♪ i'm like you on-demand glucose monitoring. because they're always on. another life-changing technology from abbott. so you don't wait for life. you live it. if it's friday it is yet another grim day of record covid deaths, record hospitalizations. as more states resort to lockdown measures now the economic recovery is officially stalling. plus new momentum on capitol hill for covid relief. we'll speak with one of the architects of the deal about getting it over the finish line amid concerns that the aid still isn't nearly enough. runoffs in georgia take center stage with duelling rallies today as president trump calls

on governor kemp to overturn the results of the election ahead of his rally in the state on saturday. ♪ welcome to friday. it's a grim one and it's "meet the press daily." i'm chuck todd. as bad as the pandemic headlines are right now it will get worse. we haven't seen the full impact of the thanksgiving gatherings. the united states reported more than 2,800 covid deaths yesterday, a new record. it broke the new record from the day before. for this week covid appears to be the leading cause of death in america right now. covid hospitalizations, climbing above 100,000. that's also a new record. the number of confirmed cases in a single day risen to 220,000. i'm a broken record saying

that's a new record and public health officials see even darker days ahead before a vaccine is widely available. here's dr. fauci's most recent warning with savannah guthrie as accepting a position in the next administration. >> i think we have not yet seen the post-thanksgiving peak. that's the concerning thing because the numbers in and of themselves are alarming and then you realize that it is likely we'll see more of a surge as we get two to three weeks past the thanksgiving holiday and the thing that concerns me is butting on the christmas holiday as people shop and congregate and travel. >> the contrast in leadership on this virus couldn't be starker between president-elect biden and president trump. biden publicly remarines focused on the virus. trump remains focused on false claims of election fraud. the virus, he doesn't have time

for that. we'll have more on that later in the show. the final jobs report of 2020 shows that the economy is stalling as officials impose a new round of lockdowns. delaware is just imposed a new stay-at-home advisory. california's govern noy announced regional stay-at-home orders that will be triggered when icu capacity falls below 15%. he warned that the entire icu capacity is projkted to be exhausted this month. again, we haven't really felt the full impact of thanksgiving. and christmas is around the corner. da s dasha burns is in delaware. ellison is where the surge is pushing ambulance companies to their breaking points.

let's start with dasha at duke where, frankly, vaccines is the one piece of good news we can talk about with covid so it's, pardon me, part wants to start with the coming good news but it is a challenge trying to scale up this vaccination plan. >> reporter: yeah. chuck, everyone is looking for some hope right now and at duke university hospital this room represents some of that hope, hopefully in the next couple of weeks there will be folks getting vaccinations right here and it may not look like much right now but there's thought put into this part of the process, a space big enough to socially distance the stations and ten here and move through people in through groups and with this vaccine taking two minutes to get the shot, there will be a 15 to 30-minute monitoring periods because it is likely that some people will experience some covid-like

symptoms and monitored in this space here. this was strategically placed next door to the hospital because the people in the seats first are those front line workers and they're going straight back to work to take care of the covid patients after this process is done. this is just one piece of the symphony to come together in perfect harmony. think about the logistics of the timing. as soon as the vaccine comes out of the ultra cold freezers, the degradation process starts. the vaccine can only be refrigerated for a few days and once one of the vials is open with five doses they have to go into arms immediately and they have to schedule it so not to waste a single dose of the precious vaccine. a guy thinking about this is jason running emergency management at here with a lot on his mind right now. >> right now there's a lot of

unknowns. we don't know exactly when they will arrive, how many we get, will we have the supplies we needs or do we have to dip into the stockpiles to make sure that we have the right equipment? there's a lot of logistics that go into this to make sure we have down to provide this vaccine as quick as possible to those who want it. >> reporter: chuck, the other big piece of this is staff. right now most of the staff is taking care of covid patients with a record number of hospitalizations in north carolina and they have to ramp up the workers to give these vaccines so there's a massive recruiting effort going on right now and trying to get nurses to come out of retirement to take part in this. it is all hands on deck, chuck. >> the next question, i'm curious what you learned at duke about this. this current surge, you just talked about the finite number

of medical workers that they have. obviously the more patients to deal with covid the fewer people they have to manage the vaccine inoculations and things like that. i assume one is very disruptive to the other. this only adds to the logistical nightmare, does it not? >> reporter: yeah. no. that's exactly right. already most hospitals including here are short staffed with staff members themselves getting sick and having to take themselves out of the equation but that's also why i heard so much emotion and so much hope and excitement when i was talking to people about this because having their staff members vaccinated, protecting them from the virus as they put themselves on the line each and every day is a big deal here and in the long run allows them to handle the virus and the covid patients in the hospital with

more support. >> dasha burns on the grounds for us at duke university hospital, thank you. let's go another strain that covid is having on the health care system. ellison barbara in north dakota and talked about the health care workers, the burnout with doctors and nurses and the need for that and we have an issue of ambulance drivers, emts and in north dakota the grind on ambulance drivers who are making 30-minute 911 calls at times really had a huge impact on north dakota. tell us more about it. >> reporter: yeah. it really has. we have been spending the last day and a half with paramedics here in north dakota. just look back here with me. this is the only ambulance service they have in this area. they have a total of four ambulances. this one just got back. the other two are currently out on calls and the last hour or so the three teams have been sent

out on calls and 2 out of 3 of the calls were covid relatted. one to transfer a patient from one of the hospitals here to a bigger hospital in fargo, that patient is positive for covid-19 and on a ventilator. that's going to take that team out of service for four and a half hours, the other 911 call because of covid-19. what the teams tell us is they're increasingly strained with their resources, calls take longer to respond to and they have to transfer a lot of patients very far. >> we treat almost any call as a covid call. i would say anywhere between 70% to 90% of our calls day-to-day are true covid calls but there's a lot of symptoms that can come with covid that are with other medical conditions, as well, so without that test we can't different yate and have to treat everything as covid. now we have gotten to a point where hospitals fill up in

smaller areas and we have to transfer them out not because they need a higher level capacity hospital. they just need a bed with the same level of care, we don't have the room for them. >> reporter: ambulance services are not listed as essential like police and fire are and it's hard to get federal and state funding in normal times. right now they say it's extra hard and the last time this service got any sort of federal aid was back in april. we are hearing from rural ambulance services just like this one that they're running out of money and need help from the federal government if they handle the weight of this pandemic. chuck? >> allison barber in north dakota for us, thanks. that is part of when you hear about the money and covid relief for state and local governments, a lot of times that's -- that money is what is supporting some

of these services so be thinking about that when you hear about the financial strain on state and local governments. california meanwhile setting national record on wednesday with the most new cases reported for a state in a single day. more than 28,000. wur as i mentioned the state is gearing up for some of the toughest restrictions since that spring surge. here's governor newsom yesterday. >> the bottom line is if we don't act now our hospital system will be overwhelmed. if we don't act now we'll continue to see a death rate climb, more lives lost. here's what we are introducing today. regions where the icu capacity is falling below 15% we are now mandating that we are implementing a stay-at-home order for three weeks. >> joining me now is dr. mark

morocco from the ucla medical center in california. doctor, you wrote an op-ed that got pretty bluntd and in my ways i think you were trying to speak for people like yourself, health care work iers on the front lin frustrated that the public correctively doesn't have the same sense of urgency that you do right now. let me start with why we see the orders go in and perhaps at least now regional shutdown orders. if you break your arm right now in los angeles, and i come to your medical center, will i get treated right away or will i be in trouble? >> yeah. you isle be treated right away and be sure to think about the fact that you might have covid. so this is front line friday if you want to think of it that way and we are in a war footing and so the column was a call to action but now we are fighting that battle on our home ground and so really everybody that is viewing your program on both sides of the political spectrum,

you are on the front line with me now and for the next six weeks as dr. fauci and did governor said and you're hearing throughout the news, you know, the virus is so widespread across the country that this is sort of out of krolt control in it wasn't in march and asking the people to do the things we have been talking about forever, washing hands, social distancing, wearing a mask. if we don't do that we could lose the ability to care for you when you come in for a broken arm, car zeraccident, a car att or covid. >> where is the medical system right now? where is your system when it comes to elective surgeries? >> we are doing the surgeries. there's a big diversity of hospitals in los angeles in terms of resources and ability

to reabout. we are in a relatively good position right now but just down the road from us there are places that will have to stop that pre -- quick because they don't have the access to those extra beds, they don't have the extra nurses. physical -- respiratory therapists and the support workers. people say how does it feel in the e.r. right now but it feels like coming out of the locker room in halftime in a game where a really good team run the score up on you. we are readsy to play and anxios and need help from the folks in the stands that will become the 12th man on the field. we need you to do something now. this is essential to have any chance to change this inconvenience of the winter away from a disastrous winter. >> compare april to today in los angeles and what you're dealing with. >> in april we were concerned that we were going do see in los

angeles what we saw in new york city and italy and so we were loaded for bear and waiting for that and has an uptick of numbers and filled up many of the hospitals but never had the overwhelming wave that made us feel like the thing was out of our control. we were lurk i can i think because of the way los angeles is and spread out and i lived in new york almost ten years and the compactness of the way people live there is different than los angeles. now in los angeles we are concern ds that we are not going to be able to escape that unless we get a unified message. we have never been on a war footing in this country without a unified message from the president and the government to do the things to support the folks fighting the war. you had a little bit in the early in support of businesses and folk who is need money from the government. that's going to be essential to us to win this war. if we don't have it it is really difficult to not have this go

out of control. >> doctor, it is a bit demoralizing to see california get to where it has because for the part you had a unified message state wide, for the most part between state and local government. set the federal government aside. i'm curious. what is your best explanation for this current surge in california? is it fatigue? is it a sort of erosion of people who maybe were taking it every precaution and then maybe are just laxing a little bit or did something else happen to drive this surge? >> i think it's a combination of those things. i think that what is happened goes back to this sort of unified message. there's places in the country where people didn't believe it was happening and now they're sort of -- you get a certain critical mass of virus communability in the communication and watches up on the shores of people doing the

right thing. remember, even in california there's been some disagreement and so without having everybody on the same page for something that is very communicable but not understandability, it's a novel virus, that virus doesn't care if you're republican, democrat, middle of the state, live by the coast, midwest. it is looking for an opportunity. you lets the guard down and it jumps on it. we let our guard down from fatigue and a lack of message. >> do you have conversations with covid patients? >> without breaking any confidentiality, first thing that was when someone is positive or symptomatic is do internal contact tracing and then in a room with a doctor

with privacy and speak freely, almost everybody is trying to figure out where did i go wrong? and as a patient we may not have done anything wrong. that's the thing about the virus is not looking for those decisions but it is looking for those chinks in the armor and some people know exactly why and i wentds to this dinner on this day and the patients are almost always right when they tell you that. >> dr. morocco, out of ucla medical center, i appreciate you coming on. >> my pleasure. >> please, wash the hands and wear the mask. thank you, sir. up ahead, are americans finally about to get the next round of coronavirus relief from the federal government? i'm going to talk about the latest proposal. what does this deal include and what doesn't it include? later, how's the cdc planning do get millions of

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yeah. welcome back. the reality of congress passes the first covid relief bill in months looks more likely by the day as house speaker nancy pelosi voiced support of the bill earlier this morning backing the expectation that the relief is part of the larger government funding package on the table later this month. >> the bipartisan framework unveiled by the senators in a bipartisan way with the support of house members in the house from our side, both sides of the aisle, could be a basis for real bicameral snoe bicamer bicamer bicameral negotiations.

it is a framework and hope it takes us close to something to put into the omnibus. >> pelosi emphasized seeing the bill as a start of renewed covid relief. remember, past attempts at covid relief held up for months because lawmakers could not get on the same page with funding with pelosi and the democrats refusing to dip below $2 trillion. so joining me is a senator involved to help break the logjam, louisiana republican senator cassidy. long time, no chat. good to have you here. let's start with this. nancy pelosi's come down from her ask of $2 trillion on board your deal. is senator mcconnell on board? >> you know, i can't speak for mitch but he did say that the only thing he's interested in passing or suggested is that which can pass.

it can only pass if it's bipartisan in both chambers. that is to say if he is interested in passing a bill we are the only game in town so if you will that's an endorsement. he didn't say don't worry, you have my signature, but we don't have language and there's things to work out and working today and all through the weekend to get it worked out. >> is the -- do you get the sense that senator mcconnell is willing to lose a large chunk of republicans on this vote if this does have -- not -- an equal chunk of republicans in favor of it? is he willing to bring this bill to the floor if it only has 20 republicans on board? >> again, i can't speak to that, but i'm not sure i agree with your assumptions. i think it will have a majority of republican senators on board. we have a very carefully balanced approach.

in which neither side gets everything they want but both sides get much of what they want. we recognize it is not just republicans writing it. they recognize it is not just democrats. we come to common ground and the interested are balanced and with that folks firmly against previous proposals who are now for this so i'm very encouraged. i think we will have a majority of republican senators on board. >> one thing not in there that has some support, also, that's bipartisan is stimulus checks, direct stimulus checks. not in this deal. is there time to get that in or do you think that will lose too many people? >> we are a relief effort, not a stimulus effort, and that's what some people confuse us with previous bills. if you have an immediate need relatted to this problem we help

you. unemployed, business going brup bankrupt, in the food line. we want to relieve, not stimulus. ed that be another bill. i think keeping people employed in and of itself is a great deal of stimulus. >> are you -- is that -- let me ask you then, are you in favor of potentially stimulus checks down the road? you'd like to see that -- is that a separate discussion you think should be had? >> tell me how the pandemic goes, huh? tell me if we have an infection rate climbing in february or they get on the planes because finally they get to travel. it is an imponderable without the variables. >> in fact, let me ask you this then. was there any thought of passing the bill that had littlemetrics

to trigger for relief? there's people soeconcerned doi the one time relief politics clogged everything up and what you passed today should have passed two months ago arguably, the deal you may come to. is there any thought of putting in some autd mattic triggers into this deal so that you don't let politics gum up the need, say, in two months? >> great point. great point. the problem solvers caucus on the house side and equal number of democrats, republicans with the proposal, we have ten days. ten days and then we start a new congress. and so, we can't let the perfect be the enemy of the good and if we can bring relief in the next three to four months for americans who are hurting and maybe be on the far side of this pandemic, we'll have done our job. sure we can make it better. giver me three more weeks.

we don't have the three more weeks. >> you are one of the few physicians in the senate. looking back, what do you think the federal government could have done better in convincing more americans to simply wear a mask? >> well, your previous -- dr. morocco pointed out there's mixed messages. a colleague said when this started in march cdc and dr. fauci said don't wear a mask and then they said wear a mask. in medicine we talk about the retrospective scope. you know everything now. let's adjust back then. back in march we didn't have enough n95 masks. people weren't sure the regular cloth worked. there's mixed messages from the experts. we could have had perfect knowledge at the outset of this.

that didn't happen. wasn't going to happen. it is impossible. i'm not sure it's worthwhile to beat ourselves. >> fair enough. are you supportive of the idea that president-elect joe biden put out there 100 days let's wear a mask? it would put us right about the moment that the general public should start getting the vaccine. smart move? >> you know, so i think what you're asking requires nuance. i'm on the beach and the breeze is blowing 10 miles per hour and supposed to wear a mask? it makes absolutely no difference in terms of public health to wear a mask. i will walk down the street in washington and nobody's around me and people glare at me not wearing a mask and 16 feet away. so we have to have a little bit of respected for the american people. if you're in a closed setting, wear your mask. if you're a car with another person, wear your mask unless it's your coronavirus bubble. at a park with your child whom you always live with and no one

is around, common sense. we have underestimated the common sense of the american people and they chunked the recomme recommendations. we need to restore the common sense. >> bill cassidy of louisiana, been a while. good to have you. look forward to talking to you more throughout the next year. >> thank you, todd. >> you got it. up ahead, a tale of two transitions with coronavirus. what president-elect biden is doing right now and what president trump isn't. first, some very exciting news coming to msnbc weekend. two familiar faces are joining the weekend lineup this saturday and sunday lineup. catch the premiers of their new shows next weekend. catch tiffany every saturday starting january 12th and jonathan starting december 13th. as someone that works weekends, welcome to the club. it is a great place to be. we'll be right back. (soft chimes)

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president kamala harris. more than 40,000 americans since election day have died from covid-19 and the numbers are only getting worse on covid the contrast of the incoming president and current president couldn't be starker. the biden team is busy preparing for the crisis to inherit calling for 100 days of masks and building a medical team with dr. fauci as the chief medical adviser to the president and revealed this morning that he accepted the offer on the spot and will continue on his current role as nih, as well. president trump meanwhile not met with the white house coronavirus task force in months. i believe it's been at least five months by my count and he had a 46-minute talk not about the virus and tomorrow he will be holding a rally, not about the virus but in georgia ahead of the senate runoff. ali vitali is covering the biden team in delaware for us.

let's start with we know we're waiting for a health team, the health group announcements. we have been hearing some of them now but the big gaping hole is the health and human services secretary and seems as if there is still more jockeying going on coming to that vacancy or that current vacancy in their health team hole. >> reporter: yeah. a lot of jockeying, not just for that position but looking through the government, i think the striking thing is that initially when the roles were initially rolled out we heard quiet from the progressives on the task force and the national security force, only murmurs of republicans in response to those but as we see the roling filled except from democratic voices hearing from the congressional black caucus, the hispanic caucus pushing for diversity and for people to be in the specific roles and the importance of hhs,

the importance of person of color in that role is stated because of the way that the virus broken down to actually target the groups more aen so the biden team hearing that as they push forward in this and we were just told on a call that we should expect to hear health names named in the early part of the next week and going on in the background of this is the fact that hearing from joe biden here in a few hours on the economy. it is another issue that's putt through a coronavirus and pandemic lens but also through a political lens and you look no further than the statement we just got from the biden transition and joe biden himself saying that this dire jobs report we just got today is a snapshot from mid-november before the surge in covid cases and deaths in december as we head into a dark winter. he goes on to say any package passed in the lame duck session is not enough. it is just the start. congress will need to act again in january. so the political forces really

clearly in play and supports whatever deal they get done now and pushing ahead to january and a key thing that stood out to me thinking of confirmation battles is the role of republicans with biden and so many questions of working with people like mitch mcconnell. he said he's heard from republicans and understands they're under pressure and skittish to say who he's spoken to. the fact that we act as if the pressure goes away, trump looming over the party isn't going anywhere on january 20th. if anything it only makes the battles even more interesting looking to cover them. >> ali vitali, thank you. we are expecting to hear from the president-elect on the economy in an hour and a half. we'll talk to the chair of the cdc immunization advisory

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welcome back. vice president mike pence praised tennessee's plan to bring the covid vaccine to the public. appearing alongside the state's governor and a handful of other officials but for all of the vice president's praise new reporting from nbc news suggest states may not be as prepared as they should be to bring the vaccine to the masses quickly. while "operation warp speed" delivered a vaccine it appears in record time, don't quite have it yet but on the way, it is up to the states to distribute and administer it and fund many of the services. a steep cost for states buried under the ongoing covid response. then two months into the state they have to coordinate with a new administration, one a former hhs official said is quote set

up to fail. so joining me is dr. jose romero, the chair of the immunization practices board and the arkansas secretary of health and been on the front lines of this in the public health space. doctor, let me start with this issue of getting this vaccine distribution up and running and as one administration hands off to another and the transition effort is rocky under the best of circumstances this would be difficult. these aren't the best of circumstances so how nervous are you about the distribution plans? >> well, good afternoon and thank you for having me. there is always some apprehension in a project this large and from a state perspective, we have our system almost set up now. we know how we are going to distribute this vaccine. as long as the federal government can get us the

vaccine, we can get it out to our tier 1a individuals at this time. i think we are set up to get this out in an appropriate length of time. we have dedicated ourselves not to waste any vaccine whatsoever. >> as you guys were on this advisory committee deciding the various i guess ethics of this distribution, what's been the toughest -- what have been the toughest decisions to make? >> yes. so, you know, we try to make sure that we are minimizing harm and maximizing benefit. we are trying to make sure that we have an equitable distribution of vaccine to address health care disparities and make sure that we are protecting the most vulnerable and protecting the health care system. we know that we are expecting a surge in cases in the next few weeks to months. we need to protect the front

line individuals so the decisions really have been based on science and available epidemiology. we want to protect the high risk group of adults and based on the analysis of data we asked for it is those individuals in long-term congregate facilities and that is why we have come to that decision. >> i'm going to ask you something. last night the ceo of pfizer was part of a special on "date line" that lester holt hosted and one of the questions of the effectiveness of the vaccine and said if people vaccinated can they still spread the virus? he didn't have an answer yet. when would we have an answer on that? what kind of -- what information in the clinical trials, when will that information from the clinical trials be available to determine that issue? >> so if that was actually an

end point, a secondary end point, i don't believe it's a primary end point, if it's a secondary end point then we need to follow that over time. if it wasn't included as a primary secondary end point in the studies the studies need to be conducted into the groups that we are talking about. so it will depends on how long it takes, for example, the cdc or the vaccine manufacturer itself to design these studies and conduct them. i think we can have an answer within a number of months, one or two months after the vaccine if we have individuals immunized and exposed to see if they transmit it. >> do you have a timeline in your head to see the first children under 18 vaccinated? >> yeah. that's an excellent question. i think as a pediatrician, a group that i most worry about and i hope to see trials starting sometime in the second quarter of next year and hopefully we'll move through

that quickly and show efficacy and safety, safety first of all, and possibly even begin to immunize somewhere in the latter part of the next year and not very -- in the first half of this coming year. >> so, and it sounds like maybe the start of the fall school year but that's not a certainty? >> i think that's correct. we need to see how the studies progress, we need to see that data to make sure that it is safe and effective. >> do you anticipate requiring the vaccine, for instance, if you want to fly? or if you want to teach in public -- in the public school system? are there going to be some recommendations that are made by this panel that become requirements? >> so at this point we have not considered making a mandatory vaccination for any group.

we are simply providing the vaccine to the high risk groups and leaving it to individuals, institutions and states whether mandates are warranted and appropriate. >> you say that now. is there a point where if you have -- there's just too many people, i mean, is there a metric you use, if the disease spreads and getting 50% of the population will be to be vaccinated, is it basically going to come down to depending on how many volunteers there are to get vaccinated? >> if you ask will the acip issue a recommendation for a mandate, i doubt we'll have ever do that. we have not and we being the predecessors to myself, in the 60 years that the acip is in existence we have never issued a mandatory recommendation for

vaccination. >> what would be that? what is the line you draw? requirement? what the type of words to expect when you issue the advisories? >> our recommendations are exactly that. they are recommendations. they are made so that the institutions, the states that adopt them take our recommendations into consideration and then they decide if it's necessary to go further to make mandates to use the vaccine. so i want to be clear that the recommendations are exactly that, they're recommendations. >> right. and not mandate. sounlds li sounds like the notifications are going on like crazy. >> we have to remember to learn to -- sorry about that. >> no worries. no worries. dr. romero, appreciate you coming on. sharing your perspective with us. stay safe and healthy out there, sir.

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baseless voter fraud claims and attacks on the state's republican governor and republican secretary of state for refusing to overturn a free and fair election. blayne alexander now joins us live in atlanta. so, suddenly, a very busy day. but blayne, let me ask you a question that i was asked today, which is, what's happening in the actual senate races themselv themselves that don't involve trump? >> reporter: that's a fantastic question and i think a lot of republicans will be happy that that's something that we're talking about. so when you look at these actual senate races, one, the fact that the big guns are being pulled out, the big names, the heavyweights, it really just underscores essentially how close these are and how crucial they are for both parties. one thing that's interesting to me, when you look at both democrats and republicans, they're essentially packaging them both as a package deal. either loeffler and perdue or warnock and ossoff. that's because democrats need both to win in order to take

control of the u.s. senate. that's a lot of what we're seeing here when it comes to that across the state. when it comes to the actual race, it is an interesting place for republicans, because, yes, they are having to kind of toe this line of, yes, getting everybody out to vote for their candidates, but again, president trump's influence, essentially, being saddled with the weight of that additional message, letting their voters know that, hey, in addition to coming out to vote, we want to reassure you that your vote is actually valid and is actually going to count. on the democratic side, we're going to see that visual -- that virtual rally today, with former president obama, stacey abrams, a lot of things there. what's interesting, though, chuck, is as i was speaking with gabriel sterling yesterday, he's, of course, the official that we've heard a lot from this week. the one that had very strong words for president trump. he was just talking about the sheer enthusiasm around this race. the fact that as of yesterday, more than a million absentee ballots had already been requested here in the state of georgia, which just kind of shows you that already leading up to january 5th, we're

expecting a very high turnout. that's what republicans absolutely need and so that's why they're pushing back so hard on these unfounded claims from the president. chuck? >> blayne, i'm just curious, contrast the last two weeks before november 3rd and the vibe that you feel on the ground right now in atlanta on these races. obviously, you had the presidential, the anticipation of that. we see all the money. we see all of the people traveling there. it is translating to people thinking and talking about this race or not? >> reporter: this is getting a lot of attention, chuck. you know, one, if you turn on any local tv channel, you can't go between shows without seeing commercial on top of commercial on top of commercial. the other thing is that, yes, when i talk to people, both democrats and republicans, this is what a lot of people are talking about. either democrats for one, they're riding this kind of

wave, this kind of high. they're excited about the fact that joe biden won. republicans also talking about this. so definitely translating lots of energy, chuck. >> fascinating. blayne alexander on the ground for us in atlanta. ball blayne, thank you. thank you all for being with us. i'll be back on sunday for "meet the press." i'll be joined by white house coronavirus task force coordinator dr. deborah birx as well as joe manchin. msnbc coverage continues right now with yasmin va yssoughian right after this commercial break. ssoughian right after this commercial break. for smarter trading decisions. fidelity.

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good afternoon, person. i'm yasmin vassoughian in for katy tur. it's 11:00 p.m. out west and 2:00 p.m. in the west. we're learning more today about the key officials biden is trusting to lead the fight against a worsening pandemic. biden has asked a few familiar faces to join his