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 served in the u.s. armed forces

as americans give thanks to the heroes who have fought to defend and protect our freedoms, no matter how divisive we are with each other. welcome to wednesday. of course more importantly it's the 11th day of the 11th month, which means it is veterans day. it is also "meet the press daily." i'm chuck todd. a senior white house official tells nbc news that its fight to contest the election result is up sustainable. right now there is simply no legal pathway to overturn the results although his president and his campaign are franticly looking for one. more republicans are signaling limited patience with the efforts to disrupt the transition but are largely giving him space to air his grievances, to settle scores, to wage dubious legal fights and falsely claim rampant fraud,

undermine democracy, all of which is arguably already chipping away at what is an already fragile and fraying foundation for our democracy. why are they enabling this behavior? it may sound transactional and cynical, but for some republicans, it's about one thing, georgia and control of the senate. ends justifies the means. here's what senator john thune, number two republican leader in the senate, told politico. quote, we need trump's votes and he has a tremendous following out there. right now he's trying to get through the final stages of his election and determine the outcome there. but when that's all said and done, however it comes out, we want him helping in georgia. in other words, he said the quiet part out loud. if they want to win in georgia, republicans need president trump to stay engaged and keep his base engaged. so the signal being sent is if the president wants to toy with a constitutional crisis, so be it. it's all about majority in the

senate. ends justifies the means, right? but at one point will the party tell trump enough? especially if they need his voters? what is what we're watching as the president refuses to recognize the results. as this party enables his resistance, as he moves to install loyalists in the defense department, as his justice department moves to probe votes and as his secretary of state asserts there will be no transition. as this government tries to delay and thwart the actual transition. and amid this uncertainty, a virus is raging out of control in this country, claiming more than 1,000 lives every day and the president has no interest at all in doing a thing about that. joining me now from biden transition headquarters in wilmington, delaware, is nbc's kristen welker. peter alexander is outside the white house and garrett haake is on capitol hill. kristen, let me start with you. obviously yesterday, let me play the sound from the former vice president, this lack of

acknowledgement of the election results, it seems that joe biden has a lot more patience perhaps than a lot of people in washington. take a listen. >> 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, but i think at the end of the day, you know, it's all going to come to fruition or january 20th, and between now and then my hope and expectation is that the american people do know and do understand that there has been a transition. >> so, kristen, they had patience yesterday. what's the word today? >> i think what you're hearing is president-elect joe biden also choosing his word quite

carefully. behind the scenes there is frustration but ultimately he knows he has to work with republicans, work with leader mcdonnell in order to get legislation passed, in order to get his cabinet secretaries through, and so you hear him there walking a very fine line. now, yesterday when he was asked would he seek legal action to pressure the gsa to officially acknowledge that he has won this election, he seemed to back away from that and say i don't think that's going to be necessary. but behind the scenes they're not taking that option off the table and his top counsel overnight saying effectively any challenge by president trump is meaningless. what is happening, though, from a practical standpoint is we know that millions of dollars that would go to the transition are being held up. he's not getting his full national security briefings, and there's growing concerns quite frankly on both sides of the aisle that that could hurt national security. chuck, it could hurt something else. it could hurt what president-elect biden sees as one of his top agenda items,

which is to try to start the process of unifying this country, because right now there's a lot of confusion and there's concern that that could only create deeper divisions. how is he handling that? he is moving forward with his top agenda items, he named a coronavirus task force and yesterday he put the focus on health care and how he's going to build on obamacare. there's no doubt that these roadblocks are making it more difficult to move forward with this transition, chuck. >> but kristen, there's nothing stopping the president-elect from starting to roll out -- make staffing announcements. it's my understanding he's decided on a chief of staff, they just haven't announced it. you would think that they would want to create this air of inevitability and one of the ways to create that air is to every day make a new

announcement on the new administration. i guess i'm surprised that we are here in the middle of this week and we haven't had a single event yet. we had the covid task force, but we have not had a staff rollout at all yet. >> reporter: no, we haven't, chuck, but i wouldn't be surprised if we got that by the end of the week. in speaking with transition officials today, they said, look, today is veterans day and so he sees this as a day to hit the pause button. of course he was there in philadelphia paying his respects at the korean memorial and this has personal resonance for him as well because his son beau served, his late son beau. in terms of the rollout we could see some names by the end of the week, you mentioned chief of staff. the name at the top of that list is ron klain. he is someone who served during the obama administration as well and this is someone who's been a long-time aide and ally to vice president biden. i think you'll get some other top names in the west wing. as it relates to cabinet

secretaries, chuck, i wouldn't expect those to be rolled out until the end of the month. but president-elect biden is having meetings today with his staff as he tries to fill out some of those roles. >> kristen welker, i see it's as rainy in wilmington as it is here for what it's worth. you wouldn't be any drier being in washington right now. kristen welker in wilmington, kristen, thank you. let me move over to peter alexander who is trying to also stay dry. we have a rainy day here ourselves. the president, i guess, in the last 24 hours, it does seem as if there have been more republicans who have -- who are ready to enable the president in this sort of adventure in search of some mythological lever that will overturn this election. i don't think one exists. but it does seem as if he's getting more support. i assume this is emboldening him even more? >> i think you're right.

there is as i'm told by allies and aides, there's a small staff, mostly senior folks, many within the campaign, who are pressing this idea to the president that there is a path to victory. but i'm told that overwhelmingly the message that's being communicated to the president, perhaps not directly, but via some of the folks around him, is that there is no way to go forward with this thing. as you report in your introduction here, one white house official telling me it is unsustainable. but they also said don't expect the president will concede at any point. really all of this will be to get us to the point where the president will say something along the lines in the words of this aide of we can't trust the results, but i'm also not contesting them. it's remarkable that that would be the best that you get at the ending of this extended period. so when that may happen, this white house official tells me not until after certification and that's remarkable. the certification the last sing state, wisconsin, until december

1st. which means we could be at this in some form for several more weeks. we're hearing from former white house officials talking to folks inside saying that those folks are embarrassed. folks in here saying that the president is damaging his own legacy. in terms of the chances for success here, one person said to me in reference to the general counsel, the legal counsel for joe biden, bob bauer, saying -- he said that it was all theatrics and noise. this white house official said it's not wrong to say it's all theater. chuck. >> speaking of which, is there any -- is there a functional west wing right now? and i ask that because we have this raging pandemic literally hitting the worst days we've had yet. i believe there hasn't been a coronavirus task force meeting since mid-october. certainly not one that either pence or trump has participated in. but it looks like -- are they just pretending that the only

thing they should focus on is trying to overturn the election? they're not worried about governing? >> well, we should say there's been nothing on the president's public schedule beyond this trip to arlington national cemetery earlier today since the election for the president other than those remarks we saw last week. as for the coronavirus task force, i could update and say that mike pence did hold a task force meeting on monday which was the first one in almost three weeks. but the president himself hasn't participated in those task force meetings in any way for a period of months. i was just in the west wing, of course it's veterans day, the place is largely empty right now in the areas we're able to see. most people are home on this holiday. it's clear that the president who spent most of his time in the residence or on social media is focused almost exclusively on the situation right in front of him and what his future prospects may look like. the other thing i may raise it was notable that ivanka trump touted the success of dan sullivan, who now has been projected to win the republican

seat, the republican senate. he's the incumbent in alaska. but recognize the president in the campaign said it's not up to the media to project winners. they said it has to wait for the results to be certified. of course that doesn't apply when they like the results. >> i know. we're shocked, shocked that there is double standards going on with the staff and the relatives of the president there. peter alexander, thank you. garrett haake on capitol hill, garrett, i know it's a quieter day on capitol hill for all the reasons we know with this being a federal holiday and veterans day. we saw one more republican inch closer to recognizing president-elect biden and that was pat toomey, who seemed to say, hey, you should be sharing the pdb. is that the next incremental baby step where you might see more and more republicans come out and say, hey, why don't you at least let that happen?

>> reporter: yeah, look, there are still plenty of people in the republican-controlled senate from what you would consider the governing wing, right. they want to make sure whatever does happen in january when joe biden takes office, that he'll be able to do the job at a base level of competency and that means having a transition move forward. we've heard it from pat toomey, marco rubio, mike rounds, a former governor, mitt romney obviously who planned a very careful transition of his own back in 2012 that never came to fruition. they understand the importance of this process. and it is, i think, probably a way of off-ramping the president a little bit. yes, continue with your legal challenges, go on with this quest, but in the meantime, the rest of the government still needs to function. so that may be the goldilocks option for some of these senate ri republicans who aren't ready to break from the president with the election results yet. >> is there any concern by any republicans, because there does seem to be two risky things they're going for here, right?

one is going down this road, trying to contest the election, particularly with those georgia runoffs, trying to contest georgia, sending that message of we're trying to disenfranchise your vote type of thing. we know where that could turn to. but also covid relief and the lack of focus on covid. what i brought up and what we brought up this morning in first read and what we're not seeing from the west wing, i mean it's out of control and it seems as if everybody is more worried about the georgia runoffs. it really looks out of touch. >> reporter: it seems that way because it's true, chuck. look, the dan sullivan win means republicans will have 50 seats in the u.s. senate. who's going to have the other two still at play is everything for the senate. the presidential race is over, the race for senate control is not. you had marco rubio in georgia today, rick scott the other republican senator, his pac has cut an ad in favor of those

republican senators. they see winning those seats as job one. the other thing you have to remember with a lot of these republicans, this is a roller coaster with no brakes. once they got on board with supporting this president, they are onboard until the ride is over. there is no stopping it or deciding at some point that you're done with it and i think that applies to everything across the board. covid relief is still a very, very long way from happening in the congress as it's currently constructed. >> garrett, i think you win the metaphor of the day award. roller coaster with no brakes. >> reporter: thank you. i'll take my gold star. >> it's as descriptive as anything i've heard about where elected republicans find themselves today. kristen welker, peter alexander and garrett haake, thank you all for getting us started. up ahead, america shatters even more coronavirus records. a million new cases nationwide in just a week and a half. think about that. we increased by 10% our number of cases in a week and a half.

some states are preparing for the worst yet again. but first, as we said, up top, americans across the country are marking veterans day today, including both the president and the president-elect. this morning as peter alexander said, president trump laid a wreath at the tomb of the unknown soldier at arlington national cemetery. as you heard from kristen welker, president-elect biden and dr. biden laid a wreath this morning in tribute to the membership and women of our armed forces. we'll show you a bit of both of them as we go to break. them as k irresistibly smooth chocolate. ♪ to put the world on pause. lindor. made to melt you. by the lindt master chocolatier.

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the worst possible time we could be dealing with a surge right now. we have two big holidays that are meant for family gatherings. >> we know that family transmission within a household can be very, very high if someone has covid-19. >> we have a high number of cases at thanksgiving. that means our christmas is really at risk for a high

hospitalization. >> welcome back. those are health care workers on the front lines of the pandemic warning as dr. fauci and others have about the dangers of increased covid transmission as we approach the holidays. holidays that are family gatherings, and it is these small to midsize gatherings that are the real super spreaders. meanwhile this country is setting a grim new record every day. more than 60,000 people are hospitalized with the coronavirus right now. el paso, where we'll take you in a moment now has more people hospitalized with covid-19 than most states do and they're bringing in mobile morgues. you heard that right, mobile morgues to deal with the mounting death toll in el paso. the governor of massachusetts has warned field hospitals may be needed to be set up as hospital intensive care units fill up and fill up fast. across the midwest where covid cases are up more than 100% in the past two weeks, there are new restrictions and warnings in place. both iowa and minnesota are further limiting group

gatherings. wisconsin's governor issued an advisory telling people to stay home. illinois said a statewide stay-at-home order could be back on the table. the u.s. is averaging more than 120,000 new cases every day and we recorded a million new cases in the first ten days of november. by the way, we're doing this with the state of florida cutting back on testing for what it's worth. but let's go to texas where they are now the first state to surpass a million coronavirus cases. morgan chesky is in hard-hit el paso. it just seems everything you hear about el paso about how bad everything is everywhere, it's times ten. it's exponential in el paso. morgan, tell us about it. >> reporter: chuck, it's bad. these are the darkest days of the pandemic so far for this city. we've seen other cities suffering during the summertime but right now they are seeing the numbers rise in every category that they shouldn't be and there's serious concern that it's going to get worse before it gets better.

behind me several of the tents being brought in to handle the influx of covid-19 tents here. they are doing their best to handle these covid patients inside these tents that are stable enough to leave the confines of the hospital and be treated here. we know that hospital capacity in short spliechupply. patients whose families who have agreed to let them travel have been flown to houston, to dallas, to san antonio. unfortunately in some cases those patients who die in other cities, the families have to figure out a way to get them back home and set up some sort of funeral arrangement and funeral homes that are filling up incredibly fast. we were there just outside the medical examiner's office yesterday, chuck, and saw more of these mobile morgues roll in. we expect ten of them to be in place in the city by the end of this week. we had a chance to hear from the county judge doing his best to enact this citywide shutdown order that's facing legal challenges on how it feels to

watch the city that he grew up in now face a devastating virus. take a listen. >> what do you tell the families right now, right this very moment, that they can't come and that their loved ones bodies are in these trailers? what do you tell them? you can reopen a business, you can become strong. most of us have failed at businesses, myself including. and we can come back. but we cannot come back and say we didn't do the right thing for el pasoans. we didn't stop the urgency. >> reporter: chuck, in 2019, 23 people lost their lives in el paso outside that walmart when a mass shooting took place. there is real concern right now that if this virus continues to rage the way in which it is, that many people could be dying in this community every day. chuck. >> morgan chesky on the ground in el paso, thank you. joining me now is dr. richard

besser, former director of the cdc. dr. besser, i think viewers would be forgiven to have covid whiplash right now. two days ago, the euphoria there was with the news from pfizer, you know, it was the first time, frankly, that my own kids thought they saw light. i mean this spread like wildfire. it finally -- my daughter is a junior in high school. she's going i might have a senior year now. and so here we saw some flickers of light at the tunnel over there. and yet we're experiencing the worst part of this pandemic yet. and it feels as if certainly our political leadership is not anywhere near having the sense of urgency that i think we could be using right now. >> yeah, i mean, chuck, this is a very dangerous situation and we're not seeing the appropriate response from our political leadership. the news of two days ago, yes,

that should give people a glimmer of hope. but what worries me is that it gives people false hope in terms of this winter. as we've been saying for months and months and months, respiratory viruses thrive in the winter. they survive longer, they stay in the air longer when the humidity is down. we are in closer contact with each other because it's cold and we're indoors more. so this is the time of year where viruses do really well. it's also hitting us at a time where people are really tired of doing the things that have been shown to work. the cdc just today put out a new assessment that says wearing a mask not only protects those around you, it helps protect you. and so since we're not seeing our federal leaders stepping up and saying wear those masks, we need governors across the country to stand up. we saw in utah recently, a red state where their governor said wear masks. we need that to happen everywhere. if people do that, it can reduce dramatically not only transmission but the need for

more severe lockdowns. >> is this part of our problem? you brought up the governor of utah. for every governor of utah, i'll give you the governor of florida who just hired some blogger, some sports blogger from ohio who was sort of a bit of a conspiracy theorist on covid to be a data analyst for covid and some other things in the state of florida. we know that they have been cutting back on testing. while they don't say it, is florida -- do you think the real policy of the governor there is herd immunity? >> you know, if we don't come together as a nation and get the politics out of this and have every single state mandating masks, we're not going to get on top of this. every state is seeing rises. what you should be seeing is our political leaders modeling the behavior we need to see. what you should be seeing is congress coming together and saying if we don't put money in people's pockets, if we don't extending a moratorium on evictions and mortgage

foreclosures, we'll be seeing millions of people homeless in the middle of winter when disease is rampant. people who are forced to go to work even when they're sick because they need to put food on the table and pay renting. that is unconscionable. we are better than that and this is the time to come together as a nation. >> i assume you're with a lot of public health officials, do a zoom thanksgiving, don't travel. do you think there shouldn't be any basically -- don't travel for the holidays either? >> well, you know, if you're in a situation where you're able to do testing, there are a lot of kids who don't have a choice. they're in college and they're going to be sent home so they're coming home. so you want to look and see what your state recommends in terms of how to do that as safely as possible. my parents live here in town, they're 90 years old and they're not going to join us for thanksgiving. we'll get a plate of food to them. our kids are coming home and we'll socially distance from them ahead of time and they'll

get some testing. but you have to put some thought into this. for many households, the best decision is to do a zoom thanksgiving, don't come together if you can avoid that, because it does increase the risk. >> do you believe we could restart a testing and tracing strategy this late in the game, or at this point is our only hope masks, mask mandate, getting us to the vaccine? >> yeah. you know, what we saw earlier is you can use the restrictions to drive cases down low. and if you can drive your cases down to a manageable level, then the right approach is testing, tracking, isolate and quarantine. but the piece of that that we've done incredibly poorly is providing people with the resources that they need so that if they live in a household that's multi-generational, a household with people who are at greater risk, they have a safe place to go. we continue to see the highest rates among black americans,

latino americans, native americans, lower income americans, individuals who don't have a choice to work remotely. they have to go to work or essential workers. we are not doing well by all of those people. we could change that if congress got their act together, crossed the aisle and got it done. >> dr. richard besser, the former acting head of the cdc, always appreciate getting your expertise on the air. thank you, sir. >> thank you. up ahead, with only weeks left in his administration, president trump is filling top pentagon posts with loyalists. the question is why, and could it damage national security. but first as we honor and remember those who serve our country on this veterans day, a picture from a little earlier today of the marine corps war memorial at arlington national cemetery. the iconic statue depicts americans raising the american flag on iwo jima, one of the most crucial battles in world

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art class. it's abstract expressionism. when you start with a better hot dog from oscar mayer, you can do no wrong. it's all for the love of hot dogs. welcome back. after president trump's ousting of defense secretary mark esper, the president has not explained

his reasoning for firing esper nor his thinking behind the shakeup. according to david ignatius, it may have more to do with 2016 than 2020. the president is intent on declassifying information that he hopes downplays russia's election in the 2016 election. trump and his allies want the information public because they believe it would rebut claims that russian president vladimir putin supported trump in 2016. for trump it remains ground zero, the moment when his political problems began. david ignatius joins me now. david, you are attempting to answer the question of why this whole shakeup at the pentagon, a lot of people went into darker, more nefarious places with the shake-up, but you get at something. when you look at some of the people that were put into certain jobs at the pentagon, the russia explanation certainly

does look more and more convincing. >> chuck, we don't know. i was trying to explore some of the possibilities in my column this morning. it is a fact that the new team at the pentagon is filled largely with people who have been fighting the battle of 2016, if you will, who were former aides of congressman devin nunes, who was the head of the house intelligence committee, who had been making the argument that the russia investigation has been a hoax, the basic trump argument, been making that for almost four years now. they're now in all the top positions at the pentagon and also at the national security agency. so it's certainly possible that there's a new effort under way to declassify materials that president trump thinks would

show that the investigation was poisoned from the beginning, would support his case. this has aroused enormous concern among military leaders, intelligence leaders who think that the release of these secrets, the declassification, would have severe damage to our ability to collect information, what they call sources and methods. they're really hot about it. there's been a behind-the-scenes battle going on for several months that i've been trying to report on. >> so this -- what is stashed at the pentagon that they're going to be able to get their hands on? i understand trying to get in -- you know, get their hands into the dni which they now have with ratcliffe or supposedly what they're trying to do with gina haspel at cia. what is it that they could do from their post at the pentagon? what materials could they declassify? >> so the declassification order

could come from the director of national intelligence, john ratcliffe. i believe he has already pushed for additional declassification. i'm told by my sources that he was strongly resisted in that effort before the election by the head of nsa, by the head of the cia, gina haspel, and, interestingly, by the then secretary of defense, mark esper. esper wrote a letter to ratcliffe arguing that this disclosure that ratcliffe was pushing for would have severe effects, not only on intelligence collection but on our military's security. it's unusual for a secnav to do that. i think that's one of the reasons, there's a long list, why trump wanted him out. these are all people -- remember, we're talking about intelligence, a lot of which

comes out of nsa. the nsa is part of the military. it reports through a pentagon chain of command. it reports to the dni but also has a military relationship, so that's why the pieces would fit. >> gina haspel, is she going to survive until january 20th? >> so it's interesting, chuck. there has been an effort by republicans in congress, notably mitch mcconnell, senator majority leader, to show signs of support. she was up on the hill yesterday meeting with members of the senate intelligence committee and she was asked to stop by and see the majority leader, both gina haspel and mitch mcconnell are from kentucky. they talk often because he's a member of the gang of eight, so that was an interesting bit of symbolism. there have been some other republicans, senator marco rubio, the current acting chairman of the intelligence committee, senator john cornyn from texas who have signalled

that they're supportive of haspel, do not want to see her fired. i have to say there's nothing that would upset or worry our key allies more than a shake-up at the cia. they would really find that concerning. so i think there's a recognition of that among these republicans and they're trying to say to the president be careful, this has consequences. >> david, before i let you go, veterans day is a special day for the country, but it's an extra special day for you and your father. tell me. >> so, yeah, i have a very special veteran, my father, paul ignatius, who celebrated his 100th birthday today. i just was with him, i'll be with him tonight at a zoom party with his friends. my dad served in combat in the pacific on an aircraft carrier during world war ii. he went on to be secretary of the navy under president johnson. he's lucky to have a mighty u.s.

destroyer named in his honor, the uss paul ignatius, so i'm just so happy that he's around at 100 to celebrate one more veterans day. >> boy, born on, i believe, the second anniversary of armistice day, he was born to serve this country in some ways. anyway, david ignatius, give him our best on that socially distanced zoom birthday party. >> thank you. up next, we now know for sure that those two georgia races will decide which party controls the senate. no pressure, peach state. we also know for sure that they're going to do a recount. all of that is next. all ofha tt is next. hey, son! no dad, it's a video call. you got to move the phone in front of you like... like it's a mirror, dad. you know? alright, okay. how's that? is that how you hold a mirror? [ding] power e*trade gives you an award-winning mobile app with powerful, easy-to-use tools and interactive charts to give you an edge,

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it will require a full by hand recount in each county. this will help build confidence. it will be an audit, a recount and a recanvass all at once. it will be a heavy lift, but we will work with the counties to get this done in time for our state certification. >> welcome back. that was georgia secretary of state brad raffensberger announcing this morning that georgia is going forward with a full hand recount, recanvass and audit of the presidential race. and he promised that all of it would be completed by november 20th, the certification deadline. giving the state nine days to go through nearly 5 million votes by hand, mind you. this announcement comes after big pressure from the trump team led by former senate candidate doug collins saying that they would go to court if the state did not agree to a hand recount so a bit of a playcation of the trump team.

i guess, priscilla, a couple of questions. who pays for this hand recount. some states, if you want the recount, you have to pay for it. is this a case where the state is paying for it or is the trump campaign going to get billed? >> reporter: so in this case the state is going to pay for it. and that's because technically the way this process works, the trump campaign would not have been able to formally request a recount until after the state certifies the results. but what we're hearing today is the secretary of state saying that before they certify these results, they are going to do that by hand recount, recanvass and audit of those nearly 5 million votes. and, you know, the secretary of state has said that this is not in response to any sort of pressure from republican lawmakers here, but the trump campaign held a press call just a little while after that announcement was made and they certainly see this as a victory saying that the secretary of state has agreed to their

request that a recount be done. and the big question for me, which i wasn't able to ask on the press call with the trump campaign but have reached out to them about is if this recount yields the same result that we're seeing now before the results are certified, do they still intend to request another recount after the state officially certifies these results? and i think at that point is when the trump campaign might be looking at paying for that recount. but because the margin is likely not to change, joe biden and the trump campaign are likely to stay within that 0.5% margin even with this latest recount, it could very well be that they're within their right obviously to request that recount given the state law here. chuck. >> well, there's no doubt i think what the trump folks were fearing was it being certified one way before the recount, so in this case this is where the secretary of state has essentially granted the trump campaign its wish there to do it precertification.

priscilla thompson on the ground for us. priscilla, we'll see you tomorrow, i'm guessing, thank you. up ahead, why is the republican party seeming willing to ignore the president ignoring the coronavirus? did you get all that? ignoring the president who's ignoring the coronavirus. we'll be right back. avirus 'lwel be right back.

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refusing to acknowledge that he lost and u.s. coronavirus cases have soared above 100,000 for an 11th straight day. it has been six days since we last heard from the president. with ten weeks remaining it seems like the pan determine sick not an issue that he wants to deal with. . joining me now is charlie sikes. welcome to you both. i want to talk about a tweet that is has sujing. sending a cable to talk about what is happening. it could be unpopular leader

will not accept defeat. justice minister weaponizing the law, foreign minister saying there will be no transition. collating the opposition leader, et cetera, et cetera. institutions are only as strong as the people deading them. it is a pretty powerful and fair comparison. >> i think it is fair and powerful. one other mine that i would add is that democracy is only as powerful as what the people are willing to tolerate. this is the last but perhaps most important thing that donald trump is shattering. i think we need to make two things clear. long-term damage and short term. he has lost this election. he will not overturn this election and he will leave on january 20th. but that doesn't mean in a what

i he is doing now does not have long term consequences. tens of millions of people will doubt the legitimacy of this election. i think it is worth stepping back to understand that we have had a bipartisan consensus for years now, but the importance of maintaining faith and our elections, and he is taking a hammer to that and the republican party is letting him do that. they are being held hostage to his ego and bad math. the damage, i think, will last for a very long time. >> look, the misinformation problem, mira, whether it is in convincing people that covid is not as big of a problem as it is, there are just countless people that will die and get this disease because of poor information and incorrect

information. now charlie is right. whether or not we like it or not, 70% to 80% of the republican party will not view joe biden as legitimate. higher than any number you had on the left during trump's presidency. that is a big problem for the democracy. >> we need to take this moment in time and make it determative. you will have a certification of the protection, and you will have ultimately, you know, the court's rule in joe biden's favor. so this is, in my mind, the high water mark. i think what is truly dangerous about this moment is ouch the virus is raging out of control during this transition. and i think it is, i mean, it is

frightening how fast, how fast this virus is accelerating. we're likely at 2,000 deaths per day in the next three weeks. so the virus surge is happening at a particular moment of weakness when we don't seem to have an administration focused on it and also not allowing the future administration to fully focus on it. that, to me, is a more deeply worrying issue right now. >> i have to say that i don't get why there is a hesitance to do a big covid deal. you know? i don't see how it hurts them in these georgia runoffs? do they think it would hurt them? >> they say okay, we can get this done before january so that things don't get any worse. but again we -- we're seeing the dysfunction played out in

realtime. and i do think that the juxtaposition of this political gamesmanship that does seem to be designed to make it as hard as possible to have a question that will question the legitimacy of the biden administration takes place at a time when we are talking about the life and death of hundreds and thousands of americans. i know we talk a lot about history on these programs. when someone writes the history of this particular pandemic, i think that question will be really puzzling to people. why did you not move ahead and pass that legislation, that bipartisan legislation. >> do you think we're going to see that in this push the republicans basically, the ending justifying any means necessary? are we going to see that kind of an attempt to try to tell joe biden you know what they would

do in the same situation? >> i think that was a large part of the discussion in the last two years, but i would also say that joe biden, who mad a messames had a message of uniting the country out performed the party in many cases. i think his politics might be the ones that old swift. >> that wins out on the day, yeah. always wish i had more time with you, but i appreciate the time we did have together. we will continue with katy tur after this quick break. . ok, just keep coloring there...

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good afternoon, i'm katy tur. it is 11:00 a.m. out west. today might look like a normal veteran's day post election. we saw president trump in public for the first time in almost a week as both he and president-elect joe biden