Transcripts For CNNW State Of The Union With Jake Tapper 202

Science and data guided the fda ace decision. As millions of americans patiently wait for their turn, how long will it be until you can get your vaccine . Ill speak to fda commissioner stephen hahn and a major figure in the fight against coronavirus, bill gates, next. Final nail in the coffin . The u. S. Supreme Court Rejects President Trumps latest outrageous effort to overturn the election. Are his fruitless efforts finally coming to an end . What will be the consequences for america . Republican senator bill cassidy and former president ial candidate al gore join me to discuss in moments. Plus, eyes on the prize. Early voting set to begin in georgia as control of the u. S. Senate hangs in the balance. We know how to win those seats. Will democrats deliver the majority to president elect biden . Ill speak to Voting Rights leader Stacey Abrams ahead. Hello. Im jamaike tapper in washingto. The state of union as fdr said an endeavor. First trucks with the covid19 vaccine are on their way. The first shipments of the vaccine expected to arrive in all 50 states tomorrow and about 3 million doses to be delivered this week. General perna, chief operating operation of operation warp speed, compared the logistical effort to distribute the vaccine to dday the end of the pandemic which is racing towards 300,000 dead americans. The victory in europe would not happen until 336 days after allies stormed the beaches of france. There will be more painful months ahead in this covid nightmare that could be supercharged by holiday gatherings and Winter Weather and, frankly, by a president who has launched a campaign of public pressure on the fda instead of a campaign focused on Building Trust with those americans who are skeptical and reluctant to receive the shots. An Administration Official and source familiar tell cnn that on friday, the white house chief of staff mark meadows told the fda commissioner stephen hahn he needed to grant authorization for the vaccine by that evening or resign. That authorization came friday night. Joining me now, is fda commissioner dr. Stephen hahn. Mr. Hahn, just to be clear, did white house chief of staff mark meadows, in any way, suggest that if the fda did not grant emergency use authorization to this vaccine more quickly that in any way it would be more difficult for you to continue in your job . Jake, ive been really clear about this in my public statements. That is an inaccurate representation of the conversation. Can you give us any insight into the conversation . Im not going to give specifics about the conversation. What i can say is we have heard from a number of sources, including the white house, that there was a desire for us to move as quickly as possible and, jake, we have, but our absolute obligation to the American People was to make sure we did a thorough scientific review. We needed to ensure our Gold Standard of testing the efficacy of the vaccine was done and done properly and we had to get this right and i believe we did. That is important. The science is important. We need to be led by the science. But regardless of that phone conversation and whatever was said by mark meadows to you, President Trump, publicly, was pressuring you in a tweet on friday morning. He wrote, while my pushing the money drenched but heavily bureaucratic and us fda saved five years in the approval of numerous great new vaccines it is a still big old, slow turtle. Get the dam vaccines out now, dr. Hahn and stop playing games and start saving lives. I dont think you were playing games and youve been focused on saving lives. Do you share the concerns of lots of doctors and Public Health experts that comments like this, public ones from the president , hurt your effort to reassure people that this was done according to the science and not political pressure and, therefore, it is safe . Jake, we have been very clear, and ill say it again here, that nothing guided our decision, no external comments, no external pressure other than the science and data guided our decision making. If you look at the timetable here after our advisory committee, our team spent that night and we decided to go forward. You know by Early Morning before 7 00 a. M. , we issued a statement we were moving forward working with pfizer to get the authorization out. We worked throughout the day to do that. Our time line, how we approach this, was based upon our thorough review of the science data. That is the promise we made to the American People. The transparency around that and that is what we did. Cdc director redfield still has yet to accept the decision of the Advisory Panel which is the process before shots go into the arms. Why not . I dont know the answer to that question, jake. I do know ive had a lot of conversations with director redfield and he is certainly on top of this and has a lot of confidence in the process, particularly with the acip. I am sure we will be hearing very soon about this. The first shipments of the vaccine are going out this morning. When do you expect the first shot will go into the first arm . Well, my hope, again, is that this happens very expeditiously. Hopefully, tomorrow. We have seen the vaccines go out. We have seen the press reports of hospitals waiting to vaccinate Health Workers and those most vul esnerable. It is my hope and desire that that occur tomorrow. Two individuals in the uk who had a history of severe allergic reactions had allergic reactions to the vaccine. Now, that is not necessarily cause for alarm. People shouldnt be worried about it, but millions of americans have all sorts of allergies ranging from almond dust to cats to penicillin. Just as an informational exercise here, which allergies should and should not prevent americans from taking the vaccine at this stage . Jake, this is so important. We had a lot of questions and as you can this ma, this is why we do our linebyline review of the data. So our conditions for use is what we call them, specifically states that if you have an allergy to any component of the pfizer bioentech vaccine you should not receive it. We said the environment where the vaccines are given there should be the tools available to administer medications and support should someone have a severe allergic reaction. We do not think 1971 this is a highly frequent issue that will arraez but we do want to be careful because vaccine safety, medical product safety is top of mind for us. Where can people find the list of ingredients for want of a better word in the Pfizer Biontech vaccine so they know what the ingredients are so if they are allergic to it, they shouldnt take it . I advise go to the letter of authorization and we have been very prance tartransparent with posted on your on website. The authorization for 16 and 17yearold for this vaccine. For families at home who have younger kids like mike, when do you expect the vaccine available for people under 16 . So those studies are being planned or in progress now. Youve heard publicly one of the Companies Said that they were initiating this study. Key point here, jake. Sometimes there are gaps in information and we have to fill those gaps in information after Something Like an emergency use authorization to get the answers to the questions youre asking. So important that we expeditiously complete those so we can make a recommendation about children younger this 16, so as soon as possible, obviously, with great speed. Most governors expect to run out of their first shipments of the vaccine within days. 2. 9 million doses of the vaccine in one shipment and a lot but less than 1 of the u. S. Population. Can you give us some sort of a timetable as to when, say, 100 million doses will have gone out the door . I personally cant. Fdas responsibility is on the regulatory side. However, we are working very hard to help the manufacturers in the supply chain to get as much supply as possible up and running and of course assessing the quality manufacturing. Ive heard public reports from the department of health and Human Services that the expectation is is in the next several months there will be enough supply of the vaccines to vaccinate 100 million americans. Hhs sector azar said, however, the u. S. , in his view, was on track to have doses ready for 20 million americans by the end of the year. 20 million. That is just 18 days away. You have 2. 9 million going out right now. That doesnt seem possible, does it . I think its possible. You know, i certainly heard those discussions and i think that is a reasonable prediction and i have confidence around that. Fda Advisory Panel slated to meet this thursday to recommend whether to issue emergency use authorization for a different Coronavirus Vaccine from moderna. Do you expect by the end of this week, the u. S. Could have two Vaccines Available in the u. S. . Jake, im not going to prejudge that discussion or our assessment of the data. What i can tell you is that this week, we will publish our assessment of the data in advance of that meeting and have another public discussion like last thursday. My sincerest hope is we move forward and we will do so expeditiously but dont want to prejudge that decision. Have you spoken with any members of the Transition Team for president elect biden about handing off to them on january 20th . I have not had those conversations. Im very willing to have any 2048s and, of course, our commitment is to make sure that the mission of fda, which is so protect and promote the Public Health, remains in place in a very strong way during these times. All right. Thank you so much, fda director stephen hahn. Congratulations on this big achievement. We appreciate all of the work that you do. Thank you, jake. Vaccine approval in the u. S. Is just the start of the beginning and what will be an enormous logistical effort to heal this country and the world. My next guest has devoted his time, rg in, and more than 1 billion of his dollars to fighting covid19. Joining me now, is bill gates who is now the cochair of the bill and Melinda Gates foundation which is focused on finding a vaccine for covid19. Mr. Gates, thank you so much for joining us. We are seeing record 450i cases and deaths and hospitalizations in the u. S. Right now and those numbers are climbing. How bad do you expect things to get over the next three or four months before the vaccine is widely available . Well, sadly, the next four to six months could be the worst of the epidemic. Forecast shows over 200,000 additional deaths. If we would follow the rules in terms of Wearing Masks and not mixing, we could avoid a large percentage of those deaths. So in the near term, its bad news. Youve been sounding the alarm on the threat posed by Infectious Diseases a s pandemin years. Even in your wildest dreams, did you ever think it would get this bad in the United States . No. I thought the United States would do a better job handling it. Overall, when i did the forecast in 2015, i talked about the deaths potentially being higher. So this virus could be more fatal than it is. We didnt get the worst case. But the thing that surprised me is that the Economic Impact in the u. S. And around the world has been much greater than the forecast that i made five years ago. Your Foundation Just announced a new 250 Million Dollar pledge to help fight covid. That is in addition to the more than 1 billion youve already committed. Why did you do this . And, specifically, where is the money going to go . We saw a unique role for us. We have been funding a lot of the research for the vaccines. We are very agile. We are a partner in a thing called sepi which the second biggest funder after the u. S. Government. So in diagnostics and venaccine we know where the pieces need to come together in an urgent way. To our expertise in Infectious Disease which normally relates to developing countries apply to the entire world for this crisis. These vaccines were created and tested in record time under a year according to the data right now, they have a very high effectiveness, more than 90 . How much credit for the success do you think operation warp speed and President Trump deserve . Well, the mrna vaccines which the first two are foundation and others have been for quite sometime. Pfizer teamed up with biontech, a partner of ours and did not take government money so they went out on their own. Moderna got money before there was an operation warp speed back when it was just called barda. That money did help them take a risk because they are not a Large Company and they got help on some of their trials work. So the u. S. Rnd funding, you know, which had been there for pandemics well before this administration, that was a contribution greater than any other country. President trump signed an executive order that he says prioritized distribution of the vaccine to americans before it goes to people in other countries. Its not entirely clear how the order will achieve that. But what do you think of that strategy, that approach that everyone in the United States should be vaccinated first, and then the u. S. Should pivot or these private companies should pivot to helping the rest of the world . Well, i think we need to help all of humanity here. We want the World Economy to be going, we want to minimize the deaths, and, you know, the basic technology is a german company. Blocking International Share and cooperation has been disrupted and a mistake during this entire pandemic. So we need to ramp up the capacity of all the vaccines. There will be some additional ones approved in the months ahead that are easier to scale up to manufacturing. But, you know, the u. S. Has benefited from other countries work here and we shouldnt be entirely selfish in how we go forward. So in your view, America First as the president might call it, not the right approach . Well, the sprem extreme idea that everybody should die until we have the very last american vaccinated, that hardly the appropriate response. Do you think one of these vaccines is better than the other . No. The data on moderna and pfizer look very similar. Other vaccines are likely to be about the same. Even the astrazeneca there is a little bit of confusion about the numbers, it prevented severe disease in a very dramatic way, and so im super happy with all of these vaccines. A new Pugh Research poll out last week showed only 60 of the americans intend to get vaccinated and that includes less than half of black americans. How worried are you about the reluctance of americans to take a vaccine, particularly among minority communities . I think we have a Real Communications challenge that youve got to find out who do people trust, make sure they have got the data. I hope as people see it this vaccine rolled out and reducing the death rate, reducing transmission to people you care about, that that 60 number will go up. You know, for some jobs, like working in a nursing home, the government could decide that its important for those people to be vaccinated because that will save a lot of lives. And so the track record will be developed and i think we will get over the 70 that should reduce the transmission dramatically. President elect biden joined with former president s obama and bush and clinton, suggesting that they would all take the vaccine publicly. Are you considering doing the same . Ill dot same. When its my turn, im not going to budge. But when my turn comes up, i will visibly take the vaccine because i think that its a benefit to all people to not be transmitting. Are you at all concerned about the wealthy and wellconnected, being able to get access to a vaccine before its their turn, before most other americans . You know, it should be based on medical need, not wealth at all. After all, this epidemic has been awful the way its exacerbated in equities and its worse for hispanics and worse for blacks and worse for lowincome service worker, and multigenerational households. A number of things that means in terms of picking who gets the vaccine, we better be using xet equity to drive all of those decisions. 30 million of california are under brandnewspaper stayathome orders as hospitals there risk being overwhelmed. There are a lot of governors who oppose bringing back these lockdown orders and forcing businesses to close. What do you think . Do you think more states need to consider taking that kind of drastic action and the kind of drastic action we saw when the pandemic first began, or can there be a more nuance approach . Well, certainly mask wearing has essentially no downside. They are not expensive. Bars and restaurants, in most of the country, will be closed as we go into this wave and i think, sadly, that is appropriate. Depending on how severe it is, the decision about schools is much more complicated because they are the benefits are pretty high, the amount of transmission is not the same as in restaurants and bars. So, you know, tradeoffs will have to be made, but the next four to six months really call on us to do our best because we can see that this will end and you dont want, you know, somebody you love to be the last to die of coronavirus. When do you think life will fully return to what we thought of as normal back in january . No masks, no social distancing, no other protective measures necessary. Certainly, by the summer will be way closer to normal than we are now, but even through early 2022, unless we help other countries get rid of this disease and we get high vaccinations rates in our country, the risk of reintroduction will be there and, of course, the Court Rejects<\/a> President Trump<\/a>s latest outrageous effort to overturn the election. Are his fruitless efforts finally coming to an end . What will be the consequences for america . Republican senator bill cassidy and former president ial candidate al gore join me to discuss in moments. Plus, eyes on the prize. Early voting set to begin in georgia as control of the u. S. Senate hangs in the balance. We know how to win those seats. Will democrats deliver the majority to president elect biden . Ill speak to Voting Rights<\/a> leader Stacey Abrams<\/a> ahead. Hello. Im jamaike tapper in washingto. The state of union as fdr said an endeavor. First trucks with the covid19 vaccine are on their way. The first shipments of the vaccine expected to arrive in all 50 states tomorrow and about 3 million doses to be delivered this week. General perna, chief operating operation of operation warp speed, compared the logistical effort to distribute the vaccine to dday the end of the pandemic which is racing towards 300,000 dead americans. The victory in europe would not happen until 336 days after allies stormed the beaches of france. There will be more painful months ahead in this covid nightmare that could be supercharged by holiday gatherings and Winter Weather<\/a> and, frankly, by a president who has launched a campaign of public pressure on the fda instead of a campaign focused on Building Trust<\/a> with those americans who are skeptical and reluctant to receive the shots. An Administration Official<\/a> and source familiar tell cnn that on friday, the white house chief of staff mark meadows told the fda commissioner stephen hahn he needed to grant authorization for the vaccine by that evening or resign. That authorization came friday night. Joining me now, is fda commissioner dr. Stephen hahn. Mr. Hahn, just to be clear, did white house chief of staff mark meadows, in any way, suggest that if the fda did not grant emergency use authorization to this vaccine more quickly that in any way it would be more difficult for you to continue in your job . Jake, ive been really clear about this in my public statements. That is an inaccurate representation of the conversation. Can you give us any insight into the conversation . Im not going to give specifics about the conversation. What i can say is we have heard from a number of sources, including the white house, that there was a desire for us to move as quickly as possible and, jake, we have, but our absolute obligation to the American People<\/a> was to make sure we did a thorough scientific review. We needed to ensure our Gold Standard<\/a> of testing the efficacy of the vaccine was done and done properly and we had to get this right and i believe we did. That is important. The science is important. We need to be led by the science. But regardless of that phone conversation and whatever was said by mark meadows to you, President Trump<\/a>, publicly, was pressuring you in a tweet on friday morning. He wrote, while my pushing the money drenched but heavily bureaucratic and us fda saved five years in the approval of numerous great new vaccines it is a still big old, slow turtle. Get the dam vaccines out now, dr. Hahn and stop playing games and start saving lives. I dont think you were playing games and youve been focused on saving lives. Do you share the concerns of lots of doctors and Public Health<\/a> experts that comments like this, public ones from the president , hurt your effort to reassure people that this was done according to the science and not political pressure and, therefore, it is safe . Jake, we have been very clear, and ill say it again here, that nothing guided our decision, no external comments, no external pressure other than the science and data guided our decision making. If you look at the timetable here after our advisory committee, our team spent that night and we decided to go forward. You know by Early Morning<\/a> before 7 00 a. M. , we issued a statement we were moving forward working with pfizer to get the authorization out. We worked throughout the day to do that. Our time line, how we approach this, was based upon our thorough review of the science data. That is the promise we made to the American People<\/a>. The transparency around that and that is what we did. Cdc director redfield still has yet to accept the decision of the Advisory Panel<\/a> which is the process before shots go into the arms. Why not . I dont know the answer to that question, jake. I do know ive had a lot of conversations with director redfield and he is certainly on top of this and has a lot of confidence in the process, particularly with the acip. I am sure we will be hearing very soon about this. The first shipments of the vaccine are going out this morning. When do you expect the first shot will go into the first arm . Well, my hope, again, is that this happens very expeditiously. Hopefully, tomorrow. We have seen the vaccines go out. We have seen the press reports of hospitals waiting to vaccinate Health Workers<\/a> and those most vul esnerable. It is my hope and desire that that occur tomorrow. Two individuals in the uk who had a history of severe allergic reactions had allergic reactions to the vaccine. Now, that is not necessarily cause for alarm. People shouldnt be worried about it, but millions of americans have all sorts of allergies ranging from almond dust to cats to penicillin. Just as an informational exercise here, which allergies should and should not prevent americans from taking the vaccine at this stage . Jake, this is so important. We had a lot of questions and as you can this ma, this is why we do our linebyline review of the data. So our conditions for use is what we call them, specifically states that if you have an allergy to any component of the pfizer bioentech vaccine you should not receive it. We said the environment where the vaccines are given there should be the tools available to administer medications and support should someone have a severe allergic reaction. We do not think 1971 this is a highly frequent issue that will arraez but we do want to be careful because vaccine safety, medical product safety is top of mind for us. Where can people find the list of ingredients for want of a better word in the Pfizer Biontech<\/a> vaccine so they know what the ingredients are so if they are allergic to it, they shouldnt take it . I advise go to the letter of authorization and we have been very prance tartransparent with posted on your on website. The authorization for 16 and 17yearold for this vaccine. For families at home who have younger kids like mike, when do you expect the vaccine available for people under 16 . So those studies are being planned or in progress now. Youve heard publicly one of the Companies Said<\/a> that they were initiating this study. Key point here, jake. Sometimes there are gaps in information and we have to fill those gaps in information after Something Like<\/a> an emergency use authorization to get the answers to the questions youre asking. So important that we expeditiously complete those so we can make a recommendation about children younger this 16, so as soon as possible, obviously, with great speed. Most governors expect to run out of their first shipments of the vaccine within days. 2. 9 million doses of the vaccine in one shipment and a lot but less than 1 of the u. S. Population. Can you give us some sort of a timetable as to when, say, 100 million doses will have gone out the door . I personally cant. Fdas responsibility is on the regulatory side. However, we are working very hard to help the manufacturers in the supply chain to get as much supply as possible up and running and of course assessing the quality manufacturing. Ive heard public reports from the department of health and Human Services<\/a> that the expectation is is in the next several months there will be enough supply of the vaccines to vaccinate 100 million americans. Hhs sector azar said, however, the u. S. , in his view, was on track to have doses ready for 20 million americans by the end of the year. 20 million. That is just 18 days away. You have 2. 9 million going out right now. That doesnt seem possible, does it . I think its possible. You know, i certainly heard those discussions and i think that is a reasonable prediction and i have confidence around that. Fda Advisory Panel<\/a> slated to meet this thursday to recommend whether to issue emergency use authorization for a different Coronavirus Vaccine<\/a> from moderna. Do you expect by the end of this week, the u. S. Could have two Vaccines Available<\/a> in the u. S. . Jake, im not going to prejudge that discussion or our assessment of the data. What i can tell you is that this week, we will publish our assessment of the data in advance of that meeting and have another public discussion like last thursday. My sincerest hope is we move forward and we will do so expeditiously but dont want to prejudge that decision. Have you spoken with any members of the Transition Team<\/a> for president elect biden about handing off to them on january 20th . I have not had those conversations. Im very willing to have any 2048s and, of course, our commitment is to make sure that the mission of fda, which is so protect and promote the Public Health<\/a>, remains in place in a very strong way during these times. All right. Thank you so much, fda director stephen hahn. Congratulations on this big achievement. We appreciate all of the work that you do. Thank you, jake. Vaccine approval in the u. S. Is just the start of the beginning and what will be an enormous logistical effort to heal this country and the world. My next guest has devoted his time, rg in, and more than 1 billion of his dollars to fighting covid19. Joining me now, is bill gates who is now the cochair of the bill and Melinda Gates<\/a> foundation which is focused on finding a vaccine for covid19. Mr. Gates, thank you so much for joining us. We are seeing record 450i cases and deaths and hospitalizations in the u. S. Right now and those numbers are climbing. How bad do you expect things to get over the next three or four months before the vaccine is widely available . Well, sadly, the next four to six months could be the worst of the epidemic. Forecast shows over 200,000 additional deaths. If we would follow the rules in terms of Wearing Masks<\/a> and not mixing, we could avoid a large percentage of those deaths. So in the near term, its bad news. Youve been sounding the alarm on the threat posed by Infectious Diseases<\/a> a s pandemin years. Even in your wildest dreams, did you ever think it would get this bad in the United States<\/a> . No. I thought the United States<\/a> would do a better job handling it. Overall, when i did the forecast in 2015, i talked about the deaths potentially being higher. So this virus could be more fatal than it is. We didnt get the worst case. But the thing that surprised me is that the Economic Impact<\/a> in the u. S. And around the world has been much greater than the forecast that i made five years ago. Your Foundation Just<\/a> announced a new 250 Million Dollar<\/a> pledge to help fight covid. That is in addition to the more than 1 billion youve already committed. Why did you do this . And, specifically, where is the money going to go . We saw a unique role for us. We have been funding a lot of the research for the vaccines. We are very agile. We are a partner in a thing called sepi which the second biggest funder after the u. S. Government. So in diagnostics and venaccine we know where the pieces need to come together in an urgent way. To our expertise in Infectious Disease<\/a> which normally relates to developing countries apply to the entire world for this crisis. These vaccines were created and tested in record time under a year according to the data right now, they have a very high effectiveness, more than 90 . How much credit for the success do you think operation warp speed and President Trump<\/a> deserve . Well, the mrna vaccines which the first two are foundation and others have been for quite sometime. Pfizer teamed up with biontech, a partner of ours and did not take government money so they went out on their own. Moderna got money before there was an operation warp speed back when it was just called barda. That money did help them take a risk because they are not a Large Company<\/a> and they got help on some of their trials work. So the u. S. Rnd funding, you know, which had been there for pandemics well before this administration, that was a contribution greater than any other country. President trump signed an executive order that he says prioritized distribution of the vaccine to americans before it goes to people in other countries. Its not entirely clear how the order will achieve that. But what do you think of that strategy, that approach that everyone in the United States<\/a> should be vaccinated first, and then the u. S. Should pivot or these private companies should pivot to helping the rest of the world . Well, i think we need to help all of humanity here. We want the World Economy<\/a> to be going, we want to minimize the deaths, and, you know, the basic technology is a german company. Blocking International Share<\/a> and cooperation has been disrupted and a mistake during this entire pandemic. So we need to ramp up the capacity of all the vaccines. There will be some additional ones approved in the months ahead that are easier to scale up to manufacturing. But, you know, the u. S. Has benefited from other countries work here and we shouldnt be entirely selfish in how we go forward. So in your view, America First<\/a> as the president might call it, not the right approach . Well, the sprem extreme idea that everybody should die until we have the very last american vaccinated, that hardly the appropriate response. Do you think one of these vaccines is better than the other . No. The data on moderna and pfizer look very similar. Other vaccines are likely to be about the same. Even the astrazeneca there is a little bit of confusion about the numbers, it prevented severe disease in a very dramatic way, and so im super happy with all of these vaccines. A new Pugh Research<\/a> poll out last week showed only 60 of the americans intend to get vaccinated and that includes less than half of black americans. How worried are you about the reluctance of americans to take a vaccine, particularly among minority communities . I think we have a Real Communications<\/a> challenge that youve got to find out who do people trust, make sure they have got the data. I hope as people see it this vaccine rolled out and reducing the death rate, reducing transmission to people you care about, that that 60 number will go up. You know, for some jobs, like working in a nursing home, the government could decide that its important for those people to be vaccinated because that will save a lot of lives. And so the track record will be developed and i think we will get over the 70 that should reduce the transmission dramatically. President elect biden joined with former president s obama and bush and clinton, suggesting that they would all take the vaccine publicly. Are you considering doing the same . Ill dot same. When its my turn, im not going to budge. But when my turn comes up, i will visibly take the vaccine because i think that its a benefit to all people to not be transmitting. Are you at all concerned about the wealthy and wellconnected, being able to get access to a vaccine before its their turn, before most other americans . You know, it should be based on medical need, not wealth at all. After all, this epidemic has been awful the way its exacerbated in equities and its worse for hispanics and worse for blacks and worse for lowincome service worker, and multigenerational households. A number of things that means in terms of picking who gets the vaccine, we better be using xet equity to drive all of those decisions. 30 million of california are under brandnewspaper stayathome orders as hospitals there risk being overwhelmed. There are a lot of governors who oppose bringing back these lockdown orders and forcing businesses to close. What do you think . Do you think more states need to consider taking that kind of drastic action and the kind of drastic action we saw when the pandemic first began, or can there be a more nuance approach . Well, certainly mask wearing has essentially no downside. They are not expensive. Bars and restaurants, in most of the country, will be closed as we go into this wave and i think, sadly, that is appropriate. Depending on how severe it is, the decision about schools is much more complicated because they are the benefits are pretty high, the amount of transmission is not the same as in restaurants and bars. So, you know, tradeoffs will have to be made, but the next four to six months really call on us to do our best because we can see that this will end and you dont want, you know, somebody you love to be the last to die of coronavirus. When do you think life will fully return to what we thought of as normal back in january . No masks, no social distancing, no other protective measures necessary. Certainly, by the summer will be way closer to normal than we are now, but even through early 2022, unless we help other countries get rid of this disease and we get high vaccinations rates in our country, the risk of reintroduction will be there and, of course, the Global Economy<\/a> will be slowed down, which hurts america economically in a pretty dramatic way. So we will have, starting in the summer, about nine months where a few things like big public gatherings will still be restricted. But we can see now that somewhere between 12 to 18 months, we have a chance, if we manage it well, to get back to normal. Obviously we are changing administrations. We are changing governments right in the middle of this unprecedented effort to distribute the vaccine. Are you worried that the changeover between administrations and the reluctance of President Trump<\/a> to acknowledge the reality of his loss, the delay of the transition, that it could complicate the process . Yeah. Transition is complicating, but the new administration is willing to rely on actual experts and not attack those experts. You know . They are out clear plans. I think we will get through this in a positive way. You know, im pleased with the people and the priority that president elect biden and his team are bringing to bear on this problem. And biden is doing his best to retain Francis Collins<\/a> and tony fauci and add them to that strong group of people. You know, these are people who are willing to admit when things arent going well. You know, and deliver top messages, particularly about the next four to six months. And so, you know, i do think the u. S. Will not be one of the worst performers as the team comes in to office. Youve generally held your tongue when it comes to criticizing outgoing President Trump<\/a> and the Trump Administration<\/a> for the various ways that he has mishandled the pandemic. Now that his term is coming to a close, i wonder what you think about the fact that it seems fairly clear that mistakes he made and statements he made that were just not accurate, undermining people like dr. Fauci, undermining people who were talking about what would work in terms of mask wearing, pushing drugs that were not proven, including one from that my pillow guy, im wondering what you think about the fact that as dr. Fauci told me, this has cost lives, this mishandling and the delay in the president taking it seriously, not to mention, of course, what we have seen over the last nine or ten months. You know, it could have been worse. He could have fired dr. Fauci. He could have kept scott atlas on longer. You know, we will do the postmortem when its over. All of us feel like, you know, how could i have talked even louder in 2015 and got more investments to be made. You know . We should all look at what we will have learned from this epidemic because there will be another epidemic coming and whatever that administration is, you know, being smart about getting the testing out fast, allowing the cdc, who are the experts, to give the message to the public, not being afraid of bad news, so that we get people ready. You know, its pretty clear we are going to be smarter next time. I hope so but lets talk about that pandemic in the future. What do you think the Biden Administration<\/a> needs to do to prepare for it . Obviously we were not prepared for this one, tlels not at leas the degree we needed to be. We need a team of experts like 3,000 around the world working on Infectious Disease<\/a> when there is a hint of a pandemic, with their full skill sets, they would move over and focus on that. So better team of people available, better surveillance. The prescription for getting this right, as long as we remember how bad this was and we are willing to pay, which will only be, you know, billions a year, to avoid, you know, trillion of dollars a disaster. I think that road map is clear. I talked with the president elect about that and, you know, i think our foundation will be part of that dialogue to make sure we dont blow it again. What more can you tell bus that conversation . When did it happen . Does he want you to supervise some sort of Preparedness Task<\/a> force . What more can you tell us about it . Well, he has picked good people to play the official roles and so i think, for myself, for my wife melinda, for our experts, simply being in discussions with them is how we can best contribute and as youve seen, its a talented group. You got a whole set of skill sets there. You know, he brings a view that America Succeeds<\/a> when the rest of the world succeeds. So the u. S. Has not provided any funding for the poor countries to get a vaccine. Ive been talking with members of congress about whether its an stimulus bill or some way of getting the u. S. To step forward with what would be well under 1 of the stimulus money going to help those poor countries. What was your response or what is your response when its not just fringe people in society, its people in maga media talk about the fauci gates vaccine. They talk about how you want to inject chips in people. All of this crazy stuff. What is it like to hear that . Well, im surprised. You know, im not even quite sure how to react, you know . Dr. Fauci and i believe in vaccines. Vaccines have saved millions of lives. That is what our foundation is all about and so our expertise was valuable here in getting the scale up of those things. You know, youve got to be willing to speak out publicly, even if its not always well understood. So, you know, i do worry will this make people not want to take the vaccine or not believe, you know, in polio eradication or other causes that i think are valuable. In addition to being an expert on pandemics, you, obviously, know a lot about business and the economy, job growth in the u. S. Is slowing, unemployment is still at 6. 7 . The u. S. Is still down nearly 10 million jobs since the pandemic began in february. More jobs than were lost during the great recession. What is your outlook for the economy and when do you think we will see a full economic recovery . Well, my expertise is more in the vaccine and i do think that is a central element, you know, to have restaurants and tourism resume at the levels they were before the pandemic. I do think that by summer, the job numbers and the economic numbers will be quite strong, because most things will be back to normal. You know, in the fall, you know, i expect we will be able to open all schools, even with facetoface. And then, you know, we have some innovation in we talked about medical innovation that was driven by this, more use of telemedicine, online education, less having to go to the office or take business trips. There is a level of new approaches across many areas that will help the economy in the future. One last question for you, sir. The u. S. Has reported around 20 of the worlds coronavirus cases and 20 of the coronavirus deaths. The u. S. Only makes up around 4 of the worlds population. How do you think history will ultimately judge the u. S. Response to the pandemic . Well, the u. S. Would have been expected to be the best. You snknow . We have the cdc and most pr machines and the all of this capacity. Sadly, before the epidemic in the first two or three months of the epidemic, we didnt get on top of it like many countries did. So, you know, figuring out where we need to change things, these postmortem the next year will guide us, but its a tragedy we werent able to respond like we could of. Bill gates, thank you so much for your time. Thank you so much for the work that you do. The philanthropic efforts you make. On behalf of the whole world, appreciate it. Thank you. Youre looking at a live picture of the airport in grand rapids, michigan. The first trucks carrying the covid19 vaccine are about to arrive to be shipped across the United States<\/a>. Meanwhile, President Trump<\/a> is vowing to keep up his frankly delusional fight and his effort to disenfranchise millions of voters despite the u. S. Supreme court shutting down his efforts on friday. 20 years ago this weekend the u. S. Supreme court made a different decision about the presidency. One that had profound consequences for the nation and for my next guest former Vice President<\/a> and former democratic president ial nominee al gore. Vice president gore, thank you so much for joining us. Its 20 years to the day since you gave this speech in which you formally conceded the 2000 election to george w. Bush. Take a listen. I know that many of my supporters are disappointed. I am too. But our disappointment must be overcome by our love of country. There is a higher duty than the one we owe to political party. This is america. And we put country before party. We will stand together behind our new president. What goes through your mind as you hear that, especially in light of what is going on today . Well, first of all, thank you for inviting me to be on your show. Of course, watching the events of this past Election Year<\/a> have been stressful and challenging for millions of americans, but the continuity of our democracy continues, and what is most important to me is that will mark the biden as our new president. [ inaudible ] that is where the will be made and i would very much hope that have been so strongly [ inaudible ] will set aside [ inaudible ] were not as successful for the last two centuries plus have been able to do. In the 20 years since that day, since the day that you formally conceded, have you ever regretted your decision . No, i have not. You know, Winston Churchill<\/a> once said of the American People<\/a>, he said they generally do the right thing after first exhausting every available alternative and there were no remains alternatives after a final Supreme Court<\/a> decision. The only there is no intermediate step between a final Supreme Court<\/a> decision on a malts of this sort and violent revolution. And those who talk about continuing the fight after it is over with are disrespectful of american democracy which is in lincolns phrase, the last best oath of human kind. During the 2000 recount, republicans mockeded you and your running mate Joe Lieberman<\/a> and called you sore losermen for refusing to accept defeat. A lot of those same republicans, now, including at least 126 House Republicans<\/a> and 19 republican state attorney generals throwing their weight behind this texas lawsuit which is based on lies and conspiracy theories and falsehoods. And im wondering what its like for you hearing the Republican Party<\/a> put the force of weight of their reputations and everything they have worked so hard for behind this effort to disenfranchise millions of americans and overturn a democratic election . Well, many conservative and republican legal scholars have described that lawsuit as ridiculous and really unintelligible. Of course, the Supreme Court<\/a> summarily dismissed it with all of the Supreme Court<\/a> justices nominated by President Trump<\/a>, dismissing it as well. So that lawsuit got the result that it deserved. I would encourage those who are still supporting the lost cause of President Trump<\/a>s reelection to put the country first, and im going to express the hope, jake, that with the Electoral College<\/a> of votes tomorrow and in all 50 states, and with the president elect biden receiving the majority, that that will be a point at which some of those who have hung on will give up the ghost. Its hard to escape the interpretation that they are frightened, that President Trump<\/a> will tweet down into political oblivion if they dont exactly what he says. But, you know, there are things that are more important than bowing to the fear of a demagog demagogue. One of those things that is more important is the United States<\/a> of america and our constitution and the continuation of the american experiment. In addition to this being the 20th anniversary of your concession, you have an oped in the New York Times<\/a> this morning marking the fiveyear anniversary of the paris climate agreement. President elect biden has pledged to make Climate Change<\/a> a priority in his administration, beginning with rejoining the paris agreement. Beyond that, though, as somebody who has been warning about environmental peril for decades now, what is the number one thing you would like to see from President Biden<\/a> in his first 100 days that would suggest to you he is as serious about confronting Climate Change<\/a> as you want him to be, as the world needs him to be . I think he is and he has made the protection of the climate balance a supcenterpiece of his academic plan, as he should, because multiple studies show that the best way to create the tens of millions of new jobs we need to recover from the ravages of the pandemic, particularly the economic ravaged of the pandemic, is to invest in this sustainability revolution and Renewable Energy<\/a> and batteries in electric and its worth causing for a moment, jake, to look at the connections between this pandemic and the Climate Crisis<\/a>. Number one, the pandemic has shown us the dangers of ignoring grave warnings from the leading scientists and experts like big gates who has been warning about such a pandemic for so long, when we get warnings from the leading virologists and epidemiologists this thing is coming, we should prepare for it. The same is true of the Climate Crisis<\/a>. Secondly, the Climate Crisis<\/a> has made the ravaged the pandemic worse because the air pollution that comes from burning fossil fuels makes people far more vulnerable to the pandemic. The third connection is that we are seeing today, with the first distribution of these vaccines, that the scientific revolution is still accelerating in its power, and that also is true where the solutions to the climate [ inaudible ]. 90 of all new electricity integration will come from solar and will end in renewables. We are seeing a dramatic advance with nation after nation of announcing just in the last few months, major new commitments that quickly phase out the Global Warming<\/a> pollution that is causing this crisis. The crisis is getting worse farce than we are deploying solutions but with to restore it to its traditional post world war ii position of leader in the community 6 nations, president elect biden can really rally the world to make more rapid progress in solving the Climate Crisis<\/a>. He has made the decarbonization of the electric grid, for example, the centerpiece of his economic plan and i think that is a great start. Quickly, sir, only about a minute left. Youve spoken to Vice President<\/a> elect kamala harris. What did you talk about with her . What advice did you have . Well, she is going to be a great Vice President<\/a>. We had a wonderful conversation. Ive known her for some time. We just shared some thoughts about what the position of Vice President<\/a> is and how she can maximize her ability to help president elect biden lead the country as effectively as i know he is going to do. Vice president gore, good to see you, sir. Thank you so much for joining us on this anniversary that is, i suspect for you, full of both hope and also some painful memories. Thank you so much. Thank you. And i emphasize the hope. Thank you, jake. All right. This morning, the first covid19 vaccines are shipping out across the u. S. As the Electoral College<\/a> is preparing to vote tomorrow as Vice President<\/a> gore just noted. The question is not over who will be president on january 20th but whether the majority of republicans in congress will finally accept reality and the will of the voters and recognize president elect joe biden. Joining me now, is bill cassidy of louisiana who has been working on the covid relief bill and we will get to that in a second. Senator, i want to start with the Supreme Court<\/a> which summarily dismissed this latest challenge by President Trump<\/a>, this texas lawsuit, supported by the president , 18 other states, 126 House Republicans<\/a> asking to overturn the fair and free election and victory of president elect biden. Do you think its time for the president and the Republican Party<\/a> to just stop this nonsense and begin accepting the reality here . Well, i cant speak for everybody. I will note that when the president instructed the General Service<\/a> administration to begin the transition process, the gsa, that that was an acknowledgment there was that a transition was taking place. Now i cant speak for peoples emotions. Clearly there is still disappointment. But in terms of the functional aspect of actually beginning the transition, that has begun. Right. But you have accepted that president elect biden is president elect biden. The Electoral College<\/a> is meeting tomorrow to cast its votes formally for president elect biden. Is it time for you have said joe biden won. Youve acknowledged it. Is it time for republicans to accept biden as the president elect . Well, youve asked that before and ill just say that, obviously, he is the president elect. He has 270 Electoral College<\/a> votes. We are the law and order party. We are a nation of a constitution. We are a nation of laws and courts that interpret those laws. And, by the way, i have more confidence than the courts than ever because President Trump<\/a> has appointed more judges than anyone else ever has. And so as we are a nation of laws. This is the constitution and this is the law and this is how it breaks out and the courts have ruled that President Biden<\/a> is our next preesident. Its important and i think the subtext of what youre saying. I nltsed yesterday that folks said they were supporting President Trump<\/a> in washington were talking about tearing down the Republican Party<\/a>. Others were saying defeat our two senatorial candidates in georgia. As alabama lincoln said a house divided by itself cannot stand. Our nation, our conservative movement, our Republican Party<\/a> cant stand if we are divided against ourselves. So at some point we have to come together for all of those reasons. But is it time for Senate Majority<\/a> leader and House Minority<\/a> leader Mitchell Mcconnell<\/a> and Kevin Mccarthy<\/a>, to do what you have done and acknowledge that joe biden is going to be the next president , that he is president elect . I mean, i want to turn on to the turn to the Coronavirus Relief<\/a> bill but it seems to me as an american, just sitting here, ive never seen such a thing. I mean, joe biden won. Since election day he has won 30 other times. So, jake, i cant speak for other people. Except if you look at the actions of President Trump<\/a> and of other leaders, they have clearly, in their actions, acknowledged that biden has won. Now if you want a press release, i cant he speak for the press team. If you want kind of the acknowledgment we are working together and we are working for a transition and we are going to make it happen, President Trump<\/a> that done it and i assume others have done it well. It has happened. If its a mea culpa, i dont know if its needed even though i know some people want it. Lets turn to your efforts to find a compromise on a Coronavirus Relief<\/a> which is important to so many americans, tens of millions. Mcconnell says there is no path for your bill and congress should just pass a bill that has no liability shield for corporations, so they can be sued. And no money for state and local governments, which is what democrats are pushing for. Is e right . Is mcconnell right . Or are you going to keep pursuing a compromise . Well, by golly if we can pass that, wouldnt it be great . The reality is you go on the to have both parties working together to pass anything. And the folks from the left say they dont want that. So, yeah, it will be great if we get past that. But it doesnt seem we can. We are the only bipartisan game in town. We are the only one where people have come together from both parties and said, listen. Im not with you on that, but if you give me this, ill give you that because we got to do something for the American People<\/a>. We are going to introduce a bill tomorrow night. Now, the leadership can subsidiary it. I cant govern that. I can only do which is before me. If we can introduce a bill tomorrow night that takes care of the Small Business<\/a> owner and she is just hanging on and we are able to give her a little more support until the vaccine is a simulated and the employees keep their jobs and landlord is out three months of rent and now she can pay the rent and keep her place fixed up. If they can do that we have done our job. What leader mcconnell does, i have no control over. I can only do what i do. Listen to Angela Kerney<\/a> who is from pennsylvania and struggling to pay her bills and buy Christmas Gifts<\/a> for her children this year. I promised them that they would be normal children and then the pandemic hit and i cant keep those promises any more. I have to take the bills and throw them up and pick the ones and hope that they total the amount that i have. 12 million americans are going to lose this unemployment benefit in january. 14 million households are at risk of eviction. Yes or no. Is there going to be a deal before you leave . There will be a deal and our bill addresses those issues. We care. The folks working on this bill have heard from her and heard from many others that we need to address this. Now others can decide to accept our work product or not. But we care. We are going to have that bill and we are going to address those immediate needs. That is our goal. Last question because youre on the Veterans Affairs<\/a> committee. There is a report by the v. A. Inspector general this week that found v. A. Secretary tried to discredit a aide and vern who said she was assaulted at a v. A. Facility and he interfered with the investigation. The american legion, vfw, iraq and afghanistan veterans of america have called on him to resign. Do you think he should resign . One, i have no familiarity with the issue. We are only 30 days out from the end. A man is innocent until proven guilty. So he should have his chance to say that part of it. That said, there should not be interference with an investigation like that. Okay. Not knowing anything about the topic still not an interference with an investigation like that. All right. Senator, thank you so much for your time today. Appreciate. Joe biden set to rally voters in georgia on tuesday hoping to kick off early voting in the state which begins tomorrow in a big way for two Senate Runoffs<\/a> with the future of americas government and much of bidens agenda in georgias hands. Joining me now, is founder of Voting Rights<\/a> Organization Fair<\/a> fight Stacey Abrams<\/a> and the author of this book our time is now. Thank you for joining us. Democrats have won just one of the eight statewide runoff elections held in georgia since 1988. Some republicans are worried that President Trump<\/a>s continued baseless claims of a rigged election might discourage their voters from showing up this time. Do you think that is real or democratic Wishful Thinking<\/a> . Democrats are prepared to win this election. This is the first runoff where we have the level of investment and engagement that it takes to win a runoff. We know from the numbers we are in a good place. 1. 2 million absentee ballots have been requested thus far and just to put that into context 1. 3 million were requested for all of the general election. Of that 1. 2 million 85,000 of those applications are from voters who does not vote in the general election and disproportionately between 18 and 29 and disproportionately people of color. That signals that we understand that we may need to make a plan to vote and deliver this election. What donald trump is doing, the disinformation is deeply problematic. I dont know if he is going to help our harm his team. But we know that on our side of the conversation, we are pushing for leaders who will actually do the work of delivering covid relief to georgia. President trump has been repeatedly attacking your governor, your lieutenant grandfather, your secretary of state there in georgia to refusing to overturn the Election Results<\/a>. Last week, the White House Press<\/a> secretary Kayleigh Mcenany<\/a> paid for our tax dollars tweeted right now Governor Brian Kemp<\/a> is no different than failed gub bri you ran against in 2018. Do you give them credit for standing up for a basic rule of law and Election Results<\/a> given all the pressure he is facing from President Trump<\/a> . You shouldnt have get credit for doing your job. The reality is they are doing the jobs they are elected to do and following the laws of the land. What we want to Pay Attention<\/a> to is what happens next because republican Georgia Republican<\/a> senators said that they intend to restrain and to repeal so many of the pieces of Voter Suppression<\/a> mitigation that we have been able to achieve. They want to make it harder to vote by absentee ballot. I am going to judge them by what they do in january. Do they stand up not only for the rule of law, but for the 5 million voters who made their voices heard in the general election, or do they allow themselves to be pulled back into that maelstrom that says the only way to win is to silence the voices of the people. The georgia secretary of state, brad raffensperger, has been a vocal critic of President Trump<\/a>s actions since the election and he criticized you in an oped that mentioned the 2018 governors race, wrote writing, miss abrams refused to concede, announced she would launch major litigation against georgias election system and began collecting hundreds of millions of dollars from donors convinced the election had been stolen from her, unquote. What is your response to that . First and foremost, he has never listened to what i said. I said that the election was stolen from georgia voters because under the previous secretary of state, brian kemp, millions of voters were 1 1. 4 million voters were punched from the rolls. Thousands were rejected through a absentee ballots and provisional ballot process that was not equal. He is complaining about the lawsuits we filed that successfully fixed those challenges. My mission has been very clear since i was 17 and that is expanding access to the right to vote for those who are entitled to vet in our country, and especially in the state of georgia. What donald trump is arguing he wants to counts the votes that he likes. He wants to restrict access to the right to vote and restrict who gets to be heard in our country. That is not at all what im pushing for and what i am so proud of is that the work we did to expand access to the right to vote, mitigate Voter Suppression<\/a>, yielded change in this country not just in jorlgds but around this nation and that is something we should all be celebrating. Alabama senator doug jones is the leading contender to be the attorney general in the Biden Administration<\/a>. Despite a push by some civil Rights Groups<\/a> to appoint a black american to the job, do you think doug jones, who is white and has a long record fighting for civil rights issues, he is the right pick for the job . I think that joe biden is putting together the team he needs to fix four years of destruction and four years of going against the rule of law. What i want to look at is the team that he puts together in total because i believe that we will have a government that can fix whats been broken. In order to make any of this work, we have to elect jon ossoff and raphael warnock. That means we have to have every voter in georgia make a plan to vote, either vote by absentee ballots by going it peach vote. Com or make sure that you vote early and you can find your early vote location at peach vote. Com. We need to make a plan to vote and make certain that vote is cast before january 5th. If we do that and deliver john ossoff and rafaphael warnock we will deliver a balanced senate to fix whats been broken. 2022, do you intend to challenge Governor Kemp<\/a> . My focus is making certain we get to 22 which having two solid u. S. Senators who actually care about the 160,000 georgians facing evictions, the 4. 1 million jobless claims that have been filed in the state. Kelly loeffler and david perdue have done nothing in the last two months and years to address the challenges facing georgians. Instead of standing up to Mitch Mcconnell<\/a> and donald trump demanding we get covid relief before christmas, they are pushing lies and trying to defend the indefensible. We need to have two u. S. Senators, jon ossoff and raphael warnock. Thanks for joining us. Hope you have a merry christmas. You as well. Thank you so much, jake. Paraphrase and flip william shakespeare, i come to you at the end of the show today to praise donald trump, not to bury him. Out going President Trump<\/a> deserves our thanks for approving operation warp speed, which helped to bring us the covid vaccine. He has rethought trade deals. He has reimagined peace in the middle east. He has pushed Foreign Policy<\/a> consensus to put a priority on bringing u. S. Service members home, even if his follow through has been rather wanting. These are legitimate achievements. There are other ways outgoing President Trump<\/a> perhaps inadvertently has done us a service. The relationship between the news media and the u. S. Government should not be anywhere near as antagonistic as its been under President Trump<\/a>, but it should be adversarial. Maybe trump has been right to not attend the dinners where politicians and reporters coz zbri up to each other. Maybe he exposed as unseemly something that should not return to normal. The president has bs exposed the problem that so many of our standards and norms in the u. S. Seem to be based upon the honor system. There isnt, for instance, an explicit lawrence a u. S. President trying to extort a foreign country to provide dirt on a domestic political opponent. A government upheld upon the honor system only works if everyone involved has honor. This seems something that legislators should reexamine. And then, finally, let us look at the events of the last week. The president pushed an insane lawsuit. The big one, he called it, from the attorney general of texas. It was a clownish legal brief based on conspiracy theories and outright lies. And 18, 18 state attorneys general, some u. S. Senators, and a majority of the House Republican<\/a> caucus, 126 members, supported it. President trump did us a favor by exposing these elected officials. They are definitionally people who signed on to a desperate desire to subvert the will of the American People<\/a>, to disenfranchise voters in georgian, pennsylvania, wisconsin and michigan based on lies and conspiracy theories, putting an immoral and corrupt power grab above democracy. President trump did us a favor by revealing to us that those individuals are who they are, and thats important as we go forward because the business of this nation continues. The pandemic, the economy, Foreign Policy<\/a>, immigration, and now we know clearly how much these individuals care about facts or truth, how much they care about democracy, or the principles that make this country great, which is to say not at all. Since election day, we have seen republican officials at great professional and personal risk refuse to go along with these lies about the election from chris crabs to philadelphia commissioner al schmidt and georgia secretary of state brad raffensperger. Michigan board of state canvassers member aaron van lang veld. Members of the maricopa arizona county board of supervisors, from local judges all the way up to the u. S. Supreme court, we saw honorable american officials look at these nonsense allegations and kick them to the curb. But not republicans on capitol hill. Many americans hoped that most republican officials, while they agreed with trumps policies, did not like the uglier parts of his style, his willingness to lie or smear to achieve his ends. And the cowardly silence of senate republicans, most of whom still refuse to acknowledge that president elect biden won, their silence allows that hope to continue however misguidedly. But President Trump<\/a> made House Republicans<\/a> go on the record. He made them stand and be counted and 126 of them, including republican leader Kevin Mccarthy<\/a> and republican whip steve scalise, they actually signed their names to this, this unconservative, undemocratic, unamerican mendacious joke of a lawsuit that would disenfranchise millions of their fellow americans. These House Republicans<\/a> raised their hands. They said, sign me up. The hope that most republicans in the house were better than this, that has been destroyed. For those of us who believe in standards and norms and the u. S. Constitution, we need to thank President Trump<\/a> for bringing this fact to light. Thanks for spending your sunday morning with us. Fareed zakaria gps starts right now. This is gps, the Global Public<\/a> scare. Welcome to all of you in the United States<\/a> and around the world. Im Fareed Zakaria<\/a> coming to you live from new york. We will start today with a light at the end. Covid tunnel. The scientists have done it. The first vaccinations took place in the u. K. And are on the way in the u. S. They used the virus itself to perform a kind of biological jiujitsu. Is this the beginning of the end . How should we navigate the coming dark winter months . Ill talk to the founder and chairman of moderna whose vais","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"archive.org","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","width":"800","height":"600","url":"\/\/ia801707.us.archive.org\/22\/items\/CNNW_20201213_140000_State_of_the_Union_With_Jake_Tapper\/CNNW_20201213_140000_State_of_the_Union_With_Jake_Tapper.thumbs\/CNNW_20201213_140000_State_of_the_Union_With_Jake_Tapper_000001.jpg"}},"autauthor":{"@type":"Organization"},"author":{"sameAs":"archive.org","name":"archive.org"}}],"coverageEndTime":"20240619T12:35:10+00:00"}