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 overseas trip.

this marks another apparent change to the white house schedule following the president's early return from florida yesterday. all of this amid renewed military tensions with iran in a few minutes we'll have a live report from tehran from you. and over on capitol hill just moments ago senate republican leaders blocked efforts to bring a vote on $2,000 stimulus checks to the floor in a rare holiday session of congress. we start on the latest with the white house transition. joining me now nbc news political reporter at the white house, nbc news correspondent mike memoli, and victoria soto, the director of communications. i'm going to start with you, monica. vice president pence asking a federal judge to throw out a lawsuit led by house

republicans, it would have expanded his power to overturn the election when congress meets to certify biden's win. talk us through what this all means. >> vice president mike pence is expected in his role, of course, as the number two in government, to oversee this joint session of congress on january 6th that any other year or most terms would really be a mere formality in terms of cementing joe biden's election victory after the november election. instead, of course, we know because this current president wants to challenge and perhaps overturn those results, even though there's nothing that shows that really will be possible or anything that could technically alter them. but still some republicans are going to bring challenges which we learned this week, but in a separate move congressman louie gohmert, a republican from texas, sought to change the role that the vice president would play in this. but now lawyers for mike pence are responding asking a judge to toss that out, saying

essentially saying his role should not be altered, nor should the vice president have control in terms of what he can do next week on capitol hill. and when it comes to this, again, something that normally would only take an hour during other cycles but that this time is expected to take as long as potentially 24 hours. it could even stretch on longer than that because now we're going to see this process prolonged. though again we can't express enough to viewers we don't expect any kind of outcome to change. it's really more just an opportunity for republicans to object, to continue to make baseless claims of voter fraud when there is no widespread evidence of that. so what we're learning a little bit more though and insight into that the vice president does plan to take on this ceremonial role and not anything beyond that. what we don't know is whether the president is asking his vice president to do anything differently. we've asked the white house about that and the vice president's office, we should point out. we haven't gotten any other comments or response beyond what

we know from this current lawsuit and what the lawyers are asking for in this other case, alicia. >> pretty striking that you have the vice president's lawyers arguing that there's an inherent conflict of interest in this case. what have we heard from the biden team about the planned republican objections next week? >> well, alicia, it's always been so interesting to see how the biden team handles these situations. we saw it a month ago with the constant barrage of lawsuits being filed to challenge votes in certain states that of course were key to getting to the point where the states had their electoral college meetings and certify those results. and now the biden team really trying to, again, downplay any concern here. we heard from jen psaki earlier this week, and she dismissed this as simply antics on the part of people including josh hawley. she reminded us of what we've seen in past years as monica laid out as well, vice presidents including al gore in the year 2000 when he was the

democratic nominee for president certifying and presiding over that joint meeting of congress. joe biden himself four years ago when he was the departing vice president being the one who ended that session which led to donald trump being the president-elect of the united states. they say that this is in fact a formality and should be treated as such. but what we should also remember is what we saw from joe biden on the night that the electoral college meetings did happen across the country. he did come out after the fact to speak very strongly about what he saw as the impact of these efforts to, in their view, undermine our democratic institutions. so, yes, there is a sense i think that this is something about maybe a release valve, at least republicans just blowing off some steam to appease the base. but there are impacts in terms of the longlasting credibility or institutions that the biden team is also weary of. we're going to be very interested to see what we hear from the president-elect after that certification on wednesday. >> i mean, pretty striking that

in addition to team biden saying all this about hawley. you also have mcconnell, other republican leaders criticizing his objection. some even indicating that this is a stunt to bolster his political ambitions. trying to become the next ted cruz by tieing himself to whatever movement it is that donald trump represents? >> alicia, i've been following ted cruz very closely since he came onto the national scene in 2012. and ted cruz right now is probably tearing out his hair. because he's ticked off that he's not the one doing this. ted cruz was the original bomb thrower. he came to congress in 2013 to be an obstructionist, to shake things up. we remember that infamous government shutdown in 2013, that 21-hour speech. he read "green eggs and ham." this is his role, and now hawley is taking it over with the ambitions of running for

president in 2024. but back to what mike was just mentioning. this is a dangerous game. it may be posed as a release valve for some. but come january 21st, the republican party is going to have a reckoning of what will the republican party be. will there be a republican party? or will it simply be one of trumpism or slash bomb throwing? while it may be funny in terms of theatrics, this is serious, and i think it's going to be critical for the republican leadership to figure out how to reign in. because if not, the gop as we know it, may cease to exist. >> i mean -- yeah. and, monica, as we're talking about the transition ahead of the white house budget office refusing to direct staff to help the incoming biden administration with its spending plans, what are you hearing? >> this has now become a pretty

contentious back and forth between the incoming team and the current biden administration. you have them saying in a letter that they have been cooperating to whatever extent they believe is possible, citing they claim 45 or so meetings with the incoming biden team on issues of the transition. but what he laid out in this latest message is that he does not see the role of the current omb as one that will help the biden transition team basically start to create their budget and some other legislative priorities. and that's what you have the president-elect really complaining about, not just with omb but also earlier this week with the department of defense citing what they're calling road blocks again with only a couple of weeks until the formal transition actually happens, alicia. >> victoria, to pick up your point about the republican party of axios outlining how much mcconnell is writing, you saw this with mcconnell blocking

trump's push to raise stimulus checks to $2,000, which would have split senate republicans, and you're seeing it now. the piece also cites a republican operative who says mcconnell is trying to reclaim the role he had in 2009 as opposition leader to a new democratic president. does that positioning even work anymore, especially with the possibility of trump remaining a force in american politics? >> it's going to be extremely complicated for mitch mcconnell to regain that role. and you know what? actions have consequences. and let's remember that it took mitch mcconnell several weeks to acknowledge the electoral college. he can't have it both ways. on the one hand he's pushing back against trump. but he gave him so much leeway to make noises about not accepting the election results, that at this point mitch mcconnell has to recognize that he kind of made this mess in the first place.

so, there is this mess that he is going to have to contend with. and the hope is -- and i'm being a level pessimistic now. but the hope is that joe biden, once he takes office, him knowing the senate as well as he does, and mitch mcconnell and him being colleagues and productive colleagues, my one hope is that they will be able to bring back formality and civility to the senate. but right now mitch mcconnell, in essence, did allow for this to spiral out of control what we're seeing right now. >> going to be so interesting to watch, considering the president-elect biden hasn't worked with about a third of the senate. victoriaa, as always, thank you. monica and mike, you're going to stick around with me for a moment. president trump returned early from his florida vacation yesterday without explanation, and it comes amid increasing tensions with iran. and a u.s. official tells nbc

news that the u.s. is seeing increasing indications that iran could be planning an attack on american forces in the middle east. ali, what more do we know about a potential attack in the middle east? >> reporter: there's been a lot around qassem soleimani since his death. u.s. officials have told nbc news that they've seen increasing indication for planning of potential attacks on u.s. interests and the u.s. military, as well as other places in the region by iran, and they're taking it very seriously, given the past record of attacks. but they also admit it's not always easy to read iran's intentions. they say in they're fully aware of iran's capabilities, but it's unclear how quickly planning can go to exclusion. but there was a ceremony here this morning in tehran attended

by senior officials where soleimani's replacement gave a fiery speech vowing revenge not just for soleimani but for iran's top nuclear scientist assassinated last month. he ended his speech saying that retaliation could even happen on u.s. soil. the top military adviser to the supreme leader issued a stark warning that all u.s. military bases in the region are covered by iran's missiles. while iran's foreign minister says he has intelligence that a plot is being fabricated as a pretext for war, adding that iran will defend itself and its vital interests. but i've got to tell you, iran is also fully aware that launching an attack on u.s. assets directly could be very costly for them in the final weeks of trump's presidency. and tehran may decide that it's prudent to keep their powder dry

now, especially given that they desperately want the biden administration to rejoin the iran nuclear deal. but as you well know, things in this region, especially vis-a-vis america are predictably unpredictable. >> monica, the u.s. flew b-52 bombers over iran earlier this week, part of a show of force to deter further action. does the administration from what you're hearing feel that the strategy is working, or has it failed to de-escalate these tensions? >> and that's a move we've seen happen a couple of times in the last 45-day period, indicating just how closely they're monitoring the situation, of course aware of any potential threats to u.s. military assets in the region. but we do have to rewind to almost exactly a year ago when the president was the one who ordered that drone strike that ultimately killed general soleimani when he was in iraq. and the president at the time expecting potential retaliation from iran, said that if that happened, iran would regret it forever and had extremely, you

know, language that was quite inflammatory. so we haven't heard anything like that from the president in recent days, but there are questions about why he returned to washington early. we've asked the white house to explain that, and they haven't provided that. so it could be one of a range of issues he's monitoring in these final weeks, alicia. >> mike, is last-minute action against iran one of the reasons the biden administration is so concerned about the lack of communication they've been getting from the pentagon in the last two weeks? >> that's absolutely the case, alicia. when biden spoke about this in public earlier this week, he was focused on the solar winds hack, the attack on our cyber infrastructure that's being attributed to russia. but clearly this is something that they're also very concerned about. part of this is what biden said throughout the campaign was his concern that as the walls closed in on president trump, as he put it, that he would behave more erratically and potentially take these kinds of actions. another part of this is just simply the level of experience on the part of the biden team.

many of these officials, it would've been the case likely for any democratic candidate who won the presidency to bring back some former obama administration officials, especially so in the biden case. these are officials who helped prepare a transition four years ago for the incoming trump team. they know what they don't know. they know the kind of cooperation they should be getting from the trump team that they're not getting at this point, and the lack of information on key areas, especially with relation to the middle east and iran, something that they worked very intensely on of course with the iran nuclear deal that they should be getting. so a big part of what we're hearing from the biden team on this now. >> all right, ali arouzi, monica alba, and mike memoli, thank you. the final step in solidifying joe biden's presidential victory. and at least one republican senator is threatening to stand in the way. >> but first, health officials in california say they are seeing an alarming new trend, more younger, healthier people are dying from the coronavirus. more on that next.

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today the death toll in the coronavirus pandemic is about to pass 347,000 in the u.s. here are the facts as we know them at this hour. wisconsin hospital worker has been arrested and fired after removing dozens of vaccines from a pharmacy refrigerator. they are accused of intentionally destroying more than 500 doses of moderna's covid-19 vaccine. airlines banned more than

1,400 travelers last year for failing to comply with mask rules. the carriers include united, alaska, and delta airlines, which alone added 700 customers to their no-fly list. and a direct impact on u.s. surgeon general jerome adams who tweeted his wife has been admitted to the hospital for cancer treatment. quote, i'm not allowed to see her due to covid-19 restrictions, and i'm hoping she doesn't have to spend new year's in a hallway because beds are full. there are new troubling trends coming out of los angeles county as they begin the new year. the county public health director says that only 86% of the people dying of covid had underlying conditions. down from more than 90%, meaning more healthy people are not recovering. and among young people, hospitalizations are up 350%. nbc news correspondent steve patterson has the latest from los angeles. >> reporter: the situation here

is dire. there's really no other way to put it. it is certainly the way county health officials are describing it. and these front line health care workers who are exhausted and overwhelmed are describing it as well. but we have to first talk about unfortunately the overwhelming amount of death, which has become its own crisis. so bad that now that mortuaries and private funeral homes are turning families away because there simply isn't enough space because they can't process the amount of bodies that are coming in fast enough. meanwhile at hospitals, nearly everyone, virtually every hospital in this region is now diverting patients because of specific ailments that they can't deal with. when ambulances do arrive, they can often be stacked ten deep waiting upwards of seven or eight hours to offload patients. and when they are offloaded, a lot of these hospitals have to find space and they have to do it by treating patients in hallways or conference rooms or

chapels or gift shops or really anywhere they can find and also converting icu space by retrofitting some of the old systems that they have. and some of the space that is not ever used for icus they just have to do what they have to do. that's the same when it comes to staffing. because there aren't enough nurses to treat the overwhelming amount of patients. instead they're at ratios that are just not sustainable, treating two or three or four or upwards of that number because they simply have no other option, which is dangerous as nurses say for themselves and dangerous for the level of care that they have to give patients, but there simply right now is no other option. >> steve patterson in l.a., thank you. with covid-19 hospitalizations already at record levels and continuing to rise, health officials around the country are facing a new challenge in containing the coronavirus. florida officials announced they have identified a case of the more contagious variant of the virus. first reported out of the united

kingdom. it is now the third state to do so, following colorado and california. joining me now pull monthologist emergency physician dr. vin gupta. dr. gupta, happy new year. and here we are almost a year later talking about much of the same things. i want to first talk about the new strain discovered in the uk back in september. it's accounted for more than 60% of the new cases in london, the towns around it. could we see this variant become the dominant strain here in the u.s.? and what would the impact on our health care system if that were to happen? >> the answer is yes. experts across the country are saying that this is likely this uk strain is likely to become the dominant strain transmitting in our communities by, say, march. and so what does that mean for health care systems, to your second question? if this is truly more transmissible since that's

what's being talked about, that this is more transmissible but not necessarily more lethal. what does that mean? it does mean that if the country does what it continues to do, so you're seeing more than a million people fly each day during this holiday season, seeing obviously a lot of pandemic fatigue. it's likely it appears that this strain can more easily infect the human body than the strain we've been dealing with since march, if not earlier. this means more cases and it means that there needs to be a greater urgency to vaccinate more individuals, front line workers and those who have pre-existing conditions. because it just means we're going to get more people who are going to be infected with covid-19, one strain or the other, and that invariably will mean more hospitalizations and deaths. so this is going to lead to more health care system burden. we've already been expecting that.

we have modeling that suggests that the worst of this pandemic unfortunately is ahead of us in these next two to three weeks. this new strain is just going to complicate that. >> dr. gupta, you have colorado, california, florida all saying they have already found the strain in their states. should states that haven't yet found this new strain act as if it were already there? and how does that then change the approach of public health officials? >> i think they should. regular tests for covid-19 is not going to tell you whether this is uk strain or not. it's just going to say you're positive or negative. you need something called genomic sequencing. public health officials across the country should absolutely presume that this strain is already circulating in their respective environments. and the response should be more of the same, but much more -- it begs the question, especially in places like california you're seeing now stay-at-home orders

in place, much more than just closing indoor dining and indoor bars. they're actually asking people to stay home. obviously there's only so much we can do in terms of compelling people not to travel and engage in nonessential activities. but you might be seeing more stay-at-home orders in places where hospitalizations are peaking to the point that we don't have another option here that, this is no more room, as you said in that first reporter segment here in places where there is no surge capacity, that's what public health officials are going to have to start to look at. if we have this new strain, we have hospitalizations peaking, there's no surge capacity, what else can we do besides have a temporary stay-at-home order in place, back to what we were doing in the spring? >> can you explain to us whether or not this vaccine would work on a different strain? >> all the evidence we have right now, and let me clear to all your viewers, alicia, scientists are still evolving especially on the vaccine. what we do know is that this new strain is not different enough

at the genetic footprint level to evade the vaccine and the immune response a human will get once they get the vaccine. so we are very confident in the coming year that as people get the vaccine, it will protect them to the new strain in addition to the old strain. what does that mean with a future/forward process in mind, what do we think about the future? probably this means that there's going to be a vaccine down the road maybe in 2022 or 2023 that's going to be updated like we update the flu vaccine to account for these new strains, for these new mutations, to make sure that this pandemic doesn't suddenly creep its head again in a few years, even if we've gotten through the worst of it by say the summer. so there might be an updated vaccine to make sure we have full protections against any new strains. >> i always appreciate that you keep us anchored in the here and now but always help us look towards that future. the uk announces a controversial shift in its

vaccine strategy. the plan doctors there are calling grossly unfair. and what is normally a washington formality is now expected to bring chaos to the nation's capitol, as republicans plan a protest vote against joe biden's victory. that's next. to fight wrinkles? it's what i use! neutrogena®. the #1 retinol brand used most by dermatologists. rapid wrinkle repair® visibly smooths fine lines in 1 week. deep wrinkles in 4. so you can kiss wrinkles... and other wrinkle creams goodbye! rapid wrinkle repair®. pair with our most concentrated retinol ever for 2x the power. neutrogena®.

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a turbulent week ahead in washington as republican lawmakers prepare to challenge president-elect joe biden's victory on wednesday. president trump is already touting a rally that same day in

washington, and he's urging thousands of his most loyal supporters to flood the streets and join him. joining me now, republican strategist and senior adviser to the lincoln project, and political reporter for the "new york times." jeremy, senate majority leader mcconnell wanted to avoid this certification challenge. but you have senator josh hawley doing it anyway. politico reports he even pressed him to explain his plan of action yesterday, but hawley wasn't even on the call. what is this all doing to the republican caucus? >> i think this is basically setting up the battle that we're likely to see play out for the next four years where until he decides he no longer wants to be donald trump as the de facto leader of the party, and he's going to be the puppet master who is really pulling the strings of a lot of these senators or anyone really who has political aspirations, desires to be a leader in the republican party going forward. it's unclear to me that there is

anybody else other than donald trump right now who is going to command as much loyalty from not just republicans on capitol hill and an elected office all over the country but the voters. the republican base is still very much enamored with this president. he's the most electrifying politician in public life that they've seen, and that's not going away after january 20th, even though president trump will be leaving the white house, his grip on the republican party will still be very firm. and i think what josh hawley has done here is just really kind of only -- it's really only a first. he's only the first one to say he'll object in the senate. i think that regardless of whether or not he had said this -- come out and said he would do this, you're going to see others likely senator elect tommy tuberville from alabama.

and there may even be others. >> susan, i wonder what you see as the dividing line in that debate. and i also want you to talk a little bit about the political position this puts republicans in going into georgia's senate runoffs. >> all right. well, going into georgia, it's a very interesting situation. going into georgia, though, first because you have donald trump who is going to go down there, and he's not going to talk about the importance and focus on the importance of republicans holding onto the senate. he's going to talk about his own personal grievances. let's not forget this is the first time he'll also be really speaking out in public since he has lost. and that is going to be a significant amount of time spent on him. there's been a lot of talk, did he come back from, you know, skip his new year's eve bash down in florida to come back and deal with things? no, he didn't want to face people as a loser because that's

what he is. he is going to try everything possible to control the republican party. but while i understand the influence that he will have on the base, i think we are going to see senators start to splinter off a bit. you look at ben sasse who has in the past criticized the president. and i think you'll see others. the fact that hawley did this will be a precipitous event in that others will join. i think you probably have ted cruz angry. i think you see as many as four or five senators. the question is, what will that lead to going forward after president-elect biden is sworn in on the 20th? will there be some places where republicans and democrats will seek consensus, and will donald trump be able to prevent that from happening?

i don't think he will. i think that people are ready to say good-bye. mitch mcconnell especially. you look at what he did, what the president did in blowing up the covid relief bill the way he did. mitch mcconnell's happy to say good-bye to president trump. but i think that it will be -- as long as republicans don't act out of fear of donald trump, they actually can move on past donald trump. >> jeremy, let's talk just a little bit about that fear. what's the level of concern among republicans about the president's rhetoric about next week's protests? >> i think that right now what you're seeing is just a political calculation from the likes of josh hawley, ted cruz, as susan mentioned. anybody right now who likes -- to envisions having a role in the party in the future as a leader is trying to calculate just how far they can go in indulging donald trump's false

rhetoric about what happened in the election. hawley has gone the farthest so far. but i would expect to see others like senator marco rubio trying to figure out a way to, for instance, nod to concerns about the integrity of the election and decide whether or not that means that he also will object. i'm not saying i think he will or know anything about that. but that's just kind of an example of what's going through the heads of a lot of these more ambitious future likely republican leaders. i think that that fear that we were talking about is what's driving this. it's a fear of political irelevance. >> it's based on the supposition that the future of the republican party is donald trump's wing of the republican party, almost just as interesting to wonder if there

are other republicans who are going to line up behind sasse. >> susan, you have new hampshire's republican governor canceling ceremonies over armed protesters. >> they have been coming to our house, my wife and my young children, they come week after week. monday night we had an armed individual on my property in my backyard that had to be arrested. that just kind of raises the level of aggression, if you will. but we were going to be the inaugural outdoors, there's just no way to really safely secure that plaza. and my obligation is to the safety of my family and my citizens. >> i wonder both what your reaction to that is, and also as we talk about some splintering within the republican party if some of the resistance to trump's wing of the party will actually come from republican governors. >> i think that is a really important clip that you showed, alicia, because it shows that

this is hitting people at home. this is not just a donald trump thing. people are scared of what donald trump represents and what he tends to incite. let's not forget, he didn't say proud boys stand down, he said stand by. and what he can do as far as inciting a certain crowd is very potentially dangerous. and it does depend a lot on what happens in georgia i think. if the democrats win both seats, i think that we'll see a lot more governors and mayors be on call for potential violence. because i think that will really get donald trump going. as far as moving forward, again, how many republicans want to be associated with that, want to be associated with donald trump, his actions to try and disenfranchise 80 million voters, anti-democratic rhetoric, and most of all

inciting violence and siding with white nationalists like the proud boys. i don't think that's very good. and let's not forget there's only one donald trump. a lot of people can think it's going to work for them but it won't. and by the way, donald trump won't be there to help them out at all. >> susan dell ferso, jeremy peters, the beginning of a very long conversation. thank you all so much. coming up, the uk announces it will delay second shots of the vaccine, opting instead to vaccinate as many people as possible. but is that safe? you're watching msnbc. (sneeze) skip to cold relief fast. alka-seltzer plus power max gels. with 25% more concentrated power. oh, what a relief it is! so fast! to give you the protein you need with less of the sugar you don't. [grunting noise] i'll take that. woohoo! 30 grams of protein and 1 gram of sugar. ensure max protein.

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so come back to air, we are watching live footage of the u.s. senate where the senate is now taking a vote to override the president's veto of the national defense bill. we did not expect a vote to be called this quickly. we're going to continue to watch what's happening on the senate floor, bring you that vote. meanwhile, health officials in the uk are taking a different approach in distributing the coronavirus vaccine. they want to inoculate as many people as possible with the first dose. but that could cause major delays in getting that critical second shot. joining me now nbc news correspondent sara harmon. tell us how the vaccine distribution efforts are going, how is this method being received? >> hi, alicia. the u.s. began giving the pfizer shot on december 8th. and initially the plan was to

follow the pfizer guidelines and give the second dose 21 days after the first dose. that means thousands of people are now coming up on due for that second dose. but they recently announced they aren't going to give that second dose after 21 days after all. instead they're going to allow a 12-week gap to try to give a first dose to as many people as possible. now, as you can probably imagine, this has proved controversial. the uk doctors association has spoken out and said this undermines patient consent. people took the first dose with the understanding that they were going to be giving the second on the manufacturer's timetable for that to happen. they also have pointed out that this completely fails to follow science. pfizer has also said that lengthening the gap between the first and second dose isn't something they looked at in the clinical trials, and they can't guarantee the safety or the efficacy. alicia, it's important to point out that coronavirus infections

are skyrocketing at the moment in the uk. they're also dealing with the view variant that emerged in the southeast here in england. and hospitals are increasingly overwhelmed. so the country is really taking every step it can to try to bring infections under control. alicia? >> all right, sarah harmon, thank you so much. we're going to continue watching the senate floor for you. and in just four days, georgia voters will decide who controls that senate. up next, the latest on the record-breaking voter turnout in the senate runoffs, and which republican officials won't be at the president's rally next week? you're watching msnbc. this is the sound of an asthma attack... that doesn't happen. this is the sound of better breathing. fasenra is a different kind of asthma medication. it's not a steroid or inhaler. fasenra is an add-on treatment for asthma driven by eosinophils. it's one maintenance dose every 8 weeks. it helps prevent asthma attacks, improve breathing,

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tell your doctor about your medicines and if you're pregnant or planning to be. otezla. show more of you. i haven't been invited to the rally yet. i don't really have a whole lot of details on that. i haven't been focused on that. obviously i have a lot of priorities on my plate right now. >> that was georgia republican governor brian kemp on president

trump's monday rally for the state's two republican senate candidates. but governor kemp is not the only person who likely won't be attending. republican senator david perdue is currently off the trail and in quarantine after being exposed to someone who tested positive so someone that tested positive for covid-19. this comes as a number of senate republicans voted. pricilla thomas has more. >> senator purdue is having to change his strategy. he held his 100th event campaigning right before he found out he was exposed to someone that tested positive for covid-19. he acknowledged it earlier this

hour. >> with an abundance of caution we decided to go into quarantine these last few days. it's terrible timing, but we're not going to miss a step, we will participate in all of the events as if i was there. >> the question is will voters turn out to those virtual events. including president trump on monday and also vice president pence, not to mention the democratic candidates that will be out campaigning. >> thank you as always. we have breaking news right now, the senate is voting to override the president's veto of the national defense authorization act. if it passed it will be a bipartisan rebuke of the president in the waning days of his administration. let's bring in monica alba who

is standing by. monica, what are you hearing from the white house? are they expecting this vote to come this quickly? are they ready for what will be the first potential overrooid. >> the president expressed his displeasure with the idea of being over ridden. we have not heard from him yet today on this latest development and of course the house controlled by democrats did vote to override that veto earlier in the week. and we're talking about a national defense authorization account that is separate and apart from other legislation that the president wants to see a vote on when it comes to raising the amount of stimulus checks from $600 to $2,000. but this nation nal defense bil that does really important things is something that even senate majority leader mitch mcconnell said is so important

to our nation that even though the president had issues with it they would try to move forward. so they're voting right now. it has not formally passed yet. they need a two-thirds majority for this to become law that is what we expect to happen, but it has not hit that point yet. he has nothing on his schedule, and we should also point out that he has been obsessed with his election defeat and far more focused on what will focus on january 6th than the movements and actions we'll see unfold on the senate floor, today, and this afternoon. but they have not called a travel photo lid yet. so we could hear from the president still.

it is of course a holiday and there are currently no plans for that. that could change, but he may respond with tweets and other social media. this is a stinging rebuke, but it was expected by what leader mcconnell was signaling would happen. >> okay, monica alba, thank you. i want to turn now to beth fuy. what do you make of the senate moving so quickly? >> they know they will just have to get it over with. ripping the band aid. they expect that president trump will come out and perhaps tweet or make a statement that is critical. they will probably want to get that over with on a holiday. it is a stringing rebuke, but president trump probably chose the wrong issue to dare the

senate and house to take this step. it is a bipartisan piece of legislation. it is passed every year for something like 60 years. the things he wanted to see happy with the legislation attach this unrelated effort to curb the power of companies and to of course rename the confederate statues. he wants to block that. there is not a lot of support for that in either party. he picked the wrong piece of legislation to put in front of them to dare them to do this and it shows the waning influence that the president has now on the hill. >> perhaps the lessenning influence, you have brian kemp tweeting that he should resign. how much do you think this will be a rally about his previouses rather than the georgia

grievances and how much on the center floor. >> we have seen president trump recently made his rallies about himself. he rarely invokes this. we know he is super popular with the base. he is not on the ticket there in ja georgia personally. voters may not be as inclined to come out in a special election, a run off, for a couple days after the year, so he is there to get them revved up, but he also has the opposite effect, a lot of voter wills see him there in georgia. it is certainly a gamble. vice president biden and vice

president elect kamala harris are stepping right into it. they're sticking their political strength there in that state. >> thank you so much. that wraps up the hour for me. thank you all so much for joining us. ly see you ba-- i will see you here this weekend at 6:00 p.m. 0. here this weekend at 6:00 p.m. helping to prevent gum disease and bad breath. never settle for 25%. always go for 100. bring out the bold™

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>> i'm craig melvin. >> i'm natalie morales. >> and this is "dateline." >> he was my super man. he was always my protector. this is the man that i'm supposed to marry. this was just not possible. >> he is found him on the floor, the fiance that was the love of her life. >> i zeroed in on him and he was just laying there. >> it is a stone cold assassination. >> nick, the