Data thats just not happening fast enough. As the rate of coronavirus vaccinations falls far short of the trump administrations optimistic projections of course we need to be doing a better job, but all vaccine programs start somewhat slow. Reporter operation warp speed officials are offering few specifics on how to speed up the pace. Heres what i have confidence in. Every day, everybody gets better and i believe that uptake will increase significantly as we go forward. Reporter according to the cdc, nearly 2. 6 million shots have gone into americans arms and nearly 12. 5 million doses of the vaccine have been distributed. Vaccines on the shelf are no good. They need to get in peoples arms. Reporter the administration coming under fire from the biden team and other Health Experts for the slow rollout. What this reveals is a failure of the plan. The failure to have a National Strategy to vaccinate individuals across the country. A failure to communicate. A failure to coordinate. Reporter this as the uk adds another vaccine to its arsenal, greenlighting the Oxford Astrazeneca vaccine which is still being evaluated in the u. S. Its cheaper, easier to transport and the uk says it offers a high level of protection after the first dose, allowing the uk to vaccinate as many people as possible with the first dose and wait longer to administer the second. I think it could represent a game changer. But i think we can wait and really kind of focus on letting our scientists vet the data and make sure that were using the product we have. Reporter Vaccine Developers still believe the shots will ward off new strains of the virus. In the u. S. Colorado confirmed one case of the uk covid19 strain in a member of the National Guard with no known travel history. Officials are looking into a probable case in another guard member. Both were deployed to the same nursing home. The california governor announcing today the new strain has also appeared in southern california. Whats really concerning is its taken so long to detect it in the united states. It tells us once again if youre not testing for something youre not going to find it. Reporter this comes as the u. S. Continues to notch heartbreaking records. Another 3,725 deaths were recorded tuesday. And nearly 125,000 hospitalizations. Both new highs. The u. S. Hitting Daily Hospitalization records 22 times this december as new york prepares Emergency Hospital facilities including the Javits Center in case of another covid surge. California is warning hospitals to prepare for crisis care mode and the possibility of rationing care. In some hospitals there is not enough infrastructure to deliver oxygen right at the rate necessary. California is going through a very tough time right now. Reporter and the cdc just released a new ensemble forecast today and it is more grim news. Theyre now projecting the u. S. Could reach 424,000 covid deaths by january 23rd. Obviously, jim, the quicker we can get vaccines out to people the more protection were going to have across the country. Thats why this is so urgent. That help is desperately needed. Sara murray, thank you for that. Now to the push for 2,000 stimulus chengz. Its hit a wall in the senate, a wall put up by republican leader Mitch Mcconnell. Lets go to cnn White House Correspondent kaitlan collins. Kaitlan, President Trump is turning up the pressure, but Mitch Mcconnell is not budging. Reporter no, hes not. Hes basically dashing any hopes of these checks actually getting passed through the senate because he is saying they must stay tied to two other demands that the president has made and those are demands the democrats say theyre not willing to budge on. Mitch mcconnell knows that. He knows theyre not going to be moving on that. So by tying them all together he knows they are not going to actually go anywhere in the senate. And thats given the pressure thats despite the president s pressure, i should say, that repeated pressure that weve seen coming in a series of tweets from the president as hes also been lashing out at mcconnell. So we are seeing someone who has been a frequent ally of the president s refuse to do his d bidding on this thing while another member of his conference is willing to do the president s bidding. Its a move that will delight President Trump and rankle republican leadership. Josh hawley becoming the first republican senator to say hell object when congress meets next week to certify joe bidens win, an effort that wont change the outcome but could set up a showdown in washington. Theres a very clear process to handle and dispense with objections from members of congress to the counting of the result, and thats just what well do, dispense with them. Reporter hawley writing, at the very least congress should investigate allegations of voter fraud and adopt measures to secure the integrity of our elections. Senate majority leader Mitch Mcconnell warned his caucus against this very move, saying it was bound to fail and would force republicans to defy trump or vote against a fair election. So youve either got to say there was no systematic fraud or donald trump had the worst legal team in the history of western civilization. This is a complete sham. Reporter hawley is the first republican senator to say hell object, but he may not be the last. As others also consider their political futures. Meanwhile, the president argued that because a gallup poll found he was the most admired man of 2020 it also means he won the election. As 600 stimulus checks were being deposited into Bank Accounts of americans overnight, the fate of the 2,000 ones that trump pushed for at the last minute remained in limbo. As he tweeted, 2,000 asap. Mcconnell made clear today the senate wont move forward on a housepassed bill to increase checks to 2,000 and will only consider a bill that includes trumps other demands as well, which democrats argue will doom it. The only way, the only way to get to the American People the 2,000 checks they deserve and need is to pass the house bill and pass it now. The senates not going to be bullied into rushing out more borrowed money into the hands of democrat rich friends who dont need the help. Reporter the president is also lashing out at republican officials in georgia once again urging the gop governor he once endorsed to resign from office while falsely claiming the secretary of state who voted for him has a brother working for china. President elect biden announced today hell visit the state on monday ahead of a highstakes senate race the same day President Trump is scheduled to hold a rally there. Hello, georgia. Reporter the focus on the 2020 race and the fate of the Senate Majority comes as trump is back to blaming states for criticism of his own coronavirus response, now saying its on them to distribute the vaccine and telling them to get moving. And jim, today the president continued to lash out at those republicans in georgia going after them again just a short time ago saying theyre controlled by Stacey Abrams and other democrats in the state. Given that they are republicans who voted for the president , endorsed him and campaigned for him and now they are the target of his ire, carriy l clearly on. Thats gratitude for you. Stay with us as we bring in cnn Congressional Correspondent phil mattingly, nia Malika Harrison and ben ginsburg, who is steeped in all kinds of knowledge on these matters. Senator josh hawley plans to reject these Election Results when congress meets next week and were hearing some updated information just in the last several minutes that hawley plans to challenge the results coming from multiple states. And so this could drag out the process all day long apparently next week. Hes considering this from what we understand. What the senator is saying at this point. But this has zero percent chance of success, isnt that right . Thats correct. Zero percent chance. And the notion that hes going to highlight fraud and abuse in the electoral system is totally misplaced. The forum to do that is a court of law. And in all the many court cases, about 60 now, the trump forces have tried to present that evidence and have utterly failed. And so what josh hawley is going to do is just repeat the misinformation thats been floating around the country already. And nia, is this this is political theater. Josh hawley is a smart guy. He knows what hes doing here. Is he trying to perform for an audience of one here, or is this more about the next election cyc cycle . I think its both for josh hawley. One, to show his loyalty to donald trump. But also wanting to get some sort of hold on Donald Trumps base. If you look at some of the polling, Something Like 70 of republicans believe that the 2020 election was marred by widespread fraud. And so those are the folks that if youre josh hawley youre trying to court and to rise in the ranks among republicans. I think one of the questions is will there be other folks in the senate who have similar ambitions as senator josh hawley, people like ted cruz, people like rand paul, people like marco rubio, who also might want to run for president in 2024 or could have races coming up in 2022 and want to stave off a primary challenge by showing their loyalty to donald trump. So well see what happens with any more of these republicans, are they going to defy Mitch Mcconnell and go along with josh hawley. And phil mattingly, how big of a headache does this create for Mitch Mcconnell . Theres just different incentives. Right . Mitch mcconnells concerned about the 52 members of his conference, and i think this is a key point why Mitch Mcconnell a couple weeks ago warned his conference not to get in bed with House Republicans as they did this. And he did it because he understands that the end game here, while there is no actual outcome to change the electoral results, the end game here is they are going to have to vote. Members of the senate are going to have to vote on whether or not they want to object to the electors. That means every single member. And that includes republicans who are up for reelection in 2022 or up for reelection in 2024, the types of republicans that Mitch Mcconnell, the current majority leader, would like to keep inside his conference. So i think thats why the warning came out. It wasnt just from mcconnell. Was from some of his top deputies, too trying to pass the word, saying dont go along with it, many times highlighting that back in 2005 a democrat Barbara Boxer got on board with a house challenge and she lost that vote 741. Mcconnell trying to highlight that he thought that was an embarrassing defeat, hoping it would persuade all of his conference to stick with him on this. I think the reality is, and weve all been watching over the next couple of weeks, it seemed kind of inevitable that someone was going to do this and probably not just josh hawley. There will probably be others as well. But i think the big picture of frustration from the mcconnell tem and i think from a lot of Senior Republicans right now is its putting their members in a difficult position of having to vote against President Trump, perhaps bring the ire of the base, perhaps draw a primary challenge because of that vote, or vote for the president on an election that has been laid out very clearly, has been litigated to the hilt and its very clearly not the case that donald trump has grounds for his complaints right now. And ben ginsburg, i was talking to john bolton about this yesterday, the former National Security adviser, and he was saying any republican who signs on to this effort is embarrassing himself or herself in history. As history looks back on this period. What is your longtime republican lawyer who has specialized in these election disputes, what does this move that were going to see next week, the spectacle that were going to see next week, say about your party . Well, nothing good for the long term. What it does say is there has to be some honest reassessment and i think one of the things thats bothering republican senators the most today is that the grandstanding of josh hawley and others who may join him says that its not going to be a unified republican caucus, or conference, fighting joe biden, that in fact many of the members will have their own 2024 interests at heart and that means that the party developing a message, getting back to principless going to be really tough to do with a narrow majority and a unified voice. And nia, how problematic is it for republicans to sign on to these absurd efforts to fight the Election Results that are going to go nowhere but wont get behind these stimulus checks, these increased stimulus checks . It seems i mean, this sounds like something that would make a republican operatives head explode. No, youre right. I mean, its a party that really isnt recognizable in terms of what the party used to stand for. On the one hand, you can see the 2,000 stimulus. This is about the deficit. And republicans have long talked about that, even though in other instances they havent necessarily cared about that. But with this idea that somehow, you know, donald trump didnt lose this election, that there is widespread voter fraud, them buying into a conspiracy theory, it also kind of buys into trumps authoritarian instincts here. As if he has ultimate authority. Even if you think about the lawsuit that Louie Gohmert is trying against mike pence, the idea that mike pence somehow can overthrow the votes of 20 Million People and that he has absolute authority, it isnt democratic. It isnt anything like america. American democracy. And it certainly isnt anything like were used to seeing from republicans more broadly. Listen, we do know that the Republican Party has talked about voter fraud for decades and decades and decades and theyve used the idea of voter fraud to then really i think clamp down on people voting, widespread voting, whether its closing polling stations and all those kinds of things. In that way it is in keeping with, my goodness, going along with donald trump in this way is very odd given the history of the Republican Party more broadly, saying that they stood for democracy, they didnt like authoritarian leaders or dictators, and thats certainly what theyre doing now in going with donald trump on this authoritarian idea and overthrowing the votes of millions of people. Right. And kaitlan, it seemed like Mitch Mcconnell might have been feeling the pressure into crease the stimulus checks with those two georgia runoff candidates, the incumbent senators, essentially supporting those checks. But now it looks like the chances for these checks being increased are fading. And its one last i think blow to the president s standing it sounds like at this point. Isnt that right . Well, i think also the president had been incredibly eager to get people 2,000 in stimulus checks. Its something that he would have voiced a lot sooner in those negotiations. And he didnt. And so you could openly see the frustration from Mitch Mcconnell as he often talks about how it wasnt president s team that was there negotiating with lawmakers on what those checks were going to look like and you certainly heard democrats talk about the 600 because they say they were underwhelmed by it. But Mitch Mcconnell, he doesnt say it explicitly. He speaks in his Mitch Mcconnell way. But if you read between the lines hes pointing out you guys didnt ask for this sooner so of course its a lot harder to bring it to a vote right now. But i think the president is kind. 95 this mentality where hes not really looking out for Mitch Mcconnells republican caucus. He is in a burn it all down kind of mindset so far that he has been ever since he lost the election. The only person whose political fate hes concerned about right now is his own. Yes, he is going to georgia on monday to campaign for david perdue and kelly loeffler. But as we saw with the president s only one other appearance he made in georgia on behalf of them, a lot of his rally had a lot more to do with his election loss than it had to do with the fate of the senate and whats going to happen. So i think thats the concern, and i think Mitch Mcconnell is aware of that. Absolutely. It seems to all come down to soothing that ego, soothing those hurt feelings as he just cant get over the fact that hes lost this election. In the meantime there is millions and millions of americans who are just desperate for more Financial Relief during this crisis, and theyre just not going to get it. Theyre going to get a spectacle next week, but theyre not going to get more relief. Thanks to all of you for that. We appreciate it. More breaking news ahead on the stimulus check increase that is going nowhere in the u. S. Senate thanks in large part to Mitch Mcconnell. Ill talk to a top democrat, senator bob menendez. And an alarming forecast about covid deaths in the next few weeks as the vaccine rollout is hitting logjams. Love you. Have a good day, behave yourself. Like she goes to work at three in the afternoon and sometimes gets off at midnight. She works a lot, a whole lot. We dont get to eat in the early morning. We just wait until we get to the school. So yeah. Right now, here in america, millions of kids like victoria