good morning. it is saturday, december 19th. i am ali velshi. this morning, a second shot of hope. breaking news overnight, the food and drug administration authorize emergency use of the moderna covid-19 vaccine, marking the second time in a week the agency gave a green light to treatment in the battle against the coronavirus disease. moderna is preparing a shipping process as we speak of 6 million doses of potentially life-saving serum nationwide, which is expected to get under way this weekend. unlike the pfizer vaccine that needs to be at ultra cold temperatures, moderna can be at standard refrigerator temperatures, gives the general public two formidable treatments in the fight against covid-19. similar to pfizer, it is given in two doses. moderna's is 28 days apart. during an appearance on the

"today" show, dr. anthony fauci adding a dose of reality to the pivotal moment in history. >> all of this is sort of bittersweet because at the same time as we are moving ahead with what will ultimately be the answer, we are living through very, very difficult times. i mean, if you look at the number of new infections between 2 and 300,000, the other day we had 3,565 deaths in one day. we still are in a serious situation. >> on friday, according to nbc news, the u.s. registered a single day high of coronavirus cases. 246,914. as of this morning, nationwide, 314,381 people have died from coronavirus in this country. the total number of people infected in the united states climbed to 17 million, 541,1. friday, house appropriations

committee filed a two day stop gap continuing resolution to keep the government funded through sunday in an effort to give negotiators more time to flush out a covid relief bill. leaders on capitol hill say they're close to a deal on a 0 $900 billion proposal that would accompany a spending bill. disputes persist that prevented washington from sending fresh aid to struggling americans for the first time in nearly nine months. as the american people await the latest long overdue round of government relief, reports of stonewalling efforts once again making the transitional process difficult for the incoming president. president-elect joe biden's team is striking down the acting pentagon chief's claim that apparent halt in the transition process with defense department was a mutually agreed upon holiday break. biden's transition director telling reporters friday, quote, there was no mutually agreed on holiday break.

we think it is important that briefings and other engagements continue during this period as there's no time to spare. that's particularly true in the aftermath of the ascertainment delay. there are pockets of recalcitrants, and dod is one of them, department of defense. the flareup between the incoming biden administration staffers comes as we are tracking the surface of a massive month-long cyber security attack believed to be carried out by who else, russia. experts believe it could be the worst in the history of the nation, with ramifications so wide ranging, it is hard to quantify. the ap reporting the nation's cyber security agency warned of a grave risk to government and private networks. the hack compromised federal agencies and critical infrastructure in a sophisticated attack hard to detect and will be difficult to undo, end quote. last night, while hosting rachel maddow show, i had a chance to speak with matthew travis who until a month ago served as

deputy director for the cyber security and infrastructure agency, cisa. he offered this concise explanation of the hack. >> this was a very creative, sophisticated and patient attack that displayed acute understanding of how federal government agency networks are defended. essentially they snuck in malicious code and because that was a trusted service to many federal agencies and fortune 500 companies, that code was embedded in federal networks. >> now, in typical trump fashion, continues to resist criticizing russia and vladimir putin, instead remaining virtually silent, while joe biden and other lawmakers, including mitt romney have raised alarms over the scale of the security breach. trump seems happy to leave the problem in the lap of his successor as he prepares to leave office in a little over a

month from now. >> what i find most astonishing is that a cyber hack of this nature is really the modern equivalent of almost russian bombers reportedly flying undetected over the entire country. not to have the white house aggressively speaking out and protesting and taking punitive action is really quite extraordinary. >> but there's more from team trump as they plan their white house exit strategy with 32 days left in office. we know trump is considering multiple pardons, including among them, closest friends, allies, family members, maybe himself.

night and they're talking go maybe manafort, maybe giuliani, maybe papadopoulos, maybe allen weisselberg, maybe people in the trump family kind of amazing because the spirit of pardons in this country was not built for this there are real reasons to pardon people, and none of this applies. >> the pardon process exists so that a president can do justice and offer mercy to deserving individuals, and so what's so off the rails about everything we talked about with the trump pardons is that he's ladling them out in an effort to help himself. no man is supposed to be above the law in our form of government, not even and perhaps especially not the president, but this is how trump keeps people at his side, prevents people from cooperating with law enforcementco and perhaps insulates himself and those around him from future liability, whether that's civil or criminal, it's by pardoning

people who possess information about his personal conduct. that abuse of the pardon process, while technically legal, is something that will bear closeat scrutiny and there are, of course, ways around it. those pardons only work in the federal system. state das will still have a lot of jurisdiction and opportunity to test these circumstances. >> alexey, donald trump has not called joe biden, invited him to the white house. biden actually called trump. we're seeing instances of this transition being delayed or halted at the department of defense. joe biden had this sort of conciliatory take after he was determined to have won the presidency. they have tried his patience with the lawsuits and all of that kind of stuff. he seemed a little less conciliatory on monday after tht electoral college, but you tweeted that joe biden is considering some well-known republicans for commerce secretary as a way to signal to red state americans that he

understands their concerns and plans to address them. joe biden did run a campaign based on the soul of america and healing the soul of america is going to require some amount of dialogue with the other side. >> siyeah, that's exactly right ali. good morning to both of you on what is another wild newsweek. we've seen the way in which the final stages of joe biden's presidential f campaign, he tald a lot about white working class voters, the voters that went for trump in 2016 that he was hoping to get back but he rolled out a number of republicans who were supportive of him, endorsed him, a paired down virtual version of itself. so we saw how joe biden was campaigning asbi a democrat but sort of signaling that down ballot republicans aren't bad and i, he would say, as president are going to work with him and consult with them. we're seeing that leading these high profile agencies in his administration andge cabinet

because he sees that as a way and his team sees that as a way to bring folks into the fold. i would also add, ali, that congressman cedric richmond who is leading the office of personal engagement for the white house has talked about starting a special office to engage conservative voters. that's another extension of how we're going to e see the biden white house, try to bring folks in from the other side of the aisle into the fold. >> joyce, i want to talk to you about money. there are a lot of reasons why donald trump doesn't want to sn concede, many of which may be legal in terms of things he might face, but some of it is just the dough. we know he owes a lot of money. you tweeted 14 hours ago just the amount that he has raised needs to be investigated. half of the campaign, which was broke by the end, $617 million went into a shell and disgourgeed funds to trump family members. at a minimum there could be campaign finance law implications.

what's your thought of this money that trump is continuing to raise by not admitting he lost the election? >> this reporting yesterday about the shell company that the trump campaign used alongside its actual campaign work, its actual efforts to re-elect president trump should be really troubling and mostly to people who donated to the trump campaign. we don't know the full story here, but it seems clear that about half of the money the campaign raised, about $617 million, was put into a shell company that was managed by trump family and trump insiders. and what actually happened with that money will bear very close scrutiny. reportedly some of that money was used for consulting, for digital consulting, for other types of consulting and of course that could be legitimate, but it could also be a real marker for abuse of that money, possibly running afoul of campaign finance sorts of rules, but the president can take this money and carry it with him into

private citizenship. he caniv use it to fund the rallies that he loves so much to host. he can use it for a 2024 run or other political purposes, perhaps to keep control of other parts of the republican party. so this is a story that is developing but that we need to keep our eyes on. >> thank you to both of you for joining me this morning. alexi and joyce, both women are msnbc contributors. i am grateful to you. thank you. turning now to capitol hill where it's increasingly looking like we're going to end the year with a new stimulus bill. donald trump signed a funding mechanism to stave off shutdown. leanne caldwell, that might have beenel pessimistic for me. there are efforts to get something done. if they don't get something y done, it's serious. there are a number of people stillmb relying on protections from the government, whether

it's money they're getting or protections from o eviction and things like that that will end this week or next week. >> reporter: yeah, that's absolutely right, r ali. there are a lot of people who are relying on congress doing their job. they didn't get it done yesterday so they gave themselves two more days by extending the government funding deadline. that is a little bit of good newsli in the sense that there' enoughat optimism that they thi that they can get it done in just a couple days but they are furiously working behind the scenes to come to some sort of a oo agreement.

given that we will pass a stopgap funding measure. there's no reason why the federal government funding should lapse while we hammer out our remaining differences. >> the parameters of the bill are pretty much agreed to but there is a big disagreement on the federal reserve lending program, ali. the only thing is they say they will not leave town before they get something done so they are working and hopefully they stick by that, ali. >> all right. a let's hope this gets done. leigh ann, if you hear anything in the next hour, we'll get you back on. let us know. all the chaos in the gop has left somein of its own members frustrated that they are breaking withha the party. earlier this week michigan congressman paul mitchell said he was leaving the party to become an independent. his reason, the fact that the republicans weren't standing up tos trump's attempt to overtur the t election results. the breaking point came when

over 100 of his colleagues signed the amicus brief citing a texas led effort to stop the results in four states. up next with over 314,000 people dead, it's time to hold the trump administration accountabli for the devastation raught by the coronavirus pandemic. we'll break down what has to happen to ensure that such a tragedy never happens again. and tiffany cross talks with chris coons. today on "the cross connection." more velshi on msnbc is next. mt with spicy chipotle sauce. [doorbell chimes] thank you. [puck scores] oooow yeah!! i wasn't ready! you want cheese to go with that whine??

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donald trump is set to leave office on january 20th. what he does, he and his administration will have left behind the legacy. it's the intention for wishful thinking. in many ways the envy of the world and 7 million people and leaving 800 thourkts people to

die. america is 4 1/2% of the population and we account for 19% of the global deaths. sickness and deaths were inevitable. it could have been mitigated but we got denial, confusion and bad advice from the top. america's handling of this pandemic is a failure of our government at its highest levels and should be investigated. back in 2001 congress created a commission to look into the systems failures that led to 9/11. the result was a change to our security protocols and our way of life. in 2006 congress investigated the failures of leadership in response to hurricane katrina. the result was a restructurctur of our emergency services. in 2010 we launched an investigation into the bp disaster. the trump administration's failure this year resulted in more avoidable deaths than any

of those things did. an investigation into what went wrong and how this was allowed to happen is critical. there will be another pandemic. the same experts who warned us of this one warned us of that. we need assurances that a president can't lie to us and silence experts let alone critics. we need an assurance that when a vaccine becomes available they bias much as they can. when there are shortages in personal protective equipment we make sure we get the safety equipment we need. we need to know when thousands of our federal americans are being forced into unemployment, going hungry, dieing, our leaders are compelled to come ahead and help us. the vaccines are out but it does not offset ten months of lies or mismanagement or the tens of thousands who didn't have to die. the stench of failure didn't have to leave but america needs to know the deadly mistakes donald trump made are never allowed to happen again. ade are allowed to happen again.

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it's been over seven months since the nearly $3 trillion heroes act was passed by the democratic controlled house of representatives, but only now is house close to a deal on a new covid economic relief package. at $900 billion the bill pails in comparison to the bill from may. although the text of the final bill hasn't yet been released, we're now learning more details about what could be included. 600 dd direct to american payments. $300 per week in enhanced unemployment benefits and more ppp funding for small businesses. the new bill comes as the country's unemployment rate trends even higher in the latest surge of coronavirus. the government's lack of action continues to hold everyday americans hostage. many have tried to survive for almost a year on that one $1200 direct payment and the enhanced unemployment benefits which

expired over the summer. ebony fowler is one of those americans. he lost his job in march. he was caring for his mother. he e-mailed me and i read his story. subsequently his go fund me which he started because people were asking to contribute received a lot of support. it helped him and his mom afford their bare necessities, their rent, allowed them to stay in their apartment. ebon joins me. give us the short version of your story? >> hey, ali. you know, i've been working in live entertainment. i take care of my mom. it's something that i have done and i am aware that i needed to do it. that's on me, and i've taken care of it. this year they just took the jobs away. they took the jobs away, they locked us in a box and that's -- and i've got to keep her safe

because we're both ill. so, you know, that's all well and good. stay inside, be safe, we'll pay you to make sure you don't go off a cliff and then they're just like, well, we're just going to stop paying. is the virus gone? no, the virus is still here. >> your gigs are not back. the thing that stood out. the thing that caused so many of my viewers to respond to you was your discussions, not just about the fact that you weren't going to make your rent, which was true, before that go fund me page, you had rationed your food. you had cut your grocery bill in half and then you were going to cut it again. >> oh, yeah. big time. we got down to one meal a day that we were sharing and then i realized that that was only going to last for another week and a half so i just started giving the meals to my mom and then she would have the half a meal and i would just eat spoonfuls of peanut butter. so i ate spoonfuls of peanut

butter for two weeks. i don't know if you know this, ali, you eat peanut butter for two weeks, bad things happen. it's not good on the body. it's bad. it hurts. it's just -- this year is just murderous. it's unreal. i don't -- they literally seem to think that we should still have a little bit of that $1200 left. like i used that to pay rent and then -- >> let me spell that out. cory bush who's just been elected from missouri to the congress, she tweeted on december 16th. republicans are going to act like the difference between $600 and $1200 is no big deal. this is infuriating. the difference of $600 is having a room or sleeping in a car. 1200 was already the compromise. tell me what $600 meant to you? >> what is the $600? $600 a week meant we could pay bills, get groceries, medicine, anything we need because we're

trapped. we can't go get anything. everything has to be brought here. it has to be brought here. a $600 one-time payment, i don't know what that is. don't people in canada get $2,000 a month? the $600 a week was enough to carry us through the whole year. that's one of the worst parts about this, realizing this isn't just -- there's a virus, it can't be controlled. this is a decision. these are people -- like the suffering that we're all experiencing this year is a conscious decision by people who are like, ah, it's probably not that much suffering or we just don't care about it anyway, which is just gut wrenching. in america? i can't really wrap my head around that logic, that anything would ever be more important than stopping americans en masse from feeling the way my mom and i felt this year over liability

protections, is that the deal? that's what this year has been? that's why since march we've just been starving, because of liability protections? what has happened? >> evan, how did you feel -- i've got to say, i was amazed. people e-mailed me and said they want to send you money and they did. i assume that was a substantially better life line than the government wants to. how did that feel, that people you didn't know gave you money they didn't even maybe have for themselves because they thought that you represented the injustice that is this country. >> i mean, it's amazing. it's unbelievable and it's unbelievably heartwarming that people will reach out and help, but it shouldn't be on them. it should never come down to the american people save each other because there's a giant federal problem that needs to be dealt with. it's so crazy that it came down to them, but even with that, even with that amazing

outpouring of generosity we got, we still -- we all owe a 5,000 plus back rent to our apartments. everybody who put in that cdc form has had to put -- had this back payment that's like a huge bomb about to go off the first of january. about to happen to us. and i was able to pay that off, which still just brings us back to even. the bills still keep rolling in. so, you know, even with this incredible generosity that i cannot thank people enough for, you know, we're still heading straight towards the same position and we'll be there very, very quickly if this stimulus falls apart, and even with the stimulus, they cut that in half, too. so it's $300 a week. $300 a week times four is grim. beyond that, i don't know. peanut butter? i guess. it's insane. like if you asked me what video in my game most resembles right now is pacman.

he's trapped in a house alone with ghosts and he just keeps eating because he doesn't want to think about it. that's a sad answer to that question, ali. i -- it's -- i don't understand how this is america. this is not the way we were taught this country works and it shouldn't come down to the american citizens to catch us. it's not a matter of -- you know, this is like people are running towards a cliff, we need to grab them before they go off it. this is not a matter of helping people out because maybe something bad will happen but they'll probably figure it out. i get the sense that people with money or who have family just assume everybody has somebody out there who will help them. they just don't want to ask. we don't. like we don't. there's no one to turn to. it's here or it's on the street. we don't even have a car. we can't even sleep in the car

because, you know, when we're out of here, we're literally on the street. you know, that's what i was saying with the go fund me, it was like, i have stimulus, i'm going to use all of it to get a car so we at least have a place to sleep. they might not pass the stimulus. there's no free market solution. >> yeah, you're right. there has to be, evan. you're right. your story is the story of millions of americans. thank you for sharing it with us. we will continue to follow you and your mom and thank you for keeping her safe. evan fowler is a comedian and an event host who is out of work. meanwhile, economists say the united states is going through something, an expression of something we haven't heard before, a k shaped recovery. as it relapses, the k shape, you can see, best serves as an explanation for how the poor are getting poorer while the country's wealthy gets richer.

the numbers are staggering. 8 million americans have slipped into poverty since may. that's the downward leg of the k that we just showed you. for the richest their net wealth increase is astounding. that's the upward slope of the k. according to the institute for policy studies, the top 663 richest americans in their country have seen their wealth increase by 34% since march 18th. those billionaires have made over a trillion dollars in combined net wealth during the course of the pandemic. what an idea. 8 million people cross into poverty. 663 billionaires get richer. joining me now is a man who's not an economist but he's the best economist we have on this show, reverend william barber. he's the president and senior lecturer for preparers of the breach. he understands fundamentally this is about economics and the breach. you heard reverend fowler's

story. you heard stories over and over and over again. he doesn't have a car to sleep in if he gets kicked out of his home. his mother and him were sharing meals. he was eating peanut butter. >> yeah. ali, when i heard his story, i thought about when we met with the white house policy team on this past week, the first person that talked knew 41 people in her family that died of covid. we had a black woman, a white farmer talking about the increased rate of suicide among poor white farmers. they were talking about this 8 million, and if you do the math, that's a million a month, a million a month falling into poverty is on top of the 140 million that were already poor and low wealth in this country prior to covid. 700 people a day dieing. and, ali, think about it. it's murderous. we have congress people making 1/4 million dollars a year from us. they have free health care.

best unemployment, best sick leave, who are blocking people from being lifted -- it's not even their money, it's our money, and there is a way to handle this, it's the constitutional way. you have to establish justice and promote general welfare. the only word i know is the word jesus used when he saw a figure tree that was trying to claim it was a figure tree. a nation can claim it's not producing and jesus just said, damn, ali. that's where we are. it is a murderous, damnable situation. we have a lot of work to do in the years to come because this cannot continue to exist. >> yeah. i want to just put up a chart because the president talks a lot about the stock market. when i was out every weekend i'm out in america and people who support donald trump talk a lot about the stock market. i want to show everybody who owns the stocks in the stock market.

51.8% of the people are the top 1%. the top 10% own the top 10 percent. the bottom 50%, own 0.7% of stocks. so we've got that k-shaped recovery with the stock market doing really well. it has nothing to do with the people you're talking about generally speaking. >> the stock market on wall street doesn't show anything about back roads, dirt roads, back streets of this nation. the fact of the matter is, that's the problem. you can have wall street doing fine and everybody else just trying to find a way to live or the next minute or the next hour. that is why we said to the president's domestic policy team that's coming in, we need to enact full comprehensive just covid relief. we have to have a stimulus sick leave, unemployment protection from eviction. we have to guarantee gall lit at this health care until we have

to raise the minimum wage to $15 immediately. we have to update the poverty measure. guarantee quality housing. enact the federal jobs program to prioritize socially beneficial jobs. we have to protect voting rights, we have to guarantee equality and comprehensive immigrant justice reform. these things have to happen in the first 50 to 100 days. enact fair taxes, repeal the trump tax law and we have to redirect some of the bloated pentagon budget towards these priorities. we also said after the inaugural we want a full white house and our leaders to deal with this issue because whatever they do, ali, this week is not even close to enough. it's not a christmas miracle. it's a christmas myth. >> that's right. reverend, good to see you. the reverend dr. william barber

is the co-chairman of the poor people's campaign. he's at repairers of the breech. he understands economics better than i do and i do this for a living. dr. nahid badelia was part of the first wave. what she wants you to know about it next. what she wants you to kt it next.

as moderna's vaccine is authorized for emergency use, the pharmaceutical company is preparing to ship meaning more health care workers will receive their first treatment. 5.9 million doses are expected to be distributed across america next week as pfizer's vaccine was authorized last friday will have shipped 4.9 million doses by that time. with moderna's vaccine comes increased hope as officials are looking to vaccinate 20 million americans by the end of next

year. my next guest became one of the 20 million who received it. she is the medical director of boston medical center's special pathogens unit. good to see you. when did you get your shot? >> thanks so much, ali. i got it yesterday morning. great. a little bit of soreness. >> how are you feeling? >> i feel great. i think that there have been vaccines with which i have felt worse than this, but there are other people who have had fevers, chills, headaches. mine has been a pretty smooth ride so far. >> i think there's something really important that you've said that i was talking to dr. stanford about. after today here's what i will do differently. nothing. we don't know yet if i can still get asymptomatic infection and transmit to others if i get exposed to the virus in the future. you still may be a vector for

transmission. >> yeah, this is a great point. that's what we mean when we say 95, 94% efficacy. even after i get it, now that i've gotten the vaccine dose, i'll be wearing my mask to protect those around me. >> i was seeing articles and talking to dr. stanford last sunday. we did a facebook call.

this issue of bells palsy came up. only people who received the medication versus the placebo got bells palsy, however, the instance of bells palsy among that population was not greater than it was in the public. so what do you make of that? >> yeah. i was hoping that was discussed, too, you've seen that in pfizer and moderna. there was some in the placebo group and maybe three cases in the vaccine group and in moderna you had a couple in the vaccine group but none in the placebo. the baseline frequency of getting bells palsy in the population, the people in the vaccine group kind of meet that. it's not above what you would expect in the general population. what this will mean is as we open this up and more people get the vaccine, if this is a rare side effect, there are systems in place, v safe, a text based system for reporting and the fda and cdc.

>> the levels are so low even in the trials we're looking at. >> it's not as bad as the consequences of dying of covid. >> that's exactly right. the severity of disease with covid, bells palsy, just to explain what that is, that is an inflammation of the nerves. you can have a temporary paralysis which makes your face look a little bit different on both sides, but that resolved in most people and it actually can be taken care of with treatment and supportive care. covid, as we know, particularly in high-risk patients, carries the risk of severe disease. icu, potentially death.

ali, can i say one thing before we go and i've been watching your show all morning. $6 billion of that covid relief pack is marked for vaccine distribution. we have the vaccines. now we need to make sure states and cdc are funded to get it out. doctor, thank you very much. she's the medical director of the special pathogens unit at boston medical center. i'm live from savannah, georgia, tomorrow with another issue of velshi across america. if you were at savannah state university, you might have seen this. >> we all felt the effects of bad leadership within the past four years. face it, this country ain't always had great leadership, but this has been the biggest moment

to change these things. this has been the biggest moment, the first time you've ever hear somebody running for president talking about systemic racism. >> that's award winning artist common going door to door in georgia to get everyone out to vote. there he is standing by. i'm going to speak with common right after this. you're watching "velshi" on msnbc. msnbc. be kinder to yourself and tougher on your cold sores. diabetes and raised triglycerides,... ...vascepa can give you something to celebrate. ♪ vascepa, when added to your statin,... ...is clinically proven to provide 25% lower risk from heart attack and stroke. vascepa is clearly different. first and only fda approved. celebrate less risk.

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we're just under three weeks away from georgia's pair of highly anticipated senate runoff elections. the two races have huge implications because they will determine which party controls the u.s. senate. already records are being shattered. georgia voters are turning out en masse. as of friday, more than 1.1 million people had voted early in the runoffs. that's according to numbers by georgia votes. only slightly lags behind the 1.2 million georgians that had voted early at this point be in last month's general election. canvassers are still going door to door encouraging georgians to turn out including the award winning musician, actor and activist common who was out this week with black pack to get voters to cast ballots in the races that could hold the fate of this nation. common joins us now from savannah, georgia, where i am going to be in a few hours from now. i would have liked to have been there with you, common. you've got a busy schedule.

you are out there talking to voters. what are you hearing? >> what i'm hearing is that georgia voters are inspired. they realize the power they have in their hands to change the vision of this country, the direction to actually empower the people and actually be able to support leaders who have their interests at heart, who have not just a blue/red/black/white interest at heart. it's a humanity interest at heart. i think georgia sees that. it's one of the states in the south that's an example of what racism is and bigotry and now sees it has an opportunity to change that history by coming up, showing up for the senate election and actually going to vote for reverend warnock and jon ossoff because they believe that they're the right people to be in the senate seat.

>> it's interesting what we're watching because you're right. you've actually been in a movie where you portrayed those vo fought for the black people vote. there are people across the country including in georgia who will undue some of the advances that have been made. there's a real fear that some of the great gains that have been made in georgia with black pack and stacey abrams are actually being worked against right now. >> well, that's why the power to vote, that's why we have to go even harder and have to be more diligent and committed to it and be educated on when we face that resistance what do we do to overcome it. go out and early vote. as you just chstated earlier, 1 million already? this is in the midst of the

senate and we have people coming out and showing up. i believe people have been activated. they see the power impacted and how effective they can be. what's so beautiful is it's black people who didn't at one point feel included in this process and brown people who didn't feel like they were part of this country who now do feel it and they see their voices being heard and being like effective. so it's really inspiring to be honest more than anything. and what i like about what ossoff and warnock represent, they represent what biden has been talking about. they're not like, hey, man, just because you're in the public and i'm not with you, he's like i'm about america and humanity and bringing people together. and health care is something we all need, no matter what your political party is. economic -- black economic justice is something this country deserves and health care and also education and criminal

justice reform. these are things that have affected our country no matter what color you are. but, of course, black and brown have been affected, and what i think this country has to see is as long as we hold down a sect of people, where there's winning, where there's black, the country won't reach that point. we're in the midst of doing it now. >> joe biden won in georgia by about 12,000 votes. the atlanta general constitution reports that 76,000 new georgia voters registered before the runoffs. now, i don't know how that all breaks down, but i'm assuming some of those people -- a lot of those people are young voters who may be casting their ballots for the first time or they're new voters which tells me

something. i don't know who they are, but folks understand this is more important than your local senate runoff. >> yes. well, along with obviously stacey abrams who's been a big prominent figure in engaging people to vote, it's people that's been on the ground, activists as you spoke about, black pack. but then what's been so encouraging is you've had artists, not just myself. you've had t.i. and ludacris and so many people from the georgia area encouraging young voters to go out there. let me say this. young voters have been so engaged during these times, they've been leading the way in many ways and they are showing up and they recognize they have a connection between social change and voting. voting and social change. they recognize that, oh, in order for us to get justice for

the people who've been shot down by the police -- let me give you a good example. we were in brunswick yesterday with ahmaud arbery's mother, and we actually had the opportunity. she voted and she said, you know, i've already seen some justice because the district attorney who didn't -- who was going to push that case under got voted out. that's the people showing up. >> yep. >> people understand that, hey, we will no longer allow or people to be shot down in the streets and not do anything about it, you know. it's not a violent response. it's the response by using the vote. >> the democrat's response. >> it's a democratic response. it's a beautiful thing. unfortunately we've had loved ones lost, but within that, we're taking that tough situation and turning it into something great. >> i'm going to be on the riverfront in savannah tomorrow morning from 8:00 to 10:00. if you happen to be around, come

on around and we'll continue this conversation. thank you for being here. common is an award-winning artist. i don't have to tell you who he is. he's an activist. tomorrow i'll be in savannah. i'm heading to georgia right now. please join me. your saturday morning is just warming up. comes up on "cross connection" tiffany is joined by senator chris coons. go nowhere. you're watching msnbc. [ 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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good morning and welcome to the "cross connection." now perhaps some of you know what it's like to have a past due bill and just when they're about to cut off the pow e you say, wait, i don't have all of it, but i can put something on it. well, that's essentially what congress did just hours before the government was set to shut down last night. the president signed a two-day funding bill that extended congress's deadline to get something done by midnight sunday. and included in that is the sorely needed and long overdue covid relief bihll. at stake, $600 per person, additional unemployment benefits of $300