good morning and happy new year. it's saturday, january 2nd. i'm ali velshi. covid cases continue to climate alarming rates. on new year's eve, u.s. covid-19

hospitalizations topped 125,000 for the very first time. los angeles county, california is one of the hardest hit regions in the country and there they are struggling to keep up with waves of incoming patients. >> the last fours weeks, especially since thanksgiving, i've never seen a health care system pushed to the level that we're at. it like treading water from a hundred feet below the surface. you're already drowning but you just have to keep trying because that's what you can do. >> you just have to keep trying because that's what you can do. as of this morning, the number of people infected by covid-19 has risen to 20,211,444. the death toll in the united states has climbed to 348,563. it's expected to reach 400,000 within a couple of weeks.

make it your new year's reer aa resolution, wear a mask, limit indoor gatherings. doing those things are still the best way to stop the spread of this deadly disease. as for the outgoing president, he's back from his florida vacation, beginning with just 18 taste left in office, he's still trying to disrupt democracy, urging his cult-like gop mignons to overturn president-elect biden's win. josh hawley saying he will challenge biden's victory in pennsylvania when coming is s t certify the election. both chambers will be forced to debate the results on one state and whether to accept biden's victory, something mitch mcconnell has urged senate

praebs to avoi republicans to avoid. and in the "washington post," gomert is arguing that the vice president has the power to pick the next president during the formal recording of electoral college votes on wednesday. vice president pence who has publicly commented has also declined to back the gomerhmertd effort. and at issue is the $741 billion national defense authorization act. in an 81-13 bipartisan vote, the senate secured the legislation would become law while also killing trump and democrats' efforts to increase direct covid relief efforts to $2,000. and a pair of senate runoff

elections set for tuesday in georgia. the highly anticipated contest will derm which party controls the ♪ at least f -- senate for at least the next two years. a record 3 million voters came out for early voting as kelly loeffler and david purdue face challengers. and a highly contagious variant of the covid-19 virus has been found in three states now. this is just math. a more contagious strain will in fact kill far more people than a strain that was equally contagious but more deadly. don't be lulled by the idea that this mutation or variant isn't really serious.

the vaccines will likely protect against it. pt problabl the problem is the pace that the rollout has gone so far. 20 million people will be national nat vaccinated by the end of 2020 -- not even close. at the current pace it would take almost ten years to inoculate enough americans to get the pandemic under control, something even staunch members of the gop like utah senator mitt romney has raised concerns about saying that comprehensive vaccination plans have not been developed is as incomprehensible as it is inexcusable. the deadly delays may be compounded as broader and more complex populations are added. we are already behind. urgent action now can help us

catch up. ? woo begin with nbc news correspondent steve patterson. he's in losses will where the virus is pushing health care workers to the brink. >> one person is dying every three and a half minutes. the crisis here in southern california is such that morgues and mortuaries and private funeral homes are turning away bereaved families because they don't have the ability. when they do arrive, they can be stacked at much as ten deep with patients waiting up to seven or eight hours to receive care. when they get inside the hospital, hospital workers are looking for any corner of the hospital to treat those patients. i visited one hospital where the chapel was being used to treat patients, where the conference room, the gift shop was also

being used to treat patients. now we're at a time in the crisis where personal protection is limited, high-flow oxygen, which is extremely vital to patients is also limited as well. but the biggest bottle neck is and has been for a long time staffing. the rashio of trained nurses to the overflow of patients coming in has been described as unsustainable for quite some time now. we spoke to one nurse in her on words. listen to this. >> while many people do recover from ko individucovid, the poin of people don't and we are currently overwhelming our hospitals with patients that are sick enough that they need hospitalized care. and we don't have enough beds, we don't have enough nurses to

provide that care. and we're really on the brink of just collapse really within our health care system. >> as you mentioned, ali, there's more worry about this new mutant strain, thought to be more contagious. it be it's been found in four instances, they have found that nobody has had recent travel history, which leads health officials to believe it's more widespread than they originally thought. >> and at least we know it's here, if people are getting it who haven't traveled. continue to stay safe. steve patterson in los angeles. >> i want to welcome dr. rick bright, an immunologist spe specializing in influenza and joining us is dr. irwin

redletter, me the director of the resource and response initiative. good morning to both of you. good to see you again, gentlemen. dr. bright, let's talk about this vaccine bottle neck or whatever it is. what -- you and i have talked a few days ago. what have you been able to determine is the problem and how have you been able to determine we're solving it? >> thanks for having me on. happy new year. >> and to you. >> we're looking into every facet of this vaccine vaccination rollout. it ve it's very clear there are problems. there are probably a hundred thousand different kogs in rail. what we're lacking is a national vaccination strategy and a plan we can all get behind and be coordinated. what we need desperately to be successful in ending this

pandemic is a ne chaw change of attitude at the very top. we need to transition from a handoff it's your responsibility from here attitude to what president-elect biden says is an all hand on deck, hand in hand, end to end, partnerships with the public and private sector to ramp up our urgency, our capabilities and the staff that need to be hired to be successful in a national program. that is what woor lacking today and what wool get on january 20th. >> the united states is four and a quarter% of the population. you tweeted the fact of the matter is a lot has gone wrong that we could have avoided. we have learned the butter lesson of how important credible

leadership and messaging is. i'm worried this isn't just a technical and logistical problem, it that we still have people in this country who doesn't believe this is real, people who don't wear mass ngks people who wear masks -- people believe they make you sicker. >> ali, we have really major problems here now. i this i what rick was saying is absolutely true. we need desperately to have this federally coordinating plan. but the other thing is there are things we could have done right now even before president-elect biden comes into office that the federal government could have assisted in the crisis of overcrowding and lag of personnel. yes, hospitals are at the breaking point. what we did last spring, we seem

to have some national amnesia about. we brought in the army corps of engineers, they put up medical tents in central park, et cetera. we know how to do this. the space and jofr flow challenges could have been and still should be met. and the other thing is that the federal government has lots of assets, even with personnel. we have lots of doctors and nurses in the united states military services, we have the public health service with 5,000 or so public health workers, we have the v.a. system where we can deploy if there was interest at the top, as ruck was saying, to really solve some of these problems. it's really unconscionable and we have a lot of work to do. the biden guys have put together a wonderful team, a huge team of real experts in dealing with the pandemic and we're going to hope for the best but we should not expect a imagine being bullet.

that's immediately going to get solved when joe biden takes office. part of the problem is, as you've said, we have tremendous amount of vaksy resistance. the other bug legacy from trump is he's upd mind the credibility of messaging from government. that's going to be a long, tough legacy to fight. so we have lots of issues that's going to be facing the new administration. >> so, rick, what you glean from the two of you is that there are three separate issues to overcome. there is the production issue and that may involve the defense production act. i'm not sure. i think we're doing relatively well on the production of the vaccine. and then there's the logistics and distribution and states and figuring out best practices. mitt romney was saying maybe there should have been a federal program and federal distribution. but the third issue is this vaccine resistance, which isn't a medical term. it's the idea that people are

resistant to it. we're not feeling it's a we're all in it together thing. are you and the tam prepared to overcome these three challenges? >> ali, yes, we are. it's going to take a lot of work. it has been done before with polio campaigns and influenza campaigns. when we roll out the vaccination campaig campaigns, we need to make sure we're reaching all communities in our country. there are hard-to-reach areas and underserved communities and populations most vulnerable to this virus, the black and will the -- latin-x communities, we need to make sure that vaccinations go to reach

everyone in our country. so those are complex set of activities that we need to do, we're not blinded by how complicated this is. we're going to work with all of the experts asround the nation. president-elect biden is already meeting with the unions and people around the country. it's a share responsibility and accountability and we set a goal to administer 100 million doses of vaccine in president-elect biden's first hundred days in office. it will tack all hand on deck and partnerships in the public and private sector to get that done. >> thanks very much.

grateful for your time both this morning. thank you. >> on tuesday, georgia's two runoff races will decide the balance of power in the united states senate a. a record 3 million people have already cast their volts tes in georgia. an update from our team on the ground after this. update from e ground after this. try boost glucose control. the patented blend is clinically shown to help manage blood sugar levels. boost glucose control products contain high quality protein and key nutrients to support immune health. try boost. if you have postmenopausal and a high risk for fracture, now might not be the best time to ask yourself, 'are my bones strong?' life is full of make or break moments. that's why it's so important to help reduce your risk of fracture with prolia®. only prolia® is proven to help strengthen and protect bones from fracture with 1 shot every 6 months.

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the balance of power in the united states senate will soon be decided as georgia is set to hold two runoff elections on tuesday, the two senate races that once looked like long shots for republicans are pretty close. more than 3 million georgians have cast votes early. what happens on tuesday is going to have a huge impact on america for at least two years. winning both senate runoff races would give majority health to president-elect biden biden and vice president elect harris, allowing them to push through policies aimed at helping american people, including affordable health care, reuniting families separated due to president donald trump's border policies and the $600 checks become 2$2,000 checks. president donald trump will hold a rally in a district in georgia

that elected a qanon conspiracist to represent them. good morning, julia. >> reporter: good morning. happy new year, ali. as vice president-elect kamala harris said on her last trip here, 2020 ain't over until january 5th. we have biden, harris, trump and pence all in the state. a particularly strong performance in diverse democratic-leaning areas of the state, which is why republicans are really banking on high election day turnout and hoping that president donald trump's visit to northwest georgia, as you mentioned and representative elect green's district will really encourage his base to turn out because trump himself has been putting the republican senators here in quite a difficult position as they toe

the line between not alienating his base and encouraging their voters that they can trust the election system here. overnight he was tweeting that the election here is rigged and that another key point in this race, that $2,000 stimulus check, he's really undermining loeffler and purdue's message. instead trump is calling out our republican senate for blocking those checks. and as for the democrats, they're not taking anything for granted here in georgia. jon ossoff's campaign just yesterday announced a new community mobilizer program where they have 2,000 part-time organizers focused on young black voters that are turning out new voters and they have one in every single county. so the candidates are crisscrossing the state, they're here on the ground and it's

really paying off. according to target smart data, 113,000 voters already turned up for the election in this runoff that didn't show up for the general election. >> that's the slogan for this election, anything goes. thank you for joining us this morning from jefferson, georgia. trump is promoting a so-called stop the steal rally in d.c. on wednesday. what could possibly go wrong? wednesday. what could possibly go wrong

as we near the end of the president's lame duck period, which itself has felt like another four years, trump's campaign is zeroing in on a last-ditch effort to overturn

the results of the election. up to 146 will reportedly against counting the votes cast in favor of joe biden in one or more states that the president-elect won. republican freshman senator josh hawley says he will argue the case among his congressional colleagues, which will throw each legislative chamber into a debate. that's not all that's happening on wednesday. there's an acute worry that violence will take place in washington, d.c. as this takes place in congress. olivia troy, the famed former pence aide said she's worried the protests good get violence. joining me now is kristen clark, president and director of the lawyers committee for civil rights under law. kristen, you had recently

written an article about that last million maga march, particularly the ataggitacking historically black churches. donald trump seems itching for his last chance to bring the military in or call the national guard up or do whatever it is he does. what do you suggest happens on wednesday? >> we should all be gravely concerned about these continued baseless attempts to challenge and final and fair outcome of the 2020 election. these efforts, which have included lawsuits, that have failed by the dozen, you know, have also resulted in violence. they resulted in political violence. we have seen elected officials such as secretary of state in michigan joslin benson face death threats and and we've seen grim racial violence in our streets. a stop ended in an ugly grim display of violence in the

streets of our nation's capital and ended with black lives matter signs being ripped from historically black churches, including metropolitan ame and churches that date back to the 1800s, that have served black people and people across our nation's capital proudly for years that were singled out and attacked by people who are bent on not just tearing down democracy and tearing down this election but are doing so in a way that truly is racist, that is truly about telling black people, black citizens in our country that you don't deserve voice in our democracy, that you ever don't have a place here. so we're deeply concerned about this and we will hold the proud boys accountable. in fact, my organization, the lawyers committee for civil rights under law intends to file litigation against the proud boys for that horrendous attack on historically black churches, which violates some of our

nation's most important laws when it comes to protecting the sacred place of houses of worship in our country. >> hayes, it weird that the conservative movement has been hijacked by white nationalists, conspiracy theorists, this sort of stuff. there are a lot of black americans, a lot of people of color, americans of all colors, religions and stripes who believe in center right values or conservative values and they have nowhere to go right now. the conservative movement in america has been entirely hijacked by lunacy. >> i completely agree with that. we're going to need a strong sen tr right to -- center right to prevent another donald trump from rising, not just in 2024 when he said he's toying with reelection. conservatism tend to act as a reaction to change, to more

liberal ideas and that conservatism is fine, perfectly healthy in a balanced republic. it's important to have different ideas. the problem comes when the center right, the elites, the people who have had power want to freeze the power structure as it is and are allowing people on the fringe to help them keep that from happening. in germany before war war i was founded, we saw the rise of the nazi party because the center right was unable to hold them back. here in the u.s. we've seen big business and the white majority come together in the republican party and use each other to try and stop change in this country. and over the years since the newt gingrich republican revolution in 1994 up through

donald trump, the center has seeded more and more to the far right in the republican party. so the centrists who still want to oppose democrats, you know, we see people say i'm leaving the republican party, i want to join the democrats. that doesn't really help if an entire party in our two-party system doesn't believe in democracy. so they need to help take back their own party or found an actual center right party willing to put the fringe on notice. >> so kristen, there's that issue, what the democratic party looks like going forward, what some kind of a conservative party looks like going forward and whether the republicans become some weird fringe or the party as it exists becomes om weird fringe but we also have our institutions to fix, including our legal institutions, our courts and that's something biden has to get to work on as soon as he gets into office.

>> i think the attorney general who will lead our most important law enforcement agency and get it back on track and into the business of protecting the rights of vulnerable communities is one of the most consequential decisions before him. but then there's also the courts, getting judges back on our courts who reflect the growing diversity of america. and then there's the business of figuring out what do we do to shore up democracy and prevent a lot of the attacks on democracy that we have seen both preand post lebs? we've got things like the john lupus voting rights advancement act, the hr-1 that outlined a lot of important voting act reforms that i think are a counter to what we see halvif hg from mitch mcconnell and others. we see an attempt to hijack the

narrative. voter suppression is alive and well. we're seeing this narrative about vote fraud that has failed over and over and over again but they're trying to lay the groundwork for massive voter suppression campaign in 2021 that i think we need to keep our eyes on and be vigilant about. >> thank to you both of you for joining me this morning. kristen clark is a former prosecutor for the justice department division and kristen is also the president and director of the lawyers committee for civil rights under law. thanks to both of you this morning. 2020 was a year of loss and isolation but also a year of much needed racial reckoning. movements sparked by police violence and black lives, from those who still deserve toing on this worth today. coming up a pivotal look at racial justice. a pivotal look a racial justice

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this last year has been

dominated by coronavirus, a pivotal election and the eruption of a vast racial justice movement that transformed the way many americans understand the concept of race and policing. it forced many to reexamine how we see and interact with one another. t tremaine lootakes a look back a the reckon being that took place in 2020. >> reporter: in 2020, america was on fire. from milwaukee to miami, los angeles to louisville, the fires of racial unrest burned furiously, exploding with the police killing of george floyd in minneapolis. >> it was a live excuse. the police did that because they want to tell us, we wear this uniform, this is what we can do to you, black people.

>> the bystander's cell phone video begins with police restraining a man on a minneapolis street. >> later dying after a white officer kneeled on his neck, the man heard saying "i can't breathe." >> when i watched that officer taking the life of george floyd with his hands in his pockets looking out in that way, it was apparent to me that he did not think anything would happen to him. >> reporter: in the 7:46 that it took for floyd to take his last breath, a movement was born and grew into the largest protest for racial justice the u.s. and perhaps the world had ever seen. >> george floyd's story has been the story of black folks because ever since 401 years ago the reason we could never be who we wanted and dreamed to be is you kept your knee on our neck.

>> reporter: soon after floyd's death on memorial day, cities across the country began debating policy changes and limits to police power. there's a new call for deep structural reform of policing across the country. many are now demanding departments be defunded, dismantled or outright abolished. the names of other black people killed by police or white vigilantes added fuel to the fire. >> drawing international attention, ahmad arbery, who is african-american american. >> you can still see some of the bullet holes on the fron fronfront beoof breonna taylor's apartment. if anyone else had barged into her apartment and shot and killed her, they would have been charged. >> there as a lot of discussion about officer protocols. >> calls for justice monday, this time in ken osha, less than

24 hours after police shot jacob blake in the back causing serious injuries. >> two days later, kyle ritenhouse shot three protesters, killing two of them. >> he walked by police hands up without being arrested. >> they let him literally go home. there are two justice system in america. that's why people are protesting. >> reporter: he claimed self-defense and was later charged with felony homicide and other charges, including reckless endangerment and illegal gun possession. it reshaped how we saw policing, our politics and even ourselves. it we ultimately get the policy change that you think can effectuate removement -- real movement in terms of policy and social justice? >> no, we haven't gotten the policy change yet.

>> the year 2020 also marked the transition with the passing of civil rights icons, congressman john lewis and the reverend c.t. vivian. both men dedicated their lives to just and both died on july 17th during the height of the protest. >> when we do form a more perfect union, whether it's years from now or decades or even if it takes another two le founding father of that fuller, fairer, better america. >> reporter: the push for equality kept expanding, crossed racial and class lines and elevated the voices of women and members of the lgbtq community as americans from all walks of life demanded change. but the movement for black life also spurred a counterreaction with a wink and a nod from

president donald trump. >> proud boys, stand back and stand by. >> that exchange immediately picked up by the proud boys. one proud boys organizer saying that the president basically said to go f them up. >> reporter: the racial justice movement also collided with the covid-19 pandemic as the disproportionate killing of black people exposed structural racism. >> we have the pandemic and it's killing thousands of americans, but our country was founded on slavery, founded on killing innocent black men. >> reporter: racial inequality and the rise of hate in america were key voting issues. >> the african-american community stood up again for me. you've always had my back and i'll have yours. >> black lives matter.

>> hollywood and multi-million dollar professional sports leagues were forced to confront racism, too. >> we the national football league admit we were wrong for not listening to nfl players earlier and encourage all to speak out and peacefully fro te -- protest. >> nascar took down confederate flags. the women of the wnba helped lead the way. nba players forced the cancellation of games to protest the ongoing killings of black people bip police and the loog joined them adding black lives matter to nba hardwood and allowing players to add pro justice and pro-black slowing answ -- slogans to their game jerseys. >> the whole mask came off in this country. you can't unsee what you've seen. >> the fires of 2020 burned hot.

but the question remains, will we still feel the heat in 2021 and beyond? >> capturing 2020 in social justice is a hard thing to do. we'll continue with one of the co-founders of black lives matter after this break. way. here we go! yeah, appreciate you, man! go pro and get double the protein for just $2 more.

in 2020 mamerica faced a profound racial reckoning in

which much of the country faced its ugly racism. i'm joined by co-founder of the black lives matter movement and the author of at black futures lab and the author of "purpose of power: how we all come together." thank you for joining us. you and i had a conversation earlier this week, which for a show that talks about this a lot, you gave us such clarity on the things that you and other activists want to happen under a biden/harris administration. you told me three things the other day. you wanted to see an uprooting of racism in every aspect of our lives, a reallocation of resources across the board, and a strengthening of oversight mechanisms for police. let's talk about the first one, uprooting racism in policing.

you made a really good point the other day. this is racism. this is not the same as bad cops. >> yeah, that's correct. first of all, thank you for having me back again, ali. >> you're welcome. >> here's the thing about uprooting systemic racism. one, it's everywhere. it's like the air we breathe. we have to know what we're looking for in order to not just diagnose the problem but to address it. as i said earlier this week, racism is fundamentally about rules that have been rigged to consolidate power on one side and to lessen it on another side. that is why we have such deep racial inequities when you look at health care, when you look at education, when you look at policing and law enforcement. it's because there are rules and policies that are being enforced that actually hold up these disparities in such a way where we see, you know, a

hyperconsolidation of black people and lat inex-people who are currently behind bars, in prisons and in jails. it's why we see in black communities black students are less likely to graduate and less likely to attend college and more likely to be suspended. these are all about rules. it's not about people being mean to each other, although, often times the manifestation of these rules can feel mean because people are feeling they're being kept from the things that nay need. the reason i hone in on racism, ali, is i think over the last year we've had such an incredible reckoning in this country, but we have not gone far enough, and i think sometimes people believe that because there are millions of people in the streets, because people put a black lives matter sign in their window, then suddenly that level of consciousness changes things, and i just have to continue to

remind uss, consciousness is good, but changing rules and making better ones is even better. >> talk about consciousness, i want to talk to you about the second point t reallocation of resources. we've had a lot of discussions about defund the police, whether that is a harmful statement or helpful statement. you write, it's not a question of people not understanding the phrase. it's a question of people not reallocating of resources across the board. it's strengthening of oversight mechanisms in our communities and that includes the police. it requires moving money. tell me what you mean by that. >> well, i mean we have this whole set of conversations this fall and this summer about the phrase "defund the police" and people would say things like we don't understand, what does that mean. do you actually mean defund the police? i'm simply making argument that the words are not complicated and they're not unclear and

ultimately what we're facing -- and this relates to accountability and it also relates to generations of rigged rules. what we're facing here as i said earlier this week is that police in this country actually have more rights than civilians do, and also police budgets and military budget in this country are incredibly bloated. at the same time, we have things in our communities like schools that are under resourced that don't have computers. students are sharing books. schools are closing. and we also have police departments inside of schools, and yet we're losing guidance counselors, we're losing teachers. we have a situation where we don't have adequate health care, we don't have adequate housing. we're asking police to deal with mental health issues, to address homelessness. that's not actually a job. at a certain point we have to ask ourselves are we going to

keep throwing money at a solution that's not solving anything, and police are not there to deal with mental health crises. they're not there to deal with mental homelessness. in the meantime we have to ask ourselves what is. that's what it means to reallocate resources in such a way that we're actually addressing problems that exist in our communities. some of these problems are actually not crimes. they are problems that result from people not having what they need to live well. and we have to address it in that way. we cannot address it through punishment. >> i'm writing this down because i think that statement you just made, some of these problems are not crimes is key. it's clear, and yet people find themselves dead or in jail because they face problems like homelessness and like addiction and mental health that are not actually crimes. alicia, thank you for coming in and talking to me a second time this week. it's not that i dunld understand you. i wanted a second audience,

different audience to hear your very, very clear articulation of this matter. aleeza garza is the author of the book "the purpose of power." that does it for me. thank you for being here. "cross connection is up next" tiffany cross is joined by rev reynolds raphael warnock. your saturday is just getting started. stick around. you are watching msnbc. are watcc it's a thirteen-hour flight, that's not a weekend trip.

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♪ the first cross connection of 2021. i'm tiffany cross. and let me just say, if the news cycle of the weekend had a soundtrack, it would most certainly be southern play realistic cadillac music. while we're just 18 days shy of joe biden being sworn in as president of the united states, we're three days from the georgia senate runoffs, and the winners will determine the balance of powers in the senate and the fate of joe biden's agenda. and in georgia, all the players came from far and wide. voters are turning out in force,