hi, everyone. it's 4:00 in the east. the biden factor. just one day after joe biden received the long overdue recognition of his victory from the republican leader of the senate mitch mcconnell, there's a break through today in the long stalled negotiations over covid negotiation. congressional leaders said wednesday they are nearing agreement on a roughly $900 billion economic relief package that would include a second round of stimulus checks and could be completed by the end of this week. now whether the republican acknowledgment was a factor at all may depend on who you talk to and whether the cameras are rolling. the timing of today's news about a possible deal is undeniable. washington post adding lawmakers are racing to pass a deal in part because of widespread signs because of economic deterioration in the face of the resurgent pandemic as well as

the imminent expiration of critical federal aid programs by the end of the year. nearly 8 million americans have fallen into poverty since the summer. that's according to a new report in part because emergency benefit programs expired. more americans are filing for unemployment benefits and the pace of hiring has slowed. the covid relief legislative break through is good news for those americans no doubt but the story on capitol hill today includes plenty of evidence of the fever swamp's tight grip on the gop. amid record numbers of deaths from covid the afore mentioned economic despair in this country and an historic cyber attack from the russians, the senate homeland security committee today devolved into something indecipherable from a news max streamed hour of conspiracy theories. ron johnson, he's a senator from wisconsin who heads that committee, today convened a hearing to focus on something

that four dozen junls adges and president's own attorney general said doesn't exist, widespread irregulariti irregularities. the dangers of the johnson farce. >> whether intended or not, this hearing gives a platform to conspiracy theories and lies. it's a constructive effort with no place. despite the title of today's hearing. there were no widespread election irregularities that affected the outcome. giving them more oxygen is a grave threat to the future of our democracy. i understand the chairman's desire to ensure our elections run smoothly and i agree that we need to restore faith and trust in our election process, but i'm concerned that today's hearing will do more harm than good in confusing anecdotes about human error with the insidious claims the president has aired. >> the washington post adds this

on the gop's performance today. quote, they didn't go as far as trump in straight up saying that the election was stolen, but they were willing to inject the question of whether there was fraud deeper into the political conversation which allows it to be easily conflated with the false claims of a president who has systematically tried to undermine the democratic process at every turn. former trump cyber security czar chris krebs attacked the gop for failing to publicly embrace the reality of the election result and for failing to protect the election officials who upheld that result. >> i would appreciate more support from my own party, republican party to call this out and end it. we've got to move on. we have a president-elect in president-elect biden. we have to move on. these officials that are republicans, look at georgia, br

brad, jeff dung link they are putting country over party being subjected to just horrific threats as a result. this is not america. >> as the country is about to turn the page on donald trump's toxic and dysfunctional presidency, republicans failed to pump the brakes on his most dangerous light at all. how joe biden and a half have i gates the broken political party is where we start today. msnbc politicalab ablnalyst mic steele is here. nbc news correspondent heidi press bella and phil rucker and michael steele, i'll start with you. i thought watching this today and watching the coverage of it, that this matters because it's going a little bit underground. this was not on any of the major cable channels. this was a -- basically a fraudulent hearing but carried out under the auspices of the united states senate by one of the president's closest allies,

ron johnson. it was carried on own or oan. it was live by donald trump. it will do all the damage and danger that the democratic senator, chris krebs and the washington post said it would. this seems to be the new battlefield for the disinformation stream being pumped into trump's voters. >> well, i think what you got was a taste of what's to come. how a former president trump will use the other media outlets, one maybe he builds himself, to stage this type of narrative. look, the reality is very stark and america needs to get a grip on this, especially our press needs to get a grip on this. donald trump will run a side-by-side presidential campaign against the biden administration. he will, you know, create sort of an off the book white house, if you will, if he can using rallies, using own, using

whatever networks he can sucker in to carrying the coverage that he wants to get and keep himself in front of the american public. when you have united states senators playing to this particular narrative by, you know, assisting and setting up these type of story lines, that's where it gets much, much more serious. when they're using the auspices of authority of their office to carry and push forward conspiracy theories and the like, it is a graver danger than anything donald trump in and of himself will do as a former president, and that's what's going to make the biden -- at least the first year of his term very, very difficult to get on track is trying to deal with covid, trying to move an agenda around maybe something like infrastructure and most especially, nicole, helping the country heal and move forward is

going to be problematic when you have these types of hearings that are going to be out there pushing forward lies and bs perpetrated by united states senator who thinks that this is the smart and correct thing to do. >> you know, heidi, what's so striking, i mean, i really do hear anecdotally and seeing the data that people are done with trump and the trump story, but i think the enablers of what trump has done for the last 367 da days -- 37 days deserve scrutiny and political pressure and scorn that they are getting. if trump is the addict, they're the ones putting the drugs in his hand. what is sort of the tone and tenor up on capitol hill around what ron johnson did today when there's life and death legislation that is kind of on life support in the covid -- not on life support, had a good day today, having a good day looking viable and possible but how do

those two stark differences manifest themselves up on capitol hill, heidi? >> reporter: those stark differences, nicole, have been playing out frankly since impeachment when ron johnson's committee, which is tasked with coronavirus oversight, has been using the resources of the committee for all of these other politically motivated investigations going back months and now here we are with a vaccine on the horizon and significant concerns about how we're actually going to get those vaccines into the arms of americans with committee resources being used on another politically motivated show to try and undermine american's confidence in the election. but, you know, to michael's point about the media and how we handle this, i got some good advice a couple of years ago from a dear gop source who said, look, we're going into unchartered waters here of disinformation and it's important for you as the media

to distinguish between the liars and the lied to. and the problem is that we've crossed a threshold here where the mass majority of the republican party has allowed these lies to go on and to infiltrate such that the majority of the people who are lied to, the polls show us, now believe the lie. so we're in a new phase here that we're going to have to confront as the news media in covering and distinguishing between the people who are telling the lies. i thought it was significant yesterday that it did come from a republican, albeit he is retiring, representative mitchell of michigan who's leaving the party, and in his statement he said to rana romney mcdaniel, the rnc chair, rana, he addressed her by name, you know michigan. in other words, you know that it is a lie that wayne county tipped the state for donald trump. it was these other affluent suburbs which overperformed for

democrats and you are part of the problem essentially. so question remains if now that donald trump is not in this position and doesn't have this bully pulpit if we the media don't give that oxygen to him and to the lies, if republicans -- there will be more republicans like representative mitchell because we have not seen that. we've all been waiting for that moment when they hold hands and do it together, not these individual actors who get picked off and fall on their swords. will that happen now that donald trump is not going to have the same platform that he had in the white house? >> you know, phil, the power though is shifting. i mean, the recipient of donald trump's scorn last night, it's clear donald trump isn't sleeping well as a person who lost a presidential election. he's tweeting way into the wee hours and is not in another time zone as far as your news outlet has reported. he's angry at mitch mcconnell but mitch mcconnell is the one,

it would appear based on the news as the washington post is reporting at this hour, who is at least giving a nod of approval to this bipartisan very tentative agreement on covid stimulus legislation. and it is the fringe members who are participating in the lies, spoon feeding the lies to some elements of the trump base. i want to ask you how many people are aware of sort of the power swinging, the pendulum moving away from trump and his allies and towards the new president, president-elect biden. >> well, nicole, it's perceptive to point out the power that senator mcconnell has at this moment because he's going to be the leader of the senate, either in the majority or the minority depending on how the georgia races go, but nonetheless he will be a critical negotiator with president biden next year on any number of crises that this country is facing. he's also going to be thinking about the long game, about preserving and growing the

republican senate majority in the 2022 mid term elections. trump will be long gone. he may be having some sort of alternate reality presidency from mar-a-lago, but he will not have real power here in washington and mcconnell and a number of the other republican senators in leadership are well aware of these power dynamics, and i think it's why you see mcconnell reaching out to biden this week, why you see him accepting the reality that biden's become the president-elect and why you see a possible deal coming together in these final days before christmas for covid relief, because these lawmakers know that the american people have been suffering in this economy and have been suffering because of this virus, that the stimulus payments are running out and that help is needed and that if they don't answer that call before they go home for christmas there could be a political penalty to pay. mcconnell is making these calculations not vis-a-vis whether trump is going to tweet

at him for tomorrow but what will it mean for the power dynamics next year when trump is long gone. >> you know, michael steele, i take everything phil are you ru. i've been there. i don't think republicans are concerned that the programs are running out. i think republicans are concerned that there might be a little shame injected into the political system again. under donald trump they could let people go without unemployment insurance because donald trump didn't care. under donald trump they could let people end up in food bank lines because he didn't care about programs to secure their -- a lot of people have temporary economic crises that will be alleviated if we kill the virus and people can open up their businesses again, but republicans don't feel pressure because of the suffering because people have been suffering for many, many, many months. republicans are afraid that we might reintroduce shame into the political ecosystem. i think what i detect in

mcconnell is relievlierelief. i think he was craven to understand he could put whatever justices he wanted. hey, do gorsuch, do kavanaugh next and let's do a hail mayry with the right wing lunatic. i don't think mcconnell has any distress and despair working with joe biden, do you? >> no. phil said it in reporter ease, but i think that's it because, you know, the good reporters do that without shade of opinion. just giving you the facts, ma'am. he's right on. he's spot on. i think that's an exact analysis of where mitch mcconnell. we've dealt with this crazy, let's move on to something else because that's how he typically approaches these things. that's why he's lasted and survived, you know, versus a john boehner or, you know, a

congressman paul ryan. because he knows -- he knows how -- where the pressure points are and how the system is going to respond. here though i will take one little bit of exception with my buddy phil's reporting and that is i think it is a height of mistake, possible mistake to under estimate what influence donald trump is going to have as a former president. you're right that, you know, mcconnell looking at the system without trump in it, meaning he has to go to the white house and call the white house and deal with trump, that's one thing, but his members are still going to be beholden to the noise around their feet and around their ears from an agitated, angry, you know, conspiracy-fueled base that is going to want those senators to respond against biden.

so as mcconnell's trying to cut the deal, let's say, on covid, a bigger deal, because you're going to need a bigger deal, folks, than $900 billion to deal with covid. when he's trying to cut the deal on infrastructure, what do those senators do? how do they respond to donald from the cat calls and cackling from donald trump on the sidelines agitated further by a base that is screaming, you want to get re-elected. i'm going to primary you, yada, yada, yada. that's going to be the thing to watch. that's where i think the press can serve a greater service to the american public by helping to clarify that noise so that we can see clearly exactly as was put before where the liars are, who's being lied to and who's doing the lying. >> yeah. phil rucker, i want to give you a chance to respond to that.

you are in a different business than michael and i. you are delivering the facts to us, you and 450idy both. but i want to put it to you this way. john boehner was run out of the house essentially because the lunatics took over his asylum. really, what he was pushed into doing and not doing frankly. i think he would have liked to have done more big deals, deals forts history books for then president obama. >> oh, yeah. >> his party forbade it. is that a historic parallel you're hearing about where the senate is now? >> absolutely. and it could be. and let's just remember, we're talking about the fact that mitch mcconnell acknowledged that joe biden won the election, you know, five six weeks after the election as a major news story. that's not necessarily a big deal. that's a very pro forma thing to happen. >> that's a great point. the bar is so low. >> very good point. >> we're not talking about

landmark legislation here. we're not talking about changes to health care or the tax code or any of the number of things that the biden administration has on its agenda that will almost certainly be thwarted by the republican senate, and i think michael made a really terrific point about trump. he's not going to be in power in the white house but he's going to be in power in the republican party and he's going to be controlling many of those republican senators as if they were his puppets the same way he has for the last four years because they're going to be on the ballot in two years or in four years or in six years and they're going to be terrified of what former president donald trump could do to hurt their chances back home. >> i know it's the truth, but it is so depressing. heidi who gave us our mantra of the day, the liars and the lied to. phil rucker, thank you for your reporting. michael steele sticking around longer. when we come back, biden calling it a barrier breaking cabinet. pete buttigieg reflecting on what his appointment means today

and a look at what the rest of the biden cabinet is shaping up to look like. also, a remarkable fete in the fight against covid. could at-home covid testing kits be next and available to all of us in january? plus, our judicial system persisted despite donald trump's continued resistance to reality. are we going to be left picking up the pieces? the lawyer who oversaw the efforts to preserve biden's win joins us next. all those stories when the white house returns, don't go anywhere. [ engine rumbling ] ♪ [ beeping ] [ engine revs ] ♪ uh, you know there's a 30-minute limit, right? tell that to the rain. [ beeping ] for those who were born to ride, there's progressive.

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i can remember watching the news, 17 years old in indiana, seeing a story about an appointee of president clinton named to be an ambassador, attacked and denied a vote in the senate because he was gay. i watched that story. i learned something about some of the limits that exist in this country when it comes to who was allowed to belong. but just as important, i saw how those limits could be challenged. >> watch this space. that was former south bend indiana mayor pete buttigieg acknowledging the historic significance of his own nomination to serve in president-elect biden's cabinet as transportation secretary. he would be the first senate confirmed openly gay man to lead a cabinet level agency and at 38 years old the youngest cabinet pick since alexander hamilton. biden is also set to select former michigan governor jennifer granholm to lead the energy department and gina

mccarthy. let's bring in jeff bennett live in wilmington, delaware and michael steele still with me. jeff bennett, pete buttigieg is the messenger who is a warm knife through the warm butter through the calcified political debate. i know that's too many metaphors there. anyone who watches fox news has seen those skills on display, and i wonder if you can just take me inside the thinking about this nomination, this man and how they see him. >> and, look, i was in the room today for that announcement, and this really is the culmination of pete buttigieg's meteoric rise in national politics over the last two years. it is nothing short of remarkable that a president-elect would elevate someone to run an agency, a $90 billion agency with some 50,000 employees and the person he's elevating has never worked in washington politics and has

never run any part of a federal bureaucracy, but joe biden believes that pete buttigieg is a special case. i mean, it is an objective fact that buttigieg is wicked smart. he's also an effective communicator. he spoke lyrically about the department of transportation today which you've got to say is among the least awe inspiring federal agencies there is but he says he's had a love of transportation since he was a child. he proposed to his husband at o'hare airport and the reason why this is important is because joe biden is going to need an effective communicator to lead the charge in helping rebuild the country's infrastructure and to also execute his ambitious -- his objectively ambitious climate agenda. pete buttigieg will have a direct role in that as transportation secretary as will the other two folks who you mentioned, jennifer granholm who will be named energy secretary,

nominated to serve as energy secretary, and gina mccarthy, the former obama era epa chief who will be the so-called domestic climate coordinator. the two of them pushing biden's climate message. two really -- four if you take them altogether. four effective communicators, ambassadors, evangelists to combat climate change as the national imperative it is. >> michael steele, there is this thing that happens when a new white house, a new administration comes to washington and it was so -- it was international news when the obama administration came in, they were young, glamorous, fresh faces and they changed washington in all good ways. i don't say that as any dis to the administration in which i served, but after eight years there is this change that always kind of invigorates that town. there's been a lot of analysis

that a lot of the people that joe biden has brought in were already there. i think the pete and chastin buttigieg story will be one of the cultural markers that a biden presidency puts down. when you listen to joe biden talk, he does not ever get remarks without repeating one of his campaign messages that he is a proud democrat, he will be president for all-americans. he has taken to making public remarks two days this week about mitch mcconnell thanking him for acknowledging his victory which as phil rucker said in our last conversation is such a lobaw ba. i wonder if pete buttigieg is one of the people he taps to do that bipartisan thing that he talks about wanting to do. >> yeah, a couple of interesting points there, nicole. the first is it is not ironic or anything like that, it's part of the continuing arc of joe biden. remember, joe biden was the one that moved us rather precipitously, if you will, some

views into the discussion about gay marriage and how -- >> yeah, that's right. >> -- the gay community is part of a broader american community as any other community. in other words, he made it normal. he made it okay. and with this pick today, it is a continuation of that. where the selection of someone of the caliber, the quality, the intellect of pete buttigieg, his sexual orientation won't matter. all of these other things, it was in many respects what dr. king was dreaming about america, that these qualifications that we, you know, kind of get upset and kind of pick at really, you know -- qualities, really, don't matter as long as the content is there. pete brings that. i know pete personally. he's a rhodell fellow like myself. i am excited. i think he's going to be an

astoundingly good secretary, not just because of the work in transportation or all the ancillary issues there but because he will be that bridge, that link in communication, in conversation about how america is continuing to change and, you know, all the things that we used to get hung up on as we once did about race and that we now do about sexuality, it doesn't matter because he's doing the job. >> i love talking to the two of you. nbc's jeff bennett and my friend michael steele, thank you both so much for spending some time with us today. up next for us, a huge step in coronavirus testing in this country. you won't need to stand in line. you won't need a doctor or an appointment or a prescription and you won't have to wait for it. we'll tell but it next. we'll te. - i'm a retired school counselor. [lea] i'm a retired art teacher. [steve] we met online about 10 years ago. as i got older, my hearing was not so good

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as coronavirus vaccines continue to be administered today to thousands of front line health care workers across this country, some more promising developments this week from the fda it will deliver results immediately and be offered over the counter in january.

it improves awareness. an average of 211,000 positive tests a day. deaths are holding steady at more than 2.5,000 per day. one of the most somber headlines reveals the scope of the tragedy right now. california has just placed an order for thousands of body bags to keep up with the record breaking devastation in that state. joining us now nbc news and msnbc public health analyst dr. irwin redlenner. i want to always keep in focus the complex picture of the pandemic. it is taking from us more loved ones at any other point at the same point science and medicine are rushing in with help. what is that like from your perspective? >> well, this is a very, very complicated situation call, as

you just said. we're seeing really unstoppable search at the moment. hopefully we'll get control of this at some point, but we're meeting a moment in history really where science has advanced fast and we do have the vaccine that's available. hopefully people will get it as soon as it becomes available to them. at the same time will it be fast enough to stop a lot more fatalities from covid-19? that we're not sure of. and it doesn't seem like we're going to get a general uptake by the population until certainly the second half of 2021. vaccine resistance. in some ways, the science was relatively easy and i want too say this carefully compared to the job it's going to take to convince people to take the vaccine. not only that, we're going to still have to maintain, of course, the public health measures of staying distant from other people, wearing facemasks, so on. the messaging component of what has to happen now is meeting the

science but really lagging behind the science, nicole. >> i want to pick up on that point because it seems that doctors now have this on their mind, you know, at equal levels of concern as they do the pandemic itself. let me read some of this reporting from politico last night. trump/biden divide hampers covid vaccine trust building effort that you were talking about. biden's team for its part knows it has to reach out to a trump base hesitant about the vaccine but it hasn't settled on a plan and which messengers will be best to enlist. trump says the president won't want to help biden. you know what, let's stop right there. one, how did the trump base get hesitant about a vaccine when donald trump's attaching himself to operation warp speed was his single only contribution to the country's response to the pandemic? >> yeah, this is -- there's some

really troubling realities to the trump white house and trump himself how they've messaged. they've created such instability of confidence in anything coming from anybody right now. if you couple that with the conspiracy theories and all the people that were antivaxxers before trump appeared, we have a toxic mix of people who are going to be resistant. trump himself personally has been responsible for creating uncertainty. you think about the rallies he's held, meetings, the rose garden events and so on without masks, without people distancing. it's no wonder the people are confused. i don't think it's just trump supporters by the way. i think there are a lot of people who are not necessarily trump supporters who are going to be hesitant about taking the vaccines. that's why this major task for the biden team is going to be how do we get people over the hump and willing to get the vaccine? i hope they do. my own son who's an emergency

medicine doc on the front lines got his first shot of the pfizer vaccine yesterday. but there's people in the hospitals even in new york who are hesitant. up to maybe 1/3 of even health care workers have a level of hesitancy that we're going to have to drive through. the messengers need to be people who are close to the committees that are most resistant. there's a lot of mistrust among black and hispanic folks and we need to have messengers that are reflective of the cultures and connecting to those populations, nicole. >> and just real quick, dr. redlener, news of this at-home covid test seems like a real relief to people who want to be sure that before -- and i'm thinking of my own son if he's in that classroom. you want to test them at home before you even potentially or inadvertently have contact with anybody else. what is to you the most significant advance? how do you think it could help to have at-home testing

available? >> yeah, home testing is really a good advance. it's not perfect. you know, there's a lot of potentially false negatives. the positivity rates and percentages, they're pretty good. the fact that you can do it at home without having to send it to a lab is a big advance is going to be a pricing situation. it's going to be about $30 a test seems like right now. for some people that's actually going to be a barrier. i was hoping testing would be free just like i hope the vaccines will be also. >> dr. irwin redlener, we'll keep turning to you as the pandemic rages on and as science tries to keep up. thank you for spending time with us today. still to come, the gop and trump's demands that our court system deliver to him the presidency, thank god failed. but our next guest says this still signals a worrying and serious erosion of our democracy and our democratic values. we'll talk to him next.

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she's not for sale. don't hurt her! she ain't worth dying for. you can't have her! captain. i'm taking her home! even more stunning, 17 republican attorneys general and 126 republican members of the congress actually, that 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. thankfully a unanimous supreme court immediately and completely rejected this effort. >> in fact, the trump campaign and donald trump's republican allies have filed at least 57 lawsuits to try to challenge the election result and no court has found a single instance of fraud, including that texas suit which had been immediately struck down by the united states supreme court. the lawyer fighting for the biden campaign and the democratic party and it would appear democracy itself, mark elias writes today, quote, one might think that the simple end of this problem is for donald trump to simply leave the white house on the morning of january 20th as a disgraced one-term president. the republican party's reaction to the texas case suggests this will not be the case. the broad support among republicans for the previously unthinkable, a demand that the judiciary deliver trump the

presidency against the overwhelming will of the american people signals a worrying and serious erosion of our democratic values within the republican party. joining our conversation, the author of that, democratic voting rights attorney and founder of the democracy docket, mark elias. thank you so much for spending some time with us. i searched your twitter feed for the count every day of how many lawsuits the trump campaign lost and just, first, congratulations on the legal victories. but what was it like to fight against cases that were not rooted in fact? >> so, thank you, first of all, for having me to set the record, trump and his allies have now lost 59 lawsuits. >> oh, i'm sorry. >> that's all right. i thought they wouldn't make it to 60 and then they filed a lawsuit in new mexico after the vote certification so i suspect that will be their 60th loss.

it's been a surreal experience because, you know, this election was -- was close but it wasn't that close, right? i mean, joe biden and kamala harris won 7 million more votes and over 300 electoral votes. even when you look at the states at the margins, they weren't that close. we weren't talking about elections in any of these states decided by hundreds or even a few thousand votes. we're talking about elections that were decided by tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of votes. so, you know, the lawsuits that were filed one after another after another were just, you know, surreal. they were not grounded in fact, but they also weren't grounded in law. they were just kind of helter-skelter efforts to try to undo what was the clear outcome of the election. >> do you have any doubt that the political strategy that trump and his campaign landed on heading into the election was to

get close enough to try to sue their way or muddle their way or cheat their way to victory? >> so i think that's one of the great unanswered questions that i have is was this always their strategy? because honestly it wasn't a very good strategy and for all of the preparation that we heard the republican party was engaged in, you know, remember, we heard about 50,000 poll watchers, armies of lawyers, they had hired the best of the best. in the end what we got was cindy powell and mccracken. i'm not sure if this was actually the strategy they planned. >> right. do you see what chris krebs talks about, what gabriel sterling, election official in georgia, chris krebs the fired former head of cyber security at donald trump's homeland security department, they talk about sort of a new divide in the

republican party where so many of these 126 house members come to mind stand with trump on the side of the delusion, the lie, the really dangerous lie that has led to angry mobs, armed mobs outside the homes of election officials and secretaries of state. and then on the other side these very few republicans, it's sad for me to say that, but there are very few of them standing on the side of truth and standing on the side of democracy. to me i don't see any way for those two to ever knit up again. what do you see from sort of the other side of them in the courtroom? >> yeah, i agree with you. that's why i wrote the piece that i did, because, you know, it's one thing for rudy giuliani to spout a bunch of nonsense in a parking lot in pennsylvania and it's another thing for them to, you know, spout some of that in court and get thrown out, but what really struck me was not the texas sought the relief it did. i chalked that up when i first saw it to the fact that attorney

general paxton may have had his own legal problems that he was trying to curry favor with donald trump for a pardon. but then to watch 17 other state attorneys general sign on to that, none of those other 17 states attorneys general had to do that. and 126 to sign on. literally throwing out the elections of four states, tens of millions of voters, is such a deeply, deeply troubling antigovernment effort. we have a divided country much more pernicious and deeper than i ever thought possible. which is a divide whether or not we are all committed to the idea of free and fair elections, and that's really troubling. restoring that is -- >> yeah. i was going to bring it to your op ed today which broadens this out to the assault on one of the central tenants of democracy. it seems to me the judiciary is

the only branch that hasn't been corrupted by donald trump, and i wonder what you think the first step is to sort of reinforming people or reinvigorating people's enthusiasm for democracy as as another method articulating the dangers of doing. >> look, it's good that the judiciary held across the board, republican and democratic appointees, state and federal judges, but ultimately, our democracy can't rely on judges resisting the impulses of autocratic politicians where they're going to be supported by such a wide base of their political party. because the next time, we may not have a circumstance of a blowout election. the next time, we may not have -- it's nancy pelosi, not

kevin mccarthy holding the gavel. we could have a circumstance that is much, much more problematic. and i didn't worry about this before the election, because it never occurred to me that you would see elected republicans looking to throw out the votes of millions of americans, and in some instances looking to throw out their own elections. you had members of the republican caucus in pennsylvania, michigan, and georgia, looking to toss their own elections. >> it's truly remarkable. marc elias, thank you for spending time with us today. thank your dog for jumping in on the interview. he came right over your shoulder and jumped on the couch. >> thank you so much. >> thank you. >> thank you very much. for us next, a major storm on the east coast has arrived. bringing heavy snow and a dangerous wintry mix for 70

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the first massive storm of the season is under way right now across much of the east coast. more than 65 million americans from north carolina to maine are under winter storm advisories. and new york city is bracing for what could be the largest storm in years, with as much as a foot

of snow falling by tomorrow morning. and bill, what are we looking at here? >> nicole, did you see the new york shot? it looks like it was a blackout. what is going on in new york city? maybe the heavy snow has moved in. there it is. i guess it's snowing that hard that you really can't see all the lights in the buildings in the background. that's the view southwards from our building, looking towards times square to your right. must be snowing hard. pretty cool. let's get into the weather maps. the heavy snow band is transitioning towards southern new england and the new york city area. that's why we were telling people to stay off the roads. in fredericksburg, maryland, there's a huge accident. 65 million people impacted by the storm. the blue shows you where it's snowing. inside the blue with the white, that's where it's really heavy snow.

philadelphia, four inches of snow on the ground that happened quickly. that is the band that will be over new york city from 6:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. 1 to 2 inches per hour. and overnight, it will snow and snow hard. the southern tier of new york, binghamton, oneonta, state college, hagerstown, harrisburg, some of the areas with over a foot, possibly near two feet. and places like hartford and the berk shi berkshires will get nailed. and look at boston, around 10 to 16 inches. the kids are excited, this is kind of like a sense of normalcy instead of the world they've been in for the last year. hopefully tomorrow they can get out and play it in safely.

>> you're right, kids are happy. bill, we'll ask you back tomorrow to let us know what we're contending with. thank you for spending time with us today. the next hour of "deadline: white house" starts after a quick break. don't go anywhere, we're just getting started. i have been suffering with migraine for years and years. and nothing has really worked for me. until now. with nurtec odt, i have felt such relief. i am able to go about my day as if nothing happened. nurtec is the only quick- dissolve treatment

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we'll see what the deputy attorney general now going to be at the end of the month the acting attorney general, whether he has any convictions. i do think that, you know, it's tricky in that short amount of time to actually bring a criminal case. i mean, grand juries need proof and facts to support an indictment. so i'm not sure that that will happen. i could see the new attorney

general appointing a special counsel to, for instance, investigate hunter biden. >> hi, again, everyone. it's 5:00 p.m. in the east. that was andrew weissman yesterday warning about the penal possibility that donald trump will squeeze the justice department even harder. warning of the penalty that trump will force the doj to appoint a special counsel to investigate the son of president-elect biden. the associated press is reporting on trump's agitation behind the scenes to do that. remaining furious at the former attorney general for not going public about the hunter biden investigation. but trump views the government,

that it exists to carry out his attacks against his enemies. and anybody who does not provide him with loyalty could be in jeopardy. so what will we see from incoming attorney general jeffrey rosen? trump is still weighing his options, considering whether to pressure rosen to make the special counsel appointment, or, if needed, to replace the acting attorney general with someone more likely to carry out his wishes. he's even asked his team of lawyers, including rudy giuliani, to look into whether the president has the ability to appoint a special counsel himself. a key question, can rosen stand up to pressure? if not, rosen could be cast aside in favor of others more

willing to do trump's bidding. one man not willing to do that billing, fbi director christopher wray, who has challenged the president's claims on issues of security, russian interference, and election fraud. and nbc news is reporting if not for those around trump, wray would be on the chopping block. get, president donald trump came so close to firing christopher wray in recent months that the white house counsel's office has warned him not to do so, because it could put him in potential legal jeopardy. that's according to officials familiar with the discussion. white house lawyers strongly advised trump against firing another fbi director out of sco concern that it could create the

impression of a loyalty test. a president attempting to use the levers at his disposal to prosecute his rivals is where we start this hour. jonathan lemire, also kara lee, who reported the news about trump being warned not to fire his fbi director. and chuck rosenberg is here, former u.s. attorney. he's also an msnbc contributor, and the host of the podcast, the oath, with a new episode out now. jonathan, let me start with you and your reporting on donald trump wanting a special counsel to investigate hunter biden. it would seem there's no indication that the justice department can't carry out this investigation. what would the sort of cover

story be for such a move? >> first of all, let's be mindful of the backstory, the president grew angry that barr, to my colleague, in an interview had said a week or so back that there was no evidence of widespread election fraud. and the president was outraged over the weekend when he learned the department of justice, there was a federal tax investigation into hunter biden since 2018, but it was not made public or pursued aggressively during the campaign. that's barr following guidelines, what the doj is supposed to do in an election year. but that wasn't enough to satisfy the president. so attorney general barr, after an exchange with the president, resigned. and the president now is seeing what other options he may have.

and there is certainly, he's talked to people around him, he's met with mark meadows and the white house counsel about the idea of pushing for a special prosecutor, wanting to enshrine the hunter biden investigation, so it would be harder for the incoming president to be rid of this probe, it would look this much worse if he would attempt to dismiss or pressure to dismiss this special prosecutor. and frankly, it is to damage the new administration before it begins. to saddle them with this probe. and to make life for biden that much more complicated, as he looks to appoint his own attorney general in the coming days, who would be the boss of the prosecutors investigating his son. >> kara lee, i think this broader picture that jonathan is reporting and your reporting brings into focus, donald trump

is not done corrupting the justice department and the fbi yet. and he plans to spend his final days as a lame duck president contorting this, and trying to fire chris wray, he isn't done exacting revenge on even his own appointees who didn't do everything he wanted them to do. >> that's a good point. you're right, this is kind of the arc from the earliest days of the trump administration to now. how you have seen the president really want to try to bend the justice department to his will. when the lawyers with the white house counsel's office made this case to the president, they raised james comey, and said, look, this is going to be seen as part of a pattern,

potentially, where you're demanding this loyalty test from a position that is particularly non-partisan in most cases, or has some independence from the white house. that's why the term of the fbi director is longer, it's designed to try to be, have some continuity from one administration to the next, if that's the case. and so the fact that the president was looking at doing this with potentially very little time left in office, with christopher wray having not been in that job for very long, was a concern that that would bring him more legal troubles. and we all know what happened when he fired james comey, which then became a critical part of the obstruction of justice investigation that robert mueller conducted, and that was part of the reasoning why there were concerns among the president's legal team, among others in the white house, who felt like this is just not a place that he wants to go.

it's also worth saying that even people we spoke with don't know what the president will do. he still could decide, thanks for the advice, but i'm going to fire christopher wray. >> chuck rosenberg, there is a sameness to the way that donald trump seeks to corrupt the justice department and the fbi, places where you've served nobly, and you left when you didn't feel you could do so in a way that was noble. i want to put you on the spot, you still know the justice department and the fbi. is mr. rosen going to be like mr. ratcliffe or mr. wray? >> time will tell. it's only when somebody is asked to do something that troubles them, that is wrong, that is

unethical, where they rise to the occasion or shrink from it. i've heard good things about mr. rosen. i don't know him personally. he had a good reputation at the department of transportation, he's been relatively low-profile. but this might be his moment. one of the important things for any senior government official to do is to be able to say no. and particularly to be able to say no to this president, who asks not just for a lot, but for a lot of things that are unlawful. let's see. maybe he does the right thing, rises to the occasion. the end of an administration is a messy time for lotsov of reasons. and donald trump above all is a messy president. it's a good time to watch not just the justice department, but the government, to see whether men and women who are leaving have the spine to say no. >> is no the right answer to if

donald trump wants a special counsel to investigate hunter biden? >> there's a glaring deficiency in mr. trump's logic. special counsel investigations are supposed to happen if there's some sort of circumstance that suggests that the department of justice should step aside. that's why we have those regulations. do we need a special counsel for hunter biden right now? obviously not. how do we know? because an investigation has already been opened on him. he's being investigated right now by agents and prosecutors. there's no reason for a recusal for this justice department. the only reason to do it is to try and stick it to an incoming

president. it may be the occasion with a new attorney general that you would want to appoint a special counsel, because there would be a conflict. but right now, no. it's already open. this is a political ploy, and a transparent one. >> and just to be clear, jonathan, donald trump isn't interested in a special counsel as anything other than a punitive tool that he would wield against a political opponent in his eyes, joe biden and his son. i want to press on this, because mr. rosen, if he's not replaced, will preside over massive bulk order preemptive pardons, potentially for rudy giuliani and others, potentially for himself. i know a little bit about mr. rosen from folks that worked

with him. he was never a prosecutor, is that right? and he must be aware that the rest of his professional reputation hinges on what he does and doesn't do in the name of trump's assault on our democracy, his four-year-long assault on the rule of law, and his designs on corrupting the justice department even more than he already has. is there any indication that he will follow bill barr's example on not repeating the lies of election fraud, or will he be more gumby-like than barr? >> mr. rosen has an extraordinary five or so weeks ahead of him if he's not replaced. one of the names floated is mr.

ratcliffe. but he's sort of a stand-up guy, a career servant, who is likely to uphold the traditions of the department, the norms of the department. it will be undoubtedly withering scrutiny and pressure coming from the oval office just a few feet from where i'm sitting right now. and this isn't about the rule of law. it's about exacting vengeance, and with the pardons, covering for allies. that is something that being discussed internalnly. the president has talked about pardons for himself and his family. and at least some preliminary discussions have been had, certainly about rudy giuliani, rudy giuliani brought them up to the president in recent weeks, according to reports. this will fall on rosen in this month or so that he will occupy this post. and this is part of president

trump's legacy, the all-out assault on the institutions of government, believing it should serve him rather than the constitution. it will be tested yet again in these next few weeks. >> i want to come back, kara lee, to your wray reporting. indications that things have been really tumultuous for wray. he was recommended to donald trump by chris christie, and trump has been complaining about wray almost since the day he got there. i wonder what your reporting reveals about wray's state of mind. biden has indicated he would not ask him to go. is there any sense that wray wants to stay? >> there's the sense that he's more kind of even keel, just trying to do his job, and that's the message that he sent throughout the fbi as well. we're here to do our job, we have a job to do.

and to the extent possible, the tune out the noise. when you're head of the fbi, the fbi director, and the president is making a lot of noise, and calling on you to either start investigations or announce investigations, or even during the campaign there was that investigation into some trump supporters seeming to surround a biden supporter's bus, and the president said to stop that investigation. it really has run the gamut for director wray's tenure in terms of what the president has asked him to do and not do. and throughout that, according to our reporting, he's triied t put his head down and stay the course. he's spoken out when he's felt it's required or necessary, but also really tried to maintain a relatively low profile. as other cabinet officials who have been in trump's line of fire have also done. when you look at the cia

director, gina haskell. she thought she was going to be fired, she was packing up her personal belongings in her office at cia headquarters. that gives you a sense of what it's like to serve for donald trump, you're walking on eggshells. >> particularly if your responsibilities include protecting the rule of law or the country's national security. thank you to you all. i appreciate all of you, thank you for starting us off this hour. when we come back, the sprawling russian cyber attack on the united states government underscores one of the challenges facing president-elect joe biden after four years of donald trump letting russia's aggression just slide. plus, president trump picks a fight with mitch mcconnell, all because mcconnell had the

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and safe for all fitness levels. get gym results at home in just 10 minutes a day. no expensive machines, no expensive memberships. get off the floor with aerotrainer. go to aerotrainer.com to get yours now. yesterday, we brought you reports on one of the most brazen and potentially dangerous cyber attacks ever waged on the united states government, and likely carried out by the russian government. several agencies including the

department of homeland security and the u.s. state department were targeted as part of a spying operation by the kremlin. today, sources told politico that staff was briefed by agencies on the attack. but the full extent of the damage is unclear. what is clear, president-elect biden will have to deal with a very aggressive russia, embol n emboldened by donald trump looking the other way for four years. joining me, michael crowley, and also former ambassador to russia, michael mcfall. michael crowley, the fact of the attack is terrifying. it would appear that whether or not they're emboldened by donald trump is besides the point.

joe biden will have to deal with an aggressive russia in these tactics. >> yes. and biden and so many of the people around him have endured -- look. a lot of the senior people in biden's administration were headed for great jobs in the hillary clinton administration. that didn't come to pass because in large part, many of them believe, vladimir putin's kremlin hacked the 2016 election. there's a kind of personal component to this. russia has just increasingly grown more and more aggressive over the past four years. i think to some degree, embol n emboldened by donald trump's see no evil attitude towards the kremlin. the u.s. has prevented trump from cutting the kinds of deals he wanted to, but it will be

difficult for biden and the people around him. but they understand they don't have the luxury of doing that, unfortunately, they have to work with the kremlin on several major issues including of course the coronavirus, climate change, getting back to some version of the iran nuclear deal where russia was a party to that deal in 2015. and other problems and conflicts around the world. it's not going to be possible to do the satisfying thing and get the payback against putin that a lot of democrats are really, you know, i think thirsting for. >> you know, ambassador mcfall, i think there's a lot that people need to understand between what donald trump does in punching them in the face, donald trump is a sycophant. he's made america subservient to putin. he doesn't let a note taker come in to hear what he's said. there's a lot that would achieve

the goal of firming up our posture, restoring our dignity in the relationship, isn't that right? >> absolutely, nicole. it will be night and day with respect to how president biden will deal with president putin. i was at the meeting in march of 2011 with biden and putin. there was no happy talk, no let's be friends. the meeting was pretty tense, because we were dealing with some difficult issues, particularly with respect to georgia. then the vice president went and met with civil society leaders and opposition figures to demonstrate that we weren't going to check our values at the door when dealing with the russian government. and i suspect that will be the strategy going forward. it's not black and white. these are not easy issues.

they never were, even during the cold war. we confronted and contained the soviet union, and also engaged in arms control. but there will be none of this sycophantic i want to be your friend that we've seen during the trump era. >> you left out some of the great details from that meeting. i'm going to read it. i think you were there, this is then vice president biden. he said, mr. prime minister, i'm looking into your eyes. he remembers telling him with a smile, a nod to george w. bush seeing into his soul. i don't think you have a soul. the russian prime minister said, we understand each other. ambassador, can you just flesh out the history of the u.s./russian relationship? it was never about what donald trump seemed to think it was

about. they do not respect lapdogs. >> i'd love to summarize all of u.s./russian relationships in 30 seconds. >> we will do that someday. >> but let me summarize the last ten years, right? when the obama administration came in, i was part of that administration. we engaged with the president from what we call win/win outcomes, things we thought were good for the american people. we signed the start treaty, and other things. but when putin came in, he didn't see the world in terms of win/win outcomes. he sees the united states in zero sum terms. and cooperation ended. when trump came in, he made good relations with putin the objective of his foreign policy

towards russia. irrespective of what got done. i can't think of a single thing that got done because of his relationship with putin. so you won't have the happy talk and the pretend friendship. there's no friends in diplomacy, just interest. so the new start treaty, that should be extended. that's good for the american national security interest. i hope they do that. but we don't have to check our values, and we need to push back on what russia is doing against us, our allies in the world, including the cyber attack that you started this conversation about. >> yeah, and i want to come back to that with you, michael crowley. you've covered this white house, you have covered foreign policy. what is the state of

functionality? are there daily sit room meetings about what happened with russia, are there talks of sanctions? are they on a war footing right now to respond to the russian cyber attack? >> as ymike pompeo has been hav holiday parties. before that, he was focused on the middle east, and the peace deals, if you want to call them that. it's a somewhat debatable term, that israel has been striking. robert o'brien is on a trip of european capitals and also going to israel, somewhat controversially. the administration is not saying anything at this point about any kind of response toward russia. and time and again, that's what we've seen, where russia takes

some provocative action, and donald trump doesn't want to see it, hear it, or talk about it. i asked trump before he got on the helicopter on the south lawn back in, maybe, it was mid-september, who he thought poisoned the russian opposition leader, which is a story back in the news after some incredible reporting in part by cnn, really establishing that the fsb had done this. this sort of russian secret spy service. and trump said, we'll be talking about that at a later time. much of the world was up in arms over this, including western european leaders like angela merkel. they were furious. trump said we'll talk about it at a later time, but the later time never happened. basically, he didn't want to do anything about it, and we

haven't heard anything. and i think frankly they're trying to figure out what the heck happened, and that's not good either. we'll see. >> just to extend your point, we know exactly what happened with navalny, he was poisoned by the russians, and it's a good bet -- >> sorry, i just want to be clear, they're trying to figure out what is happening with the hack. it's very clear what happened with navalny. with the latest hack, i think the administration is trying to figure out what happened. i'm sorry if that wasn't clear. >> no, no, no. i'm glad you clarified it. i feel like we'll be having some version of this conversation for some time. thank you so much for spending time with us. when we return, the upside-down world of trump republicans. as the clock ticks down on the

lame duck trump presidency. "deadline: white house" returns after a quick break. [ thunder rumbles ] [ engine rumbling ] ♪ [ beeping ] [ engine revs ] ♪ uh, you know there's a 30-minute limit, right? tell that to the rain. [ beeping ] for those who were born to ride, there's progressive.

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consequences for those who have turned away and accepted reality. mitch mcconnell, recognizing joe biden as president-elect, to the surprise of nobody living on earth. but it bothered donald trump, who tweeted, mitch, 75 million votes, a record for a sitting president. too soon to give up. we must fight, people are angry. some republicans seem perfectly happy living the fever dream. for instance, senator ron johnson, who walks in lockstep with trump's insane conspiracy theories all the time. he held a hearing on so-called irregularities in the election. plus, some republicans are hinting at a final stage attempt on january 6th.

through for joining us. rick wilson, you have a piece out that we had to make family friendly. i want to read some of it. trump's axis of bleep-holes just completed its hostile takeover of the republican party. he knows that the new faith in trumpism means he leads a movement that believes in nothing more than the retention and expansion of political power. mcconnell will make common cause with the forces of the trumpist authoritarians. this is a marker that needs to be put down, anyone who has watched mcconnell understands there is no ideology. can you talk about your piece?

>> sure. thanks for having me, nicole. one of the things about mcconnell is that he's an operator. he cares about the deal. for him, the action is the game. there's no deep-seated conservative ideology there. and the fact that his caucus got away with four years of pretending trump was a normal part of the republican party, and is now trying to slither into the exits and say, forget about the last four years. it's the perfect segue for mcconnell to become the leader of this nihilist faction, there's nothing that informs them beyond power. now that trump is leaving the scene, you'll have some hangers-on, they will hang on to sort of the populist trumpism

dream. but now mcconnell will try to shape the battlefield for 2022, to try to retain or expand his advantage, because that's all he is. he's like a doofy-looking squishy terminator from the future. all he wants to do, come with me if you want to have a majority. this is all he's got. >> you know, jason, i want to associate myself with everything, even the bad words in rick's piece. but the question for you is, how do you make -- they're doing lasting harm. the republican party is done, forget about the damage to what was once a political party. they're doing lasting damage to the country. how do you turn that into something where they have to pay a political price in two years? >> the first thing is, you have to identify them as the problem that they are.

the incoming administration has to say, these people are a problem. they're anti-democratic. you have to stop pretending there is ideology behind this. if we tear down the curtain, the wizard is not running on anything. it's just mouses on a hamster wheel in his head. this is about what can we do to stop democrats, as opposed to how can we pass policy? we saw that with the lack of a health care plan. the way to stop this extreme obstructionism, make sure people can vote and make these guys face consequences. the reason why mcconnell gets to do what he wants to do, there are so many states where you can't knock off major lieutenants of the republican party. knock these people out of office, that's how you solve the

problem. and eventually, maybe 4, 8, 12 years from now, the republican party will re-transform itself into a party that cares about fiscal conservativism and law and order, not who can stop joe biden the fastest. >> rick, steve schmidt announced that he's registered as a democrat. i have a two-part question for you. have you done that, will you do that, and, two, you are one of the republican party's most skilled mess engers and politicl operatives. it's rare that people can do both things like you can. where will you focus those efforts? will you be 100% behind a biden presidency? >> steve's decision to do that was interesting. there's only one party in this country with any kind of

attempt, and the republican party is only defined as, are you where trump or not? if not, you're out of the party. steve's choice was logical and commendable. i'm registered as an independent, but i'm going to continue with my colleagues in the lincoln party, we're going to -- excuse me, the lincoln project. that was a freudian slip. we're going to continue to do the things we set out to do a year ago tomorrow, in "the new york times." we wanted to defeat trump and his enablers, and we wanted to defeat trumpism. you know, whenever you fail, you should acknowledge it. we failed to understand that trumpism is not a political problem, it's a cultural problem and a social problem.

and i think there's a necessity in this country to hold people accountable, especially those who enable donald trump, who try to normalize donald trump, and who worked with him, hand in hand, to both destroy the institutions and norms of this country, and try to cripple the rule of law. this is a mission we feel is ongoing, and i'm going to continue to work in a forward-leaning position on all of those things. and especially as we go forward in this battle, trying to address some of the cultural and social problems that enabled this moment in our history. >> rick and jason, to be continued. thank you both for spending time with us today. when we return, the urgent

work of vaccinating this country's health care workers. we'll talk to a doctor who got vaccinated yesterday. that's next. vaccinated yesterday that's next. ♪ experience the power of sanctuary at the lincoln wish list sales event. sign and drive off in a new lincoln with zero down, zero due at signing, and a complimentary first month's payment.

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coverage and speed. who says you can't have it all? it is day three of the coronavirus vaccine distribution in the united states. hundreds more hospitals are getting their first shipments of pfizer's coronavirus vaccine, and thousands of health care workers are getting their first dose of protection. many have fallen ill themselves or lost colleagues, friends, and loved ones. the vaccine remains a sign of hope. 20 million americans are expected to be vaccinated by the end of the year. with the possibility of another vaccine from moderna about to be

approved by the fda. joining us, dr. peter hotez. you were supposed to be with us yesterday, but you had to move that to today because you were getting your vaccine. talk about what it's like to work in this space, to have been one of the most forceful voices in the last ten months, and now to be protected. >> it was a whole range of emotions, and very intense emotions at that. first of all, there was curio curiosi curiosity, because we're testing a different type of vaccine, a low-cost one for global health. here i was, getting a different covid-19 vaccine. that was interesting. for me, i think there was a bittersweet moment. yes, i was happy to be vaccinated, knowing there's a

very low likelihood after getting the second dose that i will wind up in an intensive care unit or a hospital as a patient. i was grateful to pfizer and biontech. and then there's the sadness of the 300,000 americans who have lost their lives. or knowing that if we had had a national program for covid-19 containment, we did not have to approach anything like 300,000 lives lost. yes, maybe some were inevitable in the first wave. but all of the people who lost their lives over the summer in the southern states or in the midwest in september or october, we didn't have to lose those lives. and i kept thinking to myself, what if i had, you know, pushed harder or been more vocal and

tried to get people to understand about social distancing and contact tracing and wearing masks. but we just could not overcome that massive disinformation campaign that came out of the white house over the summer that downplayed it, said it was hoax attributed deaths to other causes or fake concepts of herd immunity and discrediting masks and so there was a combination of anger and profound sadness of lives lost that we could have got them through the other side and got them vaccinated like i got my vaccine last night. >> well, and it would appear that everything you just described is still very much an apt description of america's fight with coronavirus today. the thing that's changed is we have an incoming president in president elect biden and vice president elect harris who are going to work to protect us from it. i mean, it's been unclear at any point if donald trump is interested in that, in gathering

his people in maskless rallies and getting sick himself and spreading it to chris christie and rudy and you can go on and on with the mixed signals that he sent to his millions of supporters but i wonder how that translates to how people are receiving the news of the vaccine and what you think of the polls about people's willingness to take it. >> yeah, there was a very interesting poll that was just completed by the kizer family foundation. let me just say this about polls. i think, you know, there is so much in the 24-hour news cycle the polls may somewhat we flere the day the poll was given because it was given on the day there were two allergic reactions in the u.k. that would give a different result. two clear trends emerged. one is a high rate of vaccine he is thesitancy so 42% and among the african american community

and, you know, the biden team will have a tough time reaching across the aisle and especially in the red states. let's face it, this summer and fall this was primarily overwhelmingly a red state disease and that's why i've been really reaching out to conservative news outlets to save as many lives as i can the last few months. >> dr. peter hotez we're always grateful to get a chance to talk to you and i hope we can continue this conversation as the vaccine rolls out across this country. it's a really important one. thank you. when we return, as we do every day, we will remember lives well lived. y, we will rem lives well lived when you wash them, and they just don't look the same? well now there's a solution, with downy defy damage. downy defy damage protects your clothes from the stretching, fading and fuzzing that happens throughout the wash process. protect your clothes, with downy defy damage

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self in the mirror. one month after his initial diagnosis, dr. carlos a critical care pulmlonologist flipped int a coma. on the other end is paige, his partner. she was a nurse practitioner, too. not in that moment. in that moment on that call she was just a person about to say good-bye to the love of her life and she knew it. paige held one of his all scrub caps because it smelled like him she said and for a few hours she just talked and talked while the 51-year-old's chest rose and fell only thanks to a

ventilator. the next day, the doctor, a father of two died of covid-19. he did so in a houston area hospital where monthins prior h slept nights on end only coming home for a change of clothes just to be close to his patients. days after he passed, another moment of anguish for paige. she got an email from the hospital inviting her to register for a covid vaccine soon to be available to medical workers there. this was the light at the end of this long dreadful tunnel gets a little brighter for people who didn't make it, for the people behind the people that didn't make it and the ones they leave behind. we'll be right back. e ones they behind we'll be right back. tonight...i'll be eating crab cakes with spicy aioli. (doorbell rings) thank you. can we be besties, simone biles? i guess? yessss!

should we dismount now?

thank you so much for being with us today. "the beat" with ari melber