President pence to choose donald trump as the president. Have we gotten any reaction from Vice President pence . Reporter good morning, guys. The judge in the Eastern District of texas threw out the case saying they did not have standing to bring this lawsuit, which as you mentioned focused on the Vice President s role in certifying the results of the Electoral College. We had not heard from pence in the days after this lawsuit was first filed. Pence has been keeping a relatively low profile as President Trump continues to challenge the results of the election. But he did respond in a filing asking the court to reject the case saying acknowledging that it is not within his power to throw out the Electoral College results, that hes simply there to certify them as a formality when he does so on january 6th. The department of justice had given the white house a heads up that they were about to weigh in and recommend that the case be tossed. We know President Trump has been furious at what he perceives as the justice departments inaction on his baseless claims of voter fraud. And this was not the only blow that was dealt to the president this week. Another one came in the form of congress issuing its first veto override of his presidency when they voted to reject the defense spending bill, trump had vetoed it because republicans and democrats had resisted his efforts to have broad sided big tech. They said it wasnt related and they said it was too big of a bill to play politics with. President trump wrote a Republican Senate just missed the opportunity to get rid of section 230 which gives Unlimited Power to big tech companies. Pathetic. Now they want to give people ravaged by the china virus 600 rather than 2,000 which they so desperately need. Not fair or smart. They have been resisting the president s efforts to raise the amount in individual relief checks to 2,000. The president has not been having much luck in fortsing the president to do the bidding in the waning days of his presidency. He certainly hasnt. The president seems to be going after senate gop folks who have been his allies on 99 of his agenda, like senator john thune, railing against georgia governor kemp. What is behind all of this . And give us the latest state of play. Reporter john, theres clear frustration from President Trump that more republicans have not been leaning in to his efforts to undermine the Election Results. Senator john thune is a great example of someone who has felt the wrath of the president after defending the idea of democracy and saying that the Electoral College results should stand in the senate. Senate Majority Leader Mitch Mcconnell has discouraged senators from challenging those Election Results, but senator josh hawley has come out and leading the charge in the senate saying he will object to the Election Results on wednesday forcing the house and the senate to take a vote on those Election Results. Dozens and dozens of other House Republicans have joined that effort which is sure to fail but will be a symbolic show to trump and his supporters that they are joining his push to fight the elections. Christi andon. Sarah westwood at the white house. Thank you very much. Sarah said this wednesday congress is expected to vote to certify joe bidens victory in the 2020 election. Isnt coming without its own challenges. Cnns Phil Mattingly has more of that. Reporter as the 116th Congress Comes to an end, well, the president with a pretty sharp rebuke from both republicans and democrats. Now that doesnt mean the relations with congress are officially over. In fact, republicans, more than 140 in the house, at least one in the United States senate, perhaps more, are lining up behind the president this time around when it comes to trying to overthrow or overturn the u. S. Election. Lets make something very, very clear here. On january 6th when a joint session of congress convenes to count the electors, joe biden will be confirmed to be the next president of the United States of america. How long it takes to get to that point . Well, thats where the current dynamics are officially throwing things into question. The republicans when paired with a senator if they raise an objection, that would require both chambers to recess, have a debate of two hours and have a vote on those objections. That vote will fail however many times it occurs and it happens, it will fail. Democrats control the house. Democrats have a decent size majority in the senate and they are acknowledging it. Tangibly all of the objections mean is its going to be a very long day. Politically its become a big, big issue inside the republican party. Mitch mcconnell made very clear this was not a pathway he wanted republicans to go down. Think of the dynamics. You either vote for reality, that joe biden is the next president of the United States, or you vote for President Trump . Well, thats against reality and obviously there are political implications there and incentives, incentives that republicans who dont want this fight certainly didnt want to have to vote on and yet it looks like thats exactly whats going to happen. Just another page in the final weeks for President Trump. What it means for the party, what it means for the president himself, what it means for the senators and congressmen that will still be in office when he leaves, theyll be trying to figure everything out. The bottom line is joe biden will be inaugurated president of the United States on january 20th. What happens to President Trump and the party he currently ov oversees, that remains a question. Phil mattingly, cnn, washington. Joining me to discuss is olivia knudsy. Its good to see you. Good morning. With trump railing against reality attacking gop allies, it brings to mind the surreal days of the nixon administration. You have been able to get in the room and talk to folks about this administration. What are they saying about the president s temper and state of mind . Reporter people have been talking about the president s mood for as long as he has been a Political Force and his mood is often not great. Hes often fuming is the word that people tend to use when they describe him, but since election night, basically since arizona was called by fox news people around the president , people who work in the administration have told me that they have been outright avoiding him sometimes. They dont want to be around him. Its no longer worth it. Whatever the personal benefits of enduring verbal abuse or having an argument with the president before, they no longer exist because he is being further and further removed from power and i imagine that even when it comes to lawmakers who right now are gesturing towards his supporters, trying to appease him, people like josh hawley that as the president moves further and further away from his influence, that they will stop doing things like that and they will move into the future and stop trying to appeal to a base that he can no longer excite with a tweet and get to do his bidding for him. Nonetheless, despite this lame duck status, cnn is reporting as much as 140 House Republicans could sign on to this assault democracy amendment attempt to overturn the Electoral College counting which will not succeed. It is both sure to fail and completely hostile to the democratic traditions. Why are they showing this to a lame duck if hes seen as impotent politically . I dont think theres any down side. If you are a republican lawmaker from a certain type of district or state, i dont think theres any down side in your mind right now in doing that. At best, you appease the president and avoid in the final days him turning his focus on you or making you look bad in front of people in your district who support him. At worse, what . If the architects could come on tv and be treated politely in our society now, i think people think not unfairly that theyre not going to be held accountable long term and people wont care about what they did six months from now or even remember 12 months from now. So i think its a very cynical calculation but thats nothing new in washington. No, it certainly isnt but thats stunning. They think its short term easier to assault the democratic traditions and that the American People will have a memory of a firefly. One person not in that position of a luxury is mike pence. Heres somebody who has done everything he could to support the president uncritically, his own ambitions going forward. That relationship must be at a straining, if not a breaking point. Reporter we have seen this, mike pence put in a damaging position and managing to get by without having to say anything that harms his relationship with the president , without having to do anything that harms his relationship with the president. Obviously thats a bit different this week. I dont think were going to see an outright feud between the Vice President and the president in the time days of the administration. It would go against everything that we know to be true about mike pences personality and kind of his anticonflict way of existing in this administration for that to happen. But, you know, apparently the president doesnt understand why he cant just refuse to certify the election. Reporter right. The rules of how this all work seem to be news to the president. He has no interest in legislating. Hes never had any interest in government, but we are still getting reports. The fact that in the final weeks of this administration were still getting reports about him learning for the first time how washington works, how the administration works, it is pretty stunning even if its not surprising at this point. I want to end on one thing. You were quoted about journalism in the post trump era. You have ridden this craziest train from the early days, daily beast through new York Magazine did you have anything to do with that . A little bit. I still remember your reaction to covering someone with a twitter handle realdonaldtrump. How do journalist cover governing with the same way that the scandals have obsessed us. Journalists are biased towards conflict. I think there will always be a focus on various conflicts and various drama sz, but obviously the biggest drama queen of all is leaving washington and that will change things a bit. I think that hopefully my hope is that there will be kind of a return to creativity and a return to people being able to Pay Attention to things that are not just so obvious. Everything with trump, it sucks up all the oxygen. Its in your face. It doesnt take any particular skill to point out from my perspective as a writer to point out the absurdity of it all. I think there will be a bit of a return to maybe boredom on the part of the press corps and maybe thats a good thing. Without having to report on someones mood every day will lead to more substantive journalism. Covering governing. People trying to solve problems. Olivia, thank you very much and happy new year. Happy new year. So we are in day two of 2021, and the u. S. Is short of where the government had hoped vaccinations would be by this time last year. Whats going wrong . What needs to happen to fix this . Talking to an expert on Vaccination Programs with those questions and more. Coming up, a story thats being repeated across the country, the uncertainty facing millions of unemployed americans. I get so emotional because im overwhelmed and im like, i dont know how to live anymore. Dr. Fauci said the u. S. Will not delay the second dose in order to administer more initial shots. Paul han n Claire Hannon is with us. Thanks for having me. Of course. I want to get to this. Just about 2 million vaccines have been administered out of 10 million, 10 to 12 million. Right. In fact, 20 of the shots that have been given in the last couple of weeks. What needs to happen to expedite the process . Well, i dont think its caution for alarm at this point. I think there are a number of contributing factors. States are setting aside dos