we're dploing multiple breaking news stories tonight. president trump suddenly signals he may not sign a $900 billion covid relief bill. he is demanding koeng make changes. what does it mean for the millions of americans waitinging for their stimulus checks? white house aides are annoyed about the bill. this minutes after the president

announced controversial pardons. the president is growing more erratic by the day as more and more people worry about what could happenen in his final days in office. i want to start with cnn white house correspondent john harwood. in the space of just about an hour tonight, we all good whiplash. trump issued presidential pardons, and suggested he may not sign the covid relief bill and he threatened the number two in the senate. what is behind all this hysteria and movement? >> overall what is behind it, the president is choking psychologically on his defeat. he is 29 days away from being a provide citizen so he is thrashing about trying to figure

out some way and abetted by aid whose are trying to figure out ways to remain in office. at the same time, he is also trying through the pardons to protect himself, by protecting the people that were involved in the russia broeb. he insists is a hoax. of course it's not a hoax. buff the attempt to wipe out what robert mueller did by prosecuting people like george papodopalous, and that is an attempt of the president trying to exonerate himself. and paul manfort knowing things on the president. it's unclear if the president is just making noise, trying to make himself look good while he

thrashes about or whether he actu actually intends to stop the bill. he vetoes the bill, it's suggests in the videotape, it passed in both chambering with more than enough votes to override it. that would be humiliation. he leaned on republican member, maybe some of them will vote to the sustain his veto. if that happens, we don't know what effect it will have on the georgia senate races, on the trp dynamics. we know that mitch mcconnell and others have indicates that joe biden will be the next president and they have thrown cold water on things sbhsm the president did not like that. he has going off thume today, and he is calls the deal made with nancy pelosi a disgrace. it's a chaotic situation.

>> you are punished when you accept reality. and you are told that trump may be canceling his christmas plans. what are you hearing about this if anything? >> not much. we believe the trip is still on the books. and the president's intended to leave tomorrow. but -- as you indicated in the open, he is erratic, he is unpredictable, he is having people come in the oval office and trying to get to overturn the election. maybe he will stay in washington and work on that in way way. if i were betting in the end, i would say he is going to take off for mar-a-lago tomorrow afternoon. >> and why members of congress wanted to get it taken care of, none of them want to go back to

their district without taking care of the american people. i want to bring in andrew mccabe, the former mib deputy director and author of the book "the threat, how the fbi protects america in the age of terror and trump." also here, kierston powers. and i will start with you, andrew. trump just pardoned admitted liars, and lawmakers and black water guards convicted on a massacre on civilians. what does it say about how he views the crimes? and those watching a the home, the justice department, under the umbrella of the branch of government, what does it say about these crimes in particular.

>> if you are sitting at home and you haven't gotten the message already about the way the president has conducted himself in four years, today, with these pardons, you are hearing loud and clear that this president does not care about the rule of law. he doesn't care about anything. he is all about satisfying his personal grievances as with the pardons of george and alex -- this is trying to unravel the muller report -- none of which, he will go down in history as the only american president to have been elected with the help of the russian intelligence service. he is pardoning white collar -- politicians, and politicians of course -- secures fraud, stealing campaign, money laundering. he was not care about the rule of law, and -- that is

absolute -- >> not to mention on your screen right now, you are seeing the black water guards. this is the time a few weeks ago, we were all hearing the idea about when it came to foreign diplomacy and new cabinet members that will be restoring the global positioning, you have a commander in chief essentially pardoning war krcriminals. this was not bode well or speak well to the stature of america. it doesn't bode well for how the united states will be viewed going forward. that would hurt diplomacy, right? >> right. absolutely, and i think -- i'm sure there will be plenty of outrage about this, and in iraq, these are -- more than a dozen people were massacred. they were bheem were found

guilty and sentenced. these are not what pardons are supposed to be for. and what does it say about donald trump? he thinks that a person should not be held accountable for murdererring, massacring a large number of innocent people, that that is what the pardon power is for. that is not what the pardon power is for. if you look at the way president obama used it, that was more applicable, looking at situation where people were in prison for nonviolent drug crimes where they -- they were oversentenced and shouldn't be there. that is a great use of the pardon power. he also did it through the department of justice and there was a process. with trump, there is not a process. he treats them as his candy he can just hand out to whoever he wants. >> perhaps the process is part

of the session with trying to discredit the russian investigation. i think the pardon slate does include some nonviolent drug offenders and the trend of what is at issue, and guy to you. cnn's barbara starr is reporting there is growing anxiety in the military ranks about what trump might do in his final days in office. what are your biggest concerns as it relates to what his role is as commander in chief? >> you know, it's not a secret that he has spend the last few weeks installing -- in positions of -- and that is sending shock waves across -- work -- in the department of defense. the last few days with his comments about wanting to

appoint a social council himself for the investigation -- election fraud. that is a perfect example how trump will stop at nothing to demand what he wants, and the system doesn't comply with telling the truth, the unlawful of unconstitutional efforts, they are quickly dispatched and fired. i can tell you. i'm sure those are all the things that -- greatly concerned -- no limit to what he can ask for. >> that has to be the last word, and i know you are probably nodding your head, thinking, we have 29 days left. so a lot can be done. good to have you back. thank you both for being a part of the show. you know, hospitalizations breaking another record as researchers say a new covid strain could have arrived in the united states this time from the uk a month a go. and dr. fauci's warning, don't

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researchers say hundreds of americans could already be infected by a new coronavirus variant in the uk and it may have arrived in the u.s. in mid november. medical experts believe it would be around 70% more transmissible than other variants of the virus. that amid increasing in spikes from people gathering for holidays. joining me now, dr. jonathan reiner. i'm glad you're here tonight. the news has a lot of people

nervous. i want to ask you about what the resear researchers have found. if the variant got here last month, is it possible that hundreds of people or more already have it? >> sure, that is very possible. the united kingdom leads the world in sequencing the strains and variants so they test thousands of isolists and they have found thousands of variants. we have done it several dozen times so we haven't tested enough samples to know if that variant is in the united states. but if it's been in the united kingdom since september, almost certainly it's here in the united states. >> you have the variants and the notion it might be a variant, is predictable and the way you talk about those who have come with a

vaccine, would they have been able to anticipate it? could they account for it or does the vaccine have to start all over again? we have already in a bad place? >> yeah, it's very unlikely this virus -- the variant is resistant to the two approved vaccines. both of these rna vaccines basically give the recipient the ability to make essentially the virus spike protein. the spike protein consists of 1200 amino acids and this new variant differs in nine so less than 1% of the amino acids are different. so it's very unlikely it's resistant to the vaccines. but the vaccine manufacturers are testing it. and we heard today they have the ability to adjust the vaccine going forward as new strains

come about. so i think i would -- we're watching this but no reason for the public right now to be overly concerned. >> that is very encouraging to hear, and talking about the idea of a vaccine, the cdc has accepted the rick men dagss to prioritize older adults and front line workers. so which is -- phase 1b. walk us through exactly how the phases work. how long does each phase take before they move on to the next one and the next one and the next one? >> all the phase rss going to overlap. the phases say basically bring in different groups and sequence. so phase 1a are front line hospital workers and nursing home -- long term december dents and nursing residents in facilities. hospitals are administering a

vaccine to health care worker. i had my vaccine a week ago, and nursing homes are starting to give it to ris residents. in january, phase 1b will be essential workers, firemen, policemen, teachers, and those over the age of 75. that will go through most of january. the next phase will bring in people 65 and older. and younger people with high risk conditions. so as we go through these groups, more and more vaccines should come online. the goal really is to vaccinate at least 70% of this country and the goal really should be to do it by summertime. >> you know, we should be overseeing all this is the head of the coronavirus task force whose name is vice president mike pence and today he was

delivering a speech indoors and many in the crowd were also, as he is not, wearing a mask, and he is, as i said, the head of the coronavirus task force. he tried getting the vaccine but he is under mining all this with appearances like this. is he not? >> yeah, how is it possible? how is it possible that the coronavirus task force leader can go to a meeting, especially of unmasked people, at the hottest time in the history of this pandemic. it makes no sense. he is -- what he is doing basically is validating that behavior. it's really shameful. unacceptable. >> it is, and it's dangerous. thank you, happy holidays to you. >> same to you. >> you know, holiday travel drastically picking up even though the virus is as bad as it's ever been. i want to bring in cnn con tr

contributor, and we are seeing record pandemic travel, 1 million airline passengers for four days in a row, and dr. fauci says this. listen. >> this type of travel is risky particularly if people start congregating when they get to their destination in larger crowds in indoor settings. i'm afraid if we see it happen, we will have a surge that is superimposed on the difficult situation we are already in. >> how much can air travel contribute to the surge upon a surge and god forgid another surge? >> we are seeing that already. we saw the labor day, and built on that with halloween and we built on that with thanksgiving and now we have got back-to-back

holidays with christmas and new year. what it does is homogenize the virus around the country as people travel around. and the real risk comes from people moving from a hot zone to a place that is not as hot and they bring the virus with them. or people from low risk communities that go to high risk commune tips or bring it back when they come back. so what we're going to see if people f they do what they have done in past christmases, is fanning the flame for further and further and who knows what january night look like? >> it makes it harder for those people who are following the regulations, and people are bringing it to where they are. you have dozens of countries as you know that have banned or took travel from the uk over that covid variant that is there. but the u.s. hasn't put in place

any new federal travel restrictions. you think we should? >> i wouldn't read too much into the variant at the moment. the variant is interesting. there are unique ep de epidemiological data. but for travel -- i would lick like say we should be clamping down more. but people are going to do what they need to do, what they want to do. so what i hope happens, if people do choose to travel and do choose to gather, they actually make smarter decisions by reducing the risk of those particular gathering. the masks, the distance, the duration, outdoors rather than indoors, just make smarter decisions where you can. so that a meeting, a gathering of people together does not lead to whole families or whole

groups of people becoming infected. >> and speaking of the idea of making smart decisions, part of that is the contact tracing and the cdc, and passengers on a flight last week with a man who died from covid, and when he checked in, he had no symptoms but his wife was overheard saying he was in fact symptomatic. does the honor system alone make flying dangerous now? >> the air environment inside a splean very well controlled and very well regulated. we don't see entire aircrafts of people getting infected. and the number of infections we have a day in the united states and the amount of air travel we just talked about, a million people a day, there are a lot of people in the air with covid infections right now moving across the country. yet, it's rare that we actually

see the big events on aircraft. so you know, it can happen. it's really going to be the people beside you rather than the people in the cabin. i'm more worried about people getting inside other people's homes, sharing a meal, sharing air in the same room, and i can tell you from personal experiences and friends i'm helping right now, we are looking at a massive surge in cases just locally, that is happening from just innocuous meetings in homes. >> i hope people make smart decisions that you spoke about. thank you. >> thank you. president trump is kicking off what will likely be a flury of pardons and it looks like it's all lines up with his revenge fantasy over the russia investigation. still fresh...

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use the chevy employee discount for everyone to get a total value of over eight thousand four hundred dollars on this silverado. get the chevy employee discount for everyone today. president trump issuing a flurry of pardons tonight, and there is a good chance we will see many more in his last 28 days in office. lot to talk about tonight with former u.s. attorney harry it willman. larry, i'm glad you're here. i let you have a lot say about the issue. you call the president's pardon spree an attack on the country. tell me why you're outraged about these pardons. >> the pardons of papadopoulos,

and the blackwater probe. they are hallmark prosecutions of the department of justice. this is why you have a department of justice and he just waving in and cap preeshsly kneecaps them and with a swipe of the pen, all the work and all the sweat and all the sort of institution alabama capital in doing these things. and this is an abuse of public trust. no argument of anything personal. just a simple gut punch to the department of justice, and i think it really, really stinks. >> by the way, this is somebody

who is the head of the executive branch of government, under which the department of justice falls. the role the branch is to faithfully execute the laws and this smacks of the same issues you are speaking about and there are futile scheme to overturn the election results. it's coming from the white house. here is what chris christie is saying about that tonight. >> yeah. >> we had problems since sydney powell and other mbs of the president's legal team for blockbuster evidence and none of it has come forward. i'm as disappointed as anyone that the president was not re-elected in november. but the fact is joe biden won the majority of electoral votes. he had 306, and this is a very, very dangerous thing we're engaging in right now. >> the department of justice, tomorrow is bill barr's last day

and he has a new acting attorney general that will have to navigate the new dangerous attempt to undo the election, and the morale of the career prosecutors there who look at hall mark justice prosecutions and scratch their heads as if to say, do we have a say? what is next for them? >> yeah, which is low, low, low, and they have been ruled again and again, and i just want to repeat, laura on these prosecutions, the department really invested a lot and now they are just wiped out -- as with an eraser. i think what is next for them is 28 days of relative calm. he is not going to try to seize voting machines or anything like that. he hopes to be a lawyer in washington one day. but they're going to be real difficult, the challenges for the new a.g. does he need to appoint a special council for hunter

biden, given all the great cynicism that trump has breeded that will make it difficult for the department to just do its work. i think it's not going to be enough to put one foot in front of the other. they're going to be knew wages challenges that are going to take years to actually put everything right that has been just spoiled in the trump administration. >> let me bring in former house gop nelson who is the right person to talk about the issue. the idea of what is to come about trying to unpack the nuances. you get the impression almost you're going to open a closet door that your kids said they cleaned up and everything will fall out of the closet. i mean, time is ticking. it seems like we don't know president-elect biden's official a.g. pick until after christmas. there are several civil rights leaders who implore biden to

select a person of color, and right now, the top choices seem to be judge judge garland and doug jones. how do you feel about those options? >> you know, i am a sally yates fan and i was listening to a bit of the earlier broadcast, and i apologize for technical issues we had. but i think they need someone with experience at doj. ip think a new attorney general who has never been in that role as far as the deputy or one of the assistants, secretaries of the civil rights division, i think you need someone who is -- for the reasons your other guests outlined. i think all of the mess that trump and barr have left, the issue of pardons, whether it's quid pro quos, did you give something to get something? i think you need an experienced hand. i'm not sold on whether the person has to be a person of

color or a female. i'm concerned that it's someone with a lot of experience and can boost more role in a department that has taken a hit in the last four years. the doj's had a hard time. >> you always leave me wants to hear more. thank you for your time. and harry as well. and on the two weeks now until georgia's senate runoffs. races that will decide which party holds power in the senate. pow their could decide what happens to joe biden's agenda. stacy abrams is getting out the vote and she is here next. >> when we came close, we were told it was a possibility we hit the ceiling and in 2020, we proved that the ceiling was just the sky. when you hike as far away from it all as you possibly can, ♪

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the georgia senate runoffs are two weeks away with control of the senate on the ballot. both parties are doing everything they can to energize their voters. tonight, more than 1.6 million georgians have cast their ballots in person or by mail. the number is close to the turnout in november's general election when 1.9 million bat

lols were cast at the same point before election day. it will come down to which party can turn out the vote. joins me is stacey abrams. you have gotten a lot of democrats out to the election and all guys are on georgia. where do you see the race standing right now? >> we see the race as neck and neck and we believe we are well positioned to win. i know there was a hail mary from mitch mcconnell trying to cure the lapses and absence of leadership. but $600 in a relief package with a promise to do no more does nothing for georgia voters. it does nothing for georgia's people, and it's too little, too late, and the democrats agreed to move something forward, we

know we need more. we need real partnership for president-elect joe biden. we will get them there. >> you know the idea of the president-elect, a month away, and the president r50i9 now is trump. you no e that trump and his allies have been spreading lies about fraud in the election. the vice president today wouldn't admit that the election is over, that joe biden won. listen to this, stacey. >> i will make you a promise. we will keep fighting until every legal vote is counted. we're going to keep fighting until every illegal vote is thrown out. we're going to win georgia, we're going to save america and we'll never stop fighting to

make america great again. you watch. >> you know, it's as if he is in a time warp here. because joe biden won. and he won the state of georgia already, and he won 306 electoral votes. so what is your message right now to voters who are hearing lying, and the vice president of the united states, not to mention the president. >> look, the trump administration has a nearly perfect record of losses. they lost in the courts. they lost in the states. i served as one of the presiding electors. we know they lost in the elector college. and proclaiming something to be so does not make it happen. i recognize the importance of pursuing your remedies. the moving is going to happen on january 20th when donald trump movi moves out of the white house, and joe biden moves in, we have

to make certain that the obstructionism that is the hall mark of the leadership in the senate, and the white house, that that does not survive. that means we have to elect two u.s. senators who have to balance the senate. and where joe biden has a fighting chance of helping fix the america we watched the trump administration break. >> of course, democrats have in south carolina, james ccliborn s a new article. he says if the candidate who got the most votes in the november 3rd u.s. special election in georgia had been declared the winner, we would wear in the reverent warknock to the upper chambers of congress, and

instead, he is in a runoff. georgia run off laws have roots in jim crow area. is it time to get rid of them? >> absolutely. we know that denmark groover, did it precisely to under mine the black voters in elections. sadly for georgia, this racist system continues. and i think that the republicans this year went by their own gat tar. while they were able to use it to block him from taking his position, they also found david purdue forced in a runoff that he is in danger of losing. where do we stand? you pointed out it's a republic. we are a republic. we ask the people to show up to go to their ballot boxes and say who they want to see as leaders. we are asking georgians to find your closest polling place and

to make certain you bank your vote and make a plan to vote before january 5 lt. if we want a stronger democracy, if we want the republican to stand, we have to show up for it and that means showing up. we are incredibly excited. we are seeing unprecedented turnout. more than 50,000 who voted so far did not vote in the general election. we have new voices that want to be heard, and we know they want to be heard on covid relief, access to health care. they want access to jobs and they want more than $600 to make up for the more than eight months of dithering, and we know they want justice. they are things they can blir deliver, and they can deliver. kel kel kelly has thosed twice now with

a member of the kkk. >> stacey abrams leading the way. thank you so much for your time. >> thank you for having me. we are still trying to get past the coronavirus but scientists are already on the hunt for the next big contagion. where they are looking and when it can come, next.

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the covid pandemic is raging the world, ravaging it with more than 78 million cases around the world and 1.7 million dweths. and sign tigss fear a deadlier pandemic in the future. a feature tonight from cnn's international correspondent from the congo. >> reporter: this pristine wilderness is under threat. the environmental disaster here

would tloo could leave to a human apocalypse. deadly contagions, some perhaps more deadly than we have ever seen before. 400 miles up river from the democratic republic of con go's capital, the ebola virus. and doctors people they have another virus. >> we have to figure out what is worth more. >> reporter: the doctors just told me one of their concerns is they are getting cases now that present symptoms that are similar to ebola. but when they test them in the laboratory here, they are coming up negative. this patient has ebola symptoms

and is coming up negative. she is one of the victims here righting a disease that is never encountered before. i asked the doctor if he is concern about new diseases. >> translator: we should. that is how ebola became known. >> reporter: treatments and a vaccine meanwhile it's deadly, more patients do survive. the medicine will never keep up with new diseases emerging from the wilderness. the patients here did survive but tests for known illnesses were negative. so her disease remains a history. doctors worry that more diseases like ebola, sars and covid-19 will emerge and make the jump from animals to humans. on the river, deep in the congo basin, it's accessible only by

boat. but that is how a virus can travel to big cities to the country's capital, and into the global blood steam. the epicenter of the latest fight that killed 55 people in the prosense. >> here, they are battling with the fifth local outbreak of the ebola virus, which is on their 11th here in the congo. they are getting a grip on it. but 2345i are concerned about finding unknown viruss just like ebola. the scientists here have limited funds but they know their work is essential to protect their country sbpt rest of humanity. >> you can imagine just where you have a vast ep dem wick many cases leading to a huge mortality, and morbidity. >> reporter: more than 100 new

viruss have been found in the drc, and new coronavirus in bats, so it's bats that are tracked. they are linked to many diseases, notably covid-19 and ebola. >> translator: we have to be really careful. or they bite. >> reporter: the biologists told us while they haven't found the ebola virus in the bats, they have found the anti-bodies. so they are an early warn system to humanity. kit prove fatal, start an epidemic or worse. so could a cross infection from an unknown host, to bats, to chickens, to children. about 80 bats are swabbed, tested for covid and ebola, and samples are sent for more

investigation. most survive the capture and return to the wild. the congo's population has almost doubled in two decades to almost 90 million. it puts the forest in strain. the scale of the destruction in the rain forest here is not yet on the scale we have seen in the amazon. a great deal of it is the rule of local farmers who clear the land and then farm it for a few years. the problem is it causes fragmentation of the rain forest, increasing the sur vafa area of the forest and humanity. this man is an expert in tracking the diseases. he has a warning for us all. >> it can become an outbreak. >> reporter: are you afraid there is going to be more emerging diseases from the forest? something that spreads like

covid but kills like eboh lla? >> we are now in a world where new pathogens will come out, and will cause a threat for humanity. and as you know, also the disease emerged from africa. >> reporter: and this in the congo is how viruses mostly travel. the river congo is the great artery that gives life to the nation and the route by which the results of deforestation. like these smoked money kips that are filmed for food. and i film under cover here. now bush meat is an international luxury commodity. >> can you arrange for shipping

to europe and america? i'm told that's no problem. there is an agency for that. the protected species, the monkey's heads and arms have cut off to disguise them. >> we have expatriots who demand to eat certain types of meat, turtles, snakes, primates. >> reporter: the u.n. estimates that 500 tons of meat are har vegsed and the most potent source of the live animals. they carry the viruss and they can infect when they are butchered. live animals are part of a billion global trade that is a cause and a symptom of ecological disaster. combined with logging, untold

numbers of potential infections can be released and now, as if nature has found a way to protect itself. locked up in the armory of the forses a weapon against the planet's mes most deadly threat. human kind. if so, this abandoned palace of a dictator isn't a relic of the past. it's a vision of what the planet looks like when mother earth fights back. sam kyly, cnn. >> some, thank you. and thank you for watching. our coverage continues. may your holidays glow bright

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