the deadliest days yet. >> it's completely devastating. the hospitals are full. the icus are full. the emergency departments are full. >> but there's light at the end of the tunnel. >> make no mistake about it, it's a medical miracle. a vaccine that is safe and effective for the american people. >> plus the defeated president still denying reality. while the next president fills out his administration. >> the cabinet is battle tested, created innovative and forward looking. the cabinet looks like america. >> and congress closes in on a new economic rescue package, but will it be enough for americans on the brink? >> i just don't know what to do. like, i can be getting evicted any day now. i have nowhere to go. >> welcome to "inside politics". thank you for spending part of

your sunday morning with us. in a few moments we'll talk about an extraordinary friday meeting in the oval office that ended in a heated debate over declaring marshal law as a way of, martial law as a way of overturning the election. as president trump turns to a new and alarming way to ator the votes, the nation is in the midst of a deadly pandemic. there's a second coronavirus vaccine from moderna. boxes are being loaded onto trucks as we speak which will begin leaving warehouses just this morning. the government says nearly 6 million doses of the vaccine will be shipped out this week with much more to come every week after that. the first vax naxs last week from pfizer were focussed on health care workers and residents of long term living facilities. members of our nation's leadership are getting shots as well. both to protect the continuity of government but also to be an example to americans who are worried about the vaccine's

safety. vice president mike pence is the highest ranking official to get vaccinated so far along with surgeon general jerome adams. >> emotionally, i just really am pumped. i'm really pumped, because this is, again, the light at the end of the tunnel we've been waiting for. this is the beginning of the end. and make no mistake about it, it's going to be a hard couple weeks. we've still got work to do to get over this surge. i want people to be encouraged. >> nancy pelosi and mitch mcconnell followed soon after. president-elect biden will be vaccinated tomorrow. it is a remarkable scientific achievement that should eventually end this dark time in our history. but it will not be soon enough for so many. hospitalizations hit another record last week. nearly 115,000 americans currently sick enough from covid-19 to be in the hospital. and in just the past week, one

in 218 americans were infected and the virus killed 18,255 people in seven days. it is death on a scale rarely seen in our history. and this crisis is especially acute in california where they are running out of hospital beds for sick people and medical workers to treat them. >> the state has ordered 5,000 extra body bags, additional refrigerated units for los angeles and triggered what's called mutual aid for coroners in our region. that means we expect to have more dead bodies than spaces in morgues for them. >> dr. anthony fauci acknowledged how bittersweet this moment feels. >> we still are in the middle of a very difficult situation with record numbers of cases, hospitalizations, and deaths. but the sweetness is the light

at the end of the tunnel. which i can tell you as we get into january, february, march, and april, that light is going to get brighter and brighter. >> joining us now, an emergency room physician and researcher at brown university and the dean of the brown university school of public health. doctor ashish shah. thank you for being with us this morning. we'll get back to the crisis in a minute but i want to start with the latest good news on the vaccines. the breaking news about the final authorization for the moderna vaccine to roll out, it's particularly good because the vaccine is easier to distribute than the pfizer version, and there will be a lot more of it available to americans. so what is the significance of this option coming online this morning? >> good morning. thank you for having me on. it is good news. it's great news. we want all the vaccines we can get. the moderna vaccine looks terrific from a science and data

point of view. every bit as safe and effective as the pfizer vaccine. and right now the key is in the middle of the surge to get the vaccines out. to health care workers, to nursing homes, and then other high risk and other individuals because we've got to start making some progress on the pandemic. obviously things are very difficult right now. >> absolutely. i mean, in some ways worse than they have ever been. doctor, you received the pfizer vaccine on friday. what was that experience like, and how are you feeling this morning? >> i think the best description of it is dr. fauci's word. it have buiittersweet. watching the vaccine go into my arm was a moment of joy, pride in science. and of excitement. i see there being a light at the end of the tunnel for our country. i will say the vaccine hurt virtually not at all, i get a flu vaccine every year, and this hurt less than that which isn't

much. and i feel great. i had a little mild tenderness in my arm a couple days. that's completely gone now, and i've had no other side effects. that's similar to my colleagues and similar to the data reported by pfizer. but i say it's bittersweet, because i wish that everyone could have it. i have colleagues across the country who work in just as high risk situations as i do. in maryland, california, colorado, who can't get the vaccine despite being frontline health care providers never mind all the folk who is are essential workers or high risk for other reasons where we don't even have a date where we know when they're going to get their vaccine yet. >> yeah. that's pretty unbelievable, i think, at this point. but i do want to ask you about some disturbing news yesterday out of the united kingdom. the british prime minister boris johnson announced a lockdown in london but warned of new strain of the virus. take a listen. >> there's no evidence that it causes more severe illness or

higher mor faulll tall -- mortality, but it does appear to be passed on more easily. it may be up to 70% more transmisable than the old version of the disease. >> so does that worry you, and if it is a different strain, will the vaccines that we are developing right now still work? >> yeah. those are great questions. look, there is some evidence that this strain may be more infectious. there's no evidence that as prime minister johnson said, there's no evidence it's more deadly, and there's no deadly it's going to be resistance to the vaccine. we are going to see things like this when we have as much outbreak as we do. so the key here right now is to try to keep the virus under control. do the things we know work, masking, social distancing. i think the vaccine is going to end up being effective for all the strains, but we're going to have to look at this carefully, obviously. >> yeah. definitely. something to keep an eye on. doctor, while we're waiting for

there to be enough vaccine, of course, the pandemic is as we've been discussing spiraling out of control. it's particularly bad in the state of california. they now have more infections each day than almost entire countries and los angeles, "the los angeles times" is reporting that hospitals in l.a. county are discussing how to ration care. california leaders have been taking this virus more seriously than most states, but here we are again. what happened? >> that is a question that those of us in public health are currently trying to figure out. there are some reports that in the areas of california where the virus is spreading out of control, that there were a fair number of thanksgiving gatherings between families, between people who didn't live in the same household. that may be part of the reason. it may be related to the density of the area. we don't yet know what happened. but it is so disturbing and my heart breaks for those folks in southern california, in san francisco, up and down the coast

what w.h.ho are being badly affected. across the united states one out of 1,000 americans have died of co-vid. and the rate of death particularly in l.a. county right now is just staggering. it makes me so sad to see them going through this. i hope they stay home and they do as boris johnson said, treat every other person they're in contact with as potentially being infected. that's the only way they're going to get this under control right now. >> a really important message, especially as we head into christmas. doctor, i want to ask you about a big investigation in the washington post today about the trump administration's mismanagement of the pandemic from the beginning, but it includes this quote from the former cdc chief of staff that says there isn't a single light switch moment where the government has screwed up and we're going down the wrong path. it was a series of multiple decisions that showed a lack of desire to listen to actual scientists and also a lack of leadership in general that put

us on the progression of where we are at today. what do you see as the biggest mistake that this administration made, especially as we're staring down this awful winter? >> yeah. as the report said, there isn't a single tactical error you can point to. the big mistake the administration made is they never took the virus seriously. they never bothered listening to the scientists about what we need to do. and consistently underplayed it and undermined it in a way that leaves us with more than 300,000 americans dead. this is all wholly unnecessary. we could have done so much better. we have to look forward, and i think the new administration has signalled very clearly they're going to take this virus very differently. >> well, we can only hope that in the next 30 days more damage is not done because every single day thousands of people dying. doctors, both of you, thank you so much for joining us this morning. and coming up next, president

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let's end the year enjoying more. ♪ you are all i need baby baby to get by ♪ one month from today president trump will be leaving the white house. but he's still not ready to accept it. just yesterday "the new york times," cnn and other outlets reported stun deg tails from a heated oval office meeting where the idea of declaring martial law to overturn the election results was discussed. michael flynn and sydney powell were in the room pushing those ideas to overturn the election. but their ideas were shot down by senior advisers including white house counsel. one of the reports described an escalating sense of concern over aides.

even those who weathered previous controversies about what steps he may take next as his term comes to an end. joining us with reporting, reporters from new york post and "the times." is the president trying to stage a coup from the white house, and how worried should his aides be that he's trying to cling to office at all costs? >> he's obviously looking for any kind of resource he can find to overturn the results of the election. and there is no recourse. he lost the election. but he has not accepted that. much of his staff clearly has. i think what he's doing now is looking for any kind of people, group around him that can sort of enable his conspiratorial thinking. he's found a handful of people you mentioned that are doing that, but they're running headlong into what i would call

the reality based white house staff which obviously recognizes what happened last month in the election. you have a clash in the oval office. i think we're going to see more of this for the next month, abbie. i think the president is going to continue to tweet that he won the election, muse about things in private. i'm skeptical anything is going to come of it. i don't see what you can do. perhaps some action on the house floor next month, but i'm just not sure beyond the sound and the fury what that's going to amount to. >> it's a good point that according to cnn, "the new york times" is reporting most of the officials in that room rejected these ridiculous ideas, but also at that meeting, trump discussed naming his former lawyer, sydney powell, as a special counsel to investigate the election fraud. he talked about giving her a security clearance. this is the lawyer who trump said wasn't his lawyer after she

claimed venezuela was part of a bizarre conspiracy to steal the election. what does this tell you that these are the people who the president is bringing in to the white house and has his ear in these last 30 days? >> well, i mean, it tells you one thing that there is a very, very small and shrinking circle of people around him willing to interstain -- entertain any claim that there was voter fraud in the election and those people happen to be rudy giuliani, sydney powell who let's not forget that the trump campaign itself formally disavowed of that bizarre press conference you mentioned and floating conspiracy theories on air and what not. it's still pretty unclear what the special counsel would entail. we typically look at them coming from the justice department, being appointed by the attorney general.

"the new york times" reported that president trump envisioned a special counsel being within the white house. obviously a little lack of clarity there on how that would work. but there was a good point. a lot of times during the meetings the president throws around and entertains a lot of frankly outlandish ideas and never goes through with them. but the escalation you're seeing internally from people like mark meadows and others to tamp down ideas underscores how serious his fruitless push to overturn the elections is becoming at this point. >> yeah. that's the part that i think is alarming a lot of people inside the white house. jonathan, president trump seems to be completely disengaged from elements of the actual presidency he seems desperate to hold onto. one of his advisers told "the washington post" that i think he's just done with co-vid. he's completely absent from this worsening pandemic, from the vaccine rollout, from the rescue

negotiations. what is he even doing all day with his time, with the last 30 days he actually is the president? >> i think he's taking in a lot of television, it's fair to say as his want. i think he's calling and talking to advisers about the election results. but it's so striking, though. we have a story today about the fact that never has there been a president who is so eager to hold onto an office that he seems to disinterested in. you've got the roll out, the long awaited rollout of the vaccine that could end what's going on almost a yearlong of misery around the world. at the same time you have frantic negotiations to pass a co-vid relief bill by the holidays for a country that desperately needs one, and on both scores he's sort of missing in action. and it's striking to watch that this could be his best last

chance to buff his legacy thinking of the vaccine especially. he's not going to any places where they're rolling out the vaccine. there's no photo ops. for a president who is -- on television, the fact that he's not going to that any kind of vrks distribution place or getting the vaccine himself is telling about what he's at right now. >> the one thing he wants to take credit for, he's not there for that either. >> to take credit. right? >> he's also doubling down on what seems to be his inability to be tough on russia on some of these issues. he's an solving russia of responsibility for this massive cyber attack while his national security team says it is russia. what is going on here? what is going to be the response on capitol hill to the president continuing to turn a blind eye to russian aggression,

especially in the cyber space that's having a real impact on the united states government right now? >> well, i think there's a clear division that you're seeing coming from frankly a lot of people around him. and especially on the russia issue. i mean, there are five separate government agencies that are affected by this. and even the senate intelligence committee chairman was very clear that russia was behind this, but in his first words on these attacks yesterday, he completely -- the president completely disavowed any sort of potential responsibility behind the hacks. something that secretary of state mike pompeo himself said, and this is a pattern that we've seen throughout the course of the presidency, whether it's that infamous press conference in held ssinki or other office, he's been unwilling to confront

russia, vladimir putin, when it goes against the other intelligence coming from his own government. >> and quick before you go, what do you make of mike pompeo deciding to come out publicly and say this was russia? >> yeah. i mean, it's striking to see that. his own secretary of state saying there was obviously russia. i think the facts are staring him in the face, and speaking of legacies, i think pompeo is thinking of his own legacy, and there's not a big audience even the pro trump conservatives, denialism, i think pompeo and most national security folks recognize russia as the threat they are, and he's articulating that. and i think there's just not much downside at this point given the time left and given the stakes involved and how big of a hack this was. >> right. thanks to you both for joining us this morning.

up next, the latest coronavirus relief deal negotiations. will congress help the millions of americans who are set to lose federal dollars and protections this holiday season? we'll talk to one of the leading members of the progressive caucus, congresswoman presley up next. because of you. here's to the hands that care for america. [applause] a big thank you. ♪ but i'm not a new customer. a deal on a smartphone, a big thank you. well, actually now, new and existing customers can get our best smartphone deal. it's historic. that is historic. which means... i'm making history, right? yea, i don't know if i'd exactly sa- wow. me, dave brown. existing customer who got the greatest deal in history. just like every other customer gets... oh that's cool too. it's not complicated. at&t is making history. everyone gets our best smartphone deals.

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congressional leaders say they're close to passing a desperately needed covid-19 relief package. the deadline is midnight tonight to avoid a holiday shutdown and to help those suffering the most in this pandemic economy. the biggest sticking point over

the weekend was the lending powers of the federal reserve. and there is now a deal in principle over the fed's role according to congressional aids. but congresswoman pressley says the most important part of this deal is the new round of direct payments. expect it to be to the amount of $600 each. >> i rise today on behalf of the people. the people who are struggling and feel abandoned by their government during this crisecri. i rise in solidarity with every family behind on rent or crushed by the grief of an empty chair at the kitchen table. we must send them survival checks immediately. >> the congresswoman joins us now from d.c. where she's waiting to see the details of that relief plan we've been talking about and the massive $1.4 trillion spending package. congresswoman presley, thank you for joining us this morning.

aides have said they've reached a deal on that major sticking point over the fed. how optimistic are you that there will be a proposal to vote on today? >> well, i'm hopeful, because the american people have received only 450 pennies a day for the last nine months. and they have been pushed into poverty, pushed into homelessness. so many are dealing with unprecedented food insecurity, hunger issues, unemployment, many on the precipice of eviction. and so you know, the fact that direct cash payments are even included is because of the democrats. people need to understand that this gop-led senate has spent more time trying to undermine our free and fair elections, and to deny the fact that their president was decisively defeated than focusing on mitigating the hurt and helping american families, they've had a

poison pill in every relief package. you know, they didn't want to provide direct cash payments. we pushed them on that. we organized on that. and they said okay, we're going to cut unemployment in order to do that. they have been obsessing on one number, rather than fixated on alleviating the hurt for the american people. all i want from the senate that does not have content for the american people which this senate does. they have fought us on everything. they have fought us on addressing food insecurity. they have fought us on supporting our restaurants. they have fought us on investments and contact tracing. they have fought us on state and municipal aid. they have fought us on rental assistance. i cannot underscore enough, georgia, i know we are asking a lot of you, but we need you to finish the job. elect raphael warnock and jon ossoff so we can stop this hurt.

>> i want to ask about the payments. senator bernie sanders said on friday that he would not allow the spending bill to pass if it doesn't include what he said, quote, substantial direct payments for individuals and families. do you agree with that, and we're talking act $600 right now. do you think that's a substantial direct payment to individuals and families? >> we have to get urgent relief to our families. again, at this point, these are not stimulus checks. they're stimulating nothing. these are survival checks. this is about basic needs, about families needing to remain safely housed, about purchasing diapers and formula, inhalers, insulin, and the truth of the matter is $600 will not even cover a month's rent. i have not seen any text as of yet. so i will need to go through that and see if it's responsive to what my mayors have told me they need, what our community health centers have said they need. what our small businesses and

restaurants say they need. and so i'm waiting for the checks so i can do that. >> the whole reason we're talking about this is because of the coronavirus pandemic, and today a second vaccine has been approved and it's on its way to hospitals today. according to the cdc, black americans are almost three times as likely to die from the coronavirus as white people. and yet, this poll by the kaiser family foundation found only 20% of 20% of black want to get the vaccine versus 40%s of whites. what do you say to the majority of black people who say they're not rushing to do what you did just yesterday? >> yes, i did have the vaccine administered yesterday in order to maintain the continuity of government, but also because i live with like millions of

americans, two preexisting conditions, and doing my part, both to keep myself safe so i can continue to do my job to fight for my district and the american people, keeping my family safe, but also stopping the spread of this virus which has raged out of control which has everything to do with the willful criminality of donald trump, and i would add even the gop-led senate because they have dragged their feet on making the investments necessary to meet the scale and scope of this hurt and to invest in contact tracing and things like that. so i do want to acknowledge that i had to overcome some of those distrust issues myself. the medical community exacting medical apartheid on black americans, on indigenous people, on our most marginalized communities. they violated the trust, and

that's very real. i wanted to set an example. i trust the doctor and consulted with my husband and my health care provider which is what i encourage others to do when making their own personal decision. at the end of the day, i think this is what is in the best interest of our public health. i trust the doctor and the vaccine, and that's why i had it administered and i want to say thank you to all the scientists and all the researchers and i'm going to continue to fight for our most vulnerable. communities who have been disproportionally impacted by the virus, for our health care workers and incarcerated men and women to be prioritized in the distribution of the vaccine. >> that's an important message. you know, as we've been discussing this, congress is scrambling to get this deal together, and the pandemic is raging. president trump has been in the oval office talking about overturning a legitimate election. there are still 30 days left of

this administration. are you concerned about what could happen in that time? >> of course it's concerning. i'm just so ready for us to turn the page on this dark chapter in our history. and it's very ironic. coming from my colleagues across the aisle, who parkize themselves as being patriots to challenge free and fair elections, to try to delegitimize the elections that outcome, to obstruct progress and getting relief to the american people, it's treason. there's nothing patriotic about it. peaceful transfer of power is -- are the pillars of our institution. of our democratic institutions. this is unprecedented. we've always had a peaceful transfer of power. and so it is treasonous, and they've invested more time and

how to undermine free and fair elections and how to challenge the fact that their president was decisively defeated, then focusing on the american people and how to get real relief to them. >> congresswoman, thank you for joining us this morning. we hope that over where you are on the other side of pennsylvania avenue some progress can be made for the american people today. >> thank you. good to see you in the chair. >> thanks for being here. up next, millions of american families are on the financial brink. will whatever relief package comes out of congress be enough to make a difference? this year we got it done. and with free curbside pickup at walmart... you can get the perfect gift up until the last minute. let's end the year nailing it. ♪ - i'm lea.steve. let's end the year nailing it. and we live in north pole, alaska. - i'm a retired school counselor. [lea] i'm a retired art teacher. [steve] we met online abt 10 years ago.

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approved to treat at keytruda.com, and ask your doctor if keytruda can be part of your story. but with walmart's low prices, you still know how to do it up. and keep costs down. let's end the year enjoying more. ♪ you are all i need baby baby to get by ♪ after weeks of negotiation and multiple missed deadlines congress is poised to enact a new economic relief bill. we expected it to include direct payments to most americans an extension of unemployment benefits and extension of a moratorium on evictions and a

new round of aid to small businesses. and extra money for schools and vaccine distribution. millions of americans are in desperate need of relief. you can see on the chart the jobless claims are back on the rise. far too many say they don't have enough to eat and they're worried about losing their homes. the chairman of the federal reserve says things will get better as the pandemic recedes, but we need a bridge to get there. >> the issue is more the next four or five months, getting to the next four or five or six months, that's key. and clearly there's going to be need for help there, and my sense and hope is that we'll be getting that. >> joining us now the chief economist from the obama administration and kevin has set who had the same job in the trump white house. austin, are you as hopeful as the fed chairman that congress

will pass a rescue package that is big enough to get the economy to the other side of the crisis? >> probably not. i couldn't tell from the fed chair statement, is he really hopeful and expecting that they're going to pass something big enough? they've got to do something. i mean, we violated the first rule of virus economics. the number one way to fix the economy in the middle of a virus is to slow the spread of the virus. we got the virus raging out of control so we're in high danger of going into a double dip recession. i wish they had done what they're about to do now it sounds like. weeks if not months ago, and so the longer we wait, the greater the chance we go into another recession. >> that seems pretty clear at this point. kevin, it's been interesting to

see the associanegotiators stuc this final issue, which wasn't about the checks or money. it's about reigning in the paowr of the fed. do you agree with people who want to limit the fed's power in -- power to lend in this crisis, a power that they used just a few months ago over the summer to help us get through that first wave? >> yeah. i agree with you that that whole episode was really puzzling to me. they're arguing over a program that they previously put $450 billion into and used almost none of it. there's a program on the side that's like the 50th most important thing. and somehow that's going to hold up the deal? it felt like last-minute posturing to me. i think to go back to your first question to austin, i've been doing a lot of modelling. austin is right. because the virus cases are out of control, and they're really out of control worldwide. we have a new strain in the uk that looks like it's 70% more contagious. i expect the global economy is

going to really shut down very much like we did last spring. and we need a big stimulus package to get us through it, because when you shut the economy down, then you're looking at minus 20% gdp growth, the kind of stuff we haven't seen since the second world war. if you run the numbers for the $900 billion for today, it makes the first quarter about positive just a little bit bigger than zero rather than a huge negative. because almost all that money is going out in the first quarter. and so i think what they've done is bought themselves time for president-elect biden and his team to come in and negotiate another deal in march, because as the fed chair said, because the vaccines are dribbling in maybe at about 50 million a month, it's going to be really late in the spring before we can really go back to being wide open. >> yeah. let's talk about the direct payments for a second. you know, i want to pull up this chart for our viewers to show the number of americans living in poverty. you can see that if you look at

the summer months, the rate fell in the spring and summer and that suggests that the unemployment benefits, the $1200 stimulus checks in the first cares act, they worked. so when this compromised bill is talking about $600 payments, does it need to be more? >> well, i mean, you can't live on $600. everybody knows that. and it would be better if it were more. it's not going to be more. so we're going to have to make due with this, and i think it's -- i think that one of the problems here is we're coming to the end of the administration, and a lot of times economic crisis spiral out of control in the transition. that happened in the depression. that happened in the financial crisis. let's hope it doesn't happen now. what happens is the president doesn't want to be there. you know? and you see the president is not actively engaged in the negotiation. he made an announcement that he wanted the payments to be larger

on twitter. and then the republicans and the senate got to him or somebody got to him and changed his mind about that. i think when the president is not actively involved, it makes it a kind of a battle between nancy pelosi and mitch mccome. they have bad blood already. they don't trust each other. i think that's partly why this thing is slowed down the way it is is that the president is not really involved. >> well, what about those $2000 checks that president trump reportedly wanted, kevin? i mean, do you think that that would have been a better idea? at the same time, you're hearing republicans saying that they want much smaller checks because they're concerned about deficits. they're concerned about debt. look at this chart. the debt is up about $7 trillion since president trump took office. so you know, i don't blame people for worrying. why are they concerned about this now in the middle of a crisis? zl well, i think the president's

2000 number is probably a number that austin would ten right away, and my guess is the next round for stimulus will do something like another $1200 check and you'll be around $2,000 by march. the think i would have grossed up is the insurance benefit. the 300 a week. there's a burgeoning check literature look agent the last economic stimulus. the gross of $600, almost all of it went into consumption. folks unemployed really needed that money. if they're spending $0.85 on the dollar right away, then they're the ones who most desperately need the money. to cut the checks to them, that's the thing that i would have changed if i had a chance in this bill. i think the evidence is that the last round was enormously successful at helping people as you say, avoid poverty and hunger. and to cut that in half doesn't feel like the right call to me. >> right. quick before we go, we've been

talking about the medical, economic crisis. you were a top adviser to this president. there's been reporting about the oval office meet where the topic was martial law and overturning the election. what do you make of that? what would you have done if you were in the administration given what we're seeing here this weekend? >> you know, i didn't participate in that meeting, and i certainly\know a lot of the prince pals there, but i can't imagine anyone would take such a thing seriously, and i were ever asked about it, i would say don't be ridiculous. >> it's clearly being taken seriously. multi -- a long meeting in the oval office in which the president was asking about these things. so it's pretty disturbing stuff. thank you both so much for joining us this morning. >> thank you. >> thank you. up next, president-elect biden signals that climate policy will be a priority in his white house.

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president-elect joe biden latest cabinet pick suggests th that, former michigan governor jennifer granholm to lead the energy secretary and interior secretary deb haaland and michael regan at espn administrator and gina mccarthy as com climate adviser. >> after today, our cabinet won't just -- may one -- or two breaking precedent appointments but 12 including today's long oversue appointment of the first native american cabinet

secretary. the cabinet that looks like america and taps into the best of america and opens doors and includes the full range of talents we have in this nation. >> joining me now, to share her latest reporting is sungmin kim of "the washington post." given the things that president-elect biden will have on his plate, the economy, the virus, how central is climate change expected to be in a biden administration? >> it's really expected to be front and center if up look at the terms of the appointments that he has rolled out plus the agenda that we see little bits and little hints of during the transition. of course, he laid out an extensive environment team, really focused on the issue of climate change in wilmington yesterday. remember, one of the first appointments that he rolled out was creating the special enjoy on climate to look more at international climate issues and he tapped former secretary of state john kerry for that role. we saw as you noted gina

mccarthy in a new kind of domestic climate policy and president-elect biden say they will have critical seats at the table in any sort of associations to really focus on that issue of climate. we know that one of his first executive orders he would do is get back into that paris climate deal, so this is certainly going to be a major focus of the biden administration and, you know, starting from day one, even as all of these other issues are going on with the pandemic, the economy and what not. >> yeah. biden also promised he'll have a government that looks like america. so far he has named the first openly gay american to his cabinet, native american to his cabinet post, the first latino to head the department of homeland security and the first woman to lead the treasury department. he has tapped at least six black officials, the most ever. so far, we have two-thirds of his cabinet announced. what are you hearing before

capitol hill about whether or not those announcements are meeting expectations that he is fulfilling his promise to make his cabinet as diverse as this country? >> well, on the diversity front, you're certainly hearing a lot of excitement from democrats for president-elect biden in rolling out such a diverse contingency, women, minorities, and what not. but one contingency on recent days ramped up is the asian american community. aapi people have been tapped for biden's cabinet so far but not heading a department. asian american lawmakers are warning the incoming biden administration that this could be the first time in 20 years

that there could be no secretary level aapi official in a cabinet and they are certainly worried about a lack of representation on biden's team. there was a call with asian american lawmakers and vice president-elect on thursday where they made that point explicitly clear. they are hoping to get representation in one of the final remaining positions that yet to be made public by the biden team such as department of labor and labor secretary. >> progressives have been pushing for more representation in the congress too. with deb hhland to the interior department does that address their concerns? >> it certainly addresses one of their concerns because we saw how the pressure campaign and this public campaign in favor of congresswoman haaland was quite sqel successful. senior democratic officials were concerned about losing numbers

in their house majority and kind of scaling back the concerns saying we are completely on board for deb haaland. progressives will be really watching the first hundred days, what kind of agenda that this cabinet lays out, what kind of agenda that biden, you know, proposes and pushes, especially early on in his presidency if they are going to be happy. >> i'm sure not the last we will hear about that. thank you for joining me. "state of the union" is coming up next. his guests along dr. moncef slaoui and pete buttigieg, senator mitt romney, and ex-security czar christopher krebs. thank you for sharing your morning with us. really fast. really perfect. let's end the year nailing it. ♪

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♪ dose of hope. as the fda approves a second coronavirus vaccine, americans line up. >> history will record that this week, was the beginning of the ends of the coronavirus pandemic. >> as cases, hospitalizations and deaths climb to record highs, congress is on the brink of a deal for some relief but how bad will it get before it gets better? operation warp speed chief scientist dr. moncef slaoui joins me. disgraced former michael flynn to force a new election in states that trump