Winner, and one year to the day since the first report out of china that a new and virulent respiratory virus had been discovered. Tonight donald trump who still refuses to publicly concede his loss has fired chris krebs. Hes the Homeland Security official who vouched for the reliability of our 2020 election and who repeatedly knocked down allegations that the count was tainted by fraud. Krebs is a veteran of the bush 43 white house. He worked for microsoft in the private sector in the interim until being named as a trump apinty who then ran the Cyber Security division of Homeland Security and led successful efforts to help state and local governments protect their election systems. That was his job. By all accounts he did it well until being fired on twitter tonight. Late last week Homeland Security issued that statement calling our 2020 election, quote, the most secure in american history. Well, perhaps thats what set trump off because the idea of an historically secure election goes against his current story line. Trump indeed took to twitter tonight with more baseless claims writing in part, quote, the recent statement by chris krebs on the security of the 2020 election was highly inaccurate. In that there are massive improprieties and fraud. Therefore Effective Immediately chris krebs has been terminated as the director of the Cyber Security and infrastructure security agency. It was just eight days ago that trump fired his defense secretary mark esper. Today came the move that esper repeatedly and reportedly had counseled against. Trump is ordering American Forces in afghanistan cut by roughly half from 4,500 to 2,500 by january 15. That would be five days before the inauguration. Same troop reduction will also take place in iraq. The decision was announced by the new acting defense secretary. This is consistent with our established plans and strategic objectives. Supported by the American People and does not equate to a change in u. S. Policy or objectives. Mo moreover, this decision by the president is based on continuous engagement with his National Security cabinet. Senate republican leader Mitch Mcconnell who has shown his willingness to say and do anything for donald trump spoke out against this decision. Its extremely important here in the next couple of months not to have any earth shaking changes with regard to defense and Foreign Policy. The troop reduction sets a kind of Foreign Policy and military booby trap for joe biden already forced to come up with workarounds because trump isnt allowing a transition to take place. Biden still not getting the classified Intelligence Briefings that hes now entitled to as president elect. So today his team put together his own briefing with experts of his choosing. Im not being critical but just stating it obvious. You know ive been unable to get the briefings that ordinarily would have come by now, and theres no president ial responsibility more important than protecting the American People. Though we should continue to point out this is not joe bidens first rodeo and he knows his way around the world. Meanwhile there are still efforts underway in key swing states to somehow invalidate bidens victory. In Michigan Republican members of the wayne county board of canvassers initially refused to certify the result. Hours later, though, the fourperson board voted unanimously to certify the results of the election. But the uncertainty did give the Trump Campaign something to talk about. And in pennsylvania trumps personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani was arguing in federal court to try to prevent pennsylvania from certifying bidens win there. By all accounts it did not go well in court. Today the New York Times reported rudy wants the president s campaign to pony up 20,000 a day to him for his efforts. Keep in mind this is all taking place in a nation now engulfed in coronavirus. All 50 of our states are now feeling the impact of the pandemic as we move even nearer to a quarter million american lives lost. The virus in our country has never been stronger than it is right now. Nbc news has obtained a report from the nominal White House Coronavirus task force to the states dated november 15. It warns of, quote, aggressive unrelenting Broad Community spread without evidence of improvement but rather further deterioration. Mitigation efforts are inadequate and must be increased to flatten the curve to sustain the Health System for both covid and noncovid emergencies. The upcoming holidays can amplify transmission considerably. Tonight senator Chuck Grassly of iowa is in isolation after testing positive. Hes 87 years old. As Senior Member of the senate hes third in line to the presidency. And pfizer is moving forward with a pilot Delivery Program for its experimental vaccine in four states initially rhode island, texas, new mexico, and tennessee. But dr. Anthony fauci is among those worried about how ongoing delays in this transition will further hamper efforts to contain this pandemic. I would like to see the interaction with people who might be coming in and be doing the things that are being done now by the task force and by the people in the Health System. Obviously theres no doubt that it is better to have a smooth transition. With that, lets bring in our lead off guests on this tuesday night, all three returning veterans. Peter baker, chief White House Correspondent for the New York Times. Clint watts, distinguished Research Fellow at the Foreign PolicyResearch Institute and our National Security analyst. Hes also the author oof the recent book messing with the enemy surviving in a social media world of hackers, terrorists, russians and fake news. And were happy to welcome back dr. Celin gounder at the nyu school of medicine and bellview hospital in new york. She was recently named to president elect bidens coronavirus advisory board. Good evening and welcome to you all. Peter baker, lets look at the president. No concession, but actions that are consistent perhaps with a guy on his way out. The partial decapitation of the intelligence community, troop movements overseas, further firings, a threatened attack on iran. Now hes canceled plans to go to florida for thanksgiving perhaps fearful theyre going to take his stuff. Whats your reporting from inside the west wing on the current mindset . Well, look, this is white house that knows the end is in sight even if it doesnt want to admit it. And i think theyre taking this next 60 days to do what they can to satisfy the president s whims whether it be as you point out decapitating certain agencies with leadership that in his view has not been sufficiently loyal, most recently of course chris krebs who dared to say the election was actually secure and waged in a fair and freeway. And hes trying to achieve a few last policy, you know, accomplishments. The drawing down of troops in iraq and afghanistan is something he has talked about from the beginning, and he would like to get done before he leaves office. This has been a subject of great tension between his white house and the pentagon over the last few months. Youve seen it kind of erupt in person outloud in public between robert obrien, the National Security advisor and general milly, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. The military of course very concerned about these plans. This would pulldown troops in places they still feel theyre needed and could still do some good. Theyre not exactly in active warfare, but they are stability agents they feel like, and give america an ability to keep on top of whats happening in places that have been problem spots for National Security for many years. So theres a lot of tension right now and we know especially about a president whose actions are unpredictable and who isnt really listening to a lot of his key advisers at the moment. Doctor, to your bailee whick just in terms of the pandemic what does the delay in this transition do to endanger our Public Health . Doctor, im afraid youre on mute. Is it on your end or our end . There. Can you hear me now . There we go. Lets try from the top. So imagine you were on a train thats going 100 miles an hour in one direction and youre trying to jump from that train to another train that is going 100 Miles Per Hour in the opposite direction. That is a very difficult maneuver to make, and thats what essentially the biden team is being asked to do with transition right at the time of inauguration. Thats simply impossible. There needs to be a period of handoff, of communication, of understanding just as with any other National Security threat. What are the detailed, granular information on things like supply chains, on Vaccine Distribution plans . We cant be picking up those plans on day one and really be truly prepared to execute on them. We need time to make those plans. So this is really going to cost american lives if this if the Current Administration continues to drag its feet. Hey, clint, how do you wrap your head around the following . A guy like krebs puts out a Statement Like the one he put out trying to assure the American People that the election we just witnessed, all the yammering to the contrary was the most secure in our history . The president of the United States comes out and says, oh, no, thats terribly inaccurate because, again, that doesnt match his plot line, krebs is fired for it . It just is a steady trickle, brian, of the death of the administrative state. If we rewound this four years ago you would hear steve bannon, the president ial advisor, talking along side the president how we need to roll back any sort of president ial state. And here the roll back is occurring all it way into inauguration here in january. When we think about this the thing weve been worried about for four years is we did not want a replay of 2016 where people were uncertain whether their vote counted. People were uncertain about the integrity of the vote or were they changed possibly by the russians which influenced the outcome of the election . Thats why we have this position. Thats why we built this position, and now were seeing it removed, and were getting a replay. But this time its coming from within the white house not from overseas. Peter, i have a tweet i want to read you, and it is its from our mutual friend natasha bertrand. She writes one way this could backfire for trump, as a Government Official krebs had been forbidden for speaking to the biden transition team. Nothings stopping him from doing so now, and he has a lot of Institutional Knowledge that isnt necessarily classified. This is a tough one for democrats, peter, as you know. Trump gets more intransigent when hes told that he has something of value and that when he thinks the keeping of said thing is getting him attention. On the other hand, joe biden could go all the way to january 20th without an actual sit down briefing. This is a guy who if you hand him a blank map of the world im guessing can fill in more than half the nations on it. Yeah, look, you know, the Biden Administration has an advantage that other new presidencies coming in wouldnt have which is they were only gone for four years. Almost everybody in his inner circle has been there before. They know where the bathrooms are. They know how the lines of authority work. They know where to go to get information once they are in there. But, you know, that doesnt mean there arent important issues as we were just saying about covid where coming on january 20th without understanding the Distribution Plan is obviously a hindrance and is obviously a hindrance for a president not to have the National Security briefing a president elect would be having at this time, without the kind of detailed knowledge of the threats and risks and the operations going on around the world particularly if the president is, you know, rattling sabers with regard to iran at the same time hes talked about pulling back troops from iraq and afghanistan. Thats a very volatile mix of possible actions just in the last 60 days of this presidency to have a next president come in without being ready for it has obvious consequences. He could always talk to a chris krebs. I dont know how much use that will do for him on a lot of important topics. There are other people who have left government not that long ago including mark esper for instance who might be helpful to the new president coming in. And one thing President Trump keeps doing is validating people on the way out the door. By firing all these people hes helping restore their reputation so people who might have otherwise been black listed by a new administration is going to have some credibility going ahead as people punished for telling the truth as they saw it. Clint, i ask you this knowing youre a west point educated u. S. Army veteran. Were conditioned as a society appropriately so to cheer the phrase, bring the troops home anytime we hear it. However, so many questions have been raised about the president s pentagon policy. Is there in your view as a veteran of this area the possibility that this president even the new acting sec def doesnt understand the Strategic Union in uniform in either of these operations . I think you saw the alarm in his face and hes rightfully so because weve been here before. If you rewound this calender ten years we were talking about how to get out of iraq, and we did a rapid draw down from a sizable number. Just a few years later they were back in mosul trying to liberate under awful conditions with an iraqi army taking massive casualties. Whether its afghanistan, iraq or somalia, the other theories theyre talking about these have been hard won battles. This is place Everyone Wants to draw down, but to do that responsibly. You dont want to be the last 2,500 people in afghanistan right now trying to negotiate with a taliban that knows youre going to leave and knows theres a vacuum in leadership, that there will be a gap between those two president s. Theres no way that incoming President Biden can now redeploy troops very quickly and establish a plan to renegotiate. This hands all the cards really to the taliban. And dr. Gounder, along the same lines id like to give you the last word. Maybe not an inauguration day, january 20th but in your view knowing what you know and knowing the president elect as youve come to what changes will americans feel on mitigation efforts on this pandemic maybe january 21, 22, 23 and down the road . I think the first couple of things youre going to see, youll see the president elect invoke the defense production act, one of the measures that many of us on the front lines including myself who have been seeing patients during this entire pandemic. Weve been pleading with the Current Administration to invoke the defense production act, to scaleup production of the personal protective equipment we need on the front lines, the masks, the gloves and so on. And unfortunately, weve been living in rationing mode for months now, and its only getting worse with this newest surge of cases. So thats going to be the very first things youll see. The other thing youll see is a very different tone on testing. The Current Administration has been actively discouraging testing saying were doing too much testing. The challenge with coronavirus is many infections are asymptomatic so thats a big part of the iceberg under water thats invisible to us. The small part is the part thats hitting the hospital, all the people dying. But there are many more people infected and testing is the only way to find all those people and control transmission. So nice to have these three starting guests tonight. Peter baker, clint watts, dr. Celine gounder, were in your debt. Thank you all three of you for starting us off. Coming up that sound you hear, the last gasps of an outgoing president. Our next two guests will walk us through in some some cases around the roadblocks popping up on that road january 20th when he loses power at 12 00 noon. And later a history making presidency. Hows the book . All of it and more as the 11th hour is just getting under way on a tuesday night. Hour is just getting under way on a tuesday night we look at how much youve saved, how much youll need, and build a straightforward plan to generate income, even when youre not working. A plan that gives you the chance to grow your savings and create cash flow that lasts. Along the way, well give you ways to be tax efficient. And you can start, stop or adjust your plan at any time without the unnecessary fees. Talk to us today, so we can help you go from saving. To living. Talk to us today, damom, look get sare you okay . . 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