as soon as monday. the fda officially approving it for use late last night. the pandemic has taken more than 296,000 americans lives to an end. talking about the milestone in a news conference just moments ago. >> you have heard me refer to today at d day. some people assumed i meant day of distribution. in fact, d day in military designates the day the mission begins. d day was a pivotal turning point in world war ii. it was the beginning of the end. d day was the beginning of the end, and that's where we are today. >> president trump posted a video to twitter last night hailing the vaccine. it comes just hours after his legal efforts to overturn the president's election suffered perhaps its most fatal blow yet.

the supreme court rejecting the lawsuit filed by the texas attorney general and supported by 126 congressional republicans seeking to overturn joe biden's victory in four battleground states. the president taking to twitter this morning lashing out at the supreme court for their decision and also lashing out at one of his top officials, attorney general william barr alluding to the possibility of firing him. reporters are in place across the country with the latest on the vaccine distribution plans. msnbc's cori coffin from memphis, tennessee. allison barber in michigan and from tampa, florida. good morning to you. actually afternoon new york time. start with you as pfizer headquarters in portage, michigan. where do things there on the vaccine rollout there? >> reporter: we're expecting to see trucks move from this plant within about 24 hours of the fda giving that emergency authorization. the loading dock is just over my

shoulder here. we have not seen any trucks moving just yet but are expecting that to happen before the end of the weekend. previously hospitals we've spoken to in the area told us they expect to have access to this vaccine as early as monday. in the most states, people getting priority as recommended by the fda advisory board group will be health care workers and also people living in long-term care 2356789facilities. the fda commissioner reminds mee people it's a very big step forward things are far from over. listen to this. >> while our federal partners are already taking steps to distribute the vaccine we remind the public to remain vigilant as inoculation will take time. wear a mask. watch your hands. and remain socially distant when possible. protect yourselves, the vulnerable and others.

>> reporter: there is an american flag on the front side of this pfizer manufacturing planted e! plant lowered at half-staff now because the governor of michigan ordered all flags lowered for ten days to honor and mourn the 10,000-plus michiganders who lost their lives because of this virus. there are so many people who this vaccine did not come soon enough for and very many people who this vaccine will still not come soon enough for. while this is an enormous moment for science, for the country, we cannot forget all of those people that this moment wasn't soon enough for and isn't soon enough for. i keep thinking some of the people i have met, like the 11-year-old when he contracted this virus and lost his life. his dad said slower to speak because of it. once he started speaking he never, ever met a stranger. i think of teri ahern on their way to the hospital, called from the nurse saying not much time

left had to pull over on side of the road and say good-bye to her in a facetime. this is a huge enormous important moment, but we lost so many because of this virus and it is still not over just yet and we cannot forget those families today. loved entertaining people, ms. ahern, and had a very mean christmas eve dinner, she told me, if not for this pandemic. >> thank you, allison barber. fedex and u.p.s. making preparations to ship this vaccine to all corners of the country. cori kaufman is standing by. lots of trucks behind you. what's happening? >> reporter: yeah. a lot of preparation inside, alex. soon as we got word those vaccines would roll out from pfizer's headquarters the next 24 hours, everyone began to ramp up and ready since about mid-november but really, really

standing by now for these next 24 hours. the crowo of "operation warp speed" spoke moments ago about the timing. listen in. >> make no mistake, distribution has begun. right now boxes are being packed and loaded with vaccine with emphasize on quality control. within the next 24 hours, they will begin moving vaccine from the pfizer manufacturing facility to the u.p.s. and fedex hubs, and then it will go out to the 636 locations nationwide. >> reporter: as was mentioned earlier, welcome news, miraculous news for millions of americans. the hubs he mentioned right here in memphis where i'm at for fedex and louisville for u.p.s. historic partnership, fedex takes west side of the country,hams the east side and all sorts of tracking technology on these packages.

tracking location, temperature of the packages and u.s. marshals tracking security making sure they escort all of these and faa with priority when it comes to planes shipped out with these vaccines. the devices, shipments have guises like this ones, called fedex sensor ware i.d. and u.p.s. has a version as well. what it does, with this monitor, bluetooth monitor, allows agents to re-route if there's weather somewhere, alex, or an issue on a route to get the vaccine to the spot where it's needed as quickly as possible. we know these will be here, early as monday. there's just a facility here that will have it in just, just a couple miles ay way from where we are now, could be one of first facilities to get it and historic day for sure. >> and no time wasted. thank you for that. fda approving, that means already packed hospitals soon

distributing this vaccine. go to our senior correspondent chris jansing outside tampa general hospital. good to see you. talk about having your hands full? right, the hospitals? how are they preparing for all of this? >> reporter: well, i gist talked to the folks here and they have actually been prepared for months, since the idea of a vaccine was just a hope and now that it's here, they absolutely can't wait. consider the numbers in florida. 1.1 million people have tested positive for the coronavirus. probably today they will pass 20,000 deaths. so this, tampa general, one of only five hospitals in the state that will be getting a shipment of these dozes. fewer -- fewer than the governor had hoped, because this is the state of 21.5 million people, and look at the numbers. fewer than 180,000 is the initial number of doses for those 21.5 million people. about 97,500 will be going to

hospitals like this. i talked to an infectious disease experts who happens to work here. dr. kim. i asked her, are you ready? >> we're eager for the vaccine and very excited about the vaccine because it means that it's the beginning of the end. it's not quite the end but the beginning of the end. >> so what happened, a risk assessment and obviously the people who are dealing with covid patients every day, and that includes, you know, all of the support staff, custodial staff, respiratory therapists, nurses, doctors, clerks sort of in the unit every day. >> reporter: and that's going to be similar to what we're see at nursing homes. only two counties are initially going to get doses of this vaccine. one is right down the road in pinellas county. st. petersburg, working with cvs and walgreens and everyone in the state going into the nursing

homes and delivering the vaccines. i talked to a group of senior women the other day, asking if they're ready to get it. one of them had had covid. she told me she has spent five months with these symptoms and just starting to come out of it. kind of understated it saying it's no walk in the park. she knows she won't be high on the list, because she already has some immiunity but one of those who can't wait for that. the governor put it yesterday, they believe this is finally turning of the tide. >> extraordinary, though. living five months with the effects of covid-19. hard to imagine. good for her for still being able to talk about it. and logistics questions. bring in the executive director of the association of immunization directors. welcome. just heard the update when the first vaccine shipments should start arriving around the country. on the local level, does that

mean immunization managers now know exactly when health care providers will be getting those first doses? when they'll be able to start their first vaccinations? >> reporte . >> well, the state program managers designated those 636 sites, referred to, mostly hospitals. working closely with the hospitals to support them as they begin vaccinating. yeah. should see them vaccinating during the week, and during the coming week and the program managers will continue to work and as we get additional allocations they will continue to get them out to hospitals and to nursing homes. >> okay. so it is a go. is it now just a matter of putting into motion the plans for who gets vaccinated on day one? who gets vaccinated on day two? or is that part of the process a bit more open-ended? >> well, i think as you just heard. hospitals have been planning this. we've been planning this for months. we're expecting more guidance to

come from cdc advisory committee today, around who to prioritize within that health care worker group, but they've talked about those who have direct contact with covid. and those who have not had covid, not had the disease in the last 90 days. they've given that much guidance. we're expecting a little more about how to prioritize within that health care worker group, and hospitals have been planning this out. they've been looking at their employees. looking at who has direct contact, and really talking with them and communicating to figure where to give those initial doses. >> in firm terms of the outlyi areas, once they arrive in only standard refrigeratorrefrigerat days to use it up. how does that play into the first round? >> correct. with this initial round of pfizer vaccine, it's really only going to hospitals that have

ultra cold storage capacity. we will learn a lot as they give this vaccine out this week. how long it takes to mix the vaccine, to give it to patients. what kind of questions do patients have? really get a better -- a better time frame on how much vaccine can be used in a period of time for clinic? then also could potentially have moderna vaccine coming on which will be a little bit more useful to send to rural and smaller community hospitals. we will have that as well. so once we get this, the initial vaccine shipments out where they have ultra cold we'll know more and able to put the vaccine where it needs to go, and then as we get to providers that don't have that ultra cold storage, they can use the thermal shipping box to store the vaccine for up to 30 days. >> hmm. >> long as they replenish the

dry ice. so we'll figure that out this week. >> you say the moderna vaccine, they have -- flexibility, basically, because it doesn't have to be stored in such extreme cold manners, but is it as effective as pfizer? has that been determined for sure? >> well, you make a good point. that the fda is still reviewing, and their advisory committee is still reviewing the moderna data. they have not released all of that data and have not reviewed it. so from what we know, from what we've heard ts, it is as effect and just as safe. we're hopeful it will -- it still has to go through the review process. >> definitively. okay. look, we have never seen anything in our lifetimes like this massive rollout that's about to unfold. right? these first shipments divided up on a smaller scale for local distribution. in your mind, what phase of this entire process is the most

challenging? what is the most important to get it right the first time? >> well, alex, yeah. i actually got goosebumps watching the initial rollout segment, because this is such a historic day. and i think it's really critical to get health care workers vaccinated, effectively, safely. have good uptake with them so they can turn around and recommend it to others. i'm sure we'll have hiccups. this is obviously something we've never done anything like before, especially with dry ice and ultra cold frozen temperatures. but we're going to work through this, and, you know, this, as they said, is the beginning of the end and it's really important that health care workers have a good experience getting this vaccine. they're confident in it, trust it and turn around and recommend it to others. >> yeah. thank you so much for your vigilance and perspective on all this. appreciate that. for all of you throughout this hour as vials are packaged

for shipment as the trucks roll towards hospitals, as the vaccines, in fact, reach the first patients, we're going to bling it to you on this historic day, and this morning it was a direct question to the head of the fda about reports of vaccine approval pressure from the white house. >> dr. hahn address the elephant in the room. did the white house's threats to fire you have any impact on the fda's decision to get this out quickly? >> that is the question. the not entirely direct answer in moments. stay right there. in moments stay right there. when you switch to xfinity mobile,

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welcome back. showing you the fly in by, weekend right over there by the freedom plaza. so he is raging, we know, on twitter after the supreme court unanimously dismissed a texas lawsuit yoevg beoverturning ele four states, slamming justices for "lack of courage" and retweeted and article calling them missing in action. nbc's josh letterman is in washington, d.c. josh, with a good saturday to you. what's next for the trump campaign after this major, you cannot underscore enough, it is a major loss. >> reporter: a huge major loss. now the electoral college set to meet on monday, alex, to vote on casting their votes in the presidential election. so you might think that would bed end of the road for

president trump's quest to try to overturn results of the election, but, in fact, president trump and his legal team, they instead have their eyes on a different deadline. that's january 6th when congress actually meets to go ahead and vote on the election. so they're hoping they still have a little more time left and rudy guiliani the president's lead attorney pursuing the challenges says they're not done yet. take a listen. >> the legal path, you have to hope that the justices of the state court are going to show somewhat more determination, somewhat more willingness to be willing to take some degree of criticism and some more willi willingness to have an open mind. all we're asking them to do. >> reporter: as far as the state challenges, a lot failed already. the trump team hall their united natio nations -- eyes on a lower court that fail add few days ago and

now the supreme court of wisconsin agreed to take up that case. they're expected to hear arguments this weekend. >> let me ask you, josh, about the word if a proud boy leader who's touring the white house? can you clairify? >> reporter: enrique taro, chairman of the proud boys tweeted invited to an undisclosed location and put out several photographs on parlor. a far-right alternative to twitter and we asked the white house, is he here? meeting with the president? the white house spokesman says he was at the white house for a public tour but president trump did not invite him and the proud boys leader did not meet with the president. >> okay. josh letterman, thank you. joining me, robert costa, msnbc political analyst and moderator for "washington week" on pbs. good to see you on a saturday.

thanks for joining me. before we get into the landmark supreme court decision yesterday, the rollout. white house chief of staff mark meadows threatening to fire the fda commissioner if the vaccine was not approved by friday night. the commissioner pushed back a bit on that report today. here's that. >> the representations in the press that i, was threatened to be fired if we didn't get it done by a certain date is inaccurate. i want to put that on the record. >> dr. marks and i have been clear from beginning. maintain scientific integrity, let the scientists do their job. >> we recognize urgency of the situation and said repeatedly we will work as quickly as we can to come to ta decision and that's what we did. >> curious. your reaction to this, robert. do you know whether the trump administration tried to step up in speed up this process? commissioner hahn said it was inaccurate. that reporting. can you read anything from that? >> reporter: it's clear in this

instance, and many other episodes throughout 2020 the white house including chief of staff mark meadows has mount add pressure campaign of sorts against the food and drug administration. president trump publicly doing so. privately doing so and dr. stephen hahn. nothing new for him to deal with this kind of pressure, nudging from the white house, to move more swiftly when it comes to a vaccine. however, he said there is a scientific process and there is. also a legal process. the food and drug safety act says vaccines and any kind of drug that comes to market must be safe and efficacious. there is a scientific process and a legal process, xrur strun place to make shoe that happens. he has production even when the white house leans in. >> what about the president taking aim, really, at attorney general womilliam barr? hours ago calling on barr be fired, conservative radio, end of business today. what does this tell you about the state of the white house

right now? >> reporter: the president sometimes takes cues from conservative media. seen it before. we saw with attorney general jeff sessions the constant attacks publicly and privately on and attorney general who does not do the bidding of president trump. i'm told by my sources close to the president and close to barr he wants to stay, see this through, through at least january. but he knows he sieves at the plethe -- serves at pleasure of the president. >> conservative heavy supreme court rejected the case, will the president accept the reality of his defeat? >> reporter: he may never concede, i'm told, by his associates even when the electoral college convenience cementing president-elect joe biden's victory. he may never issue a formal concession, about protecting his brand and potentially sweeping effect on american democracy to have an american president not recognize the result in any formal way. though the transition is

happening, publicly, that gsa is working with the biden team to not have the political imprint of the president on the process, raises questions about the sustain act of american democracy in this environment. the not about existence but fragility in this kind of environment. >> indeed. robert, the supreme court issued a unanimous ruling against this lawsuit including all three of donald trump's nominees, appointees? what does that tell you? >> reporter: it tells you that the justices on the supreme court when issuing this order said, to boil it down legally, essentially doesn't make sense for texas to start saying it can sue four other states and say those elections should not be counted and should be redone, or reconsidered. why does texas suddenly have a say over other states' elections? what it came down to. as much as logic as it was law. >> give us a sense what is happening behind the scenes at the white house during these final days of the trump administration? do officials, do staffers know

it's over? are they behaving in that way? >> reporter: some staffers like alissa fara, director of communications already left their jobs. a white house many know in its final days. but they know the president doesn't want to acknowledge that. so it's a lot of hush-hush inside of the west wing about what to say around the president. making sure tha making they're publicly on television signal solidarity with his cause. privately many live in reality even though they want their jobs know he's been defeated. cost of democracy, to be determined. >> you are the perfect person to ask that question. i know you were writing a book about the final days of the trump presidency. curious. what is the thing that stands out most in your mind about what you're finding out about this presidency in these waning days? and the people around this president? >> reporter: base and my previous reporting for the

"washington post," i've not started that project yet. this is a president who has always been under siege and he acts as his own strategist. as he said, he's his on adviser, that m.o. continues to be guiding principle for the trump presidency in its final days. >> robert costa good to talk to you. and potential side effects of the pfizer vaccine raising kearns. should you worry about taking it? someone who received that vaccine during a trial talks to me about what she's experienced, next. s experienced, next. (burke) deep-sea driving, i see...

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half past the hour with breaking news. the first vaccine shipments leave viser's facilipfizer's fa afternoon. assuring the public it will be safe. >> the agency is very concerned about vaccine hesitancy. we are also aware that some feel that the speed with which this

development and regulatory process took place might give them concerns about the vaccine, but it's why we very transparent. we believe that that transparency as well as the rigorous scientific review we've done goes a long way to providing confidence and trust of the american people and fda and this vaccine. >> that vaccine will arrive 145 different sites nationwide monday including here in new york state and there is hope it will bring relief to what was the epicenter of the country's pandemic. msnbc's lindsay wiesner has the latest from staten island, new york. welcome. what is the governor's rollout plan? >> reporter: well, alex, right now this area is still a hot spot. i was here two weeks ago when they opened up the field hospital because of the surge. at the time 14 patients. not the medical director says they have an 45. just yesterday governor cuomo tweeted stant island makes 5% of new york's population but

represents 25% of the coronavirus be kcovid-19 fatalities. there is hope in the form of a vaccine. that could end up going through those doors in the next few days. you mentioned, alex, kworgovern cuomo believes the vaccine will make its way here early as tomorrow. who will go first? high-risk hospital populations? employees at hospitals like this one have first dibs on the initial stockpile from the state. nursing homes part of a federal program where walgreens and cvs employeeless go to those facilities to administer the vaccines much like the flu shot. here at staten island university hospital they're expecting the shipment between monday and wednesday. not exactly sure exactly when it is going to come. therapy not going to require their hospital staff to get it, but have essentially a sophisticated alalgorithm, sayi

lie age, not vaccinating everybody in the icu department working there. they don't expect at versus reaction, but why there is the algorithm. i asked the medical director whether he's going to take the vaccine. >> i don't want to get sick. number one. number two, an example to everyone else, demonstrates that i believe the vaccine is important and i believe the vaccine is safe. and i don't want to be an asymptomatic spreader. >> reporter: so, alex, still a serious situation near staten island. as that doctor said today, he told me today is a mon u mean y momentous day. >> and have reported side effects from the vaccine. pain at injection site, headache, fever, chills, muscle aches. my next guest experienced some

of those side effects. joining me, christian choi, ucla nurse and researcher. thank you for being here. break it into shot one and shot two. walk us through shot one. any side effects that you felt after receiving the first shot? >> sure. first, alex, thank you so much for having me on this morning. after i got the first injection i really didn't have any side effects at all. maybe a bit of pain at the injection site, knoll out of the ordinary and different feel different than a flu shot. of course, a double-blind stud pip i don't know whether i received vaccine or placebo and couldn't begin to guess at that point. second shot was a bit different. after that second injection i developed quite a lot of symptoms. had chills, nausea, fatigue, a headache the day after that vaccine. and then that evening i started to develop a fever and that escalated overnight. woke up next morning with a very high fever. at that point i was pretty sure

i had probably received the active vaccine and not the placebo, because these are common symptoms of the vaccine reaction. >> right. how high was your fever? what did you feel like? were you worried? >> so i had a really high feever that morning. 104.9 degrees. >> wow. >> you know, seeing -- yeah. it was a bit scary. we've all been screening ourselves for feeb efevering fo months as a sign of covid. you seed fever, worry. i took a tylenol, drank water, started to come down quickly. good thing about these vaccines is they absolutely cannot cause the coronavirus and in this case fever happens to also be one of the signals that the vaccine is working. and for me those symptoms went away the same day. >> kristen, tell me why it's a signal the vaccine is working? for layman to understand you feel terrible potentially, at least for a short while. talking, pushing 105 fever. that's significant. so how does that work?

>> absolutely. so when we get a vaccine, vaccines activate our body's immune system. that activation teaching our bodies how to protect themselves from viruses they encounter going forward. unfortunately part of that activation we have symptoms what it feels like to be sick. fever, muscle pain, chills. something that just comes with our bodies learning how to fight the virus. good news is most of these new covid vaccines, most people will not have side effects the wayve transient. just a day. worth it to have one day feeling a bit sick over having the coronavirus. >> although you have said you think you actually had coronavirus? right? if so, how long did those symptoms last? >> you know, that was more of just a gut reaction to seeing a fever. again, fevers are something we've been screening ourselves for as a signal of covid. i know, though, i did not, because i was tested and studied

that same day and knew i was negative. this case, fever was a vaccine reaction. >> okay. seemed like you were a bit surprised by your own side effects that they were so serious. you've explained sort of the, the technical spaaspect of the medical aspect why that might be. any indication the symptoms would be that severe? did you expect that? >> they gave a warning common vaccine reactions that could occur. erg i experien everything i experienced. as a nurse who gives shots themselves we can rush through the explanations. quickly list the sim symptoms without giving time what it will look and feel like. in some cases you may need a day off work to recover. for the vaccine, important for health care workers to do, take time to explain to patients what this is going to look like and address kearns they might have.

>> i want to thank you, kristen choi, considers done that for our viewers. appreciate you sharing your experience so well with us. bernie sanders still in the run for a post at the biden administration. joining me next to tell us whether his members, a million strong, by the way, were onboard with that. rd with that.

there are now 39 days until joe biden is sbooworn into the l office and ethe former vice president is still building his cabinet. labor secretary. according to politico, include chief economist bill spriggs, andy levin, julie zhu, and senator bernie sanders and margie walsh. joining me now, richard trumka.

thank for being here. is there a name that stands out to you? who do you want to see get the position and how important is it for you? >> very important decision because it affects our rights and enforces rights, also deals significantly with trade. look, we're looking for a cabinet, alex, that's diverse. and when we talked about diversity, we're not just talking about one that has about sex and race and gender and sexual entity. we're talking about economic diversity as well. we want people in the cabinet that really understand working people. and the people, i think, that you put up there do understand working people, and we want them in the cabinet. you know, i would say that the majority support right now the labor movement, behind marty walsh, but there's significant support for others listed as well. a very, very important position

to us. >> what is it about marty walsh that stands out and a significant amount of support for him? >> he's a union member. carried the tools. understands what working people go through every day. he's been through all the fights that we've been through. he understands the work and power dynamics on the work site and understands how important health and safety is to workers. >> so i'm going to presume since the name you threw out there, that's your preferred choice ever bernie sanders and yet bernie sanders certainly has been a torchbearer and champion fighting for all of those things. what do you think of that possibility? >> let me make something clear, alex. it's not my choice. it's the choice by all of our affiliates, who they would prefer. but the ultimate choice going to be joe biden's choice. who he feels comfortable with ultimately. look, bernie sanders is a good man. i think he would make a great secretary of state of labor. i think other people on that list would make great secretary

of labors as well. i was just telling you i think majority of support in the labor movement right now is behind one of them. >> hmm. from biden's economic team, to this latest appointment, the u.s. trade representative, what do this tell you so far and tell the members of afl-cio? high will the biden folks work to protect american workers? >> alex, i don't think there's been much alignment between america's unions and workers and incoming president since johnson administration. the people that are in there are doing great. think about this. you now have a treasury secretary who understands and wants to raise wages. you have an economic team that's focused on building unions and giving us power. you have a trade representative who will now give workers needs a seat at table. those are all good for working people, and he's fulfilling his

promises to represent working people across the country. >> yeah. richard, talk for a moment about fracking, because it was certainly a controversial issue in the 2020 election. how important an issue is this for you for your union members? do they fear for their livelihoods if there's no future of fraccing in a biden administration? >> first of all, that's not joe's, i mean president biden's position. he said there would be no fracking on federal lands, nothing about private lands and very little exploration is done on federal lands. fracking is important to our members because it's important to jobs. there are literally hundreds of thousands of jobs that could be eliminated and when we're having a pandemic, and you have 26.1 million people right now who are either unemployed or out of work because of the pandemic or receiving lower wages and lower hours, lower pay, getting rid of more jobs is not the solution we're looking for.

>> yeah. you're from pennsylvania. you have worked in the mines, even president of the united mine workers, richards. what do you say to the coal miners out there concerned? what are they telling you? >> well, you know, everybody's concerned about their job and about their industry. i am, too. they understand that we have to do, have to have an industry that's consistent with the environment as well. they went through that. we want to make sure we're not left behind in the process look, right now president trump talked a good game about helping miners, but there are actually 133,000 fewer miners now than the day that he took office. he really hasn't helped miners. joe biden at least says, everything will be part of the mix. he's looking to do carbon capture and carbon sequestration which will actually help mining jobs, keepappalachia.

where i group up was a mine and town and the town was built around that mine. when the mine goes down, literally the town goes down, and they think you can just go get another job, but there aren't a lot of other jobs in that area. so they're livelihoods, they're very important to them, and as we transition to a lower carbon or a no-carbon society, we cannot leave behind the people that built this economy, and this country relied on their efforts. they bled, they sweat and they died to provide energy for this country, and we simply won't allow them to be tossed aside like yesterday's newspaper. they have to be guaranteed a future as well and we're going to make sure that happens. >> spoken like the president of the afl-cio. richard trumka, thank you. appreciate your time with us. >> alex, thanks for having me on. really appreciate it. >> okay. leaked audio from a biden-harris transition meeting

raises new questions about the administration's approach to police reform. reverend al sharpton, in that meeting, the rev joins me next with his perspective. next with his perspective. ♪ ♪ ♪ smooth driving pays off. ♪ with allstate, the safer you drive the more you save. ♪ you never been in better hands. allstate. click or call for a quote today.

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try our new gummies for 30 days and see the difference. today we are announcing leaders who will help deliver immediate relief to every corner of our great country from rural communities to big cities and every place in between. leaders who will help care for our veterans and their families, and advance opportunity for all americans at this consequential moment in our country. >> the biden transition is moving full-speed ahead. the president and vice president-elect choosing more cabinet positions including faces from the obama administration. this after meeting with the incoming administration and several civil rights leaders who pressed biden and harris to include more diverse candidates among their high-level picks.

joining me, someone in that meeting. reverend al sharpton, host of msnbc's "politics nation" and my really good buddy. you were on that call with biden and harris. what happened? what was it all about? first of all, mr. biden had met with us virtually when the campaign was going on. the civil rights organizations, and he committed at that time that if he won he would meet with us, and he did. so the meeting came out of a commitment he had made to those seven existing national civil rights groups, national action network and my respect respectively. we wanted to see diversity at the top level of the kcabinet. clearly the communications staff and staff under karine

jean-pierre and symone sanders and other, very impressive. we see some of what the vice president-elect has done with some selections but said what about the statutory cabinet seat? that day he announced the defense nominee, secretary of state n state -- secretary of defense nominee. at this time of george floyd, breonna taylor, we are concerned about that and also voting irregulariti irregularities, dealing think those attempting to overturn our general election. we need an attorney general, i police officer a black, but at least involved in civil rights and voting acts. that was what the meeting was about. >> rev, do you have a name in mind, specifically for ag? and you know as of our reporting that i know doug jones of alabama is a leading contender

at this point, but who do you, who would you like to see in that position? >> i mean, we have not -- we're not giving names. i mean, many of them are qualified and meet the criteria of having a civil rights background. i said my preference was a black, but anyone with a civil rights background is the least we could do. we did not meet as brokers for candidates. we met as civil rights leaders saying, this must be open. yes, we mentioned a tony west is qualified, or a devalue patrick, for attorney general, and we didn't go into broker for a candidate. we wanted to just say that we as a community heard straight commitments from you and want to see that those commitments are lived up to. >> gotcha. what about the new leaked audio, rev, from that meeting? biden appears to blame the defund the police for the down

ballot ballots. >> i also don't think we should get too far ahead of ourselves dealing with police reform in that, because they have already labeled us as being defund the police. anything we put forward in terms of the organizational structure to change policing which i promise you will occur, promise you. >> how did people react in the meeting to that, rev? >> first of all, he did not say anything on tape he didn't say in public. he's raised hi questioning about the defund the police sewingen before. what's the news? for us, i promise you we will deal with defunding the police. i promise you. we wanted him to say now that you won, that you're going to keep the commitment you made around police reform. which means we are going to deal with things like the george floyd bill, and i was there with him when he met with george floyd's family.

there doing the eulogy at the funeral. >> i remember. >> we want to know promises made are promises kept. those that want to play a right-wing game and say, oh, he said about defund the police. he's been saying that. that's not a new statement. you didn't have to leak that. the real commitment was, i promise you we're going to follow-up on police reform. that's what we ought to talk about. >> give me a sense on the weeks before the really important georgia elections, defund the police. if that is uttered over and over again, might that hurt those two democratic candidates? >> i think if you have the proper interpretation of defund the politician, where those that have come with in a have said they're talking about operating funds, right? you have some police departments overfunded in some areas and we can't get the results we want doing the same thing over and over again. distortion of the slogan is the problem. the right wing will use bhafr

they c whatever they can. georgia runoff not just using slogans throwing roiidiculous a untrue accusations against the candidate. will they use defund the police? they will use any and everything they can including go to the supreme court to try to overthrow an election. so clearly we're not dealing with people that wouldn't use something. the question is whether people will come out and turn out and protect what has been won on election day and do the same in georgia. >> what i do all the time, i use you to help clarify all issues on my show. reche, thank you, my friend. for all of you, catch al sharpton's show at 5:00 every saturday afternoon. and now have a the vaccine is approved, who is first to get it and when? a team of reporters are on the lookout, next. he lookout, next.

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gotta respect his determination. it's easy and affordable to get started. get self protection for $10 a month. good day from msnbc world headquarters in new york. welcome, everyone, to "weekends with alex witt." a lot going on on the covid-19 front. bring you up? date right now. breaking news. a glimpse of hope amid the darkness of this pandemic right now. the nation's first covid-19 vaccine is being packaged at pfizer's facility in michigan. it will be shipped out tomorrow morning, with the first deliveries arriving on monday.

earlier today head of "operation warp speed" detailed the plan. >> within the next 24 hours they will begin moving vaccine from the pfizer manufacturing facility to the u.p.s. and fedex hubs. and then it will go out to the 636 locations nationwide. we expect 145 sites across all the states to receive vaccine on monday. another 425 sites on tuesday, and the final 66 sites on wednesday. >> this major step comes as more than 296,000 americans have died from covid. more than the number of americans who died on the battle field during the four years of world war ii. just this week the united states passed a record 3,000 deaths per day. this comes as coronavirus relief talks stalled on capitol hill with next week's deadline inches closer.