Has killed more than 278,000 people in this country. It cannot always relate to the numbers and statistics that we report day in and day out. To them, its about the individual people for whom they care, living, breathing, human beings having their lives extinguished by something we didnt even know about one year ago. Those workers are pleading with their fellow citizens. Stay vigilant. Do not let your guard down. I can tell you theres a lot of people suffering and its not just about dying. Those numbers are the people that are dead. There are countless more that will have lifelong disabilities from this. Not just physical or mental but also financial and theres a lot of Us Health Care workers that will never forget the things that weve had to see and do, and i just ask that you try to think beyond yourself and beyond those numbers and really think about the lives and what you can do to make sure youre not the next number, youre not the next life that we put in a body bag. While the outgoing president ignores the remarks, joe biden renewed his calls for President Trump and congress to act and act now to help americans in need. Were in a crisis. Need to come together as a nation. Need the congress to act and act now. Congress and President Trump fail to act by the end of december, 12 million americans will lose their Unemployment Benefits they rely on. Merry christmas. Unemployment benefits allowing them to keep food on the table and keep the lights on and the heat on, pay their bills. Emergency paid leave will end. Moratorium on evictions will expire. States will lose the vital tools they need to pay for covid testing and Public Health. If we dont act now, the future will be very bleak. The president elect also made clear that hell be putting forward another relief package of his own when he takes office next month. As we inherit the Public Health and economic crisis, were working on a plan that will put forward for the next congress to move fast, control the pandemic, to revive the economy and to build back better than before. This while the outgoing commander in chief travels to georgia to throw his support behind Kelly Loeffler and david perdue as they seek reelection one month from today. It comes on the same day georgia is set to recertify the recount that shows that joe biden was the president ial winner in that state. In other trump rumblings, new report on an investigation into a possible bribery for pardon scheme. The New York Times writing, quote, Trump Associates said to have been scrutinized in suspected pardon scheme. The department of justice investigated a top fundraiser for President Trump and a lawyer for his soninlaw, jared kushner, in a suspected scheme to offer a bribe in exchange for clemency for a tax crimes convict. The sources say San Francisco real estate billionaire Sanford Diller tried to get clemency for a psychologist convicted of tax crimes. He enlisted the help of elliott breudy and abby lowell to get the message to the white house. As part of the effort diller would make, quote, a substantial political contribution. Abby lowells lawyer tells the times no bribe was paid. The scheme outlined by prosecutors underscores the transactional nature of mr. Trumps term where people leverage connections to him or frame their causes in terms of his personal or political benefit to influence his decisions. And of course most observers of trump world do not believe we have seen the last pardons of his presidency with him considering preemptive pardons for crimes not yet charged for some of his closest allies, family members, and even himself as his term draws to a close. All the while a natural catastrophe to which the outgoing president appears oblivious continues. Yesterday the cdc advised people to wear masks while indoors except in the privacy of their own homes. The Washington Post noting this was the first time they had urged this type of universal mask use. It comes as cases are surging nationwide. Ive been reporting these coronavirus pandemic numbers for ten months now. Not to invoke fear but to inform. Weve said it before. Cases increase. Hospitalizations increase then deaths increase. Its unfortunately our reality. The vaccine is part of our reality. It was not in the spring, it was just a hope. I know youre tired of this. Covid fatigue. Id rather be tired and annoyed and live in six months so please wear your mask, social distance, wash your hands, tough it out. Do the things you need to do for a little while longer. We are all in this together and we can get through this together until the vaccine is available to everyone who wants it. Turning now to rhode island. While it is the smallest state in the country right now, it is seeing one of the biggest spikes in covid cases in the last week. Nbcs Valerie Castro is in the city of cranston at the site of one of Rhode Islands new Field Hospitals. Valerie, rhode island hospitals are at capacity now. The state has seen a 36 increase in covid cases from two weeks ago. What are they doing there . Reporter good morning, ali. Right now rhode island is in the middle of a twoweek pause. Restaurant indoor capacity is 33 . Any bar seating is closed. Houses of worship have been reduced to 25 capacity and fitness gyms are completely shut down. This all went into effect on november 30th, this past monday, and that is the same day that an Emergency Alert was sent out to residents in the state letting them know that hospitals are now at capacity due to covid. Now because of that, two Field Hospitals that were assembled in the spring but never used have now opened. They opened this past monday. One in providence at the convention center. That is able to hold about 600 people. Were told there are 20 patients there right now. The other one here in cranston, this building behind me, is able to hold about 350 people. The latest update we got from a doctor is there are currently 10 patients there. Both of these Field Hospitals are meant to take care of patients who are not critically ill, not on ventilators but they do need to be monitored and are on oxygen. The cdc just predicted this week between 9,500 and 19,500 people could potentially die over the week of christmas, just a few weeks away, following that surge after thanksgiving. The doctors tell us they are very worried about that surge, they are ready and prepared. Take a listen to what they had to say. Our rates in rhode island have been climbing since october and thanksgiving, what we anticipate is the next two to three weeks a continued rise and our hospitals are already quite full and so another two to three to four weeks of climbing covid in our state, our hospitals wont be able to handle it. Thats why places like our Field Hospital are being set up. Reporter ali, just a few weeks ago there were 250 people hospitalized in the state. The state Health Department says that number is now above 400 and 45 are in the icu. Valerie, thanks again for your reporting. Valerie castro in cranston, rhode island. Thanks, valerie. All right. I want to bring in Carol Williams. Shes an intensive care nurse at the Rush Copley Medical Center in aurora, illinois. At last count illinois had registered 770,088 and 13,782 deaths. A few weeks ago Carol Williams made headlines when she shared a post on facebook about her unfiltered experience fighting on the covid front lines. She wrote imagine being the nurse crying with your patient when they realize that everything were doing to help them still may not be enough and death is a real possibility. Imagine being the nurse or Doctor Holding that same patients hand and stroking their head weeks later while their ventilator is removed because they havent improved and their family then says goodbye and i love you over face time while they take their last breath. Joining me is that nurse, Carol Williams who works at the rush Copley Hospital in aurora. You motivated me to remind people that were in this together. We will get through it together. But together means doing the right things together, and you wrote a remarkable post in which you contradicted 13 lies that are out there in the public but theyre lies that actually make it to you. There are people who tell you things in the hospital that are contrary to medical science because theyve heard it in the political environment. Yeah, and thats why i wrote that, because i think its important for people to really listen to Real Health Care providers caring for the patients on the front lines. What effect does it have on you when you are treating people who you know are very ill, who might die and are resistant to the idea this is a real thing, this is serious, this is a potentially fatal infection . Its unfortunate for those patients that even when they make it to an icu that theyre not believing in the virus or whats really happening, but the fact of the matter is is whether you believe it or not, you are a patient in the icu now or in the hospital needing very intensive care so the belief of its real or a hoax becomes irrelevant because the effects on your body are really taking place and theres a real possibility that you could die from this virus and the complications that it causes to you. And you have asked people in your post to imagine what its like being that nurse. I just read a piece of that. Youve asked them to imagine being the covid icu patient, the breathlessness, the pain, the fear, the loneliness, isolation, anxiety, hopelessness, sadness, the need to use all of your energy just to breathe. The true realization that you may not be Getting Better and facing your own mortality. The truth is that this post you put in could be as is more valid now than it would have been six months ago when we thought we were at the height of this. You in illinois like us in new york saw the first wave of this thing in april and may. We didnt think wed be here in december. We didnt think that we would be facing the same challenges in december that we were facing in the spring with the disbelief and just the not the unwillingness to come together for the greater good. So, yeah, thats we didnt think that that was going to be an issue here going into the winter months and yet here we are and things are worse, much worse across the country in hospitals, in icus and everybody is stretched. Its a daytoday battle with these patients, covid and noncovid, with where everybody is going to go. Were nine months into this. We may have six or seven months to go before everybody is vaccinated. How are you going to manage through this . Because you did put in your post, and every nurse and doctor weve talked to has said the same thing, were human. This is hard. Youre used to hard. You trained for hard. This is hard at a different level. This is a level that no Health Care Provider in this country has experienced until now so we are going to lean on each other, lean on our coworkers because thats who is really understanding what is going on with these patients and just to be the amount of burden for the patient, for the health care worker, for the system. So we are all leaning on each other. Carol, i hope you can lean on some of us. I hope the public continues to remember the work that you all are doing. I did like in the early months when every day people around the country would open their windows and clap for people like you and front line workers and the people who delivered our goods just to remind you that we are grateful, we really are grateful for the work you are doing and you will be remembered well. We thank you. And this headline from the Washington Post just popped up an hour ago, quote, just 25 Congressional Republicans acknowledge bidens win. Just 25 of 249 total. This is why the Trump White House has been able to pull the shenanigans it has since the weeks of the election. Where are you, republicans . Democracy is on the line. Its time to stand up and face this losing president head on. Is he really the standard to which you want to hold the Republican Party . I truly hope that he isnt. Hat e is how it can make you feel. But, when used at the first sign, abreva can get you back to being you in just 2 and a half days. 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Yeah, but im just like warming up to those speeds. Youve lived here two years. The personal attacks arent helping, karly. Dont you have like a hot pilates class to get to or something . [ muffled scream ] stop living with at t. Xfinity can deliver gig to the most homes. Courage manifests in different ways, physically, mentally, morally, emotionally, but all forms of courage are defined by the willingness to act in the face of adversity. None of those manifestations seem to apply to what republicans are doing in the face of a president who may be doing more damage to american democracy in the dying days of his administration than he did in the almost four destructive years that preceded them. The check inning begin light in the republican car has been red since early 2016 as trump headed for his partys nomination. The problem was serious then, but now the engine has seized. The tires are blown out. The car is careening towards a cliff and with very, very few exceptions republicans across the country are standing by watching it happen and holding their tongues. For those of you who think thats their problem, its not. Its actually all of our problem. This past wednesday donald trump released a 46minute edited video diatribe about the Election Results that he called, quote, the most important speech hes ever made. It contained nothing about the most important issue we all face, coronavirus, but was riddled with lies many already debunked in and out of court about voter fraud, rigged vote counts, Voting Machines and a stolen election. Its bad enough that republicans encouraged this behavior in the early days after joe bidens victory, but its been a month now and enough is more than enough already. Republicans should be objecting to every one of the fake hearings being held to demonstrate voter fraud and every time the giuliani clown car rolls into another stop, specifically at the president of the United States making baseless claims that undermine faith in democracy. I cant tell you how many times over the last four years ive heard people giving trump the benefit of the doubt asking what damage he can actually do. Apparently a lot. His supporters are asking legislatures to overturn the will of the people suggesting he somehow cling to power. Who would have thought that in 2020 we would be discussing members of the grand old party encouraging a coup. Now lets not be poly annish and imagine that donald trump will con see the defeat. He can do much more damage in 46 days in office as the president of the worlds most powerful country. If members of the Republican Party plan to exist beyond trump, they may want to display a little bit of courage. 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