you're watching cnn this tuesday. brooke baldwin here in new york. thank you for being with me. we begin today with this message last hour from senate majority leader mitch mcconnell to the president. you can't always get what you want. mcconnell promises a vote tomorrow on a defense spending bill, tells members to override the president's veto. but we still don't know how or whether he will call a vote and how much a new round of stimulus checks will put in your bank accounts. 2,000 versus $600 debate is prompting strange alliances. david perdue, kelly loeffler,

josh hawley, marco rubio, find themselves on the same side of the issue as senator bernie sanders. and the president's demand for a vote is just part of the portrait of a mad president, mad he lost the election and spouting conspiracies about the november vote, mad at what he calls pathetic, weak, tired republican leadership that won't bend to his will, and just notice that none of what the president is mad about has much of anything to do with the u.s. coronavirus response. the 121,000 patients in the hospital right now with covid-19 or his own government's failure to roll out vaccines as promised. we did see the incoming administration today focused on promoting confidence in vaccines. vice president elect kamala harris getting her shot as one of the nation's top health

experts has this tire warning. >> we're in such a surge as we call it, jim, that's just gotten out of control. that's what we're concerned about, that in addition to the surge we're going to have an increase superimposed on that surge which could make january even worse than december. >> let's start the hour on capitol hill and lauren fox. lauren, do we know what senator mcconnell's timeline is for the vote on stimulus checks? >> reporter: we were awaiting the 12:00 speech on the senate floor, there's not much more clarity to report, brooke. he said they're looking over the president's values, things the president was asking for, including the $2,000 checks, but there are no promises on whether or not he will bring it up for a vote. in fact, he objected to a unanimous consent agreement, fancy speak for essentially moving quickly to pass this bill on the senate floor.

when chuck schumer, leading democrat, brought it up. now we are in a little bit of flux. we just don't know whether or not mcconnell will bring it up, don't know what the timeline will be, adding in on top of that, the expectation was that mcconnell would be able to vote tomorrow on a veto override of the national defense authorization act. remember, the president vetoed that bill. there are enough republicans to override that veto, but essentially bernie sanders is warning that he is not going to allow the vote to happen tomorrow unless he gets an agreement from mcconnell that mcconnell will put the $2,000 checks on the floor for a vote. that essentially gets us to new year's day for potential vote on this. brooke, stay tuned. there isn't as much clarity as i wish that i could give to people that are desperate to know whether or not they're getting the money anytime soon. >> i was just talking to matthew cox was his name, lost his job, his word was insulted, insulted

by congress and what they're doing. lauren, thank you so much. we will stay tuned. republicans discontent with this president. it has always been there. we had four years of anonymously sourced quotes from members talking about how erratic, irresponsible this president acts. now, more and more of what was private is put on the record when it counts in votes. 130 house republicans voted against the president's demand to raise stimulus checks to $2,000. 109 house republicans voted to override the president's veto of the massive defense spending bill. joining me to help us understand better the current moment, former congressman charlie dent. congressman, welcome. help us understand what is happening because millions of americans' lively hoods are on the line. senator mcconnell on the floor not offering much clarity, so much in limbo, mcconnell saying they'll look at trump's concerns, i.e., $2,000 checks.

how does mcconnell do this dance? is he just buying time? >> i think he is buying a little bit of time, brooke. the senate will clearly override the president's veto on defense authorization bill. with respect to the $2,000 checks, i think what the president has done, he divided senate republicans. i do believe if a vote is allowed on the substance of the bill, i believe it will pass simply because if you're kelly loeffler, david perdue in georgia, you only have one option here, that is to vote for this bill. this will be between now and the runoff election in january. i think you'll see a significant number of republicans in the senate prepare to vote for the $2,000. again, mcconnell has those that don't want to bring it up. he is trying to manage his internal caucus dynamics. democrats have leverage, they're

using it. lauren pointed out, bernie sanders is using whatever muscle he has to delay the ndaa, defense bill, because that's important for the republicans. democrats are playing hard ball. they want the 2,000 and want it now. >> read how "the wall street journal editorial board writes it amounts to a donald trump in kind contribution to minority leader chuck schumer and joe biden. if republicans lose, you mentioned this, charlie, two georgia seats and their majority, republicans across the country should know to thank mr. trump for the 2021 tax increase. curious your thoughts on that. you mentioned loeffler and perdue. today, both out there doing interviews, backing the president's push for $2,000 checks. you think it will pass. you think americans will get that amount of money deposited in their bank accounts? >> i actually do because if

loeffler and perdue are on board, josh hawley, marco rubio, i think it is hard, it would be difficult for republican senators to vote against this now that the president endorsed it. the vote out of the house was overwhelming, more than two to one majority. we can have a great policy debate whether or not $2,000 checks are the best ways to stimulate the economy. there might be better ways to target relief to people that need it most, but we are where we are. this is a totally political question now. i think the politics of this now is for senate republicans to support the measure, even though some willow po oppose it. it will help the georgia senators. ossoff and warnock will beat them to death over this if they vote against it. >> they will and all of that happening in a week from now, determining control of the u.s. senate. listen to something your former colleague, republican congressman kevin brady said on

the house floor monday. >> what we know is much of the extra $1600 will go to pay down credit card debt or savings or make new purchases online at walmart, best buy, or amazon. >> congressman, what do you think of what he just said? >> well, again, depending who is receiving the money. if the person is unemployed and receiving the money, guess what, they're going to use this to pay rent, to buy groceries, for basic needs. for somebody who is employed but is eligible for the relief, they may use it to pay down credit card debt or for other purchases for whatever they need. i don't think he is completely wrong by what he said. at the same time, this money is untargeted. the politics is such that i

don't know how you vote against this right now, particularly if you're in a state where a lot of people are struggling, many republican members represent states, significant numbers of lower income people whether west virginia or arkansas or mississippi, so tough vote to vote against this right now. >> charlie dent, thank you so much. we'll stay on all of this and watch to see what happens with mitch mcconnell as he talks to members of the conference, see where they stand on the $2,000 checks. still ahead, i talk to democratic congressman tim ryan about whether the $2,000 stimulus checks have a chance of becoming reality. see if he grease with charlie dent that they might. as the u.s. lags behind on getting vaccines in people's arms, 500 doses had to be tossed out at one facility in wisconsin. we'll tell you why. and u.s. troops serving overseas started to receive the vaccine with military and civilian health care workers first in line at bases in south korea. you are watching cnn. i am brooke baldwin. save up to 15% on a cozy casper mattress

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welcome back. you're watching cnn. i am brooke baldwin. thank you for being here. cnn is learning why the vaccine rollout in the united states isn't happening as quickly as government officials promised. by the cdc's own count, as of monday, 2 million doses administered thus far. that's not close to operation warp speed's goal 20 million by end of the year. even with more than 11 million

doses distributed and shipped out to states, it is not a question whether the self imposed deadline will be missed but rather by how much. experts like dr. anthony fauci can only hope things will speed up very soon. >> well, we certainly are not at the numbers that we wanted to be at the end of december. i believe that as we get into january, we're going to see an increase in the momentum which, jim, i hope allows us to catch up to the projected pace. i can't personally guarantee we're going to catch up. i hope we do. >> kristin holmes has new reporting on what's taking so long to get vaccines into the arms of americans. kristin, what do you know in. >> talking about a huge discrepancy here. we have 20 million vaccines in arms versus 2.1 number. i talked to a senior administration official that said they expected there to be lower numbers at this point because of the usual lag in reporting data.

what exactly does that mean? this is a station i got from operation warp speed, senior officials there said there's expected lag between shots going into arms and data being reported because according to the cdc, health care providers have to report doses to state, territorial, local public health agencies up to 72 hours after administration. then they report it to the cdc. but the problem with this idea of undercounting is just how much is this undercounted. we heard anthony fauci on air earlier today talking about how even if it was another 2 million or 3 million, even if we tripled number, we would be nowhere near the 2 million doses of vaccine in arms. i talked to several health experts today that outlined some of the reasons this could be an issue. one of them being the supply chain, it is just not quite there. 330 million americans are going to need to get that vaccine. we are nowhere near that number in terms of production. the other issue is how you

actually handle the vaccine, making sure local health agencies, hospitals know what they're doing because this is different than anything we've ever seen, talking about the ultra cold storage and transportation. one of the things we are following is out of wisconsin, a medical center there in which 500 doses of vaccine were simply thrown away and that was human error. someone had taken them out of the pharmacy refrigerator, forgot them, for whatever reason didn't put them back in the refrigerator, therefore they rendered them not working. that's what we're dealing with now. these are just some of the reasons we're going to see slower rollout here with the vaccine like this. >> painful to think of the 500 vaccines just have to be chucked. kristin holmes, thank you for all of that and the context from health experts. another one waiting in the wings, dr. peter hotez, profe

professor at baylor college of medicine. always a pleasure to have you on. welcome. >> thank you, brooke. good to see you. >> i am curious from your perspective, initially they said 20 million doses, now we're down to just above 1 million, as they change the goalpost, it had gone from something like numbers in october, told 100 million, then 40 million, then 20 million, in actuality 12 million have been distributed. why do you think the holdup? >> i think as part of a recurring theme happening all year, we just do not have a health system that can accommodate much in the way of complexity. still haven't fixed everything with diagnostic testing, still have long lines almost a full year into this. we now know we're not doing virus genomic surveillance. done full sequencing on less

than 0.5% of isolates. this is going more by the same play book, unfortunately. and in fairness, there are complexities, logistics of deep freezer requirement for the pfizer vaccine and requirement in general and i understand a lot of this is left to the states and the thing i am worried about and i'm not on the inside on this, i just worry the fedex trucks and ups trucks are dropping off vaccines to states without a lot of direction. remember, this is the easy part, going to the hospitals which should be able to accommodate this. what happens when you have to get vaccines out to tens of millions of americans through the pharmacy chains. remember, we don't have a health system like the uk or others. our health system is cvs, rite-aid, walgreen's, amazon and supermarket chains. what's going to happen at that

point. >> you said it is unbelievable to your point about the walgreens and pharmacies that america's health security is largely dependent on those companies getting us the shots. >> yeah. it is almost like dropping off 40 million boxes of ikea furniture and realizing assembly is required. >> how are we just realizing this? >> yeah, it almost looks that way. hopefully there's more to it than that, we'll find out. as dr. fauci says, we have to fix this. we do not have a national covid containment program. we have to vaccinate the country, wee have to do it in a hurry, have to figure it out quickly. otherwise, look at the rate of lives lost in the united states now, 3,000 lives lost every day, we cannot, this part we can't

mess up. we have our backs to the corner and this is where we have to solve the problem now. >> dr. hotez, the coronavirus variant that appears to be rapidly spreading has been detected in 27 countries and hong kong. here's what dr. fauci said to jim sciutto a couple hours ago. >> i would be really surprised if we did not already have isolates like this circulating, not the dominant. my feeling is if it does get into this country which i believe it will, you look at what's going on in europe, started looking like it was only in the uk, now several european countries, canada has it. i cannot imagine we're not going to get it. the question is prevent it from becoming the dominant strain. you do that by preventing spread of infection. >> well, what does this mean for the american people? if we go out, get the current

covid vaccine, dr. hotez, are we covered against the variant? >> we're going to find that out soon. our vaccine we're looking at and the other big companies are doing that with their vaccine. i'm less worried whether the vaccine will cross protect against the uk variant or the south african variant, looking atd there are very few variations in the spike protein. i am worried that the u.s. is not looking for emerging virus variants. only sequenced 50,000 according to centers for disease control, that's not adequate. when you consider the uk has done 200,000 and australia did half their virus jegenomes. we come up once again small on the public health side. there may be home grown variants that are as bad or worse as uk

and south african variant, but no one is looking for it. we have to step up virus genome surveillance like we have to vaccinate the u.s. population. we need the health system to function at this point. >> thank you for calling for that out loud on national tv. always a pleasure. thank you very much. in a couple of hours, president-elect joe biden is expected to call out the trump administration for falling short of its pace of vaccinations that we were talking about. i talk to congressman tim ryan about what can be done to turn that around. we're live in california where a stay at home order may soon be extended. i talk to a doctor about whether a surge in cases there is impacting care patients receive. nobody understands the meaning of home like a veteran.

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bill, when it comes to $2,000 checks, there wasn't a lot of clarity on that. i think he is trying to buy a little time to see where members of the conference stand. do you think it will ultimately pass? >> we have to keep pushing. there are some senators that are up for re-election in two years that are going to be very concerned about this vote. they know that the average american is going through a hell of a lot, whether a small business owner that runs a restaurant or worried you'll miss a rent or car payment. those people need help and need it now. they know 600 bucks won't get it done. the house passed it, trump wants it, lights are on for some of the senators up for re-election. they have to make a tough decision. they know where the public is. i think mcconnell is trying to feel it out. i hope we can get it done. it would be a great way to end the year. >> maybe a tough decision in one sense to give more to americans,

also tough because in a sense it is a loyalty pledge to maybe the more old school fiscal conservative republicans versus to the current president. i want to read something senator bernie sanders actually tweeted moments ago saying today, senator markey and i demanded a vote on $2,000 for working people, it is a simple no vote, no new year's break for senators. how do you see this playing out? >> i think the pressure is going to get ramped up. i think there will be a lot of activity the next 24 hours among the general public. i get texts all the time from people that are worried, anxiety level is through the roof, after a terrible year, now you come down to the end, looks like politics are being played when you actually have democrats and president trump agreeing on something which as we all know -- >> can you believe that? can you believe senator sanders and the president are on the same side of this? >> like mike drop, what's the argument about here, you know?

but some of these senators are finding religion on fiscal responsibility after huge tax cuts that went primarily to the top 1%. we were a trillion dollar a year deficit, brooke, before the pandemic. now they're saying we have to watch what we spend. how come if it goes to the wealthiest people in the country, they're okay with it, you want to send 2,000 bucks to a family that will miss a mortgage payment through no fault of their own, they find religion on fiscal responsibility. that's the pressure that needs to be applied to senators that are making the decision now. >> so we watch all of that, congressman ryan. i want to ask about covid and the vaccination process. we know president-elect joe biden will speak later today, expected to confront how shall i say slower than expected pace the trump administration administered the vaccines and layout his own plan. was we hear from a transition official. what could change in the vaccine

distribution once biden is officially in office? >> well, i think it is about driving it through the bureaucracy. you can't have the ceo of the company on the golf course, think the product is going to make it to market, it is not going to happen. the president has been mia, glad to see him come out of the witness protection program the other day, couldn't find him anywhere. if the president is not driving this, down through the bureaucracy, organizing it, using every lever to pull to get these vaccines down to the american people, it is just not going to happen. i think just by joe biden, ron klain, chief of staff, already been through this with the ebola issue, they're the two people that are going to be very, very important. you look at the other health experts involved, we're going to get this done. it should be done now. not saying trump can't do it. i'm saying he is mia. if the president is mia, you're not getting it done. that's the biggest part of the problem.

>> tim ryan, thank you for your time. happy new year just about. thank you. >> we'll get there. >> we will. we will. thank you. i want to talk about california. a developing story in california right now in the middle of what experts call a surge on top of a surge and stay at home order for millions of people could have to be extended. ♪ 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 usaa. what you're made of, we're made for. he used to have gum problems. now, he uses therabreath healthy gums oral rinse with clinically-proven ingredients and his gum problems have vanished. (crowd applauding) therabreath, it's a better mouthwash.

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in california, the number of new covid-19 cases and

hospitalizations are not improving and governor gavin newsom says it is likely the numbers mean the stay at home order will be extended. it is particularly dire for those of you who live in southern california where availability of icu beds is down to zero and there's news now that a problem with oxygen delivery systems is effecting patient care. cnn correspondent stephanie elam is live in california. what is l.a. county saying about the shortage of oxygen supply? >> reporter: well, what we know, brooke, there's at least five hospitals that have been effected by this. it is not necessarily a shortage of oxygen as much as it may be a problem with infrastructure because there's such demand for oxygen that it is pointing out weaknesses in old infrastructure, mainly pipes getting oxygen to patients. also, when so much oxygen is going through pipes, it can freeze pipes, obviously that's a problem, too. they moved some patients lower in hospitals because then they

don't need as much pressure to go through the pipes to get oxygen to them. we're talking about respiratory illness. there's obviously a huge demand for oxygen now, that's part of it, but it is internal disaster, some hospitals had to turn away patients, this on top of the fact that in california we're seeing a surge upon a surge. here in southern california as you said as well as san joaquin valley, we are expecting that stay at home order to be extended today, when we hear from state of california, simply because numbers aren't where they need to be. numbers are so high in california, the state sent a team here to help with load leveling. some hospitals are so inundated, one hospital in south l.a. is having to treat patients in the chapel as well as in their gift shop. what they're trying to do, if there's one bed open at another place, maybe move people around that way. that's how critical it is because icu beds are at capacity. when you look at testing, they

say nine to ten people are testing positive for coronavirus every minute. think about that. that's just l.a. county. that's where we are standing now with these numbers. it is getting to the point medical officials have to make the decision on who they think they can save, who can get the facilities they need and give it to them. think about that. no medical professional wants to be in that position, brooke, deciding between two lives. >> no. with the gift shop you were alluding to martin luther king jr. community hospital, talked to the ceo of the hospital yesterday. gurneys in the gift shop. never heard of that in my life. this is where we are. thank you so much. >> never. >> never, ever, ever. with me now to continue the conversation on california and obviously some of the tough choices doctors are facing, dr. robert kim farley, epidemiologist, professor at ucla fielding school of public health. doctor, welcome. >> brooke, thank you so much for being on the program. i want to just mention, stephanie talked about this

being now a surge upon a surge. i actually think we have moved beyond waves or surges, this is a viral tsunami that we're now experiencing. >> viral tsunami. what does that even mean? >> i think it just implies the magnitude, that before you may talk about waves. this is simply beyond a normal wave or surge. i think in a sense you could look at it from the point of view in the past, maybe like throwing matches into the woods. occasionally you have a flareup, allow a breakup of covid. now in california you're seeing a raging wildfire of disease. >> the problem is when i imagine a tsunami, it is like there's nothing you can do. it's coming, you run the opposite direction, and you wait it out. by the time the waves are gone, you see the devastation and destruction and its path. when you hear the details coming out of some of the hospitals, i

talked to dr. bachelor, ceo of martin luther king jr. community hospital south of l.a., here's a clip of what she told me they're seeing. >> we have five tents outside the hospital, we have patients in the conference room, in our chapel. >> how concerned are you having to ration care? >> that's always something we worry about, want to be thinking ahead in a crisis like this. if we continue to see an increase in the number of covid patients, we may be forced to do something we loathe having to think about. >> given what she said, and stephanie was reporting on the issue with not necessarily the oxygen supply itself but weakness in the infrastructure, older pipes, a lot of people needing oxygen now, it is freezing, what are hospitals to do?

>> yes, brooke. really what's happening now in california and elsewhere is reaching capacity have to move into what we call surge protocols, procedures in which things like patient to nurse staff ratio changes so more nurses, more patients are taken care of by fewer nurses. we have a situation where icu rooms are having to discharge patients maybe sooner than they might otherwise have done. you have emergency departments becoming full because there's not an icu bed. you have ambulances waiting outside to get into the emergency rooms. you have all these triage sorts of measures that are done in crisis situations that isn't going to give us quality of care we would normally like to see, so that will be endangering. >> makes you worry if it is not covid, horrendous sending you to the er, heart attack, accident,

anything else, you want to not have anything go wrong because of just the issue of the supply, staffing, et cetera. doctor robert kim farley, thank you so much. we'll speak again on all this. >> sure. after weeks of awkward silence, republican senators david perdue, kelly loeffler are in georgia, finally weighing in on the president's proposal to send americans a bigger check. what will the republican party do now? wow. that will save me lots of money. this game's boring. only pay for what you need. liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. keeping your oysters busihas you swamped. you need to hire.

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elections in georgia are just one week away, and now both georgia republican senators fighting to hang on to their jobs are voicing public support for increasing the stimulus payments to $2,000. david perdue and kelly loeffler today both publicly embracing the president's push to send more money to struggling americans. kp traveling with the loeffler campaign holding rallies all around georgia. you had a chance to ask her about her stance on the $2,000 checks. what did she say? >> reporter: i explicitly asked her, where exactly do you stand on this bill and what the house passed last night, and specifically on the $2,000 stimulus measure. she said that, you know, she has a line with president trump on many issues, and on this one,

she is also aligning with him. that she says she supports these payments. take a listen. >> i've said i spoupport it. we have to release this money to the americans. they've refused to pass relief month after month and nancy pelosi and bernie sanders admitted they did that because of the election. played politics with this. we need to hold them accountable on january 5th. >> hmm. >> reporter: while talking to report is in that particular reporter brooke, we asked whether she would vote and support the override of the veto for the ndaa, skirted it and would not say yes or no. brooke? >> thank you so much there, kyung lah.

following all things k s kelly loeffl loeffler. and wuhan china actually had ten times the amount of coronavirus than officially reported. ten times. plus another vaccine looks set for approval in the uk. details on that, just ahead. cold coming on? zicam® is clinically proven to shorten colds! highly recommend it! zifans love zicam's unique zinc formula. it shortens colds! zicam zinc that cold!

of china shows that the number of coronavirus cases in wuhan, original episode of the outbreak may have been ten times more than reported. check in with some of our international cnn correspondents. >> reporter: nearly half a million people in wuhan may have had coronavirus. nearly ten times the official figu figure. the study used to study people in china, researchers found antibodies prevalent in 4.43% of the pop la city of wuhan. officials only reported about 50,000 total confirmed cases of covid-19 there. under-reporting is a common problem faced by health authorities around the world, often due to a lack of capacity and resources, but in china, there's also the question of transparency. leaked documents from the based cdc showed officials gave the

public lower counts of cases and deaths than data they had access to internally. the study also shows in cities in hubei province other than wuhan, only 0.44% residents had covid-19 and bodieability bodie. proof they effectively controlled the spread from wuhan. >> reporter: and delayed in the european after what pfizer call as minor logistical issue. spain is supplying its supply a day late. the health ministry saying the issue was with low loading and shipping, the manufacturer says no incidents with manufacturing the vaccine. this highlights how independent they are on its only authorized coronavirus vaccine. >> reporter: i'm in london where health care workers are back in the eye of the storm as this

country grapples with unprecedented infection rates. the uk reported more than 41,300 new covid-19 cases on monday, breaking daily records since the start of this pandemic. also now more patients in hospital with coronavirus than at any time before. of course, health officials are extremely concerned. they say hospitals are at their most vulnerable and potentially could be reaching capacity next year. much of the spike is due to a new variant of covid-19 that the government here says is more transmissible, can spread more easily, but there are signs of progress. there are signs of hope. a vaccine developed by oxford and astrazeneca set to be approved in a matter of days. of course, a lot of national pride around this, because this is the home-grown vaccine made right here in the uk and there's advantages to it. it's cheaper, doesn't need extra cold refrigeration, again, balancing the hope of the vaccine with a very real demand.

follow the rules and follow the restrictions. >> we note moments ago the uk released figures for today's covid cases. set yet another record. more than 53,000 new infections there. we continue on. you are watching cnn. i'm brooke baldwin. thank you for being with me. heat check time for the president and his grip on the republican party. he complains of weak republican leadership, but the president defines weak as unwilling to give him what he wants. senator mitch mcconnell promises to override this presidential veto on big defense spending, and he did not endorse the president's push for those $2,000 stimulus checks. the president's top line demand for $2,000 stimulus checks just comes down to math. and if he can count to 12. five republicans including the two georgia senators who answer to voters next month say they back the president. the economic debate is only half of this whole pandemic

conversation. a new interview whip dr. anthony fauci just this morning captures the awfulness of our current coronavirus moment. january will likely be worse than december, he says. a reminder, we have already lost more people this month than during any other month of the pandemic. dr. fauci says a one-size-fits all approach won't work and his default position is keep schools open. on the pace of vaccinations "we are below where we want to be," fauci says. the only hope, cannot guarantee, the u.s. can catch up. more on the health challenges ahead, but first let's get to all of the politics here starting with cnn's congressional correspondent phil mattingly on capitol hill. phil? >> reporter: well, brooke, the first effort by senate democrats to try and pass what their wour kourn counters parts in the house were able to pass has failed. blocked by senat