Fauci Sets Possible Date for Return to 'Normal'

Anthony Fauci is talking like he's caught a glimpse of the end of the pandemic tunnel, CNN reports. The infectious-disease expert said Sunday on State of the Union that America might start getting back to "relative normal" by as early as April 2021—if, that is, the newly announced Pfizer vaccine works and gets distributed. "So, if we get the overwhelming majority of people taking the vaccine ... we could start getting things back to relative normal as we get into the second and third quarter of the year, where people can start thinking about doing things that were too dangerous just months ago," Fauci said. But the country "can't just wish it happening." For more around the media dial:

• John Bolton: "I think it's very important for leaders in the Republican Party to explain to our voters, who are not as stupid as the Democrats think, that, in fact, Trump has lost the election and that his claims of election fraud are baseless," he said on This Week, per the Hill. "The fact is that we've seen litigation in all the key battleground states, and it has failed consistently."

• Jeh Johnson: "A new government cannot start on January 20 from a standing-still position. This is what transitions are for," the former Homeland Security chief said on This Week about Trump's refusal to begin the transition, per ABC News. "Intelligence briefings, [presidential daily briefings], when you're in office, in national security are your eyes and ears."
• Michael Osterholm: "We are in a very dangerous period, the most dangerous public health period since 1918," said the pandemic advisor to Joe Biden on Meet the Press, per NBC News. "And if we don't basically take important steps like stop swapping air with our neighbors, our friends, our colleagues, we're going to see these numbers grow substantially."
• Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R): "I expect Joe Biden to be the next president of the United States," he said on NBC's Meet the Press, per NBC News. "It was good actually to see President Trump tweet out that 'he won.' I think that's a start of an acknowledgment."
• Jenna Ellis: Republican election observers were "actually seeing that there are ballots that are being manipulated, that are counted twice, that are being changed, that the signature matching some of the envelopes are being destroyed," the Trump campaign legal advisor said Friday on Real Time with Bill Maher. "These, we have over 11,000 credible reports that are coming in through our election hotline." In a fact check, the Wrap calls the notion of blocked election observers a "widely debunked lie" and says "no credible claims of fraud" were made. The election hotline was closed due to prank calls.

(More Sunday morning talk shows stories.)