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so tonight joe biden officially certified the winner

of the election in both arizona and wisconsin. president trump ramping up his false claims of voter fraud and attacking the gop governor of arizona, who upheld the rule of law in the election. also breaking tonight, dr. scott atlas out at the white house, resigning from the coronavirus task force. one source calling his resignation welcome news, saying that atlas was controversial and pushed discredited theories. also today, president-elect biden for the first time since his victory getting the president's brief. that's a roundup of classified intelligence information. and vice president-elect kamala harris also receiving the pbb, as it is known. i want to bring in john avilan, former white house communications director, mr. anthony scaramucci and the former presidential candidate dr. andrew yang. it's not doctor, but i just thought i would say that. good to have all of you on this evening. thank you so much. i hope you ate too much and had

a great time. so anthony, i want to start with you. wisconsin and arizona both certified biden's wins today. two white house advisers telling cnn that despite what trump is treating, he understands that he has no chance of winning. so what is he trying to accomplish by continuing with this farce? >> he's trying so it will be 25 to 70 million people. he knows by linking all of them to this conspiracy theory and sticking with that narrative and that lie about a fraudulent election, they'll have a grievance that they'll share with him. many people will believe that, and he'll go on to make money off of them, don. that's the ultimate goal. >> john avlon, i want you to take a listen to what senator lindsey graham said today. >> the challenges he has. you know, deal with mail-in

voting, and i'm very worried about it. >> do you think he should go to biden's inauguration? >> if biden ends up winning, yeah. >> why is that important? >> we'll know in december. i hope biden will come to his. >> i mean, john, it's shameful. it's embarrassing. >> this is what passes for a profile in courage in november of 2020. it's just pathetic. you know, they can't bring themselves to say what they know to be true. they keep coddling the president with this offering him a couple breadcrumbs about fictitious mail-in voter fraud. and they know it's false. and they're just feeding it. and what they're doing then instead of standing up to the president and standing up for rule of law, they're giving credence to that conspiracy theory, that grip that anthony just described. it's disgraceful. >> he was the one, remember, he called and i quote it joe biden as good a man as god ever created. >> yeah. >> and then he said the nicest

person i think i've ever met in politics. >> that was then. this is now. >> hmm. interesting. >> so much for honor. >> andrew yang, more than 96,000 people in the u.s. are hospitalized with the coronavirus. and that's tonight. 50 million americans could face food insecurity in the next month. that's according to feeding america. is anyone in washington trying to deal with these massive crises right now? >> well you have gridlock that's seizing up any attempt to get cash relief or relief for small businesses out the door, where the republicans and democrats have been hundreds of billions of dollars apart for quite some time. i don't think anyone can hear me anymore. >> no, i can hear you. >> you're good. >> there is a problem with the network. >> andrew. andrew yang. so let's talk more about that,

because an official with operation warp speed, you know who that is, anthony, says 100% of americans who want a coronavirus will have it by june. in the form er john delaney is proposing giving americans $1500 if they take the vaccine. what do you think of that idea? >> well, i like the idea because it will increase the likelihood of the herd immunity. there is a lot of anti-vaxxers, a lot of misinformation about vaccine out there, don. and i also think people need the money. i know andrew is not on with us, but i know he would like the idea because it's sort of a form of universal basic income. so in general, i think incentivizing people will help us get out of the crisis faster. >> are you there? are you there, andrew yang? >> yeah. apparently i was here the whole time, don. >> i was telling you i could hear. what do you think of the

proposal for john delaney? >> i had your back, andrew. >> giving $1500 to people who take the vaccine? >> i think we should be getting money into people's hands right now, but certainly it would increase the adoption of the vaccine. and we're going to need to do something to stimulate trust and widespread adoption if we're actually going to resume any kind of public gatherings, indoor dining, or really, any form of normalcy. so i love it. i think john is on to something very important. it's common sense. if you're going revive a $22 trillion economy, spending a few hundred million on getting adoption of the vaccine out makes perfect sense. >> yeah. listen, and i think since the quarantine, everybody is used to these technical problems. they expect them now. and i think it's sometimes the only time people look up at the tv at our ugly faces is when we go hey, we lost someone.

they're listening, but not necessarily watching. that's when they look up and go what's going on there. it all depends on how you handle it. you just, you know, keep going. let me ask you this, john. president trump is also falsely attacking georgia's election since he lost the state. his lies now about the election, about election fraud, it's putting republicans in sort of a circular firing squad, threatening their chances to win, which is a really critical place they need to win for the senate. >> well, two things. he is attacking governor kemp in georgia. he is attacking governor dousesy of arizona. and there you're reminded by what churchill said about appeasement, feeding the crocodile hoping he eats you last. it's not a good strategy. you can't play indicate this cat. the second thing rnc chairman the other day took a question from somebody who said why should i bother voting in georgia? everything is rigged. everything is a fraud. that's what happens when you indulge these conspiracy theories. you can't do it.

it's an argument for having the principle and telling the truth, because otherwise you're going get that ironic blowback. >> anthony, didn't you tell me it was going to backfire a bit ago? didn't you tell me that? >> yeah, yeah, but i love it because it's exactly what donald trump would do to these people. that's what demagogues do. they turn on every single person. you have to support the person 125%. if you don't, he rippious to pieces or she rips you to pieces. it's usually he's. i hope it will ring the bell for every one of the republicans to realize how sinister the guy is, what senator graham is doing today which is basically repulsive. at some point there will be a reckoning in that party and a deep dive in that party, don, and hopefully there will be a process to rebuild something new that won't look like the current republican party. >> i want you guys to respond to this. this is new reporting just in from "the washington post." that trump raises more than $150

million appealing to false election claims, and says president trump's political operation has raised more than $150 million since election day using a blizzard of misleading appeals about the election to shatter fundraising records set during the campaign. that's according to people with knowledge of the contributions. you called it a grift. anthony, i'll get your response in a minute. i'm going go to andrew. anthony first and then andrew. >> oh, me, first. so, listen, i told you a few weeks ago in the fine print that's all forward operation money and to pay down debt. they don't need that kind of money for the legal bills. and i think that's also tipping the president off that he may just announce that he is running for president so that he can keep this perpetratual fever go and this fundraising which he'll run. i'm not saying he'll run or be a candidate in 2024, but he'll raise a big war chest of money,

and it's disgusting, and more people should call him out on that. >> andrew, imagine that money, if it went to people who actually need it. should be raising money for people who need it. but go on, andrew. >> my organization has put about $10 million into the hands of struggling american families. and we're just scratching the surface of the need, don. so $150 million and more could certainly go a long way in small towns and communities around the country that are struggling. here in georgia, i will say that if you turn on the tv, you're seeing a lot of ads come in on the republican side and the democratic side to a lesser extent. but the money is getting spent here, and i know in theory at least some of the money that donald trump is raising could be heading this direction as well. the stakes are very high here in georgia. >> john, what do you think? >> look, this is the most sinister grift you can possibly imagine. this is the president trying to

run down our democracy, trying to destroy its credibility among citizens and the eyes of the world solely so he can pocket some more cash from his supporters who are being exposed or treated as useful idiots. it is so disgusting to see a president diminish the office this way to try to profit off it by propagating conspiracy theories and compromising our democracy. it is historically awful. >> i just got to get this note in that andrew has been spending a lot of time in georgia knock on doors for jon ossoff and reverend warnock, and he is seeing the disinformation up close and personal that this president and republicans is owing there. thank you so much. i appreciate it. i'll see you gentlemen soon. thank you. on the day dr. scott atlas walks away, the pandemic death toll in this country passes 268,000 people. and dr. anthony fauci says being

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tonight the u.s. passing 13.5 million coronavirus cases. it's a staggering 4.3 million of those cases added just this month. that as a record 96,000 americans have been hospitalized with the virus. today the fda scheduling an advisory meeting to discuss moderna's vaccine. an official from operation warp speed now saying that by june, 100% of americans who want the vaccine will have it. but with critical months to go, how can officials make certain that the process goes smoothly while limiting risk -- the risk

to americans? joining me now to discuss is dr. david shullken, former veterans affairs secretary under president trump. also served as undersecretary of veterans affairs under president barack obama. so good to see you, and i appreciate you coming on. good evening. you have been critical of how the pandemic has been mishandled so far. but there is a chance to get it right with this vaccine. how difficult is it going to be to roll out these vaccines? and do you believe the trump administration can handle the task until biden takes over? >> well, don, first of all, great to be with you. i do think this is a critical time for the country. but there is a lot to be hopeful for. the vaccines themselves i think are really surpassing people's expectations about how they may perform. and of course we certainly hope that they do get the authorization that all of us expect. but it is going to take a very coordinated effort to be able to

see the distribution happen and get those vaccines to the people that need them as soon as possible. this type of coordination has not been something that the trump administration has done well, but i do believe there has been ample time to have the states involved and at the level of the health systems that are being contacted by the states, i know that they're well-organized and planning to have a successful distribution. so i'm optimistic about this, don. >> so what is the incoming biden administration need to do to hit the ground running? talk to us about the logistics involved here. >> well, of course, don. i've been involved in a transition between the obama administration and trump administration. and that's why i think it's such good news that they're finally beginning to talk directly, because the biden administration of course is focused on this distribution plan and was going to have to come up with a parallel plan if there wasn't this type of coordination. but now that we're beginning to see the task forces talking

together, i think we will see a smooth transition happen on january 20th, and there should not be bumps in the road. by inauguration, i expect that the majority of health care workers and the majority of those who are in the skilled nursing facilities and the nursing homes will already be vaccinated so that we can now then start moving on to the next tier of priority people to be vaccinated in the country. >> as i said in the first question, you had been critical of how the pandemic has been handled. so i have to ask you, do you think so much would be riding on this vaccine if the trump had done more to control the virus? >> well, i think the vaccine was always going to be a part of how we would bring this pandemic under control. i think it's only one part of it. and that's the piece i do think has gone the best, allowing

industry to come up with this type of solution with government help in the premanufacturing of this and the funding of this. but i think it's taken us a long time to cut the other pieces together. of course, in the beginning, the administration did not do a good job on biosurveillance. it did a poor job on getting diagnostic testing available. and as you know, even today, we still don't have enough diagnostic testing. and testing as well as a vaccine are going to be the one-two punches that bring this under control. but the inconsistency of the messaging, the overall undermining of confidence in information from scientists and our government agencies, i think all contributed to a situation that led to this virus unfortunately getting away from us and getting out of control. and i think we could have been in a far better situation waiting for vaccines than we find ourselves now.

>> you held top positions in veterans affairs department. you served there under two presidents. who would you like to see joe biden choose to run the v.a.? >> oh, listen, i think i'm so pleased that they're looking at very capable candidates here. i think you want somebody that has a track record of being able to manage a very complex organization. this is a agency that is 400,000 employees, $220 billion budget. but you want somebody who is mission focused. this is an agency who really has a mission unlike any other in government. this is to care for those who have raised their hands to sacrifice for the rest of us. and i really consider it one of the noble missions of government. so you want to see somebody who is in it for the right reason, who has the experience and the ability to handle the complex

health issues that our veterans face, both physical and emotional. and i know that vice president biden, president-elect biden understands this very well. his son served. i spent time talking to him about this. i believe he is prepared to make a really god choice. >> it is a really important job. so no names specifically, and not a shulkin in the name? >> i think whoever the president-elect asks to do this will be honored to serve and should be prepared to serve nobly. but i'm not going to get into the guessing game and try to get in front of the president-elect on this one. >> secretary, you're a fine man, and i thank you for joining us here. appreciate your time. thank you so much. >> thank you, don. >> thank you. president-elect joe biden moving quickly to build an administration that looks like america. we're going to discuss the women joining the administration. plus, former president barack obama on hurdles and healing a divided nation. he spoke with april ryan.

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in a new interview with the former president barack obama saying joe biden's administration can put us back on the path to making things better when it comes to combatting racism in america. president trump spending much of the past four years fanning the flames of division with one racist dog whistle after another. obama cautioning that the issue of race in america is too big for one person alone to solve, but the incoming team can help us get on the right track. here it is. >> i don't think joe biden is going to fix racism in america any more than i was going to fix racism in america. but what i have great confidence

that joe will do and the people who surround joe biden and kamala harris in the white house can do is to set a tone of inclusiveness to send a message that racism is not acceptable. >> cnn political analyst and veteran white house correspondent april ryan conducted that obama interview, and she joins me now. nice work, april. good to see you. hope you had a great thinking. >> good to see you, don. i did. >> president trump was -- he was the backlash to president barack obama. let's just say that. our colleague van jones, remember he called it a whitelash. does president obama think biden and harris can leave that behind or move past it somehow? >> well, before van jones called it a whitelash, i called it a blacklash. at the end of the day, we're bog back and forth. we're seeing polar opposites. we're seeing from barack obama,

the extreme end of barack obama with donald trump. now the extreme end of donald trump back to what people believe could be the normality of a democracy without the vitriol, without the hate. but at the end of the day, don, when we look at the matter of race, we have seen generations try to grapple with this issue for 401 years since africans were brought into this country to be enslaved. let's look at the president that abolished slavery. let's look at the president that integrated the military. let's look at the president who tried to begin the issue of civil rights. let's look at the president who enacted the civil rights act, the voting rights act and the fair housing act. and look, let's fast forward to 2020. we're still dealing with issues of race. so it is not one person, but it's a people. we've got all these laws on the books, but still there is a problem. you've got people marching in the streets with tiki torches, and then a president said there are good people on both sides.

something is wrong there. and you have to go beyond the laws and look at the heart, but also make sure there are people that are included at the table. that's what washington is talking about right now. that's the big piece in washington inside the beltway. >> but also, it's also what is reality, right? because there are people. >> yeah. >> who can't seem to come to an agreement on what reality is, what facts are. president trump has been spreading lies about his election defeat. he is peddling theories about his presidency. here is what obama told you about that. >> look at companies like a newsmax that just are mimicking the wild accusations, unfounded accusations made by donald trump about this election without regard to any support or evidence of these claims. and lots of people are soaking that in.

all of us are going have to figure out how do we get back to the point where the truth means something, and that you can't just make stuff up and suddenly half the country believes it. >> but that's what we had been dealing with, a president who makes stuff up. >> yes. >> half the country believes it. there have been so many lies coming from the trump white house. even if biden, even if the biden white house, which is more truthful, i can't imagine any white house as being untruthful as this one, are people going believe it, april? >> you know, we are now at the era of fact checking. and for this president to have to -- for twitter to say we dispute this claim, that says something. when you think of united states president, you believe that the president has your best interest at heart. you believe he is telling you

the truth because so much weighs on what he says, from the stock markets to life and death. and then to have a president of the united states, a leader of the free world to be fact checked, that's saying a lot. so i believe as a member of the media who is going to see the next president come in on january 20th, i believe that we are now going to be -- donald trump has caused something where we're going have to look and make sure everything is correct. he has changed the dynamic. he has changed what used to be. we're going to be doing more fact checking to make sure. and we are now looking at lies versus saying oh, it's spin. out and out lies with this president versus what used to be considered spin was nothing near where we are now. >> okay. so i'm going drive people over to listen and watch your interview, because in the interview -- >> yes, you will. >> april talks about, she asks the president, the former president there is going to be another black president, and what kind of scrutiny kamala

harris is going to be under as the first south asian vp and black woman as vp. so go listen to april's interview. it's great. it's good to see you. i'm so glad you got that interview. congratulations and thanks. >> thank you, don. i appreciate you. love you much. >> thank you. i love you more. president-elect joe biden announcing his choices for some key roles in his administration. a look at the women filling those roles, and exclusive cnn reporting leaked documents from china show what the country knew about its early coronavirus cases. thats still to come. with our highest concentration of prebiotic oat intensely moisturizes over time to improve skin's resilience. aveeno® healthy. it's our nature™.

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so with about 50 days to go until his inauguration president-elect joe biden moving to fill out his cabinet. naming janet yellen the former head of the federal reserve as treasury secretary. the first woman to hold the position, she is one of four women to, in top roles i should say on biden's economic team. vice president-elect kamala harris saying last week biden is committed to diversity in his administration. >> when joe asked me to be his running mate, he told me about his commitment to making sure we selected a cabinet that looks like america, that reflects the best of our nation. and that's what we have done. >> let's discuss now with our cnn economics commentator

catherine rampell and tara setmayer. so good to see both of you. tara first. so biden appears to be making good on the commitment today, announcing key members of his economic team. there is janet yellen, who would be the first woman to serve as secretary. cecilia rouse would be the first woman of color to lead the council of economic advisers. and neera tanden the first woman of color and south asian descent to run to office of management and budget. these are history-making appointments. what do you think of the choices so far, tara? >> well, i have to be honest, it's a breath of fresh air, regardless of policy differences or differences in the past. it really is a breath of fresh air. you're going see competence. you're going to see with the com shop, the communications shop, big congratulations to jen psaki for getting the communications job. you're not going to see the level of audacity coming out

every day at the white house press briefings. it's really encouraging to see that the way joe biden is starting off his presidency will be keeping a promise, a promise to have a diverse cabinet that represents america. one of joe biden's mantras throughout his campaign was that not only was he going to unify america but he repeatedly said he was going to be the president of everyone. and that his cabinet will reflect all of the problems and the solutions that require a diverse point of view. i think that is encouraging. it really is a repudiation of this make america great again. let's go back to the 1950s or whatever that donald trump put forth. it's clear that the american people did not want to go backwards. they wanted to move forward and joe biden is reflecting that in his choices for his staff moving forward. >> catherine, biden's choices, it's a huge contrast. tara was just pointing it out from his originally male and

white appointees from four years ago. but they're also highly experienced. do you think this is a rebuke of the current administration on a number of levels? competency? >> competency. i know. who thought we could have that back in the white house again. it is really as tara said a breath of fresh air. i think it is a huge relief to a lot of americans. this is what americans voted for for the most part when they voted for joe biden. someone who would find people, experts who have authority and put them in positions of authority. janet yellen for example you could not craft, if you had a lab, a better person to lead the treasury department right now given her experience, given her intellect, her even keel, and the fact that she really cares about american values and using the economic tools available to achieve those values. things like greater equality for example. so, yes. i think this is a great team, not just because of the historic firsts they represent but because first and foremost they are experts. they are competent.

they are experienced. >> i want to ask you, tara, about neera tanden, because she has drawn criticism from progressives and conservatives. >> yeah. >> she has a history of blasting republicans. she's had trouble as well with the bernie sanders wing too. so do you think she'll get confirmed? >> well, i think this is an interesting thing. we haven't really seen this level of pushback from most of the nominees biden has put forth. she does have to get confirmed through congress and it doesn't help when you go after the majority party as of right now. that's why what is happening in georgia is so crucial. it will determine who controls the senate. but listen. when you're upsetting people on the right and on the left then i guess you're in a pretty good place because she is getting it from both side. the bernie sanders folks have always been rather unruly at times. they don't always play on the same team. it is par for the course.

it's clear to me given biden's experience and his transition team's experience they anticipated this pushback and wouldn't have put her forth if they didn't think she'd get confirmed. the flip side is you always have a confirmation controversy once in a while here when you have big confirmations like this but for the office of omb this is the hill that republicans want to die on then that's on them, but i think it'll be difficult for them to justify not nominating the first south asian woman to run that office because she put out a couple of tough tweets on them. >> not confirming. >> right. >> thank you both. i appreciate it. a cnn exclusive. documents from inside china show what they really knew about its first cases of coronavirus inside those documents, next.

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when they're sick, they get comfortable anywhere and spread germs everywhere. nothing kills more viruses, including the covid-19 virus, on more surfaces than lysol disinfectant spray. lysol. what it takes to protect. cnn has obtained leaked documents from inside china that reveal the missteps and the chaos of its early days during the coronavirus. cnn's nick payton walsh takes a look. >> reporter: an unprecedented leak of internal documents to cnn reveals, for the first time, what china knew in the opening weeks of the covid-19 pandemic but did not tell the world. a whistle-blower who said they worked inside the chinese health care system shared the documents with cnn online, which show a chaotic local response from the start.

>> this lack of transparency, sort of, also, contributed to the crisis. >> seeing information, in black and white, was very revealing and instructive. >> reporter: cnn has verified them with half a dozen experts, a european security official, and using complex, digital forensic analysis, looking at their source code. >> the documents provide a number of key revelations about the province of hubei, home to the epicenter of the city of wuhan. firstly, some of the death tolls were off. the worst day in these reports is february 17th where these say 196 people who are confirmed cases died. but that day they only announced 93. china was, also, circulating, internally, bigger, more detailed totals for new cases in hubei. for one day, in february, recording, internally, nearly 6,000 new cases. some diagnosed by tests. others, clinically, by doctors. and some, suspected because of symptoms and contacts. but all, pretty serious. yet, publicly, that day, china

reported, nationwide, about 2,500 new confirmed cases. the rest were downplayed in an ongoing tally of suspected cases that meant patients that doctors had diagnosed as being seriously ill sounded like they were in doubt. they did later improve the criteria. >> if china had been more transparent and, also, more aggressive in responding. clearly, there would have had an impact on how much the virus spread in wuhan, in hubei in china. and perhaps, to the rest of the world as well. >> reporter: strikingly, the documents reveal one possible reason behind the discrepancy in the numbers. a report from early march says it took a staggering 23 days on average from when someone showed covid-19 symptoms to when they got a confirmed diagnosis. that's three weeks to officially catch each case. >> as information seems to be very surprising to me because, normally, it would take, you

know, just a couple of days. >> you're making policy, today, based on information that already is three weeks old. >> reporter: perhaps, the most remarkable revelation concerns early december. the moments when covid-19 first emerged in china. >> startlingly, these documents reveal there was an enormous spike in influenza cases in hubei, right when studies have shown the very first-known patients were infected with covid-19. 20 times the number of flu cases, compared to the same week the year before. experts said it could have flooded the hospital system with patients sick from flu-like symptoms. making it harder to spot the first cases of covid-19. the documents don't link the outbreak to coronavirus origins, directly. but they show flu patients were regularly screened, and many did not have a known flu virus strain, leaving open the possibility they were sick with covid-19. >> the spike right in wuhan was

very unusual, like compared to previous years. you know, so, that would raise a red flag. >> it was very, very sizeable. it's clear that the chinese virologists can make precise diagnoses of influenza. but, in retrospect, you have to wonder, was there some covid in there, masquerading as influenza? >> reporter: the documents also show the flu outbreak was biggest that first week in december, not in wuhan, but two other cities nearby, in hubei. all, valuable information in the hunt for where the disease came from. chinese officials have said the outbreak began here, the seafood market in wuhan, in mid-december. and despite western accusations that it has limited its cooperation with the w.h.o. investigation into the virus' origins, china has insisted it has been as transparent as possible over the coronavirus. for some time now, in order to shift the blame, she said, some

u.s. politicians have constantly used the pandemic and other issues as a pretext to smear and demonize china, and so lies disinformation about china. this will mislead some citizens of the united states. and some other western countries' understanding of the truth of china's fight against the epidemic. china's foreign ministry and health officials in beijing and wuhan have not responded to our requests for comment. this disease has killed nearly one and a half million people. about a fifth of known deaths, in america. these documents, a rare, clear, and open window into what china knew, all along. trying to appear in control, while a local outbreak turned into a global pandemic. nick paton-walsh, cnn, london. >> thank you, nick, and thank you for watching, everyone. our coverage continues. i tell them, you should try cascade platinum plus the power of oxi. cascade platinum + oxi breaks down food soils

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hello, and welcome to our viewers joining us here in the united states and all around the world. you are watching cnn newsroom, and i'm rosemary church. just ahead, two vaccines are heading to the fda for approval in the u.s. and could be ready in weeks. and with covid hospitalizations hitting another daily record, help can't come fast enough. president-elect joe biden finally gets his first presidential daily briefing as he continues to appoint the team around him. also, a cnn exclusive, documents reveal what china really knew about its first cases of