and good day, everyone, i'm andrea mitchell in washington, as president-elect joe biden formally introduces his economic team, chosen for expertise in helping the working class and those hit hardest by the pandemic recession, as unemployment hovers near 7%. the team is led by former federal reserve chair janet yellen. the nominees are historically diverse and highly experienced including princeton economist cecilia rouse and omb director designee neera tanden, who is widely praised by many democrats but already seized upon by some republican senators not for past policy choices but for some of her partisan tweets. meanwhile, president trump continues to stew about his electoral college loss, now that all of the battleground states have certified or determined a biden victory. the trump team has reportedly raised $150 million off trump

emails and tweets railing against the election result while slamming republican governors in arizona and georgia for doing their jobs and certifying that he lost. this as one of the president's personal attorneys, joe did general ova, said chris krebs should be, quote, taken out at dawn and shot for joining other agency heads including the fbi and nsa in calling the election secure from hacking. krebs responded toe that latest death threat in a "today" show exclusive live interview with savannah guthrie on "today." >> it's certainly more dangerous language, more dangerous behavior. and the way i look at it is that we're a nation of laws. and i plan to take advantage of those laws. i've got an exceptional team of lawyers that win in court. and i think they're probably going to be busy. >> you feel like there's legal action that might arise from

comments like that? >> we're taking a look at all our available opportunities. >> are you worried about your safety, sir? this is not the first death threat, unfortunately. >> you know, i'm not going to give them the benefit of knowing how i'm reacting to this. >> joining me now, nbc white house correspondent and "weekend today" co-host kristen welker, nbc white house correspondent geoff bennett covering the biden transition in delaware, and "washington post" white house bureau chief phil rucker. welcome, all. kristen, let's talk about this chris krebs interview. this is a lifelong republican who also expressed his gratitude to donald trump for nominating him and appointing him. he spent 3 1/2 years working on election security and creating this agency, basically, from scratch. and the outrageous comments by joe digenova are beyond the

bounds of what's been said before. >> that's right, andrea. and you heard chris krebs say to savannah that clearly his legal team is taking these comments very seriously, looking at the comments and signaling there could be some type of legal action. you also heard krebs really stand by and defend the work that he did at dhs and the election results. of course he called the election the most secure in american history. and he really reaffirmed that and reiterated that today with savannah. when savannah pressed him, show your work, he said, look, the work is the fact that we're dealing with paper ballots, that's one of the reasons why there's so much confidence in these election results. and he defended his tenure. take a listen to what he had to say. >> i'm a lifelong republican. i've served, as you pointed out, in two republican administrations. i served with honor in the trump administration. and i will always be thankful to president trump. when you enter federal service, you pledge an oath to uphold and

defend the constitution from threats, foreign and domestic. country over party. >> andrea, i've reached out to the white house, the trump campaign, to joe digenova, to get their response. so far we haven't heard back. but again, this is being taken very seriously, not only by chris krebs, but by other quarters here in washington, as it does come as president trump is trying to undercut the election results. as you pointed out at the top of the show, taking aim at arizona's republican governor, at georgia's republican governor after the election results were certified in those two key states. more setbacks for trump as he has unsuccessfully tried to cast a cloud and undercut these election results, andrea. >> and as this continues from the president, phil rucker, his attorney making false and dangerous statements, the president attacking the two governors, in georgia and

arizona, this morning saying the important runoff senate elections in georgia could be called off. this is days after you and your team at "the washington post" reporting that trump has in the last days and weeks just been ranting inside the white house, telling one of his close advisers, sounding like, according to one of his close advisers, mad king george, saying "i won, i won." what do you see going on right now? >> that's exactly right, andrea, the president continues to insist he won this election and that it was stolen from him. he's largely abdicated his responsibilities of being the president in these weeks as he's focused intensely on his grievances, on legal challenges led by rudy giuliani, and he's been especially angry, according to our reporting, with the governor of georgia, brian kemp, a republican who actually used

to the secretary of state there, he has his own history of running elections in that state. he got elected very narrowly in 2018 on trump's coattails and trump has been raging at his advisers in recent days and weeks that he can't believe he endorsed brian kemp and is upset with governor kemp for not basically using his power as the state's top executive to try to change the outcome of that election. that of course is not legal. there's not really a constitutional way for the governor of the state of georgia to somehow flip the result and announce that trump has won that state because he has not won that state. but nonetheless, the president is very upset that the governor hasn't done more to try to sway this in trump's favor. and the governor, meanwhile, has defended his conduct and oversight of the election, saying that he's following his legal duties. and it will be very interesting to see later this weekend if the president follows through on his

reported plans to go to georgia for rallies for those two senate republicans in the runoff, what this kind of dynamic is going to be like on the ground, and what if anything the president is going to say to attack governor kemp while he's in the state of georgia. >> and the republican secretary of state as well who is the current governor and successor secretary of state who are both endorsing the certification. "the new york times" is reporting today that rudy giuliani has at least raised the issue of a preemptive pardon of the president, giuliani fiercing denying it. >> this is what he texted one of our colleagues, "a lie 100% so get furious at the lying members of your profession. i despise crooked lawyers." let's take a step back here and put this against the backdrop, andrea, of the fact that we know

that president trump has discussed potential pardons of his allies. we know that some of his allies have openly discussed that he should consider pardoning himself and should consider pardoning his family members. so we know that those two things are true. and of course he's issued a pardon most recently of general flynn. so all of those things are true. at the same time, rudy giuliani at this hour defiant, pushing back against the allegations or the reporting that he's directly discussed a preemptive pardon of president trump by himself and possible of rudy giuliani as well. >> and geoff in wilmington, we'll see joe biden probably within the hour, with the economic team. they were announced yesterday. there is controversy over neera tanden, which given that it's coming from a lot of republicans who have been so partisan on twitter themselves, in the course of the campaign, separate

from all our policy chops, that, you know, she did what people in campaigns do. but they're holding social media against her, and you're hearing john cornyn and others using terms like "radioactive," it sounds like a preemptive strike. the incoming white house is defending her because of her broad experience for omb. >> that's right, andrea, and the biden transition is keenly aware of those issues. and so what we expect to see today, perhaps in a half hour's time, is another carefully choreographed rollout, like we saw last week for president-elect biden's national security and foreign policy team, we'll see that today for the economic team. and the desire among the transition is to have these folks introduce themselves directly to the american people. and beyond that, it's so they can use their personal stories to help blunt partisan attacks. that's particularly true for neera tanden who as you know is the daughter of indian immigrants, raised by a single mother who for a time relied on

federal housing assistance and food stamps. the parallel there is to show that these folks know the struggles of working class americans and that they want to create an economy that works for working people. so these six people, this handful of senior leadership, the senior leadership that's going to lead biden's economic team who will do the hard lifting to help joe biden achieve his goal of reordering the economy to work for working people. this is of course happening at a time where we're seeing more signs of success on wall street and more signs of suffering on main street. you had the dow hit record highs last week. and yet there are food lines stretching for miles or at least there were shortly before thanksgiving all around the country, andrea. >> and kristen, briefly, even after the cdc advisory board, importantly, this afternoon, will be announcing their recommended priorities for vaccine distribution, you've got mark meadows, white house chief

of staff, calling in fda commissioner steve hahn, dr. hahn, calling him on the carpet. what is this all about? the pfizer rollout and authorization of it? it just seems like unseemly political pressure on the scientists. >> we know that among the questions that mark meadows and the president have raised, why is the pfizer vaccine authorization not being moved more quickly along. and so i anticipate that would be at the forefront of the discussion. we know it got under way at about 9:30 this morning. you saw hahn there entering the white house. i've reached out to multiple officials to try to get details of exactly what was discussed. so far, no response. but andrea, we wouldn't be surprised if that meeting was tense, because again, it comes against the backdrop of president trump and his chief of staff, aiming to push that process more quickly. >> you would think, you would think, kristen, geoff, and phil, that they would understand that the markets go up with the vaccine production and

authorization precisely because the scientists are in charge, and the scientists are delivering, and that people are suspicious and need to be reassured and don't need to see former congress members and white house chiefs of staff pressuring scientists who are distinguished medical doctors. well, sorry, that was my editorial pitch. kristen welker, geoff bennett, phil rucker, thank you all. and tipping point. how states across the country are dealing with the surge in covid cases, threatening to overwhelm their hospitals. and the cdc meeting today to decide who will be first to get the covid vaccine. more on what to expect from that big announcement coming today. plus we're awaiting president-elect joe biden about to present that economic team. we'll have that for you live ahead. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. [ whispering ]

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two states on opposite

coasts, california and florida. two drastically different approaches to surging coronavirus cases. florida governor ron desantis is taking a strong stand against imposing any restrictions at all. >> no lockdowns. no fines. no school closures. no one's losing their job because of a government dictate. nobody is losing their livelihood or their business. that is totally off the table. >> meanwhile, in california governor gavin newsom warning that the state's current projections show icu beds over capacity by christmas eve. >> if these trends continue, we're going to have to take much more dramatic, arguably drastic action. >> joining me now, nbc correspondent sam brock in miami, florida, and megan fits

swrer megan fitzgerald in burbank, california. how are local leaders and mayors handling the surge, sam? >> reporter: it's a great question, andrea, good to be with you. local leaders have to put in their own workarounds to get people to follow the rules in spite of the governor. where i am right now in miami beach, police officers are handing out masks to people who aren't wearing them and then issuing citations if they refuse to put them on. but those citations have zero teeth because of the governor. i'm joined by the mayor who is one of dozens calling on the governor to take more action. thank you for joining us. >> unfortunately we're trying to help people without the help of the governor. he's saying all the wrong things, following an ideology rather than reliable science.

and it's really hurting us down here, it's killing people. >> reporter: what can you actually do, as you see the hospitalizations stack up, and sadly the deaths stack up as well? >> as you point out, we have our cops out there coming up to people, offering masks, then giving them a ticket that we don't have a fine anymore for. aw we gave out a thousand of those tickets and then the governor decided he didn't want to have a mask mandate. the only way you can open up is with masks. there's virus in this place. >> reporter: the masks are a pathway to getting people back into the businesses, not vice-versa. >> yes. >> reporter: thank you very much, mayor. andrea, in miami-dade where i am, this is the third highest count of cases in the country. only los angeles county and cook county, illinois have more infections than right here in florida. back to you. >> sam, it was great to hear from you and from mayor anggelb

please thank him for us, we know how much work he's got to do there. governor newsom, megan, in california is taking a totally different approach. the pandemic is threatening to completely overwhelm the state hospitals. what are hospital workers doing, how are they coping? >> reporter: it's a great question, andrea. many of them say they're doing it day by day. across california, health care workers are bracing themselves for what could be a potential crisis situation where hospitals are overrun. take santa clara county, for instance. you're seeing county public health officials comparing their hospital situation to a train derailment. they're seeing some of the most restrictive measures in place across california. they're asking people to self-quarantine if they're coming from more than 150 miles away, self-quarantine for 14 days, and telling folks not to travel, and even further

restricting capacity inside essential and nonessential businesses. take a listen to what some nurses have to say about what's happening in the state. >> many of my co-workers have left the career of nursing because it's simply just too much. so we have staff leaving. we're short-staffed. and we have staff falling ill from covid. when we're gone, there's just nobody that's going to take care of you when you're in the hospital. and that should scare everyone, because someone you love and care about will be affected by this virus. >> reporter: governor newsom says as soon as tomorrow, the state of california could see even more restrictive measures being put in place. andrea? >> megan, thanks to you and thanks to sam. joining me now is dr. kavita patel who is a former health policy adviser in the obama administration. dr. patel, thank you very much. so we have the cdc advisory

panel importantly meeting this afternoon to decide how they will recommend which americans will get the coronavirus vaccine first. and it's complicated. there certainly is not enough vaccine to go around in the immediate weeks, even a month or so. so how do they balance these choices? there are real ethical questions here. >> absolutely, andrea, and thanks for having that discussion, because today what we expect is basically a formal recommendation, a vote for what we call kind of the 1-a population, the highest priority population. this isn't even all health care workers, it will be prioritized for hospital-based health care workers and residents and workers in long term care facilities, because we know those have been explosive areas of growth. and then the question that remains, andrea, to your point, there's probably not even enough for all of those people. so there's going to be a really difficult distribution plan. all the states are ready, but i

just want to caveat that even the states that i work with, maryland, d.c., virginia, they need money to get these plans in place. the hospitals can do their best but in order to really get it to the right people it will take the funding that we've heard about that's stalled in congress. >> we'll be talking about that in a few moments because there is some progress there, maybe, today. i also want to ask you about scott atlas. he has resigned after 130 days, so that was his tenure. during that time of 130 days, he had by all accounts a devastating effect. he captured the president's imagination after appearing on fox news with his theories of herd immunity, his ideas about just letting people get the virus and not test and not contact trace, getting dr. birx and dr. fauci sort of pushed to the side. where do you see -- i mean, the damage, just the damage, the

lost lives since he first came into the task force? >> yeah, i don't say this lightly, andrea, but in 130 days he's probably done more damage as an individual probably second only to the president because of this absolute propagation of misinformation and chaos and confusion. it's sad that he had to last the entire duration of this leave he took from the hoover institution. but yes, you're absolutely right, the damage has been done. i think that the biden administration is going to have to have -- they already are, but they'll have to have an incredibly concerted, laser-like focus on fighting misinformation and trying to do as much as they can to give clear messaging to the public that is actually comprehensi comprehensible, because that's exactly the opposite what have dr. atlas did. you're right, the level of devastation will be felt for a

while. >> and when we're trying to get people to believe in the vaccine and the science, how helpful is it that mark meadows, the chief of staff, is calling dr. hahn from the fda on the carpet today, of all days? >> yeah, it's not helpful at all. i think, candidly, we're at the stage now where we need to just -- we need to have dr. hahn in a conversation to explain the data, to have an understanding of what are we going to be expecting from the fda from an emergency approval, how is the fda going to conduct its business to make sure that americans get the vaccine, but that it's safe. and we haven't even talked about the fact that pregnant women, children, there's an open number of questions that i do believe somebody like dr. hahn, dr. fauci, this is what they're talented at doing. calling them to accuse them of not doing something fast enough for the convenience of election politics, andrea, is just missing the point. >> dr. kavita patel, as always, thank you so much. and the impact of the coronavirus on the economy continues to be devastating.

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could there finally be senate movement after seven months on covid relief? today a bipartisan group of senators unveiled the first specific proposal we've seen for a $900 billion covid bill including state and local government relief as well as small business aid, money for testing and tracing. but it is well below nancy pelosi and house democrats' last negotiating position. pelosi and treasury secretary mnuchin are set to talk today for the first time since october. this as fed reserve chair jerome powell told congress it's desperately needed to rescue the economy, even after vaccines start rolling out. >> the high level of joblessness has been especially severe for low wage earners, women, and african-americans. for now, significant challenges and uncertainty remain including

the timing, production, and distribution and efficacy across different groups. >> joining me now, democratic senator chris murphy of connecticut on capitol hill. senator, first of all, this bipartisan group of senators pushing $900 billion, today the talks continue. it's looking more likely that covid relief could be tacked into, folded into the government spending bill. the government needs the spending bill by the 11th of december. and this is what mitt romney had to say, he's a self-described deficit hawk, at the news conference today. >> i happen to be a deficit hawk. i don't like borrowing money. i don't like spending money we don't have. but the time to borrow money, maybe the only time to borrow money, is when there is a crisis, and this is a crisis. >> senator kaine already said to my colleague that this isn't enough. do you support this?

>> it was unfailveiled an hour none of us have taken a hard look at it. it's a positive development and this amount of money could get us through what is likely to be a very hard and deadly winter. this isn't big enough to be able to get us to the point where the entire country is vaccinated. but it might be enough to make sure that millions of americans don't go hungry, don't starve, don't die out on the streets this winter when their jobless benefits expire and when protections for evictions expire. the reality, though, is that until mitch mcconnell actually decides to do something, it doesn't really matter how many members of his caucus agree to compromise proposals. i was just down on the senate floor talking to senate republicans who don't believe we should do anything. half of the republicans in the united states senate don't believe that we should expend one additional dollar of help for americans who are having

their unemployment benefits expire or for homeless shelters that are literally filling up to the brim with individuals this winter. so that remains our problem. mitch mcconnell has to lead and so far he hasn't shown the willingness to do that. >> and they realize that people are going to be evicted and that there are food lines around the country in areas where we've never seen food lines before, people waiting hours and hours, you know, last week in arlington, texas, to get food. >> i mean, andrea, i was, you know, in connecticut all throughout the holidays. i stopped by a food distribution site in hamden, connecticut, a few days before thanksgiving. they had about 300 meals to give out. and before they even opened the doors, there were 300 cars waiting in line. they had to start picking and choosing who they were going to feed for the thanksgiving weekend. this need is real. it is dire. and it is just unconscionable

that there are this many senate republicans who don't think that we should do anything additional. again, i think this is a really positive development, but we need the majority leader, the head of the senate, to get in the negotiating room and we need him to do that fast. >> and i want to switch gears because there's another big issue on your plate, on the senate's plate, which is the $23 billion arms sale to the uae, the trump administration wanting to sell f-35 fighter jets, 14,000 bombs, ammunition, drones. you would need two-thirds of the senate to block this sale given that the president would veto any resolution. >> yeah, it's a heavy lift. i've introduced legislation to block this sale along with senator menendez and senator paul. first of all, we shouldn't be rushing through an unprecedented, massive arms sale into the middle east in a lame

duck congress. but second, we really have to think to ourselves what could happen if we sell reaper drones into the middle east. what we know is the uae, an ally of the united states, has a history of taking u.s. weapons, u.s. equipment, and transferring them to extremist militias that they are allied with in places like yemen. it's one thing to transfer vehicles to militias, but what if these reaper drones were handed to a militia group? militia groups that are aligned with al qaeda. there are some really serious questions that we've to ask and get answered and that can't happen in a lame duck congress. the trump administration needs to put off this sale. we need to come back in january and think about how to do it right. and, you know, i think there may be a bunch of republicans who agree that doing this in a rushed manner could end up with weapons getting into the very dangerous hands in the middle east. >> and you've got jared kushner in the middle east going to saudi arabia and qatar this

week. any concerns about his mission? >> listen, i think we've all worried that the president was going to conduct the foreign policy of this nation in a way that would enrich himself, his family, and his companies. we now know, because of the disclosure of his tax returns, that he has some massive financial liabilities coming up in the next few years. and i am sure that he is hoping that he's going to be able to do some big hotel deals in the middle east. i don't want the united states to do unprecedented, dangerous weapons sales in the middle east because it may ultimately help the president's bottom line financially once he leaves office. i think we all have to be very worried about that. >> senator murphy, thank you very much, thanks for being with us. and as we speak, president-elect biden and his economic team are arriving, they'll be appearing shortly in wilmington. we just saw, moments ago, the vice president, former vice

president, and the president-elect, arriving at that venue in wilmington. he was wearing the walking boot because of those hairline fractures of his right foot. let's look at the hurdles they're going to face 50 days from now. joining me now, jim messina, former deputy chief of staff for operations to president obama. former republican national committee chair michael steele. gene sperling, former director of the national economic council for presidents clinton and obama. and from missouri, democratic senator claire mccaskill, an nbc and msnbc contributor. thanks so much to all of you. gene, let's talk about janet yellen and other members of the team and why janet yellen is the right person to run treasury, the first woman and obviously someone with superb qualifications. >> i mean, janet yellen, it's hard to think of someone who has not just her resume but her heart, her academic brilliance, and someone who absolutely commands respect on both sides

of the aisle, and globally. and at a time of crisis like this, go to someone where there's such competence in her head and her heart and her experience, makes that very, very strong pick. but i think what's really distinctive about this team is that, to use words i like and i think joe biden does, this is an economic dignity team. this is a team of not, you know, ivory tower folks. this is a team of people who actually in their areas, heather buescher, jared bernstein in fighting for full employment policies, cecilia rouse for being someone who has fought against hiring discrimination and things like college completion, these are people who can help with the tangible

policies, the building back better portion of his economic agenda. >> and claire, given the way mitch mcconnell has refusing to recognize that joe biden won, what are the chances that biden's past ability to work with mitch mcconnell on budget deals are going to make a difference? and what about confirmations with him going after neera tanden because of her tweets and ignoring her whole record, her policy record? >> yeah, it's a whole new level of hypocrisy that republican senators are now all of a sudden worried about tweets that hurt their feelings. this is just ridiculous. we've had a president who has used his twitter account like a battering ram, going after not just his political opponents but republican senators unfairly, with incredibly brutal tweets. now all of a sudden it's a disqualification for someone to serve in the cabinet that

engaged in her own opinion on twitter? i think that's dumb. i think that, you know, we've got to focus on her qualifications. and yes, she is definitely more progressive. but joe biden won the election. and he wants to put people in there that have in fact personally felt the help of government programs like her family did when they were economically insecure. he wants to put people in there that really are going to fight for working people and the minimum wage. and that's what neera tanden represents. we'll see what happens, but if they're going to hang their hat on her tweets, they're going to look silly. >> jim messina, the historic nature of these appointments with janet yellen and the others, neera tanden, rouse, is there any chance at all, after everything we've been through and after this incredible transition and the attacks and refusal to recognize the victory of joe biden, is there going to

be any honeymoon? you know how important the first 100 days are for any white house. >> yeah, i do think there will be. i totally agree with claire, it's unfortunate, picking on neera tanden because she sends out mean tweets when the president of the united states sends out mean tweets every single day, is the height of hypocrisy. but once we get past all this and get into actually governing, i think there's pent-up demand on both sides of the iaisle to work together to actually get stuff done. you just reported, andrea, on a bipartisan group of senators getting together to cut a deal on stimulus. that hasn't happened in a while. hopefully mitch mcconnell will take that as a sign and sit down with the new president and say, can we get some of these things done. i'm not naive, we're not going to hold hands and run to the river all together. but we ought to be able to get some stuff done in the first hundred days. and i think you're saying there's pent-up demand on both sides to actually start that process.

>> although i've got to say, chris murphy was just telling us he was just on the senate floor and that half the republicans were saying they don't think any covid relief is warranted, not a penny. michael steele, what about their denial of the need for covid relief as we head into this awful winter? >> well, you know, it's the height of ignorance in the face of the realities, the very cold and sobering realities around covid-19 which we've been living with now for almost ten months. the lack of any type of effort to move an economic policy or an agenda to deal with this, short term or long term, is not lost on anyone. and it's not lost on these republican members. they're playing the last dying hand of the donald trump cards they have.

they are ride or die, they'll ride this out with donald trump, they won't get on his bad side because they don't want the ugly tweets, speaking of ugly tweets, and they don't want to have that base that's sitting in the corner stewing, because that's what donald trump wants them to do, to come after them. and so, you know, i agree with jim, there will be some form of a honeymoon, once you get past the inauguration and the realities of all of this comes full circle for folks on the hill, particularly republicans. but it's the missed opportunity now to join with the bipartisan group of senators who are moving forward and trying to move forward on some type of stimulus to deal with this. you cannot have it both ways, andrea, as you know. you cannot complain about the plight of businesses and the economy due to covid and then do

nothing about it. and that's what we're looking at right now. >> and i've covered a lot of deficit negotiations and budget negotiations over decades, and the times have changed, gene sperling, economically. even people like mitt romney, a deficit hawk, a lot of republicans, jay powell talking about the need for stimulus right now. we have an historic underemployment and unemployment, and low interest rates. speak to that, if you agree. >> first of all, i mean, jim, the senate will remember when we had fiscal cliffs. we now have a humanitarian cliffs. at the end of november you could have 12, 20 million people capable of become evicted, made homeless. you could have over 10 million people who lose their unemployment benefits. this is not like excess or luxury. this is about the basic dignity, capacity of people to stay in

their homes, to feed their children. from a moral and humanitarian basis it's an imperative. but from a fiscal, an economic basis, the smartest thing you can do is help drive growth and demand in this economy. and we have to worry about all of our economy. yes, if you've been working full-time and not vacationing, you may have saved up a bit of money. but we know that the workers, the most hard-pressed workers are not necessarily going to do well. many are going to lose jobs permanently. we've already seen 4 million jobs lost permanently. we've already seen as many as one in five businesses close. and so it's not only the right thing to do. what mitt romney and others are realizing is economically, fiscally, you want to get to full employment fast. if you do that, that will be good morally, it will be good getting growth going, and i even think will be the right thing fiscally because it gets the country going again.

so this is a win/win/win to not worry about debt right now and worry about the biggest possible fiscal path that you can do to recharge our economy. >> and claire, when we talk about confirmation battles and red lines that some of the republican senators are laying down, they seem to have forgotten that people like mike pompeo got confirmed. a lot of controversial people who had hard-edged views got confirmed because new presidents are given some deference. it just seems like the hypocrisy level you pointed out earlier is at an all-time high going in, where they're trying to preempt certain people from even being nominated. >> i think you will see in the first batch of confirmations some relatively easy votes for some of the nominees. i think janet yellen would go in that bucket. i think tony blinken will eventually go in that bucket. the republicans remember there

were many of us who voted for many of the trump nominees, some of which i regretted after the fact, but they were qualified, and he had been elected president. and that had typically been the norm in the senate, not you never vote for the opposite party's cabinet. but, you know, it is what it is, and i think biden is being very smart, he is selecting by and large people that have avoided any type of controversy thus far. and i think most of these folks will get across the finish line. i certainly hope the hypocrisy around neera tanden's tweets don't slow her down, she would be terrific in the job. >> especially given her life experience. claire mccaskill, michael steele, gene sperling and jim messina, thank you so much. coming up, we're waiting for president-elect joe biden and his economic team, we'll bring that to you live as soon as they appear. but first, it's giving tuesday. lending a hand. how two young people reached out

to their neighbors at the height of the pandemic to help those most in need, and what's happened since. their incredible story, next. stay with us. this is "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. y on msnc 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. along the way, we'll give you ways to be tax efficient. and you can start, stop or adjust your plan at any time without the unnecessary fees. talk to us today, so we can help you go from saving...to living. so why wait to screen for colon cancer? because when caught in early stages, it's more treatable. i'm cologuard. i'm noninvasive and detect altered dna in your stool to find 92% of colon cancers even in early stages. tell me more.

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those who need it most. and today we're focusing on a group of young people we first introduced you to in may when the covid-19 pandemic had gripped new york city. they realized that people who could not leave their homes needed groceries and other essential ymgs. so they launched a delivery service they called invisible hands. they've now expanded throughout the east coast. they now have more than 14,000 volunteers around the country. joining me now are two of the co-founders. great to see li amelkin and simone again. liam, thank you very much. your timing, it's giving tuesday, but also we're heading into this winter, and we're seeing a hunger crisis. thanksgiving week was really terrible when we looked at the food lines, exacerbated by covirksd covi covid, unemployment and now you're delivering groceries to food pantries, not just homes. tell us how you've changed your service. >> this program began as an opportunity to deliver food to people from grocery stores and from pharmacies, but as we were

seeing the growing racial and economic disparities and food insecurity and as senator murphy was talking about that earlier, we realized the importance of delivering from food pantries to people's homes as well. the food insecurity is twice as bad as before the pandemic. you've seen lines for food pantries are getting longer and not only is that horrifying and unhygienic but it means people can't go out and earn disposable income themselves when they're waiting in lines that long. it's estimated up to 50% of people who could be benefiting from a pantry don't go because of the stigma associated with getting food from a pantry. when we're completing deliveries, it's also anonymous. so that might be helpful for some people who don't want to necessarily be seen needing food. but, you know, despite the problems that we're seeing in this country, and they are rampant if you look closely enough you'll see stories of hope and of love and i got an email from a woman living in michigan just a few weeks ago saying that her dad lived in new

york and had been diagnosed with covid. he lived alone. he had no way of getting food. she heard about us. submitted a request and his volunteer would come to his house every week and deliver groceries and medicine. even beyond that, he'd address the deeper hunger of social isolation and that desire we all have for social connection. they would sit on either side of his door and talk about their lives and their fears and their joys. and they never once saw each other. they wouldn't have recognized each other if they passed on the street but they became friends. when he died, his daughter said this volunteer was to be a resource for him and provide some comfort in his final days. if everyone does a little, no one has to do a lot. if everyone watching this gave $5 or $10 or signed up to volunteer or spread the word on social media it would go a long way to helping expand social operations, pull together and helping us pull through. >> and simone, what are some of the challenges you're facing as you try to reach out, trying to expand to the west coast?

>> absolutely. i mean, i think just covid has been going on for so long that i think people are starting to get fatigued and it's like, i can't believe we're still doing this and remembering that like this crisis we're seeing the light at the end of the tunnel but it's still very much real and we do still need people to support and sign up to volunteer and donate. specifically, as liam was saying with the food pantry piece, we need people with cars. you're carrying boxes of food from pantries to people's families and it's hard to do on foot. in new york that's uniquely specific problem because very few new yorkers have cars. so volunteers with cars are in very high demand. we partnered with lyft and task rab whoit have been helping supply us with cars. to the west coast, that will be probably less of a problem because it's so much more car focused. we're really excited to be able to take the operation we've set up on the east coast and bring it around the country. it's not an east coast specific thing. it's not even an america specific thing. we're trying to help as many people as we possibly can right

now. >> simone and liam, thank you both so much. stay in touch as you expand invisible hands. such a great organization. thank you. to learn more about invisible hands and other organizations meeting the needs of our communities during the covid-19 pandemic, visit nbcnews.com/givingtuesday. and that does it for us for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." remember, follow the show online on facebook and on twitter @mitchellreports. we're expecting joe biden at any moment. chuck todd is up next with all of that on "mtp daily" right here on msnbc. uh, honey? isn't that the dog's towel? hey, me towel su towel. there's more gain scent plus oxi boost and febreze odor remover

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♪ welcome to a very busy tuesday. it is "meet the press daily." i'm chuck todd. at any moment in delaware, we're expecting president-elect joe biden, vice president-elect kamala harris and their economic team to pick. that will include janet yellen and a number of other high level positions. we'll go to the president-elect when this gets under way. we expect in a couple of minutes. we've also got some developments on capitol hill. as a bipartisan group of senators has just announced a $900 billion compromised framework for emergency covid relief before this calendar year. st