he will say eventually i did not win. >> of course. because -- of course. all right, mike allen, thank you as always. my friend, i really appreciate that. remarkable reporting about john mccain. i will leave you with one thought which is something that john thune told reporters about donald trump's loss. he said at some point you have to face the music. thank you to getting up "way too early" on a tuesday morning. don't go anywhere. "morning joe" starts right now. vice president-elect harris and i earned 306 electoral votes, well exceeding the 270 electoral votes needed to secure victory. 306 electoral votes is the same number of electoral votes that donald trump and vice president pence received when they won in 2016. at the time, president trump calls the electoral college

tally a landslide. by his own standards these numbers represented a clear victory then and i respectfully suggest they do so now. every single avenue is made available to president trump to contest the results. he took full advantage of each and every one of those avenues. president trump was denied no course of action he wanted to take. he took his case to republican governors and republican secretary of state as he criticized many of them. to republican state legislatures, to republican appointed judges at every level. and in the case decided after the supreme court's latest rejection, a judge appointed by president trump wrote, quote, this court has allowed the plaintiff the chance to make his case and he's lost on the merits. >> the electoral college yesterday cast the formal vote to make joe biden the next president of the united states. confirming the 306 vote victory

he secured five weeks ago and with that we finally got the recognition of biden's win that we have all been waiting for. >> yes. wait for it. wait for it. >> this morning, the kremlin announced that russian president vladimir putin had sent a message of congratulations to president-elect joe biden. good morning and welcome -- >> well, there it is. let the confetti fall from the creeling. >> whatever at this point. it is tuesday, december 15th. we have chief white house correspondent for "the new york times," peter baker and msnbc contributor shawna thomas as well. >> but in all fairness, willie, there are quite a few holdouts in the republican party who are actually behind vladimir putin in recognizing that joe biden is going to be the next -- >> coming along. >> they're coming along. we had quite a few come out yesterday. but still, kevin mccarthy the man who said famously that he

knew that dana rohrabacher and trump were on vladimir putin's payroll he allowed vladimir putin to get the word out first. >> if you're keeping a list, vladimir putin beats mccarthy to congratulate joe biden as the next president of the united states. after the electoral college made it official official official saying well, the president's paths are certainly narrowing to victory here. they're holding out, hanging on, and going along the ride. the electoral college made it official yesterday. >> and peter baker, you wrote about it, quite a day yesterday. >> wow. >> the day that officially ended the election and actually gave hope to the deadly, deadly pandemic. >> yeah. i felt like it was an inch point, the two big, big events ending the year, a year rough on a lot of americans. we have had a year -- of course

the coronavirus, racial strife, street violence, economic dislocation and political division of the likes of which we haven't really seen in generations. certainly not in combination. so i think yesterday kind of had this amazing feel that there was at least, you know, a path forward. right? we could see the day that the vaccine will come along and be available to everybody and finally defeat the disease. we can see the day, january 20th, when there will be a new president and there's no longer any dispute about that, despite the refusal of the president to agree to that. nobody can make a rational case other than a biden administration in store for us. it was a split screen feel, the images you showed of peopling get the shots and the images of the electors in state capitals around the country ratifying the election results of november

3rd. >> and then, shawna, soon after the election results were ratified the end of bill barr's shameful term as attorney general is announced. >> yeah. i mean, it does say something if bill barr feels the need to resign or fired, that's confusing, but he did release a resignation letter before the end of president trump's term on january 20th at 12:01 p.m. eastern time. that something is going on on top of bill barr not being willing to go along with president trump saying that the election was rigged which as we keep repeating it does not appear to be rigged. it was not rigged. the election was carried out by lots and lots of people who joe biden name checked in the speech who on state and city levels did their job. carried out democracy. judges carried out democracy

actually by even deigning to begin to hear some of the complaints from president trump's lawyers. the system while slow and messy worked and bill barr chose to come out yesterday and president trump chose to let him come out yesterday and say, hey, i don't want to help you with the system anymore. the system in some respects worked. so i do think it's funny that he's going to step down right before president biden is inaugurated. it is unusual for an attorney general to step down, but one thing that i found to be interesting about the electoral college yesterday which i went back to look at 2008 and president obama's transition records, and he had his speech about his energy and environmental team that didn't even mention the electoral college. it is crazy how far we have come and i'm going to give president trump one bit of kudos in that he has allowed us to really see how democracy works and play out

and have this different schoolhouse rock lesson in front of us since we were all watching state capitols and the electoral college yesterday. so there's at least that. but you know, maybe bill barr is doing the right thing for his own personal history. >> well, actually, what happened was bill barr -- >> forced to write a letter. >> backed against the wall and forced to write a letter because donald trump obviously was going to fire him. but bill barr ended up doing what other republicans ended up doing. when they could undermine american democracy by their words, when they could spread propaganda that vladimir putin couldn't pay for, when they could lie about investigations that were conducted, he would gladly lie about mueller's investigation and misstate facts.

when he had a chance to go and testify in the senate and the house, he would openly commit perjury. still surprised no one ever brought charges against him for that. but like those local republican officials when it came to signing his name on a legal document, that would expose him legally in the years to come, he never did it. barr ended up just being like trump. just like all of the republicans in washington, d.c. like the 106 that signed on to that -- >> 26. >> 26, they had no problem with gestures that undermined american democracy. they just wouldn't sign their name on the dotted line in a way that would expose them legally to undermining the united states of america. so it's interesting, barr leaves

with -- with one of the most horrific records for any attorney general. he was donald trump's roy cohn, but as we got near the end of the election there were some things that even he -- even he wouldn't do, willie. >> yeah. that was his one sin, right at the end a couple of weeks ago that he said the justice department has found no evidence of widespread fraud. obviously that infuriated president trump, drew his ire and it's preposterous that barr is going home and he can't return for the final two weeks of the administration. as you alluded to his resignation letter continues the narrative of victimhood for the president. that was part of the deal he had to write the letter and undermining that he thought the president was the victim of base list allegations, stepping in to defend president trump again. >> okay. so this year's electoral college vote came with some concerns of

violence against electors. arizona electors voted at an undisclosed location and in michigan, the state house was closed because of credible threats electors had to be protected by police. can you believe this? as for the vote, the state of california with the 55 elect or the votes put joe biden over the threshold at 5:30 eastern time. arizona added the four electoral votes two hours later. despite the alarming push to ignore the actual vote count and have state legislatures appoint trump replacement electors, all votes were cast for the candidate who won them. there were no faithless electors. >> so brendan, let me bring you

in here. so the center held. the center held. i don't know how many times the second coming was quoted in op-eds over the past four years. but -- >> this is professor of government at dartmouth college, brendan nyhan. welcome. >> so the center held and we especially saw federal judges doing their job. we saw local republican officials doing their job. and yet, we saw that some people had to cast a vote, a ministerial vote in hidden locations because of fear of violence. where are we right now? you've studied this so much over the last five years and where are we right now as a country? >> well, yesterday, was good news. the process did end up completing in the way that we

would hope, given the vote and given the outcome. i think you're right to point to the legal outcomes as reassuring. judges across this country regardless of which president appointed them re-affirmed joe biden's victory as the legitimate outcome. at the same time though, we see tens of millions of americans who don't view this outcome as legitimate. we see a president who's continuing to question legitimacy of the outcome and we see almost two-thirds of the members of the house of representatives on the republican side signing on to a baseless texas lawsuit that, you know, questions the outcome of the election and under those circumstances, it is worrisome whether future, you know, future elections will -- the outcomes will be respected in a way that we would hope. you know, this time, we got through it. we passed the test. but barely. and we have unfortunately broken new ground in the way that people are rejecting the outcome and i find that worrisome.

>> when you say barely, talk about your biggest concern. where did we come closest to -- where did we come closest to watching real damage being done to this republic's institutions? >> we could certainly imagine if the election had been closer that this effort could have been more successful. you know, if it had come down to one state, would there seriously have been an alternate slate of electors put forward? if it had come down to one state, could, you know, a handful of judges have thrown, you know, the election outcome? we saw a close vote in wisconsin on whether to hear the challenge there. just a 4-3 vote. you know, the margin here is smaller than people might think and, you know, it's important to reaffirm that while democracy continues -- democracy isn't a binary concept. part of democracy is to assume

that the power will continue and when almost two-thirds of one party is challenging the outcome of an election, baselessly, that is -- that is dangerous and worrisome to the stability of democracy going forward. you know, is -- does it become part of the playbook after elections to question whether they were legitimately decided? is that something we see after every election because ultimately people take cues from their leaders. when their leaders tell them this election you know wasn't legitimate or fairly decided they listen. tens of millions of people have been lied to about what happened in this election. >> i think the ramifications are far from over, but it's also why we can't let a lot of the broken norms we have witnessed over the past four years go by. and joe biden didn't either. it was quite a speech he made last night where he addressed the issues at hand as well as tried to -- tried to bring forward some empathy and sort of a stabilizing force as well. take a listen.

>> our democracy pushed, tested, threatened, proved to be resilient, true and strong. the electoral college votes which occurred today affect the fact that even in the face of the public health crisis unlike anything we have experienced four lifetimes. the people voted. one of the extraordinary things we saw this year was that everyday americans, our friends and our neighbors, often volunteers, democrats, republicans, independents, demonstrating absolute courage. they showed a deep and unwavering faith in and a commitment to the law. they did their duty in the face of a pandemic. and then they could not and would not give credence to what they knew is not true. they knew this election was overseen and it was overseen by them. it was honest. and it was free and it was fair.

they saw it with their own eyes and they wouldn't be bullied into saying anything different. we all wish that our fellow americans in these positions will always show such courage and commitment to free and fair elections. it is my sincere hope we never again see anyone subjected to the kind of threats and abuse we saw in this election. it's simply unconscionable. 17 republican attorneys general and 126 republican members of the congress actually -- they actually signed on to a lawsuit filed by the state of texas. that lawsuit asked the united states supreme court to reject the certified vote counts in georgia, michigan, pennsylvania and wisconsin. this legal maneuver was an effort by elected officials and one group of states to try to get the supreme court to wipe out the votes of more than 20 million americans in other

states. and to hand the presidency to a candidate who lost the electoral college, lost the popular vote and lost each and every one of the states whose votes they were trying to reverse. it's a position so extreme we never have seen it before. a position that refused to respect the will of the people, refused to respect the rule of law and refused to honor our constitution. thankfully, a unanimous supreme court immediately and completely rejected this effort. the court sent a clear signal to president trump that they would be no part of the assault on our democracy. >> the electoral college day is not a day that we have seen a president make a speech like that. but we didn't used to know when that day was as we heard a little bit earlier in the show. so what is the sort of the vibe

inside the biden transition right now because he -- the president-elect has shown restraint for the most part over six weeks. but kind of let it rip a little bit yesterday. >> yeah. he did. i think he has not wanted to engage in a tit for tat exchange because for one thing it might choose to undignify it and there were two sides of this debate and there aren't two sides. every single court except in one minor instance has said there's no there there. the united states supreme court didn't even think it was worth issuing full opinions on it. it was so -- you know, untenable in their view. they dismissed it with the one-page statement joined by all nine justices. i think that's -- that was a conclusion that the biden camp wanted to leave out there not to

engage in the extended election campaign. but he did feel i think the need after the electoral college vote to once and for all address these issues so that americans who were wondering what was going on could at least hear his view of it which is that -- there's been an attempt to overturn the will of the people. it has been rejected. the system had held in that sense. he wanted to address that before moving on. but i think from now on, you'll see probably moving forward he's been very steady as she goes in assembling the team and the coronavirus vaccine he has to continue and that's the tone he'll strike. >> shawna, it's been interesting that so much of what donald trump's done over the past four years he's done to his own detriment. and now, while there have been obviously legitimate complaints about what he's been doing over

the past four weeks since the election he has provided extraordinary cover to joe biden. instead of having one article after another article from a group on the left or the right or republicans or democrats attacking his choices for the cabinet, that's always at the bottom of the page. below the seven outrageous things that president trump said or did the day before, the court challenges. might we start to see sort of a more intense examination of joe biden in the coming month now that it seemed to a lot of the election challenges are going to start receding? >> i mean, i think so because i think that especially the progressive wing of the democratic party, they have made their sort of annoyances about some of joe biden's choices to be known, but to be honest, we still have as you said another month of president trump and i

don't get any indication that at least his complaints about this are going to stop. and as much as people may want the media -- the media to stop talking about what the president is doing, i do think we are going to continue to talk about it for a couple of reasons. one, president trump is still the president of the united states until january 20th. two, every move he makes especially after this point now that the electoral college has certified joe biden as president-elect becomes another move to undermine democracy. and i don't know how we don't cover that. and then we are also going to want to know how the 120 plus republicans how they're going to act come the day congress needs to then count the electoral college votes. at the beginning of january. so i think president trump is going to continue to give joe biden cover when he actually has a built-in story that could help -- though i'm not totally

sure how you could do this that could help his legacy in operation warp speed and we saw people get their vaccines in their arms yesterday to try to stem this pandemic to a certain extent. so, you know, i think there will be the infighting that we all expect. there will be people who will be annoyed by president biden's choice for attorney general whoever he chooses. but do you think that president trump will stop talking about it was stolen from him? because if he wants to continue to run in 2024, this is a way to hijack his party. >> still ahead on "morning joe," the first coronavirus vaccine in new jersey will be administered this morning. we'll go live to that state for the very latest. plus, the pressure is mounting on capitol hill for another coronavirus relief deal and now a bipartisan group of lawmakers has released not one, but two bills.

the question is will anything actually get passed? you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. how about no

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i took the vaccine because as a health care worker i have seen so much suffering and so much death and pain and harm and i know that everyone needs to do their part to put an end to the pandemic and this is just my small part. >> that is sandra lindsay, a new york city nurse speaking yesterday after she became the first person in the united states to receive the coronavirus vaccine. and this morning, it is new jersey's turn to get going. joining us news is nbc correspondent antonio hylton, where the first medical workers in that state are set to receive the vaccine today. good morning.

>> good morning. that's exactly right. this is a big and historic day here in new jersey. and this hospital university hospital is actually a pretty special and symbolic site. a handful of the health care front line workers will get the vaccine and then they'll talk to reporters like myself but this is a majority minority city, newark. it has been hit really hard by this virus. long history of discrimination, segregation here and the people who worked at this hospital have not only is served patients but they themselves have experienced it. some of them have lost loved ones or themselves gotten sick so there's the duality of them both being health care workers but residents of this historic city. and, you know, there's a flip side to that as well. a survey taken here at this site found that only 50% of their

workers are feeling ready to take this vaccine. so while there's going to be a couple of people coming out excited today, a large amount of the staff here overrepresented as people of color, they're still feeling nervous about it because, you know, even though they see what this virus can do, they're still members of if community here in newark. they suffer from the same distrust we have been hearing about the last several days and the team has their work cut out for them in the community and the staff here too. >> there are health care professionals who are still skeptical themselves. antonio hylton, thanks so much. mika? let's bring back professor of government at dartmouth college, brendan nyhan. he has a new piece in "the atlantic" about how to build trust in the vaccines. to succeed in immunizing the population against covid-19, the united states must draw on the resources it already has.

explain what you mean by that. >> well, there's two important resources here. the first is that people overwhelming already vaccinate their kids, so america's actually much more pro vaccine than people realize. you know, more than 90% of us fully protect our kids when they enter school. against the communicable diseases that used to ravage the country and that's how we've gotten rid of the diseases that were so deadly. we can build on that success here as we try to turn the page against this pandemic. the other resource though is the network of trust that exists in our communities. so it's going to be really important when we are rolling out this vaccine to address the distrust that exists that was brilliantly highlighted in the report which i thought was excellent. so to start with folks who are trusted by the public and to use them as trusted messengers to

convince people that this vaccine is safe and effective. it starts with people like anthony fauci at the national level and it starts with your health care providers, the health care providers you have a trust with. that's important in the communities of color where the distrust exists, we need to find leaders in the communities who can most effectively advocate to other folks in the communities and can show themselves being vaccinated like that nurse in new york city. those kind of messages i think can be quite powerful in getting people to get this vaccine out into the population where it can protect people. >> so peter baker, the white house specifically donald trump finds himself in a specific -- in an interesting position when it comes to the pandemic. he and his supporters have mocked and ridiculed anthony fauci, scientists and doctors throughout the entire crisis. he started by calling it a hoax. many of the supporters called it

a hoax. midsummer this was a huge conspiracy theory video called plandemic that got millions of views on facebook and it influenced what many trump believers thought about the pandemic and the vaccine, that this was all a conspiracy theory between anthony fauci and bill gates. i don't know if they threw in the trilateral commission and the build abergs or not, but everyone was going to get together and make billions off the phony vaccines. now it seems the white house changes every day. first they're going to be the first in line to get it and then president trump said no and then i started to hear reports they're scrambling to get the vaccine. where is the president, where is the white house? are we going to see a picture of donald trump, are members of the white house getting the shot in their arms? >> yeah, it's a great question. we're in this odd position where on the one hand, you -- there's a dynamic in which we say we

need our leader to show leadership by getting the shots themselves, right, to demonstrate trust and demonstrate faith in this new vaccine. that's what you heard former presidents bush, obama and clinton say they'll do on camera. at the same time, you don't want -- politicians are worried like they're jumping the line. that they're getting something that the american public can't get. remember the first batch is going to the front line workers and the health care workers and the elderly workers living in the homes that are targeted by the virus. so you have the competing political, you know, dynamics here. i think the president of the united states, you know, is demonstrating that personally himself. the white house first was going to say yes, we're going to go ahead and vaccinate people in the white house. the leadership according to the continuity of government and plan. that's you know, the idea we have to keep the government going. you know, to protect them and then the president liked -- when

my colleagues tweeted out about it and, no, we won't have the white house staff go first. at the moment, the white house staff hasn't heard what's going on at this point. they haven't gotten any clear direction on what will happen for themselves and the same on the hill. senator schumer said i'll get it as soon as it's appropriate to get, but i don't want to jump the line. i think it's good for the public to see the president getting it, when president ford did it and clinton when he got the smallpox vaccine like the military got during the iraq war, but yet they don't want to take advantage of something. >> thank you, brendan nyhan. early in person voting for the

georgia senate runoffs has officially kicked off. polling locations opened around the state where roughly 1.2 million voters have already requested absentee ballots. and more than 260,000 have already voted by mail. it is estimated that between 3.5 and 4 million georgians will vote in the january 5th runoffs. president-elect joe biden will travel to georgia today to campaign for jon ossoff and raphael warnock. more information is emerging about russia's hacking and the national institute of healths joined the commerce departments as targets of the espionage campaign, according to "the washington post." officials speaking to the paper said that the list of federal agencies breached by russian hackers is now expected to grow

in parts of the pentagon were also reportedly compromised by that hacking. tony award winning choreographer and actress ann reinking has died. she was known for her style of dance and she was featured in the revival of the broadway muse "chicago" along with other roles like sweet charity, over here and good time charlie. she also co-starred in the 1982 film version of "annie." reinking passed away while visiting family over the weekend in seattle. the cause of death is unknown. and lin-manuel miranda, star of "hamilton" tweeted this. a singular talent has left us. reinking was 71 years old. coming up, "the new york

times" jerry peters joining us. inside the right wing media bubble where the myth of a trump win lives on. "morning joe" is coming right back. my nunormal: fewer asthma attacks. less oral steroids. taking my treatment at home. nucala is a once-monthly add-on injection for severe eosinophilic asthma. not for sudden breathing problems. allergic reactions can occur. get help right away for swelling of face, mouth, tongue, or trouble breathing. infections that can cause shingles have occurred. don't stop steroids unless told by your doctor. tell your doctor if you have a parasitic infection. may cause headache, injection site reactions, back pain, and fatigue. ask your doctor about nucala at home. find your nunormal with nucala.

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more republican senators have now acknowledged joe biden's win in the electoral college vote. speaking off camera to reporter senate majority whip john thune of south dakota said it's time for everybody to move on. texas senator john cornyn acknowledged biden's path to becoming the next president and said that protesting the electoral count would be a bad mistake. senator rob portman of ohio

issued a clear statement affirming the win, writing in part although i supported president trump the electoral college vote today makes clear that joe biden is now the president-elect. senator lindsey graham of south carolina was a bit more evasive saying in part, quote, it's very, very narrow path for the president. i don't see how it gets there from here. given what the supreme court did and he added that he had spoken to biden and some of his likely cabinet nominees. senator joni ernst of iowa said, quote, like it or not, i know for iowans it's disappointing, but the process is what it is and the constitution will be followed. asked if that means biden is the president-elect, ernst said if that's what the electoral college decides today. okay. and senator john barrasso of wyoming said he would quote, respect the results of the

electoral college vote today. even if he was disappointed. all right. joining us now nbc news capitol hill correspondent and host of "way too early," kasie hunt. also with us "new york times" reporter jeremy peters. >> kasie hunt, so it looks like a lot of these members are at least hinting at -- >> they're there. >> they're there. what they have been saying to you and me and other people privately for some time. it seems like the dam really broke yesterday. >> three cheers for democracy, right? this was too obvious i think for any of them to decide that they were going to continue to keep this up and, you know, thune i think had my favorite quote which was a message directed straight at president trump. he said, in the end, at some point, you have to face the music. and that is something that all of us in our day to day lives have had to deal with, figure out how to, you know, live with

those kinds of disappointments. we have clearly seen the president is not very good at it, but republicans are finally at the point where they're saying, nope, we have to move on with. this i mean, lindsey graham of course he's talked to joe biden. of course he's trying to reach out to the people that he knows are going to be in power. that's the nature of the business. they all know that the center of power is shifting and frankly, especially is somebody like lindsey graham who joe, i know you know very well, he wants to be close to the center of power and he knows it's not going to be president trump for much longer. >> i have known him since 1994 and i know that if joe biden invited him to sleep in the lincoln bedroom on january 20th, lindsey -- >> he would bring his jammies. >> he would bring his jammies and his blankey and he'd be there. so jeremy petes, while republican senators are facing the reality that -- well, actually that they have known all along, they're just saying it out loud, there are of course

trump -- pro trump outlets that actually are becoming even a bit more bizarre in their ramblings. there was a split between newsmax and the other one yesterday that newsmax seemed to recognize that, yes, joe biden was going to be the next president. >> you're right. they did. although i caveat that, joe, by pointing out they did have the word president-elect in quotes on newsmax for most of the day. so it doesn't appear that they're quite taking it as seriously as most other people, including those on capitol hill. and i think that really this is a moneymaker for a lot of the media companies. it's an audience generator. it's a money maker for the trump campaign because they send out email solicitations at the rate of what seems like one an hour

and they have legal bills and debt that they have to pay off. this is something that you have seen across the conservative movement as a whole where there's money to be made by getting people excited about unwinnable causes and that's frankly what this entire process has been about. it's about setting the bar, saying we can win this court case. we can push these state legislators to do something that they're not going to do and then when those battles fail, trial and his allies move the goalpost and they say, well, as we saw stephen miller do yesterday which i thought was really extraordinary. for anyone who's thinking that the republican party issing go to be right there behind joe biden all the way i would point to stephen miller's comments yesterday and he said the only thing that matters -- the only date on the calendar that matters is january 20th, the day that the inauguration is stipulated in the constitution.

so that's a long way from now and i think there's going to be a lot of belly aching and a lot of empty threats of new lawsuits over the next several weeks. >> yeah. i don't know the stephen miller thinks he can put joe biden in a cage like he put children in a cage but it will end very badly for him if he doesn't vacate his office just like president trump by 12 noon on january 20th. the president knew he lost, the republicans on both sides of capitol hill knew he lost. but donald trump has been using this to raise a lot of money. last time i saw he raised over $200 million. you have the tv cable channels who are making a ton of money by simply denying reality but that's what's happened over the past four years. the second trump won the republican nomination, they had

some scribers or they had people listening to the podcasts and suddenly all of the never trumpers on talk radio, in news publications, on podcasts, in the blogosphere, on cable news, suddenly they had a conversion. he went from being the horrid human being to being somebody they have to sport and they did it because they have to appeal to the trump people, they can't piss them off. you look, time and time again you had people saying again in the primary, what a horrid human being he was. and kayleigh mcenany or however you say her name, said what a horrible human being he was, they all did. they all did and then he got elected, they followed the power and these media outlets followed the money. people say, you know, oh, you guys supported trump because of -- no, we actually didn't.

so we were against him and said it blatantly, compared him to hitler back in december of 2015. and actually, the closer he came to power, the more -- the more we pushed back. but these people, these never trumpers suddenly loved trump when he got in power. and then in part it's because their subscription base depended on it. their livelihood depended on it so they followed the tyrant over the cliff. >> they did and they're still making a lot of money off that victimhood that has been at the center of donald trump's story for so many years. he's now the victim of the media. he's the victim of democrats. he's become the victim of courts. he's become the victim of state electors doing their job and the victim of the three supreme court justices he nominated and got confirmed to the supreme court. he expected some kind of transaction from them, didn't get it as those two motions were

slapped down quickly by the supreme court. so the narrative of victimhood has to remain in place for the story to continue and for the money to keep flowing and as you said, donald trump is raising a ton of money. there are the text messages and emails to the supporters to prove it. we need $35 right now to continue to prosecute that case and that money goes somewhere else so he's hustling his own voters to build up his own pocket book and the pocket book of the republican party. speaking, kasie, of the republican party and the leader there, mitch mcconnell is talking about covid relief again. he's going to have an availability today. he might recognize joe biden as president-elect, i guess we'll have to wait and see about that. but let's talk about legislation in front of us. the clock is really ticking. it has been ticking for a couple of weeks now but we're getting up against the holiday and a recess here. for the people who have lost track of the process which i suspect is most people watching right now, where are we and how likely are we to get some help

to the people who so desperately need it? >> well, willie, we're in a better place than we have been. they are moving toward what question think is going to be the broad outlines of a deal. but, of course, nothing is final until everything is agreed to. so what people are seeing on the screen right now is the way they're trying to solve this political problem. they took out the two most controversial pieces that democrats and republicans have been in the standoff over and they set them aside in the different bill and put together everything that americans really need, help for small businesses and also money to distribute vaccines. that's stuff everyone basically agrees on. so they're going to take that and they're going to set it aside in a separate package and i think the hope is that that's going to ease the way for this to move forward and perhaps they can deal with some of those other more controversial questions later on. but there is still a lot of time

between now and friday. when we have this major deadline. we could see i think some more ups and downs in this process but i think people at this point can feel a little bit better about where things stand as they head into the holiday season. i think it's so important to point out that people are trying to figure out what to do. they're separated from their families. they're struggling to get by and to put food on their tables and, you know, find something for the kids for christmas or for hanukkah which is going on right now. really tough times and i do think there's a recognition of that finally, and some momentum behind getting this out the door. and willie, to your earlier point very, very quickly. the money that republicans are gathering that president trump is raising, republicans on the hill, they're pissed off because they are taking that money and they are saying, oh, you have to help us win these elections in georgia to win the senate majority. the trump team is taking that money and doing things for themselves with it.

right? so that's where -- that's where we are as we are trying to get help for the people out in -- out in the country who are struggling, that is what the president is doing with the money that people are sending. >> yeah. donald trump actually focused on himself and nobody else. what a shock. shawna, how important is it that a covid relief bill gets passed soon? >> i mean, it's incredibly important. we have people facing evictions, we have people as kasie pointed out who are having a hard time putting food on their table. lines of people waiting outside churches as communities try to gather enough food to feed their communities. this is incredibly important, but the cynical part of me answers part of why it's important to congress and to the senate especially is that georgia senate runoff. if you are david perdue, if you're kelly loeffler who are currently senators in the united states senate, do you want to be

running in that runoff if this government is not sending unemployment checks or sending more money to your constituents? georgians are literally their constituents right now. and so i hate to be cynical about this because there's so much pain in this country, there's so many people who have lost loved ones, so many people who have lost jobs, but part of the importance is the fact that we have got an election where the senate majority hangs in the balance. and you are basically -- if mitch mcconnell doesn't get it together and get his caucus and the democrats to pass something, he is leaving his two republican senators throughout with nothing to defend and nothing to go to people and say, look at what we have done. and so, you know, this is -- this is not only important for people and human beings. it's also important for this election. >> peter baker, is there a

chance that bipartisan may be breaking out? we have moderate senators on the moderate side and the republican side that are coming together now. you have a president coming in who really likes making deals. of course, the last six years of barack obama's term the republican congress and barack obama couldn't agree on any significant legislation to be passed. the last four years really we haven't seen more than one or two significant pieces of bipartisan legislation. do you look at the new members that have come in, the mark kellys, the hickenloopers, and do you see a possibility of bipartisan compromise in the next four years? >> well, i wouldn't be popping the champagne corks on that one. i think that, you know, there's -- a senate that is either 50-50 or 52-48, how ever the georgia runoffs work and it will a narrow majority for either side which ever ends up

winning and it puts more influence in the hands of the moderates, the moderates on the both sides to the extent there are any left. there aren't as many as there used to be. we came away recognizing that even the moderates when push comes to shove stay within the tribal, you know, dynamics of their party these days. here we are in december. extraordinary that we're still talking about this covid relief bill and there hasn't been one since april and both parties agree on it. that's the thing, both parties recognize there are people out there suffering as shawna just said and yet it's eight month without a deal. this is the most basic dysfunction of washington. now will president-elect biden be able to change that? he's more inclined to bipartisan deal making than his predecessor. but the dynamics kind of argue against it these days. the structure argues against compromise. >> all right. peter baker, shawna thomas, kasie hunt and jeremy peters,

thank you all for your reporting this morning. still ahead, democratic senator chris murphy with the latest on negotiations for covid relief and top communications aide for the incoming biden administration karine jean-pierre will be our guest this morning. "morning joe" will be right back. this holiday at t-mobile, get an iphone 12 with 5g on us on every single plan. switch now and save 20% on your bill vs. the other guys. that's right. iphone 12 on us. it's time to holiday on with t- mobile. see yourself. welcome back to the mirror. and know you're not alone because this. come on jessie one more. is the reflection of an unstoppable community in the mirror.

our democracy pushed, tested, threatened, proved to be resilient, true and strong. the electoral college votes which occurred today affect the fact that even in the face of the public health crisis unlike anything we have experienced in our lifetimes, the people voted. >> there you go. you're going to go, mika, it's your turn to go. mika, you there? >> yeah. i'm here. >> okay. welcome back, everybody. i get mika has --

>> oh, i didn't mean. >> lost contact with mission control. >> we're really on? >> yeah. along with willie and me, we may have mika. >> well, you have me. i'm here. but i just can't hear a damn thing. msnbc -- >> if i had to predict which person would be stoned and out of it at 7:00 this morning, it would be heilemann instead of mika. but -- >> no. >> ground control to major tom. >> it's okay. >> so john heilemann, a lot happened yesterday, the first vaccine happened. as far as the first vaccine, we're over 300,000 deaths. but the electoral college came together and voted. we had -- i don't know that we have talked about it yet, but, you know, we had -- as abhorrently as national republicans have acted, local

republicans they have done their duty and job yesterday. a state legislator in michigan got on the radio and said there might be violence, boom, he was stripped of his committees, immediately. by the way, that's about as tough a sanction as you can possibly get. but we have seen it time and again. kemp, a guy that i was no fan of at all in georgia, a guy said, we didn't know this could pass asymptomatically six months in, the secretary of state there, these people who have made the decisions, you know, in new york and in washington, we can say, oh, well, you know, that was the right thing to do. well, guess what? their political careers are over and yet they did it, you know? >> yeah. yeah, good morning, joe. and good morning. i noticed that my stash was a

little depleted over it and i was wondering what happened to it and it turns out mika got into it. who would have thought? yes, you want to give credit to republicans who did -- not just did their jobs which is the minimum required by to the republicans in the -- with the backing of so much of the national party to try to as we said a dozen times incorrectly and i'll get to joe biden in a second, to stage an attempted coup. first time in american history we saw an attempted coup. it was a farcical attempt at a coup. it was an obviously failed attempt at a coup, and that was what we saw over the last month and a half. any republican, local, who stood up to that in any meaningful way deserves our credit, deserves credit for being wedded to the principles of democracy. we have seen it much more at the state level than the national level because we saw it so

little at the national level. the first jabs of this vaccine yesterday, you know, it is amazing. i have been listening to you guys in the first hour. it is amazing what is normally a perfunctory pro forma activity, the activities of the electoral college, i got a national civics lesson and i wish we didn't have to have, but we saw it function the way it was supposed to function. but joe biden i was struck by the speech. it was a very unbiden speech. by that, i mean, he really made a point of i thought going, you know, i think you alluded to this this morning. it was confrontational. i was he was there to send a message. you could easily have imagined biden doing what biden often does which is to focus on unity, to kind of moving past all of the unpleasantness, but instead he really drew a line in the sand yesterday and sort of said,

you know, i'm taking names here. i'm going to call out and these republican attorneys general. i'm going to call out these people who tried to -- he didn't use the word coup although he came pretty close. this was to send a message to many people in his own party who suggested that joe biden is going to be a patsy for republicans and too willing to compromise. i think that was part of joe biden that was telling democrats particularly the progressive wing of the party, hey, i want to compromise and i do want national unity, but i also understand the nature of the threat and the nilism in this party. i insist on some accountability for what republicans and the leadership under donald trump did in the post election period. i thought it was a striking moment in the biden transition. >> we have mika back. i understand from our hong kong bureau willie geist may be back. >> i don't know what happened. >> willie --

>> left joe all to his own devices. >> can you hear me, willie, hello, can you hear me? >> i can hear you over the gun fire, just barely. i don't know what happened there. >> i don't know. but it happened to you and to mika. but, you know, willie so it is interesting, is it not that a lot of the local republicans stepped up and did the right thing, and at the same time, you have a lot of republicans in washington, d.c. -- it's a coup attempt. since he's already in power somebody suggested it's an auto coup. i don't know what we call it. they had no so many coups in turkey they had seven different names for seven different types of coups. it was an attempt, even though it was a farcical attempt. he failed. it still was a coup attempt and the majority of republicans in the nation's capital remained

silent and refused to speak out. >> yeah, well, first of all, i department of justice have audio for most of your conversation with heilemann so i can only assume you're debating your favorite members of wu tang clan and i know you're a big ghost face guy. yeah, a lame attempted coup is still a coup and it continues now despite the fact that the normally mundane electoral college vote took place yesterday and affirmed that joe biden is the president-elect. arizona electors voted at an undisclosed location while in michigan the state house was closed because of credible threats and electors there had to be escorted and protected by police. to that point, this is the story joe mentioned moments ago. hours before the electoral votes were cast in michigan, republican state representative gary eisen said that his party had a hail mary attempt to prevent the electoral colleges from being cast in joe biden's favor. when asked if he could pressure

people, it would be a safe day to assure them that no one would get hurt, he said, no. it's not been done and it's not me who's doing it. it's the michigan republican party. as a result of his remarks, eisen was removed from his committee assignment for the rest of the term. he later issued a statement saying he regretted the confusion over my comments. let's bring in white house correspondent for pbs news hour yamiche alcindor. yamiche, so as we talked about in the last hour, some senate republicans because of the vote yesterday sure five weeks late came out and said, okay, joe biden is the president-elect. but there was still a lot of hemming and hawing, lindsey graham said it's a narrow path for the president now but they should play out the legal challenges as if they haven't been playing out for the last five weeks including up to the supreme court. >> that's right. it's pretty telling that

republicans begrudgingly saying what is clearly the reality to most americans and has been the reality for weeks is news but that's where we have arrived in 2020. that roy blount and thom tillis, lindsey graham acknowledging what is the reality in the united states they're getting patted on the back. you're talking last hour about the fund-raising mechanism and that's why you see the republicans so scared. donald trump has built this fund-raising machine and when you look at exactly where the money is going 60% of it is going to this sort of political action committee that's not the same thing as a campaign account and that allows him to do all sorts of things like pay for personal expenses in a way that he wouldn't have been able to do in another kind of account. then 40% is going to the republican party. so what you see is a lot of

republicans who are simply scared of their own voters and are simply thinking about 2022 and 2024. i think the other i think this to note yesterday, john heilemann said -- i had audio so i can jump in on what they were talking about. i thought it was remarkable when you saw joe biden yesterday talking about not only just unity but really taking the country to task. yesterday he felt like a father of the nation in saying, look, we as americans need to do better. he was saying we cannot have another election where election officials are getting death threats simply for doing their jobs and he called the election officials heroes that democracy survived because people did their jobs including republicans. i think i walked away from the speech with the word that struck out to me is unconscionable. he said it's uncontionable what we lived through that people are doing what the constitution requires of them. i think he was taking the country to task.

you saw joe biden, but you saw the feisty joe biden who was going to be not rolling over when these republicans continue to try to question whether or not he's the legitimate president of the united states. >> completely agree. it was a strong message that a lot of people in his own party had wanted to hear for a very long time and a message that a lot of americans were likely very supportive of. john heilemann, we had some more news yesterday. donald trump angered by the fact that joe biden won the election, angered by the fact that bill barr did not push the durham investigation for him to leak information or russian's investigation. angered by the fact that barr knew about the irs investigation that -- the tax investigation into hunter biden, but did not

leak that before the election. had enough of bill barr yesterday and he announced he's living on the 23rd and then we had the comical attempt by bill barr to go out as the same trumpster that he was coming in. >> yeah. and quite a moment here in the justice department. i think, joe, what you said is right. i'd add the one thing which of course is that also barr would not come to his aid in this moment during this attempted coup. he obviously -- you have made this point many times when push came to shove, i think bill barr is one of the most corrupt, overtly political and i would say savagely effective attorneys general in the history of the country and when i say savagely effective i mean in pursuing trump's political aims and this guy will live in infamy as probably the worst and most

corrupt -- >> the worse. >> the most corrupt in attorney general. sorry? >> yeah, no, the worst and most corrupt. >> and have you read this letter that trump made him write? >> let's be very clear. he would not get involved in a coup that would have landed him in jail, but yeah, before that moment, yes, he was the worst and most corrupt attorney general in american history, despite the fact that the "wall street journal" editorial page is trying to polish his credentials for lying about the mueller report, mischaracterizing it and lying before the house and the senate. but go ahead, john. i digress. >> yeah. so all of that is true. and i think in the end, you know, this last straw, you know for trump t fact that barr wouldn't put his name and put his shoulder into this attempted coup and these revelations about the fact that barr, you know,

decided what to do what an attorney general should do in the closing days of the election which is not the way to interfere like comey did in 2016 to tilt the election to trump and i'm sure trump is in a fury that barr knew about the hunter biden investigations and did what justice department policy would have him do, not to make fact the fact of the investigation. i think the question with barr leaving is you know what now becomes of the hunter biden matter? it's a matter of enormous consequence. is donald trump with a now acting attorney general the deputy in the department stepping up into barr's position, is trump going to leave -- have a special counsel

appointed to leave another obstacle, another roadblock, another challenge for joe biden at the very outset of the administration? and i think we have to keep an eye on this going forward because we know donald trump is going to try to destroy, to poison, joe biden's presidency from day one and this is right now the most obvious method, the most obvious path towards doing that would be to exercise political pressure in the department of justice in the lame duck period to get some action on the hunter biden matter and leave that steaming turd on joe biden's doorstep and i think we have to pay close attention to this over the next few days. >> thanks for the visual. is this the day that the senate can agree to the relief bill? two new bills were released on monday. the one that's facing the least resistance is the $748 billion bill and it includes

unemployment benefits and money for vaccine distribution. the other bill includes the controversial aid for state and local governments roughly $160 billion worth. along with liability protections for companies. the senators now say it's up to leader mcconnell and house speaker pelosi to work out a final deal and quickly as lawmakers want to attach this relief bill to a larger government funding bill which needs to be passed by friday the same day their holiday recess begins. let's bring in former treasury official and economic analyst steve rattner. let's look at what's at stake for millions of americans. >> it's an enormous amount at stake here, mika, because not only do we need more relief, but many of the programs that were put in place back in the spring at the worst of this have expired and several months ago, in fact. and have left a lot of americans high and dry.

we can take a look at a quick list of some of the things that are on there. you may remember the $1,200 stimulus checks that went to americans below a certain income threshold that have come and gone for the most part. basically that 2 $77 billion is out in the economy. the $600 a week additional unemployment benefits for those who lost their jobs, state unemployment benefits only pay a few hundred dollars a week, that's come and gone as of july 31st. $280 billion of stimulus there. president trump over the summer tried to recreate a piece of that with the $300 a week payment to unemployed people but that ended september 5th. finally, you'll all remember the famous ppp program, the payroll protection act to give money to small and medium sized businesses so they can maintain their payrolls and that did work

pretty well but it expired august 8th. so as congress has been fiddling, the economy has been burning and all of these programs have gone away. what we're facing now is the possibility of still more programs going away including some that are quite important to a lot of americans. so for example, the expanded unemployment eligibility. we have workers for the so-called gig workers, those who drive ubers, freelancers, things like that, who do not normally qualify for unemployment insurance, 8.6 million people receiving it, but that will expire at the end of the year. another example, when you get -- become unemployed you get 26 weeks of benefits from the states. obviously people have now been unemployed more than 26 weeks. so there are 4.5 million receiving extended unemployment benefits and those extend at the end of the year and things like an eviction moratorium for

renters, unspent local funds, we do need to aid the states and city sotion that needs to be restored. student loan forbearance and so forth. then in you look at the last chart it's one example of what we're talking about. it look, at the americans who are benefitting from one of the special unemployment programs. we have read we're creating more jobs and that's true. as we create more jobs people who became unemployed in the spring exhaust their regular 26 weeks and go on the special programs. there are 13 million americans at the moment in the special unemployment relief programs who will lose their unemployment coverage at the end of the year unless congress acts. so it's a huge -- it's a huge amount at stake here. it is really extraordinarily disappointing and depressing that congress has not been able to get its act together to pass something to extend benefits for the many needy people.

especially as we approach the christmas season when benefits will literally in some cases run out the day after christmas. >> steve, that's great breakdown of that. just to sort of put a face it to, i don't mean to talk about new york city but it's where i live and it's a story playing out across the country so it's worth characterizing which is that indoor dining in new york city restaurants and bars closed by order and tomorrow we're getting a foot of snow in new york city. winter is here so you can't have effective outdoor dining in any way. so that leave restaurant owners and expand that out to all kinds of small business and larger business owners in the position of having nowhere to go really. so what happens if we don't pass legislation let's say to all of those restaurants across the country? how do they make it through this winter? >> the short answer, willie, ask most of them don't. they can do -- if you remember back to march when we were in a

similar situation, some of them did takeout. i don't have the number in my head but i have read that thousands and thousands of restaurants and small businesses in new york alone that have closed during this pandemic. no, it's a potential disaster. and you can see some of this beginning to pop up in the economic numbers. we had for the last week, for example, the number of people filing for unemployment insurance which has been -- it should be going down, down, down, actually has been ticking up. we may get a jobs number for the month of december that is actually a down month. we're getting a retail sales number on wednesday that many people expect to be down. so the so-called -- well, it was never a v-shaped recovery, but the so-called economic recovery is faltering and to the exact point. if we don't provide aid to the vulnerable businesses and americans, this could just peter out and we could end up back in an economic stall. >> so steve, let's -- let's go

back and tell me how well crafted this bill is from what you have seen because i have been hearing complaints like you i'm sure. i dismissed it at first, but we have more and more reports the first wave of complaints was that people that owned yachts and rented the yachts out a couple of times a year were getting the huge ppp payments and same thing with private jets. the same thing with -- you know, these extraordinarily wealthy people getting benefits. i saw joel osteen, you know, he got apparently -- he benefits from the first stimulus package. and then, of course, we even heard -- i even heard from liberal restaurant owners who said i can't get people to work here because the unemployment benefits that they gave out were so high that people are just staying home. and again, these were people who loathed trump, these were people

who voted for biden. so please, everybody you can save your moral outrage for somebody who actually cares. but i heard this. you heard this. it happens with government programs. i understand that. i'm just wondering with this program they're getting together, do you think it's going to be more tightly tailored this time to the truly disadvantaged, to the people who need the help the most, the working class americans and people who are at risk of being evicted? >> well, joe, to your initial point you're right of when these programs were thrown together very quickly, the middle of a pandemic, economic free-fall, and the goal was as much to kind of shovel money into the economy as to spend months and months trying to fine-tune and design and tweak every design of the ppp program. so yes, a lot of money and a lot of aid, it was very rough justice. probably went to places that it

might not be ideal from a policy point of view. it was a little bit the old saying, don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good. i would give treasury -- a bit of a compliment in a sense for trying to tweak the programs as they were in place to try to make them easier for very small businesses to access but trying to keep the biggest guys out of it. but no question some of that happened. the second thing that's no question about, like every piece of legislation and you were up there for a good while that goes through congress, stuff gets added. stuff that may not be germane to the problem at hand or the pet tax provision of a congress person so that happens as well. but i do feel like we -- we're in a better place in terms of designing these programs. i do feel like getting more aid into the economy is really important. and i do think this set of packages is somewhat better. to your last point i'll say this

quickly. the $600 a week unemployment benefit again was very rough justice. everybody recognized that you were in some cases giving people more government aid than what they earned at work. the problem is unemployment programs are administered by the states, it's very hard for the federal government to suddenly create a new program with income tiers or this or that. so it was very rough justice. this time around, they're looking at a much smaller payment to try to avoid that problem. there are lessons learned, it's not going to be perfect but it's important to get some money into the economy. >> john heilemann, let's follow up on a conversation we had last hour about georgia. you have two republicans in the senate right now that -- i believe yamiche brought this up too, they're running for senate right now and they have a lot of people in georgia who are hurting really badly. i'm sure they want to see a covid package being passed.

how is this debate and also the nonsense that donald trump is stirring up, how is that impacting those two georgia races which i would normally say that we're safe -- both of them safe republican seats. i don't feel they're quite so safe anymore. what are you hearing on the ground? >> yeah, i would say, joe, you know, we both -- we'd say the same thing. you know, historically, you know, in a runoff scenario like this where without the presidential race at the top of the ticket, without driving turnout, especially in that state where the turnoff was off the charts in 2020 and allowed joe biden to flip the side for the first time since 1992 to push it into the blue column i think you know, you assume that turnout is going to drop off the edge of the table. you'll have much more of the regular voters aren't going to come out and in that state that's going to mean a much

wider, much more kind of old school georgia electorate and you have to say that both loeffler and perdue were the favorites under normal circumstances. these are not normal circumstances and i think you're right to point to the two key elements here. one is which in the way that president trump has tried not to stage an attempted coup, but to stage an attempted coup by explicitly disenfranchising non-white voters just like in georgia, and georgia has sent a message to a lot of the voters that what is at stake here is not just two senate seats. not even just control of the u.s. senate and in many respects the future of joe biden's presidency. but more fundamental questions like the value of their votes. the actual value of the franchise which this republican party, this president, really tried to strip from black voters in battleground states over the

last month and a half and i don't think that message is lost on those voters and i think democrats doing a pretty good job of driving that. you have stacey abrams who is a voter turnout superhero, she proved it in the 2020 presidential race and you look at the number of absentee ballots that have been collected. over a million in this period. it may very well be that the traditional turnout dynamics given all of that will not necessarily go the old -- the normal conventional path and the democrats will be able because of the stakes and because of the dynamics will be able to turn out in large numbers and replicate the very close results that played out in the presidential race and there's no doubt i'll say the last thing here. for loeffler and perdue the fact that they're caught where they are on the coronavirus thing is an argument you're hearing from those other candidates, from ossoff and warnock. i don't know, man. this is going to be a very close race, joe, i would not be surprised at this point if

conventional wisdom gets overturned and you see one or both of the democrats pull this off. i would not be surprised. >> wow. all right, our thanks to steve rattner, by the way, for coming on this morning with your insight. now to why we're in this position of needing a relief bill and that -- the virus is still raging across the country. yesterday, the nation watched with hope as the first doses of the coronavirus vaccine were administered but it came on the day when the death toll from covid-19 surpassed 300,000. right now, the u.s. accounts for nearly one out of five coronavirus deaths worldwide. far more than any other country. the associated press notes that the number of dead rivals the population of pittsburgh. it's on the scale of hurricane

katrina for 5 1/2 months and more than five times the number of americans killed in korean war and equal to the 9/11 attack every day for more than 100 days. and yet, some say it's a hoax. some health experts project another 100,000 americans could die before the end of january. let's bring in the dean of the brown university school of public health, dr. ashish jha. it's worth it at this time, we are between thanksgiving and christmas and a lot of people they just need to see the on th. what's your advice to people across america, given the fact that the vaccine is coming, we're seeing it going in to people's arms. and yet, we're still in the midst of this pandemic which is raging. >> yes, good morning and thank you for having me on. this is a very unusual moment because the light at the end of the tunnel is here. we can see it, we can see that

it's a couple of months away. and yet, we are going to have over the next six weeks probably the hardest six weeks of the pandemic. in terms of number of americans who are going to die. i think an additional 100,000 in the next month to six weeks is almost baked into the system at this point. there's so much infection raging around the country. this is a result of a federal government that has largely given up on the american people when it comes to this pandemic. and so it's very, very challenging for states and they're trying their best to manage this. my advice to my colleagues, friends, people around the country is very straightforward which is do the things that keep you safe. so that you're around when the vaccine -- when it's your turn to get the vaccine. that for me has meant i won't see my parents, my elderly parents this holiday season because i want to be able to see them next year. >> dr. jha, it's willie, good to

see you. we heard from dr. redfield, we expect days with up to 3,000 people dying in this country of coronavirus. for the next 60 to 90 days. does that track with where you are and also with what dr. fauci said yesterday about by the end of march or early april, most healthy people in this country should be able to start getting the vaccine. >> yeah. both of those are completely in line with what i'm seeing. but think about what those two folks are saying. 60 to 90 days of 3,000 americans dying every day is 180,000 to 270,000 deaths between now and let's say mid march. again, i'm hopeful it will be less than that, willie, but these are atrocious numbers. these are unbelievable numbers and we have decided we can tolerate this many americans getting sick, this many americans dying. i think a large chunk of americans will be able to get

vaccinated in march and april. certainly by may. so we're not saying like hold off for the next year. the advice here is protect yourself and protect your family. really for the next six to eight weeks and things will start getting better. things will start getting better. >> all right. dr. ashish jha, thank you so much, we'll be heeding your advice. joining us us now is chris murphy of connecticut. senator murphy, first of all, what is the status and how is it going in your state as it pertains to the coronavirus? >> well, thanks for having me on. of course, we were one of the early hot spots and we turned things around in connecticut and such over the course of the summer we had one of the lowest i think for a lot of the summer, the lowest transition rate in the entire country. but when you have the hot spots

not so far away from connecticut, it was only so long we could hold out, so you have seen positivity rates in connecticut go from under 1% for the summer now up to 6, 7, 8% on a regular basis and that really i think is evidence of the fact that this virus doesn't care about state borders. you cannot mount an effective state by state response because so long as you have outbreaks completely uncontrolled in the midwest that is going to find its way back to connecticut. this is why we desperately need a national testing system, a national system of tracing and quarantining individuals. that's why we need a president who is going to enforce a national mask mandate, at least encourage that in a different way than president trump has and when that happens, then state responses like connecticut that have been pretty effective will actually turn the corner on this virus. i will say this, we're running

out of connecticut. we are about to be looking down the barrel of a giant tax increase next year in our state because we have spent so much money fighting this virus and we have had so many businesses shut down that our government is slowly going bankrupt. >> well, the fact that the testing is still as bad as it is and inconsistent and for many incredibly expensive or unattainable tells us everything we need to know about the response to this pandemic and it almost feels like we'll be starting all over again when joe biden is sworn in. but at least -- at least with the good knowledge that a vaccine is months away for many americans. >> well, but as you just heard, you know, it is not going to be until the late spring or summer when most people have access to this vaccine so we have got to be doing twice as much testing as we are. in connecticut, we shut down a lot of our hospital-based testing sites around noon despite how long the line may be because we don't have enough

tests. and president trump is the only person that could have fixed that. connecticut can't set up its own testing manufacturing program. that has to be done on a national basis and that's one of the first things that biden will do. >> you can say that about every state in the country right now, in terms of a need for covid relief. you're in the united states senate. obviously the dilemma i described for the restaurant owner in new york city applies to connecticut too, when indoor dining shuts as it has in new york city and you're asking them to do outdoor dining when it's 10 degrees in new york or connecticut it doesn't square. where is the negotiation in the senate right now? >> well, it's absolutely essential that this package that we pass -- i think we're feeling a little bit better about it this morning than we were yesterday morning includes assistance for state and local

government. and frankly, my pitch to republicans who have been reluctant to do this is that that frankly is an investment in states rights and states flexibility. i'm a big supporter of the ppp program. the business that sports small businesses, but every state has different needs. for instance, a cold weather state like connecticut needs to put more money into hospitality than a warm weather state so i think it's better to be giving flexible money to states than a national small business relief program that isn't flexibly tailored state by state. look, we'll welcome the extension of unemployment benefits, but then if we have to turn and do a tax increase in connecticut, you're giving with

one hand and taking from another. i know the republicans want the liability protections i'm willing to move their way on that. but i just don't see how we do a deal that doesn't have that money to prevent tax increases all across the country. >> let me ask you about your senate colleagues. yesterday the electoral college made it official. some of your senate colleagues on the republican side said it publicly, yes, he's the president-elect, but there's still some who gave meandering answers or remain silent on that question yesterday. when you talk to them privately, the people you work with almost every day on the republican side, do they concede that joe biden is president-elect even if they don't say it out loud and what do you make of for five weeks now them not talking about this issue? oh, we have lost senator murphy. well, his background was flickering and now we've his audio. we'll try to get him back. >> we're having a day.

>> we're having a day. we're having an audiovisual day. let me bring in yamiche on this question. senator murphy is pushing for this legislation to get through, we can put aside to the question of republicans not acknowledging biden as president-elect, but what are you hearing out of washington about optimism of getting a deal? kasie hunt said she feels like they're in a better place than they have in for a long time and senators don't want to go home and say, sorry, your businesses have to close? >> my reporting echoes both what kasie and shawna thomas were saying, yes, it feels like it will be a deal, it's taken a long, long time to get here. months and months of wrangling, but there's a sense with the holidays and americans really facing a dark winter with more than 300,000 americans dead from the virus that there needs to be

some sort of deal reached on capitol hill. but i think the fact that it's going to be a sort of skinny deal and if they had to put aside big things including state and local funding that's a big part of what's going on in this country. and local governments saying they need help. when they have to put aside those big things, it tells me that you're also going to have a biden administration come back and push for more legislation. i think there's a cynical feeling there's a lot of politics at play. despite the numbers spiking in this way there's a feeling that georgia is on the mind of senator mitch mcconnell. he wants his senators to say here's what republicans have delivered for you, here's how washington works when republicans are in office and in control. if there isn't a deal, if americans cannot count on congress in a time like this, it really i think solidifies and strengthens the argument that biden is making which he needs a democrat controlled senate in

order to get what he really needs. >> all right. coming up -- thank you. our apologies to senator murphy on the technical difficulties, not sure if they were his side or ours. coming up, with his own victory now sealed, president-elect joe biden heads to georgia to campaign for the senate candidates whose races could make or break his policy agenda. we'll talk to top communications aid, karine jean-pierre. "morning joe" is coming right back. ues. does it worry me? absolutely. sensodyne sensitivity & gum gives us the dual action effect that really takes care of both our teeth sensitivity as well as our gum issues. there's no question it's something that i would recommend. serena: it's my 9:12, no-days-off migraine medicine. it's ubrelvy. for anytime, anywhere migraine strikes without worrying if it's too late, or where i am. one dose can quickly stop migraine in its tracks within two hours.

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anyone didn't know before they know now. what beats deep in hearts of the american people is this -- democracy. the right to be heard. to have your vote counted, to choose leaders of this nation to govern ourselves. and in american, politicians

don't take power. people grant power to them. the flame of democracy was lit in this nation a long time ago. and we now know nothing, not even a pandemic or an abuse of power, can extinguish that fl e flame. >> that was president-elect joe biden speaking yesterday after the electoral college vote affirmed his election victory. today he's headed to georgia to campaign for ossoff and warnock. early voting has officially kicked off. joining us now from the principal deputy from the incoming biden administration, karine jean-pierre. great to see you. >> good morning, willie. >> let's start in the state of georgia where president-elect biden will appear today. where does he see the stakes of the race, beyond the obvious, if you win the race, you control

the house and the senate. >> yeah, look, the stakes are high on january 5th. look president-elect biden won georgia with a winning coalition. and he is the first democratic presidential candidate to win that state in 28 years. so he is heading down to georgia today to make sure that the people who came out and voted for him also come out and vote for ossoff and reverend warnock. like you said, the stakes are incredibly high and we need to -- we need to win that runoff election. it's not just high for democrats. it's high for the american people. you know, there are challenges that the president-elect talked about yesterday and laid out very clearly that we need to start facing now. we need to turn that page and leave the politics behind and start working for the american public and that's what you heard from joe biden last night. >> yeah, we noted that president-elect biden has exercised a great deal of

restraint let's just say over the last 5 1/2, 6 weeks. he probably did want to come out and comment about the way that president trump has been conducting himself, the way that republicans have been conducting themselves throughout this. more forceful yesterday though. what was the objective with that speech after the electoral college voted him in? >> you know what, willie, what we saw yesterday was democracy worked. the system worked. and we saw that in the electoral college vote. and that is so important because the last couple of weeks have been hard. they have been very difficult to get to where we were yesterday and sometimes dangerous. but at the end of the day, democracy won. and that is really important to lay out and to say and here's what we believe on january -- on january 6, congress will ratify the electoral college vote and on january 20th at noon, joe biden will become the 46th president of the united states.

and that's what democracy is all about. >> it says something about where we are, that you even have to identify the dates out loud and say what they mean, but that is where we are right now. i think we have got mika's audio back. are you with us? >> yeah. >> hi, mika. >> it's not my day with audio. hey, i'm so happy you're there, and it's so great to talk to you. >> thank you. >> i know you guys might have touched on this on the top, but i'm wondering what it's like to push through with the transition when you have the loser so loudly trying to undermine the obvious results of the election and how will communication be different in the biden white house? i'm thinking of even the nuts and bolts, the daily briefing, but overall as well. >> yeah. yeah. that's all a great question. the election is over, mika. biden won. he won decisively and if you look at it, too, if you go deep down and look at it, he flipped

five red states to blue states. we had said, it's time to leave the politics behind. and he has a mandate. joe biden has a mandate of 81 million people coming out and voting for him. 306 electoral colleges. that matters. he wants to start talking about the challenges. this is the turning of the page point, start talking about the challenges. we have covid-19 that we have to fight. we have the distribution of the vaccine. we have to rebuild the economy. and that is what matters right now in this moment as we're heading into him governing in a little bit over than a month. as to your question to the communications team, look, i am honored to be part of this upcoming administration. i am honored to be working for someone that i believe in, values that i believe in, you know, a vision that i believe

in, and i will work my best to communicate with the american public with honesty and truthfulness, and i will be doing that with this amazing group of women who will be leading the communications team. and that is what we're all about. when you talk about the press briefing, look, we are going to bring back trust to the american people as we talk about the press briefing. we are going to make sure that information that we put out, that people can rely on that, that journalists can rely on that information. and we understand that we have to meet people where they are as well, mika. so not everybody watches the white house press briefing, so we have to make sure that we communicate beyond the briefing as well. we are going to bring back and lead in and start talking about facts, and that's what we are looking at for this administration. not just for the white house press office, but also the white house press and communications office as a whole. >> first of all, the briefing has been very different from

briefings past administrations. so it will be a great effort to watch honesty and truthfulness because those briefings were used as political tools by kayleigh mcenany before and they did not deliver facts. at times they spoke blatant lies. but moving forward, which is something you know a thing or two about, what do you -- do, y you, in the team, talking about communications do you talk about the challenge in terms of bringing trust back, not just to the press briefings, but to the communication with the american people, because a lot of trust has been lost and, let's just be honest, there are millions of americans who are angry about the outcome of this election. >> you're absolutely right, mika. the trust has been lost, and we have to work very hard every day

to rebuild that with the american public. and that is going to be one of our main priorities as a team, as a communications team, as a white house, to make sure we rebuild that trust. >> and just before you go, you're at the top of the know your value website. we talked a lot, you and i, about your journey, overcoming adversity and developing your own sense of yourself. i am so happy for you, but there is so much value that you bring to the table in this white house given what you have been through and what you have written about in your book. i think it all comes together to this moment, does it not? >> i think so. and i think, look, and i think this says a lot about joe biden and kamala harris. i think if you look at the cabinet that they are building, if you look at the white house staff that they are bringing together, it is a group of people that are experienced,

that's diverse, and that are ready to deal, to really lead on day one, and i think that's critical and i think that's important. and he has said, joe biden said throughout the campaign that he was going to really put together, bring together an administration that looked like the country, and i am so proud to be a part of that administration. as i said at the top, i am honored to serve and i'm honored to be working for the biden/harris administration. >> karine jean-pierre, thank you. we are going to keep the conversation going at knowyourvalue.com where we have a special feature on karine and the other women taking center stage in the biden administration. thanks, karine. and it's just the latest chapter in karine's powerful personal story which she writes about in her book "moving forward." and speaking of inspiring women, you can nominate a woman, 50 over 50, over 50 who has found

success later in life. it's part of know your value's partnership with forbes 50 over 50 list, which comes out next year. go to knowyourvalue.com for more on that and feel free to nominate someone. willie. >> john heilemann, we have been talking about how far president trump is going to take this, how long republicans are going along for the ride of not recognizing joe biden as president-elect. you have some new reporting on that. >> yeah, look, we know, willie, this is still not over. i mean, it's over, in the sense that we know joe biden, we have known for a while joe biden will become the next president of the united states on january 0th. there is one last-ditch effort that trump is telling people that he is committed to trying to engineer, which is on january 6th when we -- when the congress reconvenes, there is going to be an effort to overturn the results of the electoral college

staged by republicans. you need one member of the house, one member of the senate to object to the electoral college certification to the votes that were cast yesterday and then you have another vote in the congress on this, and we know that there are a number of republicans in the house said they are willing to take this up for the president. we are waiting to hear about the senate. my guess is that some republican senator will do donald trump's bidding. we know it will fail. but it's a last chance to get republicans on record, because there is going to be a vote in both the senate and house over this matter. good for history. bad for america to see them one last time backing donald trump's effort to overturn this election through the farsical coup that we have seen these last few weeks. >> john heilemann, thank you very much for being on this morning. still ahead, the kremlin is reporting that vladimir putin congratulated joe biden this morning on his election win. it comes as we learn new

information about a major russian hack of u.s. agencies. nbc's keir simmons joins us with more on that. "morning joe" will be right back. joint pain, swelling, tenderness.

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and i earned 306 electoral votes well exceeding the 270 electoral votes needed to secure victory. 306 electoral votes is the same number of electoral votes that donald trump and vice president pence received when they won in 2016. at the time, president trump called the electoral college tally a landslide. by his own standards, these numbers represented a clear victory then, and i respectfully suggest they do so now. every single avenue was made available for president trump to contest the results. he took full advantage of each and every one of those avenues.

president trump was denied no course of action he wanted to take. he took his case to republican governors and republican secretary of states as he criticized many of them, to republican state legislators, to republican-appointed judges at every level. and in a case decided after the supreme court's latest rejection, a judge appointed by president trump wrote, quote, this court has allowed the plaintiff the chance to make his case, and he has lost on the merits. >> the electoral college yesterday cast the formal vote to make joe biden the next president of the united states. confirming the 306-vote victory he secured five weeks ago and with that we finally got the recognition of biden's win that we've all been waiting for. >> wait for it. wait for it. >> this morning the kremlin announced that russian president vladimir putin has sent a message of congratulations to

president-elect joe biden. good morning, and welcome to "morning joe." >> there it is. like, let the confetti fall from the ceiling. >> whatever at this point. it is tuesday, december 15. with joe, willie and me, we have chief white house correspondent for "the new york times" peter baker and mail-in ballots ne bak baker and shawna baker. >> there are a few hold-outs in the republican party who are behind vladimir putin in recognizing joe biden going to be the next president of the united states. it's coming along. we had quite a few come out yesterday. but still kevin mccarthy, the man who said famously that he knew that dana rohrbacher and donald trump were on vladimir putin's payroll, he actually allowed vladimir putin to get the word out first. >> yeah, if you are scoring at home, vladimir putin beats mitch mcconnell and kevin mccarthy and a long list of republicans to

the punch to congratulating joe biden as the president-elect. there were republicans yesterday after the electoral college made it official, official, official saying, well, the president's path certainly are narrowing here. they are holding out. they are hanging on. they are going along for the ride. this is over. it's been over for a long time. the will he celectoral college made it official yesterday. >> peter baker, you wrote about it. the day that officially ended the election and actually gave hope to the end of the deadly, deadly pandemic. >> yeah, it felt like a hinge point yesterday. these two big, big events ending a year rough on a lot of americans. we had, of course, the coronavirus, racial strive, street violence, economic dislocation, and political division the likes of which we haven't really seen in generations. certainly not in combination. so i think yesterday kind of had this amazing feel that there was at least, you know, a path

forward. we could see the day that the vaccine will come along and be available to everybody and finally to beat this disease. we can see the day, january 20th, when there will be a new president and there is no longer any dispute about that despite the refusal of the president to agree with that. there is nothing other than a biden inauguration in store headed for us. so i think that's what kind of, you know, gave yesterday this extraordinary split-screen feel. the images you showed of people getting shots and the electors and state capitals around the country, you know, ratifying the election results of november 3rd. >> shawna, soon after the election results were ratified, the end of bill barr's shameful term as attorney general is announced. >> yeah.

i mean, it does say something if bill barr feels the need to rezion. that's confusing, with you he really released the resignation letter before the end of pet's term on january 20th at 2:01 eastern time. that something is going on, on top of bill barr not being willing to go along with president trump saying the election was rigged, which as we keep repeating it does not appear to be rigged, it was not rigged, the election was carried out by lots and lots of people who joe biden name-checked in his speech who on state and city levels did their job, carried out democracy. judges carried out democracy, actually, by even beginning to hear some of these complaints from president trump's lawyers. the system while slow and messy, worked. and bill barr chose to come out yesterday, and president trump chose to let him come out yesterday and say, hey, i don't want to help you with this

system anymore. the system, in some respects, worked. so i do think it's funny he is going to step down right before aparthe president-elect biden is inaugurated. it is unusual for an attorney general to step down. what i found interesting about the electoral college yesterday, i looked at 2008 and president-elect at the obama's transition records. he had a speech about his energy and environmental team that didn't even mention the electoral college. it is crazy how far we have come. i am going to give president trump one bit of kudos in that he has allowed us to really see how democracy works and play out and have this different schoolhouse rock lesson in front of us, since we were watching state capitals and the electoral college yesterday. there is at least that. you know, maybe bill barr is doing the right thing for his own personal history. >> well, actually, what happened

was bill barr found himself backed against a wall and forced to write a letter because donald trump obviously was going to fire him. but bill barr ended up doing what other republicans ended up doing. when they could undermine american democracy by their words, when they could spread propaganda that vladimir putin couldn't pay for, when they could lie about investigations that were conducted, he would gladly lie about mueller's investigation and misstate facts. when he had a chance to go and testify in the senate and the house, he would openly commit perjury, still surprised no one ever brought charges against him for that. but, like those local republican officials, whether it came to signing his name on a legal

document that would expose him legally in the years to come, he never did it. barr ended up being just like trump. just like all of the republicans in washington, d.c., like the 106 that signed on to that -- >> 26. >> 26. they had no problem with gestures that undermined american democracy. they just wouldn't sign their name on the dotted line in a way that would expose them legally to undermining the united states of america. so, it's interesting. barr leaves with one of the most horrific records for any attorney general. he was donald trump's -- as we got near the end of the election, there are some things that even he, even he wouldn't do, willie. >> yeah, and that is his sundon

sin. he said the justice department has found no evidence of widespread fraud. obviously, that infuriated president trump, drew his ire. it's preposterous that bill barr is going home to be with his family and can't return for the final two weeks of the administration. so he is leaving because of that confrontation with the president. but, as you alluded to, his letter, his resignation letter continues the narrative of victimhood for the president. obviously, that was part of the deal that he had to write this letter underlining that he thinks president trump was the victim of baseless accusations over the course of his term, again stepping in to defend president trump. >> okay. so this year's electoral college vote came with some concerns of violence against electors. arizona electors voted at an undisclosed location. in michigan, the statehouse was closed because of credible threats electors there had to be protected by police. can you believe this?

as for the vote, the state of california with its 55 electoral votes put president-elect biden over the 270 vote threshold at 5:30 eastern time bringing his tally to 302. hawaii added its four electoral votes two hours later. despite the alarming push to ignore the actual vote count and have state legislatures appoint electors, all votes were cast for the candidate would won them. there were no faithless electors. >> brendan, let me bring you in here. the center held. the center held. i don't know how many times the second coming was quoted in op edwards the past four years. but -- >> this is professor of government at dartmouth colleg.,

>> we saw federal judges doing their job. we saw local republican officials doing their job. and, yet, we saw that some people had to cast a vote, a ministerial vote, in effect, in hidden locations because of fear of violence. where are we right now? you have studied this so much over the past five years. so where are we right now as a country? >> well, yesterday was good news. the process did end up completing in the way that we would hope given the vote and given the outcome. you are right to point to the legal outcomes as reassuring. judges across this country regardless of which president appointed them reaffirmed joe biden's victory as the legitimate outcome. at the same time though we see

tens of miss tens of millions of americans who don't view this outcome adds legitimate. a president is continuing to question the legitimacy of that outcome and almost two-thirds of the member of the house of representatives on the republican side signing on to a baseless texas lawsuit that, you know, questions the outcome of the election. and under those circumstances it is worrisome whether future, you know, future elections, the outcomes will be respected in a way that we would hope. this time we got through it. we passed the test. but barely. and we've unfortunately broken new ground in the way that people were rejecting that outcome and i find that very worrisome. >> when you say barely, talk about your biggest concern. where did we come closest to watching real damage being done to this republic's institutions?

>> we could certainly imagine if the election had been closer that this effort could have been more successful. if it had come down to one state, would there seriously have been an alternate slate of electors put forward? if it came down to one state, could a handful of judges have thrown the election outcome? we saw a close vote in wisconsin on whether to hear the challenge there, just a 4-3 vote. the margin here is smaller than people might think. and it's important to reaffirm that while democracy continues, democracy isn't a binary concept. part of democracy is assuming the peaceful transition of power will continue to, to maintain that as an unquestioned norm. when almost two-thirds of one party is challenging the outcome of an election baselessly, that is dangerous and worrisome to the stability of democracy going forward. does it become part of the

playbook after elections to question whether they were legitimately decided? is that something we see after every election? ultimately, people cake cues from their leaders. when the leaders say it wasn't legitimate, they listen. tense of millions of people have unfortunately been lied to about what happened in this election. >> yeah, i think the ramifications of this are far from over. it's also why we can't let a lot of the broken norms we have witnessed over the past four years go by. and joe biden didn't either. it was quite a speech he made last night where he addressed the issues at hand as well as tried to bring forward some empathy and sort of a stabilizing force as well. take a listen. >> our democracy pushed, tested, threatened, proved to be resilient, true, and strong. the electoral college votes, which occurred today, reflect the fact that even in the cafac

of a public health crisis unlike anything we have experienced in our lifetimes, people voted. one of the extraordinary things we saw this year everyday americans, our friends and our neighbors, often volunteers, democrats, republicans, independents, demonstrating absolute courage. they showed a deep and unwavering faith in and a commitment to the law. they did their duty in the face of a pandemic. and then they could not and w h would not give credence to what they knew was not true. they knew this election was overseen, was overseen by them, it was honest, it was free, and it was fair. they saw with their own eyes and they wouldn't be bullied into saying anything different. we all wish that our fellow americans in these positions will always show such courage and commitment to free and fair elections. it is my sincere hope we never again see anyone subjected to

the kind of threats and abuse we saw in this election. it's simply unconscionable. 17 republican attorneys general and 126 republican members of the congress actually, they actually signed on to a lawsuit filed by the state of texas. that lawsuit asked the united states supreme court to reject the certified vote counts in georgia, michigan, pennsylvania, and wisconsin. this lealman offer was an effort by elected officials and one group of states to try to get the supreme court to wipe out the votes of more than 20 million americans in other states. and to hand the presidency to a candidate who lost the electoral college, lost the popular vote, and lost each and every one of the states whose votes they were trying to reverse. it's a position so extreme,

we've never seen it before. a position that refused to respect the will of the people, refused to respect the rule of law, and refused to honor our constitution. thankfully, a unanimous supreme court immediately and completely rejected this effort. the court sent a clear signal to president trump that they would be no part of an unprecedented assault on our democracy. >> peter baker, that day, electoral college day, is not a day we have seen a president-elect make a speech like that before because it's long since been conceded. about you we didn't used to know when that day was, as we heard a little bit earlier in the show. so what is the sort of the vibe inside the biden transition right now because the president-elect has shown restraint for the most part over six weeks, but kind of let it rip a little bit yesterday. >> yeah, he is. i think he has not wanted to engage in a tit for tat, day

after-day exchange with the outgoing president. it might seem to suggest that there was something there and there were two sides in the debate. as the courts have made clear, there aren't two sides. every single court, expect perhaps in one minor instance, said tlfrhere was nothing thered anything that the president andhis allies brought forward, the united states supreme court didn't even think it was worth issuing full opinions on, it was so, you know, un-tennellable in their view. they dismissed with it a one-page statement joined by all nine justices. i think that that's -- that that was the conclusion that the biden camp wanted to leave out there not to engage in sort of an extended election campaign which he saw. but he did feel the need last night after this electoral college vote to once and for address these issues so that americans who were wondering what was going on could at least hear his view, which is that

there has been an attempt to overturn the will of the people, it has rejected, the system has held in that sense, and he wanted to address that before moving on. i think from now on moving forward, he has been steady as she goes in assembling the team, focusing on the coronavirus, the vaccine distribution, they will have to continue once he takes office, and that's the tone he is planning to strike in the next 30-some days until his inauguration. >> you know, shawna, it's been interesting that so much of what donald trump's done over the past four years, he's done to his own detriment. and now, while there have been obviously legitimate complaints about what he has been doing over the past four weeks since the election, he has provided extraordinary cover to joe biden. instead of having one article after another article from a group on the left or a group on the right or republicans or democrats attacking his choices for the cabinet, that's always

at the bottom of the page, below the seven outrageous things donald trump did or said the day before, court challenges. might we start to see sort of a more intense examination of joe biden in the coming month now that it seems that a lot of these election challenges are going to start receding? >> i mean, i think so because i think that especially the progressive wing. democratic party, they have made their sort of annoyances about some of joe biden's choices known. to be honest, we still have, as you said, about another month of president trump, and i don't get any indication that at least his complaints about this are going to stop. and as much as people may want the media to stop talking about what the president is doing, i do think we are going to continue to talk about it for a couple of reasons. one, president trump is still

the president of the united states until january 20th. two, every move he makes, especially after this point now that the electoral college has certified joe biden as president-elect, becomes another move to undermine democracy. and i don't know how we don't cover that. and then we are also going to want to know how those 120-plus republicans, how they are going to act come the day congress needs to then count the electoral college votes at the beginning of january. so i think president trump is going to continue to give joe biden cover when he actually has a built-in story that could help -- i am not totally sure how you could do this, but could help his legacy in operation warp speed in the fact that we saw people get vaccines in their arms yesterday to try to stem this pandemic to a certain extent. so, you know, i think there will be the in-fighting we all expect. there will be people who will be

annoyed by president biden's choice for attorney general, whoever he chooses. in the end, do you think donald trump is going to stop talking about the fact that the election was stolen from him? because if he really wants to run in 2024, this is his way of continuing to hijack his party. >> "morning joe" is coming right back. ht back ♪ ♪ still warm. ♪ thanks, maggie. oh, alice says hi. for some of us, our daily journey is a short one. save 50% when you pay per mile with allstate. pay less when you drive less. you've never been in better hands. allstate. click or call for a quote today.

expect. continuing to hijack his party. expect continuing to hijack his party. it's been a tough year.

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[ cheers and applause ] that new york nurse is believed to be the first person in the u.s. to receive the coronavirus vaccine. joining us now, the woman who administered the historic shot,

dr. michelle chester, director of employee health services at northwell health, which operates long island jewish medical. thank you for joining us. that must have been quite a moment delivering the first shot? >> yes, it was. yes, it was. at the time i really didn't know that it was the first shot, but it was truly, truly, you know, a humbling moment to be able to do that. >> with the hope of the vaccine on the way, but also for most americans, many, many months away, what are your thoughts moving forward knowing that folks on the front line will be vaccinated, but there is still a long way to go in this pandemic. from your experience, what are your prognostications, but also advice for people? >> so, this is the light at the

end of the tunnel, and we truly have to be patient and wait, you know, to get the vaccine. in order to make this work, we have to make sure that we continue to follow the guidelines. social distancing, wearing our masks, washing our hands, and not having large gatherings. following those guidelines, along with the vaccine, we can defeat this. this is something that is giving us that huge light at the end of the tunnel. it's still a long time away. again, it's up to us to do our part to assist in stopping this pandemic. so, with those things in place, along with the vaccine, it's a good prognosis for the future. >> thanks for being here this morning. thanks for what you do every

day. that was a beautiful moment. i heard from a lot of people literally were in tears watching you administer that vaccine, that shot given what we have all been through over the last nine or ten months. that was a moment for history right there. what do you believe is the symbolism of that shot? we know there are a lot of people in the country, and we have heard from health care workers skeptical about the early doses. what would you say to people who are debating whether or not they may take the vaccine when it's available? >> i would tell you that let science speak for itself. health care is based upon science, and the efficacy of this vaccine has proven itself. and i always tell people, what do we have to lose that we haven't lost already? so many has pass away because of this pandemic, and this is the opportunity that we all should give this vaccine a chance to propel us into the new beginning of ending covid-19.

>> well, said. >> absolutely. dr. michelle chester, thank you very, very much. let's bring in chief medical officer at walgreens, dr. kevin ban, overseeing the pharmacy's efforts to distribute and administer the pfizer vaccination wide. thanks very much for being on. let's start with the hard part. there are going to be folks who come into walgreens who won't take the vaccine, who will see others getting the vaccine perhaps. how do we establish some trust in this process? >> you know, it's a really important point. we have been working closely here with the cdc, hhs, and operation warp speed to operationalize this entire process. it feels almost like a relay race where it started with science. then you had the manufacturing. you had to go through all the clinical trials. and we have finally arrived at the distribution and then the administration phase, which is what walgreens will do. we are going to bring this

across the finish line. one of the most important things that we need to do now, people are very focused on the distribution and then the administration, but to your point, education here is fundamental. and at walgreens, you know, we have the luck of having exceptionally well respected health care professionals who are embedded in 9,000 communities across the country. and they will be there to educate people. it's an important component from knowledge comes power. we have to make sure that people are educated so they can make a good decision for themselves and for their families. >> so, and in some cases education is simple. it's delivering information. it's explaining. it's explaining the science of it. and i understand that. but there are a good number of americans who reject it, and will you be training your employees and the people who are working on distribution and administration of this vaccine on dealing with those who

perhaps are pushing away on the science of this and maybe still angry about the concept of wearing a mask? or taking a vaccine? >> right. so, this is nothing new for us. this is the type of work we have been doing for a long time. in fact, we have been building our vaccine program over the course of the last 15 years. just, you know, in the last five years we have conducted more than 150,000 off-site clinics similar to the ones we will be doing here. along with that, we are constantly interacting with people in our pharmacies. everyone knows that. everyone knows you can go into a pharmacy and talk to the pharmacist who is that trusted professional and who you can get information from. we have dealt with hesitancy around vaccines before. we are really leaning into this at walgreens. >> dr. ban, dr. fauci was on this network yesterday and

opened some eyes when he said he actually believed at this point that by the end of march or early april healthy people would begin to get the vaccine and by the end of the second quarter we could achieve what he called herd immunity. so what's your read, as you talk to officials, if you talk to experts, and you think about all of your walgreens and cvs stores, when someone who is healthy might be able to walk into a cvs and get the vaccine? >> right. so we, again, i mentioned we are working really closely with operation warp speed's cdc and hhs and we have put this together in such a way that we will start with this first phase where we're going to vaccinate health care workers and then people living in long-term care facilities. you know, we are expecting to have splooe a supply of really at least 50 million doses, and we feel like we can get through this bork work by february. so there is a good chance we will open up vaccine administration to the general

population by end of march/beginning of april. >> amazing. chief medical officer at walgreens, dr. kevin ban, thank you very much for being on the show this morning. and the other vaccine that we expect to see coming soon is the one from moderna, and according to data released this morning, by the food and drug administration, the coronavirus vaccine is highly protective for adults and prevents severe cases of covid-19. the staff of the fda endorsed the emergency use of the vaccine. a critical step forward in winning formal clearance to be administered to the public. the findings come two days before the fda's advisory committee, which is a group of outside medical advisors and it's scheduled to review moderna's vaccine. sources tell "the new york times" the agency intends to grant emergency authorization for use of the vaccine on

friday. the decision would give millions of americans access to a second coronavirus vaccine beginning as early as next week. up next, russian president vladimir putin reaches out to congratulate joe biden amid news about a hacking that could further strain u.s. russian relations. nbc's keir simmons joins us with the details on that. first, let's go to bill cairns. he has a check on a major winter storm headed to the northeast. bill. >> yeah, here we go, mika. a lot of people haven't seen snow like this in a couple of years. last year, we didn't have much snow in the northeast. today we are tracking the storm through areas a little bit of snow for you in kansas and oklahoma. then tomorrow is when it really blossoms. we start off in the morning freezing rain and an ice storm in the mountains of virginia and north carolina. wednesday at 7:00 p.m. huge snow through pennsylvania heading through areas from philadelphia to the new york city area to the hudson valley. it arrives in southern new

england wednesday night. we will have that dreaded mix line with the sleet. that's why it's a very difficult forecast for areas like philadelphia and new york city. unfortunately, it doesn't look like a lot of snow right now in washington, d.c. here is the advisories. a winter storm warning for central oklahoma and then here is the nor'easter portion of the forecast. 54 million people included. winter storm warnings in the red. winter storm wachgs tches in th blue. so how much snow are we talking about? the area of white, that's like an inch or two. areas of the blue is three to six. when you get into that pink and purple, that's where we talk about the highest totals. here is what i'm thinking right now. new york city 6 to 10. philadelphia 6 to 10. i think some sleet will mix in. if new york city stayed all snow, this could be 16 inches of snow. i think you will get a little bit of a wintry nicks mix in th same for philadelphia. in d.c. about 1 to 3 inches and ice in areas of virginia and north carolina to deal with,

too. so, yeah, this is going to be a major winter storm. people need to be off the roads wednesday night and thursday morning throughout the northeast. more updates in the days ahead. you are watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. your mission: stand up to moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis. and take. it. on... ...with rinvoq. rinvoq a once-daily pill... ...can dramatically improve symptoms... rinvoq helps tame pain, stiffness, swelling. and for some... rinvoq can even significantly reduce ra fatigue. that's rinvoq relief. with ra, your overactive immune system

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joe." for weeks now numerous world leaders have offered their con grac grachlations to joe biden. this morning we add russian president vladimir putin to the list. but it comes amid a new russian hack of u.s. federal agencies and private companies. let's bring in nbc news senior international correspondent keir simmons. what more can you tell us about this, keir? >> reporter: hi, good morning. there are going to be people who will say it's pretty cynical for president putin to be finally congratulating president-elect biden just in the week when this news emerges of allegations that the russian foreign intelligence has hacked u.s. federal

agencies. pretty cynical for president putin to proposing cooperation. it isn't surprising, i suppose, the messaging. president putin saying let's talk to each other as equals, effectively. that's what you hear from russia. that is what russia wants to be seen as equal to america. so he is signaling that at the outset with president-elect biden. here is some more of what the russians say, vladimir putin said. he says he wished the president-elect every success and expressed confidence that russia and the united states which bear special responsible the for global security and stability, you can see that equal message again, can, despite their differences, effectively solve many problems and meeting the challenges the world is facing today. now, the kremlin is saying that the reason that vladimir putin waited this long before congratulating president-elect biden, he waited just days with president trump, is because of the differences in terms of the

arguments, if you like, that have been happening over there in the u.s. but i think it is also potentially just a political calculation by president putin to kind of wait, try to keep the trump -- president trump and the trumpists, if you like, in the u.s. happy just in case they regain power at some point in the future. remember, russia is always trying to take a long-term view. you know, mika, there will be many people who will criticize president putin for what he has to say today, but i think you can clearly see a twin-track strategy here. you can see the russian hybrid warfare with hacking, they are continuing that, and at the same time trying to offer negotiations and diplomacy. i think, actually, mika, right now it's clear what russia's trying to do. clear what china's trying to do. the question really is what is president-elect biden going to do. >> we shall see. keir simmons, thank you so much for your report. and joining us now, msnbc

contributor mike barnicle, and pulitzer prize-winning columnist and associate editor of the "washington post" and msnbc political analyst eugene robinson joins us. your latest column for the post, logic will get trump out of the white house but it can't bring back normal. first of all, let me just challenge your first part of that. will logic get him out of the white house? some are wondering. >> well, logic or burly secret service agents or something. but we will get him out of the white house. he will leave the white house. i mean, you know, think about it. yesterday was a hopeful day, right. we have the first shots of the vaccine. first and foremost, that is, one hopes, the beginning of the end of this awful, awful pandemic that has cost 300,000 american lives. it's amazing. and we also watched the

electoral college function all day long, all the electors, none of them faithless, voting as they were supposed to vote according to the rules in the constitution and making joe biden the 46th president. but if you think about it, i mean, recall another electoral college vote. i mean, i can't, you know, it's, generally speaking, in every election cycle that i can recall, it's a historical footnote. it's at the end of the news. by the way, you know, in other news, the electoral college made it official today. but we have known what was happening because we had the vote and somebody won. so this process that president trump has subjected the nation to since he lost the election, this process of his losing the

election over and over and over again and the recounts and the courts and certifications and the state legislatures and everything else, and finally the electoral college, and i guess he'll have to lose it again january 6th when congress counts the votes. he will lose again there. but this process has been incredibly damaging. it's been incredibly divisive, and this is at the end of four years of doing nothing but driving wedges for his on political gain. and further dividing an already divided nation in a just unforgiveable way that i think it's -- you know, i fear it's going to take us some time to recover from. and i am not exactly sure how. it's kind of squeezing the toothpaste of democracy back into the tube at this point.

he has vandalized our democracy in a consequential way. he really has. >> mike, it was quite a split screen yesterday. we had sandra lindsey, the icu nurse from queens getting that shot in her arm. a hopeful moment. a lot of people hope that symbolizes the beginning of the end when the entire country can get the vaccine. on the other side, a day a formality over history where the will extended forecast election casts its voettes with californ 5:30 in the afternoon putting joe biden over the top of 270. two moments over wise in other con teks wouldn't mean a lot, but right now they mean everything. >> yeah. willie, think about that for a second. first of all, you have the injection of pure hope yesterday with the vaccine being distributed and being given, offered to many, many people around the country, and then you had, as you indicated, you know, the electoral college, which is just a ho-hum, no, you know,

fall asleep, nobody ever paid attention to it prior to this year occurring. putting joe biden over the top. during the course of all of this, and well before yesterday, for months on end we have had the sitting president of the united states warring, going to war against our democracy, accusing the election of being rigged, accusing hugo chavez dead for several years of hooking up voting machines to favor the democrats. ridiculous, bizarre stuff like that, and all during the course of his ranting every single day and tweeting every single day about corruption and fixed elections, the russians, according to keir simmons' report and according to many, many other reports, the russians were in our kitchen fixing things so that they could steal secrets from the pentagon, from the national security agency, from the state department, and from the white house itself.

the department of homeland security as well. all of this was going on while this president of the united states, supposedly the commander in chief in charge of defending and protecting our country and our constitution, was talking about some stupid hugo chavez, you know, dead people dreaming up, you know, ways to fix an election ballots and machines. crazy. it's all crazy. >> you know, he has been rather quiet lately, which is sort of relaxing for a moment at least. up next, more on national security. a story that hasn't gotten the attention it deserves with all that's going on. the expected drawdown of u.s. troops in afghanistan and iraq. where things stand with that next on "morning joe." place. find your breaking point. then break it. every emergen-c gives you a potent blend of nutrients

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one of president trump's

foreign policy decisions that joe biden will have to reckon with is the reduction of u.s. troops stationed in afghanistan and iraq. set to be reduced by half, one month from now. joining us now, combat veteran and author bing west out with a new book entitled "the last platoon, a novel of the afghanistan war." bing, mike barnicle has the first question for you. mike? >> bing, you are a veteran of the united states marine corps, the vietnam war. you've worked in the defense department. you are a very good friend of general james mattis. helped him with his book that was released about a year and a half ago. you have been to afghanistan several times. we've spent nearly 20 years as a nation in afghanistan. we've lost an enormous amount of blood and treasure. enormous numbers of lives here in the united states have been altered because of our

participation in afghanistan. my question to you is that country salvageable? >> i don't know. i don't know, mike. it's not salvageable by americans. that's why i wrote the book. i wanted everyone to know what we have done for 20 years by telling the story about us and the combat on the ground on the one hand and what they are looking at in washington on the other hand. and then what the enemy is doing and, above the enemy, mike, what the leaders of the enemy force were in pakistan were doing. in other words, we could never win that war as long as the taliban had a sanctuary in pakistan. pakistan is duplicitous. so the only way we could have won is if we stayed like we did in south korea for 70 years. and if we weren't going to do that, then it was time to get

our troops off that battlefield. we can still take care of the terrorists by using our air, but we don't have to be there patrolling every single day. >> bing, so the 2,500 troops that will remain in afghanistan, along with about that number in iraq, as of january 15th, does that number in afghanistan strike you as sufficient to maintain the objective of not allowing afghanistan to become a hot bed for terrorists to attack the united states? does that feel like a good number? >> first, i'm not going to try to second-guess the generals on something like that, but second, we don't know the exact number. it's 2,500, we say, but then we have contractors, we have people coming in on temporary duty and we have all our allies. if the general in charge says i can continue to bomb, which is critical, with that number, then that number will do. >> what lessons do we take as

mike mentioned, it's been almost 20 years. you, obviously, have experience with vietnam. we would have hoped we'd taken the lessons from that war and applied them to somewhere like iraq when that decision was being made. what does this next generation of leaders take away from the experiences in iraq and afghanistan? >> i think the critical lesson, above all else, is humility in the white house that when you -- you better have asked yourself very carefully, how many presidents have to continue this for it to work? and if you then are told, sir, this is 50 years if you're really serious, then you have to go to the congress and get the congress to agree to that long-term commitment. and that's -- we didn't do that. we just jump in to these things and thought we could win it in a short period of time, and that was the critical mistake. we did not acknowledge that it would take decades if we wanted to build other nations in the middle east. i think we went entirely too

far. so the lesson is, don't try that again. if you're going to go after your enemy, go after your enemy. put him six feet under and then don't stay for the next 70 years. don't try to build other nations. >> we're coming up on our fourth president in these two wars. gene robinson is here with a question for you. >> one simple question. first, congratulations on the book, but my question is, it seems like you're resigned to our having at least some presence, some military presence in afghanistan basically in perpetuity or until somehow afghanistan miraculously changes itself into a jeffersonian democracy, which i don't think it's going to do. is the lesson, really, when you get into one of these wars, you never really get out, and that's

the way we ought to think about it? >> well, the question, i think my basic answer, gene is, yes, this is not the time to get completely out. if kabul fell, the reputation of america around the world would be in tatters, and we don't have to do that. we're not losing many people at all in afghanistan. we're keeping the pressure on the terrorists who want to kill us, and we're doing it smartly now simply by bombing and by having a lot of spies among the afghans. so i would continue with that. i would not pull out entirely and have the country just shatter. >> all right. the book is "the last platoon: a novel of the afghanistan war." bing west, thank you for being on the show and sharing that with us. that does it for us this morning. stephanie ruhle picks up the coverage after this final break.

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hi there. i'm stephanie ruhle live from msnbc headquarters here in new york city. it is tuesday, december 15th. another huge day in this country this morning. new images of hope. the covid vaccine being given to health care workers around our country. that includes workers in my home state of new jersey, where the first shot was given less than one hour ago at university hospital in newark. we will keep showing you scenes just like this inspiring ones all day long. but that is not all that's happening across this country. on the very same day we saw the first vaccines go out, president-elect biden secured his official electoral victory. rejected president trump's attempts to overturn