rachel. 144,000 people, new cases, have been reported in the that is count that we've got rachel, once again, has the night off as she continues to quarantine after coming into contact with someone who tested positive for the coronavirus she is fine, but again, she's quarantining, as anyone should under these circumstances. we're going to talk more about the coronavirus later on in the show, but we've got lots to get to on this veterans day. the banner headline at the top of today's print edition of "the new york times" -- "election officials nationwide find no fraud. "the new york times" called elections officials in every single state. what did they find? no evidence of voter fraud. rather, quote, top election officials across the country said in interviews and statements that the process had been remarkably successful,

despite record turnout and the complications of a dangerous pandemic. "the new york times" was joined by the "associated press," whose journalists spread outat across the country and came to the same conclusion. their headline -- "state cites smooth election, despite trump's baseless claims." now, election experts told the "associated press" that theex increase in early voting, with 107 million people voting early, in person, and by mail, helped take pressure off election-day operations. the "ap" also noted that there were no incidents of violence at the polls or voter intimidation. quote, the 2020 general election was one of the smoothest and most well-run elections that we have ever seen, and that is remarkable, considering all the challenges. and that was said, by the way, by aai trump-appointed democratn the election assistance commission. and if you stop to think about it for a minute, it is remarkable that this election went so smoothly in the middle of a raging, out-of-control

pandemic and amid constant haranguing from the president about a rigged result, also amid the ever-present and worrying specter of foreign interference, also considering the record-shattering turnout that we saw in this election -- 152 million voters and counting. there's a reason for that -- the legions of election workers from coast to coast who worked on the polls and for early voting, tabulated the ballots under the constant, watchful glare of the entire world -- young, old, froo every walk of life. rather than being accused of engaging in some massive vote-rigging conspiracy, they should be lauded as the true heroes of democracy that they are. nobody thanks the poll workers. we owe these elections workers an enormous debt of gratitude for making the impossible possible and putting up with the nonsense that they're listening to now. as one election official in madison, wisconsin, said, many

of these volunteer workers made all the difference. >>e the other major benefit wa the army of poll workers at their disposal to count a record number of absentee ballots. >> that was a key difference for us ona election day. if we didn't have as many election officials and we didn't have as much space as we did, it would have been a really late night. >> so, if you are an election worker yourself, or you know someone who is or answered your state's call for volunteers during this extraordinary time, thank you. now that over a week has passed, the broad picture is coming into view, and it is this -- despite what the president and his allies might tell you, there was no widescale fraud. the president and his allies may claim voter fraud occurred, but that is simply not what is being reported across the country. in fact, the exact opposite is true. the president's claims are not backed by any election officials, including republican

officials, in philadelphia, in arizona, who continue to pour cold water on what the president is tweeting. in georgia, the state's republican lieutenant governor says there are simply, quote, no substantial instances, end quote, of voter fraud in his state. np philadelphia today, the city's top election official, a republican, called claims of voter fraud, quote, completely ridiculous, end quote, and denied reports pushed by the president's lawyer,by rudy giuliani, and others that dead people had voted. city officials have not found one single instance of that happening, he said today. the republican attorney general in arizona explained what happened in his state, and the answer is pretty simple -- there was no fraud. voters just didn't like trump. >> reality is, right now there is, you know, less than 50,000 votes to count and the president would have to get about 65% of them to win arizona. so it does appear that joe biden will rein arizona. there was a time not that long

ago we as republicans talked about, we need to make sure the rule of law means something. we don't want anarchy. we want the rule of law. if, indeed there was some great conspiracy, it apparently didn't work since the county official who was democrat lost and other republicans won. what it came down to, people split their ticket. people voted for republicans down ballot but they didn't vote for president trump and martha mr csally. that's the reality. just because that happened, it doesn't mean it's fraud. >> that's the reality. just becauseth that happened, doesn't mean it's fraud. republican claims of fraud are going nowhere. one of their signature examples promoted by lindsey graham and others evaporated when a pennsylvania postal worker who alleged ballot tampering recanted his story, signing an affidavit s saying his claims we not true. he now denies doing that. the courts continue to rebuke the ukpresident's lawyers at evy available opportunity. in texas, i kid you not, the

lieutenant governor, a republican, is now resorting to offering a $1 million cash prize -- $1 million -- to anyone who can come up with an instance of voter fraud, which suggests the desperate lengths the president and his allies will go to in order to keep this election from slipping away, even as it becomes clear to anyone living in reality -- earth one over here -- as we've taken to calling it -- that there's no there there to the president's claims. a new poll suggests nearly 80% of americans think joe biden won the election, which sounds great, until you realize that means 20%, or one in five, are either not sure who won, think the election remains undecided, or believe that trump won. one in five! the markets continue to operate under the assumption that biden will be the next president. the biden campaign also does not appear too worried. it continues to proceed as normal. tonight, president-elect biden named his longtime aide and

veteran of the 2000 florida id recount, ron klain, as his white housela chief of staff. klain was also the ebola czar, which will be useful during this pandemic. the biden transition team continues to act as if this shaky period will eventually end and their candidate will be sworn in on january 20th, with certainty. it's a position adopted by the candidate himself and by his senior adviser and renowned election lawyer, who spoke to reporters on a zoom call last night. >> the biden/harris transition is going forward. it'sis moving along very briskl. president biden will take the oath of office on january 20th, 2021, and that's going to be our answer to that. i mean, in the meantime, there will be theater, but it will be playing to an increasingly light crowd until it empties out completely and joe biden and kamala harris take their oath of office. b >> tonight, nbc news is reporting that president trump met with top advisers, including jared kushner and campaign

manager bill stepien to discuss the path forward, but whatever trump is saying behind closed doors, he's outwardly continuing his verbal assault on the results of the election. and while we may be used to this kind of behavior from this president, one thing bears repeating -- this is not normal. lies and attempts to delegitimize an election in the minds of voters by a president and his enablers in congress, his republican enablers in congress, are at best doing massive damage to our democratic process, at worst, they are signs of something far more sinister. many stories have been written about republican officialsni simply humoring the president, andg that this will all eventually be resolved, and that may very well be true. but as one of our nation's foremost scholars on authoritarianism warns today, we should be very careful about ignoring the president's claims and letting them spread unabated. famed author and yale professor

timothy snyder writes ine "the boston globe" that, quote, trump's big election lie pushes america toward autocracy. clinging to power by claiming you are the victim of internal enemies is a very dangerous tactic. don't underestimate where this can go. underestimating donald trump is a mistake that people should not go on making. laughing at him will not make him go away. if it did, he would have vanished decades ago. after all, a claim that an election was illegitimate is a claim to remaining in power. a coup is under way, and the number of participants is not shrinking but growing. republican lawmakers find ever new verbal formulations that directly or indirectly support trump's claims. the longer this goes on, the greater the danger to the republic. joining me now, tim snyder, best-selling author of the books "on tyranny" and our malady,"

with yale university. thank you for taking time. there are people who don't believe what you wrote in "the boston globe". they believe as joe biden says, this will pass and he will be the next president of the united states. but you write about somethingf deeper than that. the scar that this will leave on democracy. you actually refer to germany of the 1920s as an example of how dangerous this can be. >> that's right. an election doesn't ordinarily unroll with a story like this. in the united states, usually the story is clear -- one person wins, one person loses, one person gives a victory speech, one person concedes. what we have to think about looking forward is what it means when a sitting president and many of his important allies, the majority leader in the senate, for example, the secretary of state, for example, take part in what is unequivocally a big lie. all of the evidence is on the other side. there's no reason in the world to thinkno that there was fraud.

so, when the president injects a big lie like this into the system, he's doing damage. he's doing damage to the way that people remember. he's doing damage to the way that people regard a biden administration. and perhaps what's worse, he's making the claim that, since the other side cheats, it's all right for our sides, to cheat i the future. so, that's a bomb laid on the future of odemocracy. so this is the kind of talk and the kind ofd reasoning we haveo get behind us as quickly as possible. >> david rode wrote in "the new yorker" today, and he spoke to the idea that humoring the president actually undermines democracy, and he was speaking about bill barr, talking about looking into election fraud. "at best, barr is humoring the president, playing for time and expects state and federal judges to stand upat to trump and disms his false claims. odds are that the judges, particularly those with lifetime appointments, will do so. still, there is notm excuse for allowing a sitting president to flirt with authoritarianism."

he's making the same point. it's like, barr's got a job to do. he's the attorney general of the united states. you can't humor the president on something loic this. this is the basis of our democracy. >> yeah. i mean, for one thing, hours tick by, days go by, now weeks are going by, without the white house being able to take a clear stand on what's just happened. for another thing, as you say, mr. barr is supposed to stand for the rule of law. there are few aspects of the rule of law more important than our succession principle, which is that of democratic representation of citizens. by stating, even, that the department of justice should be investigating, what mr. barr surely knows to be outrageously false claims, he's putting the department of justice on the wrong side of the rule of law. like so much else, this puts him and trump's other allies on the wrong side of history. it puts the united states into thee group of countries where people don't accept the outcomes of elections.

again, humoring or playing along or using the situation for your own personal gain, as the georgia senators are doing, may seem sensible to you moment to moment, but in the long term, this is bad, not just for the republican party, it's clearly bad for the republic as a whole. >> jennifer rubin, conservative commentator in "the post," former republican, wrote, it is no constellation, indeed, it is worse, that mcconnell and the restd almost certainly know trump's claims are a joke and incapable of overturning an election. they damage democracy and further divide the country as to cast the lawful winner as ill little le jimt president and avoid trump's wrath. other democracies looking on will be horrified, dictators will find vindication in republicans' refusal to accept the results of the election. so talking about the damage of america's role on the global stage. >> yeah, look, there's a basic

question of principle here. the basic question of principle is that we have a legal and ethical means of changing leaders. this is hard fought and hard won. democracy is rare. democracy is fragile. people havey made sacrifices or the generations for it. people are still making sacrifices for it. even the poll workers who you've mentioned,er thousands and thousands of people who work veryeo hard, all taking a lot o flack, they're making sacrifices for this principle. and this principle is one which rises or falls not just in one country, but around the world. we are setting an example the entire time by our behavior, whether it's a good example or whether it's bad behavior, a bad example. what mr. trump has just done is encouraged tyrants todo do what they'll tend to do anyway, which is to ignore election results. and we've taken pride in our ability to tell autocrats they should leave when they lose elections. this has been one of the big legacies of american foreign policy since the year 1989. what we're doingea now is setti

the opposite example. we're telling tyrants around the world, lukashenko in belarus, putin in russia, whomever it might rbe, that this is how presidentsow normally behave. again, the sooner this stops, the better, notr just for our reputation, but for the world. >> of our democracy. timothy snyder is the author of "on tyranny," professor at yale university. professor, thank you for your time this evening. we appreciate it. >> my pleasure.tyou president trump has spent this pastid week firing top national security officials and replacing themna with administration loyalists, which would be concerning at any point in time, but why now? why the week after losing the election? the house intelligence committee chair, congressman adam schiff, joins us live next. congressman joins us live next it's moving day. and while her friends

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we have new reporting tonight on donald trump's efforts to fire senior pentagon leaders and install staunch loyalists in their place. it started monday when trump announced the firing of defense

secretary mark esper on twitter, which came as a shock, because outgoing presidents here on earth one do not replace cabinet-level positions a mere 49 hours after losing re-election. on tuesday, the president continued his slew of firings and forced out the pentagon's top policy chief, installing a fox news regular to take his place. anthony tata is best known for pushing fringe conspiracy theories and for referring to president obama as a, quote, terrorist leader, comments which led the administration to withdraw his previous nomination for a top pentagon role this summer. now, if that were not enough, today the news broke that trump installed yet another fox news commentator, who like tata, also holds fringe, anti-muslim views to a senior adviser role at the defense department -- yes, another one. retired army colonel douglas mcgregor joins the pentagon following controversial comments, including criticizing germany for being too welcome to, quote, muslim invaders,"

which isn't unusual if you live in 8th-century europe. the president has now forced out four senior pentagon officials since monday, including esper, his chief of staff, and senior officials overseeing policy and intelligence. and trump is not stopping there. he's elevated a fierce loyalist to the powerful position of general counsel of the national security agency, someone who just so happens to be named in the articles of impeachment against the president. and the concerns don't end there. "the daily beast" is reporting tonight that trump's national security adviser is enabling trump's post-election mayhem by supporting the moves to install political loyalists to top levels at the pentagon and pushing national security officials to publicly endorse trump's claims that the election is not over. but wait! that's not it! there's more! officials tell "the daily beast" tonight that robert o'brien is actively working against the biden transition. one national security official says tonight, "if you even

mention biden's name, that's a no go. you'd be fired. everyone is scared of even talking about the chance of working with the biden transition." wow! with just 70 days to go until inauguration day, what does this all mean for the country's national security and just how concerned should we be? i know just the person to ask, congressman adam schiff of california. he is the chairman of the house intelligence committee. chairman schiff, thank you for being with us tonight. you are one of a handful of people who gets the highest intelligence that this country has access to, and there are concerns that others in the intelligence community have raised that this is the moment that america has to be strong, the moment between, the transition between governments. and our transition process is supposed to guarantee that the incoming president does not come in with a weakness, not knowing everything that's available. and yet, we are hearing that joe biden's not getting intelligence briefings.

>> ali, that's right. in fact, the 9/11 commission underscored the transition period as being a period of real vulnerability, when the nation can be unprotected, if that transition doesn't go quickly and doesn't go smoothly. and of course, what we have here is anything but. it's not just that the president refuses to concede, although that is a body blow to our democracy, and it's not just that the incoming president can't get intelligence briefings, can't, apparently, even get calls from foreign leaders or messages from foreign leaders that mike pompeo is withholding from the president-elect, but donald trump is punishing enemies by removing them from top positions in the pentagon, rewarding people who have either no experience or exactly the wrong experience and are merely politically partisan actors to these top positions. they may make decisions in these waning weeks of the administration that put the

incoming administration in a foreign policy crisis. so, it couldn't be more debilitating. and if i can just, ali, put a finer point on your conversation with professor snyder. the fact is, the president couldn't be doing all of this, he couldn't have broken down so many of our norms of democratic institutions offer the last four years, he couldn't be behaving the way he is today, if there weren't leaders within the republican party, in congress and elsewhere, going along with him. and they rationalize it by saying, well, we'll just do it until the courts decide, or we'll just do it until the georgia special election is over, or we'll just do it until he's out of office, or if he's going to run again, we'll just do it for the next four years. and this is how a democracy is smothered. it doesn't always die with a shot in the back. sometimes it dies over a course of slow suffocation, and it is absolutely inexcusable what these enablers are doing.

>> yeah, it is a lesson of our democracy that we have to win and we have to lose. and if you cannot do it in an orderly fashion, your democracy suffers. i want to talk to you about something that josh rogin wrote in the "washington post" today about the pentagon, the changes occurring there. he said, "several officials said that a group of trump loyalists is seizing the opportunity to purge the pentagon and several other agencies. many officials in the agencies they are taking over are also now wondering whether the loyalists' plan includes helping trump resist leaving office." what do you think about that? >> you know, you can't really put anything past this president. i do have confidence that the pentagon isn't going to go along with a military coup. and so, i hope and pray that confidence is not misplaced, but i do believe that. nonetheless, the president is going to do whatever he can to cling to power. that's what autocrats do. he has shown every inclination to do so. and you know, as you underscored

earlier, this is not only so crippling of our democracy and basically creates a group of people going into the next administration around the country who feel that the biden presidency is somehow less than legitimate because the last president was claiming fraud, but it sends a message to other would-be autocrats around the world that this is how they should behave. but ali, i have confidence that our military isn't going to participate in a coup, and no matter who they try to stack the pentagon with, that the leadership at the pentagon is not going to go along with that. >> yeah, and every last member of the military, current and former, with whom i've spoken has said the same thing, that there is no military officer, or for that matter, member of the military, who will go along with something that feels like a coup. representative adam schiff is the chairman of the house intelligence committee. sir, thank you for joining us

tonight. we appreciate it. >> thanks, ali. all right, tonight, nbc is confirming that there have been at least 144,000 new cases of covid-19 in the united states today. that completely smashes through any other previous single-day record for new infections in this country. a riveting tale from the front lines is next. stay with us. with usfailure. understanding how to talk to your doctor about treatment options is key. today, we are redefining how we do things. we find new ways of speaking, so you're never out of touch. it's seeing someone's face that comforts us, no matter where. when those around us know us, they can show us just how much they care. the first steps of checking in, the smallest moments can end up being everything. there's resources that can inform us, and that spark can make a difference. when we use it to improve things,

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kelly meeker is 36 years old. she is a gymnastics coach. she has four beloved cats. at the end of september, kelly woke up with a 100-degree fever, sore throat, chills. she got tested for covid -- positive. she has no idea where she caught it. no one she knows was sick. on september 28th, she was so ill that she checked herself into the hospital. september 28th. this is kelly today. >> when did you first get here? >> when did i first get covid? >> yeah. >> we were just talking about that.

it was around september 28th or so. and i went into the hospital. i went to the er to get fluids, then went back home. then the next day, still had a fever, wasn't feeling well, went back to the hospital. then they told me i had covid pneumonia. and then they ended up transferring me here and putting the tube down my throat. so, that was all within a couple days of each other. >> reporter: so, when they brought you to the hospital, and you're getting sicker, what's going through your head? >> i was just feeling miserable. i knew something was wrong. i knew i had covid from the very first day that i had symptoms. and i just kept getting worse and worse, and i just kept feeling sicker and sicker. i just knew i needed to get some

sort of help, because it wasn't getting any better. >> reporter: when you got here, you know, i don't know how much you remember, but you were put on a ventilator. that must have been really scary. >> well, i've just been seeing the pictures the past couple weeks, and it's pretty scary to look at the pictures. it's actually, it's kind of heartbreaking to look at them. i don't like to look at them very much. >> reporter: what would you say to people who think that, oh, this is something that affects, perhaps the elderly or maybe isn't as serious, because you know -- >> wear your mask. >> reporter: what would you say to people who are skeptical that covid is really that serious? >> i'd say wear your mask, because i almost died from it. it's more serious than people think. i just think people aren't taking it serious enough. and these people, they too, they

can see my pictures, they can read my story. it was pretty scary touch-and-go for a while. >> reporter: you don't remember any of your time on that ventilator? >> no, no. i was in a coma. >> reporter: right. >> no. >> reporter: and when you came out of it, i mean, you've been -- now you're in recovery. you're out of isolation. how amazing is it to see your mom here? >> it's so cool. it's so cool. >> reporter: and mom, how tough has it been for you? >> oh, hard. hard. i said, yep, really hard. but i cried a lot, but it's tears of joy now, because she's getting better. >> reporter: what was the hardest part? >> when we couldn't see her. that was the hardest part. it was just helpless. i mean, nothing you can do. you couldn't hold her hand. that was probably the hardest.

we did some video calls. that helped to see her, but it was more or less for us to talk and just look at her, but that was heartbreaking to watch her. >> when were you not allowed to see me? >> i came on october 15th. that's the first day we could see you. yep. >> reporter: were you able to communicate, at least would the nurses show you video through zoom? >> oh, yes. we did quite a few zooms. >> reporter: how hard was it to see your little girl in that condition? >> that was hard. that was hard, yeah. i had to turn away a lot of times. >> reporter: what would you tell people around this country that may not see covid face-to-face quite like you've experienced it? what would you tell people around the country? >> it's so scary. just be protective, you know. you have to be aware.

wear your mask for everyone around you. >> that was long and it was hard to watch, but it was important, because 144,249 new cases have been reported today. my colleague gabe gutierrez interviewing kelly meeker, who's been hospitalized with covid for about a month and a half at abbott northwestern hospital in minneapolis. today, we set a brand-new, horrific record for new covid infections in a single day, more than 144,000 americans newly sick with covid tonight. the country set a new record for covid hospitalizations yesterday, as hospitals in iowa, kansas, minnesota, missouri, montana, north dakota, texas, utah, and wisconsin are all on the cusp of being overtopped. the situation is particularly grave in wisconsin, where new cases of hospitalizations are at all-time highs. today the state's top health official said, quote, in terms of the number of cases we're finding, this is as bad as that

early, severe wave in new york city. we are very close to a tipping point. joining us now is dr. nasia saftar. thank you for being here. i'm sorry, this is the second time we have talked and it's never good news, but things are substantially more serious in wisconsin than they were when we last spoke. >> yeah, it seems like it's just a few weeks ago that we talked and we were mentioning that we were at a tipping point. and i think that tipping point has now arrived. i mean, every day it's a steep trajectory of patients that require hospitalization because of covid pneumonia. i think there is also the concern that patients may require hospitalization for many days, and that, obviously, has implications for staffing, it has implications for beds. it's a difficult time for wisconsin, that's for sure. >> let's talk about staffing and beds. one of the differences in the beginning -- we talked so much about flattening the curve, because the same number of

people can get ill, but if they get ill at a slower rate, the facilities and the things that you need to treat them will be available. one of those things that we don't talk about is the people. we've shown you the people, people like you, but the frontline workers who are needed, the nurses. we have situations in this country where nurses who are covid positive are being asked to go back to work because there are no other nurses. you can't move them from parts of the country to other parts of the country right now. we have 43 or 44 states setting new records. >> yeah, i think staffing is probably our biggest concern right now. you know, it's relatively easy to put into use or unused hospital bed or take one out of thin air if you need it, but you can't find a tufully trained ic nurse, especially across the country, a lot of states are in the same place we are. so to ensure the workforce, we have to make sure they're not getting infected and that's not what we're seeing in wisconsin with record numbers of

infections of the employees as well as community. >> we are seeing the biden transition team taking this seriously. ron klain has been named joe biden's chief of staff. he was, of course, the ebola czar and has got sort of large groups of expert people working on this, but they are not the administration right now, and we still have states where we have insufficient direction to municipalities about basic things like mask-wearing and isolating or keeping separate. we're still not much further ahead than we were when you and i last talked. >> i think that, you know, one thing that we're noticing is that it's really important to have, and still continue to have reverence for this virus, in the sense that we don't know everything about people that, the spectrum of infections they get, how quickly they recover. some may not recover for many months. so we can't presume to say that since march we have learned enough that we can start be dismissive of it, that we can start not practicing social distancing, not wearing masking. these are fairly fundamental

public health measures, and i think the time has come to go beyond debate about what they do and don't do and embrace them as the measures they're intended to be. >> dr. safdar is the managing director of infection control at the university of wisconsin hospital. let's hope the next time we talk we've got better news. thanks for being with us tonight. >> thank you. one more thing on this, and it is actually a piece of good news. kelly meeker the young woman recovering from covid that we heard from earlier, i should tell you, she took her first steps today since first being placed on a ventilator all those weeks ago. i find some hope in that. i find some hope in watching the biden transition team, which clearly has covid-19 as its top priority and has put scientists and experts in charge. we're going to have more on that and the trump administration stonewalling, the stonewalling that could cost lives, next. stonewalling, the stonewalling that could cost lives, next.

with the news out of the biden transition tonight that the president-elect has named ron klain, who was the ebola czar under president obama, as his chief of staff, the next

administration will now have someone in a huge role with major relevant experience to help the biden administration lead the nation through this pandemic. we got that news as we learned that the country broke another coronavirus record today. we recorded more than 144,000 new cases. and now there is the risk that the trump administration dragging its heels on letting the biden transition launch could cause major setbacks to our handling of the virus. we need ppe. we need mask compliance. we need a well-distributed vaccine as early as possible. and with the news from pfizer on monday, we are closer than ever to meeting at least one of those goals. this is what the former health and human services secretary under president obama, kathleen sebelius, had to say about trump gumming up the works -- "it's only ten weeks, and that's not a very long time when you think of all the federal government. so, every day counts. every delay counts. and so we're in very unprecedented territory." but biden seems to be doing everything he can to still make

every day count. in addition to the coronavirus task force he announced on monday, politico reports that biden has formed a special covid transition team. altogether, the team consists of 52 transition officials, including representatives reviewing nearly every major federal agency with plans to meet by video call as frequently as once a day. it's also enlisted dozens of additional state-level health experts and academics to serve as subject matter experts who can aid specific policy efforts. it's expected that biden's 13-member coronavirus task force will also eventually be integrated into the covid-19 transition team. politico also reports that the team held its first virtual meeting yesterday. joining me now, kathleen sebelius, former health and human services secretary from 2009 to 2014. secretary, good to see you. thank you for being here tonight. i'm heartened by ron klain's experience, specific experience, with an outbreak in the past.

ron has been a guest on this show many times, and he seems to know of which he speaks. you know him. >> i do. and i think ron klain is a terrific choice for chief of staff, one of the most important offices in the federal government with the new president-elect. he knows joe biden very well. he knows government very well. and he's handled some big challenges in the past. and that kind of confidence and personal connection is really what you want in a chief of staff, somebody who doesn't need training wheels, will actually get the ball moving well before they get to office. and i would agree with you, ali, you know, the biden team is incredibly impressive, doing everything possible to put mechanics in motion for a transition as smooth as possible. ten weeks from today is the inauguration. as i said, that isn't a very

long time. and joe biden knows that. he knows government. he respects government. my concern are things like how hollowed out are these very key health agencies? who's missing in the career staff at the cdc and the fda and even nih that needs to be replaced very quickly? how do we get a handle on the agency-by-agency look? because it's really the mission of the career staff that carries the ball forward. >> olivia troy, who was part of the current covid-19 team, wrote today, "since the transition hasn't been formally approved, the vital information that the next administration needs is either being shared through unofficial channels or not at all. if this continues, the biden covid-19 response team will have to waste valuable time getting up to speed and retracing the few steps this administration

has already taken." your take on that? >> well, i think that's absolutely right. what would be ideal is that the biden team spends zero time on what's already been done. you know, are there supply chains in place if the ppe situation gets more dire? where in the world did jared kushner purchase the ppe from that he got? who did he turn it over to, who then sold it to whom? that information might be helpful to know where there might be capacity, where there are supplies of ppe. what is already under way in planning a logistical effort to get vaccine from the manufacturing site to various states, to the most vulnerable populations in those states? that's not an easy task, particularly if you need a coal chain along the way. how's that going to happen?

if there is planning under way, that would be enormously helpful to know. but one of the things we really need is for the president of the united states to be focused on this disease, to be focused on people dying every day, to be focused on the health crisis at hand, where he never has paid attention before. maybe he can stop lying to people about the fact that this is a hoax and urge people over the next ten weeks to take it seriously and follow cdc protocol, because we're in a very dangerous period of time, with the holidays approaching, people wanting to gather, going inside, and the virus spiraling all over this country. >> yeah, the danger is now people -- i mean, the cdc did issue new guidance about thanksgiving, but folks don't take it seriously anymore. people have doubts about vaccines. the difference here with the way that the biden incoming team is treating this, it seems to be

that they're approaching this from a whole-of-government perspective. this team is about policies across government, not sort of a committee that's going to meet on its own in isolation when the president, as you say, doesn't take this seriously. it does look, and maybe it's ten weeks away, so it's not going to -- it's going to hurt a lot -- but it may be much more seriously dealt with than this administration has ever chosen to look at this. >> oh, i don't think there's any question. and incoming president biden has made it very clear from the outset, there will be a national plan. let's start from that. there never has been. governors were told in march, you're on your own. go find your own ppe. figure out what your guidance should be. don't follow the cdc guidance. and if you do, we will send a twitter war after you and demand that you liberate your state. so, there never has been a plan. governors have never understood what the federal role will be and then how they can collaborate and cooperate. so, this approach from incoming

president biden is not only a much more traditional approach but a very experienced and dynamic approach, which says, we're going to use all the muscle of the federal government the moment i get there on january 20th to mobilize resources, to mobilize the logistic capablity, to make distribution transparent, to make sure people understand from the scientists that we do when we have a safe and effective vaccine and how it's going to be distributed and to whom and under what circumstance. that never has been in place. so, they can begin doing a lot of that right now. it would just be enormously helpful to have a cooperating partner in the current administration. >> yeah, and it can be done. we've got the army corps of engineers. we can build the cold chain to keep this vaccine at negative 94, if that's what we need, but

we actually need the federal government in on it. kathleen sebelius, thank you for joining me again, former health and human services secretary. thank you for your time. coming up next here tonight, one woman's remarkable story, a story that represents many people in this country who have been overlooked for too long. stay with us. overlooked for tog stay with us

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marcella ryan was a young girl on the cheyenne river reservation in promise, south dakota, when she felt the call to become a nurse. years later, she was working in a surgical ward when she heard another call, this one came over the radio. it was about the need for nurses to serve in world war ii. so, marcella enlisted and joined the u.s. army nurse corps. after training, she received

orders to join the 76th general hospital unit in england. and then she was deployed to france. in the aftermath of d-day, first lieutenant ryan cared for the soldiers wounded on omaha beach. she later served on the front lines during the battle of the bulge and remembers the continual blasts of german buzz bombs as she worked. she recalls hearing that distinct, terrifying buzzing sound night and day, night and day. after the war, marcella ryan married navy vet gilbert lebeau. they had eight children. and yet, even then she continued to serve. long after receiving military honors and being awarded the french legion of honor, she continued to work as a nurse back in south dakota. she did so for 31 years until her retirement. marcella ryan lebeau is 101 years old. her story is not one-off. it's part of a long tradition of native american military service that goes back to the foundation of this republic. look no further than her own

family. as she told npr today, "my ancestors were warriors. rain in the face who fought in the battle of the little bighorn or greasy grass, that they called it. my father was a spanish-american war veteran, my brother, oldest brother was a veteran. all down the line." many native americans served this country before they were considered citizens or had the right to vote. they did so, despite the fact that the united states had signed and broken, nullified, or changed all of its treaties with native american tribes. but despite a painful history of violence and marginalization, native americans have the highest record of military service per capita compared to other ethnic groups, and that's part of what makes this next piece of news so important. today, just blocks from the nation's capitol, a national native american veterans memorial was unveiled by the smithsonian. the design is a steel ring atop a stone drum surrounded by steel lances where veterans and others can tie cloths for prayers. the seals of the five branches of the armed forces are embedded

in a wall nearby. for many veterans like first lieutenant marcella ryan lebeau, it is the hard-fought recognition of generations of service, service that has continued all down the line. thank you. that does it for us. we'll see you again tomorrow. "way too early" with my friend, kasie hunt, is up next. new restrictions in several states as covid cases and hospitalizations continue to hit record highs. the question is, are we on track for another shutdown? plus, the president makes his first public appearance since losing the election, marking veterans day. he didn't speak, but he did tweet, still refusing to accept the results. and with president-elect biden still not receiving key intelligence briefings, the question is whether new pressure from capitol hill will help overcome the president's road blocks. and a longtime washington operative who's been at joe