good afternoon. thanks for joining us. i'm morgan radford. right now we're covering a jarring split screen in american politics. while many of the country's leaders are focused on battling a raging pandemic, that focus is partially being drowned out by the president's renewed calls are election rigging. this morning, dr. anthony fauci, hhs secretary alex azar and nih director francis collins call received their covid vaccines in public. after congress passed a $900

billion covid relief package just last night. >> i feel extreme confidence in the safety and the efficacy of this vaccine, and i want to encourage everyone who has the opportunity to get vaccinated so that we could have a veil of protection over this country that would end this pandemic. >> so those images come as the u.s. surpasses even more grim milestones in this pandemic. with 18 million infections and 320,000 deaths. meanwhile, public health officials at the white house are grappling with concern about this new covid mutation found in the united kingdom. dr. fauci says he assumes that strain is already right here in the u.s. and yet, here's the contrast i was talking about earlier. president trump is making headlines for pushing republican lawmakers to continue to support his efforts to overturn the election results. and this is even after the electoral college certified the vote. and it doesn't stop there. the president continues to

spread conspiracy theorys on social media. just this morning, he falsely claimed that, quote, the democrats dumped hundreds of thousands of ballots in the swing states late in the evening. it was a rigged election. so let's begin this hour just outside the white house where we find nbc's josh lederman. talk to us about what's going on around the president. "the washington post" had a pretty remarkable line in their story today, essentially saying the president has only his most extreme allies left. so if you look at this, they said trump's unofficial election advisory council now includes a pardoned felon, adherence of the qanon conspiracy theory, and a russian agent's former lover. tell us, as more mainstream allies, have they left him as he's ramped up these baseless claims of fraud? >> it has created this remarkable situation in which the folks previously considered the most extreme voices around

president trump are now the ones keeping him from even more extreme voices that the president is clinging to as he tries to surround himself with people who will continue what is essentially a fantasy now that somehow he can overturn the election results. who would have ever thought that rudy giuliani and mark meadows would be the thing standing between us and martial law. that's essentially where we're at right now with folks like rudy giuliani speaking out to try to distance the president from people who are even more extreme like sidney powell who the president has been discussing, is naming as a special counsel, even as she continues to float these wild conspiracy theorys about the late venezuelan leader somehow intruding in our election from the grave. now we have news just last night of a meeting that took place at the white house with the president, the vice president, mike pence, as well as a number of the house republicans who are pushing forward with their plans to plot some type of intervention in congress on january 6th when they have that

joint session to basically ratify the results of the electoral college vote. we don't expect that has really any prospect of succeeding, but it's another indication of how the president is continuing to push forward in tandem with anyone who will continue to tell him that there's a chance for him here. >> it's interesting hearing you describe that ideology amongst his advisers now being very relative. and what surprised me this morning is a tweet he sent out. we heard him talking about covid but that was effective when he tried to take credit for the vaccines on twitter. the world will soon see the great miracle of what the trump administration accomplished. they said it couldn't be done. so how engaged has the president been on the pandemic since he lost the election? as we're acrossing 18 million confirmed cases in the u.s. alone, what is he doing on his front to increase awareness and decrease the risk? >> well, from everything we know, the president hasn't really been deeply involved in coronavirus on a day-to-day

basis. and in many months. he hasn't been involved in attending task force meetings in many months or even really in speaking publicly about the coronavirus and the vaccine. get this. the last time that we actually saw president trump in public was nine days ago and that was when he went to go play golf. we haven't seen the president out there trying to reassure americans about the safety of this vaccine. and that is something that has been confusing to even a lot of the president's allies because it seems like such a ripe opportunity for the president to take credit as he likes to do for actual accomplishments to be out there, merging his desire to pat himself on the back for this vaccine with efforts to try to get out the message that people need to take this vaccine, that it's safe, that it has been designed to be safe for all different types of americans. instead, the president focused solely on the taking credit part, mostly on twitter. not a lot on the reassurance and education part. >> you talk about nine days ago seeing him play golf and then

this morning we hear those baseless claims about election rigging. how involved has he been in the transsnigs what steps has president trump taken at this point to facilitate the biden transition? >> well, the good news is ever since he allowed the general services administration one month ago tomorrow to ascertain the results of the election, that cleared up the path for career officials in a lot of these agencies to go ahead and continue with the work of government, which at this point in an administration involves working with the incoming administration to make sure they get up to speed. so we do have some of that occurring. for example, secretary of state designate tony blinken has been at the state department meeting with officials there, getting the download. but there have also been reports of political interference and some problems. the biden transition complaining particularly that when it comes to the national security agencies and the pentagon, they are not getting the cooperation they say they need and expect. >> all right, josh lederman at

the white house, thank you so much for joining us from d.c. i'd like to dive deeper into the everyday impact of the pandemic. we're joined by meagan fitzgerald who joins us from los angeles. great to see you. we understand in los angeles those grocery stores and essential businesses have really become virus hot spots. and despite those stay-at-home orders the golden state has more than doubled its daily number of new cases. and that's just over the last two weeks. so meagan, why are we seeing so many cases coming out of these essential businesses. and what are the officials there really doing to slow down the transmission rates. >> morgan, that's the biggest challenge here because you talk about these essential frontline workers. they can't work from home. they have to go to work in many of these instances which is why on sunday we saw the cdc panel vote to recommend that these essential frontline workers receive the second wave of the vaccine. so what we are talking about.

the meat packing plant workers as well as teachers and grocery store workers which make up about 30 million people and the cdc saying, look, they are not only essential to our economy but also to our society. and so as you mentioned, across the country, we have seen outbreaks of coronavirus at these meat-packing plants. we've also seen outbreaks at grocery stores. here in los angeles county, we're seeing those outbreaks at unprecedented levels, which is why we spoke to the president of the union who says, getting vaccinated is an important first step. take a listen. >> workers that have to go to work each day, while many people were able to stay at home and not necessarily go out, i think it will protect these workers so that they have an opportunity that they don't have to necessarily be afraid of whether or not they're going to infect their family. >> now today we are seeing the moderna vaccine being rolled out across the nation. of course, certainly here in

california. as for when those frontline essential workers can receive their vaccinations, we're told it could come as soon as january. morgan? >> january, and a sign of hope. meagan fitzgerald joining us live from los angeles, thank you so much. now i'd like to bring in dr. aguyamo. we're hearing a lot about this new strain in the uk. that's the big new coronavirus news this week. what are the chances that that strain is already right here in the u.s.? >> first of all, thanks for having me, morgan. so, obviously there is concern about the new strain circulate i ing. it is circulating pretty widely which means that it is transmitting at a rate that's higher than prior strains. and one of the foremost concerns

is that it also has mutations or altercations in the spike protein which is a target for therapeutics and diagnostics. but the current thought is that it may not necessarily impact the current batch of vaccines that we have which is good news. so i think we should be concerned, but not alarmed. >> it's good news you say about the vaccines but something i'd like to go back to is this notion of mutations. it's normal for viruss to mutate. it happens all the time. but the odd thing about this one is that this new strain has 17 mutations. so for everyday americans, explain to us, doctor, how big of a deal is that? are the symptoms or are the effects of this strain worse? >> so we don't have all the information, but you -- can alter the structure of protein, and that's exactly where the

concern is. so prior to this, the strains had accumulated in patients but at a low number and the point where we didn't think it altered structure of the virus. so this is concerning that one strain has many mutations and a lot of frenzy in the scientific community to figure out the signification from a transmission and immunity stanspoint. for now, we shouldn't be alarmed. >> i want to talk about something else that's come up. personally amongst my friends and family and colleagues, you were one of the first doctors at yale to receive the vaccine. so you trust it. but what do you say to convince others to take it and speaking personally, a lot of blacks and latinos are skeptical. rightfully so given history. so what do you say to these groups of people about this vaccine? >> yeah, so i share concern and you're right, even within my family and my friends, there's still a lot of mistrust and mistrust expressed.

it's unfortunate that a third of black americans are expressing their unwillingness to receive the vaccine at this point and we know that since they are disproportionately impacted by covid, they'd benefit more from participating in the benefits of the vaccine. so a lot of work needs to be done. one message i like to get out is that there are many reasons why people are hesitant of vaccines, including things around mistrust of the system, historical injustices. but some people just have legitimate questions around the feeling that the vaccine. is it safe? did it include people like me? new vaccine technology. we have to target our messaging to different individuals, meeting them at the point of their concern. then we're more likely to be successful. >> and meeting those individuals where they are. just backing up before i let you go, can you give us a big picture when we look at the course of the pandemic. given what we're seeing in the uk with this new strain and what we saw from meagan in

california, despite the stay-at-home orders, where do we stand? is the new strain, for example, could is threaten to set us back and start us all over again? >> so i think, you know, the good news is that we have a very effective tool in the arsenal so nothing is taken away from two hi veen vaccines already approved. so there's still a couple of rough days ahead, but i think with a combination of approach, the vaccine and public health measures while we keep an eye on what's happening with the virus and how it changes, i still remain very optimistic that we'll beat this and get through this and that hopefully 2021 will bring an end to this. >> that is what we hope. doctor, thank you so much for your time, for your patience and knowledge. we appreciate you being with us. now to some breaking news. california governor gavin newsom has just announced that he has

chosen the state's elections chief alex padilla to fill the remainder of senator and now vice president-elect kamala harris' u.s. senate term. in making the announcement on twitter, newsom noted the his r historic nature of this pick. padilla will become california's first latino u.s. senator. just ahead, cleanup on aisle 1600. a closer look at the chaos being left behind that the new administration will now have to tackle in less than a month. and later, what we know about that massive russian hack. how should america respond? i'll ask colorado congressman jason crow who has been briefed on that hack, next. stay with us. you how liberty mutual customizes car insurance so you only pay for what you need. isn't that what you just did? service! ♪ stand back, i'm gonna show ya ♪ ♪ how doug and limu roll, ya ♪

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welcome back. thanks for joining us. i'm morgan radford. in just over an hour from now, president-elect joe biden is expected to speak to reporters and take questions ahead of the christmas holiday.

it comes as his transition continues its focus on covid. in fact, a day after receiving his covid vaccine in public, nbc news has learned from multiple sources that biden is expected to tap connecticut's commissioner of education dr. miguel cardona to be his education secretary. a role which will be responsible for getting the majority of the nation's students back into school. nbc news has also learned from two advisers familiar with the matter that biden's covid advisory team has discussed invoking the defense production act to ramp up vaccine supply. so for the very latest i'm joined by mike memoli in wilmington, delaware. biden is about to inherit a number of crisis, two of the most immediate being covid and this russian hack. how is he laying the groundwork right now to address them? >> well, as it relates to the pandemic we got at least a down payment as joe biden would call it in the congress' action last night approving the $900 billion

covid relief. biden saying in a tweet overnight this is good work but certainly is only the beginning. he's calling on congress to be ready to move quickly on passing his covid relief plan. we heard him lay out some of his goals for his first 100 days, including asking all americans to wear a mask. getting 100 million injections in the first 100 days and then getting students back into school by the first 100 days. as it relates to that hack, biden hasn't himself yet identified russia as the source of that but we expect to hear the president-elect address this. he has called this a massive invasion into our cybertechnology here and so it stands to reason that he would want to weigh in a bit more forcefully here. of course, the mixed messages from the administration of having pointed the finger, some officials at least at russia, while president trump himself is casting doubt on that, potentially raising china as the potential culprit here. biden has talked about the need for very swift and severe retaliation for this and so we hope to expect to hear from him more on what that might look

like, morgan. >> can you give us more on that? you have this new understanding about russia but i would like to switch gears for a moment about his choice for the education pick. what do we know and why is this a big deal? >> well, this selection is interesting in that it's getting some early praise both from immigration -- education reform advocates but also some of the teachers union which speaks to the delicate balancing act biden has to pursue as he selected his education nominee here. not officially in from the campaign just yet, but this choice would be historic. a latino, as he continues to diversify his cabinet. mr. cardona is a life-long educator, something that biden has promised that he would do in the education secretary position. of course, his wife is an educator. one of the biggest applause lines on the campaign trail was about replacing betsy devos in that position. what's interesting as well about this selection is that we actually are elevating somebody

into this position who has been, yes, an educator but only recently came into the ranks of administration as the connecticut education superintendent here. but biden who has been trying to balance all the equities here, including having a diverse cabinet, including having people in the positions to enact his agenda settling here as it seems on a person in miguel cardona who has impressed members of his transition team and the conversations i've understood that have been happening. >> it's a big day, an historic day. mike memoli, thanks for joining us. we appreciate it. audioi'm joined by michael steel, former spokesman by john boehner. also karen tumulti, columnist for "the washington post." thank you both for being with us. michael, president trump is turning on every republican who will not defend his allegations of voter fraud. and that's including mitch mcconnell. in fact, trump's special assistant sent an email at his request to republicans attacking the senate majority leader.

so politically speaking is trump hurting himself and his political future by doing this, or is the support among his base still solid enough to support these types of attacks? >> i think he's definitely -- chances of a comeback in the republican party. i think that he is -- the pandemic, our economy, or working effectively to help win those senate georgia runoff races which are the top priority for republicans and conservatives. he's dealing in this fever dream of conspiracies that he somehow didn't lose the presidential election, which he obviously did and there's no good that can come of this. no good that can come from tightening his -- to this small kernel of fellow conspiracy theorists. >> karen, i want to turn to you now because, going back to what he's been tweeting, he continues to undermine the election. for example, he was tweeting today the false allegation that

the democrats dumped hundreds of thousands of ballots in the swing states late in the evening and claiming it was a rigged election. how big of a hurdle is this for president-elect biden? i mean, can he establish himself as a legitimate president, especially in the eyes of those americans who voted for trump when we still haven't seen a peaceful transfer of power. >> well, certainly there is a lot of damage that donald trump can do between now and january 20th. and it seems like with every passing day, with every passing hour as he retreats into this circle of fringe characters, he's making himself more and more irrelevant. but i think there was a really big piece of news for joe biden in the passage of this stimulus relief package. because you actually saw congress doing something it hadn't done in a long time which is legislate. so all of the people who sort of dismissed joe biden's theory

that it is still possible to get business done, this was maybe a tiny glimmer of hope that he may be right. and the other thing that we saw is that, however these senate races come out, these are going to be two very, very closely divided houses of congress. and what we saw here was people of both parties working together from the center out. michael probably also can remember, that is how legislating actually used to happen. >> michael, do you agree? do you think the process we saw when it came to the legislative process was a glimmer of hope here? >> yes. and i don't necessarily think this was a down payment but breathing room. i think it was -- gives the former vice president, the president-elect the ability to put his agenda together and then work in a bipartisan way. karen is exactly right. no matter what happens in georgia, this is going to be a narrowly divided senate. i think it will be a republican senate but narrowly divided and

the house is also narrowly divided. we're already starting to see procedural shenanigans against speaker pelosi from the left side of her own caucus. that's going to be something she's going to have to watch and it means that she, for the first time, really in her career is going to have to govern in a bipartisan way as senator mcconnell is used to doing in the senate. >> you said senator mcconnell is used to doing that, but tell me about this republican reaction because i want to dive into that. we've seen senate republicans, including the majority whip start to reject the president's calls for congress to challenge that electoral vote. what do the next few weeks look like as we enter this new year, this new administration? have republicans already moved on to a post-trump washington? >> yes. and i think that he will continue to be powerful in the republican primaries for the foreseeable future, but if you look at overriding the veto on the defense authorization act and the fact that republicans are very intent on not having any sort of shenanigans from

this conspiracy theory crew when we certify the results of the presidential election, i think that they are turning the page and beginning to adjust to the new reality of a president biden, closely divided but probably republican senate and closely divided but probably democratic house. >> karen, we have seen some history in the making. of course with this administration, with some of the choices and now out of california. what do you make of the announcement, karen, just now from california governor newsom that alex padilla will replace kamala harris in the senate? >> well, i think there were a number of things at work here. yes, we made history here with a hispanic senator from california. he also -- the governor was careful because of this very, very closely divided house that we have right now. i think president-elect biden was really -- and nancy pelosi, both of them, are hoping that we

don't have any more democrats being taken out of the house. now this is going to be a disappointment to a lot of people who wanted to see an african-american woman senator replaced by another black woman senator. but i think this choice is, overall, going to be welcomed. >> all right. michael steele, karen tumulty, thank you for joining us. it's been a pleasure speaking withuous. coming up, the latest on the russian hack just after the break. plus, the covid crisis we have not talked much about. that's coming up this holiday season. the toll the pandemic is taking on our mental health, and how we can cope. stay with us. now, he uses a capful of therabreath fresh breath oral rinse to keep his breath smelling great, all day long. (combative yelling) therabreath, it's a better mouthwash. at walmart, target and other fine stores.

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and it continuously eliminates odors in the air and on soft surfaces. for 45 days. welcome back. u.s. officials know the solarwinds hack was bad but they're still trying to figure out just how bad. according to a top democratic senator on the finance committee, officials at the treasury department briefed lawmakers that they had suffered a serious breach. the extent of which remains unknown. "the wall street journal" is reporting that a number of major u.s. tech companies have also been compromised. democratic congressman from colorado jason crow, a member of the armed serviced committee and former impeachment manager said it could be the modern day cyber equivalent of pearl harbor. congressman crow is with me now. thank you for joining us. what did you mean by that? is this attack as bad as you feared when you compared it to

pearl harbor? >> yeah. the cyber element of this is really hard to understate. we were taken by surprise. we learned of new capacities and new ways of hacking that we didn't know existed before. and i think it's also really important to state that this is actually an ongoing attack. we haven't stopped it. we believe that adversary, most likely russia in this instance, still has access to companies and potentially government agency databases and i.t. networks and we have to make sure we're stopping the bleeding. this is a huge wake-up call and a call to arms for the u.s. government for federal leaders that we have a lot of work cut out for us. >> speaking of call to arms, let's talk about the fallout for a minute. as a former army ranger yourself, what is your biggest worry in terms of how this could perhaps endanger our men and women in uniform? >> well, that is exactly my major worry, morgan.

we have hundreds of thousands that have been deployed throughout the world. we do believe that it's likely that the dod information networks may have been compromised. we don't know which ones, how many of them, what information, but certainly our law enforcement and intelligence agencies had some compromises as well. so we have to make sure that we close off the access. that's what people are scrambling to do right now. close the doors and make sure that russia doesn't have ongoing access. and then we're going to start the process of actually assessing the damage to find out what information was stolen, what did they have access to? this was a hack that they had access to for most of this year. started around march. throughout most of the year it looks like russia had access to some of our very sensitive government networks as well as up to 18,000 private companies and their i.t. databases as well. so we're going to have to in the next couple of months figure that out to figure out how we

assess the damage. of course, i'm very concerned for our men and women deployed overseas. >> you talk about closing off the access congressman, but kind of give us a big picture sense. how is what we're seeing now different from 2016. as an impeachment manager, a lot of what you focused on related to information to sow disinformation. is this attack different or are we looking at a new, greater level of danger? >> this is a new and greater level of danger. this is not russian troll farms sitting there with fake personalities on facebook and twitter. this was a direct assault on our i.t. infrastructure. this was russian hackers that actually did an attack on the supply chain, which is different from what we've seen before. they went several elements up our supply chain. created back doors in an i.t. information management software system that was then distributed through updates to tens of thousands of companies and government agencies that use

that software system. and then they waited. they sat on it, which actually showed a level of deliberation and caution and strategy. they were very selective on how they went about, you know, taking advantage of that back door. it's also really important to know that the government, the united states government did not discover this attack. and we probably wouldn't have discovered this attack. this attack was discovered a couple of weeks ago by a private company, one of the best cybersecurity companies in the country that had unique access to its private customer. and they were able to piece together the different pieces of the puzzle here to figure out what happened. it's very likely that absent that, we would be sitting here today and didn't even know this was ongoing. >> that's a scary prospect to think someone could have missed this. before we go, i want to ask you about the covid relief bill. what do you say to those who say it simply doesn't go far enough, that it won't last long enough? what do you say to those

americans who still feel left behind? >> well, they're right. that's what i say to them. this bill has come too late. it's not enough. this is an emergency bill to provide aid to those who cannot wait. it's better than not having got the job done and have no bill at all, but it's not enough. so we're going to have to go back to the table very early after the new year and i look forward to working with the biden administration, with the senate, with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle. ultimately this will have to be a bipartisan bill. we still have divided government and get something else done. this clearly is not a long-term fix. and we have our work cut out for us in the very near future. >> it's very interesting because i'm not sure if you could hear our previous guest, but she was effectively saying the legislative process to come to this point worked. that this covid relief bill was emblem attic of an optimistic process of both sides coming together. but do you think democratic leadership handled these negotiations as well as they could have?

>> well, we sent a bill to the senate on may 15th, the h.e.r.o.e.s. act. and mitch mcconnell and the senate waited on it for many, many months before even coming back to the bargaining table. so i don't think, you know, somebody like me who has been sitting here in my district hearing from businesses that are going bankrupt and shutting their doors, people about to lose their homes. people that have lost their savings. i don't think anybody needs to be taking a victory lap here. this is not a system that has worked well for folks. i think our legislative system is in desperate need of reform. it's actually the reason i ran for congress. so, no, the system is not working for folks. you know, we got a bill done last night that we had to get done. i voted for it because the consequences of not getting that bill done would have been even more disastrous in the situation we're facing right now. but we certainly have to make sure that we're making some big changes and delivering in a much more effective way in the weeks and months ahead. >> especially now in the holiday season with still so much work left to be done.

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welcome back. if you feel like things are a bit bleak right now, you are not alone. and you're also not wrong. we're in the ninth month of an isolating pandemic. one that has affected nearly every aspect of our lives and put an unprecedented stress on not only our minds but also our bodies. when you add restrictions that limit human interaction during the holidays, loneliness, depression and anxiety, they're all common and increasing side effects. i want to welcome dr. sonia davet, a practicing psychiatrist and mental health advocate. thanks for joining us this afternoon. we know this is a tough time made even tougher by the dark winter months. can you just describe for us

what you're hearing and seeing from your patients? >> absolutely. so as you said, this is such a tough time. there's so much grief. there's loss. there's uncertainty. people have been dealing with so much for so long. actually, a study from kaiser family foundation showed in march of this year, over 30% of adults reported symptoms of anxiety or depression and by mid-july, over 50% of adults reported that. now typically in other years we find an upswing of those things in the winter. this year with the stress of coronavirus, and the isolation, we expect those numbers to rise even further. >> which is interesting because for a lot of americans, a vacation or a day off, it's really out of the question. and then for others who are working from home it almost feels like there are even fewer boundaries now separating work life from home life. so what can we do to prevent burnout, especially given how unrelenting this pandemic has been and how much work is still left to be done in the months ahead. >> absolutely.

so i recommend a four-step plan. the first step is to acknowledge how you're feeling. it's so natural to want to get rid of or avoid those uncomfortable emotions when they come up to the surface. but acknowledging really helps us start the process of coping. the second step is to process and that can include journalling and writing those feelings out or talking to a trusted friend or family member or mental health provider. the third is to practice some self-compassion. we have all been through so much and i believe that if we give ourselves a daily dose of self-compassion, the way we would give ourselves a daily multivitamin, we can give ourselves positive messages and put ourselves in a better head space. and the fourth is to see there's a way to create a sense of community in a different way this year. that can include playing a game with your family over zoom. maybe doing a shared cooking class together and finding a new ritual of a way to share gratitude together. just seeing if there's a way that looks different but also feels like you're connecting with others outside of you. >> doctor, something that's interesting is this is almost like the second time this year

we're seeing this big increase in anxiety. we also saw it during the summer when i was reporting on a lot of the racial turmoil that was happening as protests were erupting across the country. and there we saw doctors begin to talk about the physical elements of racism. the physical elements of seeing this type of pain in our society. so can you describe for us this time of year, what are some of the physical ways that mental stress can manifest? does it put a person more at risk physically during this pandemic? >> oh, absolutely. mental health is related to physical health. when we see someone's mental health suffering we almost see that manifest in different physical ways. it can be muscle aches, headaches, stomach upset and all the way into chronic conditions. high blood pressure, high cleft r cholesterol. we're seeing an increase use of substance use to cope with those which has long-term impacts on our physical health.

>> and dr. dave, i loved your four points to help people, especially the journalling, but just big picture. what would you say to people who are struggling right now? >> i would say that you are not alone and this is a very hard time. you're dealing with unprecedented circumstances, and you don't have to go through it alone. there is help. there are support lines that are available 24/7. crisis support text lines, people you can talk to and their providers are doing virtual appointments across the country and the world. i would highly recommend reaching out to someone to not go through this alone because it's an isolating time and harder to connect but there are resources that can help. >> and that's the message of hope we all need. dr. dave, thank you for your compassion and mental health advoca advocacy. and if you need help or know someone who does, please don't hesitate to call the national substance abuse and mental health help line at 1-800-662-help. and coming up, just ahead -- we go behind the scenes with

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they're outspending us badly on the air but we're outhustling them on the ground. what reverend warnock and i are focused on are solutions to deliver to the people. to pass a new civil rights act that will secure equal justice

for all. to get economic help to folks. that's how we're building momentum here and with the ground game driven by thousands of volunteers. >> that was democratic senate candidate jon ossoff speaking to my colleague priscilla thompson this morning. just two weeks to go until the january 5th georgia th georgia ossoff became one of the more than 1.6 million georgians who have already voted. priscilla thompson filed this report for us. >> reporter: we're in week two in early voting here in georgia and already more than 1.6 million georgians have cast their ballots in these crucial runoff elections. that number is only down by around 7% compared to where it was at this time during the general election. so, pretty remarkable turnout here for a runoff, which typically sees a fraction of the number of voters turn out. and i can confirm that as of today, all of the candidates have cast their ballots. just a few hours ago jon ossoff came to this polling location and placed his vote, made his

voice heard in this election. and he also had a message specifically for young voters. he really wanted to encourage them to get out to vote, saying they could be the difference in this election. and as a reminder, georgia had the highest amount of youth voter turnout of any state in the general election. and so jon ossoff is certainly hoping to recreate that for democrats because as we know, joe biden won the state by only around 12,000 votes and so all of those votes are going to be crucial in this runoff election. and now we're looking ahead to the holidays that are coming up, those candidates, the campaigning is going to slow down a bit, but i can tell you that republican and democratic groups across the state are still outdoor knocking and phone banking, working to turn out every vote they can ahead of those january 5th runoffs. morgan? >> that was nbc's priscilla thompson. and the covid relief bill contains $22 billion that goes

to states for testing, tracing and mitigation programs, which are all critical to controlling the pandemic. this, of course, is a welcome relief for contact tracers all across the country. who are having a really hard time keeping up with the avalanche of new cases and finding that people are becoming even more complacent. right now the u.s. is averaging more than 225,000 new cases of coronavirus every single day. frankly, that's a number that even just a few months ago would have been unimaginable. we have been talking to those contact tracers across the country. mara, you and i have both reported on the people who are kind of endlessly working these phone banks and calling people, trying to reach out to them. but one of the problems i learned through my reporting is they face is people don't actually understand what they do. can you explain to our viewers what a contact tracer is and what their day looks like? >> sure. so, morgan, it's not an average 9 to 5 job, that's for sure.

the first thing is every state does it differently, so it gets really confusing. some states rely on volunteers to do it, some in the state department had to reassign people to be contact tracers and some i spoke to are juggling two jobs. their initial full-time job and contact tracing, so they're accepting calls, making calls, trying to connect the dots exactly where these cases are originating from and then contacting people who have tested positive or could be close contacts, that's in order to prevent the spread. the $22 billion will go towards that system of tracing but state and local governments still don't have all of the resources to help those people that are sick. believe it or not, contact tracers are helping with that, too. they're organizing food deliveries, medication deliveries, sometimes organizing child care. they're not physically on the front lines when we think of those workers helping those covid-positive patients, but these contact tracers are behind the scenes heroes. >> they are sort of virtually on

the front lines. can you tell us what some of the biggest challenges they face are? when i've talked to certain contact tracers, for example, in michigan, they said, people will hang up on us. people won't even pick up the phone. when you ask for basic information, they don't want to share it because they're nervous. they think you're going to tell on them. what are you hearing from the contact tracers you've spoken to? >> it's the same. i spoke with contact tracers in alaska, colorado, north dakota, same thing, sometimes people don't pick up the phone. they also complain they think contact tracing is a hoax. they're concerned about their privacy. every day these contact tracers saying that one after the next is just more and more heartbreaking. i spoke with kayly, over in north dakota. take a listen to one situation that happened to her one day. >> we're not necessarily a nurse or a doctor, somebody -- a police officer on the front line in that sense.

but just the other day i called a family and found out that my case actually passed away because of covid. and i was calling after it had happened, after everything was already put through to the funeral home. and i wasn't notified. and so i traumatized this poor family because our state is still so backed up. so people see these numbers falling and they're like, oh, yeah, we're good. and it's not. it's still still here and the virus is still around. >> this was the result of a problem with testing and tracing not working in tandem together. it's emotional, it's stressful. but these contact tracers are putting in the work and the easiest thing we can encourage for our viewers is to just pick up the phone. in an unknown number is calling you, pick it up because it could help save others in your community. >> we also have contact tracers available in spanish, if you need language assistance. we really need to help them do their jobs. as you mentioned, many are

working multiple jobs right now. thank you so much for joining us. we appreciate your reporting. as we approach the top of the hour, president-elect joe biden is expected to deliver some remarks and answer questions from reporters roughly 30 minutes from now. it also comes as california governor gavin newsom has chosen alex parrea to serve the rest of harris' turn. he responded saying i'm humbled to serve. thank you, gavin newsom, of entrusting me for defending the people of california. thank you for spending this hour with us. we appreciate you being here with us. i'm morgan radford. msnbc coverage continues with ali velshi after the break. h ali velshi after the break (soft chimes)

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good afternoon. i'm ali velshi in for katy tur. right now more front-line medical workers are getting shots of the vaccine and they're doing it with an extra boost of confidence. the most prominent health official on the front lines of this fight, dr. anthony fauci got his vaccine on camera. he was alongside hhs secretary alex azar. here's what dr. fauci said about this moment. >> it's meaningful as a member of the nih for so many years to be receiving today, with secretary azar and francis collins and several of