Christmas. Announcer this is new day with Alisyn Camerota and john berman. We want to welcome our viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is new day. Unfortunately, your waking nightmare is not over. This morning, the United States still enduring two crisis, a Public Health crisis, as the daily coronavirus death toll again surpasses 2,000 people. And an election crisis, as outgoing President Trump refuses to accept the results and actively tries to undermine the election. President elect biden is trying to keep a calm, if exasperated tone. Its hard to fathom how this man thinks. Its hard to fathom im confident that he knows he hasnt won and is not going to be able to win and were going to be sworn in on january 20th. A source tells cnn that President Trump does know that he lost, but hes trying to exact revenge for democrats on everything that has upset him in the past four years. Senator mitt romney says he cannot imagine a quote more undemocratic action by a sitting president. Senator ben sasse has also spoken out against what President Trump is doing, but most republicans are silent, even as trumps lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, pushes wild conspiracy theories and appears to be melting down before our very eyes. And dont lose sight of the fact about when this is all happening. This unbelievable assault on democracy is happening while the country is in crisis. 215 new deaths reported overnight. The death toll now, back up over 2,000 a day. This is the most since may. We let this happen. The government let this happen. This morning, almost the entire country is seeing a rise in cases. Look at this map. Everywhere in red and orange, theyre seeing a rise in cases. And the states in beige are some of the states being hit the worst right now. Theyve plateaued or theyre Holding Steady at incredibly high case rates at the moment. More than 80,000 people are now hospitalized. Thats easily a record. Look at that graph. The situation now is causing the cdc to urge americans not to travel for thanksgiving. Dont hit the road. Stay with your immediate family. Just the people who live in your house. In just a few minutes, were going to have the first part of dr. Sanjay guptas exclusive interview with dr. Deborah birx. Shes been silent publicly for months. Sanjay landed this really interesting new interview. Okay, well look forward to that. Meanwhile, joining us now, cnn political analyst, maggie haberman, a White House Correspondent for the New York Times. Maggie, i want to start with Rudy Giuliani and whats happening. He is his statements have become incomprehensible. Theyre incomprehensible, if you try to follow the logic or anything. And that picture of him. He also i dont know, appears to be leaking black bile or black ink or something. Why does President Trump still put stock in his future or in any sort of legal credibility into Rudy Giuliani . Well, alisyn, certainly the visuals of that press conference, i cant imagine that President Trump who is concerned about things with appearances was happy with the way it looked, but the reason that he keeps turning to giuliani, giuliani is the only one who keeps doing what trump wants. Trump wants someone to go out there and say the things that giuliani are saying, never mind that these are not really the same claims more often than not than the Trump Campaign makes in court, because there are penalties for lying in a courtroom if you are a lawyer. But giuliani is going out and saying what the president wants to have said. The president turned to giuliani at the end of the week last week after he had suffered a defeat or near defeat in arizona, decided to put giuliani in charge of everything, and giuliani took that ball and ran with it. As we reported earlier this week, giuliani also initially sought 20,000 a day for his involvement in this. So there seem to be incentives for everyone involved. You will note, alisyn, the lawyers who were not there yet, jay sekulow, marty and jane raskin, who handled the Mueller Probe for trump, Pat Cipollone has stayed away from this. William consovoy, who handled the tax issues. None of the lawyers who have been with trump on various serious legal issues over the last four years have been with him on this and theres a reason for that. Maggie, you have some new reporting this morning on what exactly the president is trying to do and Rudy Giuliani is trying to do. Sidney powell, another one of the attorneys on this, explicitly says it out loud. So let me just play this sound to preface your reporting here. Listen to this. The entire election, frankly in all the swing states should be overturned and the legislatures should make sure that the electors are selected for trump. So lest be there any mystery here, the president s lawyer says the election should be overturned. Thats what theyre trying to do. You have new reporting on this, maggie, as the president has invited these Michigan Republican legislatures to come to the white house and i guess try to convince them to overthrow the results of the election in michigan. And we see what he actually says to them, but the mere act of having them at the white house is in and of itself an application of pressure if youre the president of the United States. The president has asked advisers who he could call in other states to try to accomplish the psalm thing. Where he is going to try to push people to choose electors who would be faithful to him. To your point, there is no longer a fig leaf here anymore. This is what some of his advisers are openly talking about, is overthrowing the election. They are going to run out of room to do that. Deadlines for certification are going to keep coming and going and by middecember, the president will be out of options here, but i dont expect him to stop saying that this was taken from him. In my experience, President Trump is persuasive in person. He has enough, i dont know, charisma or something in person weve seen it for the past four years. People do end up going along with him, like this team of lawyers that are saying whatever he wants, like the people in the white house. And so it will be very interesting to hear what these michigan Lawmakers Said before hand and how they felt and after they meet with President Trump. Here is what one of them said this week about changing the election, the results. He says, i do think that were going to find holes in our election law, particularly this new reality of mailin votes. In that entire analysis, i dont expect it to change the results in michigan. So thats how senator shirky felt this week. And well see what happens today. Alisyn, something to bear in mind as this is going along and people need to be asking these lawmakers this question. If you dont certify these results as legislators, then you are not certifying the results of any of the elections in your state. There are a whole bunch of republicans who were elected to positions who i imagine would also like to have their elections certified. So you are undertaking something with consequences that might not be what you intended and a lot of people are not going to be happy with in your state. Its not as if trump can just make this sales pitch in a vacuum. There are a lot of other things that are related and i think that legislators at the end of the day will be aware of this. But you are right, he is, at the end of the day, always selling. And i think that his selling works more on people than people want to admit. Can we take at least a half steph ba step back from this and focus on the fact that the president is even trying to do this . The fact that hes trying to overturn elections in states is worth marketing. It is something that really should alarm people. It alarms mitt romney, at least one of two republican senators willing to speak up overnight. Mitt romney says its difficult to imagine a worse, more undemocratic action by a sitting american president. Ben sasse put out a statement not quite as stringent as this, but a statement as well. That leaves, what, 51 other sitting republican senators right now who dont have the courage to speak up and say that the president of the United States is trying to overturn the election. Where are they this morning, maggie . As you know, john, better than anyone, you know, republicans are concerned about the special elections in georgia going into early january and i dont expect to hear people like Mitch Mcconnell, lindsey graham, talk, who i think are the only two who the president would be inclined to listen to. I think you are not going to hear anything from them until next month when they feel as if their majority is cemented. I have had conversations with people how different it would be if there was not a runoff in georgia and if the republicans had won outright, would you be seeing Mitch Mcconnell or somebody saying Something Different . Well obviously never know. We have seen mitt romney and even ben sasse speak out before and not be joined by their colleagues. I dont have reason to believe this time will be different, but you are correct, that what the president is doing is something that is unparalleled in modern history, or any history, frankly, in this country. And the silence from republicans is quite low. Meanwhile, in terms at the president ial level in georgia, we do expect possibly as early as this morning, them to finally certify the actual results for joe biden. They finished their hand recount, which was laborious, as we know, and now their Voting System manager spoke out about what the findings were after the hand recount compared to what the machine count was. So listen to this. Most hand tallies have, according to most studies, about a 1 to 1. 5 deviation. But in georgia, we saw a 0. 153 total deviation and a 0. 099 of the overall margin. Its verified what we saw on election night, which is that former Vice President biden has the most points at this point. So again, maggie, huge success for the strength of the Voting System and the, you know, lack of irregularities and its precision, basically, in georgia. And so despite that, as you know, President Trump is continuing to push for recounts other places. We have to see, al as you know, if they push for a machine recount in georgia, which would start the process over, delay it from being certified. Even assuming that joe biden, you know, this gets certified, in middecember and assumes office at the end of january, theres still going to be lasting damage to the system, from what the president is saying, because he is throwing accelerant on a desire to not trust the process. That is going to leave a real impact and its not going to go away on january 21st. Can i ask one quick question about Rudy Giuliani, who you covered for years. 23, to be precise. Thats a long time. Then youre perfectly equipped to answer this. I think there are a lot of people trying to dismiss or excuse or explain his behavior right now. Theres whispers and sometimes more that hes lost a step or that hes being coerced or manipulated somehow. Why cant we just say that Rudy Giuliani has clearly made a choice here and he should be accountable for this. And this is who he is. Actually, john, i havent heard that many people try to excuse his behavior, certainly since he began overseeing these efforts in the past week, i think that people are being pretty clear that this is destructive. Campaign officials, white house officials across the board are embarrassed by this. Some are saying its dangerous, although none are saying that publicly. So i havent heard too much of that. I will say, this is who Rudy Giuliani is. This is who he was at mayor. When he was mayor, it was counterbalanced by enough policy, because he is very concerned about policy. And hes a very smart man, that he was able to outweigh this kind of thing, but were talking about somebody who, when he was running against Hillary Clinton for the senate, read the lyrics to captain jack, the billy joel song that was played at Hillary Clintons kickoff announcement in 2000, in that race, to suggest that she was a glorifying drug use by playing the song. Its not dissimilar from the kind of things you heard him saying yesterday. This is who he is. Most people across the country got to know him as americas mayor after 9 11, but that was not consistent with what new yorkers saw over eight years. Thats important. Thats why i asked you the question right there, so people understand that this is not some aberration. This is part of a decadeslong record. Youre just seeing a different angle of it right now. And thank you for that musical memory. That is very special. Thank you . Is it just a memory . Is it a sense memory or a mental memory. I dont know, but im feeling it. Coming up, dr. Sanjay guptas exclusive new interview with the coordinator of the White House Coronavirus task force, dr. Deborah birx. Was this a failure in this country . Did you expect it to go this way . Okay. Her response, next. See yourself. Welcome back to the mirror. And know youre not alone because this. Come on jessie one more. 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Get fast, reliable, and secure internet on the nations largest gig speed network. Flexible tools like wifi you control. Voice solutions that connect you from anywhere. And expert advice here, here, or even here. Be fast. Be flexible. Bounce forward with comcast business. Get started with a powerful internet and voice solution for just 64. 90 a month. Plus, for a limited time, ask how to get a 500 prepaid card when you upgrade. Switch today. What a moment in u. S. History. What a moment in the coronavirus pandemic. 2,015 new deaths reported yesterday. Thats right. For the First Time Since may, the number of new deaths reported rose above 2,000. Think about that. Were back at this awful number. This morning, i want to show you the trend map in the United States. This tells an equally horrific picture. Every state there in orange and red, seeing a dramatic increase in new cases. The states in beige, by the way, are some of the states being hit the hardest right now. Theyve their levels, while they havent gone up, are at an alarmingly high place right now. This is about as bad as it can get in terms of a map. Cnns chief medical correspondent, dr. Sanjay gupta sat down with the coordinator of the White House Coronavirus task force, deborah birx. Deborah birx, who hasnt spoken in public, hasnt answered questions in months, sanjay, landed this exclusive interview with her. He joins us now to talk about this conversation. Sanjay . Hey, yeah, good morning, guys. You know, you remember, she was doing daily briefings just about up until the middle, end of april. And then it was july 8th before yesterday, when we had that last Coronavirus Task force meeting. So shes the coordinator of the Coronavirus Task force. I wanted to talk to her to get an idea of where shes been, whats going on in the country and what she thinks still needs to be done. Your trip to north dakota really left an impression on you, i think. When you were there on october 26th, there were 522 people who had been diagnosed with covid so far. Five people had died. Now the numbers have nearly tripled. Thats since you were there, giving the message. What are we to take by the wawa that . I was really worried. I know as a physician, youre a physician, when were out, were looking at people and were worried about them. Were worried about people with comorbidities and we know how devastating this disease, for people who have specific comorbidities. So when im out and seeing them without masks indoors, it really worries me. Im worried for their health. I sometimes have a hard time figuring out how to represent how weave dove done in this co. 250,000 people have died. Compared to other country, south korea, 500 people have died. Was this a failure in this country . Did you expect it to go this way . I always worry when we have an outcome, that none of us want and none of us wanted, you know, did we miss a communication . Did we say it the wrong way . And i think really thats part of the reason why i went out into the states, is to really understand what we were hearing when they were speaking and being in a dialogue and a partnership to really understand how we could do this better together. Was the lack of testing and the continued inadequate testing the original sin here . Its not only the number of tests and the type of tests, but using them in the op