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 the country and

republicans in particular try to navigate an increasingly bitter and unpredictable president who's in his final days in office. republicans are arguably in a really tough spot here. later today the house is going to vote on $2,000 direct checks for americans impacted by the pandemic, something trump wants but that many republicans don't. and the house is also going to vote to override the president's veto of the defense bill, a piece of legislation the president doesn't want but republicans sure do. the two republicans at the center of the storm, the president has created, are georgia senators kelly loeffler and david perdue, whose runoff elections on january 5th are going to decide control of the senate. but will they choose to buck the leader of their party or not? and what about all the other republicans on capitol hill for that matter? many of them hint want to run for president. all of this comes after president trump put the government on the brink of a

shutdown while railing against a covid relief deal that his own party, loeffler and perdue included, had backed. the president's recent actions have delivered him virtually no actual concessions from congress. but in the process key covid benefits have temporarily lapsed for millions of americans. the government nearly shut down. relief checks are going to be delayed. republicans, as we've said, are divided. and confidence in the election is still being undermined. as the president tries to rally allies to cause as much chaos as possible next week when congress votes to certify biden as the winner. president trump has just 23 days left in office and he seems pretty determined to use them to push his own agenda and to test the limits of whatever power he has left. so what happens next? let's dive right in. i'm joined by nbc's monica alba. she's with president trump in florida.

nbc's leanne caldwell is on capitol hill. also with us is politico's anna palmer and republican strategist matt gorman. it's great to have all of you on board on this last monday in 2020, if you can believe it. i think we're all pretty relieved that that's the case. monica alba, let me start with you because it's been an incredibly stressful and busy weekend down in mar-a-lago because the president decided he was going to put all of this in jeopardy. none of this needed to happen. this is of course the kind of drama that he has reveled in creating throughout his presidency. but there of course were still very, very real consequences. what do we know not just about what happened this weekend but about what happens next? particularly as the president tries to urge his allies, both his supporters out in the country and republicans in congress, to try to do anything they can to disrupt that formal certification of the electoral college? >> exactly, kasie. it's a chaos that he created and that he had full control over. over the last five days or so the fact that the president

refused to sign this bill and was holding out even though this had been something that the white house and both parties and both houses had really agreed to overwhelmingly in order to get that essential aid to americans who so desperately seek it, the president decided to throw a wrench in the plans at the 11th hour and that's something we've seen him do. it's a familiar pattern. you're right, he's trying to flex the very little presidential power he has left in these final weeks. but what's notable here is the president didn't do this with any fanfare, he did it behind closed doors. there was no big bill signing or ceremony. in fact, the president hasn't really done anything on camera except golf since he got down to florida last week. so what happens next? the white house has said there are no public events on his schedule. we don't plan to hear from him in any fashion. in fact, he's on the golf course right now while he continues to urge republicans and democrats to consider increasing those $600 checks to potentially $2,000. as you said, there will be a

vote in the house on that today. but that statement that he released overnight pushing more false claims of voter fraud for which there is no evidence of widespread voter fraud, to be clear, he's trying to signal that he believes he might have some victories in this. but there aren't any. in fact, he gave away all of his leverage by signing it. so we don't have any guidance at this current hour from white house officials how the president continues to play a role in the coming days. of course he hadn't been a key part of those negotiations and now he seems to just be sending out these statements and tweets from his own golf resort but he's not from what we understand making any more calls or doing any more work on this to get the ball moving forward, kasie. >> but of course it was just a striking and difficult split screen. the president golfing, his top advisers scattered in vacation destinations as americans worried about whether they were going to face eviction at the end of the week or be able to

put food on their tables during the holidays. leanne caldwell, let me go to you on the hill. monica of course mentioned that there is going to be this vote on the $2,000 checks. from a political perspective, it sure puts republicans in a bind because now it's very clear that democrats are going to be able to make a statement for the record that says hey, we want this and it is going to have to very explicitly potentially go to die in the republican-held senate. this vote does need 2/3 to pass although i'm told that democrats have a plan to potentially move it under regular order if in fact it doesn't pass today. but what are you hearing from your sources on the hill and especially from republicans as they try to grapple with dealing with these last-minute curveballs from president trump? >> well, kasie, that's right. i'm hearing from sources on both sides of the aisle that they do expect this $2,000 stimulus check to pass one way or another. whether it's under 2/3 or whether they start the process through the rules committee and through the budget and all it needs is a simple majority.

and then it would go over to the is senate. and that's where senate majority leader mitch mcconnell has a really difficult decision. so chuck schumer, the democratic leader, has said he is going to try to offer this legislation by unanimous consent on the senate floor. so what do republicans do? do they rebuke the president and go against him when just in eight days there's a very important special election in georgia that is one of the reasons we are told that was willing -- a reason to convince trump, the president, to go ahead and sign this covid relief bill? republicans have blocked an increased stimulus check already, both in the house and the senate. so after this prodding and after a threat -- a weekend of threats of not signing this bill by the president, are they going to change their minds and are they going to appease him? the political dynamic and the political pressure they're under

is immense, especially as democrats are thrilled to have this vote and as you mentioned put them on the record on where they stand, kasie. >> so anna palmer, let me pick up right there where leigh ann left off. what does mcconnell do under this scenario? he has been -- he said it 234 private, right? he told his own republicans privately, hey, i don't want you to object to the electoral college, i don't want you to give this avenue that would be required for the president to actually challenge these results. it was leaked publicly. but this is yet another example of something that puts him in a really tough spot, especially because as we know he is just so focused on power politics and cares so much about hanging on to the majority. so what's his thinking, in your view? >> i think both of these scenarios, both the vote on the stimulus direct checks as well as what happens on january 6th, really put into question senate

majority leader mitch mcconnell's power. as you say, it is something he's usually singularly focused on, doesn't like to put things up onto the floor if he's not going to win. and usually his colleagues fall into line behind him. he's very good at what he does and has been doing it for quite a while, the longest leader in congress right now to be in that position. so i think the real question is going to be he's not going to give us a lot of signals. we haven't heard from him on twitter or otherwise about where he stands on this stimulus check. but as leigh ann said, senator ron johnson, one of trump's key allies, opposed a $1,200 check earlier. and so the question is really going to be i don't anticipate mitch mcconnell going out on a limb for donald trump here on this check payment. the question is will the president actually engage here i? think mcconnell has made it very clear to his conference where he stands on the january 6th vote, that he thinks it's foolhardy for them to object to joe biden as the incoming president.

the question will be some of these new members-r they going to be tied to mitch mcconnell and fall into line or are we going to see some of the rabble-rousing we often see in the house of some of the more republican right-leaning members. >> so matt gorman, you've obviously worked on republican campaigns. you've been in the rooms where these decisions get made and where these conversations are had. what do you think are the dynamics that are being discussed right now as the republican party tries to grap well this last 20-some days of the trump administration? the president is isolated. he is pushing policy that's are opposite in many ways to what they've been pushing. that said, it would -- and mcconnell has acknowledges to his conference, it would help david perdue and kelly loeffler if americans were getting checks in the mail. they signed a bill, the president delayed it. now they might not get those checks before election day. if you're republicans behind the scenes right now, how do you grapple with the next week? >> well, if you saw politico's reporting, david perdue was one of those members of congress who

was calling up trump trying to get him to sign this. i actually think perdue and loeffler are two of the winners in this. as you mentioned at the top of the hour, they needed and wanted this covid bill to be able to go to those suburban voters around atlanta, those suburban voters that biden won overwhelmingly in november, to be able to take credit for it, finally showing it passed. i mean, perdue ran ads on this immediately after it passed the senate. but they also came out in favor of the $2,000 checks. so that way when trump goes down there on january 4th he can say that they stood with him on this and he can help get out their base. from what i've heard, early vote, absentee vote are encouraging but republicans aren't ready to exhale just yet. >> yeah, can we dig into that just a little bit? just to remind everyone, it's pretty unprecedented to have a situation -- entirely unprecedented to have a situation where you have runoff elections that are going to decide what happens, control of

the senate. interest in this race has been incredibly high. i mean, we always talk about midterm elections and how people aren't interested. runoffs can be even harder than a planned midterm election. but the numbers of people voting seem to be very high. so i know that republicans had very good numbers going into the election in november. they knew kind of where things stood. and it mostly panned out the way that they expected. what are the expectations right now for republicans about how these races are going to pan out? do they expect to win? >> well, i think all of them expected to be close. but again, perdue won by about 100,000 votes on november 3rd. and i think they kind of see him with a pretty -- you know, a comfortable lead but certainly not a wide -- i think what loeffler and warnock, the key for republicans there is that this last month and a half, six weeks have been about warnock's record where you could argue that in the leadup to election day a lot of the scrutiny was on lovel ner and some of the opposition research democrats dug up on her. so i think in both races

republicans are feeling cautiously optimistic about that right now. and you're right. it's completely unprecedented. it's a battle of the bases. for the last year georgians have been inundated with ads. they've got to get them out once more in january. >> it's a tough hill to climb for everyone. i'm glad i'm not watching tv in the atlanta suburbs. i've got to tell you that. leigh ann caldwell, let me go back to you on what happens with this electoral college vote because of course the voting in georgia's january 5th. we expect the formal certification on january 6th of the electoral college. normally this is a pretty short closed-book process. in some cases, in some years it's taken no more than half an hour or so to do the entire thing because they have a mechanism to speed it up because it's not controversial. we don't have a lot of examples in the past of it being challenged. and there's so many questions right now on capitol hill about what republicans may try to do. i've been talking to sources who are trying to figure out exactly how all these processes are going to work.

we don't want to get down too far into the weeds. but i think what matters here is the president is encourage his supporters to go to washington to make a public stand here and you have republicans in the house that are willing to indulge him. louie gohmert today sued mike pence, who is going to be the person who presides over all of this. what are you expecting and what are you hearing from sources about what they're worried about? >> kasie, i think that there is a lot of uncertainty over what is going to happen on january 6th in the sense of how many republicans are going to stand up and defend the president. one of my republican sources last week, a member of the house, he said, well, there's a lot of consternation among the party over january 6th and he told me to stay tuned. so the question is how many people are going to be lined up and then are they going to have that support in the senate. of course the newly elected senator, tommy tuberville of alabama, has indicated that he might be that senator to give

this challenge some legs in the senate. but then what is vice president mike pence's role as well? he's going to oversee this entire process. there's been a lot made that he could be the person that puts the nail in the head of this coffin of the president. and his electoral chances. so there is a lot of planning going on behind the scenes on democrat side and republican side trying to figure out what to expect and game out the -- play out the game here and see how to prepare and what to do. but it could be a very, very long day, kasie. >> anna palmer, let me put this question to you. what are you hearing from -- you talk to sources every morning as you guys pull together playbook. are you picking up nervousness that you didn't necessarily expect or do you feel like most people are saying, well, it may be a difficult day but everything is going to be fine in the end? >> i think there's been a real

shift among congressional republicans. i'm sure you've noticed as well. where they are really turning the page for the most part on the trump presidency. they are preparing for a joe biden presidency. i think that it is going to be difficult and long, as leigh ann said. i think there's a lot of people who think it's going to be a very long day. there could be multiple challenges potentially that draw this out into a manner that we've probably never seen before in the history of this country. but i think to your point i think most people think it's going to be one day, they're going to get through it, and then it's time to move on and this will be kind of one of the last chapters of the trump presidency. i think unfortunately for a lot of republicans who had hoped that with some time and distance from the election and the president looking towards his post-presidency he might be willing and looking forward to turning the page on kind of leaving office with the vaccine and covid relief funding and on a high note. clearly that's not where donald trump's head is and he continues to really put this loyalty test

to republicans about are they with him or are they with the party and that's something that we're going to see play out in potentially dramatic fashion in the coming days. >> to the very end they have been having to deal with this. they have hoped he was going to do the right thing. i can't even count how many times we have covered a story like this. and here we are. and thankfully, people are going to get that help that congress passed. but man, it was a close call. monica alba, leigh ann caldwell, anna palmer, matt gorman, thank you all for being here, kicking us off today. ahead here, the house is set to vote this afternoon as we've been discussing to override the president's veto of the defense bill. but how many republicans will break with trump and what happens if the $740 billion bill is derailed? i'll talk with the democratic chairman of the house armed services committee next. and later, the newest revelations in the christmas day explosion in nashville. what we've learned about the suspect and the mystery surrounding a possible motive. e suourrnding a possible motive. hn you trade? i want free access to research. yep, td ameritrade's got that.

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all eyes on the house. one vote to increase the covid checks to 2,000 pds. and another to override president trump's veto of the defense act. adam smith the chairman of the house armed services committee. mr. chairman, thank you so much for joining us here on "meet the press daily." let's just start with the top-line question here. are you confident that you will in fact vote to override president trump's veto of the defense bill? >> i am, yes. we have 335 yes votes when it came to the house the first time. it was 195 democrats and 140 republicans. i think we're going to pick up a few more democrats. we're going to lose a few republicans. but in the end i think we will

comfortably get to the 2/3 majority. it's the right decision. it's a good bill. it's a strong bipartisan bill. and the president doesn't really have a reason for vetoing it. he is fairly erratic as we have seen in the last week, so he doesn't have to have a reason i understand. but as members of congress we want to support our troops. we want to support a strong national security policy. and there are a number of other crucial provisions in this bill that i know members want to see passed into law. >> we focus a lot on divisions of course and arguments but your committee, the armed services committee-s actually one where a lot of the people's business gets done because there are strong relationships that cross party lines and extend into your home states and things like that. what do you hear from the republicans that you have relationships with on the committee, people that worked hard on this bill, put a lot of time into it, about what the president has done here? what is the level of frustration among republicans who've invested in this? >> it's pretty high. i mean, they have worked very

hard and very bipartisan way. they don't understand why the president has done this. they're frustrated with this and they want to get their work done. matt thornberry, who's the ranking member, former chairman of the committee, the bill was named after matt thornberry actually as he's retiring, has spoken i think very eloquently about the legislative branch's responsibilities not to give in to the whims of any one person but uphold our constitutional obligations to support the troops and pass our bill. so look, they're very frustrated. now, as you have reported for a long time, it's a complicated relationship between the republican party and donald trump. at the moment i just want to get the bill passed. so i'm not going to be perhaps as pointed about, you know, the difficulties of that relationship as i otherwise would be. i want republicans to vote for this. i think they should. now is not the time for me to engage in a partisan fight on that front. i want to get as many votes as possible here coming up in the next three or four hours. we're on the phone, working that. confident we'll get there. but yeah, the republican party relationship with donald trump

as we have seen is very complicated. it's going to remain interesting even after he leaves office on january 20th. >> i think that's an understatement for sure, sir. so let's talk a little bit, then, about the other issue facing you all. if you want to steer clear of pointed comments about the defense bill, this $2,000 relief check question. i mean, the president, he had negotiators in the room talking to leadership in your chamber over in the senate the entire time. if this was something he felt strongly about, he had literally months to make his case. what happens next in the house? do you think you'll get 2/3 of the house between republicans who want to go along with the president and democrats who are fine spending this money to get this through today? >> well, let's be clear about one thing. the idea that the president cared particularly about whether or not the check was $600 or $2,000 is absurd. he didn't care about that. he's frustrated and he's upset

because he can't overturn the election and, well, basically complete a fascist takeover of the united states. that's what he's upset about. so he's just throwing things around the room and this is the latest thing he threw. if the president wanted a $2,000 stimulus check, he could have had it in this agreement. he had strong democratic support. he has this bizarre hold over the republican party. if he had insisted to mitch mcconnell this had to be in the package, it would have been in the package. yet as we know he was all set to sign the thing on christmas eve and then like a petulant child decided that he didn't want to because he was upset about something. let's not by any means mistake donald trump as the guy who's fighting for a $2,000 check. the only thing he's fighting for right now is a good round of golf. so he's not engaged in this. so keep that clear. i think the house will probably pass it. personally, i think, you know, it's important to get aid and help out to people. i think this is not the most

artful way to do it. as has been well documented, the pandemic has disproportionately impacted some people. it depends on where you work, what job you have. i would rather see these resources targeted, for instance, to the restaurant and entertainment industry. people who literally have been barely able to work for the last six to nine months. just sending a broad check out to everyone doesn't necessarily help people in the right way. but if this is the way it's got to be i'm for it. people need help. i think it will get the 2/3 in the house. >> very quickly, sir, before i let you go to focus a little bit on the new administration, do you have any concerns about joe biden's pick to be the secretary of defense? do you have concerns that that waiver that he needs to be approved won't actually get the support it needs? >> yes, i do. it's funny. there's so much else going on as you well know in your job, and making sure you keep up with all the news is difficult.

but we've had several republicans come out and say even though they supported the waiver for mattis they won't support the waiver for lloyd austin. i think that's questionable. and there have also been democrats who have raised those concerns. the biden administration and general arch, they're goiustin to work to get the waiver. based on my conversations i'm confident i'll get there and i'll be able to support it. but to get the votes in the house they're really going to have to address the issue of civilian control of the military. they're going to have to work it. it's not guaranteed by thiany stretch. >> all right. congressman adam smith, thank you very much for a great conversation. we really appreciate your time today and we'll be watching the floor closely. coming up next here, the mystery surrounding the christmas day suicide bombing in nashville. will investigators ever be able to determine a motive for the blast? the latest that we know, coming up next. know, coming up next. i need indeed indeed you do. the moment you sponsor a job on indeed you get a shortlist of quality candidates from a resume data base claim your seventy-five-dollar credit

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welcome back. we've got some breaking news from that christmas morning explosion in downtown nashville. investigators just finished briefing reporters on the situation including how they were able to identify the suspect, anthony quinn warner, who died in the early morning blast. they say tips from the public were key to i.d.'ing warner and while they're confident he was responsible for the bombing they still don't know why he did it. investigators are hoping that digital media dieflss that they recovered from warner's home over the weekend will help determine his motive. with me now is nbc's tom winter,

who is covering this investigation for us, and jim cavanaugh, a retired atf special agent, now an nbc news analyst. he also happens to call nashville home. thank you both for being here this afternoon. and tom, let me start with you for an update about what we know and what we don't know so far in this investigation. we know there still isn't a motive. what tools do law enforcement have right now to try to figure that out? >> well, they have two tools, kasie. one is a high-tech type of array of tools to be able to go through the various digital media device that's they found so far that may include hard drives, could include thumb drives, phones, et cetera, if any were left behind at his address. we know some were left behind at his address and you're seeing video from that search on saturday. that's kind of the high-tech portion of it. that's going to take time. that is ongoing as we speak. the second part of it is very old school and that's just compiling a lot of interviews with people that know him, may have known him. the initial kind of close

relatives including his mother who the tennessee state officials say is being cooperative in this investigation, that type of work has already occurred and is occurring right now. now they need to go larger with that, follow up on tips that they have and talk to any known associat associates. did he have a barber that he regularly went to and spoke with? that type of thing that they can go and try to piece together what this motive was and why he may have done this. i can tell you, i got off the phone with an fbi spokesperson just before coming on to speak with you and this is not going to happen anytime soon. i think the fbi's been clear in its briefings over the weekend in discussions with reporters that a motive was not immediately clear, that there was not any sort of manifesto. i can tell you that it's going to be some time here before we get a motive if we do get one in this particular case, which i know is news not a lot of people want to hear, kasie. >> certainly, but difficult.

and jim cavanaugh, the fbi has so far been careful as they have tried to ascertain this motive, not to use the word "terrorism" to describe what has happened here. can you help us understand why that is and do you think that's the right way to not characterize what's happened here? >> i think they're playing that right. you know, terrorism is a legal term in the law. they have to have the elements of proof to charge terrorism. it really doesn't matter here. we have plenty of federal statutes for criminal bombings. it will fit in either one. we also have state charges. that's really not going to be the point. i think today we could have a chance of a mailing arriving somewhere from this bomber telling us why he did it, either to the media or to government or to someone. i think that's clearly possible. if he dropped it in the mail on christmas eve we could see that today or even tomorrow. so i don't think it's out of the question that he still could tell us why. and as tom's been reporting, it's become clear into focus probably what is going on here. he wanted to kill himself in a

spectacular suicide and he wanted to attack and destroy most likely the at&t building. we know now that he parked his winnebago camper right on the curb in front of the building. he didn't park it across the street and he didn't park it as first reported in the middle of the street. it was parked on the curbside next to the at&t building. he got people to evacuate. we now know, kasie, he was in i.t. he was a burglar alarm guy. and you know what? you cannot work in that field without every day interacting with at&t and its fiberoptic cables and its cell towers and its infrastructure every day. and in addition, his father worked for bell south. so we could have reasons that are personal. his father, surrounding his father. something surrounding him. he was never hired by them or he resents how they treated him during his career as he had to interact. and/or a crackpot conspiracy

theory about 5g. but either way the target really appears to be the at&t building. he wanted to kill himself in a spectacular fashion and he didn't want to hurt any other people. >> so tom winter, what are the other questions that law enforcement officials are still trying to answer if we may -- if it may be some time before we learn the motive or if we are as jim alluded to potentially waiting for some sort of breakthrough on that front. what other questions are left unanswered about the types of explosives that were used or anything else in this incident that could tell us more? >> well, you keyed in on the number one question on my list, which is the type of explosive. that's going to tell us a couple of things. one, technical proficiency of put together the bomb. was there an ammonium nitrate or a type of high explosive that was used here that would have indicated it was procured at some point, was that procured legally? could there have been any other associates involved in that? so far there's no indication of that. but 9 type of explosive is

something i would like to know as well as the detonation chain of the bomb and while we may not go into that level of detail that is something that would be telling as far as this person's background and what they've been up to and what they were able to accomplish with respect to the bomb given the size of it and the power of it that we've seen so far. particularly because that at&t building that jim as talking about, those buildings are designed to not only carry a tremendous amount of equipment and very important, critical infrastructure equipment, but they're designed to take a hit and take weather hits and to deal with anything that kind of might be thrown at them because they are so critical. so the fact that this much damage was done indicates to me a significant blast and a significant bomb. would really like to know that. and i think going forward, you know, anything about his history, obviously it speaks to motive. it may get us to the point of whether or not this is legally defined as a terrorist attack. but certainly the bomb going forward would be information that i think would be helpful. again, giving us more about this person's background as it

appears at this point based on, kasie, a hat and a pair of gloves that was found in his car that was used to make the dna comparison. it certainly appears that this is definitely the individual that was responsible. >> well, we're all going to be anxious for updates, and i know tom, you'll be covering every turn in this story. tom winter, jim cavanaugh, thank you both for coming on today. we really appreciate your insights. and ahead here, the new push in kansas to vaccinate some of the state's most vulnerable residents. we're going to hear from the governor live about how the state is getting doses to long-term care facilities. that's next. o long-term care facilities. that's next.

welcome back. the u.s. hit yet another grim coronavirus milestone this weekend. at least 1 in every 1,000 americans has now died from covid-19. it comes as cases continue to rise, overwhelming hospitals and health care workers.

meanwhile, states are racing to distribute more vaccines to more places. vaccines are now making their way to long-term care facilities, many of which have been ravaged by this pandemic as states partner with companies like walgreen's and cvs. joining me is nbc's vaughn hill krrd from topeka, kansas. vaughn,s as i understand you are with the governor of kansas as they start to try and figure out a way to get this vaccine distributed to the americans who need it most. what can you tell us? >> reporter: exactly, kasie. i want to bring in governor laura kelly here because we were in kansas just down the road and talking to folks outside of a cvs, which there's a pharmacist, chrissy, who we met up with this morning. she was loading up the first shipment of vaccines into her pickup truck to deliver them to a long-term care facility. in 36 states and washington, d.c. as well as here in kansas that process began today, in which cvs and walgreen's

pharmacists and technicians are beginning that delivery process and beginning to administer those first doses to those long-term care residents. and that is why we wanted to make our way down over here to topeka, to the state capitol, and meet with the governor laura kelly here because your state has endured hardship here. >> like every other state. >> reporter: over these last nine months. what does this day mean? and to folks that are watching across the country but here in kansas and they have whether they be parents or grandparents in these facilities, what do they need to know about this process? >> well, i think as everybody knows the outbreak of the virus really occurred first in our long-term care facilities. that's where we saw a huge number of folks getting sick and ultimately dying. so the fact that we're now able to deliver this life-saving vaccine to them is huge. and obviously it's huge to their families too. these are families who have been separated, at least by glass, for at least ten months. and it's been very, very difficult. we're just going through the holidays, a time when you traditionally would gather with

your extended family. they've not been able to do that. but hope is on the horizon. >> operationally what do folks need to know? some folks may be living in one of the suburbs or living here in topeka but their parents are in western kansas and they're concerned. are they going to have access to the this vaccine in their long-term facilities? >> they absolutely are. we have a very sophisticated hub and spoke distribution for our more rural communities. a lot of our long-term care facilities will get direct delivery from cvs and a walgreen's but the more rural ones that don't have a cvs or a walgreen's there, we've designed a very sophisticated hub and spoke approach that make sure that we are getting the vaccines into our rural communities, into our rural long-term care facilities. >> when do you hope to have those final dosages for all your long-term residents completed by? >> i would expect we'll be able to get everybody done by the

first or second week in january. >> and then when does that next phase begin? does that first dosage come and who is in that group? i know this decision comes down to every state on who is included in that next phase. who has kansas chose as included in the next phase and when does that begin? >> well, i know that after we've finished with our frontline health care workers our long-term care residents and patients, we're then going to move into our congregate settings. other congregate settings across the state. because that's the other place where -- >> reporter: what does that mean? >> well, you could think of things like other types of nursing facilities that might not be considered long-term care like the home plus where they've only got 12 residents in there. so we'll be going toward those. we'll also be going towards some of our folks who would be in nursing homes if it weren't for the fact that they've been getting in-home care. we'll be trying to get into their homes and get them

vaccinated because they're highly vulnerable. >> how has the federal government been as partners to you as the governor? >> well, early on, not so great. with the vaccine, though, i have to say that this has gone very smoothly. i've been very impressed with the approach that they've taken. they've taken the approach to this that they should have taken from the very beginning that this -- we need a one size fits all federal approach to vaccine distribution. they've done that, and it's working. >> my last question for you. is the covid relief package that was signed by the president yesterday, does your state, have states been given what they need for your residents here? >> well, we don't have all the details yet about what's in that relief package but i can tell you i know what's not in it and we still need it. it's called a relief package and that's what it's doing. it's relieving some of the burden that the states have been operating under for all of these months. but what it does not include is any stimulus funding. you know, the funding that allows states and local

governments to backfill their revenues so that we can continue to provide infrastructure, public safety and all of the important things that state and local governments do. we've got to have that or we will never recover as a state nor will any other state. >> governor laura kelly from the great state of kansas, thank you. blessings to your residents. we'll be here in the weeks ahead. kasie? >> vaughn hillyard. it's encouraging to hear a positive update in terms of a national plan to get this out to folks. so we wish everyone there all the best as they try to make this happen. vaughn, thank you very much. coming up ahead here, are we on the verge of a post-christmas covid surge? the latest numbers up next. the t i need indeed. indeed you do. the moment you sponsor a job on indeed you get a short list of quality candidates from our resume database. claim your seventy five dollar credit, when you post your first job at indeed.com/home. honey

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twto treat acute, non-low back stmuscle and joint pain doctors with topical nsaids first. a formulation they recommend can be found in salonpas. a formulation they recommend can be found in salonpas. salonpas. it's good medicine. hisamitsu. >> we might see a post seasonal in the sense of christmas and new years surge. ands adrieped it as a surge upon a surge. new cases a day. about 2,000 deaths per day. with the hospitalizations over 120,000 we're really at a critical point. >> welcome back. christmas may be over, but as you just heard we're living with the impact of our holiday separations to come in.

it comes against the warnings of public health officials. further complicating matters is the mutant strain. the new strain was first identified in the uk and starting today anyone traveling from the uk to the u.s. must provide proof of a negative covid test. joining me now is a practicing internal medicine physician. thank you so much for being with us today. i think the assumption many of us had is that you had to have a negative covid test to get on a plane in the first place. it sounds like 2020 is getting even scarier when we talk about a mutant strain of the virus. what constrains do you have about this virus. should people be alarmed in the context of the coming vaccine and the way we're handling it? or not so much.

there is an experience. let me just remind viewers, viruss mutate. we have always known that. all viruss es mutate. with this particular mutate, right now we have no evidence that we have severe disease. we need to carefully monitor it, there is a what, if any anymani. the good news for all viewers is that we know how to prevent this part of contracting it.

you still need to wear the mask. you need to practice that physical distancing and that's how we can prevent it, kaci. >> do you think we should be taking a different public policy stance in dreaming with planes coming in. is this the appropriate way to handle this. >> there is already a dozen countries that have moved forward with travel restrictions. travel in and of itself does not necessarily lead to new infections. moe billty can be an indicator for spread and for infections and cases. i mean i think it is important to have certain restrictions and rules in place like testing before boarding, testing on arrival, but really surveillance and making sure that we're keeping track of people that are

in contact or could be positive. it's important to keep those measures in place, kaci. >> fair enough, let's talk for a second about our vaccine distribution. we have expected as many as 20 million doses by the end of the year, but akofrding to c-- accog to cdc data we're around two million, why is that? >> that is concerning. we don't have anywhere close to the amount of vaccine. forget the general population and for the most vulnerable as well as frontline health care workers. we don't have enough. we need to rank that up. we need to make sure that people get the vaccine especially our most vulnerable as soon as possible. i'm not sure why that is the case. why we don't have enough, but from a public health and medical

standpoint they made it clear they need the vaccine. the vaccine along with the masks and the distancing are really the only most effective mitigation measures that we have for containing this virus, kaci. we need to get this vaccine out and as many dose as possible. s a -- astrazeneca is coming out, too, and we need it out in realtime distributed to the people that need it. >> we ternly do as we face more community spread because of the holidays. thank you for being here and sharing your insights. thank you for all of you for being with us here this hour. i'll be back here tomorrow for "mtp daily." you can always catch me at way too early." our coverage will continue here

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good afternoon, it is 11:00 a.m. out west. as you know 2020 is almost done, the virus that ravaged the year is rolling over to 202161,000 lives have been lost according