Democracy Now!

As the official U.S. COVID-19 death toll breaks worldwide records and passes 250,000, hospitals are at capacity, and overwhelmed healthcare workers still lack personal protective equipment. Health officials say conditions will worsen further with holiday travel and family gatherings for Thanksgiving. "I can't really overemphasize how important the next few days are," says Ed Yong, science writer at The Atlantic. "The people who get infected at Thanksgiving, they are going to slam into those hospitals in the two weeks after that, and some of those people are going to be dead before Christmas."

U.S. COVID-19 Death Toll Passes 250,000; Nearly 1% of U.S. Population Currently Infectious, Pfizer to Seek Emergency Authorization of COVID-19 Vaccine, Touting 95% Efficacy, Lawsuit Alleges Tyson Foods Managers Wagered on Meatpackers' Coronavirus Infection Rate, COVID-19 Surge Overwhelms Hospitals as Healthcare Workers Fall Ill, Biden Says Trump's Refusal to Concede Could Set Back Vaccine Rollout by Months, Arizona Secretary of State Faces Death Threats as Trump Promotes Election Conspiracy Theories, Democratic Congressmembers Reelect Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House, Australian Military Apologizes to Afghan People over Troops' War Crimes, U.S. Secretary of State Tours Illegal Israeli Settlements, Declares BDS Movement "Anti-Semitic", Hurricane Iota Death Toll Climbs to 30, with Isla de Providencia 98% Destroyed, Haitians March on U.S. Embassy Demanding Biden End U.S. Support for Haiti's Authoritarian President, U.S. Dropped Charges Against Ex-General After Mexico Threatened to Expel DEA Agents, Court Clears Path for More Federal Executions, Families of Passengers on Doomed Flights Protest as FAA Clears Boeing 737 MAX Planes, Philadelphia City Council Formally Apologizes for 1985 Police Bombing That Killed 11, Colin Kaepernick Demands Freedom for Renowned Prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal, National Book Award for Nonfiction Goes to "The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X"

Native American voters saw a massive increase in turnout this year and helped deliver key swing states for Joe Biden, but Indigenous peoples and the role they played in defeating Donald Trump have been largely ignored in mainstream media analyses. We speak with Allie Young, a citizen of the Navajo Nation and founder of Protect the Sacred, who organized a horseback trail ride to the polls. She says it was important to her to motivate Indigenous youth to turn out. "I was hearing on the ground that they weren't feeling very motivated to participate in this election," she says. "I wanted to communicate to them that this is an election that we just cannot sit out."

As COVID-19 rampages through the U.S., we look at how the rapid spread of the disease is affecting Native American communities, which have already faced disproportionate infection and death rates throughout the pandemic. "We're having a lot of people perish. We're having a lot of death, a lot of hospitalizations," says Jodi Archambault, a citizen of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and former special assistant to President Obama for Native American affairs. We also speak with Allie Young, founder of Protect the Sacred, who says the Navajo Nation has "worked hard to flatten the curve" of COVID-19 infections but is still vulnerable due to lax public health measures in nearby areas. "We have to travel to these territories where they're not wearing masks, they're not thinking about their neighbors who've been impacted," says Young.

Some Republican governors are dropping their resistance to mask mandates, as public health officials in the United States brace for a COVID-19 surge from the Thanksgiving holiday amid already record-high infection rates. However, Republican resistance to other public health safety measures continues as coronavirus cases in Texas reach record highs for a second time during the pandemic. El Paso County, an area along the U.S.-Mexico border where 80% of residents are Latinx, is also facing one of the worst COVID-19 outbreaks in the U.S. and now has 10 mobile morgues to hold bodies. Some prisoners are being paid just $2 an hour to move the bodies as the number of cases and deaths has completely overwhelmed local hospitals. "We're at capacity," says Dr. Emilio Gonzalez-Ayala, a leading pulmonary disease and critical care specialist in El Paso. "We're beyond the limit where we can continue to admit to the hospital patients that come in critically ill."

Sen. Chuck Grassley Contracts COVID-19 on One of Deadliest Days of Pandemic, Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown Blasts GOP for Failure to Wear Masks, Take Basic COVID-19 Measures, Trump Fires Cybersecurity Official Who Called Election "Most Secure in American History", Wayne County, MI, Officials Reverse Decision to Block Certification of Biden's Win After Massive Outcry, Climate Activists Condemn Biden's Appointment of Rep. Cedric Richmond, a Major Fossil Fuel Ally, Senate Blocks Confirmation of Trump Nominee Judy Shelton to Federal Reserve Board, Dozens of House Dems Call on Mike Pompeo to Condemn Israeli Razing of Bedouin Community, Iran Warns of "Crushing Response" If Trump Attacks in Waning Days of Presidency, Ethiopian PM Says Military Entering "Final Phase" as Conflict's Humanitarian Toll Mounts, 120 Indigenous Otomí Families Occupy Government Offices Demanding End to Violence and Neglect, U.S. Drops Charges Against Mexican Ex-Defense Sec. Accused of Drug Trafficking, Rights Abuses, Trump Admin Pushing Through New Rules to Take Benefits Away from Those in Need, Religious Leaders, Nobel Laureates Call on Gov. Cuomo to Grant Clemency to Activist David Gilbert, Frontline Airport Workers Call for Healthcare Protections Ahead of Thanksgiving Travel Boom

Hurricane Iota made landfall in Nicaragua Monday as a Category 4 storm, just two weeks after Hurricane Eta devastated communities across Central America and caused widespread destruction. Iota is the strongest November hurricane to ever hit Nicaragua. "It's caused a lot of damages to the most vulnerable peoples, which tends to be Indigenous peoples, Afro-descendants and Black communities all across Central America," says Giovanni Batz, a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Native American Studies at the University of California, Davis, who has been in touch with people reeling from Hurricane Eta.

As the COVID-19 pandemic enters its ninth month, a new report by National Nurses United, the largest nurses' union in the United States, finds hospitals are still failing to provide adequate PPE and are unprepared as the surge is expected to get worse during the flu season. Nurses also report mental health struggles related to the pandemic. The union estimates at least 2,000 frontline healthcare workers have died due to COVID-19, with nurses of color accounting for half of those deaths, even though they're less than a quarter of the workforce. Jean Ross, president of National Nurses United, says the lack of preparedness is having a devastating toll on healthcare workers. "Hospitals still don't have a plan in place for a surge — and we're currently in a surge," Ross says. "It's the lack of response, the improper response, that has nurses and other healthcare workers really down."

As the U.S. COVID-19 death toll nears 250,000, drugmakers Pfizer and Moderna have both announced promising vaccine trial results showing over 90% effectiveness in preventing illness. But officials and health experts warn widespread distribution of a vaccine for the coronavirus — which has killed 1.2 million people across the globe — will be tremendously difficult to store and distribute. Vaccine researcher Dr. Saad Omer calls the recent news "reassuring" but says drugmakers need to be much more transparent about their data and issue more than just press releases. "There should be a little bit more detail, and it should be in the form of some scientific report," says Dr. Omer, director of the Yale Institute for Global Health and professor of infectious diseases at Yale School of Medicine.

California Tightens Coronavirus Restrictions as U.S. Approaches a Quarter-Million Deaths, South Dakota ER Nurse Says Dying Patients Continue to Deny COVID-19, Joe Biden Says "More People May Die" Unless Trump Coordinates with Transition Team, Michigan Governor Blasts WH Coronavirus Adviser's Call to "Rise Up" Against Public Health Measures, Mexico Coronavirus Cases Top 1 Million as Official Death Toll Nears 100,000, Hurricane Iota Strikes Nicaragua as "Extremely Dangerous" Category 4 Storm, Trump Campaign Drops Election Lawsuits as Trump Continues to Deny Loss, Georgia Secretary of State Says Fellow Republicans Pressuring Him to Overturn Election Results, Trump Reportedly Proposed Bombing Iranian Nuclear Sites, White House Preparing to Order Troop Withdrawals from Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia, Ethiopia Bombs Capital of Tigray as PM Abiy Ahmed Rejects Calls for Mediation, Peru Swears In Third President in a Week After "Legislative Coup" That Ousted Martín Vizcarra, Brazilian Candidates Backed by Jair Bolsonaro Lose in Local Elections, Boy Scouts Sexual Abuse Claims Top 92,000 , Thousands of New York City Police Abuse Allegations Ignored or Downplayed by NYPD

"It's a blessing within itself for me to even be sitting here right now," says Ronnie Long, free after 44 years behind bars for a crime he did not commit. Long, who is African American, was convicted in 1976 of raping a white woman by an all-white jury and sentenced to 80 years in prison. In 2015, his lawyers learned that investigators had withheld exculpatory evidence proving his innocence — including semen samples and fingerprints taken from the crime scene that did not match his own — and witnesses for the state committed perjury at his trial. It would take several more years and a ruling by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for Long to win his freedom. Long walked out of the Albemarle Correctional Institute in North Carolina a free man on August 27. He is asking North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper for a pardon, which would fully clear his name and make him eligible for financial compensation. "You've got people that have been victimized by the system, like myself, and then you turn around and you put me back into a society and expect for me to live a productive life," he says. "I need that pardon in order to try to get on with my life."

A nearly three-decade-old ceasefire has ended in occupied Western Sahara — what many consider to be Africa's last colony. Fighting has broken out in several areas between the Moroccan military and the Polisario Front, the Sahrawi liberation movement seeking independence, after the Moroccan military broke into a no-go buffer zone in southern Western Sahara. For the past three weeks, Sahrawi civilian protesters had blocked a Morocco-built road in the area that Sahrawis consider to be illegal. The peaceful blockade backed up traffic for miles and cut off trade between Morocco and Mauritania to the south. The Polisario Front says it is now mobilizing thousands of volunteers to join for the fight for independence. "We have not seen fighting like this in Western Sahara since 1991," says Jacob Mundy, associate professor of peace and conflict studies and Middle Eastern and Islamic studies at Colgate University. "We've seen tensions on the rise, but to have open warfare like this is very significant."

U.S. COVID-19 Cases Top 11 Million as States Enact New Restrictions to Combat Surge, Nurses Report Dangerous Working Conditions Persist as U.S. Heads into Flu Season, Prisoners Have Led 100+ Strikes over Dangerous Conditions During Pandemic, El Paso Prisoners Paid $2/Hour to Help Move Bodies of COVID-19 Victims, Moderna Vaccine Is 95% Effective at Preventing COVID-19 During Trial, 130+ Secret Service Ordered to Isolate or Quarantine, Some After Working Trump Rallies, Boris Johnson in Self-Isolation After Possible COVID-19 Exposure, Biden Transition Team Shut Out of Key Funding and Access as Trump Refuses to Concede, MAGA Rally Ends in Two Stabbings, 20+ Arrests, DACA Nearly Fully Restored After Judge Rules Chad Wolf Not Lawfully Serving as Head of DHS, Unrest Mounts in Peru After at Least 2 Killed in Protests, Interim President Resigns, Conflict Escalates in Ethiopia After Tigray Forces Fire Missiles in Eritrea & 10,000s Flee to Sudan, Armenian Villagers Burn Their Homes as They Withdraw from Nagorno-Karabakh, 15 Asia Pacific Countries Sign Trade Deal Representing One-Third of World Economy, Trump Pushes Ahead with Drilling Auction in Arctic Wildlife Refuge Before Biden Becomes President, Michigan Moves to Shut Down Enbridge Line 5 Pipelines, Hurricane Iota Threatens More Destruction in Central America; Storm Vamco Pummels Southeast Asia, Sixth Kings Bay Plowshares Anti-Nuclear Activist Sentenced to Prison

In Florida, tens of thousands of newly eligible voters who were previously disenfranchised due to their criminal records turned out to the polls for the 2020 election. Amendment 4, a measure that in 2018 overturned a Jim Crow-era law aimed at keeping African Americans from voting, restored voting rights to people with nonviolent felonies who have completed their sentences and was hailed as the biggest win for voting rights in decades. However, hundreds of thousands of people in Florida remain disenfranchised due to a modern-day poll tax that requires formerly incarcerated voters to pay all fees and fines to courts before they can cast a ballot. We speak with Desmond Meade, president of the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition and chair of Floridians for a Fair Democracy, about the ongoing fight to re-enfranchise people. He voted for president for the first time ever this year. "That act of voting gave me a deeper appreciation for what I was engaged in," Meade says. "The right to vote is sacred."

President Trump has only made one brief public appearance since the election was called for Joe Biden, and his Twitter feed is filled with conspiracy theories about widespread voter fraud, which state elections officials have repeatedly rejected. His refusal to concede has complicated President-elect Biden's transition, and senior Republicans have mostly aligned behind Trump or stayed silent as he continues his desperate legal campaign to overturn the election results in several key states that won Biden the presidency. New Yorker staff writer Jane Mayer says Trump has a lot at stake due to the litany of lawsuits and criminal investigations he faces. "He has many reasons to be concerned," she says. "If he leaves the White House, he's going to lose the immunity that goes along with being president."

U.S. Shatters World Record, Again, Reporting Over 163,000 Daily Coronavirus Infections, Biden Coronavirus Adviser Says 4-to-6-Week Lockdown Could Bring Pandemic Under Control, Trump Campaign Adviser Corey Lewandowski Gets COVID-19 After White House Superspreader Event, Election Officials Across U.S. Refute Trump's Claims of Conspiracy to Steal Millions of Votes, Georgia Secretary of State Orders Hand Recount of 5 Million Ballots, Trump Blasts Fox News over Election Coverage & Plans Launch of Far-Right News Company, National Security Officials Push for Biden to Receive Presidential Intelligence Briefings, Three MSNBC Contributors Join Biden Transition Team, Cecilia Muñoz, Who Defended Family Separations Under Obama, Joins Biden Transition Team, 74 Refugees Attempting Passage to Europe Drown Off Libyan Coast, Amnesty International: Hundreds of Civilians Slaughtered in Ethiopia's Tigray Region, Moroccan Forces Trade Fire with Western Sahara's Polisario, Ending Ceasefire in Place Since 1991, Armenians Protest as Prime Minister Signs Peace Deal to End Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict, Peruvians Protest "Legislative Coup" That Removed President Martín Vizcarra, Iranian Human Rights Lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh, Ill with COVID-19, Wins Temporary Prison Release, Activists Who Held Peaceful Anti-Nuclear Protest in Georgia Sentenced to Over One Year in Prison, Lucille Bridges, Whose Daughter Was First to Integrate New Orleans Schools, Dies at 86

U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been one of President Trump's closest international allies. How will he adapt to working with a Biden administration? Cambridge professor Priya Gopal says Johnson was clearly betting on a Trump reelection, especially amid Britain's exit from the European Union. "I think they were certainly hoping that there would be a Trump victory," says Gopal. "Brexit and Trump, as Trump quite correctly recognized, are very deeply in sync."

We look at how Joe Biden's presidency will affect the U.S. footprint in the Middle East with Guardian correspondent Ghaith Abdul-Ahad, who says Biden's win is being viewed with "anxiety" by many Iraqis who are eager to avoid war between the U.S. and Iran. "Any conflict will take place on Iraqi soil," says Abdul-Ahad. "There is not much optimism. There is anxiety towards Biden and his team in the way they deal with Iraq."

We continue to look at the world's response to the U.S. election with South African activist Kumi Naidoo, a global ambassador for Africans Rising for Justice, Peace and Dignity, former secretary general of Amnesty International and former head of Greenpeace. Naidoo says President Donald Trump's loss to Joe Biden is good news, but notes that the world lost four crucial years to tackle the climate crisis and other issues because of the Trump administration. "This is a relief, but it is not something for us to — at this stage, anyway — celebrate with any great enthusiasm," he says.

The White House has ordered agencies not to cooperate with Biden's presidential transition team, and President Donald Trump continues to refuse to accept defeat in the 2020 election, which means Biden cannot receive security briefings or access government funds for the transition. But while the standoff continues in the U.S., other countries are already preparing for a new administration. For more on how the historic U.S. election is playing out internationally, we speak with analysts from around the world, including Maria Luísa Mendonça, director of the Network for Social Justice and Human Rights in Brazil, where far-right President Jair Bolsonaro has not acknowledged Biden's victory. "The progressive movements in Brazil can also be inspired by that election here," says Mendonça. "I think that the U.S. can play a much more positive role in Latin America."

U.S. Records Over 140,000 Coronavirus Cases on Wednesday, Another World Record, White House Political Director Is Latest with COVID-19 After Election Night Superspreader Event, Ukrainian President Hospitalized with COVID-19 as Global Cases Top 52 Million, President-elect Biden Names Ron Klain as White House Chief of Staff, Trump Continues Campaign to Overturn Election Results, Pentagon Leadership Reshuffle Prompts Fears of "Slow Moving Trump Coup", Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan Reelected; Georgia Runoffs to Determine Senate Balance of Power, Hong Kong Lawmakers Quit as China Tightens Grip on Semi-Autonomous Territory, ICE Plans to Deport Another Woman Alleging Nonconsensual Gynecological Procedure, Louisville Police Concealed 738,000 Records of Sexual Abuse by Officers, L.A. County Coroner Opens Inquest into Police Killing of Andrés Guardado, Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI Ignored Sex Abuse Allegations Against Theodore McCarrick, L.A. Times and Tribune to Pay $3 Million to Black and Latinx Journalists Denied Equal Pay, Typhoon Vamco Becomes Fifth Tropical Cyclone to Strike Philippines in Just Three Weeks , Lakota Activist Debra White Plume, Who Fought Keystone XL and Dakota Access Pipelines, Dies

As President Trump continues to launch baseless accusations of widespread voter fraud in the presidential election, Democratic and Republican election officials across the United States have told The New York Times they uncovered no evidence to support Trump's claims. Despite his electoral defeat, Trump has not conceded, and his administration is proceeding as though it will continue into a second term, blocking President-elect Joe Biden from accessing government funding and other resources for a smooth transition. "The entire country is trying to figure out: Is this just going to go away?" says Dahlia Lithwick, senior editor at Slate magazine. "Or are we really in this slow-rolling denialist attempt to give this man a second term?"

In oral arguments Tuesday, the Supreme Court appeared to reject arguments to strike down the Affordable Care Act in the middle of the pandemic. The case was filed by a group of 18 Republican-led states, backed by the Trump administration, who argue the ACA's individual mandate is unconstitutional, and the rest of law should fall with it. "This was a terrible third attempt to have the Supreme Court strike down Obamacare. The first two had failed. This was even more ludicrous than the earlier cases," says Slate legal correspondent Dahlia Lithwick. We also speak with Dr. Steffie Woolhandler, co-founder of Physicians for a National Health Program, who says Medicare for All remains the best way to expand healthcare in the United States. "We don’t need to raise the total cost of healthcare. We just need to go to an efficient system that excludes private health insurance," Dr. Woolhandler says.

We look at election results in Puerto Rico, where progressives have made historic inroads against the two traditional parties, the Popular Democratic Party and the New Progressive Party. "There is no question that the old monopoly of the two political parties that have dominated Puerto Rican politics for decades is coming to an end, and that's a very good thing," says historian Rafael Bernabe, who was just elected to the Puerto Rico Senate as part of the Citizens' Victory Movement.

About 160 million voters cast ballots in this election, setting a new record, and President-elect Joe Biden's lead in the popular vote has jumped to over 5 million. Much of the increased turnout was powered by people of color, while the total number of votes cast by white Americans barely increased from the last presidential election. "The main story is that in an election which saw historic turnout, people of color — and especially Latinos — had an unprecedented increase in voting," says Democracy Now! co-host Juan González. "After decades of political experts talking about the growing Latino vote, this year it actually happened."

Secretary of State Pompeo Promises "Smooth Transition to a Second Trump Administration", Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell Backs Trump's Refusal to Concede, Joe Biden Calls Trump's Refusal to Concede Presidential Election an "Embarrassment", USPS Worker Recants Claim of Mail-in Ballot Tampering Cited by Top Republicans, Trump's Conspiracy Theories About Massive Election Fraud Could Spark Violence, U.S. Sets New Records for Coronavirus Cases and Hospitalizations, Conservative Supreme Court Justices Skeptical of Arguments Against Affordable Care Act, Republican Thom Tillis to Keep North Carolina Senate Seat as Cal Cunningham Concedes, Trump Administration Removes Scientist Overseeing National Climate Assessment, Guatemala Ends Rescue Efforts for Village Devastated by Hurricane Eta, Congressional Black Caucus Demands Halt to Deportation of Cameroonian Refugees, Reporter Israel Vázquez Assassinated, Becoming Third Mexican Journalist Killed in 2 Weeks

Republicans have aligned behind President Trump as he continues to make baseless accusations of widespread voter fraud and refuses to concede that he lost the presidential election to Joe Biden. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell defended President Trump's decision not to concede, and Attorney General William Barr upended long-standing Justice Department policy by announcing federal prosecutors could investigate "specific allegations" of voter fraud, a move that led to the resignation of Richard Pilger, the director of the Justice Department's Election Crimes Branch. The Trump campaign has launched a barrage of lawsuits seeking to invalidate last week's election results, including one in Pennsylvania attempting to block state officials from certifying Joe Biden's election victory. So far no evidence has emerged of voter fraud as alleged by the Trump campaign. "This is an unprecedented attack on democracy," says Kristen Clarke, president and executive director of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. "The voters have spoken, and what we're seeing is a president who refuses to recognize and embrace the will of the people."

Saeb Erekat, the secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organization, has died at 65 after he became infected with COVID-19. Erekat was a key Palestinian negotiator involved in peace talks for over three decades and stood in staunch opposition to the Trump administration's Middle East plan, which he called the "fraud of the century," and condemned recent agreements normalizing relations between Israel and Gulf nations. "One must really reflect and admire the tireless commitment he had to communicating the Palestinian cause as best he saw fit … and the important voice that he brought to the conversation at a time when many people around the world had not really heard from Palestinians, particularly Palestinians living in Palestine, on the ground," says Palestinian American analyst Yousef Munayyer.

Today, the Supreme Court is hearing arguments in a case seeking to overturn the Affordable Care Act, and millions of Americans could lose their healthcare in the middle of a pandemic. "In a way, we're committing mass suicide," says science journalist Laurie Garrett, who says scrapping the landmark Obama-era healthcare law would leave people "to potentially carry disease forward into the community, into their workplaces, and so on, without any treatment, any help, any assistance. That's just insane."

Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer has announced that a Phase 3, late-stage study found their potential COVID-19 vaccine showed more than 90% effectiveness. The two-dose vaccine still faces several challenges, including how to store and transport it, since it must be refrigerated at subzero temperatures. Pulitzer Prize-winning science journalist Laurie Garrett says the news is hopeful, but urges caution. "There's been no scientific release. There's no published data," she says. "We don't have anything to go with except what the lawyers at Pfizer massaged carefully into a single-page press release. So, we have to take that with a big caveat."

William Barr Says Prosecutors Can Probe Voter Fraud Claims, as GOP Backs Trump Refusal to Concede, GA Republican Senators Call for Sec. of State to Step Down After They Fail to Win Their Races, Joe Biden Pleads for Use of Face Masks as U.S. Cases Top 10 Million, Saeb Erekat, Chief Palestinian Negotiator, Dies After Contracting COVID-19, Trump Fires Defense Secretary Mark Esper, SCOTUS Hearing Arguments in GOP Attack on Obamacare, Which Could Strip Healthcare for Millions, Evo Morales Returns to Bolivia, One Year After Coup That Ousted Him, Peru Removes President Vizcarra in Impeachment Trial, Protests Erupt in Armenia After Signing of Deal to End Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict, Protests Rock Belarus and Georgia Following Contested Elections, Iran Calls for Regional Cooperation After Reports of New Trump Sanctions, Police Fire Guns at Cancún Protests After String of Femicides, 50 Cameroonian Asylum Seekers Set to Be Deported Despite Threat of Persecution and Death, Lawyers Cannot Find the Parents of 666 Children Separated from Their Families at the U.S. Border, Court Blocks Construction of Mountain Valley Pipeline in Victory for Environmental Activists

As President-elect Joe Biden and his running mate Kamala Harris prepare to take power, we continue to look at the growing debate over the direction of the Democratic Party. House Majority Whip James Clyburn went on several Sunday talk shows to criticize calls to "defund the police" and argued the phrase hurt Democratic congressional candidates. "It is actually insane that we would think the way to respond to the scale of problems that we confront as a nation is to harken back to an older form of politics that … seems to try to triangulate and appeal to this Reagan Democrat that they are so obsessed with," responds Eddie Glaude, author and chair of Princeton University's Department of African American Studies. "It makes no sense that we would go back to the politics that produced Trump in the first place." We also speak to artist and antiracist activist Bree Newsome Bass, who argues Black voters "are scapegoated when it's convenient, and then we are thrown under the bus when it's convenient … That's a dynamic that has to end."

Former Vice President Joe Biden and his running mate Kamala Harris are set to take power, after a projected more than 150 million ballots were cast in the 2020 election. A debate is growing over the future of the Democratic Party as progressive lawmakers push back on Biden's centrist policy proposals and consideration of Republicans for Cabinet positions. Democratic Congressmember Ro Khanna of California says progressive policies, such as Medicare for All and the Green New Deal, have popular support. "The policies that we are advocating are not just for deeply blue districts," Khanna says. "They are policies that will help people in the Midwest, in the South, across this country."

The Trump presidency is coming to an end. Former Vice President Joe Biden is projected to have won the election after pulling ahead in Pennsylvania, giving him more than the 270 electoral votes needed to become president. Biden's running mate Kamala Harris will make history as the first female vice president, as well as the first African American, Indian American and Asian American elected to the office. Although President Trump has so far refused to concede as his campaign files a slew of lawsuits challenging the results in several states, plans are already underway to shape the next administration and prepare for the next four years. We speak with Bree Newsome Bass, an artist, antiracist activist and housing rights advocate in North Carolina, and professor Eddie Glaude, chair of Princeton University's Department of African American Studies, and get reaction from Indian American Congressmember Ro Khanna of California.

Joe Biden Elected 46th U.S. President as Pennsylvania Count Seals Victory, Kamala Harris Becomes First Woman, African American, Asian American Vice President, Trump Pursues Baseless Lawsuits as GOP Splits on Their Response to Election, Senate Control Hangs on Georgia Runoffs, Most World Leaders Congratulate Biden and Harris; Brazil, Russia, Mexico and China Hold Off, Biden Unveils Coronavirus Task Force as U.S. Cases Hit 10 Million, with Over 237,000 Recorded Deaths, WH Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and at Least 5 Others Test Positive for COVID-19, ACLU Files Suit over Gov't Handling of Pandemic in Immigrant Jails; COVID-19 Surging in Nursing Homes, Pfizer Early Trial Data Suggests Coronavirus Vaccine Is 90% Effective, U.N. Warns Yemen, Burkina Faso, Nigeria and South Sudan Facing Possible Famine Amid Pandemic, Aung San Suu Kyi's Party Set to Remain in Power in Burma, Luis Arce Sworn In as New Bolivian President, as Supporters Await Return of Evo Morales, Gunmen Raid Military Post in Baghdad, Killing 11; Soldiers Kill Protester in Basra, Former Broadcaster Killed in Afghanistan as Violent Attacks Continue, Ethiopia Replaces Tigray Regional Gov't, Launches Airstrikes, as Fears Mount of Outright War, Eta Makes Landfall in Florida Keys After Devastating Central America, Killing at Least 150

As most eyes were focused on the race for the White House, Puerto Rican voters on Tuesday narrowly approved a nonbinding statehood referendum. We get analysis from Democracy Now! co-host Juan González and speak with Afro-Puerto Rican human rights, feminist and LGBTQI activist Ana Irma Rivera Lassén, who was elected to the Puerto Rican Senate.

We go to Atlanta for an update, after Joe Biden pulled ahead of Donald Trump for the first time in Georgia. The 2020 presidential election could hinge on this extraordinarily tight race. Many credit the state's blue shift to community organizers on the ground, including Stacey Abrams, who lost a hotly contested race for governor of Georgia in 2018 amid claims of widespread voter suppression and has since led a massive effort to get out the vote through her organizations Fair Fight and Fair Count. Both Senate races in Georgia also appear to be headed to runoff elections, and the state could determine if the GOP holds onto its Senate majority. "There has been a wide investment that has been deeply driven by community to expand the electorate," says Anoa Changa, a freelance journalist based in Atlanta who focuses on electoral justice and voting rights.

We look at Donald Trump's attempts to undermine the U.S. presidential election with Jane McAlevey, a union organizer, negotiator and senior policy fellow at UC Berkeley's Labor Center who was an eyewitness to the 2000 Florida recount. She says the 2000 election holds lessons for today, when Democrats allowed Republicans to claim a controversial victory. "We have to have a counternarrative. We have to have very large numbers of people in the streets," she says.

As President Trump is doubling down on unsubstantiated claims of election rigging as election workers continue counting ballots in several states, concern is growing that some Trump supporters may use violence to disrupt the process. Trump's supporters have protested at ballot-counting locations in Phoenix, Las Vegas, Atlanta, Detroit and Philadelphia, where police arrested two men after receiving a tip that men armed with AR-15s were driving from Virginia to attack the Pennsylvania Convention Center, where votes are still being counted. Meanwhile, Trump's former campaign manager Steve Bannon called for the beheading of Dr. Anthony Fauci and FBI Director Christopher Wray. "Trump and the extremist Republicans, who constitute a minority of the population and have a minority of the votes, are trying to consolidate their minority rule," says investigative journalist Allan Nairn. "Things wouldn't even be close now if you just based the presidency, like most countries do, on who gets the most votes."

Biden Takes Lead in Georgia & Pennsylvania, Moving Him Closer to Presidency, Biden Calls for Counting Every Ballot; Trump Claims Dems Are Stealing Election, Trump Campaign Faces Legal Setbacks in Election-Related Lawsuits, Trump Campaign Adviser: "Hopefully Amy Coney Barrett Will Come Through" to Help Trump Win Election, Sen. Graham: State GOP Lawmakers Should Consider Invalidating Election Results, Philly Police Foil QAnon-Linked Plot to Attack Ballot-Counting Site, Bannon Calls for Beheading of Dr. Fauci & FBI Director Wray, 18 Protesters Arrested in NYC in Demo Against Trump Stealing Election, Georgia May Have Two Senate Runoff Elections as Perdue's Vote Count Falls, Int'l Election Observers: We Saw No Evidence to Back Up Trump's Claim of Voter Fraud, U.S. Records 120,000 COVID Cases in a Day, 750,000 File for Unemployment as 50 Million Face Food Insecurity in U.S., Kushner-Linked Firm Moves to Evict Hundreds of Tenants, Report: ICE Moves to Deport More Victims of Nonconsensual Invasive Gynecological Procedures, Freedom Friday: Campaign Grows to Release Hundreds of Cameroonian Asylum Seekers, Hurricane Eta Kills at Least 57 in Central America, Israel Demolishes Palestinian Village, Leaving 73 Homeless, Including 41 Minors, Jair Bolsonaro's Son Charged with Corruption, Imprisoned Saudi Activist Loujain al-Hathloul on 12th Day of Hunger Strike, U.S. to Sell 18 Armed Drones to UAE as U.N. Warns of Deadly "Second Drone Age", Court Rules Dairy Workers in Washington State Should Be Paid Overtime

In New York, Democrats Mondaire Jones and Ritchie Torres are set to become the first two openly gay Black men elected to Congress, replacing lawmakers who are retiring after decades in Washington. Jones will represent New York's 17th Congressional District, joining the progressive wing of the Democratic Party. He supports the Green New Deal, Medicare for All and a $15 minimum wage. "The era of small ideas is over," Jones says. "I ran proudly on a progressive platform from the very beginning of my campaign."

One of the crucial states that could decide the presidential election is Arizona, where Joe Biden is leading Donald Trump with thousands of ballots left to count. Trump won Arizona in 2016, and if Biden's lead holds, he will be just the second Democratic presidential candidate to win the state since 1948. "The lion's share of the credit belongs to sustained community organizing in the state," says Marisa Franco, director and co-founder of Mijente, a national digital organizing hub for Latinx and Chicanx communities. She says the Trump administration has been disastrous for immigrants and immigrant rights groups, and a second term would be even worse. "A shift in administration would give us a fighting chance," she says.

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden appears to be inching toward victory as counting continues in several key states that could put him over 270 electoral votes, the threshold needed to win the Electoral College and take the White House. President Trump and his supporters, meanwhile, have attacked the process and falsely claimed Democrats are stealing the election, and the Trump campaign has launched a barrage of legal challenges in swing states related to ballot counting. With the results closer than many pollsters had predicted, Democracy Now! co-host Juan González says "a false narrative" is taking root that Latinx voters were primarily to blame for the weak Democratic result. "The main story is that people of color, especially Latinos, flocked to the polls in numbers that far exceeded what the experts had expected, while the total number of votes cast by white Americans barely increased from the last presidential election," says González. "How come none of the experts are asking why white voters underperformed the Democratic Party?"

Trump's Path to Victory Narrows as Biden Nears 270 Electoral College Votes, Trump "Claims" Battleground States as Campaign Sues to Stop Vote Counting, Trump Supporters in Arizona: "Count the Vote!" In Michigan: "Stop the Count!", Hundreds Arrested at Protests Against Trump's Bid to Steal Election, Balance of Power in U.S. Senate Hangs on Two Georgia Races, Democrats Mull Replacing Nancy Pelosi with Hakeem Jeffries as House Speaker, New Mexico House Delegation Will Be All Women of Color in Historic First, United States Daily Coronavirus Infections Top 100,000, Worst Toll of Pandemic, Italy and Kenya Become Latest Nations to Order New Coronavirus Lockdowns, Hospitals on Both Sides of U.S.-Mexico Border Reach Capacity Amid COVID-19 Surge, Denmark to Kill Millions of Mink Infected with Mutant Coronavirus, Philadelphia Police Bodycam Footage Shows Officers Fatally Shooting Walter Wallace Jr., Texas Sheriff, Indicted for Evidence Tampering in Javier Ambler's Killing, Loses Reelection, Mississippi Voters Overturn Reconstruction-Era Law Limiting Democracy, Missouri Voters Overturn Redistricting Measure, Cementing Republican Supermajorities, Delaware's Sarah McBride Wins Election as 1st Openly Trans State Lawmaker in U.S., Trump Administration Officially Withdraws U.S. from Paris Climate Accord, Extinction Rebellion Protesters in Spain Demand Action to Protect Biodiversity

President Trump has prematurely declared victory and falsely accused Democrats of "major fraud," even as millions of ballots continue to be counted across the United States amid an unprecedented wave of mail-in ballots widely believed to favor Democratic challenger Joe Biden. The two campaigns appear neck and neck in several battleground states key to winning the White House, but early results suggest Democrats performed worse than they had hoped, setting up a potential legal fight over uncounted ballots reminiscent of the 2000 election. We spend the hour discussing the results and what comes next, with Ben Jealous, president of People for the American Way and former head of the NAACP; Briahna Joy Gray, formerly the national press secretary for the 2020 Bernie Sanders campaign, and co-host of the "Bad Faith" podcast; and The Nation's John Nichols in the battleground state of Wisconsin. "The tragedy of this election, regardless of what the outcome ends up being, is that it was ever this close at all," says Gray. "The crime here is that the vote is this close."

Joe Biden Urges Patience as Vote Tallying Continues in Too-Close-to-Call Race, Trump Falsely Claims Reelection Victory as Battleground States Continue Count, Republicans Poised to Hold Senate as Democrats Come Up Short in Several Close Races, Democrats Poised to Retain House Majority, But Republicans Flip Several Seats, All Four Members of "The Squad" Reelected to House of Representatives, Jamaal Bowman Wins New York House Seat on Medicare for All, Green New Deal Platform, Mondaire Jones, Ritchie Torres Elected First Openly Gay Black Congressmen, Cori Bush, Who Led Ferguson Black Lives Matter Protests, Wins Missouri House Seat, QAnon Conspiracy Supporter Marjorie Taylor Greene Wins Georgia House Seat, Puerto Rican Pro-Statehood Candidate Pedro Pierluisi Leads Governor's Race, USPS Ignores Court Order to Sweep Mail Processing Centers for Mail-in Ballots, U.S. Coronavirus Infections Top 92,000 on Election Day as Death Toll Rises, Category 4 Hurricane Eta Slams Honduras and Nicaragua, Californians Approve Measure Stripping Labor Rights from Gig Economy Workers, Florida Voters Approve $15/Hour Minimum Wage; Nebraskans Cap Payday Loan Fees, Arizona and New Jersey Voters Legalize Marijuana as Oregon Decriminalizes Hard Drugs

Acclaimed poet and activist Nikki Giovanni has a new collection of poems called "Make Me Rain," a celebration of her Black heritage, as well as an exploration of racism and white nationalism. In the poem "Vote," Giovanni offers her thoughts on the importance of voting. It was filmed by The Meteor, a feminist collective of activists, journalists and creators, part of a daily Instagram series focusing on voting rights.

While most eyes are trained on the contest between President Trump and Joe Biden, down-ballot races and state ballot measures will also have major consequences for racial justice, immigration, reproductive rights and more. "The issues and policies that affect people day in and day out are often determined on the bottom of the ballot," says Ronald Newman, the national political director for the American Civil Liberties Union.

Award-winning journalist Maria Hinojosa joins us to discuss her new book, "Once I Was You: A Memoir of Love and Hate in a Torn America," which tells the story of U.S. immigration through her own journey to the United States from Mexico as a small child to her groundbreaking work as a reporter. She says it wasn't until the height of the family separation crisis under the Trump administration that she learned about her own family's near-separation by U.S. immigration agents. "That was almost you," Hinojosa says her mother told her through tears. "The babies that have been taken, they almost did that to you."

The 2020 general election is on pace to have the highest turnout rate in over a century, with nearly 100 million ballots cast early — nearly three-quarters of the 2016 vote total. We look at how Latinx voters could play a key role in deciding the presidency and who controls the Senate. Many key battleground states, including Florida, Texas, Arizona and Pennsylvania, have large Latinx communities. Many polls show Biden is not doing as well among Latinx voters as Hillary Clinton did in 2016, and one recent poll in Florida showed a majority of Latinx voters supported Trump over Biden. "The Latino vote will be the single most important factor in this election," says Chuck Rocha, a former campaign adviser to Bernie Sanders. "More Latinos will vote in this election than anytime in the history of America." We also speak with Maria Hinojosa, award-winning journalist and founder of Futuro Media, who says young Latinx voters like her daughter are extremely motivated. "They are the ones who are saying, 'I'm absolutely voting. … I'm voting as if my life depended on it.'"