This is a special edition of new day with Alisyn Camerota and john berman. And good morning everyone. Welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is a special Holiday Edition of new day. Merry christmas, everyone. Merry christmas to you. And you as well. This is a pretty unusual christmas, we hope you are having a lovely morning at home alone with your insular family. This christmas is different, but when and how can you expect to get together and celebrate with family again . We will talk about that in a little bit. We will also celebrate some of the heroes of this pandemic who have done so much to help and inspire others. So all of that and more ahead, but first lets get a check of your headlines at the news desk. Good morning, lets start with some breaking news overnight. The cdc announcing it will require all passengers from the United Kingdom to prove theyve tested negative for coronavirus before they can fly to the United States. The order is a response to the new covid variant that appears to have originated in the uk. Lets go live to london and bring in cnns salma abdelaziz. Good morning, salma. Whats the reaction youre getting from the uk about this new requirement . Reporter lets just go through the details what have needs to happen first. So you have up to 72 hours in which you need to get that negative coronavirus test before you depart, its up to the airlinesers, they have the responsibility to check and make sure you have the negative coronavirus test. If you do not have a negative test you will be denied entry on to the plane. In a way the United States is sort of late to the party here. Theres offer 40 countries that have already put in restrictions, this new variant that Prime MinisterBoris Johnson had announced was announced last weekend when everybody was traveling for christmas, so you can only imagine that there are thousands of people who had already traveled to the United States before christmas after this variant was announced. What is the variant . Well, according to the Prime Minister it is up to 70 more transmissible, it is not more dangerous, it is not more immune to the vaccine although there is some evidence that it might be more difficult to vaccinate against it, but this is terrible news for the uk and i will tell you why. Just yesterday a brexit deal was announced that means the uk is officially leaving the eu in one weeks time and it needs to have trade deals, it needs to have business with very important partners like the United States and, of course, Something Like this will make that very, very difficult. And getting a test here is not easy, this is another thing i want to tell you. Yes, mass testing is being rolled out across the country, but, for example, here in london if i wanted to get a coronavirus test through the National Health service, our Public Health service, i would have to have symptoms or pay 200 to get a private test, alisyn. Its certainly not a perfect situation. Salma abdelaziz, thanks very much. Also making news on this christmas morning, nasty weather. A storm on the east coast bringing heavy rain to the northeast. Lets get to meteorologist chad myers. Chad, not just bringing rain, but some heavy, heavy winds that woke me up at 1 00 in the morning. Heavy wind, heavy rain and then cold air behind it. Its 60 in new york city right now, its 19 in pittsburgh and that air is headed toward the east for sure. Heavy, heavy rainfall on top of places that already saw between 30 and 40 inches of snow. So guess what thats doing, thats melting the snow, thats creating flash flooding. Look at the windchill right now in chicago 3 below zero, indianapolis 5 below zero. So that cold air is coming in. If you are traveling in this area today, especially this morning, check some type of highway traffic app because a lot of roads are shut down this morning, each the flash flooding here, floods roads are covered in water, all the way from binghamton back down even to luzerne and for that matter down even into parts of virginia and west virginia. Now, the storm goes by, by 11 00 its completely out of here, but with the temperatures going down so quickly, we could see flash freezing on the roadways which a lot of ice after dark tonight across those roadways. Temperatures are mild across the south, i would like a warmer than 35 Christmas Day, but it did snow slightly, slightly in atlanta yesterday, so the kids were thrilled to look at it, allison. White christmas, chad myers, thanks very much. Stimulus checks for millions of American Workers still in limbo this morning. The relief bill that President Trump has so far refused to sign has been flown to trumps maralago golf club in florida where the president is spending the holiday. More than 12 million laid off americans could lose their jobless benefits as early as tomorrow. Joining us now is ron brownstein, he is a senior cnn senior political analyst and Senior Editor at the atlantic. Thanks for getting up early on this christmas morning. Happy holidays to you. Happy holidays. So lets walk through the impact of this. If this bill doesnt get signed by the president , what kind of impact will this have on americans, what will it have on the u. S. Economy . Well, look, as i understand it if he doesnt sign it by tomorrow at the least Unemployment Benefits will be disrupted, the extended Unemployment Benefits will be disrupted for next week. You have the operation of the government, you have the eviction moratorium, obviously you have the extended Unemployment Benefits, the new benefits for the renewed benefits for Small Business and the paycheck protection. So, i mean, theres just an Enormous Economic impact, an enormous impact on human need and just frankly, allison, an enormous level of chaos that the president is continuing to introduce in the system at a point when americans need some sense many as weve seen in the coverage, millions of people are literally at the end of their rope and need to know that there is a pathway forward and he is producing uncertainty instead of that pathway. Can you go through some of the motivations . What is motivating him to do this . Does he understand what hes doing or is he just kind of giving the big middle finger up not just to republicans but to the American Public as well . Well, look, i mean, i think by now its pretty clear what motivates the president on every front, which is what he perceives as his own political interest and, you know, no one knows for sure where this objection where these objections have come from, since he remained disengaged from a process that has been going on pretty much almost you know, for the last six months or so as republicans and democrats republicans have resisted the democratic effort to have a bigger, broader package. So hes had innumerable opportunities to weigh in and i think as a result the fact that hes doing this now is seen largely as a temper tantrum, a peek at the republicans that have had the temerity to finally acknowledge six, seven weeks after the fact that he lost the election. Is there anybody who is in his ear at this point who can try to talk some sense into him, or is everybody just gone at this point . Well, i think, you know, pretty much in the organized Republican Party wants to talk some sense into him, particularly because they realize how damaging this is in the two january special elections in georgia that will determine control of the senate, but whether he is listening to anyone, i mean, all the indications are that Mitch Mcconnell isnt even trying. You know, when you take this and you add it to what we have seen since the election, the sustained effort to undermine the outcome of the election, and then you throw in the pardons to cronies, just transparently corrupt pardoning of people who refused to cooperate in an investigation in which he was personally implicated, and then you add to it yet still his pressure on the Justice Department to appoint special prosecutors to target his political opponents, to target the incoming administration, i mean, you add all of that up and this is the kind of thing you see if a tin pot dictatorship in the final days of a strong man who is about to fall, whether it is noriega in panama, this is what happens when the walls close in, you get a angry, vengeful, erratic leader who is lashing out in all directions and really flaking a mockery of the rule of law and the american really the mainstream of the american political tradition. Ron, walk me through now who you think this relief bill is going to play out. Will the president veto it and give congress a chance to override it or will he sit on it, ultimately letting it die before the new congressional session is in play on january 3rd . Look, you know, i think anybody at this point who is going to wager on what the president is going to do, its very you know, its a very hard bet to place. In the end it still seems more likely than not that he signs it only because the alternatives are almost unimaginable. I mean, letting it completely lapse right before the Georgia Special election in particular would be an unbelievable act of kind of selfinhalation within the Republican Party and renegotiating a new deal between now and the end of this congress after it has taken so long to get to this point also seems very improbable. As i said, he had he has had opportunities all year to weigh in if he had genuinely had substantive concerns and, you know, hes complaining about spending that is literally replicated from his own budget. So you kind of back yourself into it, you say, well, i think most republicans still believe that in the end he will sign this bill because not doing so is so catastrophic, but the president doing things that are catastrophic, the president breaking windows, you know, he started that way, it would not be shocking if he goes out that way despite the enormous human need and really tragedy that it would trigger absolutely. Ron brownstein, thanks for coming on the show today on christmas. Merry christmas to you. Merry christmas. I think im up early enough that i still have a shot at seeing reindeer, so thanks. Got it. All right. A message of hope this Holiday Season from a rabbi and a pastor who spent the past year guiding their faithful through adversity. A dose of inspiration next. Some hot cocoa . . Mom, look are you okay . Head home this holiday with the one you love. Visit your local mercedesbenz dealer today for exceptional lease and financing offers at the mercedesbenz winter event. Responds to snoringautomatically. So no hiding under your pillow. Or opting for the couch. Your best sleep. All night. Every night. Experience the mattress ranked 1 in Customer Satisfaction by jd power two years in a row. 2020 has been a difficult year for so Many Americans, of course, with the coronavirus pandemic, a terrible Unemployment Crisis and so much uncertainty about what lies ahead. So how can people keep hope alive . Well, joining us are two people who know. They are two faith leaders with shared experiences of tragedy at their places of worship. We have pastor eric manning of the Mother Emanuel Church in charleston, south carolina, and Rabbi Jeffrey Myers of the tree of life synagogue in pittsburgh. Gentlemen, Merry Christmas. Its great to see both of you. Pleasure to be here. Merry christmas. Rabbi meyer, i just want to start with you because obviously we were together, i remember so well the tragedy, the mass shooting that happened there at the tree of life synagogue, and so you already were dealing the aftermath of tragedy and now this year, of course, with the pandemic and coronavirus. So how are you . How is the tree of life doing . Well, thank you for asking. Its a pleasure to be here today. For some its been very difficult, to be frank. They were retraumatized. Not only were we initially, shall we say, kicked out of our house of worship, but with the pandemic the closure of the synagogue thats been so kind to host us, so weve been displaced twice. So thats added strain to a lot of people, but its also caused people to think about what really matters and what are the really important things. And when you get down and dig deep, you recognize the things that matter most and that buildings are less important than people. And, pastor, actually, i want to follow up with you on that very subject because this has been such an unusual year, and im using that word euphemistically because its the holidays and i dont want to Say Something worse. Its been an unusual year. So, pastor, what have you learned about coming together as a community when you cant physically be together . Yeah, john, thats a great question. I think realistically what we have learned is, as rabbi was already said, that its not necessarily the building, i know we were always so used to coming together and sharing from a physical perspective, but now we have to learn how to do that albeit virtually. And it has been challenging, but at least we know that we will get through this together and that we will be able to share with one another again. Rabbi, when so many people are struggling all around the country because of unemployment, because of coronavirus, sickness, just everything. I mean, what do you say to people who, you know, their faith is really challenged right now . Wonderful question. I think that the first things for people to understand, they are not alone. They are not alone in their suffering, but theyre also not alone in that theyre going to be ignored, at least from my congregation, there is a community, there is a community of people who care, who telephone, who reach out in any way possible, no matter your skill sets to say, you are not alone, were struggling, lets struggle together. Lets figure out how can we make this work with the challenges and restrictions that we do have. And i think just to remind people of their humanity and their responsibilities as citizens to each other, i think, can be comforting to many. Pastor, ive been saying for some time that what weve seen with this vaccine or the vaccines, its a miracle. And to use that word in this season is doubly meaningful, i think, and it strikes me as an interesting question, which is, how do you talk about the combination of science and faith in this season . And, john, thats a great question. Actually, i dealt with this this past week from a sermon perspective. We consider it to be a miracle because we believe that god has given the scientists the knowledge and the wisdom, the fortitude, the resilience, the determination to be able to bring about this vaccine, and from a Historical Perspective very quickly. I know it seems as if as if it has been a while, and it has, but historically speaking the vaccine has come quickly. So we would attribute that, yes, to the almighty being in the midst of yet again bringing all of us through this pandemic together. Rabbi, do you have many people in your community who have gotten sick with coronavirus . And part of why i ask is because this in particular is such an isolating time and an isolating virus. You cant interact with other people. And so what have you done for the community in that case . Yes, i would see that our numbers are relatively comparable to the average around the country, although here in pittsburgh its a bit more isolated because its a large geographic area, but once you get outside of our grid or area its a lot more rural, so there is less Human Interaction and connection with the greater world in that regard. Insofar as people and challenges, i can say in our congregation we immediately identified those who were technologically challenged and made sure that regular phone calls were made to those people who could not, say, tune into a Virtual Service because they dont have the skill sets to be able to do that. Ive got congregants who have use their cell phones and call other congregants during friday Evening Worship and just keep the phone on and put it into the speakers of their computers so people can hear the service because they just dont understand or just cant figure out how to get it together, nor is it safe for us to just enter their homes and help get everything working right for them. So were just doing all that we can to regularly connect with people. I think thats our responsibility as a Faith Community to each other to find out what are peoples needs, how can we meet them. Quite frankly, thats a yearlong thing every year. That doesnt change because of covid. It should be the way that faith communities work with each other regularly and were trying to just extend those challenges into the Covid Community itself. Part of your job description, its just more complicated to do that job this year and its been amazing watching you all figure out how to do it. This is the season of hope, right, pastor . And one of the biggest hopes we have right now is for the vaccine which people have started receiving. We also know that one group where there is more vaccine hesitancy, where there is more distrust for obvious reasons over the decades is among the africanamerican community. So im wondering how you plan to address this over the coming months about how much of an obstacle you think this is. Well, again, john, its a great question and it is, of course, reality. It is a reality based on historical facts that has taken place. I think the thing that i have shared from the communi