good day, everyone. i'm andrea mitchell in washington, as we honor the military on this viseterans day and an unyielding president trump still preventing the biden administration from moving forward and still refusing to concede. the president making his first public appearance in six days to commemorate veterans day after firing his fourth defense secretary and installing loyalists at top civilian ranks at the pentagon. president-elect joe biden also observing presidenti ies' da -- day today.

the trump administration is denying president-elect biden the daily intelligence brief. >> i think it's an embarrassment, quite frankly. i think it will not help the president's legacy. >> reporter: 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. >> senate majority leader mitch mcconnell, following the president's lead as he tries to save the republican majority by winning those two georgia senate runoff elections in january. mcconnell has almost all of the republican senators following him in lockstep. joining me now, nbc white house correspondents kristen welker and peter alexander, co-hosts of "weekend today," and two members of president obama's 2008 transition team, chris lu and stephanie kotter. peter alexander at the white

house, you pointed out this morning, we still have a month before all states will certify election results so this behavior from president trump could go on for a while. >> reporter: andrea, i think you're exactly right. in the conversations i've had with folks close to the president including white house aides, they say that the president will not concede at any point. they say it's more likely he'll say something along the lines of that he has acknowledged the results but that we'll never know the full accuracy of them. in the words of one aide, though, this situation is unsustainable. the president's continued unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud despite there being no evidence of that to this point. a former white house official says people inside the white house are embarrassed by what they're witnessing right now. and what's remarkable for the president, you continue to hear him sort of pushing forward with this but at the same time as he is sort of claiming victory, he's also opened up a leadership pac, one of those committees, a

fundraising vehicle to raise money for his future political activities that include potentially a run in 2024. so he's sort of doing one thing publicly while at the same time doing another here. nonetheless, you know, what strikes me as i have these conversations is how this could extend for a period of time. i asked when will the president conclude this thing, when does it end. they said likely after certification. that means this could drag out into december, andrea. wisconsin, the last of the sort of crucial battlegrounds, doesn't certify its vote counts until december 1. >> and that's bumping up against the electoral college decisionmaking in december as well. kristen welker in wilmington, president-elect biden trying to project calm in the face of all this disruption from the white house. there are some technical things, he says the intelligence brief doesn't matter because you only have one president at a time. it would certainly be helpful in having the state department

cooperating in making and receiving all these calls from foreign leaders, so he would know more about the latest intel on these leaders, and of course what's happening at the pentagon. >> reporter: that's right. i think you have president-elect joe biden trying to project calm, as you say, andrea, and yesterday during that press conference that he held, calling the president's actions an embarrassment, because there are real world and practical implications to them. of course our mike memoli pressed biden on this as well, what are the implications of not having the transition move forward? and some of the implications are that they don't have access to millions of dollars for the transition, so critical funds being held up. and then of course he doesn't have access to his intelligence briefings, at the same time that he's having conversations with world leaders. in fact more world leaders than republicans have reached out to him. so there's a practical implication and effect to all of that. and of course, andrea, the

broader piece of this, the fact that you have heard biden to stress the need for the country to come together, that was really his first message out of the gate once he was declared the winner of this election. so all of this confusion could potentially run the risk of only deepening the divides within this country. at the same time, biden and his transition team are moving forward, they say unfetterred by the fact that this hasn't been officially acknowledged by the gsa, despite the fact that the president has not officially conceded. and part of the ways in which they were doing that are by focusing on key policies like fighting covid. yesterday, of course, biden put the focus on health care amidst those arguments in the supreme court to overturn obamacare. so what you are seeing is biden really move forward with the work of being a president-elect. we know he's going to have more meetings today, where he is in the process of determining who will be on his team in the west wing. we expect those announcements to come within the coming days. but again, there's a real world impact to all of this.

what you're seeing at the pentagon, the fact that president trump has ousted some key leadership roles there and replaced them with his allies. you have democrats on capitol hill and some republicans expressing real concern, andrea, that the national security risks could be quite significant. >> and stephanie kotter, the members of the transition team are dealing with these roadblocks. bob bauer, someone who could be white house chief counsel, points out realities about all these recounts and losses that have been coming their way. >> since 2000, in 31 statewide recounts, the average change in votes was 430. and the median change was 267. end of story. these margins cannot be overcome in recounts. >> i mean, case in point, they just filed suit in michigan today and there's no way they can overcome the margin. the president's margin back in

2016 in michigan was under 11,000 votes and it's now way higher than that. >> right, it's tens of thousands of more than that. i think the idea of whether it's a lawsuit or a recount overturning this election are not just slim but pretty nonexistent. and that's evidenced by the fact, in addition to what bob said, these recounts don't turn thousands of votes. you know, it's a hundred, 200. and the margin in these states is so much bigger than that. so these are not going to be successful, it's a waste of time and money. in terms of the allegations of fraud, just look at what's happening in courts across the country. they're being thrown out of court. judges are asking for the evidence and there is no evidence they're putting forward. if this is the process the president needs to go through to understand that he has indeed lost, then that's fine, as long as the transition can continue, which it seems that it is, as

the vice president said yesterday and members of the transition team said yesterday. but i do want to point out, andrea, that there are some big issues facing this country. the pandemic, the economic downturn. and at some point the transition will need to move on officially. and the trump administration will need to start working with president-elect biden and his team if for no other reason, there were reports yesterday that a vaccine will be approved soon. that vaccine needs to be deployed, that will take the force of the u.s. government, and unless these two teams, the trump administration and the president-elect's team, start talking, that could be a problem. and it reminds me of 2009, when president obama was elected. we were in the middle of a financial crisis, and chris can attest to this too, we were inside the bush administration, i was sitting in the treasury

most days, working out what that transition was going to look like, because we couldn't afford any gap at that point because of the financial crisis. the american people deserved for these two teams to be working together. >> and chris lu, you know it so well, both you and stephanie, they were fighting for every vote for the rescue packages. they needed democrats, republicans, the incoming obama team needed republicans. the first bill went down. all of that was right on the knife's edge. now the military will be deployed to get this vaccine rolled out. it has to be seamless. and it doesn't start or stop on january 20, it will be a continuum. >> that's exactly right. the cooperation and collaboration that the incoming obama administration had from the bush administration really is the model for how things should be done. it's frankly the model for how all transitions should be done.

we had a peaceful transfer of power for over 200 years. we've done it during war, we've done it during depression, we've done it when there have been bitter adversaries who fought a campaign. in 2008 we collaborated around the financial crisis. as stephanie just pointed out, the economics we faced with the economic recession, with the pandemic, don't end on january 20. in the national interest, it's incumbent upon president trump to put aside his political interests, to work on these problems. but beyond that, there are also serious national security and homeland security considerations. we know that from 2000. the 9/11 commission found that the delay in the bush team getting on board created a vulnerability that led into 9/11. and as stephanie knows, in 2008-2009, on inauguration day 2009, there was a threat of a terrorist attack on the inauguration. and that required the outgoing obama -- the outgoing bush and the incoming obama teams to cooperate around that. so this is bigger than just

politics. >> indeed. i just want to read something that just broke, peter. the dallas minister robert jeffers, leading pro-trump evangelical minister, saying biden is president-elect and saying, it may be a bitter pill but christians are not hypocrites and must accept biden's victory. that's a key ally, peter. >> reporter: it's not going to sit that well with the president. he's reached out to the faith community. i've spoken to dr. jeffers over the last couple years and he's showered president trump with praise. so this is particularly striking. kristen hit this home, the president-elect, joe biden, has had more conversations with world leaders than he's had with senate republicans to this point. five world leaders at least that we know of that he's spoken to as opposed to four senate republicans who have spoken out. and as you speak to those

republicans within the president's orbit right now, one of the real concerns is that this is doing real damage not just to the president's legacy but also to the republican party at large right now, with eyes on what happens in georgia, that runoff to take place in early january. they fear the president is harming the party, andrea. >> we'll have to leave it there. kristen welker, peter alexander, chris lu, stephanie kotter, thanks to all of you. covid-19 cases are surging out of control across the country. a report from one of the hardest-hit cities, el paso, coming up next. and ahead, medical miracle. that's what a participant in the pfizer vaccine trial says about the shot that could save millions of lives. water isaacson tells us about his experience in the trial, coming up ahead as more doctors on the front lines warn americans still need to protect themselves right now. ill need t

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coronavirus cases are escalating rapidly in an uncontrolled surge. nearly 62,000 people were hospitalized in the u.s. yesterday, a record high as medical facilities are bursting at the seams. there is no coordinated federal response. a new epicenter emerging in texas. hardest-hit is el paso with more people hospitalized in that border city of 700,000 than in some entire states. the strain causing the city to bring in new mobile morgues. all this amid a legal battle after a county judge issued an executive shutdown order. that's been challenged by the state government. joining me now is nbc's morgan chesky in el paso.

morgan, how are they going to resolve this, the legal dispute first of all? >> reporter: andrea, that is a very good question. we could see this play out all the way up to the texas supreme court. that order that shut down all the nonessential businesses in el paso expires at midnight tonight. i spoke to the county judge, he tells me his gut tells him to extend it due to support from the medical community and the sheer rising numbers in nearly every statistic covid-related in el paso. but evaluated yhe has yet to mal decision as of right now. behind me are tents that have been brought in to try and accommodate the influx of patients the community is seeing. medical personnel from the air force and army are doing the best they can to try to handle these covid patients here that are more stable in these tents. meanwhile, as this order is being argued back and forth, the judge tells me that it's frustrating to see a community not take it as seriously as he would like. take a listen.

>> they're looking at yesterday's numbers and wondering if it makes sense. i'm looking at our numbers today and the trajectory of what would happen if we don't intervene. what do you tell the families right now, right this very moment, that they can't come and their loved ones' bodies are in these trailers? what do you tell them? we're fighting the virus and they're fighting whether or not i have the authority. >> reporter: andrea, those mobile morgue trailers are located just about a hundred or so yards from where i'm standing. so tragic to hear that due to the sheer influx of patients and bodies, the judge told me that families are climbing a nearly parking garage to look down on those trailers to say their final goodbyes. andrea? >> that is heartbreaking. morgan chesky, thank you so much. dr. mario ramirez joining me

now, an emergency room physician now in mclean, physician, the former acting director at the office of pandemic and emerging threats at the department of health and human services. also i think you are a texas native, dr. ramirez. the prospect of people climbing a garage to look out on a trailer to say farewell to their loved ones is beyond heartbreaking, i don't even kowe how to describe it. >> it's terrible, andrea, this is terrible on a number of levels. obviously it's super sad for the families themselves. it's very frustrating i think because we could have really avoided this situation with some better planning. i think this is really where the issue of state control and kind of local responsibility has really broken down. you and i have talked about this several months ago. the other thing i think it points out, for those talking about this idea of natural herd

immunity, this is what it looks like. if we let the virus spread unchecked, this is going to be what happens all across america. >> and it's scott atlas' influence on the president. this is this doctor, he's not an infectious disease expert, he's a radiologist from california and he was a fox commentator, he ends up in the white house, they push out the experts for all intents and purposes, we don't have white house task force meetings, they had the first one two days ago from october, and now you've got this lack of a federal response. cdc belatedly yesterday putting out the guidance that masks work both ways, that it helps you as well as the person around you. when it was totally available information for months. >> yeah, i think you're right, andrea. i think there were two pieces of helpful information in that report, though. the first, right, is that it does seem like it helps the wearer both from contracting the disease and from spreading it, that meets the common sense threshold. the other thing it did was make

an economic argument for more mask-wearing. their economic analysis, they were able to show if we just had greater universal compliance by about 15%, we could save about $1 trillion in lost gdp. i think what that tries to tell people who are not necessarily believers in mask wearing from the science perspective, you know, the message that i would want them to hear is that if you can just buy into this and use the mask, that you can help your fellow business people and other folks who are just trying to stay afloat for the next couple of months until we get to a vaccine. >> how much will the failure to participate in a transition impede the efforts of the incoming biden administration to get up to speed on the pandemic? >> we've certainly seen that poor coordination relies the virus to spread regardless of who is in office, right? that's what's allowed a lot of this to spread over the last six months, because the federal government has not been coordinated well with the

states. i think the folks part of the biden transition team and task force are some of the smartest people i know and i have confidence they'll be able to get this under control. but we're about to experience a pivot in policy in the way the federal government is approaching this. the longer we forego coordination, the longer it will be before we make that pivot. there's a lot of pain in the country ahead, the longer that we hold that off. >> dr. ramirez, thanks so much for your expertise and sounding the alarm. a shake-up at the pentagon, seeing trump loyalists installed at top posts. why that's raising national security concerns. former defense secretary william cohen joining me. joining me alright, everyone, we made it.

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a shake-up at the top levels of the pentagon is alarming national security officials and former officials worldwide as trump loyalists take over senior leadership posts following the firing of secretary of defense mark esper this week and housecleaning of his top aides, including former aides to mike

flynn and congressman devin nunes being hired in their place. joining me is former secretary of defense william cohen. good to see you, mr. secretary, thank you for being with us at a consequential time in national security. this pentagon shake-up, right up the command, civilian command. what concerns do you have about national security with the refusal of the administration to cooperate in any way with intelligence sharing or any other kind of transition access? >> well, it is completely inappropriate. it is reckless and consistent with how donald trump has conducted the presidency. he has determined from the outset to bend every institution to his will, to bend it and to corrupt it in the sense that he's politicizing institutions that most american people think should be nonpolitical. when you're talking about the justice department, the state

department, the defense department, even the postal service, he has managed to try and politicize them and to say, i have the power, my power is absolute, it's unconditional, and you either serve me or you get out. and so many of those who are required to follow the command of the commander in chief are coming to the conclusion that the orders that he's giving are inappropriate, they're either illegal or unethical and therefore some of them are resigning as a result of that. >> the state department is not facilitating calls between foreign leaders and the incoming biden administration because of the gsa's refusal to acknowledge the election results but it's basically because of what the president is demanding. secretary of state mike pompeo is dismissing the outcome of the election yesterday. >> is the state department currently preparing to engage with the biden transition team and if not, at what point does it delay or hamper a smooth

transition or pose a risk to national security? >> there will be a smooth transition to a second trump administration. >> this department frequently sends out statements encouraging free and fair elections abroad and for the losers of those elections to accept the results. doesn't president trump's refusal to concede discredit those efforts? >> that's ridiculous. and you know it's ridiculous. >> so what signal does that send to dictators around the world, vladimir putin, kim jong-un, the leaders in beijing, with what's going on in hong kong right now? >> it doesn't surprise them. after all, the president has made a policy of hugging dictators. and insulting our allies. so they have seen how hypocritical we have been, that we're holding the lamp of liberty up for other nations to follow us. yet he is pursuing power in a way that he wants to emulate what kim jong-un can do, what vladimir putin can do, what other autocrats or dictators can

do, he wants that power. so those who are supporting him really are subverting, contributing to subverting our own democratic values. my former republicans used to believe in the rule of law. i don't see that any longer. it's now the law of rule. i have the power, i'm going to exercise it, and you have nothing to say about it. so i think it sends a signal to the adversaries that we have that the president is going to continue to try to do what he can to throw chaos into our system, throw as many monkey wrenches as he can into the bureaucratic system. the good news is that joe biden knows exactly what needs to be done. he's got a team of advisers who are really well-seasoned. i'm sure they have access to a lot of information from within, notwithstanding president trump. i can tell you the difference, when president bush, 43, won the election, the first thing i did was call his designated

secretary of defense, don rumsfeld, and i said, don, here are the ten things i think you really have to look at when you come into this office, i'll sit down and go over it. i made a list and it came out to 59. and i sat down with him for two days going over the 59 items that they really had to be concerned about. and that's traditional. that's what a democracy is supposed to be about, that you want your successor to be in a position to protect and defend the interests of the american people. and when you stop doing that, when you throw monkey wrenches in, when you stop communicating and say i'm not going to help them, i'm not going to inform them, you're putting our nation at risk. this is totally contrary to the duty and the oath of the president of the united states and all who serve him took, to protect and defend the american people. when you don't help the incoming administration protect the country, then you have failed in your duty. you have really failed royally,

if i can use the word "royal," because the president wants to act like a royal, that everyone else is in his court and they must pay obeisance and pay tribute to him. now you have people in positions of power that he can call on and say, i want you to do the following. and those individuals are more likely to say, yes, sir, mr. commander, yes, mr. president, rather than say, mr. president, i think this is probably inappropriate, i think this may be illegal, i think this is unethical. where will be the people to stand up to him and say, mr. president, we can't do this? he wants to make sure he doesn't have anybody in those positions that have the backbone and the willingness to at least tell the president this is not advisable, this is contrary to the best interests of this country. you, mr. president, said you were a wartime president. in that capacity you should have been relieved of your duty long ago because the first story you've been talking about, we have mobile morgues being sent around the country now, bodies

are piling up. and the president hasn't said a word about that. he continues to complain about the vote counting. it's birtherism reducti-dux, ite same story about bittrtherism, wants to discredit the incoming president the same way he did barack obama. it's a sad state of affairs. hopefully it doesn't last much longer. >> thank you, secretary cohen, for your wisdom on all of this. today on this veterans day we're honoring those who served including a 99-year-old world war ii paratrooper still jumping into action. here is nbc's kevin tibbles reporting first for "nightly news." >> reporter: 76 years ago, jim pee wee martin was ready to jump. >> you stand in the door. you have a little bit apprehension but no fear, no fear at all. >> reporter: but instead of being a wide-eyed kid from ohio,

pee wee, now 99 years old, parachutes to honor all veterans for their service to country. in world war ii, the lightest soldier in his regiment, hence "pee wee," was one of the first to land and help with the liberation of france. many friends didn't make it. >> under similar circumstances, i would certainly go. >> reporter: and he still serves, this time helping fight an invisible enemy, covid. >> protecting each other starts with wearing a mask. >> reporter: on this day, he leaps out a hughie helicopter, the same type his late son flew in vietnam. >> and how do i feel about my personal service? i'm proud of what i did. and our people are proud of it. but we don't go around and talking about it. it's not necessary. >> reporter: but as a nation we must never forget. kevin tibbles, nbc news.

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pfizer's announcement that its experimental covid-19 vaccine is more than 90% effective is raising hopes across the country, indeed around the world. there are more steps in the process, but dr. anthony fauci, the nation's leading infectious disease expert told me yesterday the fda could approve its emergency use in weeks. >> by the time we get into december, we'll be able to have doses available for people who are judged to be at the highest priority to get it first. we anticipate, although there are logistic challenges, that it will be done successfully. >> would you take it? >> well, i'm going to look at the data, but i trust pfizer. i trust the fda. if they look at this data and they say this data is solid, let's go ahead and approve it, i promise you, andrea, i will take the vaccine. and i will recommend that my family take the vaccine.

>> and joining me now, walter isaacson, who is part of pfizer's covid-19 trial. he is the author of "the code breaker: gene editing and the future of the human race" to be published in march, the next great big book from walter isaacson. any side effects? i don't know whether you got the placebo or the vaccine. >> oh, no, no side effects at all. and clearly they've had 44,000 people go through this trial, half of them getting the real vaccine. there's been no side effects. there's no danger in these vaccines, especially the one that pfizer and moderna are doing, which don't even use parts of the real virus as a vaccine the way measles and mumps and polio do. it's simply a piece of rna that tells your own cells to create a spiked protein so if you get hit by coronavirus, it knows how to use antibodies against it. >> this is clearly an outgrowth

of what you were studying in your research for the book as well. so tell me why you decided to participate. and i think it is related to what you were working on. the subject of your book was just awarded the nobel prize for it. >> right, the crisper, the genetic editing revolution that's just starting now, is based on rna, which became my favorite molecule. the scientists used rna as a guide to we could cut up our genes and edit our genes. i was always interested in the rna molecule which probably started life on this planet. when i read that the vaccines didn't use the old viruses but used rna, i was down in new orleans where i lived and went online and signed up for the trial at the hospital down

there. partly, just the way you like to be involved in things. there's no bravery here, this thing is totally safe, but just like you do jury duty or maybe vote or whatever it may be, the notion of participating in a clinical trial is something we all can do and it helps you get your mind around science. you get a better feeling, here's how they're studying this, and, you know, every day i would fill out a little diary on my iphone and send it in and you would say, okay, i get how this works, this is how science works, we ought to have faith in it. >> how has participating informed your writing of the book, or maybe the book was nearly done when you started this, but it strikes me, i was talking to you when you were doing the einstein book, and da vinci, you get so involved in these wonderful scientific details, and you explain it so clearly to people. maybe you can help explain messenger rna to us. >> messenger rna is just the

main thing that rna does in our body. everybody loves dna, it's the famous brother in the pair. but rna is a sibling that actually does the work. it takes the coding from the dna, which stays hunkered down in the nucleus of our cells, and it goes to that region of our cells were proteins are built. so what a messenger rna is is just the rna that takes that message from the dna in your nucleus and says, build this protein. and the cool thing about it, in a vaccine like pfizer, moderna, and others that are using genetic vaccines, and that's what this revolution this year is happening, we're going to this new type of genetic vaccine, what that does is it can be reprogrammed every time a new virus comes along, because even after we defeat this coronavirus, which i think we'll be doing this spring with the

vaccines that will come online, there are going to be more viruses that will hit us, more coronaviruses and other types of viruses. the cool thing about an rna type vaccine is that even a college biology student in a lab could recode it and say, okay, now attack this, or create an immune system for this new virus. all you have to do is type in the new genetic code of what you're trying to inoculate against. and so to me, it's ushering in an era, you know, we all talk about our kids wanting to learn digital coding. they're going to be joined by people who learn the code of life. >> this is so fascinating. just briefly, what happens if you did get the placebo, do you have access to the vaccine itself? >> yeah, i think that -- i talked to francis collins and anthony fauci, because that's

the joy of being a reporter. they have a bioethics panel at the national insults of health that comes up with what happens in each case. so if i am in the placebo group, they unblind me once the vaccine gets approved and i'm offered the regular vaccine. >> it's just fascinating. and i'm hoping that this can, with the distribution, still reach the underserved communities such as many of the people in your town of new orleans, rather than being, you know, unequally distributed. >> this is why it's really important, what everybody's doing is figuring out how we get this out there. i think there will be a lot of doses of this vaccine. my biggest worry is that people in all communities, underserved and overserved, are going to resist this vaccine. don't do it. believe in the science. >> i know you do, and we do. thank you for communicating

that. walter isaacson, great to see you, we miss you here in washington. we'll talk again soon, i hope. ahead for the good of the country, how past presidents have put aside bitter campaign battles welcoming their rivals into the white house. yes, that did happen, it usually does. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. es you're watching "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. but we didn't stop there. we made a cloud flexible enough to adapt to any size business. no matter what it does, or how it changes. and we kept going. so you only pay for what you use. because at dell technologies, we stop...at nothing. ♪

let's flashback to 1992, the last time an incumbent president lost re-election. back then despite a very rough campaign, the transition process was nothing like what we are seeing today. when george bush walked down to welcome bill clinton to the white house, both men were ready to focus on the future, not the pain of their bitterly fought campaign. they spent twice as much time together as had been planned, including an hour and a half alone in the oval office. afterward clinton was clearly grateful for the tone bush established. >> it was a terrific meeting. the president was very helpful to me. >> and joining me now is peter baker, chief white house correspondent for "the new york times" and a.b. stoddard, associate and columnist for real clear politics. peter, you've covered your fair

share of transitions over the years. let's talk about the norms and what we just saw with bush and clinton. >> look, george h.w. bush is one of nine american presidents before now who lost in a fall election and then welcomed his successor to office. not all of them have been as gracious as george h.w. bush. some of them have been quite bitter toward their successor. but they all accepted the election. not in the kind of way we're seeing president trump do right now. >> peter, i'm sorry, i was having trouble hearing you so let me just ask it again, whether -- no, i was having trouble hearing you. let's talk about what's going on now compared even to the last, you know, obama to trump transition, which was perfectly done according to crossing all the ts and dotting the is from everything that i observed when

i was there. >> yeah. president trump had -- i'm sorry, president obama had president-elect trump to the oval office just days after the election. he shook his hand, he offered his help, he gave advice in a private meeting. his administration had set up teams and broke briefing books and all kinds of -- offered all kinds of meanings to trump's incoming team which actually didn't avail itself of what president obama had offered. they didn't really seem to care too much about what the outgoing administration had to say. obama was determined to do it because he had been so impressed by how george w. bush had handled their transition eight years earlier. that was often considered by democrats and republicans to be a model for how it was done. gracious and constructive and recognizing that the new president, whether you supported him or not, was -- is about to become the leader of the country and deserves the support of both parties as he gets started. and so i think we've seen him --

actually we've seen throughout our american history, smooth transition of power from one party to the next, from one candidate to the next, even from one president to the person who beat him with a good deal of grace and dignity and constructive efforts and not anything like what we're seeing now. >> and a.b., the late transition will have dire consequences. >> well, you know, andrea, what's amazing about this moment is that joe biden was written off during the primary all those times by the progressives who believed that he was not fit enough, ready enough, in touch with their party principles and passions and energy enough to be their nominee. all of this doubt. he ends up with the nomination. here we are in this moment. that was predictable, the president has telegraphed for months he would not concede, he would call the election rigged. here we are with joe biden with 48 years of experience in

government, relationships around the world, top team members and staffers and advisers who have been a part of all of these incredible transitions before, including the florida recount between bush and gore, and are steeped in experience and context and connections. and so of all the people that are prepared to ride out what the president is doing, which is a complete violation of the system and could have serious national security implications, joe biden at least is in a position to sort of start his transition anyway, find out a lot of information from people both inside and outside of government and overseas anyway and be helped by people because he so knows the system and is going to be ready on day one in a way that no other candidate on either side of the aisle could have been. >> we're going to have to leave it there, to be continued. peter baker, a.b. stoddard, as

always, thanks to both of you. that does it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." chuck todd is up next with mtp daily only on msnbc. and please take a moment to read how a veteran wrote about his service, the selfless sacrifice means to all of us. it's your day to tell a veteran how much that means to you. if you have time, make sure to read jeffrey smith's op-ed in "the washington post" detailing his father's timeless world war ii letters to his son. it's an extraordinary account. saluting our veterans today, on veterans day. we all have our own journey ahead of us. our own hopes and dreams. we'll pass many milestones. moments that define you. and drive you. to achieve even more. so, celebrate every one. because success isn't just about

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if it's wednesday, the covid crisis deepens, hospitals hid record levels, deaths top 1,000 a day. no more icu beds in tulsa. they're readying field hospitals in massachusetts and cases keep going up nearly everywhere. but the virus does not appear to be the top of the mind of the president these days, as he continues to refuse to recognize that he lost the election and republicans continue to keep their heads down and in the sand with their eyes on georgia and the senate majority. in a divided nation pauses today to honor the service and sacrifice of all those who