talks hang together. thank you all for getting up "way too early" with us this morning. don't go anywhere. "morning joe" starts right now. we were very, very happy that we were able to get things done at a level that nobody has ever seen before. that the gold standard vaccine has been done in less than nine months. >> all i can tell you is the truth. we're in a very dark winter. things may well get worse before they get better. >> you do van immunity a developed immunity over a period of time and i hear we're close to 15%. i'm hering that. that is trick. that's a powerful vaccine in itself and just tremendous progress has been made. >> the vaccine may soon be available. we need to level with one another. it will take longer than we would like to distribute it to all corners of the country. >> this will quickly and dramatically reduce deaths, and hospitalizations and within a short period of time i think we want to get back to normal. >> we need your help.

wear a mask for just 100 days. it's the easiest thing can you do to reduce covid cases, hospitalizations and deaths. >> the cdc puts out their guidelines ansds they're very important guideline, but i think this. i think that the vaccine was or goal. that was number one, because that was the way, it was the way it ends. >> vaccines in a vile only work if they're injected in an arm of people especially those most at risk. this would be one of the hardest, the most costly operational challenges in our nation's history. the president-elect and the current president. both speaking at the exact same time yesterday with very different messages. good morning and welcome to "morning joe." it is wednesday, december 9th. joe has the morning off but along with willie and me we have white house reporter for the associated press john sthnathane and host of "way to early" kasie

hunt and former chafe of the republican national committee and msnbc political analyst michael steele is with us. we have a lot of developments in terms to the coronavirus to get to this morning. the u.s. is inching closer towards approval for a coronavirus vaccine, but the white house coronavirus task force is out with a stark warning that we're not likely to see a substantial reduction of viral spread, hospitalizations or fatalities until late spring. right now the u.s. is in the midst of the fastest, wide effort and longest surge of new covid infections yet. meanwhile, yet another member of the president's circle has tested positive for the coronavirus. this time it's his lawyer jenna ellis who attended a white house high-level staffer christmas party on friday. someone pointed out on twitter that there are now more trump attorneys with covid than they

have election challenge wins. and that's where i think we'll begin this morning. willie? >> yeah. another big blow to president trump's efforts to overturn the election. this time all the way to the top in the united states supreme court. the high court yesterday declined to take up a republican congressman's request to nullify the certification of joe biden's win in pennsylvania. the lawsuit claimed the state legislature violated pennsylvania's constitution when it pass aha passed a law allowi by mail. it waited too long to challenge the law enacted more than a year ago. the u.s. supreme court did not explain why it rejected the claim issues a one-sentence order, that the plibapplication denied with no noted desense. what president trump said about his election challenges earlier in the day at that vaccine summit. >> let's see whether or not somebody has the courage,

whether it's a legislator or a legislatures, or whether it's a justice of the supreme court or a number of justices of the supreme court. let's see if they have the courage to do what everybody in this country knows is right. >> jonathan lemire, the supreme court's reply to that was a one-sentence rejection of that. in the order, let's go through the list of appointees made by president trump who were confirmed. gorsuch, kavanaugh and, of course, amy coney barrett, justice barrett most recently, of course, in october confirmed. there were no noted desens ed d. and president trump has a very different understanding what it means to be on the supreme court than the justices. expected payback for their appointments. yesterday they said, that's not how it works. >> the president was not shy in the months running up to the election that he anticipated this outcome would be determined

in the supreme court and thought he would win for exactly that reason. conservatives have majority and he appointed three justices to the highest bench in the land including amy coney barrett, a nomination rushed through and she took her seat on the bench just weeks before american's went to the polls on november 3rd. that is, of course, not what happened yesterday, despite the president's, ras at that "operation warp speed" event at the white house, despite the president tweeting out memes about the justices including amy coney barrett, despite allies said they were feeling confident they would get some wins now that this case was gawk to toin supreme court and of course none of that happened. none of these challenges amounted to much of anything for the president and his team, as

noted. most of his legal team is sidelined with covid-19. these are increasing long shots. they are taking defeats in state after state after state. the only surprise yesterday, frankly, was that the president remained silent at the supreme court's decision. we all were watching his twitter account for angry outbursts as the supreme court and perhaps in particular the three justices he appointed. in the past he has been very angry in gorsuch, let's say, ruled in a different way than they thought he would. that hasn't happened yet. it's only a matter of time. the white house says these legal challenges will continue. we have the electoral college meeting soon, the states' congress certifying the election in early january. there will be outbursts and temper tantrums between now and then and that won't change the outcome of the race. jb will take the office january 20th. >> look at the ledger. one victory. trump's team, trump's allies.

one victory in the last five weeks and nothing close to overturning election but a procedural win. coming up on 50 losses in states across the country and now an outright rejection at the top of the supreme court. all of this talk during the confirmation process about amy coney barrett perhaps having some kind of a secret deal with president trump that just in case he lost the election she would help him overturn. you remember all that. here we are with a chance not only the supreme court not going to hear this case, it wanted absolutely nothing to do with it. again, with no descents noted in that order. >> yes, willie, where we stand. 1 in 50. or 1 in 60, however cases have gone before various judicial bodies after the election. that's in one sense not the point. look at what else has happened. out on the streets across the country, in neighborhoods that donald trump has a great deal of sway, you have an increasingly riled up base of support for the

idea that the president, donald trump, did not lose this election, and at the end of the day, that has been the main end game. to sow enough seed of doubt and to create a ground swell among certain quarters across the country in the idea that this system was so rigged and it was so well-rigged, and so well-coordinated by the democrats and god knows who else, that, you know, he could create this narrative that will sustain him beyond his days in the white house. that's what this is about at this point. this is about ginning up the kind of momentum he wants to carry with him out of the white house to then be able to sit on the sidelines and rant and rave in his underwear at joe biden while he has a sick fansycophan chorus behind him.

it is dangerous. it is problematic for joe biden for certain, but this is the end game here. it's not about the court victories or losses so much as it is what he's now been able to do with a significant number of americans believing that this election was rigged. >> well, perhaps there's more beyond the fact that this image this early in the morning is nauseating. kasie hunt, you know, the republicans who are quiet, not publicly respecting the outcome of the election, and respecting joe biden as the president-elect. basically kind of complicit in what appears to be some sort of pathetic attempted coup by wannabe, a wannabe dictator and that's dangerous. that's not just okay, he's getsing people to get with him on the other side of this. that in itself is dangerous. but then taking it to a whole new level is ted cruz.

offering to prepare arguments before the supreme court. are you hearing any cracks anywhere among these republicans who are complicit? >> reporter: well, first, mika, on the ted cruz question, his services will not needed based on that one-page, one-sentence decision from the supreme court to say, no. there's no merit here. we're simply not going to do this. cruz offered to do it. there it son the screen. simple. he offered to do it because rudy guiliani got sick with coronavirus, so he said, i'll step in. the reality, this another example of republicans doing one thing in private and saying something else in public, because if you talk to them privately, and if you look at the actions that they're taking behind the scenes, they all know full well that joe biden is going to be inaugurated on january 20th. they have to make decisions about, what are they going to say about joe biden's cabinet

picks? they want to have influence over that. so they're talking about that. they are planning the inauguration. there have been meetings held this week at the capitol because of top four congressional leaders, they are you involved in a massive event undertaken every four years, they have to get together, put that together, but there was a push from steny hoyer, democratic leader in the house, who wanted everyone to go on the record saying this was going to be joe biden. republicans refused to do it. well, we're going to plan what we're planning as always, but, again, it was making that public statement that was the problem, and i mean, it's -- it's just -- everyone knows how washington works. they all know he's going to be the president, but they won't say it. and that is, i think, to your point. it's going to let donald trump, you know, we saw that rally in georgia where he has this "stop the steal" message. it effectively hands him a

campaign-style message to use for how much long he wants to for whatever purposes he wants to going forward, and it casts a lot of doubt on the institutions we rely on to keep our government functioning and keep faith in frankly in our democracy. >> just ahead, we'll tell you about the new lawsuit from the texas attorney general asking the supreme court to invalidate election results in michigan, georgia, pennsylvania and wisconsin, a move critics are calling a publicity stunt that plays into all of this. we'll get to that in just a moment. but first we want to update everybody on consider the coronavirus stands right now. the u.s. is inching closer towards approval for a coronavirus vaccine. according to documents published by the fda the vaccine made by pfizer and biontech provides strong protection against covid-19 within about ten days of the first dose. the finding is one of several

significant new results foochered in the briefing materials which include more than 100 pages of data analyses from the agency and from pfizer. fda scientists found that the vaccine was 95% effective at preventing illness after two shots, spaced three weeks apart. what's more, the vaccine worked well regardless of a volunteer's race, weight or age. the fda is expected to decide on whether to authorize pfizer's vaccine within days. yesterday the uk began mass inoculations with the vaccine based on its approval emergency use. >> however, nbc news has obtained the latest white house coronavirus task force report, which warrants this -- "the current vaccine implementation will not substantially reduce viral spread, hospitalizations or fatalities until the 100 million americans with co-morbidities can be fully immunized, which

will take until the late spring." the report also stresses the current surge is the most rapid transmission with more than 2,000 counties in covid-19 red zones and the longest duration of rapid increase. bring in director of the precision vaccines program at boston's children's hospital and professor of pediatrics at harvard medical school, and "morning joe's" chief medical correspondent dr. dave campbell. good morning to you both, doctors. and dr. levy, begin with you on the vaccine news. first of all, people you're talking to in your community and your world, how soon do you think shots will go into arms here for the earliest candidates for the vaccine? >> well, let's take a step back. tomorrow is an important day, because it's going to be the meeting of the vaccines and related bio logics committee, i'm a temper member on and we will deliberate about an emergency use authorization

recommendation to the food and drug administration. the leader of the "operation warp speed" has said that if in way this is issued, as expected, then doses can begin to be shipped conceivably within 24 to 48 hours. it's a huge operational hurdle, but those are the statements that have been made. and as you know, many states have already designated health care workers, elderly individuals and nursing homes as two priority populations they may start with. >> so, okay. that's obviously a critical meeting tomorrow. do you see any road blocks there in that meeting? is there a chance, for example, you won't get that emergency use authorization that so many people are expecting? >> well, you know, as committee members, we're supposed to take a sober stance. read all the briefing documents, which are publicly available on the fda website. i'd like to commend our government for a transparent process. if you look at vaccines

available around the world, not every country has a process as transparent as ours and so we've been reviewing these documents to two things. safety, efficacy of the vaccine and also if an eua is issued what are the next steps for employs the vaccine and gathering more information how the vaccine functions in special populations of pregnancy, how long does the protection last? what about pediatrics? so there are many dimensions that are still unanswered, but the data thus far looks like a huge win. very positive. and we will deliverate tomorrow and discuss in a serious way if the eua moves forward, which looks likely, then many other questions need to be answered and to what additional information is important to collect. >> as you know, kevin concern i last couple of days about geing enough. did the white house order enough

vaccines to get to people as many as possible as quickly as possible to get our arms around this perhaps by next summer. what's your view on that? is there enough of the vaccine if approved to get it to everyone who needs it? >> you know, tremendous resources have been put forward to try to scale the production as rapidly as possible. that's really a question for the sponsor which is pfizer. they're the ones who will be manufacturing and scaling it, and so i don't know the details of exactly how many doses will be available when, although i've seen speculation it won't be as fast as, of course, we'd love to see it happen. >> yeah. that's something dr. dave has been looking into. by the way, president trump held a congratulatory summit to tout u.s. progress on coronavirus vaccine production. it should be noted that two leading developers of covid-19 vaccines, pfizer and moderna did not attend. in the midst of damning reports that his administration passed

on acquiring millions of additional doses of pfizer's vaccine, trump signed an executive order demanding that pharmaceutical companies prioritize americans over other countries and threatened to invoke the defense production act. a move that top "operation warp speed" scientists says he couldn't quite explain. meanwhile, former fda commissioner and current pfizer board member scott gottlieb told cnbc yesterday the trump administration turned down pfizer's offer for an additional 100 million covid vaccine doses last summer. the claim backs an initial report by the "new york times" that the trump administration passed on a chance to secure more of the vaccine from the manufacturer. >> pfizer did offer an additional allotment coming out of that plant basically the second quarter allotment to the united states government, multiple times. as recently as after the interim

data came out and we knew this vaccine looked to be effective. i think they're betting that more than one vaccine's going to get authorized and there will be more vaccines on the market and perhaps could be why they didn't take up that additional 100 million option agreement, which wouldn't necessarily required them to front money. >> it's worth noting that pfizer's vaccine development efforts weren't part of the government's "operation warp speed" program. the company says that it has "never taken any money from the u.s. government or from anyone." instead pfizer plowed $2 billion of its own money into the project. again, not taking help from "operation warp speed." dr. dave, i'm looking at a headline about a maine teenager dieing by suicide after struggling to cope with the pandemic. there are so many different casualties of this pandemic

including the length of time that people have been socially distancing or isolated or alone, and the timing of this vaccine, it's not going to be -- it's not just going to all miraculously go away in the spring. can you explain the different phases and the supply issues? >> absolutely. what we see now is that the number of doses will be a bit less than we had all hoped for early on, and we have just turn ed from some of the reasons for that. end of december rolls around, we will be seeing the vaccines, assuming that it gets approved tomorrow, which from all sources suggests that it will. we will see vaccines in arms certainly by end of the year, because if for no other reason, this vaccine, once it's supplied and opened, and it has about five-day shelf life, to be able

to be intact and not have the mrna degrade. so you have to use the vaccination material quickly once it's opened. and as it's supplied across the country, a day after it is approved, you would anticipate that middle to late december you're going to see vaccines going into arms. but we will see a rollout of the number of doses available week by week by week as the production increases and in the distribution chains kicking into gear, and we're all excited. we're all expecting to see health care workers especially starting with emergency room staff, icu staff, we're excited to see long-term care facility residents and the staff start to get vaccinated early into the first part of next year, but we do know that by all accounts it's going to be late spring

before we see all those that want to be vaccinated vaccinated, and all those that have the underlying health conditions that put them at heightened risk for severe covid also be vaccinated. >> so dr. dave, talk about right now. the u.s. just recorded its highest weekly covid-19 death toll, experiencing a surge right now. is this thanksgiving and -- are we going to go, start to sort of peaking and the numbers start to go down and what are we looking ahead at? >> mika, there are some states that surprisingly are showing a slight decline in the midwest and other states, alabama, florida, georgia, they're surging back up. so it's kind of this interesting balance that we're seeing where some areas of the country go up. others go slightly down, but we haven't really seen the thanksgiving surge kick in. we're just starting to see some

upticks from our reporting to suggest that that's going to happen. so watch closely over the next week or two to see what happens to these numbers, based on all of the travel and all of the indoor accommodations and activities that took place over thanksgiving, and don't forget, it's cold. down here in florida, it's cold. thanksgiving is over. christmas holidays are coming. there's going to be a lot of indoor activities and this virus spreads indoors more than any other place, mika. >> yeah. like wildfire. kasie hunt? >> so, mika, we had news developing overnight from uk regulators. they're now warning people that have a history of significant allergic reactions and saying they shouldn't get the pfizer biontech coronavirus vaccine. this coming after two national health staff members there yesterday had allergic reactions

after receiving the pfizer vaccine. they both reportedly had a significant history of allergic reactions, and said to be recovering now. uk medical officials issued the precautionary advice that anyone who's had a history of significant allergic reactions to medicine, food or vaccines should not get this shot. and doctor, i wondered what your take was on this news here? these reports indicating these are people that typically carried epipen shots with them. people who knew they might have reactions to things? but obviously, sure to spark some concern among people. what's your take on this news? >> thank you for that, and that's news for me as well. so thank you. i think we're going to need to scrutinize the details of who were these individuals who had an apparent reaction. was the reaction ascribable to the vaccine? you seemed to mention these are people with significant allergies who carried an epipen.

again, i have to look at all the details, but it doesn't sound like people who just had a seasonal allergy or something like that. we have to be very careful being precise medically in our messaging. i saw a headline you guyed showed earlier in the segment talking about a single dose being protected. it is true that the briefing documents suggest that there's some protection after the first dose, but this is a two-dose vaccine at this point. i would not encourage messaging to say that this is a single-shot protection. there's some protection after one dose, but the study was not designed to evaluate protection after only a single dose. and so it's important to get that messaging correct and it will be an operational challenge getting two doses into hundreds of millions of people. >> doctors, thank you both for being on this morning. and still ahead on "morning joe," the reverend al sharpton and head of the naacp derek

johnson on their meeting with the president-elect amid calls for more diversity at the top of his administration. and more on the efforts to get the courts to overturn the election as we mentioned. the latest attempt comes from texas trying to block biden's wins in four battleground states. you're watch wering "morning joe." we'll be right back. ♪ ♪ experience the power of sanctuary at the lincoln wish list sales event. sign and drive off in a new lincoln with zero down, zero due at signing, and a complimentary first month's payment. with zero down, zero due at signing, you can do better, steve! get a freshly made footlong, from subway®! you can even order on the subway® app!

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the board just rejected a republican challenge to joe biden's election win in pennsylvania. they will not interfere or interpret on that. it stands as-is. this was one of the last and final tries, if you will. some calling it illegal to reverse the election outcome as we knew it by calling into question the 20 electoral votes awarded in that state for joe biden. on the supreme court, they've take an look at the request on

the part of republicans to challenge that, to re-examine that. it has rejected that. the win stands. joe biden now clearly the president-elect of the united states. >> fox news's neil cavuto with that coverage of the development that the supreme court refused to take up one of the president's challenges to the election. meanwhile, texas attorney general ken paxton is petitions the u.s. supreme court to invalidate the election results in four battleground states won by joe biden based on allegations that have already been debunked. paxton is challenging the results in michigan, georgia, wisconsin and pennsylvania, and is asking the supreme court to order legislatures to pick their states electors. michigan attorney general dana nessel, a democrat, called the ax "a publicity stunt," and we

will have the attorney general as our guest next hour. paxton alleges without evidence that there were 80,000 forged signatures on absentee ballots in georgia. nearly half of georgia senate republicans are backing the texas lawsuit along with both of georgia's republican candidates in the january 5th senate runoff. senators david perdue and kelly loeffler released a joint statement that reads in part -- we fully support president trump's legal recourses and attorney general paxton's lawsuit. this isn't hard and it isn't partisan. it's american. no one should ever have to question the integrity of our election system and the accountability of its outcomes. wisconsin attorney general josh kahl a democrat said i feel sorry for democrats that their tax dollars are being wasted on

a genuinely embarrassing lawsuit, the statement from loeffler and perdue, the election votes have been counted three times and certified's three times. and ned fully joins us, nbc news election analyst. ned, good to see you. go back to the texas lawsuit from the attorney general here. what exactly is he alleging and does this strike you in any universe as something the supreme court might take up? >> no. the supreme court i do not think will take this up, and the allegations as you said are a repeat of allegations made in different courts and in each of these four states. i think the supreme court will view this lawsuit as even more political in nature than some of the other litigation, and, therefore, inappropriate for a court of law to handle. so i expect that it will be rejected quickly. >> what did you make of the rejection yesterday in one simple sentence from the united

states supreme court of the pennsylvania republican lawsuit? effectively dismissing it out of hand with in descents noted? >> exactly as you said. it was a signal that all nine justices believed that that lawsuit had no merit whatsoever, and, again, i think this new lawsuit from texas will meet a similar fate. >> michael steele is here with a question for you. michael? >> sure. ned, you know, the legal, the legal side of this is one thing, but how -- how does the courts look at this? it appears that, you know, what they're trying to do is achieve a political result through the courts. is that what's going to drive a lot of this when it gets up before the justices? just as we saw the rejection last evening that they see this and say, wait a minute. this is a political battle. why are you drawing us into this ja and contrast this to the decision in 2000? you hear a lot of people saying that the court should take the

same steps it too inco s is it . it just affirmed the result, if i'm not mistaken, though. >> an important point. in 2000, the bush verse gore lawsuit looked more like a conventional voting case. you had those hanging chads, and had you to ask whether similar voters should be treated similarly, depending whether they lived in palm beach, florida, or miami, florida. for the u.s. supreme court to decide the equal protection issue there was more in character with what the courts normally do. this is very different. this is one state, the state of texas, trying to come in and tell four other states how they're supposed to go about their business appointing their own electors. it goes much more to the heart of the political system how we elect presidents and how each state participates in the electoral college. i think the supreme court will view this very differently from

that bush versus gore case 20 years ago. >> hmm. and arizona's supreme court rejected the republican effort to overturn the state's election results, and affirmed president-elect biden's victory. the head of the gop in arizona had filed a lawsuit seeking to have a judge void over 10,500 biden votes in the state. but arizona's supreme court upheld the lower court's finding that there was no misconduct, fraud or illegal voting in last month the presidential election. another election lawsuit is pending in federal court against arizona's republican governor and secretary of state, alleging, "massive election fraud" and calling for voting machines to be seized. in response, the secretary of state's lawyer called the allegation "dystopian fiction." and then there is this -- a tweet by arizona republican, by the arizona republican party,

asking supporters if they were willing to give their lives in the fight over election results. early tuesday morning the party retweeted a post from right wing activist ali alexander he says "i am willing to give my life for this fight." adding, "he is." "are you?" the governor bebrebutted that saying the party is the constitution of rule of law we public size safety law and order and respect the law enforcement officers who keep us safe. we don't burn stuff down. we don't build things up, but, michael steele, you know -- and they were supposed to -- put it this way. that is -- on par with some other extremely disturbing things that we have seen,

laughing nervously, both of us, over the past weeks and months. i would put this in line with people who choose to go to spoou superspreader events and choose to endanger the lives of themselves and their family to support this president's vain election overthrow it attempt in georgia last saturday. my god what does that line sound like to you, in that tweet? >> well, you know, i think, ali, the author of that tweet, can do stupid all by him or herself pup don't need to drag me into your stupid. i'm not -- i'm not giving up my life for some donald trump mess. are you kidding me? but it speaks to the gravity of this and everything we've been talking about, mika, just drills down to an underlying, coarse reality that this attitude and approach by this president and

sis sick phycophantic leaders i house or the senate could lead to people doing things that are rash, irrational, and very dangerous, and so, you know, to the point that was made in response by the governor, this is so far afield of anything that our democracy is about. that this republic stands for. and so if ali wants to sit in a corner and sniff glue and go to the netherworlds, do that on your own, but don't send out a tweet which is, this declarative call to this kind of stupid action. no one's willing to give their lives for anything associated with donald trump. at least no one who has common sense, but, again, that's what trump, going back to what i said before, mika, this is what trump likes. he loves this kind of negative pulsating energy that's rising

around the country, and he does everything in his power to stoke it as opposed to diminish it, and we should be concerned about that and speak against it. >> absolutely. and, willie, i mean, these moments parallel some of our worst phases in world history. how about if i put it that way? and these republicans from the senate, from the house and in state legislators right down to this guy who has a platform, they're going to be remembered as people who tried to destroy democracy. when history looks back on it, and that's pretty, pretty clear. i mean, you are not in line with the joy and the value and the principles of american democracy when you talk like that. >> yeah. i mean, as michael said. this could be squashed easily. could have been squashed a long time ago by president trump. everyone follows this lead. he's chosen in stead to elevate these claims shot down again and again and again in court that are not true that are not real, but 74 million people voted for him and perhaps 74 million

people are listening to him and believing that, and these wild ideas are finding official sanction. that was the arizona republican party. remember, rudy guiliani's press conference with the hair dye? that was at the rnc headquarters in washington. it's not like they're out there on their own on a limb making wild claims. the veaziness has the sanction of the republican party, it has the sanction of the president of the united states and the tacit sanction of most republican senators who have not stood up and said anything. ned foley, before you go, i put to you, is there anywhere left in the courts for the trump team to go here, having won one case out of about 50? they're going to continue to throw this stuff against the wall, tie up the courts. we've seen judges becoming increasingly lly impatient wit claims produced without evidence. what else can the trump campaign do legally here? just keep at it and keep banging their heads against the wall?

>> i think that's, you put it well. they may file more lawsuits but they're frivolous and not going to affect the outcome. president-elect biden will be inaugurated on january 20th. on monday, the electoral college will officially meet and officially vote. its electoral votes. those votes go to congress, and there's a meeting of congress on january 6th, which will affirm the outcome of the election. so i think the move will leave the courtroom and move first to the state capitols next week and eventually to congress. >> all right. chairman constitutional law at the ohio state university, ned foley. thank you very much for being on this morning. and coming up, we'll take a look where coronavirus relief negotiations stand on capitol hill as the white house makes a new offer to democrats. plus, president-elect joe biden continues to add to his cabinet. we'll get jonathan lemire's

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46 past the hour. jonathan lemire, your report on president-elect joe biden's picks. in the past 24 to 36 hours impressive positions filled? >> that's right, mika. president-elect biden has really accelerated the pace of filling out his west wing and his cabinet. i'm here in wilmington, delaware covering if. yesterday official announcement of, indeed, as you said, health secretary certain generals and other members of his response team to covid-19 as president trump has largely abandoned his efforts to stop the fight, stop the spread of this pandemic. joe biden is trying to send signals to the american people that, look, help is on the way. here is my team of competent officials to lead that charge.

today holding yore news conference this afternoon to officially announce intention to nominate his secretary of state. retired general lloyd austin, receiving criticism from both sides. particularly democrats as there are concerns there is a line blurring between the military and the use of civilian head of the defense department. austin, retired general only out four years aopposed to the mandatory seven. he, like james mattis before him needs a waiver from congress to accept that post, and there are some including on members of biden's other party expressing skepticism off that, feel reluctant on that pick. that also a historic choice, must be known. the first black head of the pentagon. there's, that is, biden's pick here comes amid, against a backdrop of a real push for diversity among his selections. you mentioned he met with reverend sharpton and other civil rights leaders yesterday. who made their case for a cabinet that looks like america.

also made clear according to a person familiar with that meeting that chicago mayor rahm emanuel is an unacceptable choice because of his leadership of a police shooting of a black man in chicago a few years ago. we did see representative marcia fudge, a black woman, made clear she will head the housing urban department, which will be a significant role for her, one that a number of biden's allies including representative clyburn, pushing for her to have a role in his team, yet it also comes as he tries to balance efforts to indeed diversify his team. pay a nod to the coalitions that helped him get elected and also instinct to surround himself with a familiar of longtime allies. we're seeing that reported from secretary offing issing is tom vilsack who also is going to be joining the team. >> hmm. rejoining, in a way. i want to talk about attorney

general bill barr obviously pushed boundaries of our principles and the constitution many times during the trump presidency during his. i as attorney general. an important pick. who's in play? in play? >> extremely important pick. a lot of scrutiny on this choice. what we've been reporting is that biden narrowed down his list to a few contenders. right now alabama senator doug jones, outgoing senator doug jones is near the top of the list as a leading contender. he has a background with civil rights cases, a long-time friend of joe biden's. merrick garland, a district judge, a name that viewers know. he was president obama's supreme court pick in 2016, who was refused a hearing by republicans. garland is very much on the short list now. he's gained momentum in recent days according to our reporting. and also sally yates, who used to be the acting attorney

general under president trump, but there are concerns growing because of the role she played in the russia investigation. biden is extremely fond of yates according to people we talked to around him but recognizes it would be a tough road for her to achieve confirmation against republicans who will allege wrongdoing in the origins of the russia probe. this is still a fluid situation, it's an extremely important job. we expect a decision to be made at any time from the president-elect. >> we'll have more on these picks coming up with the reverend al sharpsharpton. the trump administration threw another option on the table yesterday, making a 9$916 billion offer to democrats that has the support of senate majority leader mitch mcconnell. the proposal came after democrats rejected mcconnell's attempt to narrow the scope of the relief and to exclude both assistance to state and local governments that's favored by

democrats and liability protections which are favored by republicans. the president's plan eliminates the $300 per week in unemployment insurance found in the bipartisan bill. democrats say that's a nonstarter. joining us now is senior writer at politico, jake sherman, he's an msnbc political contributor. we have the bipartisan 9$908 billion, the new one from the white house. there's a lot of talk about things getting done. we had joe manchin and chris coombs on her yesterday saying something will get done, but are we closer to a deal? >> no. i will say this, though, so let's just take a step back. yesterday mitch mcconnell tried to remove the contentious issues from the table. so democrats want state and local funding, republicans don't.

republicans want liability overhauled, democrats are opposed to that. he said let's deal with those later. let's deal with the things we agree on. democrats said no. this deal that steve mnuchin put on the table, while it doesn't have anything that democrats want, is the broad outline of a deal that both sides could get around. yes. the unemployment insurance is lower than it probably should be according to most democrats. but this is a negotiation, right? so the democrats can come back and say, no, we don't want x, we want x plus 500. then you're on the brink of a deal. you really are. here's what i would say now. this bipartisan group, god bless them, democrats and republicans in a room talking about covid relief, it's -- time is very short. if they want a deal, the leadership, nancy pelosi and mitch mcconnell need to get into a room and work something out because time is very short and people really need assistance. it's not only new money, it's

programs are expiring, very critical unemployment programs have expired or are expiring. ppp, this program that kept businesses open. bipartisan program is done, needs to be refreshed, renewed. there's a lot on the line here. not much time left. >> casey, are the people you cover every day, you and jake both on capitol hill, prepared to go back and face voters and say sorry, we couldn't get anything done over the last six, seven months. >> that's exactly what i was going to say listening to jake talk about that. no is the answer. going home the day after christmas these benefits many of them expire? going home and trying to explain to people why that is? people are hanging on by their fingernails, by the skin of their teeth. they have been making it work for all of this time. if this goes away, you know, economists, people in both parties recognize and i think

the way that we talk about this is important. it is a relief package. it's not a stimulus, it's not as though they're adding things into the economy. they're trying to patch holes. it's a much different thing. jake, one thing i wanted to underscore and to get your take on is this question about direct checks. because as you outlined, there's this complicated calculus between okay, they don't want president trump to blow it up. mitch mcconnell wants to do what the president wants to do. mcconnell's priority is liability. he said i'll take that off the table if democrats take their top priority off the table. democrats didn't go for that. you have this back and forth. but for people who are looking for a check in the mail, the president wants to put his name on those checks, there are people like republican josh holley in the senate who want to do that. what's your sense on if this will end up in the bill? i don't think democrats will go

for checks at the expense of unemployment insurance. do you think they can find a compromise on that? >> i do. i don't think it's far off, kasie. we reported yesterday, i believe, that mitch mcconnell was softening. he was coming around to the idea of direct payments in the bill. nancy pelosi is for them. chuck schumer is for them. the matrix i see is state and local and liability ride together and everything else is in the mix separately, right? so there's -- i don't see in my estimation any sort of compromise that would sub out direct payments and unemployment but direct payments are now firmly in the mix because the white house put it in. and that's important. democrats, there's a theory out there, and you've heard this undoubtedly, among republicans on capitol hill that nancy pelosi and chuck schumer didn't want a check with donald trump's name on this. at this point who cares? if you're a democrat, just get

these checks out the door. but i agree with you, they can't sub out some of these unemployment insurance programs for direct checks. i don't think -- i just think that would be a trade off that is a little bit hard for them to swallow. >> jake, you've been bringing us great political morning polls every week. i've been scrolling through the latest one. a number that jumps out to me is the number of republicans who believe donald trump when he says he will run again in 2024. >> yeah. 76% say it's likely. i can tell you, if you polled the white house and trump's orbit it would be closer for what drem democrats believe th republicans believe. i want to bring up one more quick poll number. on the issue of pardons, we asked whether people believe they will be doing them for the good of the country or for his

own benefit. 23% say for the good of the country. 55% say for his own benefit. as we've discussed, the president is considering pardoning much of his immediate family. obviously they have not been accused of crimes or indicted in any way, shape or form, but that's a telling, i would say, poll number. >> also raising money from his supporters like he wants to run again, but we'll see. >> jake, thank you very much. michael steele, what do you make of that question, 76% of republicans believe donald trump when he says he'll run again in 2024. democrats, 47%. he's been floating it out there of people that we still talk to who are around him, they are skeptical he'll run for president. >> i'm skeptical about his actual getting in the ring in 2024. i see his noise now much more of a place holder, freezing any

potential field. just to let people know, i'm still the big dog, you have to deal with me. i'm not going anywhere. but that 76% does say a lot and affirms a lot about the grip of this president on the republican party at large that a lot of republicans still see him as the go-to. that benefits whatever narrative donald trump wants to take with him outside of the white house. so it is something that the josh holleys, the marco rubios will have to contend with. they'll walk a fine line with that 76% of republicans who, you know, want donald trump, you can presume from that they want donald trump to run in 2024. and their own presidential desires and how they navigate that and what do they say when asked about donald trump and his four years as president.

>> michael steele, thank you. we're just about to hit the top of the hour now. 7:00 on the east coast. with us, we have former u.s. senator now an nbc news and msnbc political analyst, claire author of the book "begin again" eddie glaude jr. joins us. and peter baker. we will start with the coronavirus. the u.s. is inching closer towards approval for a coronavirus vaccine. according to documents published by the fda, the vaccine made by pfizer and biontech provides strong protection against covid-19 within about 10 days of the first dose. the finding is one of several significant new results featured in briefing materials which include more than 100 pages of

data analysis from the agency and from pfizer. fda scientists found the vaccine was 95% effective at preventing illness after two shots spaced three weeks apart. what's more, the vaccine worked well regardless of a volunteer's race, weight or age. the fda is expected to decide on whether to authorize pfizer's vaccine within days. yesterday the uk began mass inoculations with the vaccine based on its approval of emergency use. >> nbc news obtained the latest white house coronavirus task force report which warns the current vaccine implementation will not substantially reduce viral spread, hospitalizations or fatalities until the 100 million americans with comorbidities can be fully immunized which will take until the late spring. that's from the task force. that report stresses the current surge is the most rapid increase

in cases, the widest spread of intense transmission with more than 2,000 counties in covid-19 red zones and the longest duration of rapid increase. let's bring in president and ceo of biontech technology innovation organization. dr. michelle mcmurray heath. let's start with the vaccine. we have the fda hearing tomorrow. could be that emergency use authorization, have shots in arms within 24 to 48 hours afterwards. do you see this proceeding as planned? >> yes. all indications are incredibly strong and good. we got our first glimpse at the actual data yesterday from the front-runner pfizer covid vaccine, it was incredibly promtipro promising. not only an incredibly high efficacy of 95%, but it performed just as well in all racial and ethnic groups, all age groups and those with other

pre-existing conditions. and that it had very safe safety profiles. it had very low rates of adverse events. this is all incredibly promising. it's wonderful we have this process of a public advisory committee meeting thursday at fda which will really allow the whole public to see the data firsthand and to question the scientists. >> let's as a practical question walk through how this might look. assume you get the emergency use authorization after the fda hearing tomorrow. the shots go in friday or saturday, how soon do we start to see these large numbers of people who need it most early on getting the shots and getting that second dose as well? >> everyone is wasting no time. we've been in contact with governors across the country and they are knee deep in their preparations for logistically distributing the vaccine. the vaccine is being put in place across the country. so once authorization is put in place, once the centers for

disease control and prevention meet this weekend as well to just double check their prioritization policies, the governors and states will start administering the vaccine to the two groups at this point who have been prioritized, that's health care workers and those residents in long-term health facilities. >> so what does that mean for basic lifestyle changes for the american people who have been living in isolation or dealing with this pandemic for so many months. this sounds to me like a multi-phase process to normalcy again. whatever that new normal may be. when do you think the vaccine will cover the country? >> we are not at the end of this incredible process yet. it's important that even remember our public health guidelines are still our best protection. stay home. don't travel, use social distancing. wear your masks because this is

all still incredibly important. it's unlikely that we will see vast vaccinations of the general population until about the spring of 2021. so this is -- we still have a long way to go. we're in the 20-yard line, but we have a long way to go before we're actually able to put this scourge behind us. right now follow your public health leaders advice, follow your doctor's advice, be patient and protect yourselves and your families. >> dr. michelle mcmurray-heath -- >> sorry, just wanted to let folks want, if they want more data about the vaccine and more information about how it works, the biotechnology innovation organization launched a website complete with partners called covidvaccinefacts.org where you can get commonsense information about how the vaccine works and when it will be available to you. >> covidvaccinefacts.org.

thank you very much. peter baker now, you wrote the split screen piece we were talking about at the top of the show that we saw yesterday. the split screen. your headline is "two presidents, two messages, one killer virus." and we put together an example of exactly what you meant. take a look. >> all i can tell you is the truth. we're in a very dark winter. things may well get worse before they get better. >> you do have an immunity. you develop immunity over a period of time. i hear we're close to 15%. that's terrific. that's a powerful vaccine in itself. and just tremendous progress has been made. >> a vaccine may soon be available. we need to level with one another. it will take longer than we would like to distribute it to all corners of the country. >> this will quickly and dramatically reduce deaths and hospitalizations within a short

period of time. i think we want to get back to normal. >> we need your help. wear a mask for just 100 days. it's the easiest thing you can do to reduce covid cases, hospitalizations and deaths. >> the cdc puts out their guidelines, very important guidelines, but i think the vaccine was our goal. that was number one because that was the way -- it was the way it ends. >> peter baker, i want to hear more about your reporting on this split screen, but also to point out the president also went on and on yesterday with operation warp speed behind him. it was a coronavirus briefing about his election results and trying to get people on the supreme court or somebody to help overturn the election. but also you see how delivering the realistic outlook on this virus is difficult. we have a long road ahead of us,

peter. >> that's right. the vaccine is exciting. it's a big achievement. it's something he wants to take credit for. you can understand that because it's been a pretty bad year for him when it comes to coronavirus news. but the idea that the vaccine means this is all basically over, which is sort of the message he's conveying there is not true. the doctor just said it will take a long time until we get there. there's a lot of mystery between now and then. at the rate we're seeing deaths each day, we could see another 95,000, 97,000 deaths. that's a lot of death. that's before we begin getting that vaccine out to the ordinary public. we'll start as we just said with the high risk population and the front line health care workers. what the president is not doing is telling americans what they should do in the meantime. while we're waiting for this vaccine to be distributed, he's not communicating the message about what they should do to curb the spread of this.

that's what biden is talking about. biden is talking in darker terms, obviously not putting nearly as much emphases on the vaccine but the near-term, the next few hyundai undred days an americans can do until we get that inoculation. >> mike barnicle, it's not just the actual suffering and actual deaths from the virus itself, but the many months of isolation that people have been living in. the people whose businesses and lives have collapsed. the people who have become homeless due to this pandemic and referring to a headline from the state of maine where a 16-year-old boy committed suicide. his parents say it was due to the pandemic and the length of it. the length of the isolation. this is muis multi dimensional the president -- the current

president peares it down to the good news he can parse or steal from the drug companies. >> yeah. you know, mika, what the country and the people of this country have endured now for nine no months, ten months is an incredible weight, a burden we all carried, some more than others as it always is. the -- that leads to the idea that, you know, kasie was talking about it, willie was talking about it earlier, how can the united states senate and the united states house of representatives go home for christmas and leave so many americans in peril? economic peril, physical peril, people who have not worked, millions who have been jobless, millions more who are fearful of losing whatever small elements of normal life that they have. to go home without passing an extension of the c.a.r.e.s. act

is just horrific to think about. talk about dropping your duty. this is the ultimate definition of it. peter baker, your piece eluding quite correctly to the two didn't versions of a presidency that we're all witnessing, let me ask you this. one of the most important components of the transition, and the transition team dealing with it, i've been told repeatedly, is getting a handle on the logistics of the distribution of the vaccine. so my question to you given your knowledge of the internal workings of the white house, is there anybody left at the white house for the biden transition team to sit and deal with getting a definition and an outline of exactly what the logistics are and will be? >> i think you're beginning to see that. just yesterday president-elect biden announced his own medical team which will include dr. fauci, not only in his current capacity at the nih, from where

he has been an adviser to president trump and a half dozen presidents before, and a new title of chief medical adviser to the president. i think you're already seeing him talk with dr. fauci. you're seeing the teams begin to consult with what president-elect biden said yesterday, that they got a look at the trump logistics plan, their concern is while there will be a quick burst of a lot of doses getting out there in the initial period, there may be a lag afterwards. there's not enough production of these new vaccines ready to go after we get past the initial few million, couple tens of millions hopefully health care workers and older and more vulnerable americans. that lag time, that delay will only push then every-day americans access to this vaccine into the spring. so they are looking at the trump administration plan, looking at what they want to do with it once they take control on january 20th.

this divergent message is extraordinary in a transition period. we are in a crisis moment when the country literally sees thousands of people dying every day. you see therefore a new president trying to assert some moral leadership at the least as he's putting together his team to tell the american public, wear a mask, take precautions, take this seriously, the outgoing president would rather talk about the achievement, the success of this vaccine development, which is an achievement worth taking note of. that divergent message in this moment is something we have not seen in our lifetime. >> claire, as we talk about this covid relief legislation and there's a bunch of proposals on the table now, including a new one that secretary mnuchin tossed over to nancy pelosi yesterday from the white house, just under a trillion dollars. why does it take a deadline like the holidays? why does it take a deadline like the expiration of these benefits

that so many americans have been counting on for the last six months to get something done here? do you believe as someone who was on the inside and knows just about all the players here, do you believe they will get something done in time for the holidays? >> i think they will. i think mnuchin coming with an offer yesterday was huge. you know, there has -- the first c.a.r.e.s. act, mcconnell kind of set out that whole negotiation. it was done between steve mnuchin and the democratic leaders of congress. mcconnell has been more involved this time around they hit a speed bump and mnuchin comes in with another offer. give credit to steve mnuchin for realizing, okay, we need to put the weight of the white house here to push mitch mcconnell along. the he's got a problem in his caucus, willie. there are republicans in his caucus, believe it or not, that actually think they should do nothing. we have millions of people

facing evictions in january. we have millions of people that can't pay their utility bills. we have a huge economic cliff coming at the end of the year. and the notion that some of these republican senators are being stubborn about any relief is bizarre. that's what mcconnell is trying to manage. i think they'll get a deal. i think it's not going to be perfect, but no deal ever is. but i do think it will get some needed relief to those who are in really economic peril right now facing eviction and utility shutoff and a cold winter. >> in the midst of all of this suffering and trying to muddle through the coronavirus, president trump continues to try and overturn the election that he lost. this effort took another blow yesterday. this time from the supreme court. the high court yesterday declined to take up a republican congressman's request to nullify the certification of joe biden's

win in pennsylvania. the lawsuit claimed the state legislature violated pennsylvania's constitution when it passed a law last year allowing no-excuse voting by mail. the state supreme court had already rejected the claim ruling that the plaintiffs waited too long to challenge the law, which was enacted more than a year ago. the u.s. supreme court did not explain why it was rejecting the claim issuing a one-sentence order that the application was denied with no noted dissents, none at all. texas attorney general ken paxton is petitioning the u.s. supreme court to invalidate the election results in four battleground states won by joe biden. based on allegations that have already been debunked. paxton is challenging the results of michigan, georgia, wisconsin and pennsylvania and is asking the supreme court to

order legislatures to pick their state selectors. joining us now, michigan attorney general dana nessel who called this lawsuit a publicity stunt. more than a publicity stunt, it's so damaging, i feel, to have this happening time and time again. what's the motivation here, though? you call it a publicity stunt. for what? >> i mean, there's been a lot of speculation about the fact that, you know, a.g. paxton is under indictment for security fraud. he's facing potentially a number of other charges. he's being investigated by the fbi. so there's a lot of people who speculated that potentially he's seeking a pardon from the president and trying to ingratiate himself to the president. i have to say, you know, each one of our states, these four states have already handled dozens and dozens of cases filed by the trump campaign or by his

supporters. they have been unsuccessful each and every time. but this is, to me, this post-election process has been like a friday the 13th movie, you know? no matter how many times you shoot jason or you stab jason or you electrocute jason he keeps coming back at you over and over again. he won't stay down. that is what this feels like, but unfortunately it's an incredible waste of state resources for all of our states. these are ridiculous claims. they've all been vetted out in state courts, in federal courts in all of these states. the claims have been debunked time and time again. but it continues to erode peoples faith and confidence in our electoral system. and that's the real damaging and lasting element of this unfortunately. >> yeah. i worry on that last point that you were making, erosion of the

confidence in our government and our constitution and our country, if some of these republicans understand the dangers and risks here. >> well, we're talking about potentially -- if the relief sought was granted, which no one thinks it will be, but we're talking about disenfranchising states that have over 39 million people, over 21 million people in those states voted, and really what a.g. paxton is asking for, which by the way i find so offensive that the texas a.g. seeks to overturn the will of the voters in four other states that he certainly does not represent. but he's essentially asking that these slate of electors for biden in all four of these states where the election that already been certified be instead overturned and that a slate of electors be chosen by

the republican legislators to reflect a trump win. in all four states we know very well that biden won. in my state it was by over 150,000 votes. the vote was not even close. so everything about this lawsuit is egregious and disturbing. at the same time we have to take it seriously from the perspective of the lasting damage that it's doing to our democracy. >> ed ldie glaude, to bring up point joe brought up early on, this is also an effort to disenfranchise the votes of african-americ african-americans. in michigan, it's detroit. in georgia, it's atlanta. in pennsylvania, it's philadelphia. a lot of these voters are african-americans who cast their blots and many of them did it for joe biden. >> yes. look, there's always been a

liberal force in the country that have not been committed to democracy. we need to call it for what it is. these are anti-democratic efforts to not only undermine our electoral process but in some ways empty out the basic principles that inform our democratic way of life. there are people walking around in the united states, in atlanta, in detroit, in philadelphia, and the like who grew up not having the ability to vote. remember, the voting rights act of 1965 in some ways ushered america into a full-blown democracy. my parents grew up in the state of mississippi not being able to vote. this is not some abstract idea here. this is hitting at the heart of liberal practices. part of what we have to grapple with is not only are these frivolous lawsuits, but it's deepening as we've said, deep distrust in the process and in some ways harkening back to those liberal forces that have

always threatened to overwhelm america's democratic commitments. >> it is at this point -- it's getting ridiculous. and i believe the supreme court's reaction to the latest one with one line sort of says that implicitly. so, we will see where they go. i don't know how many more of these we're still waiting on. but at some point joe biden will be the president of the united states and the current president will take this, i guess, to his next act, media empire, whatever else he wants to build and these republicans can join that. but they're not in line -- not in sync with our democracy. willie? >> attorney general nessel i wanted to ask you to take this out of the legal realm and take a bigger look. your secretary of state, jocelyn benson, told the story over the

weekend of being in her home with her 4-year-old, putting up christmas decorations, looking out her window and seeing a group of armed citizens chanting and protesting outside her house. what would be your message, he may be watching, to the president of the united states about turning down the temperature on some of this stuff in that it becomes literally dangerous to many people across this country? >> i agree. it's not only dangerous in the way it's eroding peoples confidence in our electoral system, but it's posing a safety risk to those who administer our elections. like our secretary of state. and, you know, this could all end tomorrow if donald trump did the decent thing and he simply conceded and admitted the fact he lost the election and i think at that point his allies, his

supporters, his sycophants would then follow suit. the and we wouldn't see more of this. if he were to say this is a full, fair, free and accurate election all of this would literally end tomorrow. but instead he, you know, continues to cling to this false narrative and to promulgate this untrue narrative that somehow he was cheated out of the election. as a result his followers feel disenfranchised. they're upset and they're taking actions that are dangerous to public officials. that's why so many public officials are threatened. in the hearings that were held when covid positive rudy giuliani came to our state legislature and tried to offer these claims, his witnesses and his claims were so ridiculous that they were actually parodied

on a sketch on "saturday night live." when is the last time you saw a hearing by a state legislature parodied on an "snl" sketch? that's how ridiculous they are. yet for whatever reason trump and his supporters continue to cling to those baseless claims. and it's really destroying the country. and it is also posing a great security threat to many, many public officials. >> michigan attorney general dana nessel, thank you very much for being on this morning. still ahead on "morning joe," our next guests took part in a virtual meeting with the president-elect yesterday amid calls for more diversity in his cabinet. the reverend al sharpton and the president of the naacp, derrick johnson join us. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. - [announcer] your typical vacuum has bristles that can leave cleaning gaps and wrap hair. so shark replaced them with flexible power fins

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the african-american community stood up again for me. you always have my back, and i'll have yours. i said at the outset i wanted to represent this campaign to represent and look like america. we've done that. now that's what the administration will look like and act like. >> that was joe biden during last month's victory speech after he won the election acknowledging the enormous support he received from the african-american community that helped secure his win. yesterday he met virtually for the first time with civil rights leaders who called on him to remember his commitment to make sure his cabinet is not only diverse but that racial equality remains a top priority. joining us now, two of the men who attended that meeting. president and ceo of the naacp, derrick johnson.

and host of msnbc's "politics nation" president of the national action network, reverend al sharpton. gentlemen, eddie glaude jr. has the first question. >> hi, good morning, everyone. brother derrick, let me ask you this question. there's obviously this demand for more diverse cabinet on the part of the biden/harris administration. how do you all respond to this sort of claim? it's one thing to have black folk in high places, black faces in high places, but we need substantive representation around policies that will actually respond to the conditions of black communities around the country. how might you respond to some skepticism about just simply putting black faces in high places and not really billboarding substantive policy issues to address the condition of black folk around the country in this moment? >> good morning, eddie. great question. that's why at the naacp we are

calling for someone who will be charged for the responsibility to oversee and ensure that this administration has policies that understand racial justice, having a racialized lens so that we can all benefit from the democracy that we celebrate in. you know, there's one thing when you look at hud today, you have an african-american in place, you have an african-american who was part of destroying civil rights protections within the agency. it's not just about the race or ethnic background of the person, it's the character, the policy, the focus around a priority that this president-elect said would be important, racial equity. >> mike barnicle? >> reverend al, you have been a long-time friend of joe biden's and yesterday i'm sure, you know, a lot of progress was made in terms of where we're going as a country together. let me ask you about this one

particular issue, and it's the future of american public education. public schools in this country today are in a crisis. much of it because of the covid and remote learning, which is a disaster. but continually the crisis in american public education falls disproportionately on the poor, the black and the brown young kids in school districts and now faced with losing so much education. just over the last ten months and well into the future. what are their futures in terms of what they lost, what they can offer potentially, what they won't be allowed to offer potentially because of the collective loss and where are we going here? isn't this maybe the most important crisis we can confront as a nation, the crisis in american public education? >> it certainly is if it is not the, it's among the top three.

when you look right now where we are in america, where we have had schools closed, young people told to do their work virtually, yet many minority communities are still in broadband deserts. when we were in the meeting with president-elect biden and vice president-elect harris, we talked about how the education secretary has been devoted to the privatization of education. we're in public education. joe biden and i have agreed and disagreed through the years, but in the eight years that president obama was in, joe biden knows well and we worked together well, even newt gingrich toured with me schools around. it's the people he puts in that

must establish this is what we'll do in education. this is what we'll do in criminal justice. this is what we'll do in environment across the board. and then out of that emerges the person best able to do that, not that we go into personality politics. we're not brokers, we're civil rights leaders, we're not here representing a broker for individual candidates. >> let me ask you about that call yesterday, that zoom meeting you had with joe biden. the question of the attorney general, the leading two names we heard so far are doug jones, the departing senator who was a prosecutor, who prosecuted in birmingham the two klansman and convicted them in the baptist bombing there in 1963, the clurnlg bombi church bombing there, and merrick garland, president obama's pick for the supreme court. what do you make of those two names? >> what i said in the meeting yesterday is that i would prefer a black to be attorney general. i reminded president-elect biden

that when he came to houston the day before george floyd's funeral and he met with the family of george floyd, attorney ben crump and i, when he took george floyd's daughter hand and she said on television "my dad will change the world" he said you're right. your dad will change the world. i say now, mr. president-elect you have the ability to do that. i would prefer a black attorney general. you have qualified people. tony west is qualified. deval patrick is qualified. the leasts you could do shg s have someone who have a civil rights background. we cannot have an attorney general doing civil rights and voting rights with on-the-job training. it doesn't meet the era and it doesn't meet the commitment you made. i think he might have someone with a civil rights background.

my preference is those that i think are qualified to do that that have been in that department and have done that kind of work in the past. >> does doug jones meet that standard? >> i think doug jones could meet that standard. i think tony west meets it. deval meets it. sally yates, some of those there yesterday with us support her. you have some that meet that standard. some blatantly don't. the standard must be who can enforce the policies. george floyd fleecing justice act. dealing with descent decrees canceled under president trump. we are about policy. we're not about people. we don't run peop"people" magaz we run civil rights organizations. >> claire mccaskill given the point that reverend al just made, what do you make of the two top contenders we're hearing about are doug jones and merrick

garland and also to be considered the abusive power and pushing of our norms that we have seen in the relationship between president trump and attorney general bill barr. and really the page we need to turn in that respect. >> there's no question that all of the people being talked about will restore the norm. joe biden repeatedly during the campaign said over and over again it is not a presidential decision as to how the department of justice applies the law, it is a department of justice decision. he will go back to what was the norm and that is a bright line between politics and the rule of law. i think it's really important that reverend al points out that so many of these candidates that are seriously being considered for a.g. do have a civil rights background. and i agree with him. i think that's essential.

derrick, i wanted to ask you about general austin. it is interesting to me, we have a law that says you have to be retired as a general for seven years. he's been retired for four years. and i'm trying to reconcile are we really going to stand on the difference between four and seven years to oppose someone who would lead the department of defense for the first time, an african-american would do that, especially in light of the fact that over 40% of the active military are people of color. talk a little bit about general austin's -- general austin's nomination and how important that is in terms of the leadership of the largest bureaucracy in government. >> well, first of all, he's well-quali well-qualified. there's no question about that. we've seen general matthis receive the waiver.

we have to restore the trust in our armed forces. we watched the president allow a foreign nation take a bounty out on our armed forces overseas serving and protecting us. for many people who grew up in the neighborhood i grew up in, the military was a way to get a healthy start on life. we must make sure we have qualified people like general austin in place over the military. we should not hold hostage his ability to govern in this moment because a waiver that we have seen in recent times be provided. i want to touch on the attorney general position. not only is it important for them to have a civil rights background, it's also important for them to walk in the door day one and restore the confidence of the career doj employees. it's also important for the person to walk in the door day one and have the courage to take on what we have seen over the last four years with the erosion

in the trust in our democracy. it's not enough just to restore the norm. it's much more important to ensure equal protection under the law is asserted for everyone, but also that we go after these domestic terrorists. we have far too many communities across the country who are concerned with individuals who are ready to commit treason, kidnap a governor, go into a synagogue and create a massacre, use facebook as a platform to organize and attack people. we need someone with courage. i like the name tony west. i like the name deval patrick. i like the name sally yates, someone who can walk in the day day one and command the respects of the doj pl jshgj employees a forward. >> some of those scenarios you lay out, they sound -- if we had mentioned this four years ago, we would have laughed out loud saying could this happen? it all has. president and ceo of the naacp,

derrick johnson, and reverend al sharpton, thank you both very much. peter baker, given how vital this choice is for attorney general, and the chals that justice has faced, the department of justice faced over the past three years and in this country with policing, what are you hearing about the direction, in this choice is taking? >> well, i think that's right. the priority that president-elect biden is putting on this pick is somebody who will try to restore a sense that justice is for all and not just based on the color of your skin or the circumstance of your background. obviously there are norms you talked about in terms of the independence and autonomy of the justice department. one thing that's been of concern over the last you to years is the idea that the president would put pressure on the justice department to protect his friends and go after his

enemies. bill barr threw out the case -- tried to throw out the case against mike flynn and reduce the sentence for roger stone, both friends of the president. and shape the public narrative of the mueller report before it was actually released. those suggest the act of somebody who share the president's view at the very least, was loyal to him. that's what president trump wanted. the question is what president-elect biden wants. does he want somebody in there who will take, you know, you could s fray cues from the president or not going after people for political or partisan reasons. >> peter baker, thank you very much for your reporting. coming up, after record high turnout in georgia's presidential election, republican lawmakers in the state are now vowing to limit mail-in voting. we'll talk to the new president

of the freshman class of the house democratic caucus, congresswoman-elect miknikema williams next on "morning joe."

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of a problem. seemingly undoing laws their own party created. the state senate's gop majority released framework yesterday aimed at eliminating no-excuse absentee voting adding a voter i.d. requirement to mail blots for voters with an eligible excuse and eliminating dropboxes. they will vote on the plan after the new year. the same state lawmakers called for an investigation into "any and all fraudulent and for additional audits of the

2020 election. georgia both conducted two recounts of the election. both showed that joe biden won by more than 12,000 votes. joining us now is congresswoman-elect that keep ma williams. she is filling the seat left by the great several rights icon john lewis. welcome back to the show. good to have you on. >> good morning, mika. >> your take on what republicans are trying to do to the voting process in georgia. >> so, mika, this is not something that should surprise any of us because republicans here in georgia have shown us time and time again that more people that look like me show up to vote, they will find a way to do whatever possible to try to suppress our votes and stop us from voting. we see this time and time again. that's how we ended up in this predicament with the dissent decree because of the suppressive tactics for black and brown people in this state.

and so i'm going to congress now thinking that i have an opportunity to equalize what it looks like to vote in this country. my family who lives in rural alabama should have the same access to vote by mail and absentee voting that i have here in have in atlanta. now here we are in georgia looking at steps to roll back voting rights. i am sure congressman lewis is somewhere ready for somebody to get into good trouble over this and i can't wait to get to congress to push back. we need to standardize voting this country. it is absurd in the midst of a global pandemic we have republican lawmakers in georgia talking about rolling back access to voting about i mail and absentee ballots. >> eddie glaude has the next question. >> good morning. i hope you are doing well. >> good morning. >> not only do we hear talk about rolling back mail-in

voting, we also know that they are closing polling stations in and around cobb county. can you talk a little bit about what the republican party in georgia is doing concretely right now that could have an impact on the runoff election come january 5th? >> two things, dr. glaude. we see that in cobb county, other counties are increasing or keeping on par the number of early voting sites that we have for the november elections, the number of drop box locations. cobb county is rolling that number back. our democratic legislative delegation or just the legislative delegation, it just happens to be majority democratic now because we have picked up seats in cobb county, they are pushing back. we are making sure voters understand. it's just the suppression tactics, fear tactics, the investigations, making people feel like they have done something wrong simply by using a drop box, simply by using an absentee ballot or voting by

mail, which they want you to th is two different things. it's the same thing. and so with all of the rhetoric and all of the investigations and saying that people are going go to jail if they register to vote and they are not supposed to, people aren't just moving to georgia to register to vote. these are people who maybe did not register in time for the november election and now they realize how important this is, and so now they are registering to vote. but it's all of the scare tactics, the fear tactics. we might not be counting jelly beans in a jar, but there are voter suppression tactics alive and well in the deep south. >> i am curious how you are viewing turnout on a january 5th runout election. obviously, there was tons of energy in the state of georgia. a lot of the voters came out to vote out donald trump. the votes again, by the way, certified for a third time yesterday. we know three times donald trump lost in the state of georgia. what is turn outlooking like for you? as you know, that's going to be

critical. kelly loeffler and david perdue have said we have to come out to save america from reverend warnock and jon ossoff. what does it look like from the democratic point of view? are you going to get people out on a cold day in january? >> this is all about turn yacht. we know that january 5th is just the last day to vote. early voting starts december 14th and our voters are energized, excited and getting back to the polls. people are asking their absentees ballots because there is holidays in here. people are going to be doing things at home with their families. you're right. the weather is changing. we don't get a lot of cold weather in the south, but it's getting a little nippy out. so people are requesting their absentee ballots. the energy is palpable on the ground. this election, the results that we saw in november weren't just about donald trump. this was about people in georgia

exercising that i power, using their voice to make sure that they are heard in this electoral process. it was never about just donald trump or one election cycle. if you look at the results in georgia, we have been building upon this cycle after cycle is after cycle. we are not going to give donald trump that much power over us. >> claire mccaskill. >> representative williams, congratulations. i know that john lewis is looking down and very proud of you. i wanted to ask you about this senate race and about the attacks on reverend warnock for his sermons at the pulpit. you know, this idea that somehow republicans really respect religion and that they would never try to hold anybody's religious beliefs against them clearly kelly loeffler has one line in her entire campaign, and that is to put down reverend warnock, including him teaching the word of god from the pulpit.

isn't that motivating to many voters in georgia? to get out and vote for reverend warnock? >> senator, it is very motivating. what we saw is kelly loeffler is a hypocrite because she sat in the pulpit behind reverend warnock this year in january for the mlk day holiday celebrations at ebenezer baptist church. she sat there behind him in the same pulpit that she is now criticizing him about, and we know that regardless of who reverend warnock was, what he said in the sermon, it would not matter. the republicans in the state will find something to criticize him about. and so we are continuing to talk to voters. i know the character of reverend warnock. i have attended his service. it became my choice for easter when it was too far to travel back to alabama for my home surge for sunrise services. i am standing with him. georgia voters are stanton with him. and i cannot wait to call him my

u.s. senator. >> any kima williams, thank you very much. great to you have on the show. still ahead, the president has implored the supreme court to help him block joe biden's election win. but when asked to step in, the court declined. and as the u.s. deals with its worst wave of the coronavirus yet, health officials warn that the vaccine, when it's approved, won't have a substantial impact until late spring. "morning joe" is coming right back. oming right back

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we were very, very happy that we were able to get things done at a level that nobody has ever seen before. the gold standard vaccine has been done in less than nine months. >> all i can tell you is the truth. we are in a very dark winter. things may well get worse before they get better. >> you do have an immunity, you develop immunity over a period

of time. i hear we are close to 15%. i am hearing that. and that is terrific. that's a very powerful vaccine in itself and just tremendous progress has been made. >> a vaccine may soon be available. we need to level with one another. it will take longer than we would like to distribute it to all corners of the country. >> this will quickly and dramatically reduce deaths and hospitalizations and within a short period of time i think we want to get back to normal. >> we need your help. wear a mask for just 100 days. it's the izziest thing you can do to reduce hospitalizations and death. >> cdc puts out the very important guidelines, but i think this. i think that the vaccine was our goal. that was number one because that was the way -- it was the way it ends. >> vaccines in a vial only work if they are injected in an arm of people, especially those most at risk. this would be one of the

hardest, the most costly operational challenges in our nation's history. >> the president-elect and the current president both speaking at the exact same time yesterday with very different messages. good morning and welcome to "morning joe." it is wednesday, december 9th. zero has the morning -- joe has the morning off. along with willie we have jonathan lemire, nbc news capitol hill correspondent and host of "way too early" kasie hunt, and former chair of the republican national committee and an msnbc political analyst michael steele is with us. we have a lot of developments on the coronavirus, the u.s. is inching closer towards approval for a coronavirus vaccine, but the white house coronavirus traffic force is out with a stark warning that we are not likely to see a substantial reduction of viral spread, hospitalizations, or fatalities

until late spring. right now the u.s. is in the midst of the fastest, widest, and longest surge of new covid infections yet. meanwhile, yet another member of the president's circle has tested positive for the coronavirus. this time it's his lawyer jenna ellis who attended a white house high-level staffer christmas party on friday. someone pointed out on twitter that there are now more trump attorneys with covid than they have election challenge wins. and that's where i think we will begin this morning. willie. >> yeah, another big blow to president trump's efforts to overturn the election. this time all the way at the top in the united states supreme court. the high court yesterday declined to take up a republican congressman's request to nullify the certification of joe biden's win in pennsylvania. the lawsuit claimed the state legislature violated pennsylvania's constitution when it passed a law last year allowing no excuse voting by

mail. the state supreme court already had rejected the claim, ruling the plaintiffs waited too long to challenge the law, which was enacted more than a year ago. the u.s. supreme court did not explain why it was rejecting the claim, issuing a one-sentence order that the application was denied with no noted dissents. here is what president trump said about his election challenges earlier in the day at that vaccine summit. >> let's see whether or not somebody has the courage, whether it's a legislator or legislatures or whether it's a justice of the supreme court or a number of justices of the supreme court. let's see if they have the courage to do what everybody in this country knows is right. >> jonathan lemire, the supreme court's reply was a one-sentence rejection of that. in the order, let's go through the list of appointees made by president trump who were confirmed. gorsuch, kavanaugh, and of

course amy coney barrett, of course in october was confirmed. there were no noted dissents, which means it was effectively a 9-0 decision here. president trump has a very different understanding of what it means to be on the supreme court than do the justices. he expected payback for their appointments. yesterday they said that's not how it works. >> the president was not shy in the months running up to the election that he anticipated that this -- the outcome would be determined in the supreme court and that he thought that he would win for exactly that within, that the conservatives have a majority and he appointed three justices to the highest bench in the land, including amy coney barrett, which, a nomination rushed through and she took her seat on the bench weeks before americans went to the polls on november 3rd. that is, of course, not what happened yesterday. despite the president's remarks at that operation warp speed event at the white house, despite the president in the

afternoon tweeting out a number of memes about the justices, including amy coney barrett, despite that his allies signaled just yesterday afternoon that they were feeling confident that they were going to get some wins now, that these cases were going to the supreme court, and of course none of that happened. this was a huge setback to an already doomed effort. none of these challenges have amounted to much of anything for the president and his team. as noted, most of his legal team is sidelined with covid-19. these are increasing long shots. they are taking defeats in state after state after state. the only surprise yesterday, frankly, was that the president remains silent after the supreme court's decision. we all were watching his twitter account for angry outbursts at the supreme court and perhaps in particular the three justices he appointed. we know in the past he has been very angry when a kavanaugh or gorsuch, let's say, ruled in a way he didn't like, thinking

they were insufficiently loyal. that hasn't happened yet. it's only matter of time. the white house and the president and his allies are signaling that these legal challenges will continue. we, of course, have the electoral college meeting soon. we have the states congress certifying the election in early january. there will be outbursts and temper tantrums thrown between now and then. that won't take the outcome of the race. joe biden will take office january 20. >> michael steele, they have one victory, trump's team, trump's allies one victory in the last five weeks. it was a procedural win. coming up on 50 losses in states across the country. now an outright rejection at the top of the supreme court. there was all this talk during the confirmation process about amy coney barrett perhaps having some kind of a secret deal with donald trump that just in case he lost the election she would help overturn it. here we are with a chance. not only is the supreme court not going to hear this case. it wanted absolutely nothing to

do with it with no dissents noted in the order. >> willie, here's where we stand, 1 and 50 or 1 and 60, how many cases have gone before various judicial bodies the in last few weeks since the election. but that's not the point. look at what else has happened. out on the streets across the country in neighborhoods that donald trump has a great deal of sway, you have an increasingly riled up base of support for the idea that the president, donald trump, did not lose this election. and at the end of the day, that has been the main end game, to sow enough seed of doubt and to create a groundswell amongst certain quarters across the country in the idea that the system was so rigged and it was so well rigged, so well coordinated by the democrats and god knows who else that, you

know, i could create this -- he could create this native that will sustain him beyond his days in the white house. that is what this is go, beginning up the kind of momentum he wants to carry out of the white house so he will be able to sit on the sidelines and rant and rave in his underwear at joe biden while he has a sick fantic course behind him doing the same. it is a dangerous calculation. it is a problematic one for joe biden for certain. but this is the end game here. it's not about the court victories or losses so much as it is what he is now been able to do with a significant number of americans believing that this election was rigged. >> well, perhaps there is more beyond the fact that that image this early in the morning is nauseating. kasie hunt, you know, the republicans are quiet. not publicly respecting the

outcome of the election and respecting joe biden as the president-elect. basically, complicit in what appears to be some sort of pathetic attempted coup by a wannabe dictator. and that's dangerous. that's not just, okay, he is getting people to get with him on the other side of this. that, in itself, is dangerous. but then taking it to a whole new level is ted cruz offering to prepare arguments before the supreme court. are you hearing any cracks anywhere among these republicans who are complicit? >> well, first, mika, on the ted cruz question, i will say his services are not going to be needed based on that one-page, one-sentence decision from the supreme court to say, no, there is no merit here. we are not -- we are simply not going to do this. cruz offered to do it. there it is on the screen. pretty simple.

he offered to do it because giuliani, the president's lawyer, got sick with coronavirus. so he said, oh, i'll step in. the reality here is that this is another example of republicans doing one thing in private and saying something else in public because if you talk to them privately and if you look at the actions that they are taking behind the scenes, they all know full well that joe biden is going to be inaugurated on january 20th. they have to make decisions about what are they going to say about joe biden's cabinet picks. they want to have influence over that. so they are talking about that. they are planning the inauguration. there have been meetings held this week at the capitol with the top four congressional leaders because they all have to be involved in planning what is typically a massive event undertaking every four years. they all have to get together, put that together. but there was a push from steny hoyer, the democratic leader in the house, who wanted everyone to go on the record saying this was going to be joe biden.

republicans refused to do it. they said, well, we are going to plan what we are planning as always. but again it was making that public statement that was the problem. i mean, it's just -- everyone knows how washington works. they all know he is going to be the president. but they won't say it. and that is, i think, to your point, it's going to let donald trump -- we saw that rally in georgia where he has the stop the steal message. it effectively hands him a campaign-style message to use however long he wants to for whatever purposes he wants to going forward and it casts a lot of doubt on the institutions that we rely on to keep our government functioning and keep faith in, frankly, in our democracy. >> still ahead, is warp speed fast enough? the vaccine was created in record time, but how long until the american public actually receives it? we'll bring in a leading physician at harvard medical school next on "morning joe." for so long.

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we want to update everybody on where the coronavirus stands right now. the u.s. is inching closer towards approval for a coronavirus vaccine. according to documents published by the fda, the vaccine made by pfizer and biontech provide strong protection against covid-19 within about ten days of the first dose. the finding is one of several significant new results featured in the briefing materials which include more than 100 pages of data analyses from the agency and from pfizer. fda scientists found that the vaccine was not 95% -- was 95% effective of preventing illness after two shots spaced three weeks apart. what's more, the vaccine worked well regardless of a volunteer's race, weight, or age.

the fda is expected to decide on whether to authorize pfizer's vaccine within days. yesterday, the u.k. began mass inoculations with the vaccine based on its approval of emergency use. >> however, nbc news has obtained the latest white house coronavirus task force report which warns, quote, the current vaccine implementation will not substantially reduce viral spread, hospitalizations or i fattal ties until the 100 million americans with comorbid tease can be fully immunized. the widest spread of intense transmission abo transmission with more than 2,000 counties in covid-19 red zones. let's bring in director of the precision vaccine program at boston children's hospital and professor of pediatrics at harvard medical school, dr. ofer levy. first of all, people you're talking to in your community and your world, how soon do you

think shots abowill start to go into arms here for the earliest candidates for the vaccine? >> well, let's take a step back. tomorrow is an important day because it's going to be the meeting of the vaccines and related biologic products advisory committee which i will be a temporary member on. we will deliberate about an emergency use authorization recommendation to the food and drug administration. the leader of the operation warp speed has said that if it is issued which is expected, then doses can begin to be shipped conceivably within 24 to 48 hours. it's a huge operational hurdle, but those are the statements that have been made. and as you know, many states have already designated health care workers, elderly individuals in nursing homes as two priority populations that they may start with. >> so, okay. so that's that. obviously, a critical meeting

tomorrow. do you see any roadblocks there in that meeting? is there a chance, for example, you won't get that emergency use authorization that so many people are expecting? >> well, you know, as committee members, we are supposed to take a sober stance, read all the briefing documents, which are publicly available on the fda website. i'd like to commend our government for a transparent process. if you look at the vaccines available around the world, not every country has a process as transparent as ours. and so we have been reviewing these briefing documents for two things. safety, efficacy of the vaccine, and also if the ua is issued, what will be the next steps not just for deploying the vaccine, but for gathering more information about how the vaccine functions in special populations, pregnancy, how long does the protection last, what about pediatrics. so there are many dimensions that are still unanswered, but the data thus far looked like a huge win. very positive.

and we will deliberate tomorrow and discuss in a serious way if the ua moves forward, which looks likely, then many other questions will need to be answered and the committee will give advice to fda as to what additional information is important to collect. >> there has been concern about supply, about getting enough. did the white house order enough of these vaccines to get them to as many people as possible, as quickly as possible so we can get our arms around this perhaps by next summer. what's your view on that? will there be enough of the vaccine if it's approved to get it to everyone who needs it? >> you know, tremendous resources have been put forward to try to scale the production as rapidly as possible. that's really a question for the sponsor, which is pfizer. they are the ones who will be manufacturing and scaling it. and so i don't know the details of exactly how many doses will be available when, although i have seen speculation that it wasn't be as fast as, of course, we'd love to see it happen.

>> dr. ofer levy, thank you. coming up, a look at forbes' list of the world's most powerful women. we will run through the names, including where the incoming vice president lands on the count. "morning joe" is back in a moment.

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this is a sad time for all people. we have suffered a loss that cannot be weighed. for me, it is a deep, personal tragedy. i know that the world shares the sorrow that mrs. kennedy and her family bear. i will do my best. that is all i can do. i ask for your help. and god's. >> president lyndon johnson speaking to the country upon arrival at andrews air force base shortly after being sworn in aboard air force one following the assassination of john f. kennedy.

as we draw closer to joe biden taking that oath, 42 days from now, we're focusing on presidential leadership. speaking with historians who have written on past presidents, asking what biden might be able to take away from various past administrations. joining us now pulitzer prize-winning author doris kearns goodwin. a biography on lbj. mike barnicle, claire mccaskill and eddie glaude are back with us as well. and doris, i'll start you off with the big question. what can biden take away and learn from lbj's legacy? >> you know, there is no question that lbj was a man of the congress has biden has been and learning how to deal with the individual congressmen and senators, i think there is no better person than lbj. just think, after that inaugural oath that he took. he went to a joint session of congress and made very clear his

absolute first priority was the passage of the civil rights bill that kennedy had introduced that summer and was totally stuck. nobody thought it would get out of the house and senate. so he knew he had to work that congress. but he made a pledge that this will be my first priority. they said you're crazy, it's going to fail, you will be a failed president, you shouldn't use the currency of your presidency on this. then he celebratedly said, then what the hell is the presidency for? then he set to work. he had individual congressmen -- i love claire to think about this, in groups of 30. they come with their spouses. the spouses go on a tour after dinner and then have port and brandy and he would call them the next day. every single congressman had been to the white house. tell your constituents i was at a white house social function. this will be so natural for joe. he calls themt at six, midnight, at a.m., hope i didn't wake you up. and then he made deals with them, with each one of them, to

bring them along. finally he gets the republican minority leader and he can trade everything. these are the days before transparency. you want a judgeship, an ambassadorship, but he understood that dirksen wanted to be remembered. if you bring some republicans, they have to break the filibuster because the democratic party is split in two. you bring some republicans and 200 years from now school children will know two names, abe happen lincoln and everett dirksen. he puts him in the senator and they get that filibuster broken. and the bill to end eggatisegre comes to the floor. looking at all the ways johnson understood the grease, which i think -- knew congress, which i know biden will, too. >> doris, cynics over the last couple of weeks as we have discussed, the relationship that joe biden has with a lot of members of the senate, including mitch mcconnell, said personal politics don't matter the way

they used to, that we are too polarized, the senate is too partisan. with lbj we are talking about the 1960s. joe talks about in the '90s you could vote to impeach bill clinton one day, and the next day he is calling you to play golf. do you think things are that much different today in terms of personal relationships and politics that will be that much more difficult for jobe? >> there is no question it will be more difficult. i think that has to be faced clearly. one of the differences is in the '50s and '60s you had 75% of the congressmen and senators were veterans. so they knew what it was like to have a common mission to organize around that went across party, class lines. nonetheless, unless you start out with hope somehow you will be able to make a difference and maybe meeting with these characters talking with them and calling them up, maybe the rhetoric will be ramped down a little bit and that will set an example for the country.

anyway, you have to go on the thought that it's going to make a difference and you do what you can and if it doesn't, it doesn't. if anyone can do it, it is because biden has had years of experience. he knows when it worked. it's almost like a fever. the fever can only break if you believe that you can start doing some action towards it. fdr used to say problems created by man can be solved by man. this problem has been created by this congress and the way they dealt with each other. it has to break at some point. i think possibly this is the man for the moment. >> the most obvious difference is the senators, republicans haven't even acknowledged that joe biden won the election. won't publicly call him president-elect even though as joe biden and reporters have told us they are calling privately to offer congratulations. >> there is no question that joe biden is going to be better at this part of the job than obviously donald trump or even barack obama. keep in mind that donald trump has not even laid eyes on nancy pelosi now for months on end.

there has been no interaction whatsoever. i do believe that joe biden will work very hard at reaching out to republicans in congress, and there is nothing a senator loves more than attention. so joe biden will give the republican senators a lot of attention. but one thing has happened to the senate since joe biden left. i was there when joe biden was there. i was there after joe biden left. and now mitch mcconnell has trained his caucus and to some extent this applies to both parties, to let the leadership have way more power than they use to have in the old days. committee chairs don't have the power they used to have because mitch mcconnell writes the legislation in his office and then puts it on the floor. so, doris, seeing how the senate has really gotten stuck in a procedural mo procedural morass where they don't debate bills anymore, do you think joe can still work

around that? >> you put your finger on exactly the problem. there was a problem like that lyndon johnson faced, for example, in the house when he had the civil rights bill there and judge smith was the leader, the congressional guy from the senate, a guy from the south, the congressional guy, not the congressional dguy from the south, there was no way he would let it out of the rules committee. they had to take it out with a discharge petition. so i guess the question is you have to figure out what the rules are. are there any way that individual congressmen and senators can take back that power? maybe that's what you have to deal with. you're right. we have back to a situation as we were in in the '60s, we got out of it and we are back in it now. somehow we have got to believe if you deal with individual congressmen and senators, and that's what lbj did by having every single one of them over there, somehow you are building a force on individual bills, look what happened with the defense department bill that was able to have a majority now that would override the president, does that show diminishing power of trump or does it show that

what you have a bill that has to be passed finally these people will go along. infrastructure, broadband expansion will be one of those bills. where are we going to be able to get through those majorities. and you have to believe that -- you know, it's interesting just thinking about the production problem for the vaccine right now. early on in the early days of world war ii fdr decided i am going to set targets just like joe biden did yesterday, the 100 days with 100 million and the target seemed huge. he said i will have 50,000 planes in the first year. people said you can't do it. he said, the american people like a target. then we were able to produce unimaginably. i keep hoping, can we do that again today? a plane every four minutes, a tank every seven minutes, a ship every single day. if we could do that then and get in mobilization, the vaccine, distribution, i just believe in the productive power of the country and somehow we have to set that in mornings whether with the defense production act or betting everybody together. this is the key things to do in

the next months. >> mike barnicle is here with a question. >> doris, joe biden is going to confront two viruses when he takes office in january 20th. one of the viruses is hope, because there is a vaccine on the horizon. the other virus has been implanted in our political culture by the existing incumbent president of the united states and it's the virus of illegitimacy, that the election was rigged, that joe biden is not the duly elected president of the united states. now, i don't know, me, my meager understanding of history compared to yours, i don't think we can rival, find anything to rival this situation in our history. maybe abraham lincoln in 1860. but you tell me. >> i think you're right about maybe abraham lincoln in 1860. first of all, the transition period then was from november to march. and during that period of time

seven states seceded from the union. nothing was done by buchanan to help them have any sanction for their secession. he says the first 90 days he didn't think he could live through it, there was such anxiety. essentially, what happens with abraham lincoln is that the south loses the election. the democrats lose. the republicans win. and because they lose, they secede. and he said this is when popular government will be an absurdity if we in a democracy don't believe when somebody wins an election they can secede from the union. that's an extreme version and it took a war with 600,000 people to be killed to solve that and it took an abraham lincoln. we faced the situation before and it led to secession from the union. he was right in saying dhauk depends on ordinary people accepting the results of an election and we are not seeing that right now. and i just still have a feeling, and maybe it's my optimistic temperament, when the power is gone and it will still be out

there as a potential run for 2024, it's not the same as being in the white house, that you will begin to see some break in those republicans that are in washington with this president who does have power. so we got to hope. >> doris, eddie glaude has a question for you. eddie. >> professor concerns, great to see you this morning. >> you can't call me professor kearns. goodness. i was a professor a long time ago. >> well, we want to continue to recognize that. beyond the mechanics of congress dealing with that, there are forces that surround president-elect biden and vice president-elect kamala harris to kind of force them to tinker around the edges, to not in some ways imagine at the scale of the problems that we face as a country. in your studies of leadership, presidential leadership, how did lbj just stand on his square and say this is what i'm going to do? or fdr, this is what i am going

to do. how did they muster the coverage to respond at scale to the scale of the problems the country faced? >> i think that's one of the most important qualities of leadership right now. there has to be a boldness. there has to be a line of demarcation between the previous president and the new president coming in. and you have to challenge the people and you just have to be willing to know that you may not meet that challenge. if you don't put the challenge forward, then there is no chance of doing it. it was a huge thing, as i said, for lbj to take that risk that he was making civil rights his priority. if the bill had failed and right before jfk died, every prognosis said there is no way that bill would get out senate. there will be a filibuster, you are not going to break it. he would have gone before the election as a failed president. as he said, what the hell is the presidency for? when you think of the new deal, fdr came in the 100 days, first he was fixing the banking

crisis. hey, i think i will keep this congress in session for another hundred days and it changed the system of the country. it started off just getting people to work. in the as bold. make sure you deal with the problem at the moment. they started having systemic reforms, regulate the stock market, the fcc, things he said were going to cure the old abuses that had caused the problem in the first place. so i think in the end you have to deal with the immediate problem, the immediate problem is the virus, then you have to hope for systemic reform which this country needs and we know it needs it. >> doris kearns goodwin, thank you so much. and ahead, our next guest says headlines will have you believe that protest is violence and mutiny. but protest, she says, is many things. and love is at the foundation of most of them. "morning joe" is back in a moment. we made usaa insurance for members like martin. an air force veteran made of doing what's right, not what's easy.

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utopian. and one of them is liberated black and brown bodies on the beach. this island doesn't have a perfect history, and there has been taking of land and taking of people here, but been a reclamation as well. this is a story of black home ownership. for my brother, when he said we're buying a house, i understood what he actually meant. he didn't mean we are buying a house. he said we are going to have a place to stay and we are going to have a place to stay together. for family, we ha for my family, we have never had that, never broken that generational curse of housing instability. i know the generational impact of playing small, not taking up

space, being fearful of institutions like banks, being fearful of industries like real estate. >> this is a space for me. this is a space for my brother and my family and we are going to play in it, thank you very much. >> that was a clip from the first episode of "the boston globe's" new series that focuses on black lives and culture in the boston area called "a beautiful resistance." joining us now, "boston globe's" culture writer general aoster holt when is the creator of the multimedia art installation about blackness and black joy. she uses videos and essays in the globe to showcase black lives through their own lenses and she has a dog. i hear a dog barking in the background. i love it. this is wonderful. tell us what inspired this project. >> a beautiful resistance in

many ways is the outgrowth of my work as a culture columnist at "the boston globe" covering social justice and identity. when you cover social justice and eye denty through the lens of arts you focus on injustice and inequities which are a reality of america. but this year, with all we're going through in the pandemic, and this next chapter of the revolution, seeing the brutality again and again and again, and for black people this isn't new. this is something we've always seen. i needed a way to wrap my arms around this. when i got back from george floyd's funeral service in minneapolis, i was depleted and tired of the way that we cover black people through the lens of hashtags and brutality. we talk about their dead bodies and not their lived lives. and i wanted a space, a dedicated space to celebrate black joy and the richness and

the multitude and fullness of what it means to be black in america. >> eddie glaude jr. has the next question. eddie. >> well, it's so important. thank you so much for the work that you are doing, especially against the backdrop of what's happened in columbus, ohio, with casey goodson, police shooting him in the back as he is trying to enter his own home. but the emphasis on black love, this is on love generally. we know that the power of love can quip us to endure the world as it is and to imagine the world as it could be. talk a little bit about how you are imagining love in this project, not as a sentimental emotion, but transformative in the way that people live their lives and understand themselves. >> love and joy and the real celebration of this project is joy, but in order to have joy, you must have first love. and to me those are tools of power. those are tools of resistance. in a system set up to shrink you and keep you small, a system

that lies to you about who you are, strips you of your stories and disempowers you, for you to have love in itself is a resistance because you are taught that you are no good. so it's important. and joy, i think of what audra lord said. the sharing of joy, whether physical, emotional, psychic or intellectual, forms a bridge between the sharers which can be the basis for understanding, much of what is not shared between them, and lessens the threat of their difference. that to me is power. being able to wake up and feel good in your body and love who you are and love your brothers and sisters and them who look like you, that is power. >> it's willie geist. great to have you on the show this morning. we are reading through all of your material, and to hear you talk about the protests that we have seen, the demonstrations we have seen this year in particular, as acts of love. obviously, there is frustration there. there is anger there.

there is all that built into it. but i am interested to hear you expand a little, if you could, on that idea of protests being more about love than anything else. >> i feel like in the media we're very guilty of always focusing on the negative tension. and protests are framed as bad things. they are criminalized. they are framed as agents of violence. and if i love myself and i love my community, then i am going to be mad. i am going to have righteous anger when we are brutalized, murdered, and still fighting for equity generation after generation after generation. it is because i love my brothers and sisters that we are fighting. when i go to protest, i see dancing. i see singing. i see people playing double dutch and jump roping, bike riding. and we don't tell those stories. we don't tell those stories of

the solidarity that happens on the ground, the friendships that are made, the communities that are built. we don't show those pictures. we often center the negative images and only the anger and not why i'm angry. i am not just angry because we are brutalized. i am angry because i love my people and we deserve better. >> thank you so much. you can find the project "a beautiful resistance" online at "the boston globe." and we thank you very much for coming on and sharing that with us this morning. up next, we have been reporting this morning on the nomination of retired general lloyd austin to lead the pentagon and his nomination just got a key supporter. we'll tell you who next. ho next. so to help you remember that liberty mutual customizes your home insurance, here's something you shouldn't try at home...

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this development for you now on joe biden's pick to lead the pentagon. former secretary of state colin powell, retired four-star general issued a statement this morning reading in part -- president-elect joseph biden is making a superb choice in selecting general lloyd austin to be the next secretary of state. general austin has served splendidly at all combat and civilian levels in the armed forces. he has demonstrated his war-fighting skills and his bureaucratic, diplomatic and political acumen being older than him i watched him closely and served as a mentor. congress should have no concern waiving the requirement he serve at least seven years in civilian life after retiring before accepting the secretary of state position. his civilian and military experience allow him to manage the state department. he knows troops, and they know

and respect him. they will be a great team. that coming from retired general colin powell. claire mccaskill, your take on not just this statement but on this choice for secdef? >> i think that general austin will be confirmed. he clearly -- it's just time, mika. as i said earlier, over 40% of the active military of people are color. it is time that we recognize that we have strong leadership in this area of our country with black leaders, and this guy is going to be terrific. the general will be terrific. now, the other thing that we need to remember about this appointment is how close working relationship he had with joe biden. they know each other well. they worked together hours on end when this general was the commander of centcom. central command, where all the war fighting was going on and that was joe biden's portfolio

under barack obama. these people know each other well, are friends, respect each other and i think will be a great team and i think he'll get confirmed. >> all right. now to forbes annual ranking of the world's 100 most powerful women. 17th annual ranking recognizes the trail blazers who are deftie steering countries, constituents and communities through one of the most tumult truous times in modern history. highlights for the tenth consecutive year german chancellor angela merkel takes the number one spot and amid the global pandemic no surprise the list includes leaders who reshaped think respective industries including tome and lindka rendle and new to the top three is vice president elect kamala harris who will serve as the first female vice president of the united states, that is

the first black and indian-american to hold the position. to coincide with the lists launch later today forbes is hosting the 2020 forbes power women summit, spotlighting the women who can harness the power of this pivotal moment in time. and it's worth noting that the vast majority of the distinguished women on that list are at least 78 of them, are 50 or older. that distinguishing factor includes every single woman is in the top 27 of that list over 50. "know your value" in partnership with force is gearing up to celebrate 50 diverse women over the age of 50 who have achieved significant success later in life. often by overcoming formidable odds or barriers. the project will coincide with much of the world reopening in the aftermath of the covid-19 pandemic in this past year, if

anything, has opened up the idea of what is possible and the need to use undertapped talent. in fact, women over 55 are the fastest growing age and gender workforce category. 3.6 million women over 55 will be added to the u.s. workforce by 2026, and that's why i'm so inspired by this partnership with forbes. joining us now, chief consent officer of forbes media and editor of forbes, randall lane. randall, let's talk about the top 100. the power list. first of all, people who have, women, who have stood out during this pandemic are heading up a lot of the names on this list. tell us about them. >> yeah. it's a great list and like you said. the 17th annual, seeing movement, seeing movement up and down and see people, see phel philanthropi philanthropists, changemakers,

stacey abrams. hit the moment on the head. a moment of change. kamala harris, nancy pelosi moving down, terminating herself but sees change agents making the list very vibrant. angela merkel on top again and deservedly so. throughout the list you're seeing, and like you said, the top 20, top 27 are all over 50. it's women with experience. women who have seen the world, who are making a real change. >> yes. and talk about angela merkel's staying power. ten times at the top? >> she's never been more powerful. for the last four years she's arguably been leader of the free world in the sense of the united states has -- with president trump's america-first policy has looked within, she's been the nattiest and so this is somebody who you think long into her run, per hauer waning. in ways only strengthened,

looked to in europe and a lot throughout the world as the beacon of internationalism, and so here's somebody who's taking her power and, and every year layering it on, expanding it and she remains as powerful as ever. >> claire mccaskill, jump in. >> first, i just think it's terrific. as somebody who is clearly north of 50, that you are recognizing that age equals power. when it comes to women. and i am, i'm tickled pink about that. talk a little bit about the business leaders on this list. this is a new thing, in america that you really are seeing women move into board rooms in a powerful way, changing the makeup of corporate boards to have more women on those boards. talk about the business presence and the power of that on this particular list. >> 100% correct.

you see what nasdaq did earlier this month saying they're going to potentially delist women without one wom board member. you're going to see more of that. epitome, mary barra, number 16, ceo of gm, we're seeing dozens of women move up through the corporate power structure, but literally excited about forbes for over 100 years celebrating entrepreneurship are the women doing it themselves. who are entrepreneurs, making change happen themselves. even today later today at ow power women's summit people like melinda gates, who's so instrumental, top five on the list. she'll be speaking. so instrumental. and shotwell, president of spacex. tory burke speaking later today. owner of her own company. amazing, women rising through the rarngss and women making it

themselves and that's exciting about the over 50 project. that right now we're at a moment between remote work, work from home. direct sales via eretail. more friction with entrepreneurship. you no longer have to wait for somebody to anoint you. you it take charge of your own career. and that's exciting about this project. >> best of luck today with the 2020 power forbes summit. go ahead, randall? >> forbes, still free. go to forbes. >> oh good. wonderful. and thank you very much for being on this morning. then, of course, randall mentioned the list we are working on for the months to come. the 50 over 50 initiative already received over 4,000 submissions. we are still accepting nominationses to be a part of

this unique project and share the story of an incredibly trail blazing woman who achieved success later in life, over 50 years old, please, visit knowyourvalue.com. that does it for us this morning. stephanie ruhle picks up coverage right now. hi there'si'm stephanie ruhle. it's wednesday december 9th and here's what's happening now. as cases surge hospital bed fill up and states enact new restrictions. lawmakers in d.c., still just talking about support. two days after a self-imposed deadline, there is still no covid relief bill that sides can agree on whatsoever. fights over unemployment benefits and stimulus checks holding up the process. while most americans simply cannot afford to wait. someone who isn't waiting, president-elect joe biden. 43 days before taking office, the president-elect laid out his detailed plan to tackle covid in his first 100 days. including vaccinating 100