new york, welcome to "weekends with alex witt." breaking news on capitol hill. 11th hour negotiations under way now as lawmakers scramble to pass a bill before tomorrow's deadline. congress averting a government shutdown overnight after negotiations hit another road block. this morning, senator coons says the much-needed relief may not come until next week t. . >> it is still days away. finally pass it monday or tuesday here in the senate. we're here this weekend to vote on more judges but we, frankly, should be closing this deal and delivering billions of dollars of assistance to americans facing eviction, hunger, joblessness and homelessness. >> and this comes as the nation takes yet another monumental step in the battle against coronavirus. the fda green-lighting the

moderna vaccine adding a second to the country's moderna gearing up for a massive rollout to nearly 3,000 locations nationwide. and a new hacking campaign that reached dozens of federal agencies and secretary of state pompeo saying russia was behind the cyber attack. >> a significant effort and it's the case now we can say pretty clearly it was the russians that engaged in this activity. this breaking news as it happened moments ago. the president suggesting the massive hack may have been carried out by someone else, not russia. go to nbc's josh letterman joining me from washington, d.c. josh, right to what the president is saying about this. >> reporter: the first comments from the president since this hack first came to light a week ago, alex. instead of talking about the ricks laid out across the board by national security officials

about this hack now affects treasury department, defense department, state department, the u.s. national security agency, the cybersecurity agency, and many others, the president instead is downplaying this and directly contradicting secretary of state mike pompeo about who might have been behind it. the president tweeting just a few minutes before we came on the air that the cyber hack is far greater in the fake news media than in actuality. president trump saying he's been fully briefed and everything is under control, but that russia, russia, russia is the priority chant when this kind of thing happens. the president raising the prospect in fact it could have been china, the president also making the alarming comment that it could have been also involving some type of cyber breach of our elections system which is not something we have heard from any security officials in the last week or so. now, these comments suggesting that it could have actually been beijing behind this attack and downplaying the severity of it directly contradicted what we

heard from secretary of state pompeo just yesterday as he gave an interview to a radio host. take a listen to what pompeo had to say. >> a significant effort to use a piece of third-party software to essentially embed a code inside of u.s. government systems and it now appears the systems of companies and governments across the world as well. this was a very significant effort, and i think it's the case that now we can say pretty clearly that it was the russians that engaged in this activity. >> reporter: in fact, alex, we started hearing from u.s. officials and other cybersecurity officials as long ago as one week ago. basically soon as this came to light that all signs pointed to russia. we are now asking the white house and the state department why the president is suggesting without any evidence that in fact this was china. so far radio silence from them, but this is just the latest example, alex, we've seen over the last four years of the

president downplaying the threats to the united states from russia. seeming to cover for russian president vladimir putin, when there have been signs of russian malign activity towards the united states including the alleged paying of bounties or offering of bounties to troops in afghanistan to kill u.s. troops, and other actions by the russians that have not seemed to get the response particular president trump that security officials said is merited boy their behavior. >> absolutely extraordinary. as you aptly said, josh, the president is offering no proof whatsoever pointing the finger. just saying it "may" said parenthetically be china. to throw thought out there in the ether, inside the conversation. also stunnal i aning ling, hack department and other areas of national security, hard to fathom how the president even makes this kind of tweet given severity of this particular

situation. we're going to talk with people about that coming up. let me also ask you quickly about the president who be -- ramping up, relentless efforts to disrupt this peaceful transfer you power come january 20. what is he telling supporters now? >> reporter: the president is now talking about january 6th. that date when there's going to be that joint session of congress to affirm results of the electoral college vote for president-elect joe biden. the president now saying in a tweet overnight that he expects there to be a massive protest here in washington on that date. saying, be there. will be wild. we know just one week ago the last time there were protests here from the president's so-called "stop the steal" misinformation campaign it was very violent, but the president seems to be referring to is that vote in congress where there's expected to be a push by republicans both in the house and at least by one incoming senator in the senate, a republican tommy tuberville to

try to actual areally throw out some of the electoral college votes from states that voted for president-elect joe biden. we do not expect that effort will have the math mackiccal numbers to succeed. >> buckle up. january 5th in georgia. january 6th in d.c. joining me now from sirius xm and zerlina on peacock and former aide in the george w. bush white house, and msnbc analyst. zerlina you first, the president's comments on the massive cyber attack what do you make of that and mike pompeo saying russia is behind it. why can the president not say that? >> the first thing i thought, alex, when i heard russia had attacked so many entities in the united states, private and government, is that this is the president that said, russia, if you're listening, why don't you go hack hillarys emails and try

to find the so-called missing emails? so the russia, if you're listening, president, he isn't going to say that russia is behind a hack when he was the one asking them to hack. in 2016. ever since he's been essentially a putin apologist, always siding with the russian president, and even in helsinki. i think that all of this has been troubling since the beginning. since that moment he said, russia if you're listening. i remember at the time it was shocking not just because it seemed as if you had an american president asking a foreign entity, adversary to attack another american, but also that, that person who said that went on to become the president and was consistent with those views all throughout his presidency, and now that he's no longer going to be the president unfortunately he's still going to do damage to our national security, and this is a very serious attack, alex. the more information that is

coming out. the extent to which russia was able to infiltrate not just private businesses, also government entities. it's something that all of these national security folks and the folks involved in the transition need to immediately be able to get to work, and donald trump's administration is also preventing that work from being done and it's all dangerous. >> lem t me go across the scree. your response to the president's tweet directly contradicting his own secretary of state? >> a pattern of behavior. not an isolated incident. we saw when he sided with putin in helsinki when trump didn't acknowledge and condemn when putin put bounties against american soldiers and seeing it again, validated by secretary of state mike pompeo and trump trying to point the finger somewhere else, yao u.s. it to help his effort to undermine our democracy and the electoral

process, and it's unconscionable. be clear. this is what the republican party has sold their soul to promote to prop up, to help, to aid and abet. sold out america so they can help this president and parrot russian propaganda, over and over and over again. a complete betrayal of the oath of office and betrayal what they're supposed to stand for and during these four years one consistent thing, american interests have take an step become why russian figures have taken a step forward at the expense of our own security and our own country. republicans are enabling a president and helping a president completely tear down the fabric of our country and now our institutions have been compromised, attacked with this unprecedented scale of the cyber attack and where are republicans? helping donald trump try to steal the election. >> yeah. elise, can you weigh in on the relative or surd t absurdity sa

it'sing a the election, too? >> call if what it is. more delusion from donald trump. this is not the behavior of a stable person who is able to exercise reason and logic. he is the biggest purveyor of misinformation from the biggest platform in the world, and it's dangerous, and it's harmful. the fact that donald trump is sowing this kind of disorder over a fair and free election he lost fair and square and encourage, he said in that tweet was go to be a "wild" -- "it would be wild" does not sound like a president trying to usher in a calm and orderly transition of power. we've seen that he wants to stoke the delusion and he is going to continue to try to do whatever he can to cling to

power. however ineptly and innip tently. the only saving grace. he's not a very competent want to be authoritarian. in his final days, that's what we're going to have to see play out until january 20th, and let's just hope it is all peaceful at the end of the day. >> you've got to wonltder when it comes to his legacy. and doris kerns so much of the president's legacy shaped by the very end of his presidency. the transfer of power. the final speech that a president gives. i mean, wait for this one. right? see what the legacy is left there. guys, stay with me. i have to go to another topic and coming back with you, because we have breaking news to share. from capitol hill. nbc's lee ann caldwell joins me from there. talk about the negotiations, trying to get covid relief. extending funding of the government and the like. where does everything stand right now? >> reporter: hey, alex. so congress did give themselves an additional 48 hours to come to agreement on covid relief legislation. so that's a sign that they think

they only need until sunday night to get things done, but there might be some snags, we just heard from a republican member of senate leadership, john thune. he said votes could slip into monday. so it might take a little longer, but senate majority leader mitch mcconnell was just on the senate floor saying, it is time to get things done. let's take a listen. >> we've had productive discussions this week. i appreciate it the good-faith spirit that characterized my talks with democratic leader, speaker pelosi, leader mccarthy. secretary mnuchin. the american people cannot feed their families or pay their bills with congress' good-faith discussions. they need us to act. we need to conclude our talks, draft legislation and land this plane. >> reporter: democrats agree this plane does need to be landed but say there is one outstanding issue caused by senator pat toomey, republican from pennsylvania. listen to senate democratic

leader chuck schumer shortly after. >> even now at the end of this painstaking process there have been final hurdles. crafting a $1 trillion relief package over the matter of a few days as always going to have its difficulties but we are running out of time. after passing yet another continuing resolution yesterday evening we have until sunday at midnight to secure a final agreement, draft the legislation and move it through both ch chambers of congress with ill lack create. i agree with the republican leader. we need to deliver an outcome and deliver it quickly. >> reporter: that issue, over a federal reserve lending program supposed to expire end of year. republicans want it to expire, make sure and democrat saying tied at the hands of the senate. reporters caught up with nancy

pelosi saying it is the plan to announce some sort of deal today. we also know that treasury secretary mnuchin is going to brief all senate republicans later this afternoon. those are signs things are actually very close. >> okay. you will -- understand if i'm somewhat skeptical, because we've seen this before, but thank you very much, lee ann caldwell. appreciate that. the panel is back with me. look, guys. i'm going to you first, kurt, the congress hasn't done anything except move the goal posts time and again. the american people needed this relief months ago. someone who used to work for the house what's the issue here? what don't our elected officials as a communal body understand? >> i think, alex what we're seeing is the fallout getting completely radicalized to the point they rye prioritize

putting corporate america ahead of everybody else who suffering now. be honest. whether $600 or $1,200, one-time payment is nothing compared to what we've seen the people need throughout the entire year now we've been in almost every developed country in the world's managed to do a lot more for their citizens than we have and legislation sitting in the senate passed by the house, and majority leader hasn't given an up our down vote for a time. >> you can't fall back on that any longer. i know, yes, definitely for the record, but wasn't that back in, like, i don't know. may? the h.e.r.o.e.s. act? >> that's my -- why do we keep giving the republican majority the pass here? democrats passed something. sent it to the senate. mitch mcconnell could have voted on that at any time and decided to put conservative judges in place, confirmation hearings, anything but covid. nothing stopping the republicans

they control the white house, the senate. why haven't they passed something? the only bill that passed a bill in congress is the one the democrats put forward months ago. even right now as we're debating this republicans are standarding in wait gettithe way getting so passed. >> i 100% agrees, but frustrated at people are suffering. members of congress getting vaccinated, getting their paychecks but not able to pass financial relief for constituents. what do you make of the opt ices of that? >> it's an abomination, alex. i've been distressed by photos of members of congress being vaccinated. it's important our elected leaders are able to be vaccinate so they're safe from transmission of covid, every american deserves the same thing. in the short term, every american deserve as congress

will to do their job before getting in line first for a vaccine. $600 payment. what is that? nothing. they're going home for christmas and act like they did something here. i think that the disconnect between the lived experiences of most americans standing in food lines ux hungry, whose children are doing school on ipads, if they even have broadband access, and you have in congress a republican party, to kurt's point, this is mitch mcconnell. not democrats. democrats are coming to the table in good faith and up until this week mitch mcconnell was stopping the vote because of liability protection for corporations who want to send their employees to work in unsafe conditions. a blanket like the shield not just specifically an covid. that's not good-faith negotiation, alex, about stimulus. >> can you answer why republicans are see steadfast against state and local aid as well as the $1,200 relief checks

with exception of senator josh holly? >> at this point, it's simply about upholding the status quo and it's about the big corporate interests that really are still dominating and driving how republican lawmakers behave when on capitol hill. led by mitch mcconnell. i just would go back to what zerlina said about the liability for corporations and exempting corporations from that liability, and how it really held up any and all aid, and it's the reason we're down to the absolute wire in this time of dire suffering, in a time of the pandemic increasing dramatically every day so the risk goes up for every american hoop has to be out and about trying to earn their livelihood. it's so depressing that corporate interests have fared so well throughout this pandemic. >> uh-huh. >> yet ordinary people are struggling in such a dire way. >> yeah. it is pretty extraordinary.

thanks for letting me vent, guys. appreciated that with all of you, zerlina kurt and elise, thank you. all of you catch the shows, "zerlina" weeknights on the peacock streaming channel the choice. now that moderna the vaccine is authorized by the fda. you might ask, which do you want, which will you get? a few pfizer patients, and we have answers, all that next for you. ext for you. [ 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. [ beeping ]

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breaking news in the coronavirus pandemic. officials say the u.s. will reach the end of year goal for vaccine distribution with less than two weeks left now. >> we remain on track to allocate around 20 million doses of vaccine to all jurisdictions by end of december. with distribution of those doses pushing into the first week of january. >> this as the u.s. marked a

third straight day of record-breaking cases adding more than 246,000 in just one day. more than 2,800 deaths recorded. cdc called an emergency meeting this weekend to review data from the newly authorized moderna vaccine. on the agenda, update on allergic reactions and discussion who should be vaccinated next. in california, hospitals rapidly running out of space as cases spike. one hospital has no hospital beds available. now to shaq brewster in olive branch, mississippi outside the plant districting the vaccine. when can we expect those vaccines to be shipped? >> reporter: alex, an update from the chief operating officer of "operation warp speed" saying some supplies have already ship and their way. far as the vaccine, u.p.s. and fedex trucks begin rolling tomorrow with some providers

receiving them as early as monday. listen to a little of the update we got from general perna just this morning. >> distribution of moderna vaccine has already begun. moderna moved vaccine from their finished manufacturing sites to mckesson, who will serve as the central distributor. at mckesson, distribution centers, boxes are being packed and loaded today. trucks will begin rolling out tomorrow from fedex and u.p.s. >> reporter: that is certainly positive news as we continue to see cases continue to rise all across the country. the key difference with this moderna vaccine than we saw with the pfizer vaccine about a week ago at this point is the temperature it can be transported and actually frozen at. not that ultra deep freeze required with the pfizer vaccine. instead, a more industry standard vaccination temperature. that means it can go to more

places, more quickly. we're talking about places like pharmacies, nursing homes, doctors' offices, place that have more regular freezer and can hold those vaccines. moderna saying they expect to ship and deliver about 20 million vaccine doses by end of this year. alex, less than two weeks away. they say that number will increase to 100 million by spring and 200 mill by beginning of the summer. >> not turning out the lights in that building behind you for sure, shaq. thank you so much. joining me now, nbc news medical contributor dr. natalie azar. welcome. we have the doses of moderna vaccine reaching states by monday, going into circulation along with pfizer vaccines. how are they similar? is one better than the other? >> reporter: probably more similarities than differences. both utilize the same mrna platform to deliver the vaccine to individuals. they both require two doses.

the pfizer's, three weeks apart. moderna four weeks apart and both have very, very, very similar efficacy. pfizer 95%. moderna 94% with a similar side effect profile. again, non-life threatening. can be very uncomfortable, however, for 24 to 36 hours. but, again, safety and efficacy, and platform all really very much alike. >> okay. that's good to hear. how are they going to decide who get moderna? who gets pfizer? do we know how that will break down? >> alex, there's not a university blanket policy across the u.s. as we've said before, states have the right to make these decisions. the state governors working with their health departments. then at the level of the hospital systems. they also have the ability to make that decision for the patient. so it is not going to likely be a choice for patients.

you can get either the pfizer or moderna, and it's very likely that both will not even be offered in one particular place. as shaq was saying, the storage and capabilities of the moderna vaccine really, really allow it to be more, better utilized in areas that don't have the capacity of the deep freezer, such as big, academic hospital centers. >> makes sense. we know for a fact you cannot mix these two. you get pfizer, stay with pfizer. moderna, stay with moderna. >> correct. that's a concern. >> go ahead. yeah. >> no. i was going to say. there is a concern that how will this be tracked? people given cards? electronic? the recommendation now is if you accidentally receive the different one as a second dose you are not to get anymore doses of either of them. >> okay. what about the breaking news? some sort of a mutant? a variant of the coronavirus being detected? do we know anything about that? or is that in the uk?

>> right. this is not unexpected. viruses mutate all the tile. th time. no cause for concern the mutation made the virus more virulent and won't respond to those in place now. more importantly. >> confidence of what, 20 million doses allocated by end of year. how much does the moderna authorization fill in that expectation, fill in the gaps? is it realistic based on what you've seen this week? will we get there? >> i think we will. it certainly is necessary to fill the gap, but we need even more than just these two. we're going to wait anxiously for a pending approval for both the j & j vaccine, astrazeneca, oxford vaccine, i'm hoping that demand exceeds supply so we, in fact, get to our level of herd immunity. we've done the numbers before. right now hospitals in this country, this past week, were dealing with only thousands of vaccines when we have over 20

million health care workers. not to mention the millions upon millions of individuals with chronic conditions as well as our essential workers. by the way, the next challenge will be to see who exactly is recommended for that second phase. a essential worker? over the age 65? chronic conditions? buzz even in the news recently about residents, frontline workers who were getting it after older attendees? there's a lot of, a lot we're still looking out for in the next couple of days and weeks. >> i think that conversation is happening this weekend as we were saying. trying to figure who stands next in line. okay. dr. natalie azar, always good to have you. thank you much. for all of you, what questions do you have? having another question and answer session with a panel of experts. send your questions to "ask alex" at msnbc. we'll answer them tomorrow at 1:30 p.m. eastern, or many as you can. you really responded last week.

the alleged russian hacking worse than perceived. nuclear weapons? water supply? electrical grid? why federal officials say the worst may be yet to come. t may

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and there was a significant effort to use a piece of third-party software to essentially embed a code inside of u.s. government systems and it now appears the systems of private companies and companies and governments across the world as well. this was a very significant effort, and i think it's the case that now we can say pretty clearly that it was the russians that engaged in this activity. >> you've heard it. breaking news. secretary pompeo first to publicly blame russia for the extensive cyber attack. the infrastructure security agency says the hack poses a

grave risk to the federal government, warning states and local governments, and infrastructure entitieentities, are also at risk. joining me now, msnbc national security analyst clint law on the joint terrorism task force and nbc news contributor mika o'yak, vipt at third way. welcome to you both. vice president at third way. first the president, just before went on the air talking about this hack, suggesting it could be china, not russia, that is responsible. mika, do you see any credibility to that? what indications point to russia? are there any that point to china? >> so it's hard to know without getting into the information that the executive branch and the private sector have seen but we haven't seen any experts who actually looked at the technical signatures suggest it's anyone other than russia. i doubt the president has an understanding of those and able to actually find something that says it was china and i tend to believe the technical experts

over the president who tried to deflect blame away from russia in everyone's done. >> okay. clint, mike pompeo saying looking at china. the president suggesting it's russia. pardon me, looking at russia and the president saying, maybe it could be china. what do you make of that? >> yeah. it's just consistent with president trump, constantly providing cover for vladimir putin. it's been consistent before he was elected, since he's been elected and i'm guessing posthis term post his term. always looking out for putin. never someone from the western world tried to provide cover for vladimir putin consistently. all cybersecurity efforts i've talked to and have seen in terms of source reporting to include his own secretary of state has said this attributes to sbr, the foreign intelligence service of russia. 2340 indications of any other. this is ap consistent pattern. really begs the question of when

we will stop putting up with this sort of nonsense from russia. we've seen espionage attacks from china, russia, others as well, but this is a pattern. just go over the last four years the number of imtoos russia aggressioned against us in very challenging, used maybe sonic weapons against diplomats and intelligence officers. interfered in our elections, fascinated other individuals throughout the eu and nato partners and we have done nothing. the president always apologizes for him. meanwhile, if it's china he plays tough, talks tough about it and i'm sure his twitter feed, if we saw today, if he could attribute this to china he would. begs the question moving into the next administration, what are we going to do we would not put up with this nonsense from a revisionist coward like russia? >> clint, a big question, too. wa kind of information was potentially accessed and how wide-ranging is it?

>> so i think one important thing to think about was the cyber intrusion, it was a strategic act. they knew our defenses had gotten better over the years, even though he were successfully breached and went upstream. meaning go into the code that's going to be put in for computer updates through solar lens, implant a back door, a way to infiltrate into government systems and then it wa and see where does that take hold? where do they take hold and where they can access. why we really don't know the damage at this point. that's been updated in the private sector and our government sector. seems to have been only unclassified systems and we hope that's the case as of now and not classified systems which would be more damaging. really comes down to what access does a foreign power have to our public infrastructure? at a time when we're worried about election security. did really well with that but may have been over focused on that. the third thing, spent a lot of money and resources trying to defend our cyber space and

russians maybe have gotten even better. still in our system and it's going to cost us dearly both financially and in terms of time to patch up this system and to really correct the actions that have been made over the last six to nine months by the russians. >> mika, i mentioned this going into the break. things like the water system. our electrical grids. the nuclear security, the nuclear codes. is it possible that information and access into these entities was obtained by the hackers? >> it looks like they touched all of those systems, and for those of us who worry about cybersecurity and what the worst-case scenarios are, this attack seems to have hit every one of our nightmare scenarios. nnsa, nuclear grids, treasury, financial systems, d.o.d. systems accessed. clint says we have no evidence they breached classified systems

but we know russians have breached classified systems before. did it end of the bush administration. the pentagon is very closed lip about whether or not that's actually happened and obviously a very sensitive thing to acknowledge, but they are still in the process of doing the damage assessments now. looking for this indicator that was put out on all of their systems. the challenge, as clint said with the back door, we don't know how deep they are. mitigating this breach will be very expensive. many cybersecurity experts think we will have to burn the networks down to the ground and start over again with fresh networks. that's a multibillion dollar project. >> can you explain quickly, mika you how this happened and was undetected for so long? >> yeah. so we're all familiar with those notifications from software you have to update, please update now. developers keep that channel, the developer update channel, very secure. because they know that that's the way that they can modify

software on a system. the russians compromised that update channel for solarwinds, does network monitoring. basically it's like they compromised the security cameras in a physical building's nobody pays attention. they got in the there and took those over and then because of the way they did it, can remove all traces they were there. close the back doors behind them so we don't actually know exactly which systems they got into, and more importantly, what they left, because they've, they may have hidden code on the systems when they closed those back doors and hid them behind them. >> it is a stunning conversation. sobering as well. clint and mika, thank you so much. getting through it with us. meantime, range, revenge and denial. alarming final days of the trump presidency. what do worry about? who in the white house can get the president to accept the reality? reality?

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breaking news. in minutes, senate republicans will hold a conference call with treasury secretary stephen mnuchin. republican aide telling nbc news app, chuck sheeper a echoomer ay the hold up pennsylvania republican pat toomey. the president spending final days in office plotting trouble

for everyone. you can't reason with him at all. joining me, anthony scaramucci, managing partner and white house communications director under president trump. anthony, thanks for joining me. we have the electoral college that voted. mitch mcconnell congratulated joe biden. what's behind the president's persistent denial over these elections? does he really believe he didn't lose or a big lie that's gotten out of hand? >> you left out vladimir putin, which i think is a very important one. he congratulated vice president, now president-elect joe biden as well. but, no. of course he knows he's lost. he's already planning possibly a television show, a network. lots of things to do when he leaves. and he's bundled a tremendous amount of money, over $250 million bundled. he's going to have to answer for the shell companies inside the campaign, and the disappearance

of some of that money. i know the republican donors i used to be close to are very sore about that, but he's going. going january 21st, and i'm a contrarian on this, alex. i don't see him as a political force going forward. i think he'll have too many things to do. they'll be legal consequences to some of his actions. there's ongoing investigations in new york. and i think he's going to be distracted, as his political p.o.w. power wanes, distracted. remember, whether secretary pompeo or others, ten or so younger men and women that look in the mirror every morning and see a future president in his party. they're going to come after him very hard once he leaves power. >> so interesting, anthony. because every trump insider, former trump insider with umm hive spoken said the exact same thing that. he's not running in 2024. where is that coming from and why is the president allowing it? what does he stand to benefit from that? >> money. it's all about money.

he could declare his candidacy, and -- look at this scheme. fan tack for him. november 3rd, declares this false allegation of fraud. totally been disproven. guys like chris krebs totally disproved it. can't get standing anywhere in any court including the supreme court but raised $250 million as a result of this ruse pup can see him announce his candidacy. probably the best money-making scheme he'd had. better than the atlantic city casinos, better than "the aprint apprentice. we won't run, won't get the nomination hasn't gotten above 47% in the presidential election. he's the wrong guy. >> you see friends and colleagues in the financial industry world who donated, why upset about miking those donations?

>> very few people donated this time. last time a lot of wall streeters did donate. the ones that did donate are upset because they're upset the way he's handled things, at his rhetoric, being linked to him. turnoff, hurt them in business and now they know that their money's been gristed and d gris. wall street has not problem losing money they don't like it taken from them. that's where all the issues are there, but i predict that he will not run in a serious way for president in 2024. >> let me double check. you say grifted, those irritated, upset, are upset because they feel the money donated for a cause or a political future they saw, fear their money is going right into his pocket? >> sure does look like that. they'll have to answer for that. they have insiders that are saying this stuff. sure does look like that. >> hmm.

what about "vanity fair's" article, discussed about the possibility of preemptive pardons, a blitz of everyone close to the president? so that biden's justice department can't investigate his administration, but also says that trump wants the doj to name special counsel to investigate joe and hunter biden as a way of getting even with democrats, wants retribution for the mueller probe. do you think donald trump will go down these avenues in the next month? >> i think he's going to try to do that. i think he's going to be stalled in doing that. i think one. things people are talking about because the transition stalled in the pentagon, could there be a potential fear basis there as well? and there you go. there you go -- >> ooh, oh. >> there's my -- >> he can start cleaning that up. let me ask quickly, something. he's adorable though. let me just say. >> that's my youtube moment if ever there was one. took out santa claus there, alex. >> oh, no.

make sure santa gets resurrected. >> you know, voted for trump, too. i don't know. it's okay. but he's obviously mad at me. but -- >> well, you know. you didn't do it. anyway, let me ask you quickly about -- this is important to cnn. in moments of deepest denial trump told advise herself he will refouz to leave the white house on inauguration day only to be walked down from that ledge. the possibility alarmed some aides but few believe trump will actually follow through. how do you envision january 20th? >> i think he's, i think he shows up. i don't see how he doesn't show up. i think his team will explain to him not showing up at a presidential inaugural would be a disgrace to him and hurt his brand. i think if they characterize it in terms of money, he ends up showing up. may show up with gritted teeth but i think he shows up. >> okay. as the president dives deeper, anthony, into the denial and his

digs and the like against election results, someone appeared on many occasions to care a lot about what other people think. why is he not looking long term at his legacy? >> well, he's told many people this. i haven't heard it personally but heard it secondhand from somebody that's a primary source that he doesn't care about his legacy. he says that he's going to be dead. so what difference does it make to him -- what difference does it make to him related to his legacy? >> uh-huh. you know what? i'm actually going to mercifully liberate you, my friend. >> that's okay. my wife told me she was watching hill. i don't know. i guess i'm watching him on live tv. i awe apologize for that, alex. merry christmas to you. >> no. don't apologize. i love it. those unscripted moments. besides he's precious and i think santa is put back together again. you're off the hook. looks good. >> thank you for that. >> all right.

thank you so much. happy holidays, merry christmas. meantime, history unfolds later this afternoon when president-elect bind announces his climate team. why this is a big deal is next.

in just about 90 minutes or so president-elect biden will introduce key members of his climate team. go to nbc's heidi pris ideidi e >> reporter: an ambitious goal completely overhauling the energy economy over the next 15 years. his a. team, or green team i should say, bringing to the table. people with a lot of diverse and rich experience. second reason why, it's historic for the people he's names here. especially representative deb haaland, who would lead the interior department, if confirmed. she would be the first native

american to serve ever in any cabinet position. secondly, we have former michigan governor jennifer granholm, who would lead the energy department and brings deep experience working with the automotive industry and has written extensively about how to lower carbon emissions and bring us to a more carbon-neutral economy. as well as epa administrator, if confirmed, michael regan, who is the top regulator in north carolina. he would be, of the environment, he would be the first african-american male to head that agency, alex. both a mix of diversity and experience, and the last one is the most unusual one, because it is a new position here created within the white house to coordinate across all of these various agencies, demonstrating the president-elect's commitment to making climate change and a cleaner priority. gina mccarthy playing kind of a czar role, working on a whole of

government approach with access directly to the president, which is very important distinction here. nos a senate confirmed position but will have direct access to the president as well as working with the climate envoy john kerry, former senator who will be working on international climate change issues, alex. >> got to tell you, a very nice opportunity to interview gina mccarthy for a private event. there's a reason she's going to be czar on this. absolutely brilliant with extraordinary experience. really glad he's bringing her onboard. as cove ed cases reach record level the worst-case scenarios. up next, live reports on the shortages in the icus and breaking news when the moderna vaccine will begin rolling out for you. for you. -twins! grandparents! we want to put money aside for them, so...change in plans. alright, let's see what we can adjust.

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good day to all of you from msnbc world headquarters here in new york. welcome to "weekends with alex witt." bring you up to date now. breaking news in the coronavirus pandemic. dozens of the newly authorized moderna vaccine being packed, shipped tomorrow. officials say millions more will go to u.s. states over the next two weeks. >> we remain on track to allocate around 20 million doses of vaccine to all jurisdictions by end of december. with distribution of those doses pushing into the first week of january.