good morning, i'm jo ling kent here in los angeles. happy new year and welcome to "msnbc live." we've made it to 2021 but our country is still facing the same crises with the coronavirus pandemic, and the calamities that have come with it. while we're in the final weeks of president trump's term, he seems preoccupied by last ditch attempts to extend his time in office rather than dealing with the pandemic that experts say could become worse in the coming weeks. nbc's steve patterson is on the ground here in los angeles where the coronavirus is pushing hospitals to the brink. nbc's kelly o'donnell is outside the white house.

nbc's mike memoli is following president-elect joe biden in delaware. also with us is reuters white house correspondent jeff mason. happy new year, everyone, thanks for joining us today. steve, i want to start with you. we've been hearing from front line health care workers on how dire this situation is here in l.a., that one person is dying every ten minutes in l.a. county. what's the latest? >> "dire" is really the only way to put it. it's certainly how these front line health care workers are characterize it. l.a. county has set its three-day death total record three days in a row. it's so bad that mortuaries and private funeral homes are turning families away because there are too many bodies. meanwhile, hospitals. nearly everyone in the region is diverting patients away in some form or fashion. ambulances have to wait seven or eight hours to offload patients, who are now being treated in

chapels, in gift shops, in hallways, and the ambulances themselves, simply because there is no space available in several hospitals. resources are limited like ppe for hospital workers. the biggest bottleneck is and always has been staffing levels. the ratios of patient to trained nurses is described as out of whack and unsustainable. cedars-sinai is releasing videos from their nurses describing how dire the situation is. we have a few of those videos now, i want to play them for you, listen to this. >> things are pretty bad. things are really bad. we're overwhelmed. we're stressed. we're stretched so thin. it's pretty unimaginable. >> we are admitting patients than we discharge them.

in this battle, we are so outnumbered. >> there's also the case of that new, possibly more contagious strain or variant of coronavirus here in southern california. three more instances discovered by san diego county health officials. now the grand total is four that they have so far discovered. and it appears that in interviews, none of the people they've talked to so far have had any recent travel history, which seems to indicate to health officials that this more widespread than they originally thought. >> steve, that situation is to dramatic and dire. kelly "o," president trump is back in washington earlier than expected. nurses are describing themselves as overwhelmed and outnumbered. what is the president doing about the pandemic versus his focus on overturning the electoral college vote next week? >> it's hard to answer that because we're not seeing anything publicly. it's possible the president is checking on issues related to covid privately, but he's

certainly not talking about it. it's not reflected in his public statements through twitter, except for a video produced by the white house and released yesterday in honor of the new year, where the president reflected on some of what he considers accomplishments of his time in office, including vaccine development, and wanting credit for that. but what we have not seen is the president weighing in on these most recent big spikes of illness and deaths, nor have we heard him talk about the issues related to vaccine distribution, once it gets to the states, he says it's now in the states' hands to deal with it. he hasn't talked about the fact that that's become a real logistical issue across the country, how will people in a timely way get the vaccines and get the second dose. the question is silent on all of that, uncharacteristically silent when you consider that before election day the president would make appearances

before the cameras and speak to reporters. he hasn't been doing that, he's been much more focused on try to in some long shot way make a statement about the election going into this week. but when it comes to covid and the deaths associated with it and whatever responsibility he continues to bear as president for three more weeks, there's been very little to see. >> kelly "o," one of the president's top foils has not been silent. senator mitt romney is out with a new statement slamming him on the vaccine rollout. here is a part of what he said. that comprehensive vaccination plans have not been developed at the federal level and sent to the states as models is as inxronsable as it is inexcusable. unless new strategies and plans are undertaken, the deadly delays may be compounded as broader and more complex populations are added. urgent action now can help us catch up. has the white house reacted to

this? i know president trump tends to react to senator romney. >> he tends to, but we have not seen it yet. it would seem this is very classic mitt romney, not really so much aiming at president trump, but trying to say this is a problem, and given his management background and his sort of business knowledge about some of these kinds of issues which he readily says in the lengthy statement that he's not someone who is an expert on vaccinations but is putting forward some ideas on how people in different communities who might have some knowledge that could be used for administering vaccinations, retired medical personnel, even veterinarians, military medical personnel, trying to throw out ideas for how this can be ramped up quickly. it seems less about a direct criticism about president trump, although it's implicit, and more of a warning, a siren going off from mitt romney saying, this isn't working and we need to do something quickly, because there are still three weeks before the biden team begins, they can't do

it all like a light switch turning on, and there are lives at stake in the intervening weeks. romney is calling for new action to step up some kind of plan, coordinated with the federal government, states, and local areas that will have to carry out this vaccination process. and his concern is that quality vaccines could be lost due to expiration and so forth if we don't get going and we don't have more of a distribution plan than currently exists, which is in many places a real mystery as to how it's going to happen once states receive the doses that are coming from the federal government, jo. >> jeff, picking up on what kelly "o" reported there, saying getting shots in arms isn't the federal government's job, it's up to the states to get it done. what can you tell us about that plan? i know 50 states and territories is a complicated prospect here. >> the first thing i would say is that is standard president trump response to criticism. and we've seen that throughout

the coronavirus pandemic. he has shifted between saying this is our job, this is the federal government's purview, to saying this is the state's job, it is their purview. and he has received some criticism, and kelly was just referring to that, in the last few weeks, because the distribution plan has not gone as quickly as promised. and those promises were from the president and from the federal government. so i don't have specific details for you on how that rollout should be happening in the states. but what i can say is, it is certainly a weakness right now politically for this president in the final three weeks of his presidency, even as he is requesting and calling for credit for the fact that that vaccine was developed as quickly as it was. >> jeff, i wonder too, do you get a sense, having covered the white house for as long and president trump, that he's implicitly just handing off everything to the biden administration despite putting up this public face of wanting to extend his time in office?

>> that's a good question. i don't think he's implicitly handing anything over to the biden administration. i think -- because that would imply that he accepts that the election was legitimate, which he does not, despite the fact that it was, and biden will take over on january 20. but i do think it's a reflection of where his focus is. and kelly referenced this as well, he's not just, at least publicly, talking about the pandemic, talking about the deaths, talking about the crisis that this country faces. he's instead still focused on what he can do to overturn the results of the election. >> mike, president-elect biden certainly has a different take on this. while president trump says getting shots in arms is not a federal responsibility, biden says it's his priority. tell us about the contrast, how is biden approaching this? >> yeah, jo, in fact i spent the better part of last year talking about the contrast between candidates joe biden and donald

trump. now we're seeing that very clearly in terms of the approach to the pandemic as well. you see it on issues like mask wearing, where there hasn't been an event where either candidate or president-elect joe biden hasn't encouraged the public to wear a mask, even with the vaccine now being distributed, the biden team still sees that as the most effective way to contain the spread of this disease throughout the country still. especially so, we are seeing a contrast in terms of their approach to the states. joe biden, even before he has taken the oath of office as president of the united states, has convened multiple meetings of the nation's governors to talk to them precisely about how to better coordinate at the state and federal response to this pandemic. and we heard dr. fauci, who of course will be one of those officials who serves under both a trump administration and in an even more prominent role now in a biden administration, saying to andrea mitchell yesterday that yes, it is good for all 50 states to tailor a strategy for themselves but this is a national response that's

required and there needs to be better coordination there as well. the biden team is planning on multiple fronts to try to address this head-on. some of this is on a policy level, some is on a stylistic level. we saw the president-elect, in contrast to what kelly "o" is laying out in tells me of the silence from president trump, joe biden is speaking out publicly as often as he can, laying out his concern this week that the pace of vaccine distributions has been slow, and last night, using a new year's eve national broadcast to speak to the country about his optimism, despite all the challenges, that the nation can overcome this including that people should get the vaccine when they have the opportunity to. >> mike, we have that sound you're referring to, the president-elect last night ahead of the ball dropping in a very empty times square. listen to this. >> i'm more optimistic about america's chances than i've ever been. and i've been around this for a while. there's never been a single thing america has been unable to

overcome, no matter how drastic it's been, when we've done it together. never, never, never. america can do anything. i am absolutely, positively confident, we're going to come back, and come back stronger than we were before. >> mike memoli, quickly from you, do you think this will hold, january 20th, right out of the great? gate? >> yeah, i think there needs to be a greater effort for the public education about vaccine procedures. biden has laid out those goals for the first 100 days, vaccinations, mask-wearing goals as well, getting students back into the classroom, things like the defense production act as it relates to vaccines and also as it relates to testing which they also see as a significant problem that's not at the level it needs to be. >> mike memoli, kelly "o," jeff

mason, steve patterson, thanks for joining me today. doctor, you work at ucla. you know the numbers that steve has been reporting on very, very well. what worries you the most right now about the situation here in los angeles? >> here in los angeles, we have a dire situation. we now have an estimate of people dying one person every ten minutes here in los angeles county. our rates of positivity are increasing. and it's very clear that we have a situation on our hands that is going to continue to get worse because people have been gathering over the holidays. so our hospitals are definitely overwhelmed. and we definitely have a situation where we're having more and more opportunity for spread of the virus. >> so we know this more infectious strain of coronavirus has been identified in multiple places, in california. what does this tell you about

what we need to do as individuals to fight this pandemic more effectively given this new threat? >> well, this new variant that we've discovered here in southern california, also in colorado, also in florida, all of these cases to date, nobody has had a history of travel. so what that suggests to us is that this virus or this variant has been spreading widely in the community. people got this in the community. they didn't get it by going somewhere else. this tells us we have a more contagious strain or variant that we know of right now circulating in the community. so we all need to double down on our efforts. it's also like, because we haven't been doing the genomic surveillance that other countries are doing, we have a south african variant as well, also extremely contagious, and other variants we haven't noted to date. the thing that we can do is do the things we know, wear a mask, social distance, hand hygiene, stay home if you can.

that's the best way to avoid getting this virus. >> we're also looking at vaccine distribution versus what's being administered right now. and there is a gap in between those numbers. why is that? what are the challenges right now when it comes to getting the vaccine properly administered? because if we look at these numbers here, you can see 12 million doses distributed, almost 3 million doses administered. you know, why is there such a lag here? >> you know, this has been the thing we've been discussing from the very beginning, which is not just about making the vaccine, which is an enormous accomplishment in and of itself, but now getting that vaccine into people's arms. we are definitely lagging behind many other countries that have been able to get this vaccine distributed. we are a very large country, and distribution is going to be complicated. it's not a one-size-fits-all strategy. but it's very complicated. it's not only just about getting that vaccine in somebody's arm. we need to have the trained personnel to be able to administer the vaccine. we have to have the sites

available. we have to have the cold storage. and the states and local governments do not necessarily have the means to be able to get this done on a wide scale, on the scale that we need to happen. so we are going to have to be doubling down on getting all these logistics in order and coming up with new strategies to do mass vaccination campaigns. we are not used to doing these kind of mass vaccination campaigns in the u.s. i've been working in the democratic republic of congo for years where mass vaccination campaigns are the norm. this is something new for us to tackle. >> when we talk about the more infectious strain and how it impacts getting vaccines into arms, is there any sort of concern there about the more infectious strain along with the logistical challenges and coordinating with the state governments around the country and getting all of these resources and vaccines deployed? >> well, having a more contagious strain means we're going to have more people infected. and we're going to see this

pandemic accelerate here in the u.s. so it just means we need to double down and work faster to be able to get more vaccines in arms to be able to protect more people, to get that immunity level up. but, you know, i just think it's really important for people to remember that these variants are important, we need to be able to monitoring, we need to be doing genomic surveillance. but the bottom line is, we're going to prevent spread the same way that we've been preventing it all along, with what we can do right now, and that is all of these things, this mantra we keep saying, the masking, the staying away from other people, and of course now getting more vaccines into more arms as soon as possible. >> that's the bottom line, mask up, stay home. dr. anne rimoin, thanks for your time and happy new year. >> happy new year. we have some big names coming to georgia ahead of tuesday's runoff elections, including president trump and president-elect joe biden. the very latest on the get out the vote efforts, up next.

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we are just days away from those crucial georgia runoff elections. more than 3 million georgians have cast an early vote, significantly higher than what we're used to seeing in an off-year election with control of the senate at stake. and senator david perdue's campaign has hit a major snag in the final stretch. he's off the campaign trail today after exposure to a staffer who tested positive for covid-19. so far the senator has tested negative for the virus. joining me now, nbc news reporter priscilla thompson in atlanta. editor at large for "the 19th."

and msnbc contributor sam stein. priscilla, you're on the ground there in atlanta. how is senator perdue planning to handle these last critical days of campaigning against democrat jon ossoff? >> jo, with millions of voters still up for grabs here, this is certainly not the time for these candidates to be letting up. but senator perdue seems to be taking all of this in stride. we saw him tweet last night after this news came out that thanks to everyone who has called, texted, and reached out, bonnie and i are at home feeling great and getting ready to ring in the new year with a whole lot of virtual campaigning. hope you all have a safe, happy, and healthy new year. virtual campaigning, jo, that is not something that we have seen from the republican candidates on the ground here throughout this runoff. they have largely been holding events that are in person, at times crowded, very little social distancing. and so it's going to be interesting to see how this pivot will work, how voters will

respond to it in these final days before election day. but what we do know is that the president will still be here on monday to rally supporters, to turn out and vote for both loeffler and perdue, even as perdue will likely be at home quarantining. jo? >> wow, this situation certainly a very fast-moving one. sam, president trump is still challenging the results in georgia for the presidential, tweeting this this week, "we now have far more votes than needed to flip georgia in the presidential race," president trump saying "massive voter fraud took place, thank you to the georgia legislature for today's revealing meeting." sam, senators perdue and loeffler can't afford to lose the support of president trump's base. their own governor, at the same time, is pushing back on all this. how are the republican candidates handling all of this? >> first of all, happy new year's, jo. secondly, the tweet that you read from donald trump is false.

there is no evidence to support what he was asserting there. but it gets to what you're talking about, which is when he injects these types of rumors, misinformation, lies, into the bloodstream, it creates complications for the republican party. right now trump has called for the republican governor of georgia to resign. absent that, he has privately mused about helping out a primary challenger to brian kemp. the more conspiratorial-minded trump aides and allies have suggested that republicans may want to send the republican party a message by not showing up in the runoff election, something the president has not endorsed, i should note. so it creates this weird stew of conspiracies and political intrigue and interests heading into this runoff. and it begs the question, will there be such distrust among republican voters in the

process, such anger over what happened in the 2020 elections, that they don't show up for the runoffs and create a real problem for mitch mcconnell and republicans in holding on to the senate? that's the million dollar question. >> what do you think the answer to that question is, sam? >> if i knew the answer to that question, i would be doing a different line of work, i think. but, you know, what we're seeing right now on the ground anecdotally is an immense amount of enthusiasm for a runoff election. traditionally these types of affairs bring out really the truly committed voters on each side, and often that means republicans prevail in these, because their voters tend to be just more committed to the act of voting than democrats. what's interesting here, and this is anecdotal, it's not predictive in the slightest, is we're seeing a lot of turnout in african-american counties, predominantly african-american counties, i should say, and when you talk to democratic operatives who are following

this race, they are pleasantly, cautiously, optimistic about the early numbers. this is not to say they predict a win, in fact many of them are do you kn dubious about it still. but the formulas they knew they needed to have heading into the runoff to be successful, they so far have, so they have a chance. we'll have to see with trump generating election-day turnout to make that up, and whether perdue being off the trail complicates this. but it will be close, it looks like. >> certainly going to be close. erin, ossoff and warn off are trying to make these elections a referendum on the additional stimulus checks. we also know that senator mitch mcconnell is saying that the $2,000 on the table is -- there is no hope, basically, on that front, even though they have bipartisan support. so do you think that for the candidates in georgia, could it work? >> the pandemic is definitely factoring into this election. let me say happy new year, jo,

and congratulations to sam on his new role, starting off this year. the stimulus, i'm hearing from organizers on the ground that the canvassers knocking on doors are hearing from voters and would-be voters in this election that the stimulus is absolutely factoring into what they plan to do either in the early voting that just ended or headed into tuesday. i will also say, to sam's point, black voters are really going to be the decisionmakers in this election, which, you know, there's a bit of irony to that, in a state that has frankly long been known for voter suppression, this contest will come down to voter suppression versus voter turnout on tuesday. democratic organizers tell me they think they got the job done in terms of early voting, especially with african-americans. there were 943,000 black people

who did not vote in the general election that they're trying to get turned out in this election. you saw 80,000 people who did not vote in the general election that voted in this runoff. a lot of those were african-americans. and in addition to the pandemic relief, the stimulus checks, what they're telling me, they're hearing those would-be voters are motivated by is also the chance to make history. raphael warnock would be the first black senator that georgia has ever had. also, frankly, the legacy of john lewis, who would have been the most prominent surrogate in this final push, is looming very large over this election. there are signs of him all over the city. there are quotes, you know, from his final op-ed that was posted posthumously in "the new york times" all over the city. his message of voting and voting rights is really resonating for people headed into this final push. and ossoff and warnock both, you

know, kind of frame themselves as inheritors of his legacy as well. >> errin haines, you mentioned the historic streak georgia has had. we'll see what happens next week but it's a privilege to have you all on. appreciate it. the president is using wall street as a barometer for how well the economy is doing. but on main street it's a totally different story. we're going to look at what the new year could mean for the growing divide in america. this is msnbc. [ fizz ] joining meeting. [ coughing ] [ gasping ] skip to cold relief fast with alka seltzer plus severe power fast fizz. dissolves quickly, instantly ready to start working.

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welcome back. the new year is kicking off with a growing disparity between wall street and main street, with the stock market ending the year on record highs while millions of americans are jobless and going hungry. joining us now is austan goolsbee, former chairman of the council of economic advisers under the obama administration and currently a professor at the university of chicago's booth school of business. happy new year, austan, thank you for joining us. >> you too. >> the s&p 500 gained more than 60% last year.

let's take a look at other side of the coin here. nearly 20 million americans are on unemployment right now. another 787,000 people filed for first time unemployment last week. that doesn't even include pandemic unemployment assistance which was over 300 k. we're seeing long lines of people at food banks. why is this economic situation persisting? >> virus, virus, virus. i mean, the first thing is what's wrecking the economy and what's leading to this disparity between the very high end and the middle and below is that we live in two different economies. that was true before the virus showed up. and once the virus came in and made it so that people who can work from home basically maintained their incomes and people who have to work at a location, which tend to be lower income occupations, they can't go to work. you knew this was going to

happen. and it's been made worse. >> it's been laid bare, basically. >> yeah, it's been laid bare. and it's been made worse by a response coming from the federal government and the white house which was very much focused on, well, let's find a way to give rescues and make sure that big corporations do okay, make sure they have money to be financed. and the thing is, if you look at the billionaires in the company, their wealth literally increased by more than $1 trillion during this pandemic. >> exactly. >> they didn't have a recession, they haven't had a recession. so we're having a savage recession for one part of the economy and no recession at all for the other part. and that's very unusual, as you know. and we don't quite know how to deal with it. >> so you worked with president-elect joe biden in the obama administration. what should be his first move for people who are really struggling here?

>> well, look, i'm an old friend and a big supporter of the president-elect. i think he's got to do two things before the first day, but absolutely on the first day. the number one is, put the priority on stopping the spread of the virus, absolutely and completely. that is the thing that is wrecking the economy. and if you can stop that, the economy can go back to something like normal pretty rapidly. and then the second is, you've got to prevent permanent damage to the vast middle of the economy from what should be a temporary shock. and that means you've got to provide relief. there's no doubt about it, this last relief bill is helpful, and the c.a.r.e.s. act before that was extremely helpful. we would be in a lot worse situation without those. but it's not near enough. and if you can't get control of the virus, we're going to run out of money to prevent evictions, to prevent people

from having their gas shut off, to keep food on the table, all those things. you've got to have direct relief and you've got to stop the spread of the virus. >> i've been covering the eviction crisis and the wave that's on its way, basically. and we know, the critics tell us that the eviction moratorium extended to the end of january is simply a band-aid. now senator mcconnell is saying he's not going to budge on the $2,000 stimulus checks being considered in congress. he's erasing hope here, and the house bill isn't the right approach. where do you stand on achieving something that is tangible that people can get that's more than a band-aid? >> that's a big mess. i agree that it is in a way a band-aid. eviction moratoriums, it's just building up in there. we've got to get control of this virus so we can get the furnace back on. we're just burning money to stay warm while the furnace is off. now, a lot is going to hinge on your previous segment of what

happens in georgia. if the democrats were to take control of the senate, i think you would see a lot higher probability that they could get some relief money and address this. but i'm actually still guardedly optimistic. mitch mcconnell may pitch a fit, have a tantrum, whatever he wants to do, but the fact is, this is hitting states everywhere. this is not exclusive to blue states by any means. some of the hardest-hit states are in red states. so i think that there might be some nicks in the armor, if you want to call it that, that when president biden comes in, there will be so many states hurting, i think you might see some republican senators say, okay, fine, let's have some relief, we'll opens you on other things besides that. >> austan goolsbee, we'll be following up with you on that prediction. thank you so much for your time, and happy new year. >> great to see you again. in 2020, more than 10

million jobs vanished from the economy. they haven't been brought back yet. and the economic crisis around the pandemic uncovered many of the gaps that we've been talking about. but especially between those with a college degree and those without. our jacob ward introduces us to one organization helping people who don't have that college diploma to get a chance to learn new skills and work their way into a job of the future. >> reporter: this man grew up in oakland. he knew he needed a four-year degree. >> in this world that we live in, me being an african-american male, you have to have some type of paperwork to be able to, you know, move on, move up in life. >> reporter: he's right. a georgetown study found that nearly 70% of new jobs created since 2010 require at least a four-year degree. but when cancer struck his father, he had to quit college to support his family. >> i wasn't able to move up in the company because of the lack

of my degree. >> reporter: then he heard about the year up program that offers help to people without a diploma. >> we put it into people's heads that you are failing if you do not go to four-year college. then we priced that four-year degree out of reach for most americans. that's the definition of cruelty. >> you take college courses and you also get taught how to be a professional. >> reporter: culminating in a paid six-month tryout at one of more than 250 companies including jp morgan chase and microsoft. he has a full-time mentor he now meets with virtually and learns software, public speaking, project management. >> 90% of our graduates, within four months of graduation, are either in school full-time or are earning $42,000 a year on average. that young person when they came

to us was on average earning between 9, 10, $12,000 a year. >> reporter: taylor brown was working in a call center and her partner ronald shackelford as a driver when they realized they were not going to make it. >> it was a very low point, we didn't know what we were going to do. >> it would be hell to have our son in that situation, in those type of jobs, really struggling. >> reporter: jp morgan chase, after a year, hired them both. >> it was emotional, we cried a little bit. >> with the current situation in the world, it seems like your education pretty much determines what your potential is. >> reporter: and here's the thing. those degree requirements do not affect everyone equally. according to census data, when you slap a degree requirement on a job, you're wiping out more than 80% of hispanic job seekers and more than 70% of black job seekers. evelyn just got an internship at

a software company. >> he's going to be our family pioneer, opening up new paths for younger ones coming up. >> i have a lot of cousins, they're smart, they're able to look up to me and see what i'm doing. >> it's cool to imagine them saying, oh, yeah, my cousin does this or my uncle does this. >> exactly, instead of, you know, just working at a job where it's not going to lead to anything. >> reporter: jake ward, nbc news, oakland, california. >> thank you, jacob ward, for that insightful reporting. next up, britain enters a new chapter today as brexit officially goes into effect. we'll look at what that means for the uk, europe, and the global economy. stay with us.

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>> we have our freedom in our hands. and it is up to us to make the most of it. >> nbc's matt bradley is in paris for us. matt, what are the new rules going into effect today, and how does this impact uk residents and residents all across europe? >> reporter: yeah, well, jolene, it's a really interesting question, because of course, a lot of this, like everything else in 2020, has been kind of clouded by the coronavirus. it will be hard to see the impact of britain finally leaving the european union, finally, because of the coronavirus, because of the restrictions on trade that were already in place, because of this new variant of the coronavirus out of britain. so it's unclear what's going to happen. and the new rules now, basically the rules that boris johnson, the prime minister you just heard from, inked in a deal that came up on christmas eve, really a last-minute deal, basically it means that britain can trade with the european union without any tariffs or taxes,

essentially on the same level that it was before. what it does mean is that anybody who is going to be doing trade between britain and the european union, they'll have a mountain of paperwork that they've going to have to be doing. and of course that also applies to travelers. so british people who are traveling from britain to the european union, they're no longer going to be able to stay indefinitely, as simply citizens of the european union. now they're only going to be able to stay, like me, an american, 90 days out of every 180 days. if they stay longer than that, they have to get a visa. there's lots of little details. for the vast majority of the public, this isn't going to have all that much of an effect, and that's because boris johnson and his european counterparts were able to come to this deal when prevented what a lot of people call a hard brexit, a no-deal brexit, which would have meant britain crashing out of european union and going back to a trading relationship with the european union as any other country in the world would trade

with the eu. what's happening now, basically you wouldn't notice that brexit had happened from walking the streets of london or here in paris, jolene. >> matt bradley, a complicated situation there in europe. the most beautiful backdrop of 2021 so far. thank you so much. we enter the new year, what the front line heroes wish for 2021. stay with us. this is msnbc. stay with us this is msnbc. all of these things that i found through ancestry. i discovered my great aunt ruth signed up as a nursing cadet for world war ii. you see this scanned-in, handwritten document. the most striking detail is her age. she was only 17. knowing that she saw this thing happening and was brave enough to get involved and do something- that was eye opening. bring your family history to life like never before. get started for free at ancestry.com

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as we begin this new year, we wanted to hear from the tireless health care workers who've been on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic. these are their wishes for 2021. ♪ >> my wish for 2021 is for us all to be happy and covid free. >> we've learned so much from 2020 that now we can face 2021 with renewed hope and promise. >> i just know this time next year we will all be healthier. >> 2021 will be a year of unity, love, and compassion for everyone in honor of all those who have given so much. ♪ >> i look forward to telling my

grand kids about the day i got the shot and how things changed and hopefully for the better. >> i'm looking forward to paying back some of the precious time i've missed with my family due to the demands from coronavirus. >> my wish for 2021 is to be able to travel without restrictions. >> to be able to take my kids to the park and for there to be a lot of kids for them to play with. >> to, to go friends and family. >> i want to do more fly-fishing and see less death certificates. >> and for my children to return back to school. >> my wish for 2021 is to get married in vegas. ♪ >> my wish for 2021 would be that we can all safely spend the holidays together with our families. >> despite all the trauma of this year, i've seen how much beauty there is in human strength and in the lives of others. 2021 is full of a lot of hope, and so am i. >> things will get a little bit

brighter. i hope that everyone stays happy and healthy and stays strong and stay safe. >> never surrender, never quit, continue to fight to keep saving as many lives and heal as many broken souls as possible. ♪ >> let's kick it off because now more than ever we have the power to overcome this pandemic, and together we will win this battle. happy 2021. >> i sure hope every single one of those wishes will come true this year. that does it for this hour of msnbc. thank you for joining us on this new year's day. my colleague picks up the coverage after the break. vice president mike pence changing his travel plans. all that is coming up next right here on msnbc. moisturizer goes beyond just soothing sensitive skin? exactly jen! calm + restore oat gel was designed for sensitive skin. uh! it's incredible! we formulated it with a super nurturing ingredient. prebiotic oat.

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good afternoon, and happy new year. i'm alicia menendez. we are just hours into 2021, and already more than a thousand americans have died of the coronavirus so far this year. the death toll is at nearly 347,000 and rising, as the country soars past 20 million confirmed cases. the highly contagious uk variant of the coronavirus has been identified in three states, california, colorado, and now florida. local officials say they are working closely with the cdc. and mike pence's schedule does not include an