last-minute stimulus check to increase to $2,000 failed. republicans blocking the move by democrats, less than an hour ago and they're not back until monday. so what's next? well, this puts the ball back in the president's court. >> surely the president of the united states, whether he's marlago has to feel the angst people are feeling this christmas eve and sign this bill. >> what we do know the president has a pen with him in florida. could there be more christmas pardons to sign, after last night's presents to paul manafort, roger stone and charles kushner. the president choosing pardon over pandemic with cases in a number of states continuing to rise and the country now reporting more hospitalizations than at any other point in the pandemic. nearly 120,000 americans spending their christmas holiday

in the hospital battling covid. we've got an awesome team here to break down the latest. nbc's josh letterman is in west palm beach covering the president, melanie is a congressional reporter for politico and ben white, chief economic correspondent also with politico. great to see all of you. melanie, you've been covering lawmakers' every move on capitol hill. democrats are going to try again on monday. what if anything is going to change between now and then to avoid a repeat of what we just saw, which is nothing's changed? >> you're absolutely right. i think the big question mark here is president trump and right now, no one knows exactly what he is going to do. even some of his closest allies like capitol hill, kevin mccarthy, the house minority leader held a conference call yesterday, i talked to the president but he hasn't committed to anything and that has really caused frustrations to boil over among republicans, some of them started speaking up on that call, and expressing

those frustrations and their concerns. they said the president has thrown us under the bus and keep in mind, on seat a slew of critical pandemic-related aid programs are going to expire. the government's going to shut down on monday, if trump doesn't sign this bill so it's really not clear what the path forward is here for congress until we hear from trump about what he's going to do. >> so josh, are you hearing anything from white house sources what they think the path forward might be? >> reporter: absolutely nothing. in fact, the president is just over the water behind me at his resort in mar-a-lago. the president if he was interested in delving into the details of this could have stayed behind in washington, this is not sufficient. i'll stay blind. let's put our noses to the grindstone and work something out and keep going until we have something but instead, the president essentially has made

known his wishes through that twitter video and skipped town and left it for congress to try to sort something out. that'sive to figure out exactly what the president is or is not willing to sign. mar he hasn't vetoed the massive covid relief bill, strongly suggested he's not going to accept what congress has already passed, but the folks that he has delegated to do the negotiating folks like steve mnuchin, the treasury secretary are the ones who in good faith negotiated something they thought the president would support. you had the president's spokesman on the air a few hours before issue that twitter video saying the president intended to sign it and then as you heard from steny hoyer, the house majority leader, the only mistake the democrats made in his view was listening to steve mnuchin about what the president would actually sign. >> yes, melanie, you referenced some of the things that republicans are saying. you're one of the bylines on the story in politico heading

"complete cluster" dot dot dot dot more colorful language than we'll quote. is there a sense among republicans that something can get done or is the overwhelming fear that they're going to have to make a decision about whether to stand up to this president in a way that many of them never have? >> you're exactly right. it has become another trump loyalty test. he's done this with a defense bipartisan bill that congress is going to have to override a veto on next week, he has done this with the republicans challenging the election results on january 6th in congress and once when it are you with me or are you against me, and look, here's the thing. republicans don't have a huge appetite for these $2,000 checks so they're going to have to go on the record saying we do not support the president's demands, something actually democrats do agree with trump on this. they want more money. they don't want him to veto the bill but they're all about the

higher stimulus checks for people so republicans are in a tough spot especially in georgia, two critical runoff races that will determine control of the senate. the two republican candidates there started campaigning on this relief bill all week. i think republicans are in a really tough spot. i'm sure they're going to talk about whether they can get something done and renegotiate this package but there's just not a lot of time, and not a lot of appetite on capitol hill to renegotiate this carefully crafted relief package. >> months and months, so ben, where does that leave the economy? where does that leave people? unemployment benefits are just about to run out. we're already in a situation where household spending dropped, i think for the first time in what, seven months. i mean, layoffs are continuing to be a problem. >> yes. >> what does all of this mean? >> well it means that people are in danger as melanie pointed out frankly of losing these benefits, right after christmas.

eviction moratorium will go away if we don't get the stimulus out. pull back the lens and talk a little bit about how totally insane this is, that he put out this video without anybody inside the white house really knowing about it. obviously congressional republicans not know being t threatening to blow up as melanie said a very carefully crafted package that took forever to put together. should have been done months ago and let's say this about president trump. had he come out in the summer or early fall, gotten heavily behind $2,000 checks to individuals, put pressure on mitch mcconnell and other republicans to get behind it while he was still heading towards potential re-election, they would have done it. they would have gone along with him as they are terrified of ever crossing president trump. they're less so now that's lost and is leaving, so i think the option of a veto override of this should he actually either physically veto it or pocket veto it, which means just don't

do anything with it and let this congress expire, or try to do that, and congress could move to override and put this thing into place but it's terrible for the economy, as you said. spending down, incomes down, hiring down. we are going south right now, as this third wave hits us and as we wait for the vaccine. this aid was needed months ago. it's desperately needed now, and for him to throw a wrench into it like this, right before christmas, is an insane thing to do, and the only hope really is that somebody convinces him to back off and while he's there at mar-a-lago, take out the pen and sign the thing and move on. i think that's the best hope. obviously they're not passing some new big package between now and when the government would shut down early next week and when the benefit programs would expire. so the biggest hope is trump comes to his senses and just quietly signs the thing. >> yes, as you well know, with the unpredictability of this president, hope is not a certainty.

what would happen if this thing really did blow up? >> yes, very bad things would happen, as melanie said, people would lose their expanded unemployment benefits. we have 10 million plus unemployed, much more than that on some form of unemployment assistance, you would see spending go down, you would say gross domestic product fall. you'd see the risk of a double-dip recession. that's what we're talking about right now, we're flirting with that. we could get to zero on the jobs number in december, at the rate we're going. more small businesses are fa failing terribly, if you get into the winter, no more outdoor dining, no more restaurants, people aren't going out like they were in the warmer weather. we don't have the vaccine yet. that's a recipe for a double dip recession. simply can't be allowed to happen if we want to get to the spring and the summer and the vaccines being widely distributed, we have the opportunity for a good economic bounce-back. if this falls apart entirely, and we wind up with no extension of any of these programs and no new aid to small businesses

we're going to double dip recession. >> ben, melanie, josh, thanks to all of you. we'll keep a close watch. >> happy christmas note. >> yes, happy as a merry christmas by the way. congressman lloyd doingetdo good to see you. you've said this relief bill isn't enough. i don't know, where do you think we are right now, and is the best case scenario the president backs down and signs this? where do you see this going? >> merry christmas, chris. >> thank you. >> this is about saving christmas but for so many of the people i hear from, he's taking it away. the only people that seem to get a christmas bonanza from him are the cronies in his gang, vladimir putin, and some other corrupt officials and war criminals. i hope that he decides to go

ahead and support this bill, because i have people in texas that will begin to lose unemployment benefits the day after tomorrow. i have people about to be evicted. we are all concerned about the gaps in the vaccine distribution. there's so much that needs to be done. i support the $2,000, and we saw one republican say it has to be $2,000 with donald trump and other republicans say we can't have that. we would have more than $600 if donald trump had shown the least bit of leadership on this matter. he's been in hiding, whining about his election defeat and the injustice of it all when he could have been leading. this is something his designated negotiator agreed to. we need it. if he can convince republicans to remove their objection and get $2,000, all the more power, but we'll be in session on monday and if republicans continue to object, i hope we'll

pass legislation to do what donald trump asked for, if he hasn't signed the bill and to keep the government open, as well as to override his outrageous veto of the defense authorization bill. >> you mentioned the vaccine, and so as the chair of the house subcommittee on health, i want to ask you about the fact that we've just reached 1 million doses given but we were expecting to have 20 million by the end of the year. obviously that's not going to happen, in fact, we were talking about this earlier, there are at least 5 million of the 20 million doses that aren't even going to get to states until next month. are you concerned that this rollout is taking longer than it should? >> this administration has failed going back to the beginning of the pandemic, whether it was having the necessary personal protective equipment, whether we still have a big gap untested, and of course on the vaccine rollout

and they like to brag about the numbers and how quickly they move but we're only getting immunized a tiny percentage of the people that need that immunization and we're paying an immense price for it. they've hidden the agreements with the manufacturers, but at least from the latest announcement from secretary azar, bragging about their progress, he seems to make it clear that most americans who need these vaccines will not be able to get them until well into the summer months. until we control this pandemic, of course, we won't have sustained economic growth and had president trump and his people done their job last spring and had the governors in states like texas done their job, we wouldn't be in the horrible mess we're in. we certainly need those vaccines, and of course as you know, chris, one of the features, a very important feature of this bill we first approved in the house on may 15th over seven months ago, was to have the money for vaccine

distribution and have the money to support local public health entities in helping to deliver that vaccine, because it's not just the manufacturer of the vaccine. it's how it's distributed and whether people are out there ready to get the job done, so that we immunize people as quickly as possible. >> $9 billion in that bill that they need to get that vaccine in to people's arms, so that's not insignificant. you know, look, the coronavirus numbers are continuing to climb, as people are continuing to ignore warnings to stay home, so i need to ask you about a video that shows a packed church in austin, and governor greg abbott tweeted this, "who said austin is locked town? christmas is being celebrated in austin and in texas. everyone already knows the safe thing to do," although it doesn't look safe, doesn't look socially distant, doesn't look like everybody has a mask on.

what do you make of the video and the governor's comments? >> it's alarm willining. i live on a street with two churches, two or three more within shouting distance in east austin. they're all closed. i thought last night or tonight as they have normally christmas eve services, they've shown that good judgment. our problem in texas, frankly, is that we have unfortunately a governor in greg abbott more interested in pleasing president trump than protecting the health of texans and as a result of that, we have about 26,000 texans that are not alive today. we will have more of those individuals die. i applaud those who want to share as i do their faith here at the christmastime, but they are leading to the death of other people both inside and outside their congregations. unfortunately, our governor continues to interfere in the efforts of courageous local officials, trying to protect

public health. he continues to follow political science, not medical science, and we will have more death and pain and suffering, unnecessary pain and suffering, hospitals overflowing, because he won't do his job and of course the trump administration has essentially checked out here, as they whine about the election loss. >> congresston lloyd doggett, merry christmas to you and yu z yours. >> yes, happier new year ahead. thank you so much. >> 2021 can't come soon enough for a lot of folks. we are going to come back after a quick break and talk about the pardon parade continuing, but this morning, the criminal case isn't over for one man close to the president. plus we're seeing new records set across the country on this christmas eve, but one number is in hospitals. the other is at airports. you're watching msnbc. it.

my job is to help new homeowners who have turned into their parents. i'm having a big lunch and then just a snack for dinner. so we're using a speakerphone in the store. is that a good idea? one of the ways i do that is to get them out of the home. you're looking for a grout brush, this is -- garth, did he ask for your help? -no, no. -no. we all see it. we all see it. he has blue hair. -okay. -blue. progressive can't protect you from becoming your parents, but we can protect your home and auto when you bundle with us. -keep it coming. -you don't know him. stop your coughe with us. from interrupting, with dq cough and congestion. it's max strength formula coats your throat and provides powerful relief. new dayquil cough and congestion. the maxcoat daytime power through your cough medicine.

new reaction to president trump's latest wave of pafrds, 26 and three commutations, including some prom nebt names. his long time confidant roger stone, former campaign manager paul manafort and charles kushner, father of son-in-law jared kushner. ben sasse says "another tranche

of felons" saying the group was "rotten to the core." joining success pete williams and msnbc contributor joyce vance. good to see both of you. "the washington post" put it this way. the 20 people who received clemency tuesday only seven were listed in online justice department records. give us sort of a big picture of these pardons and how normal or not normal the numbers and the ways they're going about them are. >> for the trump administration, this is normal. the president tended not to base his pardon decisions on recommendations from the justice department. for 125 years there's been a system that if somebody wants executive clemency, they apply first to the justice department to make their case. the justice department reviewed them and makes recommendations to the white house and the past presidents have basically made

their decisions based on the recommendations with tote notable exceptions. in the trump administration the president tended to give pardons to people he knows or responds to people that he knows for whom he is sympathetic with their pardons. he has not used the office of pardon attorney very much. some extent yes but for the most part, no. >> so joyce, active petitions, is an interesting part of this. charles kushner said he didn't want the attention. whether we're talking about his pardon or anyone else's, can there be though anything more than second-guessing or complaints? we always hear about how the president has nearly absolute pardon power or could there be something wrong going on here? >> so i think we're talking about two separate things here. the pardons themselves will hold up. the president's power is absolute in that sense, but

let's say hypothetically there's no evidence of this that we know for certain that something was going wrong here, that for instance the pardon was being delivered in exchange for an explicit bribe. there could conceivably be a prosecution down the road, if prosecutors had the quantum of evidence they needed to establish that beyond a reasonable doubt, but it would be a very awkward situation where the pardon itself would hold up, even though the participants could be held accountable for a crime committed in the course of exchanging something for that pardon. >> and as you say, there's been no indication of that, but let's go to manafort and stone, two people who kept quiet about what they knew about the president. what kind of message does this send? >> the president has been successful at dangling pardons, is certainly one logical

take-away from what we're seeing today. we know that bob mueller in his investigation was not able to get at the full truth of the coordination between the trump campaign and russia, and that after all is the mission of prosecutors of the justice department, to find out the truth, and to assess whether or not crimes have been committed. so when people actively conceal the truth, it really thwarts the mission of our system of justice, and we know that that's what happened here, because mueller told us that. he said in the report that much of the evidence was obscured from his view and had he been able to see it more fully, he might have reached different conclusions. we do know from the written record that although he didn't say it, he did believe the president was involved in obstruction of justice. so now we see the sort of closing act of this with pardons going out to people involved in the president's team who stayed loyal to the president and didn't tell the investigators the truth.

>> so paul manafort, it's interesting because the manhattan d.a. says he still wants state charges filed, but any pardon only covers federal crimes, right? this would not impact any state ongoing investigation for anybody. >> right. the manhattan district attorney filed charges of mortgage fraud because the whole essence of the manafort case was that he was hiding millions of dollars that he earned in doing work for the political leadership in ukraine, leadership that was sympathetic to the russian government, but when they filed those charges, a new york state court threw them out saying that's double jeopardy. he's already been convicted of the offenses in federal court. you can't try him on exactly the same thing in state court. so that is under a state law in new york, not the usual constitutional double double jeopardy. the supreme court said double

jeopardy is a legal fiction that allows separate sovereigns to file their own charges. this is under new york state law. the d.a. has been saying since these latest pardons came out that they're going to appeal that decision, and keep trying, but you're right. the pardon only covers the federal offense, not the state offense. >> so interesting, and we may be into the holidays but something tells me we haven't seen the last of people. thanks to both of you. i hope you get to enjoy some of your holidays in any case. much appreciated. more than 2 million people, get that, 2 million people tested positive for covid-19 just in california. that's more cases than most countries around the world. how hospitals many of which are at or near capacity are managing the devastating number of patients they're seeing. we'll take you live to los angeles, when we come back. plus have high blood pressure. they may not be able to take just anything for pain. that's why doctors recommend tylenol®.

it won't raise blood pressure the way that advil® aleve or motrin® sometimes can. for trusted relief, trust tylenol®. this on us, on every plan! get an iphone 12 with 5g, that advil® aleve or motrin® sometimes can. and if you're 55 and up, switch to our essentials 55 plan and save 50% on your bill vs. the other guys. that's right, iphone 12 on us! holiday on with t-mobile. and now with q4 wrapping up, the north pole has to be feeling the heat. it's okay santa, let's workflow it. workflow it...? with the now platform, we can catch problems before customers even know they're problems. wait... a hose? what kid wants a hose?! fireman? says "hose" it says "horse"! not a "hose"! cedric! get over here! now our people can collaborate across silos, from across the globe. so how's the new place? it's a 4 bed, 2.5 bath igloo... it's great!

yeah, but you have to live in the south pole. sir... wait, are you sure? yes, we're that productive now. you hear that?! the kids get twice the presents! [ cheering ] about time 2020 gave us some good news. whatever your business is facing... let's workflow it. servicenow. each febreze car vent clip gives you up to 30 days of fresh air. so, you can have open window freshness... even with all the windows up. enjoy fresh, any time, with febreze.

more than 119,000 americans are waking up in the hospital. another high. 39 states and washington d.c. are seeing increase in coronavirus deaths over the last two weeks, despite those grim numbers and dire warnings, nearly a million people have passed through tsa checkpoints for each of the last six days. nbc's shaquille brewster is in chicago and gadi schwartz in los

angeles where health care workers fear the post holiday surge. shaq, i'm puzzled about an increase in testing if people are going home for christmas unless they do instant tests there. what are you seeing? are people symptomatic? is that why they're in line? do they think they'll get tested today and gather safely with friends and family tomorrow? tell us what's going on. >> reporter: yes, chris, the testing facilities is rapid testing that is available for people, so many of them are doing rapid testing and pcr testing but yes, the community spread here is still at concerning levels but there's a connection with the people who are coming to get tested and people who are planning to gather with families. i've been at this drive-up testing facility all morning long and it's been busy since the minute it opened and talking to people from the distance, they say yes, they are going to limit their holiday gatherings. there are plans to not have the typical standard holiday celebration or big dinner that they plan to have, but they're not going to eliminate it.

they still plan to see mom and dad, or they may still do a gift exchange with grandma and grandpa. because of that, they are rushing to get the last-minute rapid test. but i spoke to the medical director of clear wellness, a group facilitating this now and she said while it's good,' a good sign that people are trying to be safe and coming out to get tested, she said it can give you a false sense of security. listen to what she told me. >> we're going to be fully booked all day, and you know, i hope people are smart about it, though. if you're symptomatic, you get a negative covid test, that doesn't necessarily mean you don't have covid. again, a positive test is going to be more indicative than a negative. a negative, you still probably just quarantine for having symptoms. >> reporter: and dr. shaw also warned that after the holiday and during the holiday, those testing numbers, the cases numbers, you can expect them to fluctuate a little bit, because for example here in chicago, all of the city-run testing facilities are closed, so that means fewer testing which means

fewer cases reporting positive. >> shaq, thanks for that. gadi, national hospitalizations are up. we've been watching california where hospitalizations are way up. what are front line workers telling you and what are their concerns? >> reporter: as bad as it is right now hospitals overwhelmed and no more room in many of the icus, it will only get worse. that's what the projections are showing. some are literally off the charts here in l.a. especially in the weeks immediately after christmas, when the brutal reality is, just like we heard from shaq, people still plan on gathering with family and in many cases that will mean the continual spread of covid-19. now we've already seen the number of deaths here in los angeles shoot up from 12 a day in november to 40 a day yesterday and what that's doing in hospitals is that it is

causing tremendous backups, seeing things like conference rooms being converted, we're seeing people that are being held in lobbies, and it creates a ripple effect with fewer ambulances out there, because in a lot of cases the ambulances will go, they'll pick somebody up and somebody has to sit in the back of that ambulance for hours and hours taking that ambulance effectively off line from responding to other calls and other emergencies, so the entire system is extremely strained right now, and the nurses and the doctors and those that are on the front lines are hoping that people heed the warnings, take a listen to what that he said earlier. >> this is christmas large gatherings should not happen. if it does happen, again, people that you love may not be there for the next gathering. >> reporter: here in los angeles, the other grim reality is that many in the hospitals that are working on the front lines are getting sick. we've seen somewhere close to

about 300 health care workers a day coming down with covid-19 themselves. so we know that here in california, there have been about 100,000 vaccines administered to some of those front line workers, with more doses heading to the state very soon, but they could not come soon enough. chris? >> yes, definitely not soon enough, given those numbers. gadi, shaq, thanks to both of you. i want to turn to a professor and vice chair of preventative medicine at feinberg school of medicine and dr. william hazeltine, author of "my lifelong fight against disease from polio and aids to covid-19." great book cover. dr. carnathan, what is your reaction when you hear people traveling and knowing where the virus spreads where we're headed? >> my first reaction is i expect that we may unfortunately see

patterns similar to what we've seen following other major holidays, after memorial day a rise in cases, after the fourth of july, labor day, and even thanksgiving, particularly with the surges that continue to go on in los angeles. i think what i see are that people are tired. they want to gather with family, and so they are not heeding the recommendations to not travel, and in doing so, they're mixing with other families, they're even risks that could occur on airplane. i read a case recently of somebody flying to los angeles, who had an episode and passed away on the plane, and the individual was determined to have covid-19. if that was someone who felt reassured because of a negative rapid test, that's where we see the problems with relying on testing, rather than on common sense and exposure to make decisions about travel. >> yeah, looking at these lines,

there's no way for people to socially distance with those kinds of crowds. dr. hazeltine, california is a puzzle because they're still experiencing tremendous surges, despite tough restrictions. politico did a big story on this, they say the state's running out of reasons why they have not been able to stop this. what is your thought? what do you think california, why isn't california bending the curve and are there lessons there as we watch what's happening? >> it's extremely concerning, as you've said. i think while we've been learning recently is this new variant of this virus that have appeared in a couple of different places, in the uk, and south africa. that's because they look and they found i believe it's very likely there are a number of new variants like that circulating, homegrown variants in the united states, which are driving this pandemic. these are more transmissible, and possibly more dangerous. and they may evade some of the

immune responses that we normally make. these are viruses selected against the pressure that we and our medicines are using to try to stop them. if you put that together with a lack of observance of many people, of the recommended safety measures, you put that together with the colder weather that's driving more people inside, you put that together with the holidays, you have a witch's brew of trouble, not only in the past, but much more coming in the future. we have seen a hump after thanksgiving. we're about to see a mountain of disease coming and it's not just people going to see their parents. it's people going on holidays, travel to mexico is sky high. that is just not safe. >> yes, dr. carneon ththon, hom grown or one in the uk the cdc acknowledged is probably already

here, we see the uk and european countries taking serious action. we are not as a result. should we be? >> i think in 2021 it's a national response and national recommendations, it was something that dr. biden, sorry, president-elect biden mentioned in his strategy to address covid that he would recommend national mask mandates that he would make testing readily available, and to put into place policies, and i think that's the leadership that we need and that is occurring in european countries who have many extreme steps to try to control the spread of the pandemic. you think about the things that italy and china were doing with tracking bracelets to ensure compliance with quarantine rules or even the use of drones to ensure people were off the streets and not out and about

spreading covid potentially. we can't fall back on our confidence about the vaccine. the vaccine is going to have a positive effect. however, that's not going to be felt for some period of time, because right now, we are rightly forced on reinforcing the infrastructure by vaccinating those front line workers. those front line workers aren't likely the ones who are contributing to the rampant community spread that we see right now. so i do have hope that we'll have a national policy and strategy to put into place to try to stop the spread stoon. >> as great as it is to have the vaccine, people will see that light at the end of the tunnel as an excuse to maybe loosen up on some of the things that they've been doing and a question everybody has is whether there will be herd immunity. dr. fauci acknowledged he moved his goal post. early on 60% to 70%, a month ago

70% to 75% and telling cnbc, 75% to 80% plus. is that your thinking and how long realistically should people wrap their brains around the fact that you have to wear a mask, you have to wash your hands. it's a while before we'll have that herd immunity. >> i think there are a number of questions that you've asked. the first is what about euphoria. it will be a long time before most people get the vaccine and we need as just been said very clearly and eloquently, we need to follow the rules and we're not following the rules. that's partly because we have leadership which is encouraging us not to follow the leaders, federal and state leadership in some places that say don't follow the rules and people don't want to follow these rules, they're restricted. that's understandable. second thing, what can we expect? we're learning a lot quickly

about this virus, and it may be that what we're looking at is not once and done, like polio vaccines but much more like the flu, where we're going to have this move from pandemic to endemic, where we're going to have to really good track of what's going on and adjust our vaccines to the strains that emerge. these strains that are emerging are very troubling. we don't have the full picture, but i believe because we haven't looked in the united states, we haven't found, but you'll see i think in the next few weeks that we have our own homegrown strains and we have to start thinking about adjusting the vaccines. so this is probably going to be much more like a decade's long battle that we have with the flu than a once and done battle that we've had with polio. >> yes, sobering warning. william hazeltine, thank you, mercedes carnethon, appreciate you both very much. this christmas despite a difficult year the poorest

school district in the country is rich in talent and celebrating the holiday season. ♪ ♪ do you hear what i hear ♪ do you hear what i hear? ♪ do you hear what i hear ♪ hear what i hear ♪ do you hear what i hear ♪ hear what i hear ♪ sleigh bells ring, are you listening ♪ ♪ in the lane snow is glistening ♪ >> more than two dozen cleveland schools with a chance to shine, as 300 students performed a virtual version of their winter concert. in a year of virtual learning, the warm feelings this brings are very real and they look like they're having fun, too. watch the entire heartwarming event on cleveland metro school's facebook page. thanks to them for sending it by. from patients to loved ones to front line workers, the emotional toll of covid runs

deep. after the break, i'll be joined by an er nurse who treated people in many of the country's coronavirus hot spots. en... thed automatically pay your team and file payroll taxes. that means... world domination! or just the west side. run payroll in less than five minutes with intuit quickbooks. stand up to moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis. and take. it. on... ...with rinvoq. rinvoq a once-daily pill... ...can dramatically improve symptoms... rinvoq helps tame pain, stiffness, swelling. and for some... rinvoq can even significantly reduce ra fatigue. that's rinvoq relief. with ra, your overactive immune system attacks your joints. rinvoq regulates it to help stop the attack. rinvoq can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious infections and blood clots, sometimes fatal, have occurred... ...as have certain cancers, including lymphoma,

and tears in the stomach or intestines, and changes in lab results. your doctor should monitor your bloodwork. tell your doctor about any infections... and if you are or may become pregnant while taking rinvoq. take on ra talk to your rheumatologist about rinvoq relief. rinvoq. make it your mission. if you can't afford your medicine, abbvie may be able to help. we made usaa insurance for veterans like martin. when a hailstorm hit, he needed his insurance to get it done right, right away.

usaa. what you're made of, we're made for. usaa you remember rick, text her neighbor?er. usaa. what you're made of, we're made for. sure, he's the 76-year-old guy who still runs marathons, right? sadly, not anymore. wow. so sudden. um...we're not about to have the "we need life insurance" conversation again, are we? (woman) no. we're having the "we're getting coverage so we don't have to worry about it" conversation. so you're calling about the $9.95 a month plan from colonial penn? i am. we put it off long enough. we're getting that $9.95 plan today. (jonathan) is it time for you to call about the $9.95 plan? i'm jonathan from colonial penn life insurance company. sometimes, we just need a reminder not to take today for granted. if you're age 50 to 85, you can get guaranteed acceptance whole life insurance starting at just $9.95 a month. there are no health questions,

so you can't be turned down for any health reason. the $9.95 plan is colonial penn's #1 most popular whole life plan. options start at just $9.95 a month. that's less than 35 cents a day. your rate can never go up, it's locked in for life. call today for free information. and you'll also get this free beneficiary planner. so call now. (soft music) ♪ hello, colonial penn?

this morning, the number of hospitals reporting full or nearly full icus has doubled across the country, just since the beginning of october. more than two in five hospitals with intensive care units have reached occupancy levels of 85% or higher. one er nurse who is all too familiar with the challenges of treating coronavirus patients in the icu is grover street. he's been deployed to hospitals in many of the hot spots over the past several months, including new york, new jersey, in the spring, florida over the summer, and just recently in california. grover street joins us from colorado where he is back home for christmas. it's so good to see you and i'm so glad you're home for the holidays, but even though i have a lot of questions about your

experiences, i also just want to say i am in awe of the emotional, physical and mental stamina you must have. how are you? >> i'm pretty good. i have to say, and i think that's a good point to make, because with all of us, the doctors, the nurses, respiratory therapists, every health care worker helping out with this pandemic, they're all emotionally, you know, destroyed by it, and we have to pull together as a team and as a family in the hospital to get each other through this. we talk back and forth to each other. you see nurses crying, you see doctors crying and you have to talk to them and give them that support. >> so take me inside a covid ward, because obviously, when you have medical professionals who have seen a lot, breaking into tears, you know the pressure. how has it changed from spring

to now? give us a sense of what you've seen over the course of the last nine months or so. >> my god, the first exposure to the virus was back in, you know, back in march or april, and i was actually working emergency room doing the triage and the patient came in with mild flu symptoms. he went home and then this coronavirus came out, and he guy came back a few days later, and he was tested positive for coronavirus. i was put on quarantine because i was in contact with the guy. shortly after that, you know, you see the cities close down, there's no cars on the street. i actually stayed in manhattan and there were, it was dead. the city was dead, unlike you've ever seen new york, and i actually did an assignment over in new york where my first day on the job, i look out and i see these semi trailer trucks, five to be exact in the parking lot, and i asked what are those tractor trailer trucks out there

for and one of the staff members said you'll find out soon enough, and so shortly after that, i found out they were actually coolers, and they were full of dead bodies, and i mean we're talking like thousands of people that are dying, and i felt like i felt like i wasn't even in the united states at that time, to see 2,000 bodies in a parking lot. it's kind of scary. from there it escalated. it got worse. i saw doctors quitting, nurses quitting. my third week in florida over 100 nurses quit their jobs, travelers and staff members, and they did it for different reasons, but the main reasons were stress overload. they're exhausted, working long hours and having to deal with a very heavy load of patients. >> we are so -- >> go ahead. i'm sorry.

>> i was just going to say, and i'm sorry to interrupt you. we're just so grateful for you grover street, for the folks who have hang in there. as i said in the beginning, i can't imagine. we're just happy you're home. we hope you have a wonderful holiday season with your family. you've certainly earned it. thank you for taking the time to talk with us. as britain records its highest number of covid cases, the uk is set to impose wider and stricter lockdowns for millions of people. we're live overseas after the break. when it comes to autism,

finding the right words can be tough. finding understanding doesn't have to be. together, we can create a kinder, more inclusive world for the millions of people on the autism spectrum. go to autismspeaks.org ♪ ♪ [ engines revving ] ♪ it's amazing to see them in the wild like th-- shhh. [ engine revs ] for those who were born to ride, there's progressive.

this morning the united kingdom is taking drastic new action as it tries to combat a surge in coronavirus cases. nbc's matt bradley is following the latest from paris for us. tell us a little more, matt, about these measures and the confidence leaders have that it might help stop this spread. >> reporter: well, you know, the measures, just this morning britain talked about cutting off air traffic from south africa. it's interesting because britain has had its air traffic cut off widely by more than 50 countries. south africa has its own mute tant strain which scientists believe spreads even faster than the one found in britain and has even more mutation. so that's very threatening. now, we're going to see after christmas is new restrictions put in place for another 6 million britons.

there were already 18 million on the so-called tier four. that means non-essential businesses are closed, restaurants, bars, gyms and you're only restricted to one other person meeting outdoors, outside your household. so christmas canceled in britain and it's about to get worse for quite a few other places in most of britain. chris. >> matt bradley in paris. i hope at least your favorite grocery, you can make a phone call and get something delivered. >> reporter: they're closed. >> oh, matt bradley. thank you. it is paris. i hope all of you find some joy this holiday season. that's going to do it for me. i'm chris jansing. morgan radford picks up our coverage right after this quick break. it is 2020. battling sensitive, we switched to tide plus downy free.

it's gentle on her skin, and out cleans our old bargain detergent. tide pods plus downy free. safe for sensitive skin with eczema and psoriasis. some things are good to know. like where to find the cheapest gas in town and which supermarket gives you the most bang for your buck. something else that's good to know? if you have medicare and medicaid you may be able to get more healthcare benefits through a humana medicare advantage plan. call the number on your screen now and speak to a licensed humana sales agent to see if you qualify. learn about plans that could give you more healthcare benefits than you have today. depending on the plan you choose, you could have your doctor, hospital and prescription drug coverage in one convenient plan. from humana, a company with nearly 60 years of experience in the healthcare industry. you'll have lots of doctors and specialists to choose from. and, if you have medicare and medicaid, a humana plan may give you other

important benefits. depending on where you live, they could include dental, vision and hearing coverage. you may also get rides to plan-approved locations; home delivered meals after an in-patient hospital stay; a monthly allowance for purchasing healthy food and beverages; plus an allowance for health and wellness items. everything from over the counter medications and vitamins, to first aid items and personal care products. best of all, if you have medicare and medicaid, you may qualify for multiple opportunities throughout the year to enroll. so if you want more from medicare, call the number on your screen now to speak with a licensed humana sales agent. learn about humana plans that could give you more healthcare benefits. including coverage for prescription drugs, dental care, eye exams and glasses, hearing aids and more. a licensed humana sales agent will walk you through your options, answer any questions you have and, if you're eligible, help you enroll over

the phone. call today and we'll also send this free guide. humana, a more human way to healthcare. this is decision tech. find a stock based on your interests or what's trending. get real-time insights in your customized view of the market. it's smarter trading technology for smarter trading decisions. fidelity.

good morning and thank you so much for joining us. i'm morgan radford. rotten to the core is how one republican is describing the president's latest round of pardons, delivering an early christmas surprise to some of his closest allies. meanwhile across the country, millions of americans are waiting for help as the covid relief bill hangs in the balance, this as the covid health crisis continues to get worse.