maybe the way to view this is to hope that camp lujune gets a water purification system that's been put off, maybe the air force base has put off paving one of the giant runways they've got up there. this won't get our military their $15 million back, but it does mean they are funding a priority once again. that is our broadcast on a thursday night. thank you so much for being here with us. on behalf of all my colleagues at the networks of nbc news, good night. rachel remains quarantined after a close contact tested covid positive, but rachel is still doing just fine. however, we just got word a moment ago more than 157,000 americans were diagnosed with covid today. this is a brand new record which comes a day after we broke the

previous record. more than 157,000 people tested positive for covid in the united states today. we'll be talking in just a few minutes with a member of president-elect joe biden's covid-19 advisory board. looking forward to that conversation. we're also expecting brand new numbers from maricopa county, arizona, tonight which could well lead to the state being called for joe biden. but before we get to the next president, in fact, before we even talk about the current president today we heard from our last president. not in a speech or interview but in an audio book. the atlantic magazine today published an excerpt from president obama's new memoir including an audio excerpt of the former president reading the book's preface. in that preface he said one reason it took so long to write this book is because he didn't fully anticipate the way things would

fully unfold in the years after he left the office. which i think is barack obama's measured way of saying stuff got crazy around here. >> our democracy seems to be teetering on the brink of crisis. a crisis moving between two opposing visions of what america is and what it should be, a crisis that left the body politic angry, divided and mistrustful and allowed for a breach of institutional norms, procedural safe guards and an adherence to basic facts that both republican and democrats once took for granted. what i can say for certain is i'm not yet ready to abandon the possibility of america not just for the sake of future generations of americans but for all of human kind. and so the world watches america. the only great power in history made up of people comperizing every race and faith and cultural practice to see if our experiment in american democracy can work, to see if we can do what no other nation has ever done.

to see if we can actually live up to the meaning of our creed. the jury's still out. >> the jury's still out. preface to president obama's new book continues from there. but when he record that audio version this year's presidential election had not yet happened. for the written version of the excerpt published today the former president updated the text in lith of recent events, and it continues from where he left out. i'm encouraged by the record setting number of americans who turned out to vote in last week's election have an abiding trust in joe biden and kamala harris, in their character and capacity to do what is right. but i also know that no single election will settle the matter. our divisions run deep, our challenges are daunting, end quote. boy, are they. as of tonight only four -- count them -- four republican senators have acknowledged joe biden's win. these four. that means joe biden has

received far more congratulatory calls from foreign leaders than he has from elected officials in his own country. and biden would have received yet more calls from foreign leaders if not for the fact donald trump's state department is refusing to put them in touch with biden when they call. the state department has always handled communications with foreign leaders for lots of reasons including translation and recording what they say and briefing the person getting the call for the president-elect. but not this time. another thing that president-elect's have always gotten but joe biden isn't is the presidential daily brief, the daily intelligence report prepared for the president. several republican senators have begun saying joe biden should at least be getting that. but to be clear they're saying he should be getting it not because he's the president-elect but just in case he becomes president. okay senator james lang ford was saying yesterday if joe biden did not begin receiving the pdb by the end of the week he

senator langford would step in which many tormented to believe senator langford of oklahoma was saying the presidential transition should begin. to clear things up he rushed to the microphone to say there's no such thing. sure, give joe biden some briefings. no sense being unprepared. how could republican senators be expected to have answers to such bottomless mysteries like he won more votes in the election? okay, all kidding aside there's a reason that one place republican senators are starting to budge is actually the issue of intelligence briefings because if they know in their heart of hearts as most of them surely do that joe biden really is going to be the next president regardless of what they're willing to say within earshot of donald trump, well then making sure the next president is up to speed on the latest intelligence and national security information is really

important. today over 150 former national security officials including several who served in the trump administration wrote to the trump administration to urge them to officially name joe biden and kamala harris as the apparent president and vice president-elect. the technical step that is required to get government transition resources flowing, they warn that, quote, delaying the transition firth poses a serious risk to our national security. and even as the lack of a presidential transition process may be doing unknown harm to national security, president trump continues to clean house across the intelligence and national security establishment in the u.s. government. we've written reporting from the last few days about the firings from the defense department and the installation of trump loyalists at the top levels of the pentagon. well, today president trump appears to have started clearing out the government's top cyber security officials. the department of homeland security's cyber security and infrastructure security agency

or cisa, throughout 2020 it was responsible for preventing cyber attacks and also push back on internet disinformation about t the election. and the widely rrptespected heaf the agency, chris krebs, is telling associates that he expects to be fired. here's what's particularly crazy about this. just today cisa joined several other government agencies in a celebratory statement announcing that, quote, the november 3rd election was the most secure in american history. there is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes or buzz in any way compromised. that's amazing news. imagine being the president of the united states and seeing that statement and being upset by it. but apparently it is cisa's insistence that it did the job

it was supposed to do, that it successfully helped protect american elections that has made donald trump so angry. chris krebs, quote, drew the ire of the trump white house over a website run by cisa dubbed rumor control which debunks disinformation about the election. white house officials have asked for content to be edited or removed which pushes back against numerous fall false claims of the election including democrats are behind a mass election fraud scheme. just makes your head spin. the top cyber security official his whole job is to protect the integrity of the election and he did, but the president says the election was fraudulent, so the guy has got to be fired. in just a moment we're going to speak with a key democratic senator who's worked on election security and knows chris krebs about how concerned we should all be on what the president is doing here. this story gets at the attention we've been talking about all week. on the one hand it seems very, very bad the president is clearinghouse in all these

national security posts as he refuses to concede defeat in the election. it can look sinter and scary, but if trump is just firing his top security official because he's mad twitter debunked his conspiracy theories -- today in arizona a trump campaign lawyer attempted to submit as evidence a stack of online forms filled out by random people who claim they had witnessed or heard about voting irregularities. even the trump lawyer admitted the forms were full of lies and, quote, spam. the judge would not allow the so-called evidence. the trump lawyer was later forced to admit in court, quote, this is not a fraud case, this is not a stealing the election case. which maybe he should tell the president. meanwhile another trump loyer attempted to file a lawsuit that

has no jurisdiction over elections. quote, trump insists he'll win but aides say he has no real plan to overturn results and talks of a 2024 run. national reporter philip rucker and josh dossy and ashley parker wrote one administration official chuckled and said you're giving him way too much credit right now. trump has been on the phone calling his advisers and friends. there's no doubt this is scary time. there's no doubt donald trump can do a lot of damage on his way out the door. the moment calls for vigilance, but there is mounting evidence there may not be an actual plan or even a genuine effort to keep donald trump in power. joining us now philip rucker. what are you hearing about those around the president, what they believe to be true and what they're telling him and what

he's thinking? >> well, what they believe to be true is not the same necessarily as what they're telling him, that the people around the president understands the reality as it exists which is joe biden won this election, he's the president-elect, that these legal challenges do not have much hope of turning those election results around even if some minuscule amount of voter fraud were to be discovered, and let's be clear none has been discovered yet. it's not enough to turn this election around. biden won. that's the reality, it's what the white house officials largely believe. but a number of people are trying to encourage the president. don't necessarily want to give him bad news. they're trying to encourage him to fight onto pursue these legal challenges. the president instead of being president, instead of addressing the coronavirus and making public appearances and holding task force meetings these last few days, he's been lighting up

the phone. he's been calling friends, allies, advisers, anybody who can give him some good news, who can point to discrepancies potentially where the vote may be crooked in the president's view and give him something to cling onto as he tries to claim falsely that the election was stolen from him. >> there's reporting that the national security advisor has told staff don't even mention biden's name. if you ever mention biden's name that's a no-go. you'd be fired the national security official said. everyone is scared of even talking about the chance of working with the biden transition. that's reporting from the daily beast. where does this go? at some point are they all hoping he'll come around to the conclusion himself or the courts will dismiss all the cases and all the counting will be finished and there'll be nothing left and at some point donald trump will accept reality? >> well, ali, the hope of some in the president's orbit, and this would be the least dangerous scenario for the

country is that this is just getting the president to a better emotional state. and, you know, maybe next week before we hit thanksgiving he'll start to realize what's really going on, and he'll find a graceful way to accept the reality of the results and move on, and biden will be able to begin his transition in the formal official wayt t that he' waiting for. but we don't know that's going to happen. and donald trump is mercurial, impulsive. he makes decisions based on instinct and based on what information people are feeding him, and there's a very real possibility that he refuses to concede, and that he refuses to accept these results, and this continues all the way through the inauguration on january 20th. but it's worth keeping in mind that the staff in the west wing, you know, are under orders not to accept that biden is the president-elect, not to be casting about for jobs, sending their résumes out.

privately they know their jobs are going to be over january 20th because they know how this election turned out. >> philip, you are white house bureau chief for a reason. at some point in between there there'll be electoral college vote, but what do people tell you is the worst-case scenario? >> well, that would be the worst-case scenario that the president continues to challenge the election result, that he continues to encourage his millions of followers around the country not to believe the integrity of the vote, that he casts doubt about the validity of our very democracy in this country and refuses to accept biden is his successor. now, what that physically means on january 20th when he's supposed to vacate the white

house, who knows, and i'm certainly not going to speculate about that, but it's a dangerous scenario because as you just quoted barack obama saying in his book, the world is watching. this is the most powerful and important dem oxeracy in the world, and what we have right now is a sitting president challenging the very integrity of our election system. >> philip rucker is the white house bureau chief for "the washington post." phil, thank you for making time for us tonight. we appreciate it. >> thank you. i want to turn now to senator amy klobuchar of minnesota, the ranking democrat on the rules committee and a member of the judiciary committee. she was a key voice on election security throughout the 2020 campaign. obviously she say also a presidential candidate herself. senator klobuchar, good to see you again. thanks for being with us tonight. >> thanks, ali. thank you. >> let's talk about what you believe is going on with mr. krebs cisa. he did tweet again today the president that is about votes

actually changed, votes for trump that had become biden votes. there's no ground on that at all. what the do you think is happening? >> you know, chris krebs has headed up this agency toiling away now since he was appointed to this position and then confirmed by the senate on a bipartisan basis all since 2018. and he's won the respect of conservative secretary of states like west virginia, secretary of state who said he turned everything around, worked on election security to people like my friend mark warner who issued a statement supporting chris krebs and his position as a ranking democrat on the intelligence committee. why is all this? because this guy literally has been telling the truth. and this is -- and the people that work for him. all along they started this website and i suggest people look at it, ci

cisa.guv/rumorcontrol. at the same time he worked really hard to stop foreign interference in our election. yes, there were attempts which they came out publicly with before the election, but overall as they stated in their statement today, this has been an election where we were able to have a fair election. and that's because of local election officials all over this country, republicans and democrats who are doing their jobs, and that's because of people like chris krebs. and no frivolous lawsuits by donald trump are going to change that. and i'm proud of chris krebs. >> yeah, but there are a lot of them. >> and i think he should get a medal instead of being condemned for protecting our country's elections. >> for four years we talked about foreign interference in our elections. >> in fact, there was a joint statement from cisa and the

elections infrastructure, guv wering coordinating counsel, a whole bunch of people who governed overseas elections and they said there's no evidence no voting systems, deleted or lost votes, changed votes were any way compromised. these are governmental organizations saying so, and today the same day you have the president not just tweeting about suppression and polls and all that kind of stuff but actually saying votes were changed. and the net result senator is depending on what polls you look at up to 20% of americans do not think this election was fairly decide. do not think donald trump lost it, do not think it was run fairly. this is the deep scar imposed on the democracy of america. >> it is. and i'm pleased people are coming out slowly but surely on the republican side. the governors, there have been a number of them that have come out and congratulated joe biden

on his election, and we just start seeing now today, yes, james langford, said he thought biden should get the briefings but also chuck grassly said the same thing, and he is the most senior member of the u.s. senate on the republican side. so, you know, i think that things are slowly but surely changing. am i dismayed that donald trump is firing people left and right while we have the worst moment in the pandemic so far occurring in this country? 56 people died in my state alone yesterday, and he is just sitting, stewing in his office as john bolton said today. we don't have time to get through seven stages of grief with donald trump. the point is that joe biden and kamala harris are moving forward. joe announced his chief of staff today. the president-elect has put together this preeminent task force of 13 experts to make recommendations, to get us through this pandemic and out the other side. work is being done in the

private sector and the vaccine. we need to get rapid testing out immediately, and work is being done. and i hope that's some assurance to you despite the fact that joe biden is being denied what he should be getting which are the intelligence briefings and funding for his transition. >> i saw you last in person when i was in minneapolis doing my show there. and your husband had covid, so this is personal to you as well as the national tragedy as you heard today 157,000 new cases today. senator, thank you for your time. i appreciate it. >> thank you very much, ali. the coronavirus numbers today are so overwhelming that they are almost hard to comp hebd. a member of the biden-harris coronavirus task force joins us to help us understand what this administration, the next administration is planning to do to help. xt administration is planning to do to help. l little village- in connemara. right! connemara it is! there's one gift the whole family can share this holiday season,

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more now on the breaking news tonight. the number of new cases of covid-19 in the united states has reached another record. according to nbc news, coronavirus tracker, 157,825 now cases have been reported so far today in this country. that's 9,000 more than the previous record set just yesterday. 9,000 more than the record. we have been breaking coronavirus case records almost every day for the past week.

we are showing no signs of stopping. deaths are on the rise, too, with the number of new people reported dead from covid increasing daily. hospitalizations are trending up. more than 67,000 people are in the hospital fighting this illness. hospitals in many states like wisconsin, illinois, new mexico, just to name a few are overrun with patients. the pandemic is worsening in every corner of this country, no matter how you measure it. by "the new york times" count, cases are rising in every state except for in louisiana. meanwhile in the nation's capital, the white house is experiencing another cluster. despite results not being in last tuesday, the trump white house held this presumptive victory party in the east room in the white house, and since then several attendees have tested positive. including the white house chief of staff mark meadows, hud

secretary, former trump campaign aid all in attendance all having tested positive. republican national committee chief of staff richard walters and trump campaign advisor cory lewandowski who since that election night party has also spent time in philadelphia trying to help trump's flailing legal challenges to the vote count there. and he showed up at the infamous news conference on saturday outside the four seasons -- the four seasons total landscaping company. but don't panic. lewandowski told cnbc today, i feel great. it's not great for nearly 160,000 americans who just caught this thing today or specifically the 67,000 people currently hospitalized because of their symptoms. these numbers keep going up in no small part because of a lack of consistent national response to this virus. each state has been left to make up its own rules in response to

case surges. "the wall street journal" reports that governors in new york, maryland, minnesota, iowa, utah and other states have imposed restrictive measures since yesterday's high case count, but change could still be on the way. the biden transition team is getting down to business and planning a national response to coronavirus. earlier this week biden assembled his coronavirus task force, a team of doctors and health experts that will help shape coronavirus containment policy for the biden administration starting on day one, hopefully before day one. one of the doctors on that task force joins us now. epidemiologist, clinical professor of medicine and infectious diseases and now a member of the biden-harris coronavirus task force. good to see you again. thank you for being with us tonight. >> my pleasure, ali. >> i want to understand. i know that there are many of you very qualified people on the two different groups that the

biden administration, the incoming biden administration has put together. what does the mean to us on the receiving end? what does a coordinated federal response look leak? is it stuff the administration does, is it pulling them all together and using the cdc and the nih the right way? what does it look like? >> it's all of the above, ali. i think part of what's been in the works for months now is developing a blueprint, a plan, how to operationize that plan in terms of how to control the pandemic in country and that requires a federal response and also a state and local response and the involvement of the private sector. and so what you're going to see in this new administration is you're certainly going to see the cdc taken off the side lines back in the center of the game. usee -- you'll be hearing from

people like nancy -- career scientists at the cdc experts in this area. and you're going to see improved coordination with governors, with state and local health departments in term of implementing the cdc guidelines and finally in terms of the private sector. when we talk about how do we scaleup vaccines, testing, how do we scaleup some of the new therapeuti therapeutics, that is very much going to require the participation of the private sector to distribute and disseminate all of those new technologies. >> i remember watching the ebola response in the united states and thinking this is tight. the idea that if you called -- i'm in new york city and fuiocall 911 and you had ebola systems a whole separate system

came to get you and website to a government place. ron klein is going to be the chief of staff the white house, a guy who knows how to fully take on the virus and go to war with it. >> and not only does he understand how government works, how different branches, how different agencies work together, how to coordinate all of those different groups, he also served as white house ebola czar and so really does understand how to control a pandemic in terms of the government response. so really i was quite pleased to see that ron was chosen. i can't think of a better choice. >> there's some talk about shutting down the country. what's the best way for people

to think about what controlling the spread of the virus looks like? >> i don't really like the expression of shutdown or lock down. i think we have moved beyond that at this point. those kinds of draconian lacking in nuance kind of measures, we've moved past that because we do understand a bit more about how the virus is spread. and really what we need to be doing is thinking about this as not an on and off light switch but rather a dimmer switch where you sort of dial-up and dial down interventions. as you do your surveillance, you see what's happening in different communities. i think new york city was a good example of this in the last couple of months where in specific zip codes we targeted testing and contact tracing in those zip codes. we didn't have lockdowns across the city.

aso we're now in new york at the point we're reaching a tipping point in term of having to tighten up on certain other things more broadly. that includes putting a pause on indoor dining, on bars, on indoor gyms. but that doesn't mean closing schools, for example. so i think we can do these things in a far more granular way that are less disruptive to peoples every day lives now. >> and those nee restrictions in new york city will go into play starting wednesday night. good to see you. epidemiologist, clinical assistant professor of wednesday and now a member of the biden-harris coronavirus task force. we appreciate your time and service to the country. >> my pleasure. president trump has gotten a lot of mileage out of the controversial legal opinion that you cannot indict a sitting president, but that all changes after january 20th. and tonight there's no rorring

that could give the president yet another reason to worry. ng that could give the president yet another reason to worry.

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in 2019 trump's long time lawyer and fixer testified to the house oversight committee. michael cohen testified that the president and his business inflated various asset values for loans and insurance purposes to secure more favorable terms, and in some cases understated the value of some of his properties to pay lower taxes. in case it's not obvious, that is fraud and that is illegal. >> to your knowledge did the president or his company ever inflate assets or revenues? >> yes. >> and was that done with the president's knowledge or direction? >> everything was done with the knowledge and at the direction of mr. trump. >> to your knowledge did the president ever provide inflated assets to an insurance company? >> yes. >> who else knows that the

president did this? >> allen weisselberg. >> one of the many people apparently tuning in that day was letitia james, this woman, the attorney general for the state of new york. after hearing cohen's testimony her office opened an investigation into the president's financial dealings specifically the alleged fraud detailed by michael cohen. now, up until now this investigation has not provided much of a real threat to trump because the president has a very important job that virtually makes him immune from prosecution. but obviously things have changed in just the past week. and today we learned that new york's attorney general is advancing her investigation. bloomberg news reports that letitia james' office has obtained financial documents from allen weisselberg. the individual name checked during his congressional testimony. he was intimately involved in the 2016 stormy daniels hush money payment and has been with the trump family in fact for decades. his financial documents could

potentially shed major light on the trump organization's operations and tax strategies. for more on this i want to bring in form u.s. attorney and msnbc legal analyst joyce vance. thanks for being with us tonight. >> good to be with you, ali. >> let's talk about -- i talked to letitia james, the attorney general a couple weeks agoon my show. if she's getting ready for a case she's not going to tell me about it on msnbc. the fact is this allen weisselberg character she's looking into, she's been with the trumps, his name is on the checks. apparently nothing got through money wise without his name on it. >> that seem tuesday be accurate. he's the chief financial officer and in charge of those trusts. he's been with the company since

fred trump's time. he'd certainly know as prosecutors like to say where all the bodies are buried if there's been any financial mismanagement by the company. >> we'll find out when we find out what letitia james has, but it does shed light since joe biden was declared the president-elect. donald trump has a lot of reasons for wanting to continue to be president. in fact, according to cnn reporting today donald trump has been asking aides since 2017 about whether he can self-pardon. one former white house official said trump asked about self-pardons as well as poardon for his family. so what's the answer to that? can he, and does it matter if charges are brought by letitia james, the attorney general of new york state or cy vance? >> i think first off we should

just take a deep breath and acknowledge the audacity of a president who's so cleary concerned about his own criminal culpability and that of his family members that pardons are a major obsession with him. and certainly we know one thing about donald trump, which is that he'll do whatever he wants to do whether he's entitled to do it or not, whether it has legal force is an entirely different question. but at best he can pardon himself for federal criminal conduct. and what attorney general james is look at is a series of civil cases in new york under broad authority that she has under their blue-sky laws to investigate persistent incidents of fraud by a corporation. it's meant to tell companies if you're going to play in new york you have to play fairly. so she could theoretically bring perhaps one major civil case against him or an entire series of cases over all these incidents. and that of course would be

something he couldn't pardon himself from. nor can he protect himself from criminal investigations that are clearly being done by manhattan d.a. cy vance. so what these two lines of investigation show us is that there will be investigations that will survive the end of trump's presidency, and he'll no longer have the shield of the presidency to protect him from the consequences of those investigations. >> and then there's this other issue of the money that he owes. we know of at least $421 million that donald trump owes. it's not clear to whom he owes it. and two things happen here. one is he can't continue to do things for folks if he's not the president of the united states. so there are worries maybe he takes some of those things he's got in his head that only presidents know of our country and that's of value to someone. how do we know or how can we police that? how does joe biden think about how to stop donald trump from taking literally state secrets and sharing them with people in

exchange for money? >> the story of the last four years has been trump's belief that he is above the law and his ability to hold himself above the law because of the complicity of those around him who have protected him from the consequences of his conduct. that is going to come to a stop on january 20th of 2021 when the rule of law will be restored in this country and where donald trump like any other person who violates the law will be held accountable for the consequences. so i feel very comfortable that the fbi and other federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies will be more than up to the job of ensuring that our country's national security is ful fully protected and that anyone who seeks to violate it will be dealt with. >> joyce, good to see you as always, my friend. the former united states attorney in alabama. thanks for your time tonight. >> good to see you.

the state of georgia still too close to call in the 2020 presidential election, but joe biden is leading which is incredible for georgia. and there's one person who many people think made that happen, stacey abrams. we'll have her thoughts on the states senate runoffs and the path forward from hereaft aftere break. from hereaft after the break. but not anymore! an alternative to pills voltaren is the first full prescription strength non-steroidal anti-inflammatory gel to target pain directly at the source for powerful arthritis pain relief. voltaren. the joy of movement.

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chevrolet. [phone rings] "sore throat pain? try new vicks vapocool drops in honey lemon chill for a fast-acting rush of relief like you've never tasted in... ♪ honey lemon ahh woo vicks vapocool drops now in honey lemon chill state officials in georgia, election officials tonight face foo two gargantuan challenges. elections that will control the united states senate and the contours of a biden presidency. before they get to that, election officials must conduct a time consuming labor intensive hand recount of close to 5 million presidential ballots. further complicating matters, today the republican secretary of state who ordered that recount announced he will be quarantining after his wife tested positive for coronavirus.

secretary of state brad rathilousburger ordered the count from republicans attacking him saying despite no widespread fraud, any recount is unlike to erase joe biden's 14,000 lead. the day's work force is putting in 12 to 14-hour shifts over the past month. the deadline for that recount has to be completed, it is november 20th in just eight days' time. and while the state throws all its resources towards completing that, the eyes of the nation are focused on the runoffs. a republican leaning poll today released showed a tight race in both contests with the two republicans slightly ahead both within the margin of error. but it's a different story when the comes to the money. republicans have jumped out to an early lead. both their candidates and senate allies have already raised $32 million over the past week while outside groups are poised to inject vast sums into the contest. for democrats the despairy would be even greater if not for stacey abrams whose fair fight

group has raised over $9 million to support georgia's two democratic candidates. today the 2018 gubernatorial candidate and in the party discussed what was coming up. >> we're fighting for america, and the way we do that is by pulling together the coalition that we had in november and making certain that coalition understands its power heading into january. we've got to remember this is going to happen in the midst of thanksgiving, christmas am and new years. so we've got to be able to penetrate and make sure people understand while we celebrate those holidays we also have to celebrate the victory of joe biden by giving him the greatest president and that is by making sure he has control of the senate. >> today reports stacey abrams herself is going to begin running in 2022.

>> for me there is no greater promise that i can make to the american people and to georgians that i'm going to be committed to ensuring their victory because that's how we get access to health care. that's how we get access to jobs. that's how we get access to justice, and my responsibility is to focus so siglerly on that that nothing else matters except for getting this done. the difference in our nation if we do not deliver raphael warnock and jon ossoff is going to be tremendous and jarring and possibly existential. >> joining us now is erin haynes, a non-profit partisan newsroom focused on gender, politics and policy. won the 2020 medal for journ lestic excellence and a native from atlanta, georgia, with wide ranging knowledge of the state's politics. great to see you again, my

friend. thanks for being with us. let's talk a little about georgia being in the column for joe biden. joe biden is in the lead in a count that isn't completely finish asked now going to be a recount, but that in itself is a remarkable feat. >> it absolutely is a remarkable feat and does not come as a surprise to one stacey abrams who has been playing the long game in georgia for several years and who has believed the electorate can be expanded not by trying to persuade people who may or may not be persuadable but by reaching those voters and convincing them this election was about them, not necessarily about any one candidate about about how their elected officials can have an impact on their daily lives. listen, her newly formed voting enfranchisement association, fair fight, put out a memo last fall saying that georgia was in

play and that georgia was going to be a factor in this election, that it was going to be a battleground state. and what she has done has really produced a blueprint for states with these same kinds of forgotten voters. and not only in georgia but states with large black populations, large marginalized community populations to follow. and i think that headed into this runoff engaging that population one more time now that georgia kind of has its newfound swagger as a battleground state is what she's singularly focused on. right now what the she's focused is keeping this new blue energy focused on possible control of the senate. >> and it wasn't just the county's around atlanta, fulton county. it was a lot of other places that grew, still urban centers typically that went blue versus rural areas in georgia that went

red. but when we look at elections, senate elections don't get the turnout presidential elections get even when they're in the normal cycle. special elections suffer from that even more. what makes this it different? how do you get those same people out to vote in this election? >> i think because of what's on the line? you know, for people who want today see not just president trump out of office but a biden-harris victy thory they ry felt had the capacity to change their lives fundamentally, the kinds of people in the streets marching around this national reckoning on race, pushing for big systemic change, that doesn't happen if democrats do not have more control in congress. and so that is what is being used to galvanize those voters this time around. but, look, i mean with all this newfound attention on georgia i think it has a potential to galvanize both sides even, you know, as hard as stacey abrams is going to work and as committed as i know a lot of

these black women organizers, not just her but the grass roots folks who know how to mobilize these kinds of voters and get them turned out one more time. not just in atlanta. to your point, the suburbs don't look how they looked in atlanta and in georgia just a few years ago. rural voters, you know, are being redefined this cycle thanks to folks like stacey abrams and other grassroots organizers. so really reaching out to those folks, getting them energized again. the tens of thousands of young voters who may turn 18 during this runoff election season, those people are all gettable, and i think that's where her efforts are going to be focused, the efforts from her and all the black women organizers who really made georgia the in play state we now are all focused on. >> erin, it's so good to see you again. editor at large of the 19th non-profit nonpartisan newsroom focused on gender, politics and

policy. and she's an expert of all things georgia. make sure you follow her on social mead you and follow the 19th. we're expecting more election results from arizona tonight which could lead to that state being called for joe biden. we expect those numbers within the hour. stay with us. xpect those numbern the hour stay with us o remember sales event. lease the 2021 is 300 for $339 a month for 36 months and we'll make your first month's payment. experience amazing at your lexus dealer. look limu! someone out there aneeds help customizing first month's payment. their car insurance with liberty mutual, so they only pay for what they need. false alarm. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ skip to cold relief fast. alka-seltzer plus power max gels. with 25% more concentrated power. oh, what a relief it is! so fast! you work hard for your money. stretched days for it.

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we have new updates on the number of new coronavirus cases reported today. 159,501 cases have been reported so far today. that exceeds yesterday's tally

of 148,302. these numbers are too big to imagine, but this is the ninth day in a row that we have seen numbers above 100,000. look at how they are multiplying? today we also had 1,136 deaths reported this needs to change. that does it for us tonight. we'll see you again tomorrow. now it's time for "the last word" with lawrence o'donnell. good evening, lawrence. >> good evening, ali. thank you very much. >> thank you. >> we are expecting new report of voter vote counts in arizona at this hour. we will bring you the new arizona vote totals as soon as they are announced. the nbc news election decision desk will have a close eye on the new data to evaluate whether there is enough information to project a winner in arizona. the outcome in arizona cannot change the fact that joe biden has won the presidential election already with 279 electoral votes, and joe biden is the pre