good morning. it is sunday, november 15th. i'm ali velshi. much has changed in a week. after a long election season, joe biden was named president-elect. roughly 78.5 million americans cast ballots for him. the highest number of votes received by any presidential candidate in u.s. history. it's also about 5 million more votes than donald trump got. a short time ago, trump tweeted of biden. he, quote, won because the election was rigged. it was the first time the sulking commander in chief admitted to biden piece victory, although his accompanying

reasons in that tweet remains false. we just showed you the election was not rigged. more people voted for biden. in some new reporting, carol lee reports when asked if this tweet means that the president is conceding, a white house official says, quote, it looks like it. but for millions of americans, this election wasn't about politics, it was about life and death and survival. eight months into this and the coronavirus pandemic continues to spread, infect, and kill at an alarming rate. here's a look at the dramatic rise in covid cases over the last couple of days. yesterday, the country saw 156,416 new cases. on friday, the united states reached an all-time high for new cases, in a single day, 176,309. that's according to nbc news. this morning, the total number of infections nationwide stands at 10,974,454. the number of deaths, 246,681.

sadly, this is exactly where the experts said we'd be. no one's to blame for the pandemic, but the crisis is undoubtedly worse here in the united states because of donald trump's failed leadership. he bundled the situation from the very beginning, repeatedly contradicting his own top doctors, refusing to lead by example and wear a mask, spreading disinformation and taking a cavalier attitude to a virus that has killed hundreds of thousands of his fellow citizens. >> it's going to disappear. one day, it's like a miracle, it will disappear. and from our shores, you know, it could get worse before it gets better, could maybe go away. we'll see what happens. nobody really knows. >> that was february 27th. and he knew that was a lie then. and we know it now. and he admitted as much and more in a taped interview with journalist bob woodward in march. >> well, i think, bob, really, to be honest with you -- >> sure, i want you to be. >> -- i wanted to -- i wanted to

always play it down. i still like playing it down. >> yes. >> because i don't want to create a panic. >> we deserved to know what we were up against. what we would all have to live through. first, the infection spike, then the hospitalizations, then, all too often, the deaths. we reported it right here from the beginning. not to alarm you, but to do what journalists do. bear witness and hold power to account. we have done our best to share the recommendations of medical experts. wear masks to protect yourself and others, wash your hands for 20 seconds, at least. practice social distancing. i didn't even know what that term meant until last march. and here we are on the cusp of another wave, but instead of bracing the american public for such an event. the president used covid as a wedge issue at his rallies and shrugged it off as media sensationalism. >> all biden and his handlers in the media want to talk about today is covid, koecovid, covid.

you turn on msdnc, you turn on this network, it's covid, covid, covid. on november 4th, you won't hear anything about it. because we are rounding that term. well, i got it and here we are, right? here we are. >> we're not rounding any turn and we are still talking about it, because it matters. lives have been lost. americans continue to be at risk. experts told us we'd be in this for the long haul and that another more severe wave would eventually take shape. and with holiday season approaching, americans are so desperate to reunite and see their families and friends. this road has been long. but relief is finally in sight. we had news this week of vaccines and therapeutics and late-stage trials with remarkable levels of efficacy. it sounds promising, but many may not be able to receive vaccines for several months. and joe biden is making the pandemic a foremost priority of his administration. this week, he named a number of coronavirus advisers and announced expert who is will join his response team. biden also selected ron klain, the ebola czar under president

obama to be his chief of staff, a person who knows firsthand how to wage war against a deadly virus. and right now, biden is working with congressional democrats on another stimulus package to bring financial relief to millions. >> people need relief right now. right now. small businesses, people who are about to be evicted from their homes because they can't pay their mortgage. unemployment insurance, you know, what's going to happen is, we're going to see what people don't realize is the failure to provide state and local assistance. you're going to see police officers, firefighters, first responders laid off. and i think the pressure is going to build. >> biden's readiness to take on covid, his planning and his plotting, it's a breath of fresh air for a country that has seen illness, death, and lockdowns for months on end. but until he takes office, until the vaccines arrive, we are still in this fight, at least now, we're in it together. in this special hour of

"velshi," we'll work together to determine how workers, businesses, schools, and citizens can safely survive the next few months. we begin this morning in minnesota, which saw a record number of cases in a day on saturday, adding another 8,700. my colleague and my friend, cori coffin is in st. paul, minnesota. cori, this week became minnesota's deadliest during the pandemic. how are they handling it? >> reporter: yeah. and survival, you speak of survival. that's going to be testing, that's going to be one key phase of all of this. they have a comprehensive statewide plan here in the state of minnesota, that they're implementing. this ramp-up in testing, we're seeing right behind us has just opened up on thursday. this is a saliva testing facility. and we're told it's not just for travelers to ease their concerns, but it's also for people who live in this area and the response has been overwhelming overwhelming. you get results back in 24 to 48 hours. it's part of a statewide massive plan to ramp up testing.

they now do 40,000 to 50,000 tests a day and added a new lab to help process all of those tests. this comes as this state is experiencing the most deadly surge since this pandemic began. we gone from 19,000 active cases to 46,000 active cases in two weeks, but the actual spreading rate and the positivity rate of these tests is growing, now at 15% in parts of the state, ali. my colleague, gabe gutierrez, spoke with one icu doctor and several front line workers about what they're experiencing here. listen. >> it's -- it's real. it's -- you know, i don't know how else to say it. it's -- it's just our reality, every time i come into work, covid is a major reality for so many families. they're losing loved ones or people might make it out of the icu, but then they're going to have issues for the rest of their life, possibly. and so if you're -- for people who are not affected and can't see it, i always tell them,

thank god that you're not. >> reporter: this is now the deadliest week in minnesota for this virus. and the governor implementing new -- new compliance to help curb some of the spread, including less than ten people gathering in and outdoors, ali. gatherings of 25 or more for weddings have to be limited to 25 or more. and restaurants now and bars close at 10:00 p.m. ali? >> thank you, my friend. you continue to stay safe as you travel around the country. nbc's cori coffin in st. paul, minnesota. joining me now is dr. celine gounder, a newly named member of the biden/harris covid-19 board, she's a practicing disease specialist and epidemiologist at bellevue hospital in new york city. dr. gounder, thank you for being with us. you have some experience with this. as i recall, i think bellevue was the place that during ebola, it became a specialized center for sending people. and as you and i talked about the other day, ron klain, whom

you have worked with very closely, is going to be in charge of -- he's going to be the chief of staff. you and he and others know how to wage war on a virus. >> we do. we have a very experienced team, a very deep bench of scientists, doctors, public health and policy experts. ron klain, as you mentioned, was the white house ebola czar. he also served as chief of staff under biden when he was vice president. under vice president al gore, as well. so we have people with tremendous experience in government and scientific experience to combat this pandemic. >> dr. gounder, what do you expect the early actions joe biden can take? he probably can't take a ton of them before he actually takes office. maybe donald trump will open up and say, all right, your people can start to take over, i doubt it. but what happens first. what are the first few orders of business? >> well, i think you're going to see president-elect biden invoke the defense production act. this is something that we who

have been fighting this on the front lines have been pleading the current administration to do for months now. we are running out of face masks and face shields and gloves and all of the necessary personal protective equipment. we have been rationing all of that for months. and now we're seeing a big surge and the demand for that equipment is only going to skyrocket. in addition, we're really going to focus on testing, massively scaling up testing, so we can really get a handle on where the disease is being transmitted, by whom, who's getting infected, and why this is happening. >> you are -- you have a particular view on not making this worse. and one of the things i was just mentioning is that we're getting into holiday season. and people are desperate to see their people, their kids, their parents, to have their grandchildren see their grandparents. you really want people to think about this five times before getting together for thanksgiving. >> look, we have a fire raging across the country. these kinds of gatherings are

like pouring gasoline on a fire. the problem is that you're bringing people of different generations together in close quarters, indoors, around a table where they're probably not going to be wearing masks. i have heard so many, even among my friends say, well, i trust so-and-so. this is not about trust. the virus doesn't care if you trust somebody, if you love somebody. in fact, it hitches a ride on that trust. it's around the people that you are closest to that you are most likely to get infected. >> you said something to me the other evening when we were talking that has stuck with me, because this conversation about lockdowns. donald trump kept saying during the campaign, he's going to lock america down. and you said, that's very binary, this whole concept of lockdowns or open up. you prefer dimmer switch. >> yeah, that's right. so this is where testing becomes really important, because you really need to have your finger on the pulse of where transmission is occurring, what settings. and if you have good data on that, for example, over the last several months, we have learned

that indoor dining is a major contributor to transmission. so if you understand that, you can be much more targeted, you know, for example, by zip code, by type of location, to really only shut down the places that are contributing the spread. and keep torre businesses or essential services like schools open in the meantime. >> on a very personal level, the only thing i really want out of the biden/harris covid board is that it's filled with experts to whom the president will take it -- from whom the president will take advice. >> yeah, and we've really been intentionally selected for diversity. diversity of expertise, also, diversity in terms of gender and race and opinion. he has not selected a group of "yes men," he wants us to have healthy debate, so we're not going to agree all the time. but the idea is to consider all of the options, all the data, all of the science and come up with evidence-based recommendations. >> dr. gounder, always good to see you, thank you for joining

us. dr. celine gounder is a member of the biden/harris covid transition advisory board. it's about to get worse as coronavirus cases surge throughout the country. coming up next, our all-star panel will answer your questions about how to survive. whether you're that business owner or you work for a business, how to survive that next wave. that's after this. ss, how to su next wave. that's after this. still fresh unstopables in-wash scent booster downy unstopables we started by making the cloud easier to manage. but we didn't stop there. we made a cloud flexible enough to adapt to any size business. no matter what it does, or how it changes. and we kept going. so you only pay for what you use. because at dell technologies, we stop...at nothing. ♪

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just this week, nearly a

million americans filed for first-time unemployment claims, joining the nearly 11 million americans already unemployed as a result of the pandemic. it's a huge number that's actually fallen substantially since state restrictions were lifted and business reopened, but could once again rise, as hiring slows and covid cases again spike. in fact, every state in the country is seeing an alarming rise in coronavirus as weather gets colder and moves people indoors more and coronavirus fatigue starts to set in. cities like chicago are already beginning to shut down. new york imposed new curfews and restrictions that went into effect on friday night, that will affect small businesses and remember, their workers and their owners. it was just six months ago that i told you, most businesses have, if they're lucky, three months worth of capital on hand to survive and keep staff employed. most small businesses struggle. they have far less money on hand than that. for those who survive the last six months through either those loans, the ppp loans or the l t

lifting of restrictions, the hard part is far from over. we could be looking at another six months before a vaccine distribution means that our favorite bars and restaurants and stores can start to get back to normal. they need to know how to survive now. you might work for one of them. you might want to support them. joining me now to discuss what businesses should do, what workers should do, what this could mean for consumers and patrons alike, kevin o'leary, aka mr. wonderful, the fonder of the o'leary financial group, author of "the cold hard truth on business, money, and life" and the cold hard truth on men, women, and money". and tara joined me nearly six months ago while her business was still shut down during the height of the pandemic. she was one of the business owners who was able to receive a ppp loan. despite that, tara says they need help still. costs for ppp, personal

protective equipment remain high. the support she received from the community while they were closed fizzled out once she reopened. so thanks to all three of you for joining us. tara, i want to start with you. tell me about your business. you are obviously, like hair salons and places like that, a place where you're in close contact with people. you need that protective equipment. it increases your costs, probably a whole bunch of people who were thinking about getting tattoos just didn't do it during covid. tell me what's going on with your business in the last six months. >> well, we're very lucky that at least we can be open and create an environment that is a safe environment and it's very controlled. however, our costs are through the roof. what we used to pay for gloves was $5 a box and now they're $20 a box, and that's if we can find them. it's very challenging to just get all of the supplies that we need. and also, it's very scary, you know, going into the winter, seeing how it's going to be, whether we're going to get shut down again.

and while i would be okay with that if it's for the greater good, what i'm mostly afraid of is us kind of getting left behind again. all of us small businesses are the ones that need the help the most and we kind of get forgotten about. and as far as the support, everybody was super excited, we felt all of this love when we were actually closed down, and i feel that the public was really quick to forget all of that support and help they were willing to provide for small businesses, and people kind of went right back to, you know, being a little overly critical of little things and all of that stuff hurts a lot more right now. and i think that people tend to forget that small businesses are -- we're people, you know, we're not robots to where, we're still going through our things, trying to get, you know, our staff to feel happy while we're still carrying this huge burden of hoping that we can just survive, which is a little scary. >> which is what most small businesses just do.

>> yeah. >> let me get some questions, and tara, i want you to stick around, because you may have had a experience that is relevant to what some of these questions are asking. i'll put these questions to kevin and diana, either one of you. i want to start with dr. green, who has did a question that said, i run a female black-owned dental practice in staten island. i've been serving the community when many wouldn't, for over 30 years. covid-19 is threatening my financial and emotional ability to survive. i employ women who depend on me for their livelihood and i'm at a loss for what to do next. i need financial resources to carry us over to 2021 and keep my practice compliant. people still require our services, but i don't know how much longer we can hold on. what does a small dental practice do to survive? diana, what do you think? >> this is very tough. obviously, a lot of people don't want to go inside, as the georgia business owner pointed out. basically, my thought is, my

first initial reaction is to ask this person to apply for some other type of funding, that is currently still available. you know, i don't know if this person did get a ppp loan, so it's a little bit hard to offer this advice, so with both of these other programs that i'm about to mention, even if you got a ppp loan, you should still be able to apply for them. one is the sba disaster program and the other is the federal reserve's main street lending program. the -- effectively, both of those programs are -- both of those loans, they're traditional loans, you would have to pay them back, but they're both low-interest and you would be able to pay them off over time, a substantial amount of time, too. other than that, i would also suggest to reach out to resources after the killing of resources that are available to black-owned businesses. after the killing of george floyd, unfortunately, a ground swell of support networks have come up -- no, fortunately, this has happened, but it was unfortunate, the reason.

networks have cropped up that have basically become available to black-owned businesses. so i would encourage her to look at the national black chamber of commerce and the u.s. black chambers. various organizations have sprouted that would look to help a business like hers. with presumably grant funding. >> okay. and that's one of the things we're looking at, because loan funding versus grant funding is very different and some of the processes for applying for these things are beyond what a small business like tara, i assume you don't have lawyers and accountants on retainer who are ready to provide all this sort of information that people need. >> no. >> kevin, you do a lot on shark tank with small businesses and you have been involved in politics. so some of these questions are both political and business. debbie chavar writes to me. she says, "i own several restaurants in northern california. it's very difficult to make any business decisions when i can't control whether we will be allowed to operate. when the state decreases our capacity, we have to lay off employees. when they increase our capacity,

we hire them back. this is a horrible position to be in as a business owner who cares about their employees. how do restaurants in particular survive these shutdowns?" and kevin, i'll just add to that, as i just talked to celine gounder about, it's this dimmer switch thing, things are opening, things are closing, capacity is changing, and small businesses and restaurants don't carry this kind of cash. they can't carry themselves for six or eight months. >> you're right. but you said something earlier in the show that's very important. we now see the light at the end of the tunnel. let's talk about 50% of the population being inoculated in the next six months. that's the bogey. if you're a restaurant owner and i have many companies that i have involved with food services in my portfolio. we are trying to figure out how to let our customers know during the next 90 days, 180 days, that we are still in business. that we are open, that we are there for them and we can serve them safely. and in the case of restaurants, that means keeping the chef team open, alive, so we can do

takeout. we can do drop-off by window. anything you can possibly do, even remote catering, just to keep the kitchen staff and the talent that understands the menu. now, regarding the actual servers, we're hoping and so is everybody else in america, that the next stimulus package is focused on unemployment. that may be the one that gets through politically the fastest. we may not get the typical ppp that we're used to in march and april last year, but what we might get, as a compromise during this lame-duck period is maybe $1 trillion to $1.5 trillion in straight unemployment compensation for the 20% of the workers in america that have been displaced by this pandemic, including restaurant servers. now, that doesn't help you if you're the owner and own the equity of the restaurant, but it helps you keep your staff in tact. and that's what we're hoping for and we should know that in the next two weeks. >> tara, i want to start with you on this one. the person has withheld their name, but they say, i own a hair salon in northern virginia.

in march of 2020, i had a thriving business. i was always booked three months out with appointments. i closed my doors for three months due to covid-19 and now i'm barely able to pay my overhead and stay open. most of my clients are too afraid to come in. i accepted an sba small business loan and was receiving unemployment from the cares act. money's running out. i have no idea what i'm going to do next. i'm in jeopardy of losing my home as well. any advice would be greatly appreciated. tara, i know you're not in the business of giving advice, but this sounds similar to the situation that you faced. >> it's pretty similar. we've been fortunate we have continued to stay open. it's been a struggle week by week. but for us, to help getting people in, we've always been very clean and taken all of those measures to make sure that everything is in place as it should be. and we've just had to make a lot of adjustments to make sure all of our staff feel safe. and our clients feel safe.

but the one challenge is, some people are still not going to feel safe no matter what. i mean, i don't really do anything else besides go to work and grocery shop, so i think that there's a lot of things that i feel can't be answered for a lot of small business owners, because the general public itself doesn't know what to do or what they're supposed to do. there's really no guidance above. >> there's no -- >> no, nobody knows what to do. that's what makes it so challenging. it's hard, because people have -- we have to touch people. like, we have to be touching them to be able to work on them. people, when you're doing their hair, you have to be touching them. and people are still having trouble finding all of these supplies, getting masks and gloves and all of these different things. and a big ethical dilemma that we face again, going into the winter is obtaining these supplies when now we're seeing all of these huge spikes in hospitalizations.

but now we're at a little bit different of a crossroads, because we have the supplies, but i feel a lot of the times the pressure gets put on small businesses that we're supposed to give up our supplies and we're supposed to put that aside. but in the end, i would love to know who's going to look out for us. because i feel like nobody is. >> the good news that celine gounder just told us, we'll have to wait for january, but one of the things that joe biden is going to do, he's going to invoke the defense production act to finally get us the personal protective equipment that we need. it's kind of remarkable, nine months in, in the world's richest country, that we're still discussing masks and we're still discussing gloves and we're still discussing this stuff. that's -- whatever you can agree or disagree with, that shouldn't be happening in america. hang on to all of you, because i want to continue this conversation. diana, i want to ask you about particularly, i've been traveling across the country for three months and the businesses that you do business wiare the ones that can assure you they can stay safe and list the precautions they're taking.

whether it's restaurants or tattoo studios or hair studios, that becomes very important. stand by, tara and kevin and diana will rejoin me in just a few minutes. tara, good to see you and we'll stay in touch. i'm not sure i've got a tattoo on my agenda, but if i ever do, i'm coming to marietta to get one. >> thank you. as coronavirus cases spike across the country, the fate of schools hang in the balance with possibly even more shutdowns ahead. the pandemic dangers facing schools and what actually needs to be done about them, next. s to be done about them, next. hey. you fell asleep with your sign again. "you fell asleep with your sign again." no, i didn't. okay. switch to progressive and you can save hundreds. you know, like the sign says.

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well, for good reason, schools have been one of the toughest topics of discussion throughout this pandemic. children learning in schools means their parents can work. research shows that in-person learning is much better for early stage development than the remote learning that's taking place across much of the country. and just this week, amid spikes

in cases, school districts in detroit, boston, and baltimore have scaled back or shut down in-person learning altogether. philadelphia and chicago school districts, both of which had plans to reopen in-person classes, instead, have decided to stay closed for the immediate future. and new york city's mayor, bill de blasio, has told parents to be ready to go completely remote starting tomorrow, although governor andrew cuomo has made it clear that despite a rise in cases, he would prefer the country's largest school district, new york, to keep classrooms open. in new york, the positivity rate in public schools has been found to be far lower than the rate of the city itself, standing at just 0.16%. the united states is one of the only developed countries that has prioritized keeping bars and restaurants open while closing doors at schools. in fact, even as they shut down their economies, schools in europe have decided to stay open for in-person classing, believing that the cost to children outweighs the risk.

here with me now is becky pringle, the president of the national education association, representing teachers across this country. miss pringle, good to see you. thank you for being with us on the show. i'm trying to get a sense, and maybe you know this from all the teachers which you've spoken. what best practices look like in schools. we've got this patchwork quilt across the country of what schooling looks like. >> it's so good to be with you this morning, ali. as a science teach for over 30 years, teachers and educators want nothing more than for us to get control of this pandemic so we can go back to our schools safely and equitiably. but here we are. dr. fauci warned us that the infectious rates would begin to spike and they are. and what we have been talking about from the very beginning is that we have to follow those infection rates, and if they are

high, we cannot bring our students and educators back to school safely. so we are working right now to ensure that our educators and schools and students have the resources they need to stay safe. >> what looks like success to you? have you seen enough examples, either anywhere in america or in europe, where kids are learning in school and teachers are staying safe and staff are staying safe and drivers, bus drivers and cafeteria staff and custodial staff are all staying safe? have you seen something that works? >> you know, ali, what we've seen all over the country, honestly, is those communities and educators, administrators, staff, elected leaders that have come together and followed the three cs, criteria, they're following the criteria to keep our students safe, making sure they have ppe, social distancing, sanitation, tracking, tracing, and testing, and having plans in place.

they are collaborating on that. so they're bringing everyone to the table to make decisions. they're partnering with the american association of pediatrics, they're partnering with infectious disease experts and educators themselves and then finally, they are communicating with each other. you're seeing these rolling decisions and they didn't make sound, collaborative decisions. i will tell you, ali, even what we saw in the spring, in those places where we had community schools already set up, where we had the practices and policies and structures in place for the community to surround their students with everything they needed to stay safe and continue to learn, that's where we saw success. >> becky pringle, thank you for joining us. the president of the national education association. i look forward to many such conversations with you. we're going to bring back our business panel to discuss the fate of small businesses as the pandemic rages on. how small business can survive the next wave, is ahead. w smalle

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i'm back with my panel, kevin o'leary and diana ransom to continue discussing small businesses and the second wave of covid. we're also rejoined or joined this time by trudette morris, she's the ceo of a catering company. at the time, she had been waiting on a ppp loan while

running her business. although it took a while to get off the ground, her business is doing well, constantly adapting to the new environment and staying nimble and finally, finally, oh, my god, that thing that matters so much to small businesses, breaking even after months and months of struggling. trudette, what's happened in your business and in your life? >> oh, god, so much. thank you for having me on. so, the last time we spoke, yes, i was waiting on a ppp aloloan it was not through my actual bank that i had a relationship with for years. i actually ended up getting the ppp loan through my payroll company, which was amazing. and although it wasn't a lot of money, it definitely was able to help me kick start getting a product line off the ground and just really pivoting and doing some things that i had wanted to do and really got forced to do as a result of our catering business kind of slowing down with covid and so, with the

catering business slowing down, i thought it was really important for me to pick up another revenue stream, so we launched product with our amazing marketing groups. and we've been just pumping along with our product and really offering other services to other small businesses, as well. talking about business credit and, you know, not using -- using your own personal money to survive during covid. so we've been doing a lot. there's been a lot going on. >> yeah, this issue of money, cash flow, kevin and i have talked about before, it's central to any small business. if you've got the cash to keep going, you can keep going. and this too, shall pass. but for many businesses, they don't. diana, i have a question from steve sweeney in california, who said, i've got a small business for over 30 years. in may of this year, we received ppp funds to help us get through the next two months of payroll. as you know, we have received nothing for the last five months of payroll. we were able to take a loan to

cover these expenses, but it will take us years to repay it. will they be any retroactive ppp funds available for small businesses who have been hurting terribly since july. will there be any future ppp funds available until the economy improves? what do you know about this? >> yeah, this is -- it's harrowing to hear these stories, by the way. from what i can tell based on all the bills that have come through that i've seen, there's not been any retroactive funds. they're not talking about any -- making those available for anybody. there is talk about reupping the ppp and making it only available to those who have experienced significant financial harm through the disaster or the crisis. so there's that. and -- so that should be helpful. one thing i did want to point out is that there is still a chance that this could happen before january, before biden

actually takes office. depending on what happens with the senate breakdown, if it turns out that democrats take the senate in the upcoming -- in the upcoming congress, there is potential for there to be a situation where there's more likelihood for a stimulus package, that affects small businesses in particular, before the end of year. >> kevin, let me ask you this one from teresa. she says, we're a transportation company, wholesale works keeps cloe comi cash flow coming in. we took a small business loan to help us get through these rough times and found that we're burning through it. there's a similarity to all of these questions. but teresa asks, we're not sure what to do. do we go back to the sba and ask for more assistance? do we break our contracts? do we stop work completely? we're losing money every day. is it time to walk away? kevin, this is one of the

hardest questions a small business owner has, right? tr trinette understood that when she breaks even, she can at least get up every day and try to make the next day better. but when you're losing money every day, what do you do? when do you decide to fold? >> this question is the same one i've got from over 50 companies that i'm an investor in. and here's what we decided to do and it's worked 80% of the time, ali. we have found, i don't care what the business is, transportation is a necessity that will be here forever, one way or another, we've found that every business can find another 15% of costs to cut. there is always somewhere you can cut rather than go out of business. the whole game now is to stay alive for the next six months. because now we have at least -- and i've said this many times over the last week, we now have light at the end of the tunnel. you have to do everything in your power to stay in business. if that includes letting your customers know that you're still in business and fully intend to be there. don't give up now, now that we

have a vaccine -- you can debate how fast it's going to take to inoculate the entire population, but starting in about three weeks, the first wave will begin to go through therapeutics and perhaps the pfizer and modernas. so you're going to start to see this turnaround. and your job as a small business owner is to do everything you can to get to the other side of this ocean. and i think that can be something that includes cost cutting and includes also trying to find what else you can do with existing customers. we found out that by just emailing our customer base and saying, what else can we provide for you, we're getting all kinds of response. try 60%. the world understands that they want to use your service. i'm not talking about getting new customers, i'm talking about just dealing with the ones that you have. and if you're a transportation company, there are other things you can do to existing customers to stay in the game. >> trinette, what did you do about that? how did you deal with that? did your new business rely on some of your old customers? >> we relied completely on our

old customers. just like kevin said, we went back to the basics. we started emailing, we started doing email campaigns. once and twice a day, talking about our new product. you know, saying, you know, we're still here, we're still open, doing a lot of social entrepreneurship. just being available to the community. and just like kevin said, it's really about letting your existing customers know, look, we're still here, we're still pumping out new product. we don't intend to go anywhere. and we definitely are not going quietly. and then, what that opens up is, as you say on the screen, the convention center called and said, listen, you guys are still here. you can supply us with x, y, z, so now we supply them with, you know, small, mini charcuterie boxes for their meeting. we got new contracts with the city, things they could have done in house, they passed on to

us. and that's because we remain visible. we aren't going anywhere. we do see the light at the end of the tunnel. and just really, like i said the last time, we were able to pivot and it just made me go back to some of the things that i've always done in corporate, when i was in corporate america. and i just had to pull on just everything that i knew about staying in business, pivoting, you know, during hard times and just, you know, getting it from the muscle. and really making those smart moves about having a marketing company, even as a small business, because i cannot do everything, i just can't. but them being able to pump out those e-mails, make sure that we were relevant and very visible on social media, and then also, collaborating with other small businesses. that has been the big difference for us. >> diana, it's always tough with small businesses, you can't get access to capital. you know, kevin's whole thing on "shark tank" is, i've got an idea, can you give me capital?

we warned people not -- specifically small businesses not to get into more debt than they can control. i have a question from tim and sonya, who say, my wife and i operate a dog day care in austin, texas. over the last 18 years, we survived on thin margins. then covid struck. we received money through ppp and ied l. almost all of it needs to be repaid. even when things improve, we'll be burdened with debt and an economy that won't be the same as before. even if we can get more federal stimulus, how can we continue to pay all of this new debt. do we give up and deal with the financial misery now or wait this chaos out with our fingers crossed? kevin's answer was, we do see light at the end of the tunnel. what do you say to tim and sonya? >> there's a very -- this is really an important question, because all of this discussion of, you know, where do i get more money, where do i get more money, you don't want to end up at the end with a ton of debt,

even a low-interest loan is still a loan that you need to repair. if you're not sure about your financial situation for the imminent future, you're going to be stuck with that. and then you're going to be in a situation where you can't pay it back. so this is a very important point to discuss. what i would suggest to this person, the doggy day care company, is to really think about what they sell, who they sell it to, and how they deliver it. so if they're finding that their customers don't want to board their animals right now, what are they willing to buy? what service are they willing to purchase. like, maybe they would do dog cleaning, for instance, or grooming, a service something like that, where they don't actually -- you know, people aren't leaving their homes right now, maybe there's another kind of service that they could provide. they just need income. and through all of this uncertainty of, you know, business closures and am i going to be able to keep my capacity up, businesses need to consider -- they need to add certainty to their processes

right now. and insofar as you have a product that someone will buy, regardless of the situation, that's what you need. >> we're out of time, but thank you. trinette, great to see you, i'm so glad that you have figured out a new way to do this. my ol see you again, thank you for being here and your advice. diana, it's a pleasure to meet you and i hope we will have a lot of opportunities to talk. ayanna ran some a features columnist at inc. anthony fauci is weighing in on president trump's failure to provide joe biden's transition team with the information. provide joe biden's transition team with the information. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ you work hard for your money. stretched days for it. juggled life for it.

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that conversation blew by, we will have to leave a little more time next time we take your questions about how to get through the next wave of coronavirus, but i promise you we will. president trump and his administration right now appear to be everything they can to purposefully hobble the transition for the incoming biden administration. this morning dr. anthony fauci the director of the national institute of allergy and infectious diseases explains what that means for the fighting the ongoing covid-19 pandemic and keeping americans safe. watch this. >> as you know, i've been through multiple transitions now having served six presidents for 36 years, and it's very clear that that transition process that we go through, that time, the period of measured in several weeks to months is

really important in a smooth handing over of the information as well as it's almost like passing the baton in a race. you don't want to stop and then give it to stp, you want to just essentially keep going and that's what transition is. so it certainly would make things more smoothly if we could do that. >> all right. as my guests have been telling us there's light at the end of the tunnel, there are vaccines, there is a biden administration that is prepared to take this seriously, but that is some months away, so the only thing you can do right now is the things you know how to do, wear a mask, keep your distance, do that and think about it very seriously for the holidays coming up, how you are going to carry these holidays out in a safe manner and not spread the coronavirus or catch it yourself. that does it for me. thank you for watching this special edition of "we will me: you are viefg the next wave." catch me every saturday and sunday morning from 9:00 to 10:00 a.m. eastern. stay with us.

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good sunday morning and welcome to "a.m. joy," i'm jonathan capehart. we begin with breaking news. more than a week after the election was called for president-elect joe biden donald trump has finally begun to acknowledge that he lost reelection tweeting this morning that biden won. while the tweet was otherwise characteristically riddled with baseless claims about voter

fraud, this admission appeared to be a change for trump, that is until he tweeted again minutes later claiming that biden's win is an invention of the, quote, fake news media and defiantly boasting that he concedes nothing. joining me now is nbc news white house correspondent kelly o'donnell. kelly, what are you hearing? what actually is going on? >> reporter: well, it seems the president has a few moments where the truth and his own acknowledgment of the truth wants to slip out. we saw it in the rose garden where he came right up to the line and caught himself talking about the next administration, and then today in just those two words in a long tweet "he won" and then argued about other points that don't have a basis, clearly he then saw the reaction to that is correct which was his first explicit acknowledgment that joe biden has won the election and will take office on january 20th. now, we knew at the time that tweet came out it wasn't a