this sunday -- a covid crisis out of control. >> i actually believe they're going to be the most difficult time in the public health history of this nation. >> record hospitalizations. >> once they get to us, we're not seen a lot that make it out of here. >> record number of cases. >> i think we've not yet can seen the post-thanksgiving peak. >> record number of deaths. >> my dad thought me so much about life but never how to live without him. >> health care workers overworked and falling ill. >> there's just nobody to take

care of you in the hospital. that's everyone. >> this morning i will talk to deborah birx, white house coordinator. and after months of discourse, help may be on the way. >> there is momentum, there is momentum. >> compromise is within reach. >> but will it be enough? democratic senator joe manchin of west virginia joins me. and president trump holds a rally for the two republican senators in georgia's january runoff. >> they cheated and they rigged our presidential election, but we will still win it. >> focusing more on his own personal grievances than in helping the actual candidate. >> it has to stop. someone is going to get shot. someone is going to get killed. >> i'll talk to georgia elections official gabriel sterling. joining me for insight and analysis are nbc news national correspondent steve kornacki, dim kerr by atkins, senior opinion writer for "the boston globe," reuters white house writer jeff mason and danielle pletka of the american

enterprise institute. welcome to sunday, it's "meet the press." press" with chuck todd. >> announcer: "meet the press" is the longest-running television show in history. if it's sunday, it's "meet the press" with chuck todd. good sunday morning. considered what happened over the week. hospitalizations in the u.s. for covid-19 exceeded 100,000 for the first time. daily cases of covid-19 exceeded 200,000 for the first time and the second and the third and the fourth. the confirmed daily death toll from covid-19 exceeded 2,000 for the second time. and the third and the fourth and the fifth and the sixth. this past week covid was the leading cause of death in america. if only that were the worst of it. robert redfield, the head of the centers for disease control said december, january and february

will be the most difficult time in the public health history of this nation. >> i do think unfortunately before we see february, we could be close to 450,000 americans have died from this virus. >> amid this exploding crisis, president trump gave what he said was, quote, maybe the most important speech i ever made. it was not about covid. it was a 46-minute attack on american democracy. it was filled with debunked claims, false assertions and outright lies, claiming the democrats rigged the election to steal his presidency, that the president has chosen to ignore the worst health crisis we faced in 100 years almost doesn't matter anymore. what matters is both the good news, the emergence of multiple vaccines, and the bad news, rising case in death count, are accelerated. but until those vaccines get here, overworked health care workers around the country are fighting a two-long battle to save lives and, more importantly, to convince

skeptical americans to finally take this deadly virus seriously. >> it's hard to come into work some days knowing that you're short and knowing you're going to see people die. >> we're tired. but we get up and we still do this every day. >> afraid we're going to get overrun by the sheer volume and the intensity of the penetration. >> we have had several small victories but recently it feels few and far between. >> i have a 48-year-old, and they don't run to the door anymore, because we don't give hugs when i get home. >> around 400 and 500 polls, three points, maybe even more, and like i said, almost every patient was covid. >> two weeks ago we were ready,

we were full, nowhere to ship people. we were keeping people too long. literally our doctors were begging regional medical centers to open a bed up. people -- they were going to die here. >> it's an unfortunately common experience for emergency physicians like me to have encountered patients who just don't believe this is happening to them. >> a lot of people are making a lot of sacrifices to make this work so it's aggravating, frustrating for us to have difficu difficulty conveying the seriousness of the situation. >> we've come a long way but people are dyeing still, people are getting sick. if we just hold it together for a few more months, i really think we're going to win. >> joining me now is the white house coronavirus response coordinator, dr. deborah birx. dr. birx, welcome back to "meet the press." you heard from the frontline medical workers. i know you travel the country speaking to a lot of these frontline workers. do you understand their frustration now when they feel as if they're at their wit's

end, they've been pulling the double and triple shifts, they've been working hard for eight months and half the country is not paying attention? >> i understand it completely and it's been a privilege to meet with them, from the billings clinic in montana to across this great country, to meet with health care workers and hear their frustrations. and also meet with communities and hear their frustrations. i think we have to come together with a joint understanding of how this virus is spread and how we can prevent the spread. >> what do you say to the health care workers? you're saying this, you're wearing a mask indoors. this is the new cdc guidance if you're not in your home. i think you totally understand why they're doing that now. yet the white house and statehouse are throwing parties. as you know, this mixed messaging, you say one thing, dr. fauci says one thing and the president does another.

>> i think it's really important that every single person understands that the way this virus is spread is if you're with anyone indoors without a mask, that's a viral spreading opportunity. if you're outdoors and hugging and kissing individuals, that's a viral spreading opportunity. we have to really understand how contagious, how infectious this virus is. and it's really important at this moment in time that everyone understands also how much virus is out there. there isn't a state without increasing cases right now except hawaii. so this is where we find ourselves and we have to listen right now to what we know works, which is masks, physical distancing, washing your hands. but not gathering. you cannot gather without masks in any indoor or close outdoor

situation. >> i don't mean to belabor this point and i understand your frustration as a public health official, being asked what is happening on the political side of things but the fact of the matter is we've been through this for eight months now, and you have given us all of these warnings. again, the president and others in the administration just flout them. do you understand why in in the public say if he doesn't think it's a big deal, maybe he thinks all of the health people are overdoing it, overselling it? >> you know, i've heard that personally. when i go out, i just don't meet with health care providers and governors and mayors, but i also meet with community. so i hear community members parroting back those situations, parroting back that masks don't work, parroting back we should work towards herd immunity, pairing back that gatherings don't result in super-spreading

events. i think our job is constantly to say those are myths, they are wrong and you can see the evidence base. right now across the sunbelt, we have governors and mayors who have cases equivalent to what they had in the summertime, yet aren't putting in the same policies and mitigations that they put in the summer that they know change the course of this pandemic across the south. so it is frustrating. not only do we know what works, governors and mayors use those tools to stem the tide in the spring and the summer. and this fall/winter surge is gi combining everything we saw in the spring and everything we saw in the summer, plus the fall surge going into a winter surge. i think that's what dr. redfield made this absolute appeal to the american people. this is not just the worse public health event. this is the worst event that

this country will face, not just from a public health side. yet we know what behaviors spread the virus and we know how to change those behaviors to stop spreading the virus. >> what states right now, what governors, talk to them right now, what states would you like to see increase the mitigation efforts right now? >> you know, all of the states are trying to do something and i don't want to be critical of any governor and mayor. i like to talk to them one on one where i can be very direct and really have a joint understanding of what they're data is showing. but every state across this country needs to increase their mitigation and every state needs to be critic lynn forming their state population that the gatherings we saw in thanksgiving will lead to a surge. it will happen this week and next week and we cannot go in to the holiday season christmas, hanukkah, kwanzaa, with this

same kind of attitude that those gatherings don't apply to me. they apply to everybody. if you don't want to lose your grandparents, your aunt. let's be clear, if you're over 70, 20% of those over 70 who contract covid are hospitalized and still 10% are lost. if you have anyone in your family with comore itbitty or or 70, you cannot do those things. can you not gather with your masks off. you cannot hug and kiss people outside. we won't have a -- i'm thrilled with a vaccine but we won't have them for the most vulnerable americans until february. so we need to do this now. yes, the nursing homes will be vaccinated but there's 100 million americans that have these comorbidity that put them at substantial risk. >> talk to me about the hospital systems right now. how close are some to breaking

points? and what does breaking point mean for the average person watching right now? >> i think what's really critical for people to understand is our hospitals normally in the small and winter run between 80% and 90% full. just caring for our routine health. so when you add 10, 15, 20% covid-19 patients on top of that, that's what puts them at the breaking point. because our normal health care system runs at 80% to 90% full throughout the fall. i have seen -- and part of the reason i traveled, i have seen really successful examples, and that's part of the reason of going out is to find out what is not working but what also is working. we've seen in chicago, illinois, hospitals come together and create a unified dashboard so they know at any one time for every single patient that comes into the emergency room where

there is a bed that serves the needs of that individual patient. we've taken that across the states so that they understand how to do that same kind of sharing and dashboard. so there are good examples that can help preserve the lives of others, but i want to be very frank to the american people, the vaccine is critical but it's not going to save us from this current surge. only we can save us from this current surge and we know precisely what to do. if you have loved ones you want to protect, you have have to follow these guidelines now. >> as the cdc came out very late, about a week before thanksgiving, and advised against travel during thanksgiving, are we going to get travel advisories for christmas and new year's sooner than what we got before thanksgiving? >> i think they're already saying that. i think they've made it very clear about how dangerous travel

is because it mixes households. i think what we've learned over the last eight to nine months is how significant this asymptomatic spread is. that's the silent spread. those are individuals who are younger and just don't know they're infected. so they're passing on the virus. we called on every state to increase their testing, particularly for those under 40, so they can be -- you can find that asymptomatic spread before it infects their aunts, their grandparents, their uncles and really stop it. it's what universities did. we have examples now, very clear examples, universities that tested 100% of their students on and off campus at least weekly, infected less than 1% of their student body. when you test the way the united states is testing, symptomatic, contact tracing, some surveillance, 10% of their student body became infected. so we have an example how

important testing is as part of this whole public health response, along with masking, physical distancing and our hand hygiene and stopping our gatherings outside of households. >> dr. deborah birx, response coordinator for the coronavirus task force, i will leave it there. i appreciate you sharing these dire warnings. i hope your boss hearings the same dire warnings you're telling the rest of us. >> thank you for having me. turning now to financial relief from the covid crisis, joining me is the democratic senator from west virginia, joe manchin. joe, welcome back to "meet the press.." >> good morning, chuck. always good to be with you. >> we just heard about the virus from dr. birx and we heard from dr. fauci. why is it we can't even washington unified? why can't you guys in the united states senate come together and everybody say, hey, let's wear a mask?

it does seem absurd how polarized we've gotten over this and it does seem to emanate from one individual, the president. >> yes, it sure does. in my view from the state of west virginia, we have over 800 deaths registered, 17,000 cases, chuck. we're now having 1,000 cases a day. we've never, ever, ever seen this, never thought we would. and we're going into the most challenging difficult times. so absolute wlier concerned. the senate in washington farce all of us, 100, everybody is wearing masks. the senate has not met as a group since it started in march of this year. so we've been very diligent about that. our republican colleagues are not doing the same. they're doing more zooms n deat

it's unbelievable. >> you see the models and they may double by april 1. >> yes. >> let me go to what i invited you on for, it has to do with the bipartisan deal coming together. it looks like it will be just under a trillion dollars. how close are you, is this a deal we're going to see come to fruition before the end of this coming week? >> it's a deal that must come together. we don't have a choice now. it's one of the things that has to be done and i will tell you a reason why. i want people to understand this is a covid emergency relief, it started out as a framework. you've seen the framework, how we came to $980 billion in all of the different categories. we came together and said, listen, we've got to do something. after the election we started coalescing around, how do we move this forward?

we looked at basically that would terminate at the end of december, the life lines people be depending on, whether it be food assistance, whether it be shelter, whether it be health care, whether the necessities of people have, childcare needed to get our lives back. all of these things are going to be eliminated, chuck, and we said that can't be done. we cannot allow this to happen. democrats and republicans came together, and we're moving forward. >> it's not the deal that a lot of people think is needed, including the chair of the federal reserve. he's concerned it's more likely you're underdoing than overdoing it. do you concur with him, are you worried you're doing less than you should be doing? >> chuck, this is an emergency leaf package only until april 1 to get through the first quarter. every indication said more money is needed. we see that. this get is us lieu the life lines we need and small businesses so people do not go under. unemployment checks people will be losing, if we don't invest this money now, chuck, and every

indication says more is needed. the president-elect joe biden said this is a down payment. he can come in as president, when he does come in as president, his team can put together a different proposal that takes us further down the road for more recovery. if we don't do something now on both sides of the aisle, complyings have said the $908 billion investment we make into the citizens of this country and try to keep this economy from collapsing could be more important than $2 trillion would be in february or march if we do nothing, and even then it might be too late for so many people and small businesses. >> let me ask you a bigger question about the state of the two parties. why do you think joe biden outperformed the democratic party? and what lesson is there from joe biden that democrats can learn? because he clearly outperformed the democratic party. >> most certainly, my state, i'm the last democrat standing. the bottom line is we've been identified as something we're

not. i'm a west virginia democrat, proud west virginia democrat, and i don't know of any democrat that i know of that would ever defund the police. how that got on as a mantra as a democrat slogan, that's not true. how all of these other things that seem to be extreme are not true, it's not who we are. but we were tagged with that. we were slow probably as a party of responding to it and saying, listen, there's more to us. if you look at basically our bedrock of who we are, how do we protect workers? how do we protect families, how do we have inclusion, income equality, things basically people are depending on in order to survive in this very, very difficult and trouble time? >> senator, you said actually you weren't just talking about this year though, you said i watched the last three elections, '16, '18, '20, we truly should have been in the majority and it didn't happen. why is that?

>> it tells you the message we have is not for all american. basically, who are you as a party? if you're democrat, what are you? i tell people, i'm fiscallyat can't you be both? you have to be labeled as a democrat and give away all accountability? that's not who i am. that's not the democrat i was raised as. that's basically what we lost who we are, how we basically will fight for workers' rights, human rights and yet still do so in a reasonable way that doesn't put so much burden on people to say listen, unless i'm hurting, unless i'm in the minority, unless i'm this, you're given more attention and we're not. we're trying to bring everybody together with the same opportunities. we're not basically explaining that in a way the average american understands and we're allowing other people to tag us. that's just unfair. it really is. to have somebody trust basically us as a president is blaming the democrats for everything.

i told president trump one time, i said mr. president, why are you blaming the democrats? if it wasn't for the democrats that were upset, you would have never been president. why don't you bring us together rather than dividing us forever? >> joe manchin, democrat from west virginia, as he said still a proud democrat from west virginia. thank you for coming on and sharing your perspective with us. i appreciate it, sir. >> thank you, chuck. coming up -- >> stop inspiring people to commit potentialize violence. someone's going to get hurt, someone's going to get shot, someone's going to get killed. >> the republican elect it's been a tough year. and now with q4 wrapping up, the north pole has to be feeling the heat. it's okay santa, let's workflow it. workflow it...? with the now platform, we can catch problems before customers even know they're problems. wait... a hose? what kid wants a hose?! fireman? says "hose" it says "horse"! not a "hose"! cedric! get over here!

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for lack of a better, what set me off on tuesday was about an hour and a half before a news conference, i got a call from the project manager for dominion voting systems who was telling me that one of their contractors had received some threats. this is a tech. and i saw it, it had the young man's name, very unique name.

so they tracked down his family. it said his name, you've committed treason, may god have mercy on your soul. and at that point, i just said, i'm done. >> you said something else earlier this week. you said, let's face it. senator loeffler and senator perdue were forced to ask for secretary raffensperger's resignation. do you stand by those comments, do you really belief that loeffler and purdue had to do what trump said? >> even their staff were surprised when they put that out. it had been about a week and a half since the election had been over and one of the things they said was that we were not transparency. we were doing two press conferences a day, setting up hourly press releases on the count. they want to keep the trump

supporters lifted up because they think that's the best path to winning the senate races. the disinformation has to stop. i'm still supporting it. i'm a republican. we need to hold on to the senate. i'm still going to vote with them. but i'm not happy with how their conducting themselves in this particular situation. >> you seem to be somebody -- you want to be viewed as somebody who has the highest ethics, highest integrity, particularly in a position that you're in right now with -- when it comes to overseeing elections, helping to oversee elections. do you believe that these folks running as republicans right now have the same ethical standards that you have? >> give me easy questions. politics is a complicated profession. i said that earlier this week too. and the values, sometimes it gets to be complicated and difficult. i said something different on

tuesday to people who are in a sense of responsibility. but at the end of the day, i believe that their opponents would do more damage to this country than they would on this particular font ront on this particular day. >> do you regret your vote for president trump? >> i would have been happy if it had been 13,000 votes in my state, it would have been a lot easier. >> considering how he's behaved, do you ask yourself, maybe he isn't the right person to lead the country? at least if this is what he's going to do to the democracy? >> i think that we have this on all sides. president trump has a higher sense of responsibility, should be held to a hire standard. we have people who believe russians switched votes. all sides, republican and democrat, have to stand up and do a better job. the president especially. >> do you believe that the president is doing damage to the republican party in georgia by continuing to stir this pot?

do you think it could cost loeffler and purdue their senate races? >> yes. when he and his lawyers and former lawyers -- some of his former lawyers are saying, don't vote. it's mixed messaging. it's confusing. if you're telling people don't trust the election system, why would they bother to show up. if you think they're stealing it, show up and vote and make it harder for them to steal. >> gabriel sterling who helps to oversee the election system there, working for the secretary of state, you spoke out pretty hard this week. i appreciate you coming on and sharing your perspective with us, sir. >> thank you, chuck. i wish i didn't have to do it. >> please stay safe out there. when we come back, could president trump's claims about rigged elections keep enough republicans from voting and risk

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welcome back. it is panel time. nbc news national political correspondent steve kornacki, kimberly atkins, senior opinion writer for "the boston globe." reuters white house kpan correspondent jeff mason and danielle pletka. mr. kornacki,ly start with something "the wall street journal" editorial board said on thursday. here's what they wrote about the president in georgia. at least for now he can say with justification he helped the gop gain seats in the house and avoid a route in the senate. but that narrative changes for the worse if the gop loses in georgia. mr. trump divided his own party to serve his personal political interest. they wrote this thursday. i don't think anyone r anything changed watching this event last night, steve. >> yeah, i think there's a real risk here for republicans in georgia. it works on two fronts. i think you mentioned one of them there and that's simply the

core trump base in georgia, with everything president trump is saying about republicans in that state and integrity of elections in georgia, everything he's alleging there, does that repress that core republican base in any way? i think the other big concern republicans have to have, it's clear when you look at results since november, there are split-ticket georgias in georgia. joe biden was able to beat trump by about 3,000 votes and in the purdue/osia race, and when you break it down, voters particularly in the atlantic metro area, well-to-do places like wells and pa rammio, that's where you see it as work, folks going out on election day in november and saying they want to do two things, vote against trump and vote against democrats having control of the senate. i think the risk is trump will not be on the ballot in the january runoff but to the extent

trump makes this election about him, to the same voters who had that instinct to vote against trump, will they say i will do this to vote against trump again? >> and that was the story of the 2018 midterms, it became a proxy in a way to send a message to trump. i know this president is somebody who knows how to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, but if he wants to be formidable in 2024, losing georgia's senate seat is not the way to get there. he will get the blame for even one loss now, will he not? >> there's no question. by the way, if he has anybody to blame, it will be himself. he's the one who has chosen to make this about him. he's the one who has chosen to continue this gorous narrative about a stolen election. he had a few candidates up last

week but he spent most of the rally talking about himself and he's going to repress turnout, and he will get the blame, make no mistake. >> jeff mason, you're in that white house every day. look, i'm aware there are people who are trying to change his sort of at least public posture on all of this stuff. he seems more dug in than ever. >> yes, he absolutely does. and those people that you're referring to, chuck, just aren't the ones he's listening too. there are advisers who are saying, hey, focus on your legacy and the georgia race will be a part of that legacy as danny and steve were just saying but there are so many other things that he could be focusing on but he's not. he's listening to the people who are continuing to say keep fighting on and those people are the ones that we see as part of the legal challenges, rudy giuliani, jen ellis, and that team. >> kimberly atkins, even when you here -- when bill barr comes out, i want to put up his quote,

he said "to date -- this is on tuesday -- to date we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have effected a different outcome in the election." he said that on tuesday to the associated press. i imagine if this changed, they would be screaming from the rooftops of the justice building screaming hey, this has changed. so here they are, still nothing there and now the president wants to turn on him. >> right. we are seeing the same play book where the president is now reportedly fuming and considering firing bill barr, he said himself wait a couple weeks. meanwhile there's only six weeks left in the trump administration. but bill barr to be sure has been a staunch supporter of donald trump's both his policies and rhetoric right up to the election, even casting his own doubt about the election security and the possibility of fraud, even empowering his own prosecutors to publicly initiate investigation, changing the

policy leading up to the election that could have reduced voters' confidence in it. but at the end of the day, there was nothing there and even the attorney general cannot start a criminal investigation into something that didn't happen, whether the president likes that or not. that was the line that bill barr finally drew. and as you said, the best evidence that nothing has happened. >> and jeff mason, besides -- the other thing the president focused on this week, besides his own election problems, and he ignored covid again, he started talking about the pardon situation and they're making these radical changes to the pentagon where they're firing a defense board and appointing a couple campaign operatives from campaigns fast. what is going on? what is the president trying to do to biden's presidency the last few weeks by putting them, planting them signed the

government, what is the strategy? >> a number of things, chuck. i think number one, despite the fact he's not conceded the election to president-elect biden, he's aware of the fact he will be leaving -- he being president trump d-- on january 20th. so he wants to leave as many hurdles he can for his successor and that includes what you're talking about at the pentagon. it includes the difficulty he's made it up until just a week or two ago for biden and his team to get access to information. and it also suggests despite him pushing forward to challenge this election, he is aware of a legacy and he wants that legacy to be this, and he wants that legacy to have an impact on his successor. some would say in the same way he tried to undermine president obama when he was in office. >> danny, is there a good faith argument that exists for

appointing david and lori to this review board? >> in an argument this board always had a relationship to the community but on the other hand, a full purge, senior republicans like j.d. crouse, someone like henry kissinger for goodness sakes, that smacks of the kind of cronyism and dictatorial loyalty test donald trump loves. on the other hand, i don't think that's going to throw up much of a barrier to joe biden because he can push out all of these new appointments almost as easily as donald trump's folks did. >> i think that's something everybody is figuring out here and i wonder if the trump folks realize how much time they may be wasting doing what they're doing right now. we shall see. i'm going to phawes pause h. i felt like...

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welcome back. "data download" time more than a month after election day. the story for many is how close the presidential race was. all the though many expected a wider margin, the relative closeness of biden's 4 1/2-point popular victory over donald trump should not have been a surprise. compared to recent years, it really wasn't that close at all. biden's margin of victory was also bigger in all but one election in 2000, including george w. bush's win in 2004 and barack obama's 3.9 "parasite" in 2012. the only bigger margin barack obama's 2008 bigger win, was just above a percentage victory over john mccain. but as we learned, the popular vote does not decide the

victory, it's the electoral college. those victories have been narrowing as well. since 2000, only one has a presidential candidate carried more than 30 states, george w. bush in 2004. that may sound like a lot today but a presidential candidate breaking 30 states, that used to be pretty common. at least in my childhood. let's look at the 80s. each presidential winner captured 40 or more states on the way to the white house. even bill clinton carried more than 30 states. in fact, we can go even further back, in the 19th elections from 1920 to 1922, the winner of the presidential race carried fewer than 32 states just three times. remember, bush's 31-state win in 2004 is the most stagts we've seen a candidate win in the 21st century period. here's another way to think about it, since 1988, every presidential election has been decided by single-digit margins in the popular vote. nine straight presidential elections going back to george

h.w. bush in '88. to define a string of close races like that, you had to go back more than a century when the country saw single-digit elections between 1976 and 1800. the economy was transitioning. we're getting out of the civil war still, not a surprise that was a polarizing time as well. the deep divides in our country made rager thin margins the norm every four years, making it increasingly difficult for whichever party comes out on top to get anything done. when we come back, how hard is it to keep a ♪ ♪ ♪ yea, as long as i got you then baby, ♪ ♪ you know that you've got me, oh! ♪ ♪ ♪

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welcome back. now a little bit of a focus on the incoming administration.

steve kornacki, as president-elect biden puts together a cabinet, you won't be surprised not everybody is happy with the picks so far. there's a little bit of an issue when it comes to representation. let me just put together a few comments we have here. i really thought that at this stage of the game i would see more african-americans in top positions said a democratic member from new jersey. it's no secret we don't see too many asian-americans there, do we, said the dnc's chair of the asian-american pacific island caucus. we're very concerned as a latino community said congressman gonzalez. steve, it appears, you know, right now we know latinos, they believe they don't have anybody it looks like in the big four. you see african-americans, jim clyburn has said this, he would like to see that pace increase. what kind of pressure is the biden campaign feeling on this? >> it's interesting, there's the question of demographic

representation, the ideological progression, progressive wing of the party, what they're looking for here. i think the political context when you talk about demographic representation is interesting because the victory joe biden put up in the november election came with democrats losing ground with nonwhite voters, specifically latino voters, to some degree african-american men. certainly there's evidence there when you look at like orange county in california, look at some of the house races out there. ihiwhite voters but not as wide a margin they were expecting. and i think that's a question to look at going forward. is that something that reverts to mean in the biden era or is

there a start of the trend that continues in some ways and could alarm democrats? >> kimberly atkins, as steve mentioned, it's not just about demographic representation. you have ideological disputes as well. we know the bernie sanders world not happy at neera tanden is the designee for budget director. what does the biden have to worry about politically both on the ideological appointments and demographic appointments? >> i think the main issue here isn't so much necessarily counting the numbers. there are x number of progressives, x number of black and brown folks in his cabinet, it's who they are, where they are and what they're doing and that applies in both of these situations. you have the biden administration coming in, in the middle of a pandemic and right on the heels of things like protests, demands for justice in the form of policing reform. and so you see the people and

while it's true -- what you said is true, the share of black and brown voter is strong but it was black and brown voters in states like georgia and states like michigan and wisconsin, helped joe biden win. what i'm hearing from folks who are not entirely pleased with the picks so far is he hasn't shown that the people closest to him understand the issues that drove the voters to the polls in the first place. understand the issues that when you're talking about going forward is progressives, black people, brown people, latino, asian-americans, to the polls to ensure the democratic party is showing them it's a party for them. i know joe biden wants to rely on people he knows, people that he trusts, which includes neera tanden. at the same time he has to be willing to listen to those closest to him. so he has to demonstrate that in some of the positions remaining, particularly hhs and attorney general, those are the ones folks are watching closely.

>> they definitely are. and becerra suddenly i affront runner, he's the current attorney general in california, former member of congress, i think that tells you that they've at least been listening to the latino criticism. jeff mason here, it does seem as if joe biden has an interesting challenge here. it seems he does owe representation particularly to the african-american community. he said it himself, they had his back, so he's got to have theirs. one could argue he has a mandate to dis progressives. he probably can't get saying it that way but they were decidedly not only not with him, they tried to defeat him. >> yes, and i think the message from biden camp on all of this, whether it's progressives or concern from other minority groups, is we hear you but we've got this. and he does feel like he has a mandate and he's also facing the reality that president trump did

not face, which is when he governs, he's likely to continue to face challenges from his own party. but he's aware of that and he has said repeatedly, look, i didn't pull the wool over anybody's eyes during this election. i'm a moderate. that's who i am. that's my background and that's how i'm going to govern. >> danny pilot csplittingio, a t ache moderate is a conservative's liberal. this cabinet looks more center left than it does progressive left. >> it does in some cases and politico reported last week the national security progressives and far left activist groups like win without war and code pink are trying to coordinate their response to these appointments. they're trying to stop, for example, michelle fourth fournier, one of biden's candidates to head defense, they don't like her because she's worked with defense contractors

and that's what we're going to see, there is going to be pushback. let's remember, all of these particular parties, and this happened with donald trump as well, once they lose that outside bogeyman, they become circular firing squads and it becomes very hard to get stuff done. >> steve kornacki, tonight you're supposed to explain the nfl playoff picture to us. here in washington the football team would like to know if they can make the playoffs but a lot of us are thinking are we going to have a recount when it comes to the nfc east and maybe those ballots ought to be thrown out? >> the nfc east is going to test if it's possible for 6-10 to actually make the playoffs. you look zejs those three teams are playing today near the top now, the possibility no one is going to have a losing record i think very strong there, winning record. >> forget the pressure of election night mapping, we're going to see you tonight "football night in america" with steve kornacki. i look forward to it.

thank you, panel and thank you all for watching. we'll be back next week because if it's sunday, it's "meet the press."

welcome to a new week. and we've got the latest on rudy giuliani's covid condition, plus hospitalizations soaring across the nation as states crack down even harder. coronavirus vaccines will be distributed in the uk this week, but how safe are they and should people trust them? our dr. john torres weighs in. with just 18 days to christmas, it's being called ship-ageddon >> caught on camera, a really life grinch busted in the act of stealing dozens of christmas trees but what hpe