good morning i’m diane macedo thanks for streaming with us in today’s update the u.s continues to hit grim coronavirus milestones yesterday was america’s deadliest day since the start of the pandemic with the virus killing 3775 americans and the american academy of pediatrics now reports more than two million children have tested positive for the virus that’s especially concerning because it took seven months to reach one million child cases meaning that number doubled in just six weeks meanwhile hospitals in the south and west are overwhelmed officials in los angeles county are now telling residents not to call 9-1-1 unless it is an absolute emergency and now there are concerns about a slower than expected vaccine rollout the cdc says only 4.8 million doses have been administered across the u.s out of the 17 million distributed history was made in georgia overnight in one of two critical senate races rafael warnock is the projected winner of one of those races defeating republican senator kelly lefler and becoming georgia’s first black senator that second high-stakes race could now tip the balance of power in the senate but it’s still too close to call george stephanopoulos spoke to warnock on gma this morning congratulations first black senator ever from the state of georgia what does that say to you about your state and our country good morning george listen i’m deeply honored that the people of georgia decided to place their faith in me and have decided to send me to represent their interests in washington dc i look forward to representing all of the people of georgia certainly this is a historic moment and i’m just deeply grateful to be a vessel in a moment in which we’re facing such large problems in our country and i can’t wait to get to the u.s senate to represent the concerns of ordinary people what role do you think those the the president trump’s questioning of the george election over the last several weeks had in your win well you know there are plenty of pundits who’ll slice and dice and talk about that but i’m really focused on the people here in this state who are wondering when are they going to get the kind of relief that they need the senate should have approved a 2 000 stimulus last week people are really struggling and i look forward to doing that important work and i’m deeply honored it look it it took a lot of hands to get us here and uh georgia is uh in such an incredible place when you think about the arc of our history uh we are sending uh an african-american pastor of ebenezer baptist church where martin luther king jr served and also john john also a young jewish man the son of an immigrant to the u.s senate this is the reversal of the old southern strategy that sought to divide people in this moment we’ve got to bring people together in order to do the hard work and i look forward to doing that work 14 days from now joe biden will be inaugurated as president of the united states beyond those 2 dollar stimulus checks what’s your number one goal for this year well we’ve got to get this virus under control uh like so many americans as we’ve witnessed uh the incredible death toll over 350 000 americans lost lives lost livelihoods.
we need a national strategy that takes this virus seriously that gets the vaccine distributed safely and efficiently we’ve got to reopen our economy get our kids safely back to school and we’ve got to make sure that people know that they will have their health care particularly in the middle of a pandemic reverend warnock thanks for your time this morning thank you and our thanks to george for that interview now with warnock’s win democrats now need one more seat to reach a 50-50 tie in the senate that would make vice president-elect kamala harris the deciding vote abc’s elwin lopez joins me now from atlanta with more owen you heard warnock there talking as if ossoff’s victory is is in the bag john ossoff himself seems like he’s all but declaring victory as well what’s the latest on that race yeah good morning diane georgian’s waking up to a historic moment but it is not over yet as you mentioned the race between republican senator david perdue and democrat john ossoff still too close to call but even with that being said democrat ossoff addressed georgians today in what seemed like a victory speech take a listen i want to thank the people of georgia for participating in this election everybody who cast your ballot everybody who put your faith and confidence in our democracy’s capacity to deliver the representation that we deserve whether you were for me or against me i’ll be for you in the u.s senate i will serve all the people of the state i will give everything i’ve got to ensuring that georgia’s interests are represented in the u.s senate and the tabulating of votes it just picked up here today within the last hour diane and president trump is railing against the results on twitter making false claims saying the election process is worse than in third world countries is there a sense that the president’s attacks on the process going into these elections affected the outcome well lifelong republican gabriel sterling from the secretary of state’s office here puts the blame squarely on president trump for this historic shift take a listen to what he had to say on cnn the president of the united states is a hundred percent fourth quarter responsible with a little added assist from doug collins who decided to run in that senate uh jungle primary which will split the party i mean when you tell people your vote didn’t count uh this is all part of crazy town and people are stealing things you undermine people confidence in the vote then you create a civil war within the gop at a time when the gop probably wanted to unite their vote to turn out those are the kind of things that the president is solely responsible for doing democrats though are saying that all of this is because of what stacy abrams was able to accomplish after her loss to governor brian kemp two years ago she was able to mobilize and register hundreds of thousands of new voters so they are thanking her for this blue shift today diane all right elwyn lopez in atlanta we will watch nc thank you and congress is convening in a joint session today to ratify the electoral college vote certified in joe biden’s election win but president trump is still pressuring vice president pence to overturn the election and some republican lawmakers are gearing up to challenge the results some of the president’s supporters are also protesting in washington after some clashed with police overnight kenneth moton is there in d.c with the latest kenneth what is happening there so far diane walk with me and let me show you what’s happening we’ve got tens of thousands of president trump supporters who are right here on the national mall and just very close to the president’s front yard they’re on the ellipse right now they’re hearing from a number of uh trump president trump’s allies the president’s family spoke earlier they’re waiting for the big headliner possibly potentially president trump will speak to this crowd to stop the steel rally we are expecting about 30 000 people here at the ellipse here on the national mall throughout the day i’m right close very close here to the washington monument you see right here and it’s all because of what’s happening on capitol hill just down the national mall there congress certifying those november election results for president-elect joe biden things diane seemed to have intensified after the overnight developments that happened in georgia and so the rhetoric we’re hearing from folks like rudy giuliani don jr has really intensified over the past hours so because they see what’s happening in georgia and obviously they’re here to support the president as well uh you mentioned potential classes we saw those last night on black lives matter plaza dc’s mayor has mobilized the national guard every police officer is on duty here in the city so they’re trying to make sure things stay calm here diane we’re keeping a watch on it on abc news live back to you all right kenneth moton with a full report thanks kenneth and that does it for this abc news live update i’m diane macedo thanks for joining us and remember abc news live is here for you all day with the latest news context and analysis we’ll be back at noon with another update as congress prepares to convene in that joint session to ratify the electoral college vote until then stay safe mr speaker members of congress the senate and the house of representatives pursuant to the requirements of the constitution and the laws of the united states have met in joint session for the purpose of opening the certificates and ascertaining the counting ascertaining and counting the votes of the electors of the several states for president and vice president hi everyone george stephanopoulos here thanks for checking out the abc news youtube channel if you’d like to get more videos show highlights and watch live event coverage click on the right over here to subscribe to our channel and don’t forget to download the abc news app for breaking news alerts thanks for watching
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