welcome to our viewers here in the united states and around the world. i'm wolf blitzer in "the situation room." president-elect biden is looking to fill out key roles in his team. he announced a new coronavirus advisory board. with the numbers on the rise once again, the former vice president is urging all-americans to put the election behind them and unite behind his plan to fight the pandemic. president trump is still refusing to concede and is now lashing out big time at his own administration firing the defense secretary mark esper simply with a tweet. meanwhile, the surge in coronavirus pandemic has pushed a total number of cases in the united states to over 10 million with more than 237,000 american deaths. but there is very promising news tonight on a potential vaccine. pfizer says early data shows its

vaccine candidate is more than 90% effective, a figure dr. anthony fauci called extraordinary. they could apply for emergency authorization as soon as next week. let's begin with cnn's arlitt saenz joining us from wilmington, delaware. president-elect biden is moving ahead with plans to fight the coronavirus pandemic. tell us what else is going on. update our viewers. >> reporter: well, wolf, president-elect joe biden wasted no time in his transition getting right to work with some major action when it comes to the coronavirus pandemic. the global health crisis really shaping the opening days of his transition period, including coming up in a phone call with canadian prime minister justin trudeau. the president-elect making it clear that he hopes to take a markedly different approach to the virus compared to president trump. >> good afternoon, everyone. >> on his first workday as

president-elect, joe biden turn his attention straight to his top priority, tackling the coronavirus pandemic. >> i will spare no effort to turn this pandemic around once we're sworn in on january 20th. >> with vice president-elect kamala harris on his side, he warrant of the pandemic severity after the u.s. saw a record-breaking weekend in coronavirus cases. >> the challenge before us right now is still immense and growing. we're still facing a very dark winter. >> reporter: biden welcomed progress on a vaccine while urging americans to embrace masks to curb the growing spread of the virus. >> please, i implore you, wear a mask. do it for yourself. do it for your neighbor. a mask is not a political statement but it is a good way to start pulling the country together. >> reporter: the president-elect stressed his response will be guided by science unveiling a new coronavirus task force led by a former u.s. surgeon

general. former fda commissioner and yale university professor. also on the team, rick bright, the whistle-blower who alleged his early warnings about the pandemic went ignored by the trump administration. >> more people are going to die because scientists are being pushed back. scientists are not being heard. >> reporter: with his transition underway, biden is planning executive orders to undo some of president trump's policies on his first day in office, including rejoining the paris climate agreement and reinstating protections for dreamers. biden's transition still faces one technical hurdle as it waits for a trump appointee at a government agency to sign a letter recognizing his victory and releasing funds for his operation. in the days since his win, biden has seen a wave of messages from world leaders. today speaking by phone with canadian prime minister justin

trudeau and congratulatory statements from the king of saudi arabia and israel's prime minister, two men seen as allies of president trump. while the current president has not acknowledged biden's win, one former republican president has. george w. bush called biden to extend his well wishes saying though we have political differences, i know joe biden to be a goodman who has won his opportunity to lead and unify our country. the president-elect lr lookialr looking ahead to the next chapter. >> this election is over. it's time to put aside the partisanship and the rhetoric designed to demonize one another. >> reporter: while president-elect joe biden has received well wishes from a broad back here at home, only four republican senators have congratulated him on his victory. senator mitt romney, lisa murkowski, ben sass and they

have not fully acknowledged his win. joe biden met with his transition advisers this afternoon. there's a potential that future senior staff decisions could be coming later this week. wolf? >> they should acknowledge reality and move on. arlitt saenz, thank you. jim acosta, the president seems to be flailing after his election loss. he's taking it out on his own administration. >> reporter: oh, that's right, wolf. we could be in for a rocky transition period. a source close to the president said they did have discussions prior to the election about firing fbi director christopher wray. these discussions hinged on the president winning re-election as firing wray could be dicey before a new biden administration coming into power. a moment feared by many of the president's critics appears to have arrived as he is throwing his weight around, unable to

accept the results of last week's election. the secretary of defense was fired earlier today. that may be the beginning of the president's lame duck temper tantrum. 72 days left in power, president trump is lashing out from his social media bunker appearing to be desperate showing he's in charge tweeting he's fired the secretary of defense. mark esper has been terminated. i would like to thank him for his service. for months he has been stewing over a lack of loyalty with mark esper. after they gassed and pummelled protesters at the white house, esper made it clear he was not on board. >> what i was not aware of, where we were going when we arrived at the church and what the plans were once we went there. >> reporter: in an exit interview with the military times, esper said he was no yes man for mr. trump. have you heard me on a stage saying under the exceptional leadership of blah blah, we have blah, blah, blah.

this could be the beginning of a dangerous lame duck period as the president refuses to accept defeat. asked what mr. trump could do in his remaining days in office, one advisor told cnn, god, who knows. unlike former president barack obama's gracious welcome -- >> i want to emphasize to you, mr. president-elect, that we now are going to want to do everything we can to help you succeed because if you succeed, then the country succeeds. >> reporter: the trump administration may be digging in with vice president mike pence tweeting it ain't over until it's over. this ain't over. >> president trump is 100% within his rights to look into allegations of irregularities and weigh his legal options. >> reporter: general services administration is declining to provide federal funds to president-elect joe biden's transition team saying an ascertainment has not been made

the election is over. that's despite georgia telling reporters they haven't found any substantial voter fraud. >> we've not had any credible incidents raised to our level yet. we'll make sure the opportunity every legal ballot is counted is there. at this point we have not seen any sort of credible examples. >> reporter: even as the president is tweeting about the news that a coronavirus vaccine is showing promise, more officials are testing positive. ben carson as well as campaign advisor david baasy. just days after mark meadows contracted covid-19. more signs that mr. trump's election night party could have been a super spreader. top trump officials who are left appear to be split on what is next with john macanty saying they will be fired as some in the president's own family accepting the reality that biden has won. the president and his allies are talking about 2024. >> grover cleveland came back. donald trump should think about

it if he falls short. >> reporter: a sign mr. trump may be accepting his immediate fate, contrast with his comments so far. >> there's been a lot of shenanigans and we can't stand for that in our country. thank you very much. >> are you being a sore loser? >> reporter: now even as some in the president's family believe mr. trump has lost, he has plenty of advisers telling him to fight on. i talked to a trump advisor saying the president is starting to come to grip with reality that he may lose this election. this advisor said the president is starting to see a pathway not to victory but to defeat. wolf? >> jim acosta, thanks very, very much. let's continue the discussion with democratic senator chris coons who is joining us. senator coons, thank you very much. your good friend, president-elect biden got to work today in delaware, your home state, on plans to fight the coronavirus pandemic which is getting worse and worse as you know. what will these next two months

during this transition look like as the president-elect lays out his agenda? >> well, wolf, in a normal transition the next 72 days would be very busy. there would be landing teams that would go to every federal agency and begin talking about the issues that need to be addressed. there would be decisions made quickly about who could fill not just cabinet positions but literally hundreds of positions for many of the agencies and departments that make up the federal government. as your reporting just covered, the general services administration hasn't released the funding for this process to begin. the president hasn't accepted the inevitability of the transition and so president-elect biden and vice president-elect harris are going forward with being presidential with leading in terms of preparing plans for the covid response but they are not getting the cooperation they would normally get from an outgoing administration. that needs to change. president trump needs to accept

that he's lost the election. his allies and colleagues here in the senate need to speak up about this matter and we need to move forward. >> biden put forward a very detailed plan on dealing with the coronavirus today. he's got a task force helping him on that. is he setting an economic task force in addition to the coronavirus task force to deal with the enormous economic issues facing the americans? there are millions and millions of americans, as you know, senator, who are unemployed? >> wolf, my hope is during this lame duck period we will be able to come together and pass a covid relief package, but if president-elect biden becomes the president early next year, and we've done nothing more to provide relief, then we are likely to both have a significant challenge with the pandemic currently raging out of control and with an economy that continues to head south. i expect fully developed robust plans and advisory committees, good choices for leadership from the transition team and the

president-elect but, frankly, outgoing president trump has a choice here to make in the next 72 days, whether to help the american people, help make this transition work or whether to dig in and fight and simply hurt the very people who voted for him by 70 million or so rather than graciously accepting defeat. >> can we except, senator coons, you're really plugged in over there. can we expect the president-elect start naming his west wing staff as early as this week? >> wolf, i can't speak to that timing, but i know he's done some great work. he has a strong transition team. he has wonderful options to choose from and i suspect you'll see fairly swift movement. >> i suspect we will knowing how these things work and i know some of the people involved in leading this transition. the house speaker nancy pelosi said president trump's decision to fire mark esper by tweet no less is going to sew discord.

if the president uses these next couple of months to destabilize, if you will, the government? >> frankly he can do a lot of damage by destabilizing every major agency, by firing a whole series of senior leaders. the secretary of defense has one of the most important roles in the entire federal government. we have troops in harm's way in places around the world. the destabilizing impact of having a whole series of firings of senior leaders just because of president trump's grievances would be one parting gift that would not be a positive thing at all for the american people. >> we've got to go. do you want to be secretary of state? >> i look forward to serving in the senate and to contributing to bipartisanship here. i know that the president-elect has some wonderful close advisers among whom he could pick. if he were to reach out to me and offer that opportunity, i'd be honored to accept it but, wolf, i frankly look forward to working here in the senate. >> senator coons, very

diplomatic. that makes sense. appreciate it very much. >> thank you, wolf. >> good luck to you. just ahead, i'll speak to a newly appointed adviser on the coronavirus task force. plus, we'll have the latest on the vote counting going on in georgia and arizona. two key battleground states that are still hanging in the balance. the annual enrollment period is here. the time to choose your coverage... begins october 15th and ends december 7th. so call unitedhealthcare... and take advantage of a wide choice of plans... including an aarp medicare advantage plan from unitedhealthcare. it can combine your hospital and doctor coverage... with part d prescription drug coverage, and more, all in one simple plan... for a low monthly premium or in some areas, no plan premium at all. take advantage of $0 copays on all primary care doctor visits, all virtual visits, and all lab tests. also get $0 copays for preventive dental care,

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memoir." can he maintain a focus on these critically important issues in the face of this tension from the white house. >> he doesn't have a choice. this tension as you diplomatically call it is not going to go away any time soon. it is very clear he is not going to give up. he is going to exhaust all of these legal avenues that he believes that he has and that is not going to end until these states begin to certify the election results and that could be several weeks. the deadlines for those vary in various states, but it could be a while. so, look, joe biden kind of proved in the campaign that he could put blinders on and try to tune out the noise when he needs to.

he responded to president trump a fair amount but he tried to avoid it when it didn't benefit him. if he maintains that, which people close to joe biden says that that is his plan, then, you know, it certainly will benefit him because he's not going to have much of a choice. >> you know, bacarri, biden is reiterating his campaign message as he calls for unity in the country. you see just how deeply divided our nation is right now in the wake of this election. is unity any time soon at all possible? >> to be completely honest, probably not. the reason being is we still have this looming divisive figure in donald trump. you see some republicans around him having the fortitude to come out and call joe biden president-elect. i'm reminded in the middle of the night when the race is a lot closer than it is, many states

have not been called and hillary clinton called donald trump in a painful conversation to concede. you don't even see that type of courage right now. i think there are some things that have to be done. the first thing that has to be done if we're talking about unifying, donald trump, the 45th president of the united states, has to at least extend the hand of democracy to joe biden. until that happens, joe biden can be the pope himself but we won't have unity. >> jamie, while biden was working on trying to tackle this pandemic, president trump was firing his defense secretary. he did it on twitter. how insulting is that. what are you learning about what led to this firing? >> wolf, if nothing else, he is consistent, firing by twitter. so i spoke to senior republican official who said to me, quote, this was not a surprise, which i think we all knew.

this was in the news for weeks. then they went on, who is next? then the person ended by saying, there are no limits to his anger and vengeance. what we're seeing, jim acosta said this, we're seeing a temper tantrum. losing for donald trump is an existential threat, and he is going to be angry and fight, which is his default position, straight through this, wolf. >> i don't remember a time when i've seen any president during a transition who's leaving office when they're not re-elected or serving two terms start firing cabinet members during this lame duck two-month period transition period. dah dana, what does this tell you about the final two months of

the trump presidency? >> he's going to end them the way that he conducted himself for four years. i mean, if nothing else, what has defined the president trump presidency is tumult and self-created chaos. that's exactly the way he appears to want to end it. and what chris coons said to you before he came on was very stark. he said that the president has the ability to create serious problems, and serious waves in the u.s. government between now and inauguration day, and that should, you know, concern not just democrats but republicans who are, you know, not saying that joe biden is the president-elect, not saying that the president should accept the results. i have to say, listening to

mitch mcconnell today blame the media, say the media doesn't get the right to call results. i didn't hear them complaining when we called his race on election night or the day after? >> yeah. they like it when they're winning. they love it when the news media reports they're winning. when the news media reports someone else is winning, not so much. all, all the major news organizations have projected that biden is the winner, all of them. just ahead, very promising news on the vaccine. dr. anthony fauci said help is on the way after pfizer said the vaccine is 90, 90% effective. i'll talk about that with michael osterholm. we have much to talk about when we come back. hey! that's mine. i'll buy you a pony. advanced hydration isn't just for kids. pedialyte helps you hydrate during recovery.

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despite president trump's refusal to concede, president-elect biden says this election is over. in a message to the nation today, biden urged americans to put aside partisanship and turn their focus to the dangerous pandemic that's surging across the nation right now. let's discuss with michael osterholm. he's the director of infectious disease research and he's a new member of the biden coronavirus board. professor, thanks so much for joining us. you and other experts on this advisory board, it's an

impressive group, i know met several of them. you had a chance to meet with president-elect ahead of the speech today. i know you can't get into specifics. this is a lot of confidential information. what can you tell us about the meeting and the president-elect's top priorities in combatting this virus? >> well, i think the president-elect and the vice president-elect clearly understand the severity of what we're encountering and how much worse it's going to get before we do get to successful vaccines. i'm very impressed with the comprehensive nature that they're looking at all aspects of how to reduce the number of cases, how to treat those cases that are already in the pipeline or coming into our hospitals and then what we need to do to improve the public health system. i think it's a very positive development. >> the biden advisory board

co-chair dr. vivek murthy has been invited to brief people. how much do you think they can shape policy? >> somebody who is out in the states where so much is determined by what happens by the states, i think providing a national leadership framework for what we can all do together, what kind of work can we do now before he even becomes officially the president i think is very significant. i think it's telling a story. it's basically what is it that we need to do in the upcoming months to try to deal with this pandemic. that's something he doesn't have to be president for to actually make it happen. >> have a positive influence in a whole bunch of areas. in the last hour i had a chance to speak to dr. anthony fauci and he says help is on the way with a vaccine. now that we've learned pfizer's vaccine is 90% effective

according to fiepfizer, he said things go smoothly they could be vaccinating people before the end of the year. how encouraging are the developments? >> i think it's very encouraging that we have a vaccine that shows it works. i'm a bit more cautious than others maybe because what we heard is the vaccine is 90% effective or efficacious but we don't know 90% for what, for a common cough and fever? severe disease and hospitalizations and deaths? we need that kind of information to be able to determine what impact the vaccine will have. we know, for example, with influenza vaccines the people who are most likely to have severe disease are the same ones least likely to respond to the vaccine. until we get that kind of data, i'm not sure how to interpret the 90% other than it is surely a positive development. >> yes. he said we still need to look at all the data before the decisions go forward.

dr. fauci also told me in the last hour he has no intention of leaving his current role at nih. how important is it for him to stay on in the incoming biden administration? >> well, i guess my answer to that can be summed up in one word, amen. tony brings such incredible expertise and steady hand to the process. i, among many, welcome his involvement in any way, shape or form. i hope that's what happens for the future. knowing tony as i do, i'm certain he's up for the task of continuing this incredible effort that he's put forward. >> i do, too, because he's so, so important. michael osterholm, thank you. >> thank you. georgia's republican secretary of state is refusing calls to resign from the state a's two gop senators. in a joint statement they allege tuesday's election wasn't honest

but they fail to provide any evidence at all. i want to bring on david. votes are still coming. walk us through the latest information. >> they are still coming in. take a look here in georgia, a state we haven't called yet and a state likely to go to a recount, wolf. 49.5% biden, 49.3% trump. within that .5% somebody can request a recount and the trump campaign has said they will. joe biden has 11,419 vote lead. we got about 3500 additional votes today. joe biden won 2/3 of them. so he continues to grow his lead in georgia, wolf. in arizona it's a different story. it's donald trump who continues to grow his lead. he has diminished joe biden's lead to 15,432. again, we saw about 5,000 votes come into arizona.

donald trump won 2/3 of them so we'll continue to watch that. and in pennsylvania we got about 10,000 votes today. joe biden won a majority of them. you see now he's got a 45,313 vote lead. 49.7% to 49.0. this is outside the .5% automatic recount in pennsylvania. i also want to note, that's a slightly bigger margin than donald trump had over hillary clinton when he won pennsylvania four years ago, wolf. >> one thing that is remarkable, i'm sure you agree, david, there was a record number of americans who actually voted in this election even though there's a global pandemic underway. where does the popular vote stand between the two candidates? >> take a look at this, 75 million plus for joe biden. 71 million plus for donald trump. joe biden's got a 4.4 million advantage in the popular vote. of course, we don't elect president's according to the popular vote. it's the electoral college getting to 270 which joe biden

has. that is the popular vote. four years ago, joe biden has 10 million more votes than hillary clinton had four years ago. donald trump has 8 million plus more votes than he did four years ago. so that explosive turnout actually worked to both of their advantages but clearly joe biden is going to emerge with a bigger popular vote lead than hillary clinton did. >> i'm sure that's not going to make president trump happy at all that biden has almost 4.5 million more votes nationally than he has. thanks very much, david. just ahead, we'll take a closer look at the role of the vice president-elect kamala harris, what role she might have in the biden administration and how she'll be able to influence the president-elect. we'll be right back.

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just as every presidency is different, so is every vice presidency. vice president-elect kamala harris says she's uniquely positioned to fill her role in the biden administration. brian todd is joining us now. brian, we can expect the vice president-elect to play a very significant role in the years to come. >> reporter: that's right, wolf. as cnn reported, he said he wants a partner like he was to barack obama. kamala harris seems ready for that role and she may be depended upon to such an extent that she might not have time to revel in the history she's making. kamala harris making history and

a confident declaration. >> while i may be the first woman in this office, i will not be the last. >> reporter: harris will be the first woman, first black woman, and first person of indian decent to be elected in history. harris's life journey let her to this point. >> kamala is representing young girls, women across this country, across the world. she's representing immigrants. she is representing black women, and i'm going to get emotional, but i don't think we have been recognized for being the backbone of this country going all the way back to slavery. so she represents all of that. >> reporter: and while she's doing that, analysts say, kamala harris will very likely be taking on significant responsibilities. joe biden himself has said he wants someone next to him to

fill the kind of role he had for barack obama. >> you have to be willing to have someone with you who will tell you the truth that they think you're wrong. >> reporter: that means kamala harris could be the last voice in the room when the biggest decisions are made, a role biden had demanded that he be given with obama, and that could start during the transition. given her experience as california's attorney general and as a high profile u.s. senator, analysts believe she could have a strong voice in the selections of the u.s. attorney general and cabinet positions. >> i definitely think that harris will be the one in biden's ear letting him know who she thinks will be perfect for those roles. i mean, harris was going to be working with all of these cabinet members in tandem along with biden. >> harris's experience on the senate intelligence and judiciary committees observers say could be something joe biden leans on. >> maybe helping pick a future supreme court nominee if democrats win control of the senate and there is a supreme court vacancy.

maybe she will be in some ways like vice president biden was in the obama administration, sort of a secretary of state going abroad. >> reporter: but analysts believe kamala harris could also be a uniquely positioned leader for this extraordinary period, that she's the person in the next administration who can take the point on issues of racial justice and helping joe biden navigate through the next potentially devastating months of the coronavirus surge. >> that means coronavirus pandemic mitigation efforts. perhaps she'd be using that to communicate to black and brown communities, to platwo places s has focused on as senator. >> reporter: in addition to being joe biden's bridge to the minority communities in america, he's likely to count on kamala harris at age 56 to be his bridge to younger americans and that will also help position her for whatever office she might seek after the biden administration. wolf? >> good reporting, rob ryan.

thank you very much. just ahead. as president-elect biden moves forward despite president trump's refusal to concede, i'll ask presidential historian doris kearns goodwin how the presidential election and transition may be remembered. - got a taste for a deal?

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president-elect joe biden's transition is moving full steam

ahead even as president trump refuses to concede the election. let's discuss with presidential historian doris kearns goodwin. she's the author of the best-selling book, there you see the cover, we should show the cover, "leadership in turbulent times." there's the cover right there. doris, thanks so much for joining us. our chief white house correspondent jim acosta is reporting that maybe the president right now according to one senior adviser is beginning to see a path to conceding. do you see that at all anytime soon? >> i hope so. i mean, i think it's really important in this time of crisis as we're facing the upward climb of the virus to have that national leadership that can come when a concession allows you to start thinking about the next president that's coming along. i just imagine what history books are going to say about this period in time. the only two equivalents in some way are imagine what it was like if you lived through 1860s transition. and in those days it would be from november till march. imagine if we had to wait till march for this one. or if you lived through the

transition of fdr and hoover. and in fact, it was the terrible nature of that transition that made them change the amendment, the 20th amendment, to make sure it was a shorter period of time. but the concession is at least the first step toward allowing the transition to take place, to think about the future, to have the future on our mind instead of the past. >> in some ways the president-elect represents a return to what we would call traditional american politics. certainly heard that in his speech today. but the world has changed dramatically since he left the white house four years ago as vice president. what lessons can he take, let's say, from other presidents over the years who led the nation through times of great, great challenge? >> you know, i think his words about the importance of bringing the country together and unifying the country are the first step. but the second step is taking actions. and that's what abraham lincoln did. when he became president, he realized that even the north was divided. there were different factions in the north. so he wanted each one of those

factions. so when he was making decisions, he would have their point of view. and that may suggest that what president-elect biden could do is to bring different parts of the democratic party, some part of the republican party together. when you have those factions right there and you're making a decision like lincoln had to make the emancipation proclamation decision and he had listened to all the different factions for so long, then when he finally went to them and said i'm making this decision and i hope you'll come with me, they eventually came with him as part of an administration family because he'd respected them. he'd listened to them. he had treated them with dignity. he had shared credit. he had shouldered blame. they felt they were part of a family. and if the president elect can do that with the different factions in the country and make hard decisions and they can come together, then maybe they can reflect back to the country at large, which still will remain deeply divided. >> so far of course president trump has refused to concede the election. one of his political appointees has yet to sign a key document to begin the formal transition. today the president actually

fired the defense secretary, did so by tweet. will this go down, doris, as perhaps the most contentious transition in american history? >> well, that's where i think as i say history can give hope. just imagine, as i said, if you were in 1860 from november till march. seven states have seceded from the union during that period of time. a confederate government has been formed. the president, buchanan, considered the worst president in history, did nothing to stop that secession. or even think of it in 1932, from the time that roosevelt is elected till the time he's inaugurated the depression is spiraling down, down, down. the banking crisis has meant that you can't even get your deposits out of the banks. and yet hoover would not take the kind of action, national responsibility that was necessary. so contention, difficulty, strain, we lived through those other ones. that's what makes me think that we know those end of the story. we don't know it now but my sense is somehow we're going to get through this. that's my fwleef in what history

shows us. it provides hope. >> i don't know if you heard brian todd's report just now on the role of vice president-elect kamala harris potentially down the role. how might the role of the vice president actually evolve under her, the first woman, first woman of color ever elected to that position? >> you know, it could well be that she'll be the most powerful vice president in history. the role of the vice presidency has been growing exponentially. i mean, from the days when theodore roosevelt was so bored he thought he was going to go back to law school or even lbj said it was the most miserable time of his life, it's become more powerful. biden has made it more powerful in part. i suspect he will. because he was powerful in his term. and now she will be the first woman and the first woman of color. and all those little girls as she said in her statement will be imagining that maybe there's a world of possibilities for them. and i think that's a really important thing that may happen. she's going to represent a whole group -- she's going to represent women. when hillary clinton gave her acceptance speech and when it

seemed from all the polls we'd have the first woman president i was so excited. i remember i was on colbert show that night and i predicted well maybe now that she's president we'll have 44 more presidents which will be female. why not? you had 44 men until you had the 44 -- you'll have 44 women. and then there will be some little boy there saying mama, can i ever be president? so i was wrong then. but i think there's a ceiling being broken now. and maybe she's right. she'll be the first but she may not be the last. women are coming into power. and i'm glad that i'm old enough now that i'm able to see it more because it's been a long road. and you think about that 100th anniversary of the suffrage ratification changed, and she was wearing white in honor of that parade. it's a great moment, i think, for women. >> certainly is. and let's hope there are many more women down the road. doris kearns goodwin, thank you so much for that. we're going to have much more news right after this. ♪ ♪

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i'm wolf blitzer. thanks for watching. erin burnett "outfront" starts right now. "outfront" next, president-elect joe biden forging ahead, zeroing in on the pandemic as his first priority. despite president trump and an obscure trump political appoint gee blocking biden's transition team from actually doing what they're supposed to do. the co-chair of biden's transition team is out front. plus after the president announces the firing of his defense secretary on twitter all eyes now on the fbi director and the cia director. are they next? are we about to have a gaping hoe hole in this country? and the results of the election still coming in from three battleground states p. we are live at the