moving forward so swiftly. dr. fauci on the beat tomorrow at 6:00 p.m. eastern. join me then or set your dvr. on your remote right now search for me. thanks for joining us tonight. see you back here then. until then, stay tuned for the "the reidout." with joy reid. a massive development occurred this afternoon in the fight against covid-19. the food and drug administration vaccine advisory panel formally recommended broad distribution of the pfizer covid-19 vaccine. in the u.s. clearing the way for healthcare workers to begin to receive the first shots early next week.

there's a lot unknown about the vaccine. side effects and distribution and whether there's enough to go around. it does mark a new chapter. in an american tragedy that destroyed far too many lives and still far from over. the daily death koint is among the highest in the nation history. period. take a look at this list. these are the deadliest events that occurred on u.s. soil. natural disaster. war, terrorist attacks and now covid. deaths from december 4 alone exceeded the death toll from the japanese atake on pearl harbor. the death toll from december 9 alone exceeded the 9/11. four out of the top ten deadliest events were all within the last ten days. yesterday was the fourth deadliest day our country has ever seen. that day december 9 we lost more than 3,100 people.

at the end of the terrible day, the president of the country the president of the united states hosted a packed indoor hanukkah party. where as you can see, some were wearing masks. not adhering to social distancing inside the white house. time and again we are seeing two americas. that divide has never appeared as stark. perhaps there's a reason why people in the smaller privileged side of america don't fear the coronavirus. because now, we have seen trump and his pals christy and carson who admitted trump personally cleared him to receive the same therapy that trump received. and rudy giuliani. received vip treatment when infected with covid. rudy even admitted it. >> i had very mild symptoms. i think if it wasn't me, i wouldn't have been put in the hospital.

>> really? >> sometimes when you're, you know a celebrity, they are worried if something happens to you, they'll examine it more carefully. and do everything right. >> when you're a star they let you do it. compare that to the one in ten americans who per the "new york times" live in areas where intensive care beds are full or fewer than 5% available. trump and his pals have no interest in the muck and disorder of the under privileged and the sick and the poor flt those without healthcare. they are throwing super-spreader events. bragging about traveling to see family for the holidays. harassing local leaders for implementing life saving measures and rejecting science. until they need science to save their own skin. joining me now new jersey

governor. and internal medicine physician. columnist for the "new york times." i'll start with you, governor. we have had a vaccine approved. but it's not even clear everyone will have access to it. what we have seen so far is that elite americans people who are friends of the president get special access. including former governor christy. who got an treatment for it was approved by the fda. ben carson saying trump intervened and cleared him personally. rudy giuliani getting admitted to the hospital with mild symptoms. and still receiving one of the 108 treatments that they obtained for its residents. none of whom are rudy giuliani. he doesn't live there. i'm worried that the rank and file ordinary people of your

state in new jersey where you have seen 15,000 people die. where you have 400,000 cases. are you worried we're having a rationing by the rich to get treatment and special care? >> good to be with you, joy. that won't happen in new jersey. it hasn't happened as it relates to anderson coop to access with healthcare and it vaccine distribution. we'll have with healthcare workers and drentzs and staff. and move on essential workers. front line workers and vulnerable communities. that's not to say the disadvantage communities have not paid a higher price. especially brown and black communities they have. it's certainly laid them bare. shame on us to have to live through what we have lived through every again. the bigotive in our state is

learn from what we have gone through and make sure through the pandemic and including the vaccine and as we rebuild our state and economy, that we address those inequities once and for all. >> i want to put the numbers back up again from your state. there's a spike in many parts of the country since thanksgiving. in new jersey. 5,300 new positive cases. you have 68 new confirmed deaths over 15,000 people have died. how are you communicating with the people in your state and how is that communication changed over time? it seems people aren't listening. to the guidelines and doing whatever they want. in some cases insisting on their right to infect other people and not wear masks and not social distance. >> you're right. there's a lot of the combination of the things. that is lethal. it's cold. what we were doing outside three

months ago. it's holiday season. there's pandemic fatigue. even from good hearted folks who are trying to do the right thing for the beginning. there's a lot of private setting transmission. there's no amount of enforcement that law enforcement or otherwise can get into every living room. and this has been politicized when it should be about science. that combination i think means that we're in for a tough next probably six plus weeks. the vaccine news is great. it's real. that's going to come. thank god the weather will get warmer. the curve will run its course. we'll pay a huge price. and we have to hope the folks bare down and don't let their guard down. >> i wonder if you have a message for the politicians in dc who are still not coming through with a benefits bill.

despite the fact our new weekly initial jobless claims hit 853,000. they expected 730,000. do you have a message for the mitch mcconnell and steve mnuchin and the president? >> we need desperately federal stimulus. we need it at a very beg number. whether or not i'll take whatever they can give us. whether you are unemployed or a small business person. or running a restaurant. or you have lost a loved one. or trying to keep people employed at the front lines like firefighters and police and healthcare workers. educators. or a local government. there are many many reasons why we need a big statement out of the washington. that meets this moment. i personally think this is a $3 million need. if we get a billion of that now and the rest soon, we can live with that. i would say the longer this goes

on, the bigger the price tag. the more the suffering. sooner than later bigger than smaller. history will not be unkind if we over shoot. it will be devastating through human suffering if we under shoot and don't meet the moment. >> indeed. hopefully the folks in d.c. are listening and not on vacation. thank you. stay safe. all right. let's bring in our other two members. dr. roy. we are seeing this surge happening. there's a hope on the horizon. you had a vote for a vaccine to fast track it and allow people to get it. 17-4 vote. one person ab stained. are you concerned that this idea of the vulnerable getting it first won't hold and what we're seeing in terms of the treatment for covid where you have seen the elite the people friends of

the president be able to push themselves to the front of the line. that this idea of treating the vulnerable won't hold and the same thing will happen with the vaccine. >> happy thursday. it's stories like that where you see the wealthy and privilege and powerful getting the specialized treatment that frankly the rest of the country isn't getting. stories like that will reenforce the stigmatizing attitudes that communities of color already have. that will marginalized communities have. we in the healthcare community and we have to work the more harder to combat the those ideas. that only the wealthy are going to get the evidence based treatment. right now we need to focus on the three preventive measures. mask and physical distance. hand hygiene. and the vaccine. this is good news. the task is going to be make

sure that we get -- we use evidence and tried measures to make sure communities get the vaccines and how do you do that? it will be a collaborative effort. partnership between the most trusted and most knowledgeable. my opinion that's three groups of people. identifying the most trusted in the communities. could be clergy or pastor. community activists. as well as the most trusted professional in the world. nurses. could be nurses or community healthcare workers. public health professionals that are trained and third, we need celebrities that are trusted and admired and respected in the communities. there's a wonderful conversation with lezly jones. they are funny and talented and very smart. they know people are deeply suffering now. it will be a collaboration.

a multi-approach in order to reach the vulnerable communities and continue beyond covid-19. we have to make sure they get treated for breast cancer and heart attacks and strokes and sickle cell. that needs to happen. >> indeed. the challenge is we spoke yesterday, experts are saying there may not be enough vaccine for everyone. the trump administration already under ordered what was available. what they could have ordered. and there's a global demand. you know how this goes the rich will shove themselves forward. and shove the poor people on the ground and stomp them. saying this is for us. the nba will get it. and the union make sure the families get them. there is a hierarchy. i want to play this, a united states senator playing holiday music in the rotunda.

the rich and the privileged free to play christmas music in the capitol. while people are dying. instead of passing a damn bill. and i worry. do you worry we'll have an oligarch response to distributing the vaccine. >> i think that we will always have vip getting work arounds. one of the they thinks that giuliani did in terms of getting access to the antibodies. that ordinary people if you show up in the emergency room you are very unlikely to get. and he shouldn't have gotten just because the emergency use authorization specifically says they're not for use in hospitalized patients. they are patients that could be sick enough to be in the hospital. already we know that somebody was bending the rules to give this to him over and above the other special privileges that he was boasting about on the radio.

i was talking to doctors today. i have a column. they make the point that hospitals are multi-billion dollar businesses. even when they're non-profit. they have a bennett line. their finances are hit hard because the cancelling elective surgery. and having to treat covid patients that are uninsured. it's a position they have to do favors for the rich and well connected. we have already had the system with the pathology add to that covid-19 where we have to be basically ration care. and life saving drugs. it increases the corruption. there's two scandals here. the scandal of a administration that uses its power to do life saving favors for friends of the

president. and there's the bigger scandal of the healthcare system. >> absolutely. we could have universal healthcare and it's not an issue. it's rationed and it will get rationed to the rich. giuliani is bragging about it. he's not pretending it's not what's happening. it is happening. thank you both very much. up next trump would rather destroy democracy than admit defeat. >> it's not courage. it's coward. that is driving 18 republican state attorney generals to demand the supreme court discard votes where in swing vote cities. get real-time insights in your customized view of the market. it's smarter trading technology for smarter trading decisions.

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throughout the republican party. 106 house republicans signed on in support of killing democracy. in trumps hail mary attempt to over turn the election and save himself from the consequences of returning to civilian life without legal protection of the presidency. that's more than half of house republicans who are no longer pretending to believe in democracy. asking the supreme court to disenfranchise tens of millions of voters including republicans. because they refuse to accept black voters along with brown and young voters and democrats in the states elected joe biden. over the objections of a majority of white americans who supported trump. texas attorney general delusional lawsuit asking the supreme court to throw out all the legal votes in georgia, pennsylvania, and wisconsin. from 17 red states. filed a brief in support of loony tune texas lawsuit.

trump himself personally warned georgia attorney general not to rally support against it. today trump met with several ags. all but two states signing onto the texas lawsuit. asking senator cruz to argue the case. if the court hears the case. that most say is hopeless. two dozen states filed motions against it. pennsylvania attorney general call it abuse of the judicial process. i'm joined by reverend al sharpton. and editor at large of the bull work. this is nothing short to me of white nationalism. in action. in our political system. it's antidemocracy. it's antia specific kind of democracy. the guy who is leading the newest lawyer involved is a guy named john eastman.

professor at chap man university and a birther. a birther attack on kamala harris. going after cities where the prominent black voters. and saying there's a fraud. it's a direct war against black voters. >> you're right. when you lock at where they have methodically gone off black voting areas. they're not questioning all the votes in the city or state. certain areas. they are directly trying to disenfranchise and criminalize black voters. and we need to call it for what it is. this is a clear racist attempt to disenfranchise black voters by people a that celebrated the nuking of the voting rights act and the fact we have not been able to pass the john lewis act. the state attorney generals that

would have been subject to national clearance. judicial clearance. had we kept section 4 and 5 in the voting rights act. can sit up in the white house and plan what is amount to the disenfranchisement. it would have been barred if the voting act was in full effect. >> that is true. you have these republicans including half of the caucus and the house. essentially saying negate tens of millions of votes. take them off the vote. if they took place in cities that have black voters voting for biden. if you're black and vote for trump. just to back that up. rush limbaugh called president trump and said it was a version of reparations. and other ways he tried to trigger white voters against

obama in the day. here he is today talking like an old successionist from the 1860s. >> we are trending towards succession. more and more people are asking what in the world do we have in common with the people who live in new york? we can't be in this dire a conflict. without something giving somewhere along the way. >> you're right. there's not a lot in common. blue states pay all the taxes and red states eat them. blue states pay in more than they get back from the federal government. and happy to do it. we have taxes in blue states. red states are nine of the ten takers. they have to take. because they refuse to tax the rich in the state. they want to be little banana

republics. that talk is when lincoln got elected. >> it is 1850s. by the way, if the texas attorney generals lawsuit were to be successful which is ss not. it's clownish and frivolous. and abuse of due process. my vote would be suppressed. i live in wisconsin. this is part of the evolution of the republican party and the right wing from being a political party and be a cult. they are willing to put trump, trump needs over the constitution. over democracy. over the needs of the country. rush limbaugh is denying he was in favor of the succession. he's playing with fire. 17 states say let's disenfranchise millions from other states. it's interesting how quickly on

the right during this trump era we have moved from conservatives being about patriotism. and flag waving and mandatory stand lg for the pledge of allegiance. to maybe we tear the country apart. engage in sedition. and don't want to be part of the america. what do you have in common with people from new york? we are all american. that didn't use to be controversial. it wasn't controversial until five minutes ago. rudy giuliani and trump are also from new york. what you're seeing here is a political party that is willing to throw democracy under the bus. willing to wipe out votes of tens of millions of americans and very consciously pinning americans against one another. limbaugh says i'm not serious about it. i'm saying what people say. we're in a very dangerous era. we're seeing how much they are

willing to sacrifice nor to keep trump in power. i have to say that having been watching the republican party commit one act of disappointment after another. what happened today is still shocking. it genuinely shocking to see 100 members of the house ot representatives sign on a lawsuit that is on one level a complete legal joke. on another level is a complete attack on the democratic constitutional process in the country. >> it's not even just -- right. it's not even they have thrown out previously believed in. they used to be states rights people. now texas can lean into wisconsin and take their votes away. that states can go to other states where they don't like the way they did balloting.

in another state. and you have states receiving this saying go ahead. take our votes away. i have to say i remember people that said they wanted to succeed. because president obama was elected. this is not a new thing. if black people want something and vote in this direction and get their way, it's invalid. it's fraud. this is a thing. it's not just trump. trump also agrees the confederacy should have won. apparently. >> he hung andrew jacksons picture in the oval office. you don't have to guess where he's coming from when he put the raci racist slave owning president up in the office. that's his role model. for 17 state attorney generals, to sit there and say despite the fact that this man in the oval office lost the electoral college vote and the popular

vote. disenfranchise them. carve out the black areas. let's go into racial profiling. cut them out. this is the fraud. dead people voted though we can't produce that. there was a rigged system. we can't show it. for them to use this and these are the same people that are month ago saying make america great again. now let's leave america. that's the only way we'll be great. this is classic white supremacy. and trying to turn back into a system where blacks have no right even if you win an election. we'll take it back. you don't have the right. you can turn back the clock. you can't turn back time. we're not going back. >> absolutely. you have to promise to come back. i want to talk about the civil

rights meeting and the situation with the ville sack. that nomination. come back. we'll do that -- >> thank you very much. >> great friends. thank you. the right wing freak out. over the reverend warnock fate. the fake out rage. evaporated just in time for the crucial run offs in georgia. go figure.

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when amy coney barrett was nominated to the supreme court republicans immediately went after anyone who raised questions about her extreme ultra right wing christian believes. no one was able to question whether her faith and the way she interprets the world might impact the decision on the

court. it's a definite no, no. they aren't bringing that energy defending the faith of warnock. running for a u.s. senate seat out of georgia. >> many times they don't like the fact someone has faith. i want to have my faith and you have yours and we express that. that's who we are. to attack someone on that i think will not play well. >> there is no such thing as a pro-choice baptist. you have a lie from the bed of hell. send it back. >> even though on some level democrats understand rationally it's a very bad idea to attack a woman for her family and religious faith. they can't help themselves. for 15 years warnock used his platform as pastor to condemn the united states and the people who live here. >> there's nothing the left hates more than strong conservative women who are unapologetic about core values. >> i don't need a lecture from someone who used the bible to not only justify attacking our

military and used the bible to justify abortion. i cannot standby and let georgia not know who my opponent is. how radical his views are. >> hypocrisy. loeffler referred to a sermon that warnock gave noting one cannot serve god and the military. and quoting the actual bible. no one can serve two masters. that's not the height of the hypocrisy. ha is up next. little theo's nose had cause for alarm.

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georgia republican loeffler is running campaign by attacking warnock as a radical liberal. she was completely okay with the church where he's the pastor. where martin luther king, jr. preached. when it worked for her

politically. earlier in year with the radical reverend warnock sitting behind her, she spoke from the pulpit. a public relation spot for republicans in both parties on king day. saying i'm so humble to be here with you today. in the sacred place surrounded by men and women who advance the cause of freedom. i'm joined now by seen your writer at rolling stone. who was aft the church when she spoke. and mark thompson. thank you for being here. you were there when kelly loeffler stood up of the pulpit. which every politician runs to georgia if they can to try to get in there. and was she talking about how radical warnock was? disparaging his preaching in that moment? >> no, she was actually talking about dr. king. as most politicians do.

when they stop by a black church. and quote that she said was essentially 1957 quote that dr. king said in montgomery, alabama. what are you doing for others? so, what we see now is loeffler is not only doing for president trump and other republicans what she should be doing for her constituents. but working to actively disenfranchise the constituents by supporting the deranged texas lawsuit. >> mark, there is this what i call a mup petification of dr. king. people love to use him like a mup pet. what he was saying is you have a to have a radical change

society. he would have considered radical. i find it hypocritical that people like loeffler and republicans are making war on the black church. after they said you can't touch amy coney barrett's faith. >> well, first of all, happy birthday week. >> thank you. >> it's transparent. the irony that they are attacking the man who has inherited dr. king's pulpit. as dr. king was attacked from that same pulpit. and then to attack the ritual of the black church. it's as if they want to take us back when we were enslaved and hide in harbors to worship. and the plantation owners had to make sure we weren't planning to

escape chl the fabt of the matter is georgia is planning to escape in january. the real deal is it's knot about so much the religious practice as it is the numbers the devil is worried about the details. organizations like the black church political action committee, knocked on 30,000 doors. called 2,000 georgiaens. during the phone bank. and doing that again for the run off. that is what they're worried about. the reason run off was set up to be discriminatory. it may not work out this way. for loeffler and perdue. they are afraid of the power of the black church. that's the bottom line. >> you have newt implying that

stacey abrams stole georgia. for the democrats. you have georgia republicans saying we'll never let the black people do this to us again. and pass the laws to make it impossible to vote absentee. they are reacting to the black constituents decision making in term of voting to suppress votes all over again. kemp style. >> this is what happens when you have a republican dedicated to disenfranchising those who don't vote for them. rather than making an argument or trying to serve black communities. they rather try to make sure these communities have less of an access to the ballot or the polls. what have you. you see them very comfortable being able to show up in a church on mlk day and the values. and they don't actually put those into practice.

they get something warnock addressed that day. he said frankly that it's suspicious. when politicians come in here and talk about these kinds of values when in fact they step out of the church doors and don't do the same thing. if we want to talk about values and who is upholding christian morals and what have you, you have to look further than a sermon they'll twist words of. they have to look into the practice. georgia should be looking at what the people are doing for them rather saying. >> absolutely. maybe these churches should be more discriminating in terms of who they let in the door. and get on the pulpit. maybe they shouldn't let them work in and use the churches to politic. they don't respect the black church and making war against the black church. everybody who is a black christian ought to think about that. i want to turn to a different

subject. democrats. apparently joe biden will nominate tom ville sack who to be -- this is from nbc news. in leaked recordings he went off the defund the police stuff. he also talked about nominating former agricultural secretary to the old position. we all know and remember -- we have talked about the fact we know him as he fired an agricultural department official who was forced to resign after bright bart ran a disinformation campaign against her. ville sack fired her. she's a legend in georgia. she's a civil rights legend. she and her husband. what do you make of the fact joe biden seems prepared to no, ma'am nominate this man despite that. when they need votes in georgia.

>> i'm baffled. he's already been there eight years. and interviewed the former head of the office of civil rights and department of agriculture this evening. we talked about all of the things he did. not only firing shirly and not helping the settlement be distributed to farmers. most black farmers got $50,000. you can't rebuild a farm with that. remember, obama himself called the u.s. department of agriculture the last plantation. while tom ville sack was there. he said that. president obama. lloyd wright said he's talking with georgia and there are black farmers there saying why should we vote for democrats if the democratic president is going to

reappoint tom ville sack to be the secretary of agriculture. just as in the meeting with the legacy organization so to speak the civil rights organizations, biden said defund herd democrats and only so much he would want to do. the message for joe biden tonight is renominating might hurt the georgia run off. >> it makes no political sense whatsoever. they didn't seem to know who shirly was when they fired her the first time. and don't remember her now. that is insane. they just do what they want. thank you both very much. up next. biden controversial pick for defense secretary. should congress grant another waiver allowing a former mel tear officer to hold the post as they did with trump's nominee mattis. we have two favorites onto debate the question.

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. four years ago, donald trump, captain bone spurs, stacked his cabinet with what he called his generals, and other military veterans. the guy who got multiple draft deferments was more than happy to cover himself in their glory. among those was general james mattis for secretary of defense. the choice shattered 50 years of norms and required a special exemption from both chambers of congress because if law stipulating that retired military officers cannot serve as civilian heads of the military until they've been out of uniform for seven years. both parties, including vice-president-elect harris voted in favor of that waiver, while 17 democrats objected. yesterday president-elect joe biden announced his intention to unemployment retired general lloyd austin as secretary of defense. he will require a waiver as

well. the announcement kicked up a debate about the bigger question of whether or not democrats should normalize this kind of nomination and whether it undercuts the american notion of a civilian-led military. joining me now to debate the matter are navid jamali and malcolm nance. we're going to bring that to tv and i'm going to ask malcolm first because he's a chief, so he gets to go first. mattis got this waiver, the second one to get it. george marshall got it in 1950. it used to be ten years, now it's seven years you have to be out of military service. is this a good or bad idea, malcolm? >> it's an excellent idea, especially at this time after donald trump's pentagon. look, general austin is a man of honor. he's a man that we know will stand up for the troops. when we're talking about a white house here that had a secretary of defense that actually had to waffle in determining whether he

was going to follow the president's orders in sending troops in the street. that will not happen here. the president needs his pick. this is the man he chose. let's give him that person. >> that was the person they call jesper, but the previous one, naveed, jim mattis, mad dog, people were like, what is donald trump going to use him for, he turned out to be one of the more sober, adult members of the administration, even though he wasn't exactly courageous in standing up to trump. that leads me to my question about it. a military man believes in chain of command, comes up through this system. even if you have james mattis, even when he got out, wouldn't in his book go against trump. it took him forever to criticize trump. is a person who's in that position too chain of command oriented to stand up to a president if you get a bad president? >> i think that's the question. i think for me personally, the answer is yes. i mean, look, general austin,

amazing man, 41 years in uniform. that's an important number. 41 years in uniform and four years as a civilian. in those four years he sat on the board of directors at raytheon. i think he's a wonderful man and i'm proud that, you know, there's only two black four-star generals. he should be proud of his service and accomplishments, and none of this should be to denigrate him at all. the question is, should we have civilian leadership? it's important to understand that, again, he's been out for four years. that means many of his peers he was a general with are still in uniform. to me, that creates an unhealthy relationship. i think there is an advantage to having, frankly, a civilian secretary of defense that has been out more than four years. >> your response, malcolm? >> well, let's take a look at some of the more recent secretaries of defense who were

civilians. donald rumsfeld, who literally abandoned u.s. forces in iraq to do a fool-hearty invasion of a country that led to the death of over 3,000 u.s. service members. this is the guy who said you don't come with the army that you want, you want to come with the army that you have. you know, they were literally welding one scrap armor on their vehicles. dick cheney, another brilliant secretary of defense who first wouldn't invade iraq at the time that saddam hussein had -- there was a u.s. force on the border of kuwait. and then couldn't find a country he wouldn't invade. civilian authority over the military is strictly a positional authority in this sense. general austin will become -- is mr. austin. he is no longer a general. he's a former general. but you know what? we need the care in a guy like that to care and feed and take

care of our service members so that we don't have certain situations like we had on the "uss theodore roosevelt" where you had literally thousands of service members sick and it wasn't getting through to the top tier of the chain of command. this general as a civilian will certainly take care of our troops. >> that is one argument, naveed, that you could say after the demoralizing four years of troops being left to get sick on a ship and donald trump's misuse of the military to aggrandize himself, would it in a sense help morale top of one of that you are own who understand what it's like to go to war in charge of them? >> there's no doubt that general austin is a soldier-soldier and understands the cost of war personally. look, joy, we spoke to veterans for an article we did and they all preferred a civilian

secretary of defense. the austin, no one has anything bad to say, but it's a question of a civilian here. >> yeah, that's just -- he chose a few civilians at random. >> take it to twitter, guys. thank you, naveed, and malcolm. happy hanukkah. "all in with chris hayes" starts now. tonight on "all in" -- >> we are going to move to the vote. >> a green light for the pfizer vaccine. >> and that conclusion the vote. so we do have a favorable vote. >> tonight, biden, covid advisers, dr. rick bright and dr. julie morita. former acting cdc director richard besser on when life returns to normal. as thousands of americans die each day, how did trump cronynies keep getting cured? then, as over