good day everyone. i'm andrea mitchell in washington with where the house of representatives is set to vote today on raising the $600 stimulus checks to $2,000. this is a big test for a republican congressmembers who opposed the democratic demand since last may but now that president trump has blatedly demanded a higher payment tess bite being missing from the negotiations after reversing himself and signing the emergency covid relief package last night along with a spending bill to keep the government open and avoid a shutdown tonight,

relenting after outrage over his threats in a video last week suddenly opposing the bill his own treasury secretary negotiated on his behalf. >> the bill they are now planning to send back to my desk is much different than anticipated. it really is a disgrace. >> that was then, this is now. his sudden week of threats did have a real impact. at least one week delay in enhanced unemployment benefits to millions of americans out of work. and a delay in those stimulus checks as well. the president's reversal on the bill comes with other largely unenforceable demands on congress, to remove critical foreign aid from bipartisan spending bills, and an investigation by both houses into his false claims of election fraud. both going nowhere on capitol hill. while law makers deal with president trump's latest tirade delivered from his vacation retreat, president-elect joe biden is meeting with national security advisers and focusing

on the remaining four unfilled cabinet slots. he'll be speaking publicly in bloomington later today. joining to us talk about all of that nbc's garrett haake in west palm beach where the president is vacationing, geoff bennett in wilmington and kasie hunt. up way too early. the president lost this battle and so did millions of americans who expected the $600 checks or who had their unemployment benefits momentarily lapse. >> look, there is nothing in this bill signed by the president on sunday night that was not in the bill when he could have signed it on christmas eve. this was essentially several days long, anxiety-inducing, episode that took money out of the pockets of unemployed people by reducing the payments they will get and for nothing, a pointless exercise. it is clear the president was in touch with lawmakers likely to extract the promises congress will take various actions that

he wants to see but none of those will affect the ultimate substance of this bill, if they happen at all. we had a president who spent the last several days at his golf course, we knew he was golfing with lindsey graham christmas day, at dinner at the trump international golf course. when he is here he is largely cut off from the rest of his staff, the rest of what remains of any guardrails around him and i think we saw some of the effects of that, in this weekend holdout that ultimately provi ld nothing but the bill he could have signed on christmas eve. >> and kasie, talk about what we'll see today first in the house, then what we can expect from mitch mcconnell and chuck schumer over in the senate. >> that's the big question, right, andrea. we know house democrats support spending more money on these relief checks to put them up to $2,000, which the president has suddenly said that's what he wanted to see and which ostensibly caused all of this drama over the weekend, but the

big question is still senate republicans, many of them have been concerned how much money this bill was going to spend or that's what they've said and reluctance to make the checks larger and the price tag of the overall bill higher. democrats have to put pressure on mcconnell to get them to do what their republican president wants. here was chuck schumer earlier today. watch. >> today i am telling donald trump don't just talk about it, act. these senate republicans have followed you through thick and thin. get them now to act and support the $2,000 checks. >> and of course, andrea, republicans so focused and concerned about the two georgia runoff elections that's a big part of why mcconnell wanted to make sure the covid relief package got done before christmas, before they left town and before that january 5th runoff that's a critical date. so what the president did actually in many ways had the

political effect of showing that it was democrats in fact who were interested in this $2,000 stimulus check, which is of course what many voters in georgia are demanding. he's scrambled the politics of this for his own party in a way that's yet another headache for them in just the final weeks of his administration. andrea? >> and geoff, all of this could well impact of course the man who will be worn in 23 days from now, joe biden the president-elect wrestling with four unfilled seats, the attorney general the most important one. does that appear likely this week as well as the possibility of him waiting until after the georgia runoffs if he's concerned putting someone in who might be more difficult to confirm if they don't win at least one of the runoffs? >> it's a great point you make. we could get that announcement as early as this week but i'm told the reason why joe biden hasn't announced his selection

has less to do with the georgia runoffs and more to do with the fact he hasn't made up his mind. nominating someone for that position he has to elevate someone who can restore public faith in that institution and who can also restore morale within it. the short list remains the same. doug jones, the outgoing alabama senator who decades ago famously and successfully prosecuted the case against those kkk members, who attacked that birmingham church back in 1963, and killed those four young girls. biden is someone who has known doug jones for a long time. they have a long working relationship. we've loss malso got merritt ga snubbed by mitch mcconnell when former president barack obama tapped him for a supreme court seen, something as a unifying force. the downside, though, with elevating him, such that there is a downside, would be that he is viewed as being potentially

too lenient to law enforcement interests by some civil rights advocates i've talked to and the other issue that if biden takes him off the d.c. circuit court of appeals, he hases to nominate a replacement, and then third on the list, you've got sally yates, top choice among progressives and civil rights activists and advocates i've talked to. she's getting lots of praise for things she's done in her past as a doj veteran, closing private prisons connected to the justice department, but because she was involved in the fbi investigation into the trump campaign that later turned into the overall russia investigation, she is widely viewed as being the hardest of the three to confirm. but i'm told when biden announces his pick for ag he could announce his pick or deputy attorney general and solicitor general at once. >> peter bake earn you have he

been writing about the last days of trump, attacking republicans, barely showing up to work but attacking the courts on twitter. this is unusual behavior to say the least. how concerned are people inside the white house about what he's doing and could still do in the next 22 1/2 days? >> yes, you're right,' not normal behavior. the at this stage of a presidency, a president is on the way, new president coming in, usually an effort to mend fences and burnish your legacy, but not to go to war with your own party and own justice department and supreme court nominees. what he's done here of course is simply try to grab attention for himself on legislation that he chose not to be a part of, even though it was endorsed by his own administration. obviously picking a fight over the defense bill over an unrelated fight with trying to get the congress to use the defense bill to punish twitter

and other social media organizations he's been unhappy with. and using pardons in these last few days to sort of demonstrate that he is still in control for the next 20-some days pardoning a rose gallery of corrupt congressmen, convicted liars and war criminals convicted of killing women and children in iraq. this is his way of acting out and you're right, people around him in the white house, his advisers inside and outside the building are concerned. they see a spiraling situation, listening to fewer people and the only one he does want to listen to, he won an election, but he actually lost. >> who do you think he was listening to in agreeing to finally sign the bills last night? could it be that it was really becoming a problem for the georgia runoff races as well? >> yes, it was. he saw lindsey graham in mar-a-lago. i think graham was trying to nudge him along. you can still fight for the issues you're raising like

larger stimulus check and cutting some foreign aid, but you're not going to be able to do it in this bill. this bill passed by bipartisan majorities in both houses of congress. people have been cut off for unemployment benefits and other things were about to expire like eviction protection and so forth and the government would close down at midnight if he didn't sign. lindsey graham and others, if colive to fight another day he put out a statement from the white house indicating suggesting he had somehow gotten concessions he didn't really get but as a face-saving way pretending he accomplished something that hasn't been accomplished. >> and of course, there's no evidence kasie hunt, got to him and tried to talk to him about vetoing the defense bill. >> andrea the house is inned too, the senate tomorrow. this is something unprecedented

and the president would have been the first president in many years to have never had a veto overridden but that's going to be the end of the road for that and he will join others who have had that happen. there's overwhelming support for this bill and the president has harped on section 230 related to social media companies and that regulation. he brought that up again in the context of the covid relief bill and focused on but this president will leave office with his republican party saying no to him on this as well. >> kasie, thanks to you. we'll see you at 1:00 sitting in for chuck on "mtv daily." thanks for joining us, and happy holidays to all as well. congressman adam kinzinger

joins us now. with the stimulus vote this afternoon are you going to support the $2,000 in aid instead of the $600 that was already approved when the president finally signed the bill last night? >> i will. i heard good arguments and it's necessary especially given the moment we're in, should have been negotiated at the beginning. that's kind of the moment where we're at right now. am i cutting out? >> it was just a little bit but let's keep going, make this work. maybe he was watching you yesterday because you made a strong argument against him either vetoing the bill or sitting on the bill. at this stage how desperate the economic situation is for americans. his behavior has certainly been not just unprecedented and norm-breaking but erratic. >> yes, definitely been erratic

at the end here. i think he's more focused on grievances than finishing out strong. the ndaa veto of that makes no sense but hopefully we -- override that. section 230, if you have a real issue with section 230 that's fine but the defense bill isn't the place to deal with it. that's through the energy and commerce committee and others. we have 20-some days left, we have to do what's right and the bottom line we need to stand up for people hurting during covid and i think congress will do that today. >> how difficult has the president's behavior made the final weeks of this presidency for the republican leadership and for the rest of you members? >> well it's been difficult. having to speak out is obviously not something you always want to do, but i made a commitment since i got into congress, always to do what's -- dealing with having to come back for a veto override on a really good defense bill, dealing with --

but you know, again, bottom line, most people get in politics to do the right thing. that includes me. we'll get through it and move on. this country is stronger than -- and got a constitution with great guardrails. >> thank you very much, congressman. thanks for being with us today. we really appreciate it and we'll check back with you after that veto override vote, see what happens there. >> sorry for the technical difficulties. >> not at all. always good to have you. and getting to california and those icus that are full, health officials there, the state's largest city expecting a viral wildfire following the holidays. plus investigators say that they have identified the nashville christmas bomber, but what was his motive? you're watching "andrea mitchell reports." stay with us. this is msnbc. did you know you can go to libertymutual.com

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as we now enter what dr. fauci has called a quite troubling post-holiday surge of covid-19 cases, the virus is spreading beyond what some states medical systems can handle. over the weekend the u.s. topped more than 19 million confirmed cases of covid-19, roughly the population of new york state and more than 330,000 americans have lost their lives to the virus. in california, the latest epicenter of this country's outbreak, icus are running out of available beds before the anticipated post holiday surge

hits. joining me, steve patterson in los angeles. steve, thanks for being with us. first of all, what are you hearing from doctors there and other front line workers? >> reporter: health officials in l.a. county say they are comparing this now to a viral wildfire that one out of every 95 residents on average has a case of covid that one person on average every ten minutes will die from the virus. hospitals are completely overloaded at this point. they're scrambling to look for ways to build makeshift icu wor wards in places that have no business having makeshift icu wards, a shortage on oxygen and medication and the biggest bottleneck is shortage on staffing as health officials say we're days away from rationing care in some places. i spoke to one doctor here in l.a. county, here's what he says it's like in his hospital, as this surge continues to increase. listen to this. >> the hospital is at capacity. we are a large hospital trauma

center but there's patients all over the hospital. we've had to move expand our intensive care units to accommodate patients with covid and to move our knob-covid patients to other parts of the hospital to protect them and to have this surge on top of what we're experiencing just before thanksgiving with the idea christmas and new year's could bring more disease is just pretty daunting. >> reporter: this as hospitalizations are now expected to double here in l.a. county by the end of the week, and that does nothing to account for the surge that is expected to come from people traveling over the christmas holiday, because remember, we're in something of a halo effect where that does not impact us until two to three weeks for now as the number is expected to increase in mid-january, and then heavily spike in mid-february. andrea? >> steve patterson in l.a., a real crisis out there, thank you, steve. as those cases of covid-19 are surging across the country, officials are raising concerns about that new strain of the

virus. the race is on to vaccinate as many americans as possible but there have been hitches in production and distribution of the vaccines. joining me is dr. peter hotez co-director of the texas children's hospital center for vaccine development. well, doctor. thanks for being with us. dr. fauci is again raising concerns about what he calls this post-holiday surge upon the surge. what are you expecting to see in the crisis, let's say two weeks from now, as steve patterson was just saying? >> you know, andrea, we're seeing so much transmission now, it's hard to know what is due to a surge, what is not due to a surge. the numbers are extraordinary. remember that 19 million cases, let's round to 20 million, that's an underestimate by a factor of four or five, so we're looking at maybe 80 million to 100 million cases in the united states, getting towards a quarter of the u.s. population being infected and remember when rand paul, senator paul said 22%

herd immunity and it will stop? guess what? it's not. it's been continuing to race onward and this is what i'm very concerned about as the virus still is speeding ahead of our ability to vaccinate, hopefully we can get up to speed soon in terms of vaccinations. >> yes, so much for dr. rand paul, senator, doctor and also dr. steve atlas, scott atlas rather from the vice president's task force. first of all, the original goal also on vaccines, was to have 20 million americans vaccinated by the end of the year, we were told. now admiral giroir says vaccines will be distributed to the states until the first week in january which is different because the distribution to the states then has its observe hiccups before it gets to people. has the government been overselling how quickly operation warp speed can get people vaccinated? >> well they may have underestimated some of the complicated logistics involved,

because of that especially the pfizer vaccine, which is so unforgiving and has the strict requirements so you have to be careful when you're unpacking the boxes and making certain that there's no fluctuations in temperature, which would render, which would cause to you have to throw out the vaccine. that adds a lot of complexity. i'm hoping that even though we've not had as fast a start as i would like, we'll get up to speed in the new year, and i'm also hoping we'll get some additional vaccines that just require refrigerator temperatures to some of the ateno virus vaccines out in the new year. this will get better. we've had some hiccups in our ability to start vaccinating the public. like everything else in this response, right? we have either missed the boat or have been slow on so many aspects of our covid-19 control program, hopefully this one will start to go a little bit better. >> there's also been questions

of inequality in the way this distribution is working already. the "qui schicago sun-times" doctors from affluent neighborhoods vaccinated at higher rates, they point to a trend of chicago doctors living in more affluent areas showing up in sizeable numbers to get inoculated while technicians and lower paid health care workers living in predominantly black and latino communities to get the shots. this is chicago. what do you make of this disparity? >> we have to fix that, andrea and the reason is this. because one of the things we learned over the summer from the centers for disease control data, if you look at the deaths under the age of 65, hispanic and african-american communities about a third of the deaths are occurring under the age of 65, so we really need to be able to reach 40, 50-year-old, early

6-year-old mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters. that's where loss of life can be particularly striking, and so we've got to figure out a way to fix that in a hurry and communicate better. we've seen polless from the kaiser family foundation, a fair bit of distrust among the african-american community in particular so communicating is going to be especially important so i'm trying to reach out to as mean african-american radio stations and news outlets as i can, and in order to help with that, but it's going to take quite a bit of effort for this. >> how concerned are you about the new strain not only in the uk but south africa, japan is seeing some of the british strain and other new strains of the virus and whether or not they will also be subject, vulnerable to these vaccines? >> well, one of the things i'm really worried about in the u.s. is we're not looking for these variants.

the numbers in terms -- the way the uk scientists figured this out is they are completing whole genome consequences on virus strains. they've sequenced about 7% of the virus strains getting the full genomic sequence, that's how they revealed the variant. in australia and new zealand they're sequencing the full genome of half the virus isolates. in the u.s. it's less than 1% so again, we come up really small in our covid-19 response, so there could easily be the south african uk variant here in the u.s., it would not surprise me at all to know there are similar types of highly variant vir uses already here circulating, home grown ones. forget about it coming from the uk or south africa. we have just not been looking for it at all and it's upsetting to see how mediocre and dismal our covid-19 national response has been. we have the greatest research institutions and universities in the world, and we're just not

tapping them in order to handle this situation and i don't know what's going on with the federal agencies these days. >> that's shocking, because first of all, these new viruses, new strains are more infectious, some asymptomatic which is more concerning. why aren't we doing the same kind of sequencing these other countries are doing? >> i can't figure it out. the cdc announced it with some fan fare ov fanfare, the s.p.h.e.r.e. project, sars public health emergency response and surveillance network and i was happy to see that in place but we only just learned or i just learned just a couple of weeks ago that they've only done 50,000 virus consequences. to match the level that we're doing in the uk, which they themselves are underperforming, only 7%, we have to be sequenced at least a mill virus genomes in to match what they've done in

australia, we're looking at least 10 million virus genomes so we're way behind on this. we have to ramp this up and this is going to be one of the many issues our new cdc director dr. w walensky has to make when she assumes that role at the beginning of the year. >> another way the cdc has dropped the ball in this case or been pressured and been diminished by the white house or a combination of both. dr. peter hotez, thank you so much >> thank you so much. >> thanks for being with us today. unlikely allies, donald trump joining democrats and wanting to send that higher stimulus check to americans in need, but will senate republicans now drop their long-held opposition? you're watching "andrea mitchell reports." stay with us, on msnbc.

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there's a role reversal taking place on capitol hill with house and senate democrats aagreeing with president trump's new demand for bigger stimulus checks for americans desperate for help and republican lawmakers long opposed to bigger checks having to decide whether to vote against the president despite months of opposition to what he is now demanding.

joining me now to sort all this out, former maryland democratic congresswoman donna edwards and david jolly a former florida congressman member of the republican party. welcome both. so david, what do you do if you're a republican and you've long opposed going to $,000 for the stimulus check and now the president says even threatened not to sign the bill until last night when he finally did. what do you do today? start voting for something you opposed for eight months? >> look, big picture i think this is just an indication of the lack of seriousness with which the outgoing president is being taken by both sides of the aisle. this was a very exotic demand of the president and perhaps more about kind of varnishing his reputation as the huey p. long of populism as he goes out the door but the people he's put in a bind are the two republican senators in georgia. they are in an impossible situation, could you break with mitch mcconnell and your party

and side with donald trump and if you side with donald trump on the extra payments are you affirming the position of reverend warnock and john ossoff that the entire senate majority can hinge on the president's behavior in this moment, and that's where this has been a move all about donald trump protecting his open lwn legacy not worry about the republican party when he left washington. >> donna edwards, the president's also given speaker pelosi and chuck schumer an opening to go on offense and to put these republicans in a very difficult position. >> well, he has, and they've taken the opening. look, i think if donald trump is really serious about providing this extra relief, which democrats have been seeking since may, then he needs to get on the phone, make a few calls to republicans, and get it on the floor. it will be on the floor of the house, it will pass on the floor of the house. it will be sent over to the senate, and then it will be up to senators to decide whether

they're going to deprive americans who are struggling of an extra $2,000 or they're going to side with their president and democrats and deliver it. it may be a conundrum for them. what is not difficult is understanding the plight of the american people, who are really struggling right now, and they need the $2,000, and so donald trump needs to put his mouth where the money is, and make those phone calls. >> david jolly, kevin mccarthy came out against it. does he now flip himself or just tell him they're on their own and they can vote their conscien conscience, those who have consciences? >> republicans on the hill will not vote for this in sufficient numbers to move it. appears through the house a two-thirds vote because they'll move this under what's called suspension of the rules. if that's the case, there won't be enough republicans to work

with democrats to get to the two-thirds but to donna's point she's right. this is on donald trump to move republicans, but the reality is, this has never been about the $2,000 a month payment. this has never been about what's right for the american people and republican party. this is donald trump trying to take the headlines and say i'm going to try to do more than democrats and republicans, but it's not a serious form of governance nor populism, and in many ways, donald trump's going out just as he came in. he has the rhetoric. he'll make the statements but he's got nothing to back it up, and andrea, there are republicans on capitol hill thrilled that donald trump is leaving town, and this is a perfect example of why. >> so let me backtrack for a second. if there aren't enough democrats to get to two-thirds and you don't think enough republicans will come over, the $2,000 payment is not going to pass the house. >> that's correct. this is being brought up under procedure called suspension of the rules, because one, it's a very narrowly defined issue, do

we go to 2,000 or not and doesn't require committee hearings but it does require under suspension of the rules a two-thirds votes. all the democrats but enough republicans and likely won't get out of the house under a two-thirds vote requirement. >> so just to follow that to its logical or illogical conclusion, these are the republicans who voted against it just this saturday, debby dingell in the chair presiding and quite a moment. they'd have to flip quickly. if it goes down and the president can say i was for it but congress, the terrible evil congress was against it. >> certainly. >> look, andrea, i don't think it's going to be that they were for it and the president was for it and they were against it. what will happen now is a recorded vote. they have to put their names to the vote to deprive the american people their constituents of $,000. that's a very different vote

than voting anonymously under a suspension and so i'm not really sure that this is over but republicans will have to actually vote with their name recorded, that they oppose giving aid to the american people who are suffering and if they don't think that's going to come back and bite them where it really hurts, i think they're wrong about that. >> although the president has a bigger mega phone, david, and he can go out you know, with flags flying saying that he was in favor of more money to the american people. david, what about this defense bill, though, he's vetoed? unprecedented, 59 straight years we've had bipartisan support for the defense bill and now he vetoes it for the most specious reasons, big tech and the confederate names and faces. >> this is not the bill that funds the military. funding for the military will

continue. the national defense authorization act sets policy. can we have bases named after confederate generals, try to address big tech in a defense bill. clearly that's not jermaigerman this. three or four weeks ago he shot out a tweet saying i'm going to veto the defense bill if they don't use that as the vehicle to attack twitter, facebook and social media. congress said of course we're not going to do that. this is the way donald trump plays ball. he's going to veto it and his veto will likely be overridden by a majority of democrats and republicans in the house and senate. >> former congresswoman donna edwards and former congressman anne former republican david jolly, thanks so both. thank you both so much. >> thank you. and federal agents continuing to comb through what is left after the huge christmas day bombing in downtown nashville. police say they've identified the bomber but why did he do it? stay with us. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. nbc.

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president trump is winding down a presidency that broke so many norms with the chaotic month of false claims, political attacks against leading members of his own party and grievances that he promises to carry into political battles yet to come. nbc presidential historian michael beschlov joins us now. the president has disregarded norms throughout the last fewer years and handicapped institutions. what we're seeing in the last three weeks or longer since the election is pretty extreme. >> well, andrea, i think we've only got less than a month during which i have to say we've seen nothing like this before, none, there's nothing in history that's remotely like this. a president who lost overwhelmingly claiming he's still won the election by reports pressuring his vice president to lie to congress and

say that he and the president actually won the last election. we haven't seen anything like this before. we've seen contested elections but nothing like this. >> well, we also saw the last days, the final days of richard nixon, so memorably captured by bob woodward and carl bernstein and you had him drinking heavily, asking henry kissinger to kneel down and pray and talking to portraits in the corridors, that was bizarre. >> compared to now those were the days of normalcy and people are longing for someone as normal as richard nixon to be president. that's how far we've come and even in nixon's case, there were worries that what would he do to stay in office? would he use the 101st airborne, would he use nuclear weapons? james schlessinger, you knew very well and i did was the secretary of defense. he told me and probably mentioned it to you as well that he gave an order that any order

from nixon to move nuclear weapons would have to be countersigned by the secretary of defense to make sure there was no traction like that and of course nixon in the end did not pardon himself or his aides as donald trump is at least forecast to do by some people. and has pardoned aides already. >> right, and nixon did not pardon urlichman involved in the coverup. you've seen what's happened with flynn and manafort in this instance. also a secretary of defense who is an acting secretary and pretty much written off as a la lacky of president trump's and cleaning out, purging of the top veteran professionals, even veteran trump appointees at the pentagon. you've got a real problem now agency after agency. how unusual is the lack of a

concession or even concession speech or even a concession? >> we've never seen anything like this. even al gore 2000, that barely contested election genuinely contested in florida, the supreme court finally stopped a recount and said george w. bush will be president. al downpour goes on tv and says for the sake of democracy, i concede this election. that's what most patriots do. instead we have a selfish person who is largely amoral, who is essentially saying i'm going to think about myself. i will not concede. i'm going to lie and claim i won the election. this is something we've never seen before in american history. i hope we never see again. this is going to be an aberration that people will point to that term exception that proves the rule, i hope that's what we're seeing now. >> but thinking about the 25th amendment, what is the value of the 25th amendment if you have a loyalist cabinet, never willing

to invoke it, no matter how bizarre the behavior of an incumbent? i'm not speaking of this instance, i'm saying hypothetically? >> you're absolutely right. this is the problem, the 25th amendment was put in so in case there was a president who was acting in ways that some people found psychotic or abhorrent or dangerous to the country, the cabinet would meet and say sadly, he appointed us but our duty is to the constitution, not to the president, and he should leave or at least should be absent from power for a time until he gets well. 25th amendment was never intended to be something that a cabinet or another group would just ignore out of supposed loyalty to a president. >> and how much are you concerned about the president, the current president tying president-elect joe biden's hands withment so of the last-minute executive orders and filling key advisory boards like

the defense policy board, taking madeleine albright and henry kissinger off and putting incredibly ideological or inappropriate people on some of these boards? >> and the secretary of treasury taking steps to put a lot of money that could be used to help millions of suffering americans, put it off limits maybe to the next president. hoover tried this a little bit in 1933. he try toyed get fdr to sign on to some of his economic policies and roosevelt was a lot shrewder than hoover realized so he did not go for the bait, but once again, i promise i'll stop saying this after the 20th of january if it proves true as i expect, this is something else that we have never seen before. this is someone who is angry the joe biden, the guy who beat him, who is out of a feeling of pure vengeance and a feeling of a grudge, trying to make life as difficult as possible for our next president, and more than

that, for the american people. if donald trump wants to claim in the future that he loves the american people, wants to see our best interests, everyone should remember what he's doing right now during these last weeks before he leaves d.c. >> michael beschloss, thank you so much, and happy holidays to you. >> same to you, andrea. >> thanks for being with us, michael. it's always of so much value to talk to you and get the perspective. and moments ago tennessee investigators giving new information in the search for answers around that christmas day explosion. we'll have the very latest coming up next. stay with us. this is msnbc. age is just a number.

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we're learning more in the last few moments about the christmas day bombing that devastated part of downtown nashville. this new video showing what it was like inside a nashville hotel the moment of friday's explosion. investigators say the suspect, anthony warner, died in the blast. his motive remaining unclear. nbc's shaq brewster is in nashville. shaq, what are we hearing now from the tennessee bureau of investigation just moments ago in a briefing? >> well, andrea, investigators are still looking to answer the question of why anthony warner attacked downtown nashville on the morning of christmas just a couple of days ago. we just got an update from, as you said, the director of the tennessee bureau of investigations. and they made clear this is a question that they're actively working to answer. we already knew that investigators were going through things like his digital devices, seeing if he had a social media

footprint. but now we also know they're also conducting many interviews. talking to people who knew him and had interactions with him. one of those people including his mother, who the director said has been cooperative as part of this investigation. we also got a detail on how they found him and how they linked this bombing to anthony warner. the director of the tennessee bureau of investigations saying that they found a matching dna inside his hat and gloves, inside of that vehicle that they knew was attributed to him. so the crime scene, which is several blocks away from me, that large blast area, we know that in a couple of hours after the explosion investigators essentially found what they called human tissue and they were able to match that dna with what they found from the hat and gloves of his other vehicle. they said that tips from the public were crucial in making that match so quickly, and we also know despite that large blast area being such a large area they're able to actually pull a piece of that vehicle and

track down the vehicle identification number and connect it to anthony warner. so they're continuing to do that work. they're still actively working at the scene. but the big question right now is what drove him to do this and that's a question that may take some time to answer. andrea? >> shaq brewster, thank you so much in nashville. that does it for this editionqvist andrea mitchell reports." thanks for being with us. follow the show online on facebook and twitte twitter @mitchellreports. kasie hunt is in up next for chuck todd with "mtp daily" only right here on msnbc. it's moving day. and while her friends

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if it's monday. a government shutdown is averted and covid relief will soon be on the way after the president caves op his demands, ending a crisis of his own making and exposing major divisions inside the gop which are going to be on full display today in a pair of critical house votes. plus, authorities say they've determined who was responsible for the nashville suicide bombing on christmas morning. but they don't know why. we'll have the latest on the investigation. and mutant strains, holiday travel and government dysfunction. public health officials say we still haven't seen the worst of this pandemic. welcome to monday. it's "meet the press daily." i'm katie hunt in for chuck todd. after the president relented and signed the covid relief bill, we are right now in the midst of a potentially revealing day on capitol hill as