happy thanksgiving. i'm joshua johnson and nbc news in new york. thank you for taking time to join us on msnbc. it is a very unusual thanksgiving, but unfortunately, one part of our new normal continues. the coronavirus pandemic is still accelerating. america is approaching 13 million confirmed cases. in the last day, that total rose by more than 177,000 cases, in just one day. yesterday was the first day since july that the u.s. recorded more than 2,000 covid-19 deaths. did you stay put this thanksgiving? if so, the cdc thanks you for not traveling. experts say this holiday could become a superspreader event.

some holiday events are adapting to the coronavirus, including here in manhattan. the 94th annual thanksgiving day parade was still as festive as ever. the streets were largely empty thanks to planners adapting the program to prevent crowds. and los angeles county urged residents to cancel all plans, even outdoor gatherings. california is struggling to get its cases under control. officials say they're seeing the, quote, most alarming metrics we've ever seen. we begin with our current and future presidents. each with a different approach to those metrics and each spending thanksgiving differently. today, president-elect joe biden is spending the holiday in delaware with his family. meanwhile, president trump is golfing at his club in northern virginia. he canceled his annual trip to mar-a-lago in south florida. joining us from washington are nbc news white house correspondent cara lee and with us in rehoboth beach, delaware, is nbc political reporter allie

vitaly. it seemed like president trump was going to let the election results, denials die down, focus on the pandemic. now he's refocusing on the results in pennsylvania. tell us what's been going on. >> reporter: yeah, he's not letting those denials die down at all. if anything, he's really continuing to ramp them up, even tweeting already today about the election results saying that he had looked estimate vote tabulations and challenging the fact that joe biden received some 80 million votes that the president writing on twitter there's no way biden got 80 million votes, this was a 100% rigged election. that's obviously not true. president trump lost this election. but he's continuing on this path. and as you mentioned, said yesterday in this call that he made into this event told in a ballroom at a hotel in pennsylvania with pennsylvania republicans and the president's personal lawyer, rudy giuliani, where the president repeated a number of false claims about the

election, alleging fraud without any evidence of that. and said it multiple times that this election needs to be, as the president put it, turned around, this election results need to be overturned. so the president's really digging in on that publicly. while we know privately from our own reporting and other news outlets reporting that the president is thinking about the future and his next steps, whether that's how he's going to make money after leaving office, considering a run for presidency again in 2024. and then he's taking other steps that show that he is actually conducting himself like a president who's in the last weeks of his presidency in that he pardoned his former national security adviser michael flynn, something that presidents typically use a pardon power that presidents typically use in the closing weeks of their time in office. so he allowed also this week for the biden transition to move forward. at the same time, as you note, he is not giving up on these public claims of fraud in the

election which just has not been proven and isn't true. >> yeah. i do want to come back to michael flynn in one second. the president-elect spoke yesterday warning of a long, hard winter, as he put it, because of the pandemic. and also calling for unity. what else stood out in his remarks? >> reporter: well, we've heard biden give that warning before, and what was striking is the focus that he placed on the coronavirus in his pre-thanksgiving remarks before heading from wilmington up here to rehoboth beach, delaware. we also heard him, though, talk about the death toll. but as it relates to families' potential emotional toll, sitting at a table at thanksgiving dinner this year with one chair empty. biden said unfortunately that's something he knows how to deal with all too well. i see wife, jill biden, echoing the sentiment. in a video this morning listen to what they said -- >> so many people are celebrating this year knowing

that someone they love will never again take their seat at the table. joe and i know the pain of that empty chair. if you are one of those families, please know that our hearts are with you and that you know that you aren't alone. >> we might not be able to join our hands around a table with our loved ones. we can come together as a nation. >> reporter: to me, joshua, more than anything else, those remarks yesterday as well as the remarks that they delivered via video on twitter today were showing a president and a first lady in waiting that were going to step into the empathy gap that has been lacking from the white house in the midst of this crisis. you compare the way that joe biden has spoken about the coronavirus over the course of the last few weeks to the way that we've heard president trump talk about it over the course of the last few months, trump has had a tendency not to dwell on how bleak it sometimes feels, but instead to put a rosier

picture on it. biden yesterday really leveling with the american people, speaking to the frustration that many of them have because of this ongoing pandemic and the fact that now we're getting into the holiday season, and a lot of people are being forced to scale back. that's also true for the bidens. biden referenced that he should be or usually is in nantucket with lots of family around. this year that's not what they're doing. they're doing a much smaller thanksgiving here in rehoboth beach. >> and very briefly before we've got to move on, how much is the pinellas county thi president-elect thinking whether the pandemic is the dominant force given the cabinet picks. >> reporter: it is over-arcing for his transition. and this is going to be the reality and the top issue that he's contending with. at least over the first year, year and a half of his presidency. but there's also the ability for it to be a real legacy moment. they're not looking past it yet. they are very much focused on how you can combat it.

at the same time, this is something that's very similar in some ways to the crisis that barack obama stepped into with the economic crisis in 2008. joe biden involved this that response this. has an economic component because certainly biden has said that you cannot get the economy back on track without first focusing on the coronavirus. so clearly it's of top importance to him. but also on the staffing front, consider some of the people that he's put up here. his incoming white house chief of staff, ron klain, was barack obama's quote/unquote ebola czar. and the head of the department of homeland security was also involved in dealing with the zika crisis as well as the ebola crisis. he's starting on a personnel level to show that this is a policy priority, but also that he's putting a premium on experience. >> we'll talk more about the coronavirus response and about michael flynn as the hour goes on. for now, nbc's carol lee in washington and ali vitaly at rehoboth beach, delaware. thank you both. the pandemic continues to infect members of president

trump's inner circle. most recently another lawyer for his campaign. according to "the new york times," that makes at least 45 people closely connected to the white house who have tested positive. meanwhile, 13 states still do not have a statewide mask mandate. each is run by a republican governor. so even though the election is over, the politics of this pandemic may be around for some time. one "washington post" reporter who endured covid-19 wrote about her experience. jackie alamani noted the differences in what some of her gop sources were saying publicly and what they told her privately. jackie writes the "washington post's" "power up" newsletter and joins us now. also dr. vin gupta, assistant professor at the institute for health metrics and evaluation. he is also an msnbc medical contributor. good to see you boeith. jackie, you wrote in percent

that one hill -- one hill staffer encouraged you to share your experience with covid-19 because according to the staffer, their boss still doesn't think it's real? you also wrote that a trump campaign staffer told you, quote, it's pretty incredible that even when people do get it, it doesn't change their behavior very much. if anything it just emboldens them that they made it through the virus. it blows my mind, unquote. jackie, i don't mean to put too fine a point on this, but it sounds like they're calling some folks in their party hypocrites. >> that's exactly right, joshua. happy thanksgiving. thank you so much for having me. i just have to say, i'm so thankful for all of the doctors and frontline workers who are keeping everyone safe, especially after having experienced this firsthand and being completely flattened by it. thankfully i wasn't hospitalized. but i was really struck by the dissidence between my private conversations with my republican sources and what we're seeing in terms of the public rhetoric and continued politicization of the

pandemic from republican leaders and governors. and what i was hearing from my sources was frustration with their bosses' behavior. and with their colleagues' behavior, as well. i was talking this through with a source. i was laid out on the couch, i spent the majority of my time recovering sleeping. but when i wasn't sleeping, i was trying to work the phones to the best of my ability. and as you noted, you know, they really encouraged me to talk about this because, again, their boss didn't believe in it. and you know, we're seeing that rhetoric continued in places like south dakota and oklahoma and missouri. governor noem and oklahoma's governor, as well, who are actively encouraging behavior that is against the warnings that we're hearing from people like dr. fauci and our nation's top public health experts as our death count and cases are hitting highs that we were seeing at the beginning of the pandemic. and you know, it's not going unnoticed by republicans who work for these people. >> before i get to dr. gupta,

it's clear the biden administration's approach is different than the trump administration's approach has been. what's your sense of how mr. biden might move past the politics to put forth an effective response? >> yeah, i think as we've seen with a lot of the public opinion, americans do overwhelmingly support masks and are -- are moving albeit slowly past sort of this partisan warfare that masks have become in our public dialogue. that being said, i do think that, you know, the president-elect has to tread lightly in terms of what sort of national federal mandates he might impose. but as ali noted, he has selected a number of cabinet members and leaders, already assembled a coronavirus task force, people who are experts in dealing with this, epidemiologists, and who have managed global crises and domestic crises before. that is something we're working on day in and out, especially in terms of think willing about the

consequences of trying to scale back on the politicization of a public health crisis. >> dr. gupta, let me ask you about where we stand now. the u.s. reported 2,000 more deaths yesterday for the first time in months. that is something that your institute predicted. deaths are climbing, but according to cdc data, the share of cases that result in a death has dropped steadily from 6.7 in april to 1.9% in september. what does that tell you about where we are right now? >> we're in a very, very precarious situation, and none of what we're expecting after the holidays is preordained, joshua. let me say that right now. let me just -- let me speak to the american people and say, first of all, it's not too late. if you're planning on a thanksgiving dinner with individuals that you do not live with in the same household, you can cancel. it's the right thing to do for your health and the health of your loved ones.

that's one. if you've traveled recently or you're going to convene with somebody that you don't live with, mask in their presence to the extent possible. try not to gather round one dinner table, just -- do what you can to maintain social distance and masks in their presence. that's going to be really vital. then clean high-touch surfaces in the kitchens, in bathrooms, on tables. make sure you're using some disinfectant wipe. that's vital to do that, especially if you've decided to convene with people you don't normally live with. that's going to be vital. lastly, two points here -- number one, i've seen unfortunately people just wear face shields in the absence of masks. you want to wear masks absolutely, that is sides. face shields is an additional layer of protection if you want that. don't think face shield is a absolute for a mask. lastly, a question i get all the time because testing to your initial question is so constrained right now, and a lot of places, testing is only

available if you're ssymptomati. check your pulse, your oxygen level a few times a day. if it's less than 94% -- these aren't hard and fast guidelines -- call your doctor, get some sort of medical attention. that's one thing to look for, high temperature above 104. these are things we want to keep an eye out for. >> an oximefer -- o-xive i-m -- o-x-i-m-e-t-e-r, those at your desks. and there's been a manufacturing error that raised questions. a group of volunteers who got a lower dose of the vaccine. the lower dose seems to be more effective than two full doses. briefly, doctor, before we got to go, what more do we know about why that happened? what do you make of that? >> we don't know a lot. they only put that data into a press release. and so the big question here is, is the astrazeneca vaccine

actually effective in older individuals? i think the initial data in the press release format draws some concern about whether it's truly effective in the older population. so more to come. >> dr. gupta, and jackie of the "washington post," good to see you both. thank you so much. covid-19 has food banks struggling to keep up with unprecedented food insecurity among families. we're live at a distribution center in one of the nation's wealthiest counties. it's second in unemployment behind las vegas. we'll take you there just ahead. . when i was in high school, this was the theater i came to quite often. the support we've had over the last few months has been amazing. it's not just a work environment. everyone here is family. if you are ready to open your heart and your home, check us out. we thought for sure that we were done. and this town said: not today. ♪

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if only coronavirus would take thanksgiving off. the u.s. reported another 177,000 cases in the last day. let's check the facts at this hour. the supreme court is siding with religious institutions over restrictions on gatherings. last night, justices blocked new york state from enforcing limits on the size of religious services. the court split 5-4. newly appointed justice amy coney barrett voted in the majority. chief justice roberts dissented. hospitals nationwide are increasingly worried about having room for coronavirus patients. many may iran orun out of fwhed weeks. in the first part of november,

hospitalizations increased 70%. the u.s. is hardly the only country dealing with outbreaks. south korea reported more than 500 new cases today. this is the biggest daily caseload since march. in germany daily infections remain high despite a three-week lockdown. angela merkel announced tighter restrictions through november. some protests against germany's measures have turned violent. a growing number of families don't know where their next meal will come from. on thanksgiving or beyond. covid-19 is deepening what we now call food insecurity across the country. the nonprofit group feeding america projects that as many as one in six americans and one in four children do not know where their next meals will come from. this pandemic is forcing groups that provide free meals to meet a demand that just keeps growing. nbc's megan fitzgerald is live in anaheim, california, with more. tell us more about where you are and what's going on.

>> reporter: joshua, we're in orange county, here, anaheim as you mentioned, is the city. this is one of the wealthiest counties in the nation, and organizers say they have not seen the numbers like they're seeing people in need for food. to give you some perspective here, i want to show you what's happening here. they're expecting some 7,000 cars to roll through here at the honda center. so what we're seeing here, we're going to continue to see for hours. what these vehicles are doing is they are making their way to the distribution location which is just here, they're pulling up. these volunteers will then put three boxes of food in the trunk of their car. before these folks will head out. now over here we have for you exactly what the food is that they're going to be getting. the first is a thanksgiving meal. they're going to have turkey here, they're getting buns, gravy, mashed potatoes. they're also getting a box of fresh produce where you can see celery in here, some onions, potatoes. then they'll take this box of

non-perishable foods, rice, canned goods, some oats. all told, about 75 pounds of food that they'll have to take off. and organizers believe that's going to feed upwards of 28,000 people. what really stands out here is organizers say they've heard stories from family who's have never asked for help -- families who have never asked for help before. they were making six figures, but now they're crippled by the pandemic. buying food for their family or paying a mortgage. listen to what the organizers had to say about the demand in orange county. >> we've seen probably well over 400% increase in the amount of food that we've been giving out during the pandemic. and our fear is going forward that that number's not going to change. it's going to actually increase. >> the different pressures being placed on families is absolutely unprecedented and far worse than

what we saw in the great recession of 2008 and 2009. when we ran our forecast to try to understand what kind of food we would need -- >> reporter: yeah, just incredibly troubling. the good news, joshua, is there are hundreds of volunteers here that are working around the clock to make sure that anybody in this county that needs food on thanksgiving will have it. back to you. >> thank you. that's nbc's meagan fitzgerald from anaheim, california. there's new hope today for getting students back into classrooms. a new testing strategy is being pioneered in the u.s. and the uk. it could greatly reduce the costs and logistical challenges of testing students en masse. we're joined from london with more on that. tell us about the new test. >> reporter: this is about how you collect people's samples.

you don't want to with young children in particular be shoving swabs up their noses, into their throats. instead, this is using saliva. you can still extract the viral rna from saliva almost as effectively as you can from the kind of swabbing you typically see at the moment. what's so interesting about this is that you don't need the level of manpower. you've seen those long lines of people waiting to get swabbed, the people having to wear ppe that do the swabbing. with the saliva test, you can just spit into a little tube, and kids in the uk are dropping it off at the school gate once a week. by the end of the day, they're getting results back. there is funded by the british government. it's no cost for parents. but it's also happening at some schools on the east coast now. there's a couple of companies involved in developing these tests successfully. they're getting ethic out at $15 a pop. and yale has been leading the research on this. their school of public health developing a system that can be used at labs around the country. i spoke to ann wiley, one of the lead researchers there at yale,

and i asked her whether she thought this technology could be scaled up significantly. >> science is. there i think if the state level, the federal level, if more people with see it as a reliable option or as a cheaper option, a more accessible option, then having sort of the support from higher up levels will have us get it rolled out further. >> reporter: and what's so interesting, again, about this particular technology is what they're doing to try and speed up things, trying to increase the efficiency. they're their are sti-- there a still botstlenecks, juggling resources. with the saliva test you can collect batches, entire classrooms up to 240 people in some cases. you can identify a case within an individual pool, drill down, and then pull that individual out of the population. that makes things much, much faster. >> and probably increases

compliance sparing kids from having to get that brain bruiser, that swab up the nose. we'll probably get more samples back, too. that's nbc's willem marx. the transition to president-elect joe biden's administration is now finally officially under way. what will it take for president trump and many other republicans to accept the results and move on? to accept the results and moe on alright, everyone, we made it. my job is to help new homeowners who have turned into their parents. i'm having a big lunch and then just a snack for dinner. so we're using a speakerphone in the store. is that a good idea? one of the ways i do that is to get them out of the home. you're looking for a grout brush, this is -- garth, did he ask for your help? -no, no. -no. we all see it. we all see it.

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president trump has a quiet thanksgiving day calendar. his legal team remains busy trying to sow doubt over an election that to be clear remains mathematically impossible for him to win. but check out how the "associated press" is describing the 2020 presidential race -- the zombie election that trump just won't let die. perhaps, but the courts keep decapitating the president's lawsuits. few have remained standing. with the president standing in the way and most republicans publicly standing behind him, some democrats are warning president-elect biden that he may have to manage his expectations. joining us now is former

executive director of the new york state democratic party and lecturer at columbia university, and senior adviser to the lincoln project. good to see both of you. susan, let me start with you. president trump may never let this go. but at the end of the day, how much will it matter? i mean, joe biden is going to the white house whether mr. trump likes it or not. >> well, first let me say happy thanksgiving to you, basil, and the viewers. donald trump can try and do whatever he wants. it's just not going to change things. but he's -- he is a calculating person. and when you want to figure out what the reason he's doing something for, look to see what his -- what is in his best interests. it's in his best interests to keep raising money. that's what he wants to do. so that's why he keeps saying the fight is going on. as far as how it affects the transition, it's a shame, but at least now the biden people are able to get in there and start with landing groups and figure

out what the real problems are and issues to tackle head on. but donald trump is going to keep making a lot of noise. my biggest concern about donald trump right now is he's been used to being front and center. when you leek ook at the messag versus president-elect biden, what a contrast. one is so much more presidential than the other. and i think that donald trump wants to have the loudest voice. therefore, he may take some actions that put all the attention back on him. >> let me ask you about kind of the evolving relationship between the soon-to-be president and existing democrats in congress. axios is reporting that representatives alexandria ocasio-cortez of new york and ilhan omar of minnesota both signed a petition against mr. biden appointing his former chief of staff, bruce reed, to lead the office of management and budget. how much pressure do you think joe biden is going to be under in this regard, particularly since some of this public

criticism theoretically could alienate some of these members from the white house before he even takes the oath of office? >> well, i hope it doesn't. you know, it's -- i think it's incumbent upon the president and new administration to recognize that there were a lot of young people and a lot of progressives that took a chance on their presidency even if some may not have wanted or may have wanted another candidate, they came out, they took a chance on his presidency and on his campaign because it was important to have someone as you alluded to, as susan alluded to earlier, more presidential in the white house. and i hope that they have an open-door policy and make sure that all voices are heard. so i understand from an administrative standpoint that joe biden would want somebody there that understands him, that understands government, that knows how to pull the levers of bureaucratic power to get things done. i understand why progressives might be upset.

but the goal here is to get everybody together and make sure that we're all talking because we ran as democrats on the -- with an acute awareness of how important this moment in time is. so i hope they recognize that and take advantage of it. >> susan, i'm sure that someday you'll be glad to see the back of president trump and not have to talk about him so much anymore. i know you well. but there was a "washington post" analyses today that found that some of the potential alleged rumored 2024 republican presidential hopefuls currently in the senate are taking what they describe as a populist-like resistance to the educated steeped in government expertise that biden wants to shape his government with. that's a quote from the "post." in other words, they're emulating president trump. how do you see that playing out so far? >> well, thankful three ffully only one donald trump. they can try and imitate him and to go into his ability to message to his supporters all they want, they will not be

successful. but what i think the big change will be and why this strategy will not work for them is when president-elect biden comes into office, he's going to treat the coronavirus for what it is -- a dire epidemic that is going to crush us not just in health care but economically, as well, and he will treat this as a real war. he's going to -- no matter what he can -- can do everything he can to get any packages out there, deliver a vaccine, and he's going to call for unity to help save lives. i don't know how the republicans ignore that message of we have to save as many lives as possible. we're going to be close to 400,000 people dying come january. that is -- that is staggering. and guess what, they live in every single state that these republicans are representing. and they are going to have to get on board. it has to be a national effort. they cannot stay in the way because finally we're going to have a person at the top who's

going to lead us and do everything they can to recognize the importance of this time and to help this country get through it. >> basil, yesterday president trump's daughter-in-law, lara trump, was asked about a run for senate in north carolina. here's part of what she said -- >> when will you decide if you're going to run for the senate? >> you know what, let's get through this one, and then we'll talk about the next one. >> but it intrigues, you right? >> it's -- it would be an incredible thing. it's my home state. a state i love so much. look, i think we need strong republicans in washington, d.c. >> now white house chief of staff mark meadows reportedly has also been talking about running for that seat. basil, i know that you will also be happy to see the back of donald trump for the future. what is your sense before we move on, what is your sense of how aligning with mr. trump in the future might affect tomorrow's republican candidates? >> yeah. i think that goes a little bit to susan's point earlier about

donald trump thinking about what happens to him and his movement after his presidency. a lot of the sort of waiting to concede and a lot of this waiting game that we're witnessing, a way to figure out how to keep his coalition intact. and perhaps that not only has ramifications for the republican party as a whole, but certainly individual races with anyone named trump. listen, you know, i don't begrudge anybody that decides they want to run for office. but wow, what a legacy she's going to have to defend as she's running for office. if i'm -- i can't speak for the republican party, but i would have to say that -- there's some soul searching they're going to need to do to see if they want to carry the banner for another several years while she's -- if she ever makes it to the senate. >> i don't see that happening either. >> we'll see how that soul searching guys. basil, susan, always good to see you two. thank you so much. coming up next, a powerful

story of heroism. a u.s. army sergeant who sacrificed his life to save comrades on the battlefield. his family and fellow service members are pushing to honor him. that's just ahead. 's just ahead. ♪

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thanksgiving reminds many of us how much we have to be grateful for. today and in the past. some of that greatitude is for the service of those who left their families behind to protect this country. one soldier is the focus of an effort to honor his uncommon valor. craig melvin has the story of sergeant alwin cash. >> reporter: in certain parts of central florida, they know the name alwin cash. there's a post office and an army reserve center named in his honor. the lush florida landscape is far from the sunni triangle of iraq where army sergeant cashe made the ultimate sacrifice in

2005. just after midnight on october 17th, the sergeant's unit left on patrol in two armored bradley fighting vehicles. not far from the base, the lead vehicle hit a powerful ied. >> the explosion penetrated the fuel scroll under the vehicle. we were all on fire. it was the initiation of a complex ambush. sergeant cashe appeared out of the darkness, and he looked at me like, dodge, where are the boys? sorry. >> reporter: that's okay. that's okay. >> and i just looked at him, and he had -- he was only wearing his helmet, body armor, and his boards because everything else had been -- boots because everything else had been burned off of him.

without hesitation after he asked that question, he turned and climbed into the bradley. >> reporter: with gunfire raging, sergeant cashe charged into the back of the burning vehicle and drugged out his wounded men over and over again. sergeant gary mills was among those sergeant cashe pulled out. >> it was so thick of smoke. only thing i felt was a hand reached and grabbed my leg and was helping me get out. i knew it was him. unfortunately heard all the screams and everything. you know there wasn't nobody in there helping us. >> reporter: the surviving soldiers were eventually evacuated to the burn utah at brook army medical center in texas. sergeant cashe's sister was at her brother's bedside. >> when i saw him, i wish i hadn't because -- he was so swollen and wrapped up, and -- but his face -- his face looked

like -- looked like my baby. he looked like al. >> reporter: you got to see sergeant cashe in the hospital. what did you say to him? what did he say to you? >> i asked him how he was doing, and he told me, you know, dodge, today i got up and i took two steps across the room. and then he said, tomorrow, i'm going to get up and am going to walk across the room. >> reporter: sergeant cashe would die of his wounds on november 8th, 2005. of the nine men in that vehicle, only three have survived. cashe was warded a silver star, but as details of the attack emerged, a campaign started to get the award upgraded to the medal of honor. recently there have been calls to rename ft. benning for sergeant cashe. and steelers player and army veteran alejandro villanueva wore cashe's name on his helmet in support of the push to award

him the medal of honor. >> i find it remarkable that -- that if this does happen your baby brother would be the first african-american to receive the medal of honor for their service in iraq. afghanistan -- is that important to you? >> it's important that he receives it as a soldier for what he did. i don't ever want anybody to say he got it because he's a black man and there was a push -- you know, no. he got it because he deserved it. >> that's craig melvin reporting. of course the medal of honor is the military's highest level of distinction. th the senate passed a bill for to award sergeant cashe the medal of honor. before we go, president trump is pardoning former national security adviser michael flynn. what might that tell us about his plans for his final weeks in office? including, perhaps, trying to pardon himself. o pardon himself

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>> this year we have been tested more than ever before. coronavirus has killed more than 263,000 americans. then there is the white house trying to reshape the navety around this public health crisis. jeff bennet spoke with insiders about the state of the cdc as they million the latest rise in cases and looks ahead to a new administration. >> the cdc has been at the forefront of the pandemic response and under fire. creating cracks in the public health armor as coronavirus cases surge. >> the cdc lost their voice as the lead on pandemics. >> the former cdc advisor retired after 20 years of service. >> i want to see the cdc prosper and improve and get back to

where it was before. >> kpacarlton was the chief operating officer. >> that was a strength, that we lead with science. >> and an ep dooepidemiologist. e-mails and documents obtained by nbc news show how the trump white house pressed public health officials to fall in line with president trump's mill agenda watering down covid guidance for cruises, krchurche and operatives. one veteran cdc staff near wished to remain anonymous

saying that the house is not only in fire but we're standing in ashes. >> you represent decades of experience. as the agency ever been politicized in the way you say it has been in the trump administration? >> i think in the aids epidemic we experienced a lot of barriers. some of these political opposition that we received resulted in greater infections. >> even though we could have saved more lives than we did, but it pales in comparison in my opinion. >> one current staffer saying i don't know if the damage to our reputation can be overcome with a new administration. i worry it is a permanent problem. >> what is it like now? >> it is almost like you can see a light at the end of the tunnel

in terms of science being able to go further. we all feel very excited and that help is not too far away. >> hopefully this thanksgiving is happy for you as strange as this has been. one more oddity, watching football tonight without fans in the stands as the stadium. the workers behind the scenes face an uncertain future. nbc news now has that story from philadelphia. >> i have been a die hard eagle fan all of my life. both of my sons, the first word they learned to spell was eagles. the eagles started allowing fans back into the stadium in october after the first waive of

restrictions were lifted. >> it felt like things were happening and we were cut off again. >> he depends on unemployment payments that run out in a matter of weeks. >> unfortunately during covid i had a buy a new car. i had to buy a new refrigerator because my refrigerator died on me. >> how does that feel? >> not the best. between me having covid, and not knowing what is happening with money, i don't know what is happening. i'm 60 and it is hard to get another job. >> how is everything with the current situation and having to save extra impacting how you're saving for the holidays. >> i have spoken with my grandchildren. they're old enough they say they understand, but they're children still. they look forward to christmas gifts. >> how hopeful are you to everything will go back to normal at the stadium with big

crowds and everything like that. >> i would like to say something else to congress. not politicizing this. just take care of the people. this is not about one party versus the other, this is about american people that are suffering. >> congress has yet to extend covid-19 relief. 12 million people stand to lose their aide on the day after christmas. until we meet again, i'm joshua johnson, happy thanksgiving, stay safe and thank you for watching msnbc. (soft chimes)

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