educators, families, caregivers, and students, help is on the way. i wish all of you a merry christmas and a happy holiday. may god bless you all and may god protect our troops. i'm going to turn you over to the next secretary of education, dr. miguel cardona. >> mr. president-elect, madam vice president elect, thank you for this opportunity to serve. i know how challenging this year has been for students, for educators, and for parents.

i've lived those challenges alongside millions of american families, not only in my role as state education commissioner, but as a public school parent and as a former public school classroom teacher. for so many of our schools, far too many of our students, this unprecedented year has piled on crisis after crisis. it's taken some of our most painful, longstanding disparities and wrenched them open even wider. it's taxed our teachers, our leaders, our school professionals and staff, who already pour so much of themselves into their work. it's taxed families struggling to adapt to new routines as they balance the stress, pain, and loss that this year has given. it has taxed young adults trying to chase their dreams of

advanced education beyond high school and carve out their place in the economy of tomorrow. and it has stolen time from our children, who have lost something sacred and irreplaceable this year despite the heroic efforts of so many of our nation's educators. though we are beginning to see some light at the end of the tunnel, we also know that this crisis is ongoing, that we will carry its impacts for years to come, and that the problems and inequities that have plagued our educational system since long before covid will still be with us even after the virus is gone. so it's our responsibility. it's our privilege to take this moment and to do the most american thing imaginable, to forge opportunity out of crisis, to draw on our resolve, our

ingenuity, and our tireless optimism as a people, and build something better than we've ever had before. that's the choice americans make every day. it's the choice that defines us as americans. it's the choice my grandparents ma made. when they made their way from puerto rico for new opportunities in connecticut. i'm proud to say i was born at the yale lakers housing projects. that's where my parents, hector and sarah cardona, instilled early on the importance of hard work, service to community, and education. i was blessed to attend the public schools in my hometown in connecticut, where i was able to expand my horizons and become the first in my family to graduate college and become a teacher, a principal, an assistant superintendent, in the same community that gave me so

much. that, that is the power of america. and i, being bilingual and bicultural, am as american as apple pie and rice and beans. for me, education was the great equalizer. but for too many students, your zip code and your skin color remain the best predictor of the opportunities you'll have in your lifetime. we've allowed what the educational scholar pedro negera calls the failure of education, to hold back america's children. for far too long we've allowed students to graduate from high school without any idea of how to meaningfully engage in the workforce while good-paying, high-skilled technical and trade jobs go unfilled. for far too long, we've spent money on interventions and band-aids to address disparities instead of laying a wide, strong foundation of quality, universal

early childhood education and quality emotional and social supports for all of our learners. for far too long, we've let college become inaccessible far too many americans for reasons that have nothing to do with their aspirations and everything to do with cost burdens and unfortunately a culture of internalized low expectations for some. for far too long, we've worked in silos, failing to share our break where breakthroughs. we need our schools for laboratories of innovation, knowing this country is built on innovation. and for far too long, the teacher profession has been kicked around and not given the respect it deserves. it shouldn't take a pandemic for us to realize how important teachers are for this country. there are no shortages of challenges ahead.

no shortage of problems for us to solve. but by the same token, there are countless opportunities for us to seize. we must braef the opportunity seize the opportunity to build education back better. there is a saying in spanish, we say [ speaking in spanish ] speaking strength from joining together. in that spirit i look forward to sitting at the table with educators, parents, caregivers, students, advocates, state, local, and tribal leaders. there is no higher duty for a nation than to build better paths, better futures for the next generation to explore. for too many students, public education in america has been a

[ speaking in spanish ] a wilt eed rose, neglected, in need of care. we must be the master gardeners who cultivate it, who work every day to build its beauty and greatness. i'm grateful for the chance to take on this responsibility and i'm grateful to my own children, miguel junior, or as we call him, angelito, my daughter selene, and to my wife and best friend marissa, herself a middle school family school liaison. and i'm grateful for the trust you've placed in me, mr. president-elect and madam vice president elect. i look forward to getting to work on behalf of america's children and the families and the communities and the nation they will grow up to inherit and lead. thank you.

>> my first grade teacher, mrs. frances wilson, god rest her soul, attended my law school graduation. she taught our first grade class with two teachers' aides and 22 students in the classroom. and she instilled in me a deep belief in the importance and significance of public education that i carry with me to this day. if we are going to fulfill our country's promise, we must be dedicated to a strong public education system. we must value it. we must strengthen it.

and we must invest in it. because one of the most important gifts a society can give its young people is the gift of a world class education. we also know that right now our education system, as we have discussed, from early learning centers to colleges and universities, is reeling from this pandemic. parents and educators are being stretched to their limits, and so are the cafeteria workers and bus drivers and custodians and nurses who normally keep our schools running. students at colleges and technical colleges now worry about losing credits, losing financial aid, and losing income from working on campus. and all this disruption is taking a heavy toll on the mental health and wellbeing of our students of all ages who are at risk of falling behind.

at the same time, this pandemic threatens to widen disparities between students of different races and backgrounds, making it harder for those who already were behind to keep up. so first things first. we need to get this virus under control and reopen our schools safely as the president-elect always says. and that is why the president-elect and i are supporting funding for our education system in this recently-passed covid-19 relief legislation. and we will continue to fight for additional emergency relief for our educators and our schools. and even as we do, we must also build a public education system that lifts up all americans, regardless of race, background, or zip code. an education system that prepares them with the knowledge and the skills to thrive in a 21st century economy. we must make sure our children

are getting the foundation that's so important for lifelong success. we must end the current status quo where school districts with the greatest needs get the fewest resources. and we must remove barriers to opportunity for poor and rural communities and communities of color. the leader that we have announced today will help us do that, and unlock the power of an education for all americans. dr. miguel cardona is not only a seasoned public servant. he is also a former public school teacher and administrator with experience in the classroom. and he knows what our students, teachers, and schools need to be successful. he has dedicated his career to fighting for our children, and dedicated his career to investing in their capacity.

and he has a deep belief in the power of a world class education to help every child, everywhere, overcome barriers of race, gender, or income, to reach their god-given potential. dr. cardona represents the very best of our nation and he is the kind of leader america's students, educators, and families deserve. i've always believed that government has three principal functions. public health, public safety, and public education. over the course of the past few weeks, we have announced remarkable leaders who will help contain this pandemic and keep the american people safe and secure. under dr. cardona's leadership, we will work together to put together an outstanding education system that will be within reach for everyone, breaking down barriers to

equality, opening new paths to opportunity, and helping to fulfill america's promise to all of our children. thank you, mr. president-elect. >> hello, i'm chris jansing. lots of questions shouted, none answered, after what we've witnessed, maybe a sliver of political normalcy in addition to diversity. president-elect joe biden formally introducing his new education secretary, miguel cardona, who among other duties will be tasked with getting kids back to school. but otherwise, this is an unexpectedly chaotic day in american politics, amid this raging pandemic, it comes as

that $900 billion covid relief package that took months to hammer out, that congress just overwhelmingly passed, that white house representatives helped negotiate, that the president through his spokesmen praised and indicated he would sign, has been thrown into chaos by the president in a twitter video. >> i am asking congress to amend this bill and increase the ridiculously low $600 to $2,000 or $4,000 for a couple. i'm also asking congress to immediately get rid of the wasteful and unnecessary items from this legislation, and to send me a suitable bill or else the next administration will have to deliver a covid relief package and maybe that administration will be me and we will get it done. >> while the president's strategy here is wildly unclear, other than perhaps trying to focus the attention back on

himself in the waning days of his term, the real world consequences are not. virtually everyone on capitol hill and at the white house had agreed this wasn't the relief bill they wanted but it was the relief bill that they could pass, particularly given the president's lack of engagement on the issue. literally an hour before the president's rant suggesting he might derail the relief bill, the white house was spinning this as a major win for him. >> the president has indicated his intent to sign the bill for a few reasons, because this is going to take care of american families with stimulus checks and it will take care of america's small businesses with a renewed ppp program, the paycheck protection program. it will help get these vaccines where they need to be. there's a lot of good content in this bill, things the president has been pushing for for months. >> hmm, apparently not. the u.s. just experienced its single deadliest day in this

pandemic with more than 3,300 reported deaths. financial relief has been urgently needed for months now. but today those relief checks that treasury secretary mnuchin said could go out sometime next week have been thrown into doubt by one person, the president. so what happens now? democrats appear ready to call trump's bluff. they're going to try to pass in the house a bill by unanimous consent tomorrow to actually increase those direct payments to the $2,000 trump demands. it's going to put republicans in a box, because democrats have lobbied for those bigger checks. republicans have not. i'm joined now by kelly o'donnell who covers the white house for nbc news. anna palmer, senior washington correspondent for politico joins me as well. good to see you both. kelly, on a day when we report a record daily death toll, trump's tweets last night seemed to catch almost everybody off-guard. white house spokesman brian morganstern laying out why the president would sign the bill on fox business an hour early.

so what are aides saying today? >> well, there is confusion. and only the president knows what he is willing to do at this point. and in part because of the holiday and because of the end of the term, there's not a lot of movement happening in the white house in terms of aides willing to talk about this. and you can't blame them, when brian morganstern who came forward and made the administration's case and then was immediately undercut by the president's video, produced inside the white house, and undercutting the republicans' position, and really throwing a wrench in all of this, it's hard to know where the president will land. now, he is expected to go to mar-a-lago, departing here at the white house later this afternoon. we may get a chance to hear from the president directly on this. part of the problem is if he is trying to look like he is fighting for the average citizen, he seems disconnected from the reality that he will undercut the ability to get that kind of aid to people within days. for those who had received a check via direct deposit in the

spring, they could have that money next week, perhaps, if this bill were signed and done. now, a question mark. and the president could cave and say, okay, i'm going to sign it. or he could put pressure on republicans. it's hard to imagine that you can get congress to come back to town and do this. it is good news for democrats to be able to use this point of saying yes, they wanted more money. but it seems unlikely that republicans will about it alogo. that puts the pressure back on the president. will he sign it? how much pain will he inflict on the public if he doesn't? >> even by donald trump's standards, folks on capitol hill have to be scratching their heads, why he's willing to blow up a relief bill that his own negotiators agreed to. do folks on the hill think trump

would actually veto this relief bill? >> a lot of people are trying to game it out in the white house, on capitol hill, trying to figure out is this just donald trump being donald trump and wanting to be the person who all of the cameras and everybody is talking about? or is he actually serious on this? he's also threatened to veto a spending bill related to defense, which has been passed for 59 years in a row. there's a lot of concern about whether his head is these days. he's spent the last several weeks obviously focused on election fraud, baseless claims about the election. if he had wanted $2,000 and that was his red line, he could have gotten it. but he was basically a nonfactor in this negotiation the whole time. as you said, treasury secretary mnuchin was the key no question about it negotiator and

everybody thought this deal was done to end 2020 which most people are ready to be over with. >> most people in the world are ready to be over with it. kelly, we have seen the president make this type of threat before. let me take you back to march 23, 2018, quote, i am considering a veto of the omnibus spending bill based on the fact that the 800,000 plus daca recipients have been totally abandoned by the democrats, not even mention income the bill, and the border wall, desperately needed for our national defense, is not fully funded. then he went and signed that bill the same day. is there anybody in the white house who thinks not signing this bill is a good idea? >> i don't think so, because it has such large consequences. in part, what congress did is they attached this covid relief bill to the overall spending package that funds everything in the government for an entire fiscal year. why did they do that? in part for the urgency, and its must-pass nature.

there was not a must-pass with covid relief. so putting the two together gave it a better chance of success. so now that they're together, the president's veto threat affects both of those things. that mean the government shuts down. that means everything grinds to a halt. that is a mess of epic proportions. the president's easiest path here is to simply back away from this, sign it, and hope, as democrats promised, that they will give more relief in a new congress under a new president next year, another installment of relief. the president often doesn't seem to understand how legislation is put together, that big government spending bill that he is calling bloated and pork and so forth was the product of many months of the typical process of government, going through the committees, to assign all of those dollar amounts to all the things that american taxpayers fund here and around the world. that was the end product of a lot of work. the covid piece we've been talking about was the urgent new aid.

put them together, pass them as one, the president needs to sign them as one, as it stands right now. that's why this is such a mess with so many real land mines here if the president doesn't act. the details are not often president trump's area of interest. and the details matter a lot in this, chris. >> yeah, he seemed to think in that video that somehow the smithsonian was being funded by the covid relief bill. >> yes, it's not. >> it's bizarre. >> it's not. >> no, it's not. so you've got a -- if you're a republican, ann, you're in a bind. house democrats are calling the president's bluff, they want to pass a bill for larger stimulus checks tomorrow. and if you're david perdue or kelly loeffler run to go try to keep the senate in republican hands, you would say this is what we've done. where does this leave republicans? >> there's a lot of

frustrations, donald trump is only for donald trump and you're seeing that now. nancy pelosi says she'll put the $2,000 stimulus check on the floor for unanimous consent. there are many republicans who do not want that to go forward and they could object and that stops that cold, even if it passes out of the house, it's very unlikely that the senate is going to be able to pass a $2,000 direct stimulus bill. the other question is, if this is so important to the president, is he on the phone trying to get some of these republicans of his own party to support it? we have not heard anything like that. and so to me, i think if you are mitch mcconnell right now, you're very frustrated, you thought you had a deal, all sides were able to claim a little bit of victory, you know, a deal like this, not everybody is happy about everything but they had really come together in a way that we hadn't seen congress work very well this past year. it's been since april since the last covid relief bill, a lot of people need this help.

we're kind of hours away from understanding whether or not not only is the covid relief package going to be scuttled but as kelly notes, whether the whole government could should down. >> anna palmer, kelly o'donnell, thank you both, appreciate you. happy holidays to you. with me now is congressman anthony brown, democrat from maryland, good to see you, congressman, thanks for waiting around. i know we've been waiting a bit because we were listening to joe biden. but what do you make of this? nancy pelosi seems like she's on board with the president's demand, she tweeted that democrats are ready to bring this to the house floor this week by unanimous consent, let's do it. do you think the president really means he won't sign this bill or do you think this is just him trying to get some attention? >> i think it's the latter. i think that president trump recognizes that with each passing day he's less and less relevant in the public debate, the public dialogue, and as president. he's truly a lame duck

president, as was mentioned earlier in the show. congress, without any assist from the president, passed a defense authorization act. we've now passed this emergency relief, much overdue, for the american people, families and small businesses. a full year funding package as well, without the president's involvement. secretary mnuchin, of course, has been involved, but the president has sidelined himself, focused more on rants about the election and how it was stolen, granting unjustifiable pardons to criminals. and he's just been asleep at the switch in terms of real governing. so this is just another effort for him to try to remain relevant or to remain visible before the american people. but i'm very pleased with -- >> i just want to make sure i understand. you're not too worried that your constituents and americans all across the country who desperately want this money to be in their checking account next week or shortly thereafter,

you think they're going to get it? >> certainly. listen, you should be worried, because we worked hard to deliver the relief. and it's not just the direct cash assist. it's unemployed insurance, aid to small businesses, we've got money in there to help schools reopen when the science says they should reopen. there's money for the nutriti nutritional assistance program. any time the president talks about or threatens to veto a bill like this, we should be concerned. americans are hurting. but what i really want to emphasize is that the democrats called for the $2,000 direct cash payments back in may, in the h.e.r.o.e.s. act. and it's unfortunate that president trump didn't consistently support that level of assistance throughout these negotiations. what i would suggest to the president is, sign the bill, and then sign the other bill that we're about to send you next

week, increasing those direct cash assistance payments to $2,000. >> the suggestions satisfiaside congress, as you know, is not very popular right now. it took a long time to get to where we are, and we're not even sure where we are. frankly, despite the irresponsible way trump has handled these negotiations, are you concerned that he is tapping into a very understandable frustration from the public that this relief deal, frankly, isn't enough as written? >> sure. he's tapping into a frustration. but he's also highlighting how much the democrats have fought for the american people. we proposed $2,000 in direct cash assistance. we proposed more in unemployment insurance benefits. only to be rebuffed by republicans who have no interest in delivering real relief to the american people. what we did yesterday, the bill that we passed, will provide some relief. but certainly it's not sufficient to meet all of the needs of the american people.

and that's why many of us look at it as just a down payment on what president-elect biden is going to do, what he's committed to do once he's inaugurated in january. >> congressman anthony brown, i appreciate you taking the time to talk to us, thank you. >> thanks, chris. ahead, the pardon floodgates are open. but how far can president trump go in the last weeks of his term? i'll ask a former top federal prosecutor who put one of the people behind bars that trump just pardoned. and later on, the government strikes a new deal with pfizer. but the additional doses are still more than six months away and hospitals are in crisis now, and it's only going to get worse after the holidays. worse after the holidays your daily dashboard from fidelity --

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♪ ♪ welcome back. the backlash is growing today after president trump's brazen use of his pardon power. some apparently ignoring the usual just department review process. among the 15 people he pardoned are two key figures who admitted lying in the mueller russia investigation, george papadopoulos and alex van der swan. he also pardoned three members of congress who pled guilty to

various public schemes. he pardoned four blackwater contractors convicted in a case tied to the killing of 14 unarmed iraqi civilians including children. one of those blackwater guards was serving life in prison for first-degree murder and he got a pardon. with me now is andrew weissmann, a senior member of robert mueller's special counsel team, now an nbc news legal analyst and a professor at nyu law. i'm particularly glad to have you today because you were a member of mueller's team. i want to start with the pardons of george papadopoulos and alex van der swan. what went through your mind when you heard about this? >> i have to say, they were not the first thing that went through my mind, their cases. it was really the thought that you have corrupt politicians and corrupt law enforcement officers who are the very last people who

you would think would be deserving of a pardon. when i then obviously turned to the two individuals who were part of the special counsel investigation who admitted their guilt, to me the biggest issue there is, one, of course, these pardons come a little late because they've served their sentence, which is a good thing, but the big picture is this sets a terrible precedent in terms of how does the country investigate and hold to account the future presidents who would commit wrongdoing. in other words, if it is possible to use the pardon power to basically get out of jail free so that the next papadopolous, the next alex van der zwaan knows they can lie, they can obstruct the future

investigations, and they can always get a pardon from the president, that to me basically says that the pardon power is really -- needs to be changed, because you're abusing the ability to hold the president to account. >> let's talk about the blackwater case, because this was something that the justice department worked very hard on. they wanted to bring justice to these 14 people whose lives were taken in what was a massacre. among them an 8-year-old boy shot in the head, a 70-year-old farmer, a 25-year-old taxi driver. they were sentenced to between 20 years and life in prison. what does it say that they get a pardon? >> what it says is that the system that was in place under democratic and republican presidents where you followed the internal rules to make sure

that only the most deserving people get pardons, has been thrown out, and that you basically have president trump using the pardon power in a way that kings and autocrats would do. it really jettisons the rule of law. my colleagues at the d.c. u.s. attorney's office who spent countless hours on those cases, bringing to justice those individuals for the most heinous, serious crimes you can imagine, are to be commended. and this is really a day where we're seeing the rule of law be completely trashed by the president, who likes to say, by the way, that he is the head of the department of justice, that he is at the very pinnacle, and he's setting such a terrible example, the kind of example that you would expect to see in

russia and other autocratic regimes. >> you also talked about the republicans who were in this long list as well. and is the message that people can take away from this or politicians can take away from this is, you know what, you can steal from your campaign coffers and it's fine, use it for your own personal uses, and there won't necessarily be any consequences? >> absolutely. and just remember, this comes really following pardons by president trump of blagojevich, who sold a senate seat, arpaio, a sheriff who was convicted of criminal contempt, scooter libby, who was also convicted. so the message is that political corruption from a president who said he was here to drain the swamp, he clearly is telling

politicians that, don't worry, that's not a serious crime. is that something that we really want the american people to be thinking, that there's a separate system of justice for politicians in the united states? again, this is the kind of behavior that if we saw in any country around the world, we would be condemning as part of an autocratic system, not as part of a western system of democracy and the rule of law. and it really shows the president's complete contempt for legal regimes. and, you know, that's the kind of thing that one of the things that a new attorney general and congress can do, they can look at why these pardons were given. one thing that it is illegal to do is you cannot give a pardon based on a quid pro quo. there was an investigation into

that type of allegation when bill clinton gave a pardon to mark rich. and for some of these, i have a lot of the same questions. i talked last night about the pardon of a gentleman named phillip esformis, the largest single medicare fraudster ever, and operated in miami. he engaged in fraud of over a billion dollars. there are many, many, many other people in jail who committed far less egregious crimes. and so you have to wonder why was mr. esformis given a pardon. and that is a question that both congress and the next attorney general have the tools to get answers to. and there is nothing about the constitutional power that restricts that kind of investigation. >> andrew weissmann, thank you

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if you have travel plans right now, cancel those travel plans. >> we strongly encourage all boston residents not to travel. >> welcome back. public officials continue begging people to stay home this christmas as the u.s. sets grim new records. more than 3,500 people died of covid yesterday. more than 117,000 are hospitalized. those staggering new numbers arrive as people are traveling for the holidays by the millions. triple-a predicts 84.5 million will travel between december 23 and january 3. and mirroring the risk for air travelers, a coroner has confirmed that a passenger on a united flight from florida to

california whose in-flight illness forced an emergency landing, died of coronavirus. joining me now is dr. amesh adelja, infectious disease specialist at johns hopkins. doctor, i would love for you to drive this home, what will be the impact of 84, 85 million people traveling this week? >> the impact is very predictable. we know this virus thrives on social interactions. christmas is a time when people will have these gatherings, they'll have their guard down, they won't be wearing their face coverings, mixing people from different households from different parts of the country. we'll inevitably see some increase in cases. that will translate, biologically it's incontrovertible, into hospitalizations two to three weeks later and we'll have a surge on top of a surge on top of a surge.

hospitals will have to think about capacity on a daily basis. it's really not sustainable. >> how are they going to be forced to respond, if they keep seeing this increase in patients, as you say, a surge on top of a surge on top of a surge? are we going to potentially see a widespread need to ration care? >> hopefully it won't come to that. but it's increasingly looking like some hospitals may get to that point. we call that crisis standards of care, where they can't provide the normal level of care they can provide, not only covid patients, but patients with heart attacks, strokes, in car accidents, all that have will be a cascading impact if hospitals have to worry about capacity. they're already starting to shut down nonemergency surgeries. they're already converting parts of hospitals into icus that were not icus before. they're also going to have to think about staffing and how to get through these months before the population is vaccinated. i think there really is no end in sight, as someone who works in a hospital, the majority of patients we have in many

hospitals are covid-related patients. >> i almost hesitate to ask this next question because i don't want to somehow give the impression that it's safe to go out, because obviously people, at least many people who travel think it's not going to happen to me, but the reality is, millions are traveling, regardless of the warnings. do you have any advice for folks besides stay home? >> the best advice is to try and reduce the harm of this virus by following the common sense recommendations we've been saying from the beginning. wearing a face covering, washing your hands a lot, trying to avoid crowded, congregated places, trying to stay six feet apart, trying to minimize the people you're mixing with that are not in your households. do things outdoors, increase ventilation, open windows. all that have will go some way towards decreasing the full brunt of what will happen on christmas. it looks like some people did heed that on thanksgiving. thanksgiving did lead to an increase in cases but it wasn't as horrible as we forecasted because maybe some people did try to take some harm reduction steps. maybe that's the best we can

home for. >> meantime, deborah birx, who indicated in recent weeks that she would like to stay on in a biden administration, changed course, and in an interview, she said criticism over her decision to travel over the thanksgiving holiday dragged her family into the public spotlight. do you understand people who say, well, how is anyone then supposed to know what's really okay? >> it definitely is hard for anybody to follow all of the recommendations all of the time. and certainly somebody like ambassador dr. birx, a renowned infectious disease physician, is a great case in point that this is hard, and none of us expected to be doing the same thing over and over when it comes to this pandemic, basically a year later. and i do think that it does send the wrong message when you're saying one thing and doing something else. it's unfortunate that that happened to dr. birx. but that's the reality, and it does decrease the impact of her messaging when she herself isn't

following it and is seen to be making excuses. i have a lot of respect for dr. birx, i think she's a great infectious disease physician, but this is an unfortunate thing of doing what i say but not what i do. >> do as i say, not as i do. dr. adalja, thanks so much, it's good to see you. ahead, the dire situation in california where hospitals are full and many family tables are empty. the effort to help those in need, next. need, next thy gums oral rinse with clinically-proven ingredients and his gum problems have vanished. (crowd applauding) therabreath, it's a better mouthwash. at walmart, target and other fine stores.

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welcome back in that.the in its of what's been a devastating year for ohm americans trying to simply feed their families more uncertainty as we wait to see if president trump vetoes the bill bringing much needed financial aid to millions. already, this christmas was going to be a major challenge for too many. feeding america estimates by the end of 2020 more than 50 million americans may experience food insecurity as a result of high unemployment rates and covid restrictions. and that means a greater need for local food banks this year. nbc's gadi schwartz is in los angeles where the l.a. regional food bank is holding a drive-through food giveaway.

give us a sense, gadi, what kind of need the community is seeing, especially with california businesses under newly significant covid restrictions. >> reporter: yes. so, officials here say as many as 1 in 4 people are food insecure. or who have been food insecure at some point in this pandemic here in los angeles and that is millions and millions of people. which means millions and millions of pounds of food. that's what we're seeing behind us here. you've got stacks and stacks of food. this is the los angeles regional food pantry. food bank, and they have been running this particular food drive for the last hour or so. but the line continues. i'm going to take you out this way and just show what you we're looking at. this is the santa monica airport. and you've got a line that wraps all the way around this parking lot. in and out. in and out. people coming and asking for food, and they're loaded up with about 80 pounds of food. a lot of people are also getting two different servings of that

80 pounds because they're picking up food for other people. what we've heard several times here is that there are people in their community that cannot drive. so they are the designated ones that come down here and pick up food for everyone else that lives in that neighborhood. and they're going to be sharing that. again, this is millions and millions of meals being given out this week right before christmas. and millions and millions of meals that have been given out throughout the pandemic. so, what we're seeing here is just a little bit of that mobilization. but you also have to consider that covid-19 continues to rage. the volunteers here, we are told that there are 12 people. 12 volunteers, that are out, because they have covid-19 themselves. and the covid numbers here in florida continue to be staggering. we're looking at anywhere from 80 deaths around the los angeles area. a day. which turns out to about one person dying every 20 minutes here in los angeles.

chris. >> wow. really quickly what we often see in situations like this. dire circumstances, people who used to be donors are now the folks in those cars in the line. how is the organization able to keep up? do they have the money, the food they need? well, unfortunately, this really hit them on so many levels. one, they're not able to get those big organizational drives and those big organizational pushes. so, companies aren't sending a lot of people to come work these food drives because they are all working from home. so, a lot of that person-to-person contact. and a lot of those person-to-person pleas aren't there film. anymore, we have seen people step up to the pandemic. you've got volunteers here helping out the as best they can

but you also have an incredible need. even though we have seen an increase in donations, we've seen an increase in volunteers, it can in no way keep up with the demand, chris. >> the harsh reality. gadi schwartz. thank you for that report. and thank you for being with us this hour. but don't go away. stay with us another hour of live msnbc coverage. we're back after a quick break. hey, i just got a text from my sister. you remember rick, her neighbor? sure, he's the 76-year-old guy who still runs marathons, right?

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