except about that. xfinity home. simple. easy. awesome. hey look, i found the tent! get xfinity home with no term contract required. click or call today. good day, everyone. i'm andrea mitchell in washington, where we expect to hear from the president today for the first time in a week,

during which he has said nothing about the dangerous surge in covid cases, hospitalizations, and deaths. and the shortage of icu rooms across the country. the president's scheduled remarks today will be on a plan to curb prescription drug prices. but judging from his twitter feed, he's been almost totally absorbed in false conspiracy theories about the election results and the first known effort by any sitting president to pressure state officials to overturn his definitive defeat. president-elect joe biden will be meeting today with house speaker nancy pelosi and democratic senate leader chuck schumer, this afternoon in wilmington, as he continues to focus on the job ahead. while the president and his administration throw up obstacles, roadblocks, by refusing to let the legally mandated transition begin. >> i think we're witnessing incredible irresponsibility, incredibly damaging messages being sent to the rest of the world about how democracy functions. i don't know his motive. i just think it's totally

irresponsible. former president obama also speaking out in an exclusive msnbc program with contributor jonathan capehart thursday ni t night, the president-elect speaking about -- excuse me, the former president speaking about republican lawmakers. >> every american, whether you're a republican or democrat or independent, should be troubled when you start having attempts to block, negate, overturn the people's vote, when there's no actual evidence that there was anything illegal or fraudulent taking place. i'm less surprised by donald trump doing this. he has shown only a flimsy relationship to the truth. i'm more troubled that you're seeing a lot of republican officials go along with it.

>> the defeated republican 2020 candidate senator mitt romney is one of the few republican lawmakers to speak out strongly against the trump tactics, tweeting, it is difficult to imagine a worse, more un-democratic action by a sitting american president. joining me now, nbc white house correspondent kristen welker, and peter alexander, co-hosts of "weekend today," and "the washington post's" phil rucker. kristen, you had an exchange with the president-elect yesterday on this very subject. >> that's right, andrea, we're really hearing some of the strongest language that we have heard yet from president-elect joe biden, both in those comments that you played at the top and also, when i pressed him on whether or not he would pursue legal action against the trump administration, against the gsa, to demand that he begin to have the briefings that he

feels are critical. those briefings on national security and on covid, the vaccines that are coming. and the president-elect effectively said, look, he thinks right now the most expedient course of action is to try to work with republicans. he thinks that legal action would be drawn out. i asked him if he was ruling out legal action, he said no, it's still on the table, but it's just not the pathway that he's taking right now. and just moments ago, andrea, we did hear from his top attorney for the transition, bob bauer, who also spoke in very firm terms, saying that the president's attempts to overturn this election are anti-democratic and they are simply not going to work. take a listen. >> no state legislature in our country's history ever has done what donald trump is apparently agitating for the michigan state legislature to do, which is to ignore the results of a popular vote election and wrest control from the voters or attempt to wrest control from the voters

and appoint their own slate of electors to send to washington. now, the reason it's never happened before is it cannot be done. the constitution does not permit a state legislature to do what donald trump wants the michigan state legislature to do. >> and of course those comments come as president trump is set to meet with those state legislators from michigan, which of course peter will have more about. i can tell you, andrea, that will undoubtedly be one of the topics at the forefront when president trump meets with house speaker nancy pelosi and senate minority leader chuck schumer a little bit later on this afternoon, andrea. >> and as kristen, you were pointing out, this is unprecedented, as bob bauer was pointing out. peter alexander, so the president is going to make a public appearance today, but behind the scenes, he's meeting with those michigan lawmakers to keep this desperate attempt going to try to overturn the election. we heard from bauer they don't think there's any legal way they

could win. but what's the end game here? does the president really think he can win or is he just trying to make life more difficult for joe biden or is he just raising money for his political action committee? >> well, the idea of whether he's making money, we should note that his campaign as sent out more than 300 fundraising emails since the election itself. so it appears to have something to do with what we're witnessing here. andrea, as you note, this is an unparalleled moment in american history, the president trying to subvert the will of the voter right now, especially as it relates to the state of michigan as it certifies the vote, expected to take place on monday. today we believe the president will be meeting with those republican state lawmakers from michigan. i asked the white house if that meeting has already started yet. they declined to answer. the press secretary, kayleigh mcenany, will be briefing reporters a short time from now. let me show you the scene that took place at washington's reagan airport earlier today,

when the senate 4r50eleader, th republican senate leader arrived today in advance of his expected meeting with the president. take a listen, a lot of protesters out there. >> we don't need you here, go home! don't do this! don't take away people's votes! do you recall what you're doing is wrong? >> certify the votes! >> that is the michigan senate leader, mike shirkey, and a michigan gop leader family with their plans today tells us the lawmakers expected to meet with the president do expect president trump will expect them to overturn the results in their state, on the basis of what the president suggests is fraud and irregularities, all of which are unproven to this point. according to this person familiar with the thinking of

these lawmakers, they're expected to push back on that, to tell the president that they will help pursue the necessary course and try to avoid the potential for fraud or irregularities in the future but that they will follow michigan state law, which, andrea, requires that the candidate who won the popular vote in that state, again, it's president-elect joe biden, would receive the state's 16 electoral votes, andrea. >> and just to point out that president trump only won michigan last time by 10,700 votes, not the 157,000 -- >> it was 14 times bigger, you're right, exactly. >> yeah, yeah, exactly. phil rucker, i want to talk to you about the weird, weird turn of events yesterday, and what you've been writing about. let's go take a look at rudy giuliani, the president's top legal adviser and the head of this legal effort, at a bizarre news conference yesterday. >> did you all watch "my cousin

vinnie"? you know the movie? he says to her, how many fingers, how many fingers do i got up? you know, if you live in philadelphia, that's an italian expression for stupid, you know unless you're stupid a lot of people come over from camden to vote. they do every year. it happens all the time in philly. it's about as frequent as getting beaten up at a philadelphia eagles football game. i know crimes. i can smell it. o i don't have to smell this one. if i were governor of this state, i would fire everyone. they didn't tell me my state was going to be embarrassed, made a fool of, because i'm sending my votes in michigan over to germany? ma'am, ma'am, okay, let me answer the question. answer the question. >> so, phil rucker -- and it went on and on, i think for more than an hour. let's talk about that

performance. what it really means, the signal that it sends. and as bob bauer was mentioning in an answer to a question from jennifer rubin on that zoom call today, he's targeting philadelphia and wayne county in michigan, detroit. he's going after majority african-american areas. so there are legal predicates. >> yeah. >> if they do choose to fight what's going on here, under the civil rights act, under voter suppression, voting rights act. >> that's right, andrea. giuliani also went after the cities of atlanta and milwaukee, both of them also majority african-american, both of them also gave huge margins of victory to joe biden as they have historically for democrats in those cities. look, that press conference yesterday really i think speaks to the desperation on the part of the president and his team. they have made a number of legal challenges in the courts. all of them have been rejected.

they've been unable to prove any sort of widespread fraud or irregularity that they claim in the courts. and so we now see a shift taking place, where this is moving into a public relations fight, an effort by the president to use the power of his office, the power of his platform, and with the help of giuliani and those other attorneys, to publicly pressure republican officials in these states into subverting the vote and overturn the results. we see it playing out in michigan, as kristen and peter were just talking about. we've also seen it play out in public view in georgia where the president has been berating and badgering the republican governor of georgia, brian kemp, to intervene in this state's hand recount, to disqualify a number of ballots to, in the president's word, flip the state result in georgia. that has not succeeded because of course the election results in georgia, biden's victory

there, has been certified. but this is an attempt by the president to change the outcome. >> kristen welker, peter alexander, phil rucker, thanks to all of you. and joining me now, illinois senator dick durbin, democratic whip, member of the judiciary committee, joining me now. senator durbin, thank you very much. first, your reaction to rudy giuliani, to what the white house is trying to do in michigan and georgia and elsewhere, pennsylvania. >> it was a pathetic display. and it's become so common when rudy giuliani gets in front of a camera or microphone. he is a legal buffoon. when he went in an actual court last week, he was terrible. you would never hire him as a lawyer. of course the president of the united states has him speaking for his cause. it's an indication of where this really is grounded. it is grounded in this political wonderland that they have dreamed up to try to discredit

votes. and what an irony that the votes they want to discredit time and again are african-americans'. this to me is an indication of a racial tune that they are sending that i hope america is going to reject. >> we have still not heard anything from a number of senators, only a handful have spoken out against this. and the gsa administrator, emily murphy, is still not responding to what she is legally mandated to do, which is begin the transition, certify, when there is an apparent winner. there is an apparent winner. it doesn't mean a certified winner or an electoral college winner. i know some 40 democrats have written and are demanding answers by monday on the house side, as well as some senators. what can you do to make the gsa comply? can you go to court? it would take too long. >> the administrator has the authority in what is known as

ascertainment, to begin the transition process. and she has decided against it. and we're paying a price for it. we're paying a price for it. we're in a pandemic where people are suffering and dying every single day. the new president, joe biden, and his team should know all the details when it comes to the vaccine and comes to dealing with this issue. distribution, we shouldn't lose a day in distributing this across america. and yet this reluctance to declare the obvious, that joe biden is going to be the next president, is delaying us. let me say this. maybe perhaps the electoral college certification will be a moment when they'll start to move forward with the real transition. but it's time for the republicans in leadership in the senate and the house to really initiate an intervention with this president and to say to him for the good of the nation, you have to acknowledge the obvious, you lost this election, now let's move on. for the good of america, we have to move on.

too few of them, mitt romney is an exception, susan collins is an exception. too few of them have been willing to come forward and just say the obvious so that this country can get back on its feet. >> do you have any leverage with the gsa? >> no. when it comes to this, you can imagine, i mean, this president is firing people right and left who don't obey his political orders. we've seen it happen in the department of defense. so i expect the gsa would be no different. no, it's very difficult to really have any sway or any persuasion over this person. >> you've got another colleague now, rick scott, testing positive today, announcing that today, with the coronavirus. and we know about senator grassley, of course, and are wishing him well. but families across the country are facing a huge economic crisis, as well as the health care workers who don't have

supplies. money is running out. we heard from governor beshear yesterday that the governors will be out of money by the end of december for any of the -- not only unemployment insurance, but ppe and other supplies. what can be done? can some covid relief be attached to the budget bill? >> absolutely yes. it can happen. but it should happen, immediately after thanksgiving. there is a group of us, a bipartisan group, sitting down and going through the basics. the interest in this is growing on both sides of the aisle. we need to do something and do it fast. when we're talking about unemployment benefits for millions of americans, helping businesses that are facing bankruptcy and losing everything that they have, when we're talking about being there for the state and local governments, just providing the very basics so we don't have to fire firefighters, policemen, teachers. yes, i think something can be done and should be done on a bipartisan basis in the senate as soon as we return.

>> and finally, we've got the treasury secretary, secretary mnuchin, blocking the fed or demanding back $400 billion plus of money, loans that joe biden should be able to count on to get the economy through in the early months of the next year. is there anything that can be done to pressure the treasury secretary? >> i'm disappointed. i've heard good things about treasury secretary mnuchin, negotiating in good faith on covid relief. but this move on his part is really not in the best interests of this country. our economy is flat on its back. we need to put people back to work and save businesses. this will not help. a scorched earth policy leaving office is not going to help the reputation of this administration. >> thank you so much, dick durbin, number three in the senate. thank you very much for being with us. rural hospitals are facing a shocking staff shortage because of the covid surge.

you're watching "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. atching l reports" only on msnbc >> it's actually probably worse here in kansas than it was for the first two waves. a lot of our hospital systems are getting overwhelmed in the state. ♪ [ engines revving ] ♪ it's amazing to see them in the wild like th-- shhh. [ engine revs ] for those who were born to ride, there's progressive. pizza. tacos. pizza! what about subway? it's a good call and everyone loves it. we raised our kids on it. so it stopped the bickering? (mocking tone) "mom, jj's copying me!" grow up. mom! knock it off! try the new subway buffalo chicken or bbq chicken.

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today pfizer is asking the fda for emergency authorization for its vaccine, setting in motion a fast track regulatory process that could lead to some americans getting vaccinated by

mid-december. until the vaccine is widely available, though, it is not a silver bullet. even then, the coronavirus cases will continue to soar, pushing hospitals across the country to a breaking point. many now facing unprecedented staff shortages, with rural communities especially being hit hard. nbc's gabe gutierrez has an inside look at a knoxville hospital in iowa which does not even have an icu. gabe joins me now. gabe, what are they doing to cope? >> reporter: hi there, andrea. it's increasingly a dire situation here. hospital workers had wondered how long it would be or if they would ever have to deal with a new york style surge here. now here they are, andrea. what happens when the hospital beds in des moines run out? that's what they're trying to figure out at rural hospitals like these.

we spoke to doctors and nurses about what they're expecting. take a listen. >> des moines is full. so central iowa is full. do they have a couple of beds? no, they don't. yes, they do, they're full. you're right on the cusp of things going from ugly to horrible. and that's where they're living right now. >> reporter: andrea, according to hhs, one in five hospitals across the country are facing a staffing shortage right now. as for this hospital in knoxville, iowa, you mentioned, they don't even have an icu here. they just ordered their first ventilator several weeks ago. it's expected next week. andrea? >> gabe, that's really just remarkable. thank you very much. joining us now, dr. ashish jha, dean of the brown university school of public health. dr. jha, thank you for being here. we just saw what gabe is reporting from rural iowa.

this is a reality across the country now. if they don't have the supplies they need how, how can we even expect the distribution of vaccines? >> andrea, thank you for having me on. two thoughts on this. first is that we have a long way to go in this particular wave. we have so many more people who are going to be getting hospitalized in the days and weeks ahead that i am very worried that we're going to run out of room. and it won't be about beds per se. in rural areas, it will be. but as the report said, it will be about staffing, about having enough nurses and doctors. it's going to be a real challenge. and then of course, given how hard it's been for us to have a supply chain for personal protective equipment, a supply chain for testing, i worry a lot about whether we're going to be able to get a vaccine out on time. it's great to have safe, effective vaccines. we don't do any good unless we can get people vaccinated. >> and i wanted to share a bit

of a new public service announcement, part of a campaign from about 100 of the nation's largest and best-known hospital groups, warning people about what is going on there. ♪ ♪ ♪ it's just remarkable that it's so hard to get past the politics that have been injected into wearing a mask, keeping distance, and, you know, separation so that people are not spreading this, especially with thanksgiving coming on us.

>> it is stunning, the level of infection and suffering and death that our country has been willing to tolerate because of politicization of basic public health measures. we're not talking about something extraordinarily complicated. we're talking about wearing a mask. and there are still large numbers of people out there who are confused about this issue, because -- not just because of some random misinformation, andrea. it's been a concerted disinformation campaign led by many, many people, including folks in the white house. dr. scott atlas, every time he's had a chance, has spread misinformation about wearing masks. it's really stunning, given the cost of this misinformation in terms of lives lost. >> you co-authored a column today in "the washington post" on keeping schools open. and you write that we figured out it's safe to open schools and keep them that way, yet we're seeing school closures

again. in a lot of places, it's more important to local officials to keep bars and restaurants open because of the local economy, morme important than to focus o schools. >> this is really a source of a lot of frustration for those of us in public health. everybody knows how valuable it is to have schools open and to have kids going to school. the bottom line is we've learned a lot about this in the last three months. it is much safer to keep schools open than we thought it was going to be. and schools are not spreading the virus. not much, anyway. actually there was very little evidence they're spreading it at all. when i look at cities like new york where restaurants are still open but schools are closed, i find that baffling. i think it's the wrong set of priorities. i understand where we're getting there, i understand that bars and restaurants bring in revenue, and schools don't. but we've got to do what's good for kids and we've got to do what's good for our families across the country and we're not doing that.

>> thank you so much, dr. jha, thanks to you. my colleague rachel maddow returned to her show last night from home, where she has been quarantining alone. last night in her return she opened her heart to her viewers, revealing that the love of her life, her partner of more than 21 years, has been seriously ill with covid. thankfully susan is now recovering and rachel herself never tested positive. but she described the gut-wrenching fear of dealing with covid, in hopes of waking all of us up to the fact that this is not a game, it's not a rehearsal, this is life. and for all too many people, it's death. >> my relationship with susan is the only thing at the end of the day that i would kill or die for without hesitation. and susan has been sick with covid these past couple of weeks. and at one point we really thought there was a possibility that it might kill her.

i'm guessing that you might be willing to risk yourself, right? especially after all these months, and all this time, it's so frustrating, right? i would have done anything. i would have moved mountains for it to have been me who was sick these past couple of weeks instead of susan. i still would give anything for that. but this thing does not give you that choice. it won't necessarily be you. it will be the person you most care about in the world, and how can you bear that? introducing fidelity income planning. we look at how much you've saved, how much you'll need, and build a straightforward plan to generate income, even when you're not working. a plan that gives you the chance to grow your savings and create cash flow that lasts.

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vice president mike pence is campaigning today in georgia for the two republican senators running in runoffs that will decide which party controls the chamber. those races are clearly hanging over almost all senate republicans who appear afraid to speak out against the president's attempts to overturn the election for fear of his wrath. joining me now are rick tyler, former ted cruz national campaign spokesperson, and chris lu, former senior adviser in the obama white house, and victoria defrancesco soto, from the university of texas at austin. rick, apparently georgia has just certified after that hand count, they've certified that joe biden is the winner, and that should take it off the plate of any further legal challenges, although we never know, after the rudy giuliani

performance. what will mike pence's presence there do? certainly highlighting how important this race is to the republicans. [ inaudible ]. >> -- keeps the democrats from controlling the senate, therefore having control of the house, the senate, and the presidency. but i have to say, i give a slight advantage to the democrats because -- for a couple of reasons. one is, georgia is now almost a minority/majority state. they've got about 48% or 52% white voters, and over the last four years, they've registered over a million voters, mostly minority and young voters, thanks to team stacey abrams. so they have a lot of momentum. their challenge is to keep that momentum going even though donald trump is not going to be on the ballot.

so that's really what they have to do, is they've got to keep that base motivated to win again. and i've got to tell you, andrea, the problem with trump, trump has really undermined the gop in georgia for this reason. because he claims over and over again, along with rudy giuliani, that this election was a fraud, he is suppressing his own vote in georgia, because georgia just having certified, as you just said, republican gop voters are wondering why should i go out if this is voter fraud, and my vote is not going to count anyway? that's a serious setback for republicans that they're going to have to correct on the ground there. >> good point. also there are a lot of republicans who won races in georgia. these two senate candidates got into runoffs. so it's a contradictory message, certainly, to the base as well. chris lu, we heard president obama with jonathan capehart last night talking about republicans going along with the

president because they're intimidated. why are they so afraid? are they afraid of their next elections? >> well, i think the undeniable reality is that this is a president who does have significant support within his own base and as we saw a couple of weeks ago, at the election, he was able to bring low propensity voters to the polls that probably carried a bunch of these endangered republican senators and helped them narrow the gap a little bit in the house. the broader question is, at what price? is it really worth the price of delegitimizing our elections? is it really at the price of ending the electoral college process we've followed for a century? apparently it is. that's the thing that's most shocking about this. we can dismiss these kind of desperate attempts by donald trump and rudy giuliani to overturn this election, but the fact that republican leaders appear to be humoring him at the

point of a larger risk to democracy is just incredible. i will call out, in a good way, people like mitt romney and ben sasse who have put out statements over the last day criticizing the president. but we're now pointing to two senators that have done that, that's pretty amazing given at what's at stake in a more broadway for our country. >> victoria, we've now seen with the president's legal strategy to try to stay in the white house, no success so far. 31 cases, 22 of which have been denied, dismissed, settled, or withdrawn. there are only nine active cases still in court. no court has yet found a single instance of fraud. >> what i'm seeing here, andrea, though, is more of a medium to long term strategy. the court cases, the pushing up against the election results, that was the short term one. but what i see here is trump really entrenching his brand within the republican party,

with the hopes that that brand can then carry into '22, 2024, either for himself or folks in his orbit. and what he's doing is actually quite successful, right? he has convinced 80%, according to a poll from this week, 80% of his voters that the election was fraudulent. so he's convincing a whole bunch of americans that the election returns really are something they can't be confident in so he keeps these voters within his orbit, pulling them along, letting them know that he is really the true leader, he is the one that they need to be looking to in terms of political discourse. so with trump, i see the court cases as something that will eventually fizzle out, but my eye is more on the long term strategy and what effect that's going to have on the republican party. >> another good point as well. rick tyler, chris lu, victoria

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can you tell me the story again? every family has their own unique story. give your family the chance to discover theirs this holiday season, with ancestry. president trump took part with other world leaders earlier this morning in an asia-pacific economic cooperation virtual meeting, a brief moment when he was not focusing on subverting the election results. it's also the first time that he and president xi were at the same summit, at least virtually, since president trump has been pi pilloring china for its handling of the coronavirus in march, after first praising it in january and february. what's also happening is the withdrawal from afghanistan, a number of foreign policy steps that are clearly possibly going

to cut off options for joe biden coming in and have upset allies, especially the nato allies. joining me now, brett mcgurk, former special adviser to the president, special envoy for the global coalition to defeat isis. he resigned in protest in december 2018 after the president's decision to pull out of syria. let's talk about afghanistan, brett. it's good to see you. this is only weeks before leaving office. he's pulling troops out, a dramatic cutback in the troop strength in afghanistan, by january 15, a smaller drawdown in iraq. what is the impact, especially without consulting, again, with the nato allies? >> andrea, thanks so much for having me, always an honor to be on your show. this is important because the only thing happening here, and what explains this, is to sabotage the incoming commander

in chief. the decapitation of four of the top six positions at the pentagon, no consultation with allies. why this is important is that he work in afghanistan with about 4,500 troops. we're not fighting, we haven't taken any casualties since february. but these 30 allies depend on us for the overall leadership of the mission. and more foreign troops, allies and partners, are there than american troops. jen stoltenberg, secretary general of nato, said this could carry a very high price. of the foreign troops, most of them are non-u.s. forces. everybody was blindsided by this. now over the next six weeks or so, our commanders will be focused on withdrawing forces rather than trying to manage the difficult situation. and just one more point, not only does it sabotage the incoming team, it also puts our troops at greater risk. the acting secretary of defense said all the missions remain the

same, the policy remains the same, we're just cutting our force in half. that's really incoherent. we cannot tell our commanders and troops to do the same mission with half the force. that necessarily means they're at greater risk. there's no reason for this. the only reason i can think of is, again, tie the hands and restrain the options of the incoming biden administration. >> and undermine the peace talks, because the taliban, by all reports, have not met the bare minimum conditions for troop withdrawal. so they of course are, you know, empowered by this. will we be able to keep all our bases open with 2,500 troops or will we have to close one of the bases? >> i think everybody's scrambling now to figure out how to implement this sudden position. it's a very important point you just made, andrea. we have this deal with the taliban signed months ago in which the so-called conditions the taliban have to meet, they've been said to be secret. mike pompeo said there's a number of secret conditions.

no one has seen them. what are these secret conditions? this transition, and emily murphy at the gsa has to sign these papers because the incoming team has to know, what are we talking about here? they should be sitting down now with the incoming team. that's how it was done under the obama administration and in bush to obama. when i was in the obama administration when trump came in, i went to brief mike flynn before the inauguration in the classified space that the gsa provides for the incoming transition. none of that has happened now. that gets back to my first point, this is all about tying the hands of the incoming team. and we still have about 60 days here to go. and i'm sure we've just seen the start of what is going to happen and the decisions that will be made without any thought, consultation, or deliberations. >> and in iraq where we're taking 500 troops out, we've

already seen the iranian-backed militias firing rockets into the green zone on the very day this was announced. >> well, in iraq, again, we're cutting it very thin. i think there's a little more maneuvering room there, i think we're in pretty good consultation with the iraqi government, going from 3,000 to 2,500 is not a major change. but again, there's no particular reason for it. you don't want to make major decisions, military, diplomatic decisions, in a period of transition. that's not just me talking, that's the bipartisan recommendation of the 9/11 commission report after the attacks of 9/11, that as soon as the election is over, the incoming team has to be briefed on all military operations. it should happen immediately. >> brett mcgurk, thanks again, very good to see you. thanks for being with us today. governors, meanwhile, being

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jobless claims are rising with more than 30,000 americans filed for unemployment last week. an overnight stay-at-home order is go into effect in california to fight the surging spread. what is business owners' reaction to this? >> starting this weekend it will go for a month, and for business owners especially, the restaurant owner i just spoke to, the owner of the tuning fork i just spoke to, and they are trying to figure out how to stay afloat for the rest of the year. for all of the counties in the purple zone affected by this it's another double whammy. at the same time the restaurant owner i spoke to said, look, i

want people to follow the rules and wear your mask and social distance and do what we need to do so we can get through this. there's no material plan on capitol hill from either side as to what should happen in terms of aid for small businesses and for unemployme for unemployed people, frankly. business owners want congress to do their job as restaurants and small businesses try to stay afloat and survive, andrea. >> governor newsom was absent from the announcement on the restrictions of restaurants and businesses while he had to apologize for attending a post election group dinner as a famous restaurant in napa valley. >> yeah, that happened at french

laundry, and governor newsom has apologized saying it was a big mistake and he was contradictory in giving the public advice but not following it, and he apologized and people are not buying it, and governor newsom apologizing for that but not a great look. it happened at the restaurant in napa valley called french laundry and he said on camera it was supposed to be a small gathering and it turned out not to be, and he regrets not getting up and leaving. >> we went the week with a special thank you to the medical workers risking their lives every day and night to save others. one covid icu patients was intebaited and could be speak,

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if it's friday, the usc is nearly 200,000 infections and 200,000 deaths in one day as hospitalizations skyrocket. the cdc is urging americans to stay home this thanksgiving and we're starting to see lots of airline cancelations. we are talking to dr. anthony fauci about what could turn this