voters. >> ramping up election conspiracy theories, accuseding republicans of outright stilling the election, kind of rich. you know what? sounds sore loser-ish. >> music's a nice touch. i wouldn't have thought of that. with thanks and a tip of the hat to the daily show, that'll take us off the air this tuesday night with thanks to you for spending this time here with us. on behalf of all my colleagues at the networks of nbc news, good night. as the supreme court heard arguments in a case that could gut obamacare and strip health care from millions of americans, president-elect joe biden took the stage at the queen theater in wilmington, delaware, to make the case for the health care bill he and president obama shepherded into law. and he promised that as president come january he will fight for americans health coverage. also today the biden-harris

presidential transition announced its transition teams for the various federal agencies. "the washington post" describes the team as, quote, a list of 500 experts in federal policy from diplomacy to space exploration who will form the backbone of biden's preparations to lead the federal government in january learning from the work force what to expect at every agency from personnel, technology, policy and program matters. and why wouldn't joe biden be preparing? he won the election. as votes continue to be tabulated biden's popular vote lead today neared 4.7 million votes. more than 3% margin over donald trump. the last time a challenger ousted a first time president by a margin bigger than that was when fdr unseated herbert hoover in 1932. so that's it. let's call that earth one.

some might just call it reality. joe biden won re-election by a decisive majority. then there's earth two. >> is the state department currently preparing to engage with the biden transition team? and if not at what point does a delay hamper or pose a risk to national security? >> there will be a smooth transition to a second trump administration. >> that was donald trump's secretary of state today. i would play you the comments from the president himself except we don't have any because we haven't heard from the president in a few days except on twitter where he frequently post things in all caps like "we will win." the trump administration is now in day three of refusing to sign-off on any transition resources for the president-elect's team. normally the transition team could go start getting a lay of the land at the various federal agencies. but the trump administration literally won't let them in the

door. the office of the director of national intelligence today said it will have no contact with the biden transition. the office of national intelligence. classified intelligence briefings are routine for presidents elect, but not this time. the white house has instructed federalagy agents to continue preparing president trump's budget proposal for the next fiscal year. that's a proposal that would be issued in february. one telling "the washington post," quote, they're pretending nothing happened. we're all supposed to pretend this is normal and do all this work when we know we're just going to have to throw it all away, end quote. the trump administration is also continuing to vet new political appointees for jobs in a second trump term. this after the white house warned any current political appointees that they will be fired if they are caught looking for a new job, because why would you need a new job if this administration is continuing into a second term? a day after firing the defense

secretary president trump has installed loyalists in several pentagon top jobs today. the new active defense secretary's chief of staff will be cash patel who is mostly known for helping republican congressman devin nunes in his attempts to diz credit the russia investigation. trump also installed a guy as under-secretary of defense for policy whom he tried to failed to put into the pentagon earlier this year because he was too controversial even for the republican senate. this politico headline sums it up. an official who once called obama a terrorist leader takes over pentagon policy. okay, that's defense. let's go over to justice department. no one quite knew what to make of trump's attorney general issuing a memo yesterday authorizing federal prosecutors to start investigating voter fraud. but the long time official in charge apparently thought the memo was bad enough he stepped

down from his post because of it. it is just increasingly so weird. even as the biden transition back over here on earth one is staffing up a new investigation for the guy who won, the trump white house over here on earth two is cleaning house for a second term in office or something. do they think if they pretend the election didn't happen joe biden is just going to go away and? and sf trump and his allies are in delusional denial or something more sinter, an actual plan to use the defense department and justice department to make that happen? i mean, did trump fire his defense secretary an act of political spite because he wanted to punish him for a perceived lack of loyalty, or was there something very, very bad that donald trump wanted mark esper to do but he wouldn't so he removed him? is mike pompeo just kind of joking about a second trump administration to keep the boss happy and needle the press? is bill barr just issuing memos

that will keep the president and his base happy but won't actually result in any action? with this flurry of personnel changes is trump just trying to install loyalists who'll remain and cause trouble in a biden administration which would be bad enough? or he planning to use the defense and intelligence apparatus to actually do something in the next 71 days? at "the washington post" tonight david ignaceous reports that there's a fierce battle underway inside the administration over declassifying intelligence about what else? russia. in this version of events trump is installing loyalists across the national security apparatus because he wants help releasing information that he thinks will undermine the conclusion that russia interfered in the 2016 election to help him. because trump is still obsessed with that. even in the waning days of his presidency. whatever reason, none of this is

good. but the question seems to be is this bad or really, really bad? at least one person is professing not to be concerned at all what the trump administration is up to right now. and that person is joe biden. >> we are already beginning a transition. we're well underway, and the ability for the administration in any way failure to recognize our win, there's not change in dynamic at all what we're able to do. we've announced yesterday as you know a health group put together today, we're going to be going, moving along in a consistent manner putting together our administration in the white house and reviewing who we're going to pick for the cabinet positions. and nothing's going to stop that. and so i'm confident that the fact they're not willing to acknowledge we won at this point is not of much consequence in

our planning and what we're able to do between now and january 20th. we're going to do exactly what we'll be doing if he had conceded and said we've won, which we have. so there's nothing really changing. >> but not ruling out legal action? >> i don't see a need for legal action, quite frankly. i think the legal action is you're seeing it play out, the actions he's taking. and so far there is no evidence of any of the asrgs made by the president or secretary of state pompeo. secretary state pompeo. >> what do you say to the americans tat are anxious over the fact president trump has yet to concede and what that might mean for it country? well, i just think it's an embarrassment quite frankly. the only thing that how can i say this tactfully, i think it

will not help the president's legacy. >> how do you expect to work with republicans if they won't even acknowledge you as president-elect? >> they will. they will. thank you all so very much. >> all right, that's joe biden broadcasting reassuring from earth one where he is president-elect and everything is moving along just fine. but like i said there's this whole other world inside the white house moving along in parallel where everyone is pretending that none of this is actually happening. and eventually i'm wondering whether these two worlds have to collide how worried should we be about this? joining me now is the president and ceo of the leadership conference on civil and human rights. also the former head of the civil rights division in the obama justice department. ms. gupta, good to see you again. thank you for making time to be here tonight. we've got these two parallel universes. where do they head in your opinion? >> i actually think there's one

earth, ali. and the other one is some bizarre satellite floating out there. i don't think we should give it credence. a lot of us didn't expect for trump to concede, so none of this is strange or new. in fact, we predicted this very scenario. but the fact of the matter is all these legal tactics, the barr memo, the litigation losing in courts around the country, the aim really is about disruption. disruption, disinformation, sowing chaos, seeking to undermine the biden win where american voters decided this election. they overwhelming voted for biden. nothing that any of these tactics or rhetoric is going to change that. president biden will take and exit the white house. we have to make sure we're understanding these antics for what they are. they are aimed at creating fear

that, you know, there's some nefarious plot that somehow trump will not leave. the choice isn't his and american voters clearly decided this election. >> i want to pull up an article. "the seattle times" called it officials in every state, no evidence of voter fraud. it quotes from an official frank lurose, an republican who serves as ohio secretary of state, the conspiracy theories and rumors and all of those things run rampant. for some reason elections breed that type of mythology, but the fact is that reporting by "the new york times" and our reporting here at nbc and everybody else's reporting is that there is slow counting going on. there are complexities from mail-in ballots, but no widespread fraud being alleged or small scale fraud being alleged except from rudy giuliani and folks like that.

don't forget in 2016 an election trump actually won he was claiming even 3 to 5 million people had voted illegally, no evidence to back it up. he started, you know, a scam commission that also didn't find any evidence. i feel like we've all been saying the same thing for years and years. and guess what? oh, they're saying the same thing, too. the doj, dragnet witch hunt whatever it is for pr purposes is going to find the same thing. it really doesn't amount to anything. we should just keep our focus on this is all very intentional. you know, it's a shame, of course, and a disgrace that it is taking republicans so long to call b.s. to be honest with you it seems a lot of them are doing this to placate the president. i don't think that's acceptable. more and more are coming out and congratulating the president-elect biden for his

win. but this is -- do i think this is good for democracy, no. do i think it's aimed at undermining confidence especially among trump voters in a biden win and to undermine faith in a biden administration? yes, that is harmful. i'll not going to deny that. i don't think this is good for our democracy. i don't think this is good for our country. it is an embarrassment, but at the end of the day does it change the result? absolutely not. and a lot of us believe that this is exactly what trump was going to do either 70 days i think until january 20th we're going to have put up a lot of this. but as president-elect biden said today, you know, folks are moving forward. we've got, you know, over 10 million cases in this country of covid since it arrived on our shores. people are still dying. there's work to do. there's an agenda, a substantive agenda to now plan for and get ready for, a cabinet that believes in science, you know, facts and that actually upholds the missions of the agencies

that it's going to be a new day, and we have to be just looking forward on that given that american voters decided and all of this is pure distraction, noise and bluster. >> good to see you again. thanks for being with us. the president and ceo of the leadership conference on civil and human rights. she's the former head of the civil rights division in the obama justice department. joining me now, ben rhodes, deputy security advisor under president obama. i want to have a conversation with you about the national security apparatus, because there's a bit of a question here as to what's going on. there's understandable fear on the part of observers about whether donald trump is just playing games with changing people around in the national security and defense establishment or whether he's playing with the military because he thinks he wants to stay in office and expects them to help him do so. give me some evaluation of what you think is going on the military and national security

side. >> well, ali, here's my evaluation. the people that he's elevated to these roles at dod and at the national security agency are not the kind of people that you would turn to start a war or even to use the military to somehow stay in power. these are the same conspiracy theories that worked for devin nunes, that have been trying to undermine the russian investigation since the beginning of his administration. it includes the guy who moved that infamous ukraine call onto a secret servicer to try to hide it. it includes the guy who came up this theory it was an unmasking done, these had been debunked theories. so to me the signal he's sending is less he's going to use the military to stay in power or more he's going to use the time in office to validate in some fashion his conspiracy theories by selectively releasing classified information. that's what this is about. it's about trying to exonerate donald trump or the reality

russia helped him get elerkted in 2016 and about trying to undermine the incoming biden administration and some right wing cloud of conspiracy scandal. >> so that's the better news of the two options i gave you that's the better one that he's not planning to use the national security apparatus and the military to stay in office. but how bad is that? vuneta just made the point it's not good for democracy, good for the country. but in the end is it work that can be undone? donald trump is using it last 71 days to rile up his base and have conspiracy theories spread around, but in the end will it mat snr. >> i think it's really bad, ali, for a few reasons. number one, these people are completely incompetent and unqualified. they have no business running the united states military, the pentagon, one of it largest perhaps the most powerful institution in the world and you've got a bunch of conspiracy theorists in charge. what if something happens around the world that requires the

response of the united states government and the only people left in charge are these people? that's problem one. number two the relentless conspiracy theorizing. look, a lot of our fellow americans live in the information ecosystem of earth two. and they're going to be filled with conspiracy theory and hate that's going to seek to delegitimize joe biden and seek to launder information into perhaps the republican senate and going to undermine this nation's capacity to solve problems and further divide us. >> you touched on something really interesting, ben. sorry, i didn't want to interrupt you but you did touch on something interesting. the whole point of a peaceful transition of power is that the world knows that's how it's going to be so don't mess with the united states between election day and inauguration day because it's good. we've got this thing sown up and the danger of not sending that message is real. >> it's absolutely real because there's two things you have to do in a transition. one maintain the credibility of

the united states government so no one tests us from a national security perspective. two, make it easier for an incoming team to hit the ground running. and they're going to do everything they can to prevent that from happening. you don't have the capacity for people to get in, get up to speed. i also say it's discrediting these institutions to have the secretary of state, you know, say something about we're going to have a peaceful transition of power and he runs to the state department that usually issues statements expressing concern when foreign officials seek to stay in power through the kinds of means we're seeing. the united states military, the pentagon, having people like this in charge it's a discredit to that institution. on his way out donald trump is doing what he's done thus far but in a flagrant way. he's putting his own personal interest ahead of the nation. >> ben, as national security advisor, deputy national

security advisor you did deal with the military. and the one thing that everybody who's actually served in the military or who is in the military tells me there is no discussion and there will be no discussion about the military helping donald trump stay in power if on december 13th as expected the electoral college cast its ballots for joe biden as the next president of the united states. he will be sworn in on january 20th and the military will play no role in keeping donald trump in power. >> 100%. the united states military wants nothing to do with this. and ever since that fiasco in lafayette park where you had the chairman of the joint chief of staff going to express regret and apologize for even being a part of that it's been veer clear the united states military does not want to be pushed into an uncomfortable position and serbly not by this cast of characters. these people aren't in any position to command or direct the military to do that kind of thing. so i think americans as joe biden said shouldn't worry that joe biden's not going to be president on january 20th.

he is. there's reason to worry, no, about what these people are up to, how that further divides this country in this kind of cesspool of theorizing and scandal monitoring that doesn't accomplish anything except donald trump's desires to set a certain narrative. >> as we said last night it will not be months to heal the damage that has been done. it may be years, some worry generations. ben rhodes, deputy national security advisor under president obama thank you, sir, for making time to be with us tonight. all right, imagine for a second that i had bad ratings one night and my reaction was demanding that the ceo of nielsen, the company that tells tv shows their ratings should resign? that'd be crazy right? that's not too far off from what senators are doing after the election results didn't go their way. we'll talk about that on the other side. way. we'll talk about that on the other side so you only pay for what you need. isn't that what you just did?

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all right, welcome back. a few of you have asked so i want to clarify something. there's no new news for you to be concerned with respect to rachel. a close contact of hers tested positive for covid a few days

ago. nothing changed tonight. i think i may have worded something unusual at the top of the show that may have made you think otherwise. everything is still the same. rachel is just quarantining for her own security and everybody els. nothing new to worry about. let me talk about of people who don't believe there's any fraud in this election including two republicans who won their senate races. today made very clear, that, nope, there was no fraud in their senate races. we can probably expect the same line will be taken by north carolina republican senator tom tillis who today won his race after his democratic opponent conceded. so far calls to move on and accept the race have come from just a handful of elected republicans, most including the parties top leaders continuing to go along with if not outright endorse the president's baseless claims of voter fraud. mitch mcconnell said today republican hesitance to accept

the result was neither unusual nor alarming while at the same time suggesting republicans will not likely recognize biden's victory until the electoral college meet next month, december 13th. the number four republican in the senate today went further suggesting trump may have actually won the election. >> the president wasn't defeated by huge numbers. in fact, he may not have been defeated at all. some anonymous gop officials continue to insist officials are humoring the president and republicans tight embrace of trump is driven not by fear but of need by his supporters in the two upcoming georgia runoff contests. chris coons admitted some republican colleagues have privately asked him to congratulate biden on his win because they can't do so publicly. just how much damage is being down by congressional

republicans refusal to accept results and what does it say about the possibility of any meaningful working relationship going forward with a new president-elect? joining us now new jersey senator and as of today the new vice chair of democratic policy and communications committee cory booker. senator, good to see you. thank you for being with us. congratulations on your new leadership position. you know, last time you and i talked donald trump had talked about how you were going to goamerica emphasis suburbs and mess them up for everybody. if you could give me insight for what's going on for your republican colleagues in the senate right now and they whoir hesitant to congratulate joe biden because they seem to be believing in private on the down low that he did win the election. >> i can't -- i really can't. i can't understand those calculations, but clearly the numbers just don't add up. it was not a close election. joe biden won with the most votes in american history. it was a victory for joe biden. he won the popular vote.

victory for joe biden. he won the electoral college vote. a victory for joe biden he won in so-called blue states, purple states and he even picked up some so-called red states. joe biden won this election no matter how you look at it, and the baseless claims that have not been proven the trump administration has lost legal case after legal state in state after state after state. and so this is going to be a challenging time because donald trump doesn't have many stages of grief. he just has one right now which is denial. and i think that that is going to mean this is going to be a very rocky days and weeks ahead. but amidst it all you're seeing something really incredible which is almost a hopeful sign for the resurrection of grace in the white house. you saw joe biden today not take shots at the outrageous

statements of people like secretary pompeo. he didn't even attack donald trump. he showed grace and honor and showed us what our expectations can be for a president that is not going to get into the gutter. you know you cannot wrestle with the pig without yourself getting muddy. he's going to try to take all of us, democrats, republicans, independents to a higher level by demonstrating like he did today elements of grace and honor and decency, not falling into argument, accusation and reaction. >> so let's explore that for a second because that is joe biden. anybody who knows joe biden and you do know that's him, that's his authentic self, right? but there are some people including on my twitter time line right now and probably yours who would like to see someone wrelsstle with the pig. this may end on december 13th. maybe then donald trump will accept it once the electoral college has cast its ballots. but until then it's kind of

outrageous. >> look, you know, see who we have built monuments to whether it is lincoln in the middle of a divided nation doesn't pile on but says with malice towards none, with charity towards all. take someone like mooukt who didn't beat up o'connor by bringing bigger dogs and bigger fire hoses but by calling to the moral imagination of a country to dream, to aspire, to be our best sefbls. i really believe that this has got to be a moment where we just don't see the resurrection of grace in the white house, but all of us have to begin to ask ourselves how we can be a part of a civic revival of grace as well because right now our democracy is hurting. it really is. it is broken. it is bruised. it is wounded, and what is going to heal it is not simply standing up like i do and other

democrats and say we're right, you're wrong but finding ways to stand your ground but also to reach out your hand, a hand of redemption, a hand of healing because if we continue in the way of donald trump we're going to just continue to tear each other down which is playing into the hands of our adversaries, the chinese and russian media are having a field day about the behavior of donald trump and the crisis he's causing our democracy. we are americans and we all need to commit ourselves to the difficult challenge of putting more indivisible back into the nation of this one under god. >> senator, may your noble words come true. may that be what actually ends up happening because we can use it. always appreciate your time, sir. thank you. >> thank you, ali. >> want to know how long the last few weeks has been? justice amy coney barrett was confirm today the supreme court

two weeks ago. today the supreme court with amy coney barrett heard a case that could have an impact on the health care of 20 million americans. supreme court reporter extraordinaire nina totenberg joins us next. nina totenberg joins us next. took charge for it. so care for it. look after it. invest with the expertise of j.p. morgan, either with an advisor or online, through chase. after all, it's yours. chase. make more of what's yours. but today there's a combination of two immunotherapies you can take first. one that could mean... a chance to live longer. opdivo plus yervoy is for adults newly diagnosed with non-small cell lung cancer that has spread and that tests positive for pd-l1 and does not have an abnormal egfr or alk gene. it's the first and only approved chemo-free

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if you're living with hiv . . . . . . keep loving who you are. and ask your doctor if biktarvy is right for you. north dakota has a meter system for tracking the risk of contracting covid across the state. if your canty is in the green of risk of contracting covid is low. in red counties the risk of contracting covid is high. for north dakota last updated by the state yesterday afternoon. the entirety of north dakota lit up red. the risk of contracting covid high in 53 of 53 north dakota counties. yesterday the governor of north dakota announced that hospitals in his state are at 100% capacity. not just in parts of the state, across the entire state. hospitals are completely full because of the surge in covid positive patients arriving at their doors. the governor says the state is

running out of health care staff to tend to all those beds, and so he's authorizing -- listen to this -- authorizing covid positive nurses to care for covid patients as long as they're asymptomatic. and while the situation is particularly dire in north dakota it really is just one snapshot of a picture that's forming across it country tonight. yesterday covid hospitalizations in the united states reached their peak, their highest peak actually since july. we continue to clock new case records in this country day after day after day. it's clear it's against that backdrop that republicans were back at the supreme court today trying to take health care away from tens of millions of people in this country. the supreme court heard oral arguments today in the latest case championed by republicans to try and strike down the affordable care act. the lawsuit is remarkably backed by the trump administration. it's a u.s. law the trump administration is supposed to be backing that law.

they're actually joining the lawsuit against it. if successful more than 20 million people could be kicked off their heth insurance without any alternative. put it another way. 20 million people who currently have health insurance during an uncontrolled public health crisis would suddenly not have it if the republicans win at the supreme court. during oral arguments today at least five of the nine justices indicated in their remarks they might reject this latest challenge to the affordable care act. those justices included not just the liberal minority on the court but also the chief justice roberts as well as one of the president's picks, brett kavanaugh. now, warning, reading between the lines of justices questioning is a risky game. this case will not be settled once and for all until the court issues its official ruling sometime between now and next june. there's reason for cautious optimism tonight for people who would like obamacare to remain the law of the land. joining us now nina totenburg,

all around supreme court whisperer. nina, it is great to see you. make sense of this for me. we would have seen this once before because chief justice roberts didn't kill obamacare the last time he had a chance to do so using a legal argument about it. what do we see now? >> this was a little bit like ground-hog day. you've been here before. twice before there's been cases that were serious challenges to the affordable care act. this was the third one. and i think at minimum there appeared to be five justices who clearly weren't ready to strike down the entire law which is what the trump administration and a bunch of republican dominated states are asking the court to do. and they maintain that it's a

very complicated legal question. they maintain that because the congress in 2017 got rid of the penalty if you didn't have health insurance, that because of that the -- it's no longer a tax. the penalty is no longer tax, and that's what saved it last time was chief justice roberts vote saying it looks like a tax, it walks like a tax, it is a tax. and the congress has the power to levy taxes. well, it's no longer a tax they said and therefore -- therefore the law and all the language about a mandate in that single provision of the statute infects essentially the rest of the law. and the whole thing, pre-existing conditions, medicaid, all those provisions should be struck down they meant. and i would say there were five justices who i think more than

they usually do sent pretty strong signals that they're not buying that argument. that in the word of chief justice roberts in another case that you want to act with a scalpel not a bulldozer when you're dealing with a congressional act. >> and justice kavanaugh said that during oral arguments. he said, quote, it does seem fairly clear tat the proper remedy would be to sever the mandate provision which you were talking about and leave the rest in place. that was what kavanaugh said. chief justice rob said a similar point. so the mandate, the penalty it's the same terminology, but they're basically saying if that's the problem they can sever that, get rid of it and the affordable care act, the body of it including the provision to cover pre-existing conditions can remain, and then it would be up to congress to make it work in some fashion, to

fund it the way it needs to be funded. >> well, and the chief justice said something even more interesting. he said i think they wanted us to strike it down, but that's not our job. it was a pretty -- it was a pretty telling and somewhat snarky comment aimed i think principly at the trump administration and republicans in congress who try to repeal this act over and over and over again and failed. >> i think they tried 50 plus times or something like that and roberts is just saying this is your job not ours. thank you for being with us. npr's legal affairs correspondent and a supreme court expert. thank you. do you know what you're doing for thanksgiving this year? what are you going to do to make it safe in the middle of this pandemic? it'd be helpful to hear what dr.

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thanksgiving is an important family holiday. i mean, every family is different, angie. if you have someone in t