involved with keeping our elections safe. >> chris krebs was telling the president what he did not want to hear about the election. >> there is no evidence of irregularities, no evidence of widespread fraud presented today to the wayne board of canvassers. nationwide average daily case counts are now double the peak of the summer surge. >> this is simply the fastest increase california has seen since the beginning of this pandemic. >> we've got a few months before the vaccines come to the rescue. we want to save as many lives as we can. >> announcer: this is "new day" with alisyn camerota and john berman. >> welcome to our viewers in the united states and all around the world, this is "new day." and this morning it is not just a question now of how far the president will go, the answer to that it seems is there are no limits. the real question is how far republicans will let him go. overnight the president fired a key official at homeland security whose crime it appears

was telling the truth. refusing to say there was widespread fraud in the election. almost simultaneously republicans in wayne county, michigan, which includes detroit, tried to block certification of votes in that county. the trump campaign's lead attorney bragged that this would allow michigan to appoint pro-trump electors. essentially overthrowing the will of the people. throwing out the entire election that joe biden won in michigan by 148,000 votes and handing it to donald trump. now, that board late overnight reversed that decision. it might not be over yet, we will speak with the governor of michigan in just a moment. more states also issuing new coronavirus restrictions, including curfews, mask mandates and business closures. 19 states are dealing with record hospitalizations.

but there is some hopeful breaking news this morning, pfizer reporting another round of promising data on its coronavirus vaccine. the drug maker will soon seek emergency authorization from the fda. >> much more on that in just a moment, but joining us now cnn national security commentator mike rogers, he is the former republican house committee chair and cnn political analyst maggie haberman. chairman, we just heard from adam kinzinger talking about chris krebs getting fired, he is an official in the department of homeland security who oversees election security and last week said this was the safest most secure election in u.s. history and went on to say he saw no evidence of fraud at all. that's what got him fired. adam kinzinger flat out said it's a loyalty test, this is what the president is going to do until january 20th. what do you think the impact of this is? what do you make of it? >> i think it's awful, first of all. so think about this, the president is going to be the

president for the next 60 days or so and he has a pretty important job to make sure that, a, the transition goes well and, b, that the rest of the world understands that our greatest strength is a peaceful transfer of power. so of all the things he should be doing, spitefulness shouldn't even be on the list, but this was a spiteful dismissal. remember, krebs was put in charge of an organization that was designed to make sure that foreign actors were not trying to interfere with our elections. remember the russians were trying to actually break in to voting machines and they weren't successful in 2016, but we through that they were coming back in 2018 and his job was to make sure that state and locals had the best information possible to try to prevent that. so when you dismiss him for all the wrong reasons, it just sends a horrific message. as a matter of fact, i argue that the biden team should ask him to be on the review teams to make sure that the transition goes well from chris to the next

caretaker of that office. hugely important. not good for the country, not good for the transition, sends a horrible message. as my parents said, you judge a person's character not by when things are going well, but when they're going poorly. i think that says a lot where the president is going with his hiring decisions in the last 60 days. >> maggie, we just had miles taylor on, he thought that the biden team might do just that, they might reach out to chris krebs now for good reason. not only did he announce that it was the most secure, he kept it the most secure. he helped this election, this could be a huge feather in the cap of american democracy but of course that's not true -- i mean, that's not happening. we saw this coming. chris krebs saw this coming. he knew that after he put out that tweet saying that this was the most secure election in history that his head was on the chopping block. so it wasn't surprising, but still just shocking. do you have any reporting on how the president -- what took him so long? how he worked his way around to

firing chris krebs? >> basically, alisyn, the president wanted to do this right after election day. he had for whatever reason moved off of it because i think his mind was on other issues, there are other areas where he is trying to box joe biden in and i think he was distracted by that. he came back around to this, whether it's because he saw krebs being interviewed or talked about or whether somebody got back in his head is not entirely clear, but this was, as you say, inevitable and krebs knew that it was going to happen. it doesn't make it any less shocking, it doesn't make people less scared about what the president might do over the next 60 days. and again, as you know, he was fired because he said something contrary to what the president wants to say about the election. it is reaching a new level in terms of how the president is trying to push back against reality, which is that he lost the election. he's trying to make that not the case and this is another -- another brick in that wall. it would not surprise me if the biden folks reached out to, alisyn, in no small part because

the biden folks can't do a normal transition right now so they need to get information wherever they can. >> this is a guy who apparently just does a good job, too. who knows the job well, works hard, has support on both sides of the aisle. >> how dare he. >> it may just be that he is a good person to have working for you. look, congressman, there have been a few republicans who have stood up, mustered the courage to stand up and say this was a bad more. adam kinzinger was with us, he did, ben sasse and richard burr put out a statement. where are the republicans right now? how much further are they going to let this go at this point? >> i certainly hope there is a cue outside the white house trying to talk some sense into the president in the next 60 days. again, he's going to be judged as harshly in the next 60 days as he did the previous three and a half years and being disruptive to the national security infrastructure, listen, i don't think it's the end of the world, but why would we -- why would we make our challenges harder and, by the way, the

transition -- it makes the transition much more difficult to walk in. they have to try to pick up the pieces and get the morale back corralled around. now people are doing not really their jobs but they're looking over their shoulders saying is today the day i get fired. i really don't want them to think about that. i want them to think about how do we get through the transition and make america as safe as i can in the role that i have in the next 60 days or so and hand off something that i would be proud to hand off to the next administration. again, i think republicans should -- i see more and more doing it. lankford was out there, rubio was out there. i think this is coming, but i do think they need to get a handle on t the decision on afghanistan is not based on certainly what military commanders are saying. we don't have the ability to reach out and strike from a counterterrorism perspective which was the whole reason, and it absolutely undercuts any taliban negotiation. this is really crazy. i hope people get into the president's ear on this and slow this thing down because what

you're going to do is empower the very people that we sent people there in the first place to stop safe haven. that's a disaster. our nato allies, as a matter of fact, the head of nato said this is a terrible idea. they have troops, nato has troops, allied countries in nato have troops in afghanistan. they're getting the rug pulled out from under them. i mean, this is just a terrible decision and i do believe it's because they're trying to muck up the next batch that come in, they're going to have to make a decision in what i think the president wants to do is run around the country and say, see, i got out, they're putting more troops in. that is a disservice to our national security. mr. president, you are president for 330 million americans, not any subset of that. by the way, this is not about you at this point. i'm sorry you lost for your own sake, but this next 60 days is important. show the rest of the world who we are as americans. this is not the way to do it.

>> maggie, how about that? is this just president trump keeping some sort of campaign promise or is there something else going on? >> i think that it's exactly right, that the president is trying to box the incoming president in serious policy moves, one is afghanistan, the other is potentially on iran which my colleagues and i reported on the other day, there is an iran/china. yes, okay, this was a campaign promise but i do think the president wants to be able to say he did this and make it harder for joe biden, the incoming president, to undo things. i am in no way justifying this in the president's mind and in the people around him, in their minds, this was done to him in terms of the investigations into him related to russia. it's obviously not the same thing, but that's the perspective they're coming from. >> maggie, what's your reporting now on the president in general? he's canceled his thanksgiving trip to mar-a-lago to hunker down in the white house. what's the thinking there? also just in general. we will talk to michigan governor gretchen whitmer and dive much deeper into that, but is there now a concerted

strategy from giuliani and others to basically decertify the entire election and throw it up to republican legislators? >> it's then certainly been a strategy from giuliani and some of giuliani's associates like steve bannon. whether that's going to be successful is another question, it was also not the strategy of the campaign which was trying to work in a more methodical day with discrete or specific lawsuits. that the legal issue and their lawsuit strategy has been messy for many, many weeks now, but that is something that people are talking about. in terms of why the president has canceled his mar-a-lago vacation, one of the explanations is that the trump family wants to have thanksgiving in the white house knowing that this is -- barring the absolutely surprising -- going to be the last time. i think that there is a difference between what the president is saying publicly and what he is aware of, which is that this is over. everyone i have spoken to who has had that conversation with

him has made clear to him this is a huge long shot what you're trying to do here. he knows it. he wants to keep fighting, but it doesn't mean that he doesn't understand that looming out there is a late january deadline when he is going to have to leave the white house. >> chairman, how about that? we do have the governor of michigan coming up, but you're from there. how about what happened there last night with republicans, local county officials refusing to certify the wayne county election results and then there being outcry and then them changing their mind, but not before president trump wasn't very proud of them, he tweeted, wow, michigan just refused to certify the election results. having courage with a beautiful thing. the u.s.a. stands proud. what's going on in michigan or at that moment? >> listen, there's a difference between courage and a foolish notion that you're going to curry favor. i don't quite understand it. if they had cause not to

certify, then by all means i think they have the responsibility to do that. if they did not, and now that they've come back and said, you know, oops, we changed our mind, i mean, this is pretty important. people want to make sure that every vote is counted. if there is some irregularities -- and i think what the problem that gets into all of this, people say no fraud, which is true, but there are irregularities probably in every election and irregularity doesn't necessarily mean it's illegal, either. that's why the system is set up to handle irregularities in an election. got that. we ought to all support that. what we shouldn't be doing is trying to use the weight of a particular responsibility to change the outcome. that is absolutely what we don't need and would be a violation in my mind certainly of who we stand for as americans at the very least. >> mr. chairman, madam chairman, chairwoman i should say, maggie haberman, thank you very much for both being with us this morning. we were just talking about

michigan, we will talk much more about that. is this the end? could the trump campaign push this even further to try to overthrow the will of the people in michigan? the governor, gretchen whitmer, joins us next.

there was a lot of drama in michigan last night. first, election officials in wayne county, michigan, which includes the city of detroit, tried to block the certification of votes in the presidential

election that would confirm biden's win. then there was outcry, then they reversed their position. here is what michigan's secretary of state jocelyn benson just told us about this drama. >> a lot of this is just really a strategy to erode public confidence in what was a very well-run, secure election and we see this as a battle front not just in michigan but around the country. it's important that we call it out for what it is. these efforts are not going to be successful. the people have spoken. the election has occurred. >> okay. let's bring in the governor of michigan, gretchen whitmer. good morning, governor. >> good morning. >> can you just tell us where you were and what you said out loud when you heard that the wayne county republicans were trying not to certify the election results. >> i was here at the residence and i'm not going to tell you precisely what i said, but you can imagine it was just kind of mind-boggling. this is a ministerial duty that these board members have -- has

taken an oath to uphold and this was incredibly distressing for that short period of time that it stood and then they came back and i just want to give kudos to all of the activists who organized and waited in line to have their comments heard. i think that they really changed the outcome here and i have every expectation that as this goes to the state board of canvassers next week that the process of finalizing the results will be completed as our law requires and that the will of the voters will be respected. >> let's just talk about your optimism about that because it differs from the trump team's legal -- one of the lawyers on that team. here is what jenna ellis the senior legal adviser to president trump said last night when this was unfolding before they reversed themselves. breaking, this evening the county board of canvassers in wayne county, michigan, refused to certify the election results. if the state board follows suit the republican state legislature will select the electors. huge win for donald trump. it sounds like that is their

plan. so why are you confident they can't pull that off? >> well, the law is clear and the vote was overwhelming. joe biden won michigan by 14 times the number of votes that donald trump won michigan in 2016. we had a full, free, fair and secure election. the will of the people will stand and i think, you know, we've got to go into this with, of course, bracing ourselves for more shenanigans but at the end of the day the will of the people will be respected and joe biden won michigan. >> i want to talk to you about what's happening with coronavirus in your state. the cases are spiking as we're seeing in so many states right now. so you have put in some new restrictions in place for the next three weeks. no in-person learning for high school or college, indoor dining at bars and restaurants now prohibited, nonessential workers must work from home, movie theaters, group fitness classes, casinos must close.

not everyone is happy about this as you well know. the michigan restaurant and lodging association is suing the state now and their rationale is that you're punishing restaurants they basically say. i will read quickly a bit of their lawsuit. they say plaintiffs have shown themselves highly capable of following the comprehensive protocols that have been in place for several months. there is no reason in-person dining should be entirely prohibited now, especially while other businesses are permitted to be open such as getting a tattoo or a haircut, why can't you eat a meal indoors? what's your response? >> first let me say, you know, the restaurant industry has really had a tough year because of covid, because there's not been a national strategy and we have seen covid just explode across the country in waves. this is really driven by our epidemiologists and our public health experts that tell us it's inherently dangerous with the

kind of community spread that we have all across michigan and all across the midwest and frankly all across the country, the inherently dangerous situations are when you are inside with people from a different household or many different households for a prolonged period of time with masks off. that's what happens in restaurants. that's why it's really going to be critical that the feds get their act together and give us some stimulus support for these small businesses, for these restaurant workers. i have incredible empathy for what they're struggling with and yet we have to follow the epidemiology, the public health experts and make decisions that combat the spread before our hospitals get overwhelmed and before we have 1,000 deaths a week in michigan because that's what the modeling is telling us where we're headed right now. >> are your hospitals at capacity yet? >> they're filling up and we've been, you know, loading up on ppe, the hospitals have, the state has, but we are burning through it quickly because the incredible heightened need here. think about how important ppe is

to triage the crisis, but all of that's going to be incredibly important as we start to vaccinate people next year as well. so still not having a national strategy nine months in is inherently dangerous and i'm grateful that the nga executive board of which i'm a member is meeting, having conversations with the incoming administration and the current administration because it's really important that states no matter who leads them, it's very clear we all need the stimulus to happen. lives are on the line and we need to be able to meet the needs of our people. >> and a phone call is happening tomorrow, right, about all of this? and are you saying that there is some coordination between the transition teams and different administrations? >> i'm saying that, you know, we as an organization have reached out to the current administration and the incoming administration. the needs are real, they are dire, they transcend hearth line and it's urgent.

we are doing everything we can, republicans and democrats alike, to keep people safe and to get this stimulus done. yesterday i did a psa with my fellow governors here in the midwest, republican and democratic to urge people to mask up and to stay home for the holiday. we have to work together to get our arms around this virus. >> but are you getting cooperation from the trump administration? >> as of yet we have not seen action happen in washington, d.c., but we're not giving up. >> governor gretchen whitmer, thank you very much. great to have you on. >> thank you. breaking overnight, pfizer reporting another round of success with its coronavirus vaccine and taking a crucial step forward towards getting it approved. dr. sanjay gupta joins us with all of the details next. businesses today are looking to tomorrow. adapting. innovating.

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correspondent dr. sanjay gupta and rick bright, former vaccine expert at health and human services who earlier this year filed a whistleblower complaint alleging his early warning about the pandemic had been ignored and he is also part of president-elect joe biden's covid-19 advisory board. >> sanjay, it's not pfizer news, it's not just what it's 95% effective, we have just learned so much more about the vaccine testing process, the results, safety, lay it all out for us. >> yeah. so this is the sort of data that we've been waiting for for some time and i will preface by saying we're only hearing this data so far from the company itself. we obviously ultimately want to hear from the fda and these various advisory committees about this. let me lay it out. basically over the past few months as you know this trial has been ongoing, tens of thousands of people received a placebo, tens of thousands of people received a vaccine. they want to see how many people essentially got covid. out of 170 people that received covid what they found was the

vast majority of these people were in the placebo group, 162 in the placebo group versus eight in the vaccinated group. that's a pretty significant obviously difference and that's where this 95% number comes from. at the bottom there, i don't know if you can see that, but the people who got more severe illness, nine of them were in the placebo group versus one in the vaccinated group. so this is the sort of data that the fda has telegraphed to us and others that they would want in order to potentially consider an emergency use authorization. that data, that effectiveness data is pretty compelling. the other component of this was that two months now of safety data they say has been obtained and when they look at that safety data, again, the company telling us this, they say the safety data looks good and it's good enough for them to go ahead and apply for emergency use authorization. i will point out we hadn't heard of any significant adverse effects with this pfizer trial

as we did, you remember, with the astrazeneca trial where you had patients who did have some significant side effects. we didn't hear about any of that with pfizer. we will see what all this data leads to, but if this happens, if they apply for an emergency use authorization which they say they will, we could hear whether or not that's been granted within the next couple of weeks after which another committee in conjunction with the cdc would basically determine the who, the what, the where in terms of how the vaccine is distributed and scheduling this vaccine. so this is -- this is encouraging news, for sure. if it all goes as planned and there is a lot of if's in there, it is possible that for the first time people outside a clinical trial will receive the coronavirus vaccine and that could happen before christmas. >> rick, it's all so hopeful, but as you know this is where the problems crop up. you are helping joe biden's transition, you are on their covid advisory board. it's the distribution that is going to present the problems

and so -- i mean, this will obviously be left to the biden administration. what's the plan? >> well, we'd like to see the plan, actually, to understand the plan that the current administration has in place for the very complicated task of rolling out these vaccines. we know that vaccines don't deliver themselves. it takes a team of people. it takes an entire immunization program to be able to receive a vaccine from the manufacturer and be sure that the vaccine is kept in the right storage conditions and that it gets into the hand of health care providers who would administer that vaccine. it's also really important to note that the government so far has invested about $10 billion into the development of vaccines and there's a significant cost associated with the downstream administration and immunization program to make sure we have everything in place to administer those vaccines. those costs have not been covered in the current legislation. so there is a lot of work that

we need to do we rapidly to make sure that our entire infrastructure is in place to receive these vaccines and do the right education so people can trust these vaccines and they will take these vaccines. that is what we're working on very carefully in the biden transition team and we're hoping that we can sit down soon with the trump administration so we can understand what plans are in place, so we can ensure a smooth transition to make sure that no american is left without a vaccine because of a lack of communication. >> 1,700 new deaths reported overnight, rick bright. so how much official contact has there been between your medical team and the government? >> we haven't had any official contact between the transition team coming in and the current administration. it is really setting us back. we are working really hard to ensure that we have the best

plans in place for equitable distribution of the vaccine to make sure everyone who needs it, needs it first, is prioritized and can get it, but we haven't been able to sit down with the trump administration at all to be able to understand what plans are already in place, where the gaps are, where help is needed and how we can make sure there is a smooth handoff after january 20th where the bulk of these vaccines will be administered after that date. we don't want to have to step back, rewrite a plan, fix a communication gap or do anything. we want to keep running as quickly as -- and efficiently as possible to make sure americans can get the vaccines as they become available. >> rick, one more question. what if there is no plan? what if the trump administration didn't plan for distribution? you are assuming that they did, though you have not spoken to them. what if you have to start from scratch? >> well, we are not starting from scratch first because we are working really hard on the

biden/harris team to make sure we are communicating with health care professionals and others around the country. we are getting a lot of expert advice. there is a transition plan and we are translating into plan into a blueprint for action so we will be ready for day one, but you do bring up a good point from the trump administration, we have waited ten months for a plan to be shared with the american public and health care experts on the vaccine program. we waited for a plan on national testing strategies. we waited for plans on ramp up of production of ppe and other critical medical supplies. we haven't yet seen any of those plans. i don't think those plans exist. so i hope that they have done some planning on how to distribute the vaccine beyond dropping it off at a warehouse by the military. it takes then delivery of that vaccine into the hands of health care providers who will be administering that vaccine. it takes communication within the community at the local level

and the state and travel and territorial levels to make sure that people can trust that vaccine. the trump administration unfortunately has politicized so much of this response, including the vaccine, and there are many americans across our country who are hesitant on whether or not they can trust this vaccine because of the political pressure that we've seen from the trump administration, therefore, we need to do a lot with the new transition team to make sure that we can ensure confidence and rebuild trust and make sure that americans will take the vaccine when this becomes available and it's been certified by scientists to be safe and effective. >> sanjay, i need you to level with the american people about where we are this morning on november 18th. what's the current situation with the pandemic? what do they need to brace themselves for in the next several weeks? >> yeah. well, as much as the news is good about vaccines, i mean, the

news about where we are is not. i mean, sadly the numbers continue to increase. i mean, i think at a level that even people who are sort of projecting some of the worst projections are surprised by because we're really in periods of exponential growth insomuch places around the country. the number of people who will likely be hospitalized will be higher than the number of cases in any given day that will be expected. where are we? we can see what the numbers are. we know that the number of cases has continued to go up but then a few weeks later as has always been the case hospitalizations also rising, some places obviously much harder hit than others, but really no place in the country really immune from this. there are several states, and i hate to say t but these are states that, you know, really did not have mask mandates, did not put in physical distancing, sort of, protocols in place, they are the states that are the hardest hit right now, south

dakota, north dakota, wyoming, iowa, some of these states are now thinking about protocols that they want to start abiding by, but in the meantime they're getting particularly hard hit, they have fewer resources as well in terms of beds and icu beds so it's going to be tough for some time. you mentioned the number of people who are dying on a daily basis, you know, 1,707 people who died within the last 24 hours, hard to believe, but those numbers will go up. i mean, there's just no question about it. you look back in march and april when we were still grappling with this new pandemic trying to understand what was going on. numbers would hit 3,000 deaths per day, sadly i think we will hit those sort of same numbers again and we're talking sort of end of january where you will see those peaks when to comes to hospitalizations and deaths. >> sanjay, when we do get the vaccine, do we know how long it will last? what the immunity will look

like? >> this is a great question and, no, we don't know. you know, i want to be honest about that. i think that it's a little unclear the immunity sort of part of this puzzle and that's true when it comes to the vaccine, but i think also true when it comes to people who become infected. one thing i will say is that there's been all these varying reports about the durability of immunity, a new report came out, new study came out, it's not been peer reviewed yet but it basically suggests that, yes, okay, you measure antibodies, antibodies are a good thing to measure, you can measure them, but there are other components of the immune system, your t cells, your b cells. if you start to put that all together might immunity last longer than we realize? could it be six, eight months, even longer than that? here is the thing is that even if antibodies have been waning and a lot of people know this, they get their antibodies tested then the next time they get it tested they've said they've gone down or they are gone, it doesn't necessarily mean that

you've lost immunity. that's the key thing coming out of this study. as we're nine months into this now, if immunity sort of went away after a few months i think we would have seen much, much higher rates of reinfection by this point. we haven't. we will have to see what that means. but i think what you're asking is with the vaccine even is it possible that people will need to have yearly or seasonal shots of this vaccine? it is quite possible. we just don't know the answer to that yet. >> we can manage with that. >> i'm fine with that. i don't have a problem with that. >> if that's what it takes. >> my kids will get used to it. thank you, very much, very much for all of the information. >> you got it. all right. we were just talking about states that had chosen not to address the challenge of coronavirus. well, iowa's governor just changed course and issued a mask mandate with infections there and deaths hitting new records. we will have a live report as the hospitals there are just struggling to handle the surge in patients. hey! it's me! your dry skin!

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in iowa the number of people hospitalized from coronavirus

has skyrocketed in the last two months. in one county the only hospital is stretched to its limit. cnn's miguel marquez is live in iowa with us for more. what are you seeing? >> reporter: look, this is the case across the entire state. think of places like this as a river feeding this massive river of cases and hospitalizations. if it keeps going at the way it's going we will be at a situation where a broad swath of the country the health care system will be filled to the brim. butch hanson, 84 years old, diagnosed with covid-19 last week. >> we're going to get a cat scan of your chest. you've got some junk in your chest so you probably have a little pneumonia but i want to make sure you don't have a blood clot in your lung. >> reporter: today he is back in the emergency room. why did you come in today? >> that i had a rough time with that phlegm last night. that's all i did, cough up that

phlegm. i thought, well, it's either covid or something else, let's find out what it is. >> reporter: hanson a retired farmer says he's been careful. but may have picked it up from a family member. regional health services of howard county in cresco iowa, it's the hospital, ambulance service, public health department and hospice care for the entire county. the 19-bed facility moves most its sickest patients to larger hospitals with iowa, the midwest and the country all seeing a sharp increase in cases and patients finding an available bed in a larger facility, not so easy these days. >> the biggest concern in the last week is when we call and ask for them to help take care of our patients who are maybe sicker than we're used to taking care of, they don't have beds for us and so that's where the strain really comes on.

>> reporter: over the last montefiore hospital zagss across iowa have skyrocketed under 500 covid patients hospitalized in mid-october, now nearly 1,400 iowans hospitalized with covid-19. and if there is a surge with nowhere to send critically ill patients -- >> so this is the in case of emergency open this. >> pretty much. pretty much. >> how many more people could you surge up to if everything in here? >> we have the capability of adding up to 50 beds. my hope is to never have to open this trailer. >> reporter: today the entire health care system here pushed to its limits. >> what is covid doing to places like howard county and cresco right now? >> you know, it's starting to stress us out. we have limited resources. >> reporter: in the first month of the pandemic here howard county saw 13 coronavirus cases, over the last month there were

411. holidays around the corner the fear, it's going to get a lot worse. >> with thanksgiving coming up, how concerned are you with what you're going to see around christmas? >> i have a feeling it's going to be out of control. i really worry about health care in general around christmas because if everybody gets together on thanksgiving, has all their big gatherings, within two weeks we will start to see the outbreaks start. >> miguel marquez back with us. miguel, you have literally chased this pandemic from here in new york to texas to arizona and now to iowa and you've been in so many facilities like this and hospitals in these crisis situations. i'm just wondering, compare it, i mean, what's it like to be inside a hospital in iowa in november, compare it to new york in march and april. i mean, have they learned anything? is it the same thing over and over again?

>> what's really impressive is they have learned tons about this virus, not just about treating it, which is much better and people are surviving at much higher rates, still a lot are dying, but even just the way that they physically manage their hospitals, to move patients in, how you segregate them, how you treat them, which ones actually get treated and which ones need to be shipped out. all those things are much better, but right now they are planning for a surge that they don't know where the crest is and a fear -- the real fear here is that the hospital system across a broad swath of this area will get so full that people will die in their homes as we saw in new york early on and they will die in cars waiting in parking lots to get into hospitals because there's just no room for them. that's what they are afraid of right now. >> oh, my gosh, it's such a grizzly scenario to imagine. the idea that they've gotten so much better at treating it is obviously very heartening but it's cold comfort to the people like butch hanson there who has to come back because he's

coughing all night. i feel for him. that is a horrifying situation to be in. >> now, he is 84 and amazingly enough he is tough as nails because they actually -- they let him go home, he is going to come back and be checked out, but they think he is going to be okay. he may have a little bit of a pneumonia on top of the covid-19 as well. so they're going to watch him very carefully, but he is somebody who, you know, in previous months would not have had a very good chance of surviving and now he's doing quite well and they think that he's going to be okay, but, boy, they make them tough in iowa. that's one thing they have going for them. >> it is unfortunate you have to keep going to the states where the outbreaks keep happening, maybe because people haven't been listening to the extent that they should have been. terrific reporting that continues sadly. our hearts go out to chuck grassley, iowa's senior senator, who we know is battling covid as well. 87 years old. we wish him the best this morning. we also want to remember

some of the nearly 249,000 americans lost to coronavirus. 60-year-old officer alex arango served with a texas police department for 27 years. his 81-year-old mother carmen also got the virus and died three days after her son. alex and carmen were laid to rest together last week. melissa bowman worked for the union county school district in suburban charlotte, north carolina, for nearly 20 years, 11 years were as a data manager and crossing guard at poplin elementary school. the school nominated her for america's favorite crossing barred in 2018. dr. juan fitz lived and breathed emergency medicine, that's according to a colleague at covenant health medical center in lubbock center where he worked for nearly 20 years. his dedication earned him an award from the american college of physicians he was just 67 years old. may their memories be a

blessing. we will be right back.

time now for the good stuff. a man in south carolina reunited with a lost ring from world war ii that was passed down from his uncle and father. tim whalen lost the ring nearly a decade ago while helping his friend brian with yard work. a group of metal detectors searchers on brian's property found the ridge and brian went in search of its owner. >> i was talking to tim later that day and said they found this ring, a marinas ring, and tim described it to a tee, you could hear it in his voice when he said that's my dad's ring. >> tim said the ring symbolizes his uncle and dad's dedication and years of service to their country. >> so glad he has it back. encouraging news in the fight against coronavirus.

cnn's coverage continues right after this. tonight... i'll be eating chicken tikka masala with garlic naan. [doorbell chimes] cheers. i win again, patrick. that's siiir patrick. oooooow. sir. we made usaa insurance for veterans like martin. when a hailstorm hit, he needed his insurance to get it done right, right away. usaa. what you're made of, we're made for. usaa

a very good wednesday morning to you. what a 24 hours in politics. i'm jim sciutto. >> for sure. i'm poppy harlow. a stunning political power play back fires on republicans in michigan hours after blocking the election board from certifying detroit's results and sparking outrage, the republican members who blocked it reversed course at the ninth hour. the president, though, not relenting in his push to undermine the election results. he just fired the senior homeland security official who refuted his