good day, i'm andrea mitchell in washington. as president-elect joe biden is about to make his first cabinet choices, we're expecting to hear by tomorrow the earliest his cabinet choices for national security. dramatically different from president trump's. nbc news is reporting that longtime biden foreign policy adviser tony blinken will be the new secretary of state to be announced officially tomorrow. blinken has been at biden's side in the senate during his 2008 run for the white house and in the vice president's office, as well as serving as deputy secretary of state under john kerry. blinken served as deputy national security adviser to president obama. the biden team expected to announce jake sullivan, former national security adviser to vice president biden in the obama administration and state department deputy chief of staff, to be the new national security adviser in the biden white house. and linda thomas greenfield, ambassador, a career diplomat,

former assistant secretary of state, expected to be the next u.n. ambassador. that would be restoring a professional diplomat to the u.n. post. the president-elect will continue to focus on the coronavirus pandemic during a meeting with the u.s. conference of merritts later this afternoon -- mayors later this afternoon where there is nothing on president trump's schedule again. after a weekend filled with more false claims about the election results and more rounds of golf. this time while other world leaders were taking part in the g20 virtual summit. that was of course hosted by saudi arabia this year. president trump did take part in opening statements. joining me, nbc white house correspondent geoff bennett, in delaware, nbc political reporter monica alva, at the white house. "reuters" white house correspondent mike -- jeff mason, and "new york times" washington correspondent michael schmidt, author of "donald trump versus the united states." welcome all.

geoff bennett, let's talk about the expected choices. i'm also told that avril haines is the top contender to be the new director of national intelligence. she's an experienced intelligence professional, worked for years at the cia, has been handling the national security team, the transition for joe biden on national security and is a respected intelligence professional. that would be a big change from congressman john radcliffe, the partisan republican now in the post, and before that as acting d&i former spokesman for john bolton at the u.n. and former ambassador to germany. >> yeah. that's right. i think it's worth noting the intent behind president-elect joe biden building out his cabinet by starting first based on our reporting with his pick for secretary of state. it is a signal to the world, a signal to the federal bureaucracy to use joe biden's phrase, that america is back, and that repairing america's footing on the world stage is an

urgent goal, it's a primary goal. to your point, tony blinken is a longtime biden aide. he served as biden's national security adviser when he was vice president. before that he was a trusted aide when joe biden was a senator. blinken himself, as you know, served as deputy secretary of state in the obama administration. he's also elevating jake sullivan to national security adviser. jake sullivan is 15 years younger than tony blinken, but the two i'm told are close friends. and sullivan himself is an experienced state department, former state department official, and then you've got linda thomas greenfield. she is a career foreign service officer, experienced in sub-saharan africa policy. and the fact that she is now being appointed u.n. ambassador in that role as we're told will be restored to a cabinet position, is really seen as boosting morale within the foreign service, andrea. >> and i want to play tony blinken last speaking to us on

october 23rd, geoff, during the campaign, an adviser often traveling with joe biden. this is what he had to say to me about how things would change if joe biden were president. >> you know, andrea, president trump has weaponized the state department in service of the re-election. and secretary pompeo seems to be allowing that to happen, to allow the department and our foreign policy to be politicized in service of president trump's political ambitions. so again, he needs to choose. he either needs to stand up for what's right, to stand up for the men and women of the department, history get out of the way. >> and michael schmidt, you and "the new york times" colleagues have been working on this rollout tomorrow, we're expecting the national security team. let's talk about intelligence. haines and rest of the team, as well, and what you would expect -- what would you expect would be different? >> well, this is sort of like a return to the pre-trump era in

many ways. to what we basically very similar to what we saw under president obama. someone like haines is someone who's had wide experience working in different parts of the intelligence community, at the forefront of the obama administration's cybersecurity stuff, stuff about targeted killings. the sort of -- the front lines of that. and that's just a very different departure than what we've seen over the past four years which has been a use of the intelligence community to help the president domestically politically publicly in ways that president obama had not done. so that would certainly be a change in that respect. the other thing that we have to look at on these folks is how likely it will be that they'll be confirmed. how -- you know, will the senate be open to confirming the president's, you know, incoming president's picks. and there were rumblings over the weekend that republicans in the senate will try and do everything possible to stand in

the way of that. now, if we remember here, traditionally the senate, if -- you know, the opposition to the senate usually allows the president to pick their cabinet and to fill it out as such. but that could be sort of the first front lines between biden and the senate. if the senate remains in republican hands and this is the fight that they want to have, that right off the bat filling the seats could be difficult. now look, there's obviously a lot to play out and a lot of give and take there. but you have to wonder, you know, if you are the biden folks, how much of that is going into the calculations in these picks. >> and jeff mason and monica alba, let's talk about the president. here there was a g20 summit this weekend. he was out playing golf. he did participate but then had larry kudlow sitting in the chair. we don't know whether he took part in the pandemic

conversation s that the g20 had. >> the president largely over the last few weeks hasn't been taking part in coronavirus task forces -- task force meetings here at the white house. so it doesn't sound like he participated in the g20 part of that over the weekend. although you're right to say he did take part in the summit broadly by video conference. but in general, i think what we've seen since the election is a president who is completely focused on trying to fight the results and trying to overturn those results despite the fact that all of the legal -- nearly all of the legal challenges that his team has made have been overturned in court. and someone who's just, you know, not ready to concede and not focusing on governing at the same time. >> and monica, what about the president's mood and the fact that one of the members of this team, the legal team has been eliminated from the team, the

rudy giuliani team? what are you seeing there? there have been now 34 cases that they have filed, and most of them have been dismissed or rejected with scorching comments by the judges who pointed out that they haven't even alleged fraud which is what the president's saying publicly? >> exactly, andrea. not one instance of fraud in those more than 30 cases that you reference. 24 of which have been denied, dismissed, or thrown out according to our own pete williams. but the president we're now learning about some behind-the-scenes conversations and frustration that he is expressing about just how slap dash his legal effort is on behalf of his attorneys. and the team that you saw at the republican national committee headquarters just a couple of days ago, rudy giuliani, sidney powell, and jenna ellis, all of whom were there in their capacity at least at the time as the president's own lawyers representing both him and the campaign, in these last-ditch legal efforts that dwindle and

fizzle out. we're learning that sydney powell has been removed officially from appearing on the president's behalf. that's after a dramatic weekend where she went out and continued to make controversial baseless claims of widespread voter fraud of which there is no evidence. they decided to physically and public distance says this from her saying she won't be appearing at these events. the president isn't just upset with her and her performance, we're also learning he's not that pleased with rudy giuliani. the fact he was in the press conference last week sweating, appearing to have a brown substance, hair dye or make-up running down his face. he did not appreciate that either. and the president is telling people he wishes he had a stronger legal team around him. it seems to be whatever team is a part of it, they're not being successful in court. that's part of the frustration on the president's part, as well telling aides and allies over the weekend that he's not happy and would like to see that fixed. of course, we've seen over the

last few weeks that people he wanted were sidelined because they came down with coronavirus or couldn't be part of it. chief of staff mark meadows and longtime aid dave bernie sanders on -- dave bossey. and njoe biden won by such significant margins, it's hard to see that there will be any change there. and republicans are privately hoping that helps other republicans come out, senators for example, to say and acknowledge the reality here which is that joe biden has won the election, and it's time for a transition to take place. you saw a group of those republican senators over the weekend express that, not quite a chorus altogether. but it seems if michigan and pennsylvania do this and this process continues this week, it may be heading that direction if ever so slowly. andrea? >> and "the new york times" is breaking some news. michael schmidt, over to you. i don't know if you've been able to check your emails, but "the new york times" breaking the

news that john kerry will be the new environmental czar, climate czar. a presidential a90 minutppointm does not require -- this would be john kerry's fundamental really a dream job for him, frankly. long before he was secretary of state, long before he was foreign relations chairman. i would go to seminars with john kerry when he was a senator back in the late '80s, early '90s, talking about climate. this was his passion, and this i think is what he hopes would be his legacy. michael? fascinating decision. >> yeah. and you know, kerry, someone who thought about running for president the most recent time, had certainly had this presidential ambitions. i'm sure he still has some of them somewhere down deep inside. this would certainly give him a very narrow portfolio, away that he could continue to define his

career. you know, since being secretary of state. and continued to, you know, make an impact on an issue that he really cares about. and keep himmel are skprent within the conversation -- keep him relevant and within the conversation and continue to position himself politically in the years to come. so certainly something that i think had been thought about and talked about and rumored about. and seems to make a lot of sense. just sort of shows the sort of broader thing that's going on here which is in many ways the return to what the obama administration or what a clinton administration would have looked like. these are the similar people, similar character, similar views of the world, and it's really just simply a pivot back to that, back to a pre-2017 government that we had in washington. >> and there is the beginnings of a break in the republican ranks, jeff mason. let me play a little bit of

chris christie yesterday on abc. >> what's happened here is, quite frankly, the concept the president's legal team has been a national embarrassment. i've been a supporter of the president's, i voted for him twice. but elections have consequences. and we cannot continue to act as if something happened here that didn't happen. >> so are we beginning to see -- more senators joining -- until mitch mcconnell says anything, nothing's going to happen in terms of the transition. >> i think that's exactly right. i mean, it's not until somebody who is as powerful as senator mcconnell weighs in that it makes a big difference. and yet, nonetheless, seeing someone who is a huge supporter of president trump like governor christie make that statement is significant. and as monica was saying, it's a small group of republicans, but a growing group. and we'll see if that continues to grow in the coming weeks. the key thing here, though, is

it's not voices like chris christie that president trump is listening to. he's listening to others who are encouraging him to keep fighting and who are continuing to basically agree with him that the election was stolen, which, of course, is false. >> and geoff bennett, i think this is going to be tomorrow -- we don't have a time yet, but this is when the rollout will be in wilmington, correct? >> reporter: say it again, i had a hard time hearing you here in windy wilmington. you were asking about the rollout? >> it's also windy in d.c. at least i'm indoors. we don't know what time? >> reporter: no, it is expected tomorrow keeping with what ron klain said on the sunday shows, that this would be officially rolled out tomorrow. our reporting is such that beale likely have the names today. >> indeed. you've got most of those names today. thank you so much, jen bennegeo monica, michael, and jeff. thanks to all of you.

and coming up next right here -- we're going to talk about the pandemic. a third coronavirus vaccine showing promising results in trials, but how will states distribute them? the governor of delaware joining us next. stay with us. implore everyone to wear masks. stay safe, stay socially distanced. i know with the holidays that's tough, but please protect your families and protect your loved ones because we don't want to meet them here in the hospital. l another bundle in the books. got to hand it to you, jamie. your knowledge of victorian architecture really paid off this time. nah, just got lucky. so did the thompsons. that faulty wiring could've cost them a lot more than the mudroom. thankfully they bundled their motorcycle with their home and auto. they're protected 24/7. mm. what do you say? one more game of backgammon? [ chuckles ] not on your life. [ laughs ] ♪ when the lights go down

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welcome back. ads coronavirus cases skyrocket across the country, there's some more hope on the vaccine front today. drug company astrazeneca says its new vaccine developed with the university of oxford is at least 70% effective and does not require extreme refrigeration. researchers think this could be up to 90% effective in preventing the disease with proper dosing. meanwhile, pfizer's vaccine

could be given the first americans in about three weeks if everything goes as scheduled. this as thanksgiving travelers are ignoring public health warnings not to travel during this covid surge. millions of people are packing t the airports. the tsa has process the more than three million trampers as of friday, saturday, and sunday. delaware democratic governor john carney, part of president-elect biden's meeting with the governors on covid on thursday, governor, thank you so much for being with us. what was the message from the governors to president-elect biden? what was his message back to you about the pandemic and the rollout of the vaccine? >> yeah, so we had probably a dozen or more governors from democrat and republican, from states across the country, and the message that we had for the president was really pretty clear and consistent. we've been at this now for nine months, every state's a little bit different. we need leadership from the office of the president, from the president himself. we need guidance, we need

financial support. we need a good, strong plan at the federal level for the distribution of the vaccine. and we need flexibility at the state level. i think consistent among all those governors, democrat and republican, the president-elect's message back to us was he was -- is the president, will be the president for every state, red state and blue states. there's no distinction from his perspective. he will provide the support, and he will provide the example, mask wearing, social distance events, and things like that. >> people have clearly been ignoring the warnings not to travel by air. are you worried about a spike in delaware? >> we're having a spike in delaware and have for over a month or so now. we're about four times the number of cases we had at the end of the summer. this was a lower level of cases. on the hospitalization side

which is really a big concern, i know for every governor in every state, we're about half of where we were at the peak back in april. so that's very concerning. so our message has been very clear to delawareans, let's stay at home over the holidays, let's celebrate with your families remotely. let's limit the number of households that are getting together in an individual space. and today we start with additional restrictions on large gatherings outside and indoors, restrictions on restaurants and bars. and really getting the message out that if we hang in there together, if we wear a face mask, we'll get through this by working together. >> now distributing the vaccine is obviously a big challenge. it's being left to the states. but listen to what bill gates said because you talked about the lack of federal leadership and the other aspects, testing and the like. listen to what he said on sunday on cnn about what needs to be done to distribute the vaccines

which he's been heavily invested in. $11 billion from the gates foundation. >> should be a website where we're already indicating your status and the criteria, ranking people. you get told what your priority code is based on your profession, age, people should be seeing that. you want to make sure that you don't waste any of this vaccine. >> his point is that the states should already have leadership, you know, some federal guidance on how to prioritize people and helping them develop a website so that you can within delaware tell people, you know, find out, you know, who's over 65, who's under 65, who has co-morbidities, who should be eligible at various stages. that could already be going on. is that happening already at your level? >> yes, it is happening at the state level. i know every state across the

country has been doing this with the divisions, their respective divisions of public health. most of which in larger states than delaware are at the county level. here in delaware because we're such a small state, we can do public health services at the state level, working in conjunction with local officials. our people have been working for months now on our plan. we need guidance and a structure from the federal government. that's under way, as well. and i'm very confident with a new president biden and his team we'll get even graduator cooperation among -- greater cooperation among states and local authorities in distributing the virus. we need guidance from the federal level with respect to prioritization. as bill gates said, we don't want to waste any of the vaccines. you want to get it out to people as quick low as possible. it's going to take a long time. when you talk about the number of people that have to be vaccinated. >> and very quickly, did you also talk about your concerns

that there still is no covid relief package? is there pressure as has been reported by the biden -- by biden on the hill and biden team to try to compromise and perhaps do less than they might want, than democrats have been holding out for, but get something to the states? >> absolutely. it is the number-one priority of the national governors' association, democrat and republican governor. particularly now as we're seeing this second wave, we need resources to help particularly our small businesses, hospitality bars, restaurants, more businesses get through this surge and get to the other side. and we need financial assistance to do that. right now, c.a.r.e.s. act funding ends at the end of the calendar year. we're going to need it for testing and public health outreach into the new year. and small business support is critically important, as well, and needs those resources, as well. >> governor john carney of delaware, thank you so much.

thanks for being with us. >> thanks for having me. >> the election board could certify joe biden's win later this afternoon. at least one trump supporter on the board might slow things down. stay with us. that's also happening on "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. our adversaries aren't waiting. the coronavirus isn't waiting. the economy isn't waiting. america shouldn't have to wait, either. the american people have spoken. the result is clear. it's time to move forward. and get to work. see yourself. welcome back to the mirror. and know you're not alone because this is not just a mirror. it's an unstoppable community. come on jessie one more. it's a race across time zones. come on you two, lets go.

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and jegeoff bennett is back. we have an announcement of a national security team.

it's leaked out. geoff, you had all the names before. couple of new ones. one in particular is homeland security. the first cuban american, former deputy of homemade, now is going to be the head of homeland security if confirmed. >> reporter: you're right about that, andrea. alejandra myorkas, former homeland security secretary, the first latino, the first immigrant. he is of cuban descent, to lead the organization. our colleague julia ainsley makes the point that biden transition officials made clear it was important to them to have somebody who was particularly experienced with immigration, to untangle all that the trump administration has put in place, and myorkas brings that to the taliban -- the table. he has been senate confirmed three times throughout his career. they hope that will be the case when he comes before the senate. whether the senate is democrat or republican led. and we've also learned that john kerry will fight climate change

full time as special presidential envoy for climate. he will have a seat to the national security council, the first time any such position has had a seat on the nsc, and that is a signal the transition says to the degree to which joe biden really is making climate change and combating climate change a primary goal. one of the things i hear time and time again when talking to biden officials is that personnel is policy. that's true for any presidential administration. particularly true for this one given how many times i've heard that phrase. but what it means is it's important to execute, you know, comprehensive, clear policy, with competent and capable personnel, with officials to do the work. and certainly with these six names rolled out today, the biden transition feels that these people certainly meet the bar. andrea? >> thank you so much, geoff bennett. joining me to react to this and more, michigan democratic congressman and former cia analyst alissa slotkin.

first, it's very clear on climate how important this is going to be. john kerry is not the assistant secretary for environment or special envoy out of the state department. he is at the table in the national security council, in the white house. he knows better than anyone how you can be not in the game if you are over at the state department even if you're not in sync with the president of the united states. >> yeah. and also, i mean, who better than john kerry to be able to pick up the phone and call, you know, heads of state and secretaries of state around the country, around the world and be able to talk about those priorities kind of a first-name basis, it's a really interesting approach. and i think it's new. it's different. and hopefully gives some heft to the issue. >> and what about avril haines? i assume you worked withler. she was deputy cia director, you were an analyst. >> we worked together when she was at the white house. and i was actually just texting with her, congratulating her.

she's fantastic and methodical, thoughtful person. someone who understands the role of the intelligence community and what it's supposed to be by law. what it can be. and i think having her at the helm -- obviously i was in the office of the d&i when we stood it up, when there were five of us who were standing that up. it's really great to see her taking that position, hopefully once confirmed, and then bringing a different perspective, a younger perspective, i think it's great we have our first woman. i think she's going to be great. >> we're also hearing beyond, of course, beyond kerry and beyond haines, they've announced obviously this first cuban american, first latino and immigrant to be head of dhs. i don't know if you've had experience working with myorskas, but it seems a signature signal. >> yeah. he's fantastic. we did many, many meetings around the situation room

together. and i think the overall picks just demonstrates competence. good, old-fashioned competence. people who know their jobs, they're experienced, they've worked within the system. it's just like any company -- you want someone who has an idea of what the department or agency can do. and all of these folks have been tested. they've had those moments where they had to make split-second decisions. so it's just a real emphasis on people who know how to work. >> one of the things that's also striking is this is not your team of rivals. this is a team of people who have worked together before, and there's -- nobody closer than tony blinken, you know, to joe biden and national security, as well as jake sullivan, of course. but going all the way back, tony blinken has been at his side. this is going to be potentially the closest fit since maybe con d. rice as secretary of state and george w. bush or jim baker

and george bush 41, in the past. there's always been schisms between state and -- and the president. >> yeah. i think it's really interesting because you're right, i mean, you can certainly -- i have certainly seen where you've had the secretary of state who maybe gets out in front of the president, does something different than the president maybe would have attended. i certainly have seen that. and i think you're just not going to have that problem that tony blinken knows joe biden extremely well. you're not going to have a scene between them. that's importance becaut becaus reinvigorate the role, the secretary of state has a lot of work to do, and you need to know that person has the backing 100% of the president. >> now let me ask you what's going to happen i guess in the next hour in michigan. those canvassers are supposed to meet, they're supposed to certify -- four officials. at least one of the republicans is talking about not going

along. this could deadlock, and will that delay certification and throw it into the courts? leave it up to governor whitmer? what's going to happen here? >> yeah. so we're all waiting with bated breath to watch the body that most of us in michigan didn't pay a lot of attention to in previous elections because our democracy was working. and we don't know. it literally will come down to one man in his 30s, a lawyer who i hope will do the right thing for the country, for the state. and do his job which is to certify these elections once every single county, democrat and republican leaning, has already certified in our state. if is doesn't happen, well, then we've got a problem. it will likely end up in court. no one wants that. no one wants to create more doubt and sort of lack of clarity in our system. my office is getting 30 calls an hour about the election and people feeling like joe biden didn't really win, and had this

is proof that we've gone off course. the faster this ends the better. the governor has some options as does the biden campaign. but they often end up in court. >> and one other thing, by the way, as you know very well, more than 157,000 votes i believe or 155,000 votes in michigan compared to what donald trump won by four years ago there, which was t10,700. about the defense organization bill, you worked at the pentagon, there's talk, nbc is reporting, that the president is planning to veto it if it does not strip out that provision which would force the removal of confederate leaders' names from the bases. where do you see a compromise on this? >> well, listen, i mean, democrats and republicans in both the house and senate have compromised on this. we have good legislation, good language in that bill. and both democrats and republicans support it.

it's just the president out on an island by himself. this is the bill that makes sure our military gets aid and gets pay raises and makes sure we fund our entire military. i think what we need to do is pass the bill and send it to the president. and if he's really going to go out like that, right, veto the payment of our salaries to our uniformed military because he wants to continue to name bases off of traders, after traders, he should have to live with that. the house and senate have done our jobs. we should get it to the president. and frankly, call his bluff because this is the wrong issue to veto that bill on. >> you could always try to override the veto. >> you can. >> all right. alissa slotkin, always good to see you. thank you so much for being here. now for more on the third vaccine, a promising vaccine moving rapidly toward possible approval and distribution. this one from astrazeneca. developed by the university of oxford in the uk. and oxford says it is 70%

effective, but that can increase to 90% depending on how it is dosed. joining me nbc news chief foreign correspondent richard engle, who's been following the vaccine since the very beginning. richard, take us through it. >> reporter: so we talked a lot about the oxford vaccine, the astrazeneca vaccine, oxford being the research arm, astrazeneca being the production arm, the corporate sponsor, a lot. it was one of the first ones out of the gate. it was very promising. it was the leader, and then it went quiet a little bit as the american vaccines started to announce their results, announcing exceptional results from pfizer and moderna, with both pfizer and moderna saying they were 95% effective, which is incredibly high. higher than most virologyists could believe. oxford said the vaccine is 70%

effective, but with a tweaking of the dose you can get it to 90%. they found much to their surprise that actually if you give people all three of these vaccines or two doses, by the way, you have to get one and then a booster later. the researchers with ox fared found that if they gave the volunteers, the candidates a small amount of the vaccine and then waited and gave them a larger dose as the second dose, it increased the efficiency to 90%. so we're more or less in the same highly efficient koecatego as the other vaccines. the oxford vaccine is very different because it's much more traditional vaccine. more like the ones that have been around a long time. therefore, it's quite easy to make, inexpensive, and relatively stable. it doesn't need to go to the ultra cold, frozen temperatures, it can be kept more or less at fridge temperature which could make it very useful, very easy to distribute when we move into

the global distribution phase which hopefully will be soon. >> richard engle, thanks for all your reporting on this. it's been great. joining me now, dr. livy voy, internal medicine physician and nbc consultant. thank you very much, doctor. what's your reaction to the new developments on the vaccine front? >> hi, andrea. good to be with you. this is all very promising. i mean, this is what all of us as health professionals have been wanting for a long time now. an effective vaccine to combat this -- this global infectious disease outbreak. you know, the fact that there's -- this is all happening at record speed, andrea. just to remind your viewers, the average time it has ever taken to create a vaccine is 10, 15, 20 years. the fact that we have three pretty effective vaccine candidates all developed within one year is just -- is astronomic astronomical. as you saw from richard's excellent reporting, this

astrazeneca vaccine holds promise, again, in a slightly lower efficacy. but the advantages are in terms of storage. regular refrigerators which is going to make it very easy for local pharmacies and local clinics to be able to store the vaccine. and the efficacy, the safety data from what we've seen so far is pretty promising, as well. again, though, i have to go back to this idea that most of the data that we're still getting is based on press releases, definitely with the pfizer and moderna vaccines. we need to see the original science, the original data, and we need get more information in terms of how frequently like the duration of the immunity, the protection, are they going to require a booster in three months, six months, a year, we just don't know that kind of data yet, andrea. >> and one of the other things is this is not good for children. these vaccines have not been approved efficacious for children because they didn't test children. apparently they might be doing that in the new year, once the

vaccines are proved to be safe. i guess they have to figure out whether it is satisfy to use them on children. children younger than 14 or 12 years old i was told. >> yeah. i'm glad you brought that up. i wouldn't go so far as saying it's not good for children, it just hasn't been tested yet. i believe for the pfizer vaccine, they said it's been tested definitely in 14 and above. and you know, we can do a trial in children, but i think it should be tested effectively in clinical trials to see how children respond to it. andrea? >> let me ask you about the three million people who pass through u.s. airports this weekend showing that people are still taking risks to visit family this holiday. what should people know? i know we've been repeating it, that it's safer to be in your nuclear family with people you've been with all along, that college kids should not be coming home unless they have figured out testing and the test lines are enormous because people are frantic to get on the road and think that the test is

the be all and end all, and it isn't. >> i mean, andrea, you really asked the million-dollar question there. and obviously this is on so many people's minds right now. everyone wants to travel, be with their family. it's hard to -- we learn immediate medicine, sometimes it's harder to unlearn something than to learn it. and right now it's clearly very difficult for most americans to unlearn the tradition of thanksgiving, coming together, large groups gatherings, watching sports together. i cannot emphasize this enough, andrea -- 2020 is just not the year to do that. and as you can see from all of the footage from airports, clearly people are traveling, but here, look, i'm still going to say if must travel, please wear a mask, and i would recommend a face shield if you're going to be in crowded areas like a plane, train, bus, that are poorly -- spiaces that are poorly ventilated. in addition, if you're with

family that's more than just the people you've been isolating with during the pandemic, again, wear a mask, try to be outdoors, and maintain that distance. it's just not going to be your typical year. the people who really should be avoiding in-person gatherings are those who either have or who have been exposed to covid-19, and those who are at high risk for severe disease such as the elderly and those with chronic conditions. andrea? >> thank you so much, good to see you, dr. lipi roy. happy thanksgiving to you. in your home. thanks very much. former governor chris christie now calling president trump's legal team a national embarrassment. and he says it's time to accept joe biden's win. will other republicans follow? a lot more coming up. [ thunder rumbles ]

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talk to us today, so we can help you go from saving...to living. now we're seeing signs of a few more republicans beginning to join and break with the president's refusal to concede and fight to overturn the election results. comes as the president's legal team continues to push false claims of voter fraud but fails to make those arguments in court. the confused legal pleadings have led to rebukes from several judges as they dismiss the arguments. the trump team is disavowing one of its own. the false claims have also led chris christie as we pointed

out, a supporter of the president in the past to call the legal challenges to the results of the election a national embarrassment as more republicans on the hill are speaking out. lisa murkowski just joining in, as well. joining us now, joining us, lonnie chen, former policy adviser to the regime campaign, and joel payne, former senior aide to the clinton campaign, former press secretary to harry reid. thank you so much to both of you. lonnie, first to you, what is -- who is holding up more republicans? >> the same thing, andrea, the sail story that we've heard all along which is that they want to give the president and his legal team the opportunity to make their case. what's clear is there is no case. that in fact what we're seeing is we're seeing a bunch of flailing from members of the legal team. some certainly more than others. i expect that you will see more

and more republicans make the conclusion and state the conclusion that i think is abundantly clear, that this election was conducted clearly, it was conducted properly, and the results are clear. i think it will come as states certify its results. georgia certified its results, michigan hopefully will do so, as well. as this process continues and as we move toward the selection of electors to officially cast votes for the president and vice president of the united states, i do think more and more republicans are going to state what i believe has become clear and abundantly obvious. >> joel, the campaign distanced itself from sydney powell a day a s after she spoke about having been paid for voter fraud. could this influence the runoffs negatively for republicans if they keep attacking them? they're attacking the republican governor, brian kemp, who's been

very partisan. and the less partisan secretary of state there, also a republican. >> i've heard people refer to what the president and his team doing as a strategy. there is no strategy. it can't possibly be a strategy because you had sydney powell, accusing the republican governor of georgia, of conspiring against donald trump. he's one of donald trump's closest allies. and she came out this weekend and did that, that was the final straw for them. what's being house is there is a tension between trump and trumpism. and a democrat like myself, we have thought that, you know, defeating donald trump would defeat trumpism, and that tells me what we've seen over the last few weeks tells me that's not true. trump immigratiism is going to around, whether it's people like lonnie or myself, there's work to do to rehabilitate the part of the republican party that's been hostilely taken over by donald trump and his way of thinking and the way that he's

decided to really attack democracy over the last few weeks. >> meanwhile you've got the biden campaign rolling out their team. do you want to weigh in on that the people you're seeing? are these people confirmable as far as you can tell? >> yeah. iab i believe so. i believe they will be confirmed. i've known a few of them. for example, i've known jake sullivan for many years. he will serve well if he becomes national security adviser. look, maybe the days of going back to having good old-fashioned policy disagreements and -- and sort of more civil conversations might be where we're headed for. i'm not going to agree with appointees on things they're going to want to do. i think they are capable to serve the president-elect. i think the confirmation process should account for their capability. and i believe they will be confirmed. i think most republicans believe these are folks they can work with going forward in a new administration.

>> and john kerry has reacted to his selection, the announcement by joe biden, writing on twitter, "america will soon have a government that treats the climate crisis as the urgent national security threat it is. i'm proud to partner with the president-elect, our allies, and the young leaders of the climate movement to take on this crisis as the president's climate envoy." and as i pointed out, john kerry was engaged in the climate effort, you know, back in the early '90s, late '80s, early '90s. that was a passion of his when he was a young senator. long before he was in the foreign relations committee chair. long before he was secretary of state. this is a big deal if they can all work together, and they have worked together in the past. he was active in the campaign. >> absolutely. you know the space very well. this is an impressive group of experts, and i underline the term experts. these are not partisan hacks who are going to do partisan bidding for joe biden. these are people who are going

to carry out an agenda that joe biden was given a mandate to carry out which is to bring the country together and to restore some common sense to our foreign policy and to our domestic policy. i think the fact that biden has this team that is confirmable but also is willing to govern, that's something we've been missing for the last four years. people who are willing to and who embrace the idea of governing, i'm excited about that, and i imagine a lot of people around d.c. regardless of who they vote for are excited about that, as well. >> lonnie, what do you -- in the last few seconds, what do we think also about the outbreak of more covid in members of congress as they go into this lame duck session? >> well, it's pretty clear that congress is becoming a petri dish in this regard. folks need to continue to take the same precautions whetherer in congress or not. social distancing, mask wearing, hand washing, all of that is very important. this virus is real, and until we get the vaccine out there to -- big part of the population, it's

going to continue to be a challenge i'm willie geist, and it's way too early for this country faces. and indeed the entire world. >> always great to have you here. thanks so very much. and that does it for edition of "andrea mitchell reports." big day. remember, if you have to leave home and you can't watch msnbc, you can always listen to our audio. it's aavailable to stream 24/7 on the streaming platform tune in. to listen commercial free go to tunein.com/msnbc2020 for tune in premium. casey hunt is up next with "mtv daily." "mtv day.il when panera's chef claes makes a pizza,

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good day from washington. i'm kasie hunt in for chuck todd. breaking news on the presidential transition. just within the past hour, president-elect biden named his picks for some of his top cabinet posts including choices for secretary of state, director of national intelligence and homeland security among others. let's get right to nbcali and jessica. thank you for being here. ali, let's talk through what we learned here. give us the top headlines and then i want to talk a little bit about the context here in the biden campaign's decision to do this today, to have such a formal rollout with so many names involved. they clearly