if it's tuesday, the fate of $2,000 stimulus checks, funding for the military and so much more rests with mitch mcconnell as the president rails against republicans for rejecting his demands in the waning days of his presidency. plus, the vice president-elect receives the vaccine as her home state of california is now the epicenter of the pandemic in this country. some hospitals are so inundated,

they are treating patients in their gift shops. and may soon have to choose who gets treatment and who doesn't. and with one week to go until the georgia runoff elections and a record number of early votes already cast, we've got, who else, but steve kornacki at, where else, the big board to break down the crucial races that are going to decide control of the senate. welcome to tuesday. it's "meet the press daily." i'm kasie hunt in for chuck todd. pressure is building on mitch mcconnell after republican senators kelly loeffler and david perdue of georgia under scrutiny ahead their runoff elections next week came out in support of the president's demand for $2,000 stimulus checks. that comes after the house voted last night to increase the size of those direct payments to $2,000. even though a majority of house republicans voted against it. most republicans in the senate have also been opposed to that increase. and the big question heading

into today was, what would mitch mcconnell do? well, moments ago, he spoke on the senate floor in pretty vague terms. he said that the president has raised a number of issues for them to tackle. and that the senate would be bringing those priorities into focus this week. that was basically it, although it did hint at his strategy. after mcconnell spoke, chuck schumer tried to pass the house's bill on stimulus checks by unanimous consent. that effort failed as expected. this all comes as mcconnell is trying to navigate a labyrinth of competing and conflicting impulses in his conference. on his way out the door, the president wants those bigger stimulus checks. he wants an overhaul of the defense bill for reasons completely unrelated to defense, and he wants to overthrow the election results. and most senate republicans don't want any of that. but mcconnell is fully aware of the power that president trump

has and likely will continue to have over their voter base which they need. first and foremost they need them to win the georgia runoffs. how does all this drama play out? there's just so much at stake here. there's the additional covid relief, funding for the military and then the future of the republican party as president-elect biden gets ready to take office. we have so much to dig into this afternoon, even though it's a holiday week. let's dig right in. nbc's leigh ann caldwell is on capitol hill. monica alba is following president trump in florida. also with us, politico senior writer jake sherman, an msnbc contributor, and former florida republican congressman carlos carbello, also an msnbc political analyst. leigh ann, let me start with you. the news has just been unfolding there over the course of the last hour with mcconnell on the floor. and we walked folks through a little bit of what played out, but it suggests to me that he

knows just what a bind he is in. the suggestion is that he may try to combine different issues that the president talked about to make it harder for democrats to vote in favor of those checks that they overwhelmingly supported in the house of representatives. what's your take on what we saw unfold today, and what happens next? >> so, kasie, what we saw unfold was that mcconnell wants to be sure that he has control of this process. he did not want a unanimous consent attempt by the democratic leader chuck schumer to pass. he wants to do any sort of vote on the stimulus checks on his own terms, if he decides to do so. now this issue of the stimulus checks and the defense authorization veto override are intertwined completely. that's because senator sanders has said he will slow down the process of that ndaa vote if there's not an up and down vote

on these stimulus checks. so the question for mcconnell is, does he let that ndaa process play out, which could take four days, through new year's eve, new year's day, leading right up into the new congress, which is to be seated on sunday? or -- and then that means he'd let the stimulus issue die. does he offer some sort of vote on the $2,000 stimulus check, and if he does, does he do it just so that his georgia republicans get to vote on it or does he actually want something to pass? and those are the questions. we've been checking in with our sources in leadership and the path forward is a little bit unclear right now. there are options that mcconnell does have. whichever one he decides to choose hopefully will unfold relatively soon, kasie. >> so monica alba, it is

president trump that has put mitch mcconnell and senate republicans in this difficult position and you can underscore just how difficult that position is by how hard it is to explain exactly what's going on. they have to sort of turn cartwheels here to try to figure out what to do to try and send the right message and also figure out what policy they want to present. and i think it's important we underscore to everybody, if president trump had wanted these $2,000 checks, he had literally months to tell congress that that's what he wanted and he had a republican party in congress that was basically willing to be strong-armed into whatever he wanted them to do on this front. so i guess my question for you is, as this is all playing out, how focused is the president on it? what is the next tweet coming from him on this process or is he just entirely focused on the question of the election results and the upcoming electoral college vote count? >> kasie, you say turning cartwheels.

it's also about hitting golf clubs and balls here. in south florida it seems that's where a lot of the political discussion and pressure is actually taking place. we're learning that from republican senator lindsey graham who was on the links with the president over the weekend, and he told "the washington post" that he was one of the people who urged the president to ultimately sign the deal on sunday and then make that push and request to up the checks from $600 to $2,000, which is where we are now. the president has made very clear that is what he wants to see. but then on a separate track, we have the president calling out in tweets this morning in his words, weak and tired republican leadership on the issue of this veto override with the national defense authorization bill which is what is being set up for tomorrow as we learn from senate majority leader mitch mcconnell earlier today. so at once the president is asking and very much almost demanding loyalty from certain

republicans because he is saying he wants to remind them of when he stumps for them and he's really tying their political fates to his own in terms of looking in the rear-view mirror. to your point at the top of the show, the fact this president is going to be leaving the white house in a few weeks doesn't mean necessarily that his influence over the party shifts that dramatically. he still has a vice-like grip over it. so there are many republicans who are also walking that fine line in terms of not wanting to distance themselves from the president necessarily, and that's why, of course, senate majority leader mitch mcconnell is in the precarious position that he is. but in terms of what the president's thinking is, we don't have much more of a window to it except for maybe tweets this afternoon because he's been spending the majority of the time on the golf course. that's where he is right now. there's nothing on his public schedule as there hasn't been for days, kasie. >> it's really remarkable in the waning days of his presidency what he is not doing.

and i -- jake sherman, i want to pick up a little bit on what monica was talking about in terms of the president and his hold here because we do know, of course, that the big difference once he leaves office is that he is going to lose the actual levers of power, in this case, the veto pen that has gotten us into this situation or his own decisions as to whether or not to sign something like the covid relief bill. but it does seem like mcconnell now has to figure out how to set this up in a way that he can send the message that he wants to send. and the clue that i heard in what he said on the floor was that the president wants to talk about three issues. he wants to talk about, yes, the stimulus checks, but he also wants to talk about the liability protections for big tech, and he wants to talk about the election. and, obviously, while democrats want to vote for those $2,000 checks, it's unlikely they'd want to vote for the section 230, that's the tech liability

protections, and they, obviously, don't want to vote in favor of overturning the election. so if mcconnell puts all those things together, it certainly becomes very difficult for anything to become law. what's the calculation? what do you think we're going to see play out from senate republicans? >> i think we've all spent a lot of time trying to read mitch mcconnell and i think you did a really good job there, kasie, because i think mitch mcconnell used the word on the senate floor, the president linked these three issues. so he is saying, the president did this, i'm not linking them. the president suggested that in the waning days of this congress, he wants these three issues done. now i think that given the time that's left in this year, he's going to try to get these three issues of vote together. the threat from bernie sanders that he's going to hold up the ndaa until he gets a check on the $2,000 is not much of a threat because that's only a couple days away. people -- they can wait him out. i do think, and i think he's going to link those three things

together, and thereby it will fail. and the democrats will be able to say that mitch mcconnell wasn't serious about it. mitch mcconnell will be able to say that democrats voted it down. and mitch mcconnell can also say that he gave president trump what he wanted, which was a vote on those three issues. so i think you're right, kasie. >> congressman curbello, we're all -- everyone here having this conversation is very steeped in the ways of washington. we've all been doing it for a long time. you were a member of the house. i think we can all explain we understand the processes, all of the strategizing and the ways in which people like mitch mcconnell act or don't act to try to get outcomes that they want. but if you're an american at home who has been out of work for months who has been putting debt on their credit card, scraping things together, worrying about whether they'll have enough money for food or presents for their kids, i think it's really hard to wrap your

head around why, if two-thirds of the hour, the republican president, the democratic speaker, the democratic minority leader all want to send more money to people, they are not going to get that help and that everyone is tied in knots over this. so can you help me understand -- help all of us understand whether or not members realize just the degree to which that, in this particular case -- i've covered a lot of things like this -- but this is so stark and difficult and affects everyone. do you think congress understands and particularly the senate republicans that are blocking this. do they understand just how hard it is for americans to get their head around this? >> well, kasie, i think that's absolutely right. all of this does is kind of highlights the tone deafness of washington, d.c., the lack of connectivity between what happens in the capitol and what happens in kitchen and dining room tables all over the country. and most americans don't care

that the reason why this is so difficult and complicated is because whether mitch mcconnell wants to admit it or not or whether other republican leaders want to admit it or not, this is the beginning of the divorce between donald trump and congressional republicans. we certainly saw that in the two votes in the house. one to override the president's veto of the ndaa and then the stimulus vote where most house republicans voted against the president's position. this is the beginning of a divorce, and in that process, mitch mcconnell's attempting to bear hug the president to get out of this legislative labyrinth and to save at least one of those two georgia senate seats which is, without question, senator mcconnell's top priority right now. at the same time, democrats, i think, have been very opportunistic and shrewd in highlighting the divisions between congressional republicans and this president. they know that that has been an

important strong symbiotic relationship. the president has benefited. certainly congressional republicans have benefited, winning house seats this last election against most predictions. democrats know that there's strength in that relationship and they're doing everything they can to break that up. but you're absolutely right. in the midst of all of that, many would call it games, a lot of people are struggling. there's still a lot of uncertainty out there. yes, the vaccine is being deployed, but a lot of people are out of jobs. we're seeing lockdowns throughout the country. so it really is a tough time, and it's easy to forget that when we're talking about all this political gamesmanship. >> well, yeah, and we absolutely should not forget it. the reality is, congressman, it's not just a division between the president and congressional republicans. it's, in many ways, a division between congressional republicans and their voter base. that's why mcconnell is so worried that republicans in georgia want $2,000 checks. these people that are struggling. how does that play out in the long term, if republicans in

congress are actually divorced from a policy perspective from what people back home actually want? >> well, kasie, politically the great contribution the president has made to the republican party is that it has given it a populist streak. the republican party used to be a party about economic principles, about small government principles. today it's much more a party that seeks to please the electorate in a very simple way. and that's donald trump's doing and what you're seeing now is a lot of congressional republicans as they observe that donald trump is going to go from being the main show to a side show. they're reverting back to those small government conservative economic principles which there's nothing wrong with that. i mean, there's certainly value to that. but in many cases, and in cases like this one, they don't make for popular politics. and democrats sense that

dynamic, and they are certainly doing everything they can to highlight it. >> well, and jake sherman, there's got to be a big divide between house republicans and senate republicans going forward. i mean, this -- whatever we're going to have of the trump megaphone in a post-trump world, the most attuned listeners are going to be in the house of representatives. how do you see that divide playing out? >> that's right. it's going to play out because the house republicans also have a very close minority. the house is going to be a battleground for the next two years and kevin mckarthsy and the house republicans are going to be looking to take back the majority while senate republicans are going to try to find the new republican party. matt gates, carlos curbello's florida republican colleague, former colleague, tweeted yesterday the -- it's not the republican party of old. it's now the trump republican party. i just think a lot of republicans in the senate are going to be eager to find a different republican party in the coming weeks and months.

>> well, mr. gates and our own mr. curbello may be in the same party, very different, very different people. leigh ann caldwell, monica alba, jake sherman and carlos curbello, thank you for being here. ahead, the increasingly urgent covid crisis in california. health care workers are stret stretched. and they are using spaces in conference rooms and gift shops to treat patients. first, yet another tradition has been scuttled by the coronavirus pandemic. the biden/harris inaugural luncheon will not happen on january 20th. it was supposed to be held in the capitol statuary hall as it was for president trump in 2017. in fact, the inauguration itself will be a much smaller affair this year. we'll get an update on the transition which president-elect biden now says the trump administration is obstructing. that's ahead. keeping your oysters business growing

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this third surge is clearly the worst of the ones we've faced. >> this is pretty taxing. no icu beds. the hospital is full. we keep opening up new covid units. >> i haven't seen a decrease yet. so i'm waiting for that day. waiting to get to that hump before we start trending down and i just don't feel that in the next month we're going to see that downward trend at all. >> welcome back. california's hospitals are in crisis. you just heard from health care workers across the state as they face wave after kwawave of covi patients with very little expectation of relief any time soon. despite every effort, the number of covid patients being admitted to california hospitals is on the rise. now nearing 21,000. the ability of those hospitals to maintain a high level of care has been dropping. a new report from the "l.a. times" paints a horrific picture

of the vaelt inside these covid wards. with icus at capacity, patients are put in anywhere they can find space. waiting rooms, conference rooms and even the gift shop to try and receive care. and while hospitals may be able to push the limits of their physical space, there are simply not enough health care workers to provide a safe level of care if this surge continues. even oxygen, which is integral is now in short supply. these conditions have a devastating impact. on monday, the los angeles department of health reported this staggering statistic. this past week in l.a. county, someone died from covid every 10 to 15 minutes. joining me is dr. barbara fairer, director of the los angeles department of public health. doctor, thank you so much for being with us. can you please just start by explaining to us just how bad things are in california right

now? >> sure. thanks so much, kasie. and, obviously, alarming and devastating days. and we've experienced a month now of continued increases in the number of people that test positive every day for covid-19. right now it's about 600 people in l.a. county alone are testing positive every hour for covid-19. that drives the number of people that end up being hospitalized and, unfortunately, that increase in the number of people being hospitalized is also driving now this huge increase that we're seeing in the number of people who pass away. we're averaging around 14,000 to 15,000 people a day testing positive here in l.a. county for covid-19. about 10% to 12% of people who test positive at some point end up needing hospital care so you can rapidly see why that's

overwhelming the hospital care system near l.a. county. in fact, we are having -- today we'll be reporting over 7,000 patients are in the hospital today who are positive for covid-19. that again will be the highest number of patients hospitalized on any given day. but every single day in december, we have broken a record on the number of people needing hospital care. >> i think it's pretty scary for people to hear that the hospitals may be running out of oxygen. if they do go to the hospital with something like this, that the people that are there just simply may not have the resources to help them. i mean is there anything to be done about these shortages? is there anyone left to call? or is the surge so bad across the country that that's just not an option? >> you know, i think you brought up a good point earlier which is the hospitals -- and i want to applaud all of our hospitals and all of our health care workers that are doing everything they can to continue to provide high quality care, skilled care for

every patient that they are working with, that they are supporting, that they're helping to survive. but it is, in fact, true that there are two factors that really limit what can happen at a hospital. one is you have to have trained staff. so you can, and our hospitals have been great about expanding capacity and bringing in more beds, but every bed needs to be tended by a skilled and committed health care worker. and frankly, our health care workers are exhausted. so that becomes a limiting factor. and then, you know, there are all of the supplies that are needed to care for patients. so when you see these huge increases in the numbers of patients that are coming in with respiratory illness, you'll then have a very high demand on oxygen. both oxygen tanks that are what we call mobile tanks that somebody could take home with them when they get discharged but also the flow of oxygen, you

know, particularly high flow oxygen that's needed in a hospital as patients are getting connected to an oxygen supply while they're in their beds. and, again, you know, these are supply issues that we can plan for. we can try to address. but you start running out of supplies when you start seeing such a surge in the number of patients. i want to thank all our partners, the state and all our hospitals. we may have hospitals that have indicated they are needing certain supplies, but we're doing a good job making sure that we're getting those supplies to folks. but it's not infinite. i also want to note, it's not just covid patients that are at risk here. it's every patient that needs care at a hospital. if you need care because you're in a car accident or you are having cardiac arrest or stroke or you're a cancer patient coming in for a procedure, that

all gets impacted when you have sort of a hospital care system that becomes overwhelmed because it's just seeing 50%, 60% of their patients are now covid positive patients. >> no, it's a very difficult but important point. so we don't anticipate this is going to get any better quickly, especially with the holiday travel that's, frankly, still going on. so is there a point where you have to ration care in l.a.? what does that look like? >> you know, our hospitals, obviously, are prepared to provide a continuum of care depending on what the resources are that are available. nobody ever wants to be in the position of rationing care. there are lots of strategies for hospitals to use so that we don't end up rationing care, including moving to sort of team nursing, increasing, as i said, the staff that can come in and help, increasing the spaces that

are used. all of our hospitals at this point are not doing any nonessential procedures at the hospitals. they are diverting outpatient staff to come in and help in the outpatient settings, but that still means there could be longer waits for care. that still means that, again, the staff will be providing care in an icu unit as opposed to a ratio of two patients to every nurse you'll see a higher ratio. three patients to every nurse. and i think that's the more likely situation that we face. and the unfortunate reality is there's only one way to avoid the surge at the hospitals, and that is to cut down on the number of people getting faec t infected. you can't really, you know, go ahead and keep adding beds, because we have limited staff. so the solution really is to make sure we're doing everything we can to stop the spread of the infection. that will have an immediate

impact on what happens in our hospitals. >> and, of course, we'll do what we can to help those health care workers that are so stretched and so strained. dr. barber fairer, thank you for your time and thanks also to everyone that is working in your hospital systems, all the frontline workers that you are working so hard right alongside. we really appreciate all their work, especially in this most difficult holiday season. thank you very much. coming up next -- president-elect biden takes aim at the trump administration over the covid vaccine rollout. a first look at the speech that he's going to be delivering in just a few hours. don't go anywhere. what do you look for when you trade?

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we charge you less so you have more to invest. ♪ i have now been vaccinated, as joe likes to say. there's a big difference between the vaccine and vaccinations. i want to encourage everyone to get the vaccine. i trust the scientists. and it is the scientists who created and approved this vaccine. so i urge everyone, when it is your turn, get vaccinated. >> welcome back. that was vice president-elect kamala harris speaking moments after receiving her first dose of the coronavirus vaccine on live television earlier today. both joe biden and harris have now received their first doses of the covid-19 vaccine. but new numbers show that they're not happening around the

country as quickly as the government had hoped. about 2 million people across the country have gotten the first dose of the vaccine as of today. far short of the federal government's goal of 20 million by the end of the year. white house coronavirus task force member and testing czar admiral brett giroir told andrea mitchell in the last hour that by the end of next week, 19.9 million more doses will be distributed to states across the country. and we're expecting president-elect biden to criticize the trump administration over the pace of vaccinations when he speaks later on this afternoon. and joining me is geoff bennett from wilmington, delaware, covering the biden transition. geoff, good to see you. we did reference this reporting from mike memoli on what we'll hear from the president-elect later on today about the pace of these vaccinations going out. what more can we expect there in wilmington? >> yeah, and it's a great point you make. the trump administration's

vaccine distribution process, so far as we know, is off to a much slower start than administration officials had projected and promised. you have the vice president, the current fda director, the hhs secretary, all on the record saying that by the end of the year, they vowed to vaccinate some 20 million americans. well, there are a couple of days left before the end of the year and according to the cdc, fewer than 2 million americans have been vaccinated. so joe biden will talk about that. he'll lay out the stakes and also, we're told, lay out his plan to fix it given that he will inherit this challenge in some 22 days. now a member of his coronavirus task force said this morning that joe biden as president biden will invoke the defense production act to ramp up the production of ppe so that health officials can administer the vaccine but also to ramp up the production of the raw materials so that more vaccine can actually be produced, kasie. >> so geoff, it does seem like a challenge here.

right now president trump is still in office. but the promises from those around president trump, the aggressive timeline with which they've said americans will have access to this vaccine in some ways puts pressure on the biden team. is that what they're thinking about as they try and underscore that this is the previous administration that is struggling to get this out the door as fast as they said they would? >> yeah, i think that's a fair assessment. included in this messaging is a great deal of expectation setting. you had secretary azar say on the "today" show some weeks ago that by the end of february, millions of americans, regular folks, could go to their doctors' offices or cvs and get vaccinated and almost immediately you saw members of the biden team pushing back on that. what we'll see today is the president-elect not only call out the trump administration for this slow rollout but also help the american people better understand what is involved in this herculean effort and how

much time it will actually take, kasie. >> all right, geoff bennett, thank you very much. always good to see you. coming up next here, just one week until the runoff elections that could change everything for the biden administration. steve kornacki is at the big board with what to watch for in georgia. first, all week long you'll be hearing from msnbc anchors about what they've learned and what they're hoping for in 2021. here is what our friend mr. kornacki had to say. watch. >> what i learned this year is that, while the election result was different from 2016, country is still very divided. what i hope for 2021 is very simple. health for everyone. otlong, fro! you can even order on the subway® app! did i just get picked off by deion sanders? you sure did! now in the app, get a free footlong when you buy two. because it's footlong season™! it's time for theraflu hot liquid medicine.

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welcome back. as we said at the top of the show today, georgia's two republican senators, kelly loeffler and david perdue, now support $2,000 stimulus checks, which president trump is

demanding. they are choosing to side with the president and with democrats. but it's not clear that their fellow senate republicans will go along. and it is putting loeffler and perdue in a difficult spot with one week to go before the georgia runoffs. it's also keeping them off the campaign trail. more than 2.3 million georgians have already voted in that eelection which is going to determine control of the senate. that's a record turnout for a runoff in the state. joining me from the big board is our very own steve kornacki. steve, it's great to see you. i miss seeing you in person. it was nice to wave from across the studio on election night but i'm glad you're here today. i would say my democratic sources are pessimistic about where they are. republicans seem to be more optimistic, but you've got the numbers. >> great to see you, kasie. the election 2020 is going to conclude in 2021. let's take a look here. look, democrats on paper, obviously, look, joe biden just won the state.

first democrat to win georgia in a presidential election since back in 1992. there's a blueprint for democrats. it's what joe biden pulled off in november with that very narrow victory over donald trump in the state. if you are picking up on pessimism from democrats and optimism from republicans this is probably the simplest explanation why. this is what happened in november. here's what happened in the jon ossoff, david perdue senate race in november. note the order is flipped there. biden beats trump. no runoff in the presidential election so biden wins the state. there's a runoff in the senate election. nobody got to 50%. perdue got more votes than ossoff. that's the change from the presidential race. joe biden got 12,000, about 12,000 more vote than donald trump. david perdue, the republican, got about 88,000 more than jon ossoff. so ossoff, and it's also true the other race, a jungle primary, a bunch of democrats, a bunch of republicans. more republican votes than democratic votes. so that's what democrats need to

change in these senate races from november. what was the cause of that difference? why did biden win the state even as ossoff was running behind perdue? a lot of it has to do with this atlanta metro area here. there were some split ticket voters in the atlanta metro area. folks who went out and voted against donald trump in the presidential race but then voted for republicans in the senate races. so i give you an example. you can see it right here. fulton county, biggest in the state. this is where atlanta is. jon ossoff wins it big. it's a core democratic county. he wins it by 216,000 votes. over david perdue. compare that to the presidential race. joe biden wins the same county by 242,000 votes. difference of 26,000 votes. biden won the state by only 12,000. so again, it's a blowout for the democrats in all the races in fulton county, but biden got a bigger blowout, slightly bigger

but critically bigger than ossoff did, than the democrats in the other senate race. there's a split ticket voter out there. it's small but potentially critical and democrats need to get that voter to vote for them in the senate races that didn't do it back in november. >> some folks on twitter are calling some of those lululemon moms, for example. i think we'll be talking about, steve, not just in the context of this race but as we track the changing republican party and the realignment of our politics. it's going to be places like the atlanta metro area and those types of voters where you and i are going to be talking about for many years to come. thank you very much. we wish you a very happy new year. with me to talk more about this, donna edwards, former democratic congresswoman from maryland. she's now an nbc news contributor and "washington post" contributing columnist. congresswoman, thank you so much for being with us. let's talk a little bit about what all of this means for the incoming biden administration. there's so much on the line for

them in georgia. you have obviously served. you understand how all of this works. so let's start on the senate side. i want to talk about the narrow house majority as well. first, what do these races mean for a biden administration? and is there any optimism, do you think, that among democrats that they are actually going to be able to pull this out? right now i feel they're operating under the assumption they'll have to deal with mcconnell as majority leader. >> well, look, i think that from things like confirmations early on in the presidency to the policy agenda to judges later on, these georgia races and whether or not democrats can hold a majority in the senate make all the difference. i don't think it's the be all, end all of success or failure of the biden presidency. but i do think it would make a marked difference in those bills that came over, and we talked

about them, from the house to the senate could actually get through on the senate floor. that would make a huge difference in terms of policy. it would make a huge difference in terms of whether joe biden is able to pursue his agenda. and it would make it less likely that he has to make, you know, deep sacrifices in terms of policy making because he has to deal specifically and exclusively with mitch mcconnell in the senate. the margins are going to be narrow anyway. both in the house and in the senate however this senate race is cut out in the runoffs in georgia. but it's going to be a really tough governing environment for democrats. >> so let's talk a little bit about that because the narrow majority we're used to, we've been living with a narrow majority in the senate. the house has always been a little more of a sure bet for whoever was in charge, although,

as you know, republicans struggled with that tea party minority for many, many years. but nancy pelosi, it is going to be razor thin. it's just going to be a handful of votes she's going to be able to lose. you have seen her behind the scenes. you know how she works. how do you think she's going to handle that? how is she going to keep her people together in the face of potentially a lot of frustration from some of her members? >> i think as leader and as speaker, nancy pelosi is actually been masterful in knowing the temperature and taking the temperature of her caucus. and i think that we will see that come 2021. her major job is going to make sure that the biden agenda at least gets a good, clean start in the house of representatives to send over to the senate. i think for a lot of those members, i mean, i saw her work

in small groups in one on one meetings with members to really understand where the leverage is within that caucus. and even though it's going to be a slim majority, i don't think that you're going to see a circumstance where pelosi brings bills to the floor and then loses on those votes. she's not going to lose anything that she brings to the floor, but she's going to do some very careful treading when it comes to reading her caucus. >> two very longstanding power politicians in nancy pelosi and mitch mcconnell. both of whom are going to play critical roles in the biden administration, no matter what happens in georgia. donna edwards, thank you very much for your time today. really appreciate your analysis here. coming up next, delivering the coronavirus vaccine to some of those who need it most. the rollout to long-term care facilities in one very hard-hit state coming up next.

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so you're ready for the day with a clean shave and a clean face. (combative yelling) he used to have bad breath. now, he uses a capful of therabreath fresh breath oral rinse to keep his breath smelling great, all day long. (combative yelling) therabreath, it's a better mouthwash. at walmart, target and other fine stores. welcome back. as we said earlier, the pace of vaccinations in this country has been moving more slowly than many had hoped. and the pace of hospitalizations is moving much more quickly. the trump administration projected that 20 million people would be vaccinated by the end of this month. right now, just a couple days before the new year, that number stands at about 2.1 million. for many of those folks who are getting vaccinated, it is an emotional experience, especially in places like long-term care

facilities. many of which have been so incredibly hard hit by this pandemic. many of those residents have been completely isolated from their loved ones for months. joining me from one such facility in arizona is nbc's vaughan hilliard. you have been reporting on these just incredibly emotional, personal moments for the individual americans who have had such a hard time throughout all of this pandemic. and i understand you've got one such story for us today. we could use a little good news. so what are you learning? >> reporter: we're in the heart of phoenix at the campus, about 700 resigdents here. we had a chance to introduce folks to hootie. and hootie has been isolated from her partner of 39 years, peggy, who is currently in skilled nursing part of this campus here. i want to let you hear part of

our conversation, then i'll take you to the next moment that makes today a particularly special day here on campus. >> today, i can kind of remember what life was like. we kind of didn't have that for a long time. but i think peggy would say the same thing. we're rediscovering hope. >> reporter: casey, the vaccines have arrived here in phoenix at beattitudes campus. hootie, you've been facetiming every devil ray pay with peggy,e facetiming now. i want everyone to have the chance to live through this moment. >> the sleeve just went up. sleeve's up. alcohol cotton is right out. here it comes. all right.

all right. the miracle has happened. first step. first step. thank you, lord. >> here you go, thank you -- >> that's really -- really, really amazing. there she is. got the sleeve back down. the first step, the first vaccination, babe. >> reporter: what does this mean for you guys? >> oh, goodness. what do you think that means to us? we're hoping we're going to be able to get things whatever we call normal again. 28 days, you get the next dose, and then you will be protected. and i am so relieved that it finally -- it has finally come

today. >> reporter: hootie? >> yes? >> reporter: thank you to you. peggy, thank you, and blessings to you, all righty? we look forward to meeting in 28 days from now. >> 28 days. >> reporter: 28 days from now. >> january 26th. >> you said it, the vaccines are coming out. and it's one human at a time. it's one couple at a time. this couple of 39 years. there's a lot of life to be lived around this country. and as you can see there's reason to be hopeful heading into 2021. >> there is, and we were watching that moment, we were watching hootie watch on facetime as her life partner received protection that will allow them to be together. and so many families have experienced moments in virtual ways like this. we are very grateful to them for sharing that moment with us. she said, thank you, lord, i think there are many people who are having similar thoughts as they consider what things may be like on the other side of this

pandemic. so thank you so much for bringing that story. thanks to all of you for being with us this hour. i'll be back here tomorrow at 1:00 p.m. for much more. and catch me tomorrow and every morning on "way too early" beginning at 5:00 a.m. nbc coverage begins with my friend after the break. begins friend after the break since tide antibacterial fabric spray kills 99.9% of bacteria. just to be sure. he wants us to spray everything every time we walk into the door. it's just to be sure. just to be sure! i thought you just sprayed those. ma, it's just to be sure. see, he takes after my side of the family. for every just to be sure, it's got to be tide antibacterial fabric spray.

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good afternoon, i'm katy tur. it is 11:00 a.m. out west and 2:00 p.m. in the east. days before the new month begins when rent and other bills come due, more money to help struggling americans, money demanded by the republican president is being held up by senate republicans. during a rare holiday session call to override president trump's veto of a major defense policy bill. senate democratic leader chuck schumer used the opportunity to put pressure on his republican colleagues to do what the leader of their party has asked and what democrats have wanted all along. approve a bill increasing