good morning. it's sunday, january 3 aeferd. i'm ali velshi. 17 days now until president-elect joe biden takes office, and we've hit a grim milestone. more than 350,000 people in this country have died from covid-19. and just yesterday, the united states reported a single-day record for new cases, and it's a big one -- 275,897. to make matters worse, a new and more contagious strain of covid is spreading throughout the united states, but all of that this morning is sadly eclipsed by the circus that has taken over capitol hill, and i'm not talking about the swearing in of new congressional members, which is set to take place later today. i'm referring to senate

republicans and their spineless backing of a traitorous president in his quest to overturn november's election results, trying to overthrow democracy in the process. yesterday, a group of 11 more republican senators and senators-elect, seen here -- take a look at this page -- announced plans to object to the certification of the presidential election results. both chambers of congress are scheduled to meet for this typical, mundane bit of post-election housekeeping on wednesday. the 11 senators join missouri senator josh hawley and reportedly more than 140 other house republicans, all seeking to overturn the election. the group of senators backing the coup attempt laid out the cause for their efforts in a joint statement -- "the 2020 election featured unprecedented allegations of voter fraud, violations, and lax enforcement of election law, and other voting irregularities. by any measure, the allegations of fraud and irregularities in the 2020 election exceed any in

our lifetimes." note the use of the term "allegations of fraud." that's like allegations that i have a full head of hair. there was no actual fraud that exceeded any in our lifetime. there were changes to the ways in which people voted, approved by state legislatures. the main issue is that joe biden won, trump won't accept that, and these republican senators, many of whom want to run for president or just run for re-election, are scared of the power that a post-presidential, maniacal donald trump will hold, or they want to appeal to trump's base. that's it. that's the whole ball game. the senators also have a demand, to create a commission with, quote, full investigatory authority to conduct an emergency ten-day audit of results in what they are calling disputed states. i should note that not all senate republicans have particularly limp spaghetti for backbones. pat toomey of pennsylvania, lisa murkowski of alaska, came out

yesterday against this latest attempt at a coup. others standing firm against this, senators mitt romney, ben sasse and surprise, surprise, majority leader mitch mcconnell, who reportedly called the vote to certify joe biden as president the most consequential vote of his career. also last night, a federal appeals court threw out a lawsuit from texas congressman louie gohmert that sought to change mike pence's role from a counter of the electoral college votes to a role that would allow him to hand trump the election. gohmert was rejected twice in two days on the same matter. thank god for the third branch of government for not going along with this charade. checks and balances, baby! all right, let's review the entire premise of republicans' objection to the election results. it's based on a complete farce, a farce propagated by the highest levels of government, coming from the oval office. the entire effort is steeped in lies. there was no widespread voter fraud. we know it and congressional republicans know it.

that's why they can't and they won't provide any evidence to support their claims. did they forget that every state certified its own election results last month in which they ruled out the notion of widespread voter fraud? several states did so after undergoing lengthy audits and hand counts at the behest of the trump campaign. in the weeks since november 3rd, the trump campaign filed about 50 lawsuits challenging the election results of multiple counties across the nation. almost every last one has been denied, dismissed, or withdrawn. even the supreme court doesn't want to touch this thing. and trump appointed three of its nine justices. plus, let's take a look at that group of senators again. you've got ted cruz in the upper left corner -- trump 2.0, josh hawley, on the bottom right corner. some of these people clearly have presidential ambitions. they're trying to set themselves up for a 2024 bid. and we can see right through what they're doing. it is simply a ploy to hold on to the fringe of the party, the

qanon, white supremacist, nationalist, racist, proud boy, conspiratorial lunatics who helped crown trump in 2016. but we see you. we're on to you. your effort to suppress black and brown votes that went for joe biden -- because at the end of the day, that's what this thing at its core is. what republicans are trying to do now is despicable. hear me when i say, you do not have to do this. nobody is forcing you to do this. are you really that afraid of trump that you're willing to hang your entire political career, and indeed, your reputation, on the success of this coup attempt, to subvert democracy? this stink will stay with you cowards forever. not only is trump a wanna be authoritarian demagogue who has no respect for compassion for the people he governs, above all else, he is a loser in both the little and figurative sense of the word, and you are losers for supporting this coup attempt.

you're hitching your wagon to the wrong horse. when all this is said and done, history will sneer upon you for siding with an antidemocratic racist who lacks integrity, for ignoring the will of your own constituents and for turning the mighty legislative branch of the american government into a circus of epic proportion. this country and the world is watching you, and we will be watching you on wednesday as well. joining me now is former republican congressman joe walsh of illinois. he ran against donald trump in 2020 as one of three main gop challengers. he once said the president, quote, literally is the greatest threat to this country. any democrat would be better than trump in the white house. your case in point, joe walsh -- donald trump is doing damage that most people didn't think he would do after he actually lost the election. we always knew there was some danger. this is incredible. >> ali, this is what america looks like when one of its two major political parties don't want -- [ inaudible ]

and i think we've got to move beyond -- [ inaudible ] >> joe, you've got some important thoughts here, but we're having a little audio problem, so i'm just going to interrupt you for a second and we're going to fix the audio and i'm going to bring you right back. joe walsh is going to stand by. he's a former u.s. congressman from illinois and he has a lot to say on this that you're going to want to hear, because joe walsh speaks to the people who are supporting this underlying issue that we're facing right now. i'm going to come back to joe walsh. i want to get some perspective from capitol hill while we fix joe's audio. i want to go to nbc news correspondent heidi presbyla. and a point you made yesterday that i want to underscore is

that the basis to these allegations, that these 11 senators would join with joe walsh, is, is there are numerous allegations of widespread fraud. they're not, in fact, just yet coming forward with the evidence of this fraud. they're saying, so many republicans believe there was fraud that we need to do this. >> reporter: ali, there were allegations before a single vote was even cast, and we were promised that, actually, fraud that had never even occurred would occur. and to this day, they are still allegations, ali. i was standing outside the detroit tcf center, where one of those allegations was that camera equipment was actually secret, stolen ballots. no. i was there. it was camera equipment. and now, after they have had their day, their days, multiple days in court, 60 different lawsuits thrown out by judges of both parties, the department of homeland security -- trump's department of homeland security -- saying this was the

most secure election in american history. there still is no evidence. even in court, a number of gop lawyers were forced to say on the record that they did not have that evidence. and so, this has worked its way all the way up to the supreme court now even refusing to hear this, because why? there is no evidence. here we are with what amounts to, in the words of other republican legislators, just a political stunt, all part of a broader show, an entertainment here for the gop base to believe that, somehow, it is still accurate that this president actually won the election, when there is zero evidence of any of these allegations that have been made, ali, but they will go ahead and do this. and the one thing that i think we need to take away from today is that this will not work. this will not work, but what it shows us is that while president

trump is leaving, trumpism is very much still with us. he has many apprentices that have watched this bombastic style based on lies to the american people, and they are going to continue with this, starting with this attempt to basically overthrow an election based on zero evidence. now, they know, they said in their own statement, it's not going to work. nevertheless, they're going to put on the show. >> what's the practical effect, heidi? could it be that if five members of congress challenge five or six states, as is possible, are those back-to-back debates that get held on wednesday? because if one senator and one member of congress challenges one state, they have to debate that for an hour, at least, in their own chambers. >> right. and each of those could go up to two hours, ali, so again, it will be -- >> two hours, okay.

>> reporter: -- a display on the floor, but it is not going to succeed, given that you would need simple majorities in each house, and of course, democrats rule the house, and mitch mcconnell very much opposes this. he's on the record telling his members, don't do this. >> so, the net effect could be a delay, not likely -- >> reporter: a delay. >> -- a change in the result. heidi, thank you very much for being with us. heidi's at the capitol, by the way, and today's going to be the swearing-in of the new members of congress. so stick around, heidi. we're going to talk to you some more. rejoining me now is republican congressman joe walsh of illinois. he ran against donald trump in 2020 as one of three main gop challengers and called donald trump the greatest threat to this country. joe, i'm sorry we had to interrupt you. we needed to just fix your audio. i think we've got you back. i want to get your take on all that is happening right now. >> again, ali, good to be with you. look, one of america's two major political parties no longer believes in democracy. this is not about trump.

it's not trumpism -- traitorous -- ali, this is -- impacting our democracy. you mentioned in your lead that they're afraid of the fringe of the party. ali, i don't think this is the fringe of the party. the gop base believes the election is stolen. you know me, i come from their world. i hear from thousands of trump supporters every day. many of them believe today that donald trump will raise his right hand and be sworn in on january 6th. that's who these republicans are afraid of. they're not afraid of trump. they're afraid of his voters. >> joe, here's the question, though. there are conservatives in this country. people have conservative ideals. they're not necessarily the same as my ideals, but nobody's ideas work if they're not addressed and competed against each other in an arena. what do regular conservatives

do, people who just have conservative views of all sorts of things in life, but they don't need to be associated with lunatics, conspiracy theorists, qanon people, racists, nationalists, proud boys? what do regular, normal-thinking republicans do now with their party collapsing? >> we have to figure out where to go, ali, because it's not the republican party. look, it's too late. we're watching the republican party break up before our eyes. so, principled conservatives and -- [ inaudible ] >> we're still having a few problems with the audio. we're going to try and get that fixed. but joe, i got your point and thank you for that. we're going to have to find some

answer. it's not -- for those people who think it's okay that a particular mainstream -- or what was a mainstream political party collapses, even if they're not the party you supported, ultimately, it is very unhealthy for a democracy to have one major political party and no others. we're going to try and figure out what's going on with joe walsh, but joe is a former republican congressman from illinois. he is also the chairman of the bravery project. i want to turn to someone in the thick of all this, democratic senator mazie hirono of hawaii. she is a member of the senate judiciary committee. she is the ranking member of the subcommittee on the constitution, of all things. aloha, senator. good to see you. >> aloha. >> you are in a mess that i didn't think you thought you would be in. this january 6th thing is something nobody's ever really thought about. once in a while, the media shows the picture of the vice president signing the paper, but we don't give this much thought. we imagine after the election is over, after the electoral college has done its counts in the various states, now it just goes for certification. what, in your opinion, happens in the next few days?

>> what you're seeing is a bunch of senators vying to see who's going to be the biggest trump suck-up to appeal to the trump voters. you called it, ali. this is despicable, but you know, nothing that these people do surprises me anymore, sadly. and of course, nothing that the president does surprises any of us. so, i can hardly wait until january 20th. but i think the kind of message that this stunt sends to people in our country is terrible. it's saying that if you lose an election fairly fought, you should just yell fraud and be a sore loser. that's the message that these republican senators are sending to our country. >> what is the motivation? i'm sure my voters are struggling -- my voters -- my viewers are struggling with what the motivation is of these senators to do this, your republican colleagues.

it was one thing when josh hawley, who blows hot and cold on a lot of things, you know, did this, but how did 11 more senators become part of this move? look at them. and i want to name them, ted cruz, ron johnson, james lankford, steve daines, john kennedy, martha blackburn, mike braun, cynthia lummis, roger marshall, bill hagerty, tommy tuberville, josh hawley. how on earth does this happen in your sober chamber of thought, the united states senate? >> i think one of the motivations -- and you know, i can't get into their heads, except to say that they're shameless, is that they know that donald trump raised over $200 million after he lost the election. and so, i think that some of this has to do with raising money from the trump base. some of it has to be that they're very afraid of the trump voters who are still out there. >> i want to ask you about some good news that's going on today.

the united states senate -- the united states -- the congress is swearing in a number of firsts today, including several other asian american women into the united states congress. we are starting to get a congress that is more representative of the face of america. >> yes. i'm glad for that. and you know what, diversity to be our country's strength, not our weakness. and people who are afraid of the diverse cultures and the different perspectives that we bring are the ones who are, sadly, supporting trump to the max. it is a sad commentary. i also want to -- when josh hawley says that the pennsylvania mail-in ballots should have been litigated more fully -- there were 20 lawsuits in pennsylvania alone. >> yeah. >> and so, it's just amazing the kind of lies that they put out. it's like you said, ali -- >> and your colleague -- >> i'm sorry, go ahead. >> yeah -- no, i didn't mean to

interrupt you. i was going it say, your colleague from pennsylvania, senator pat toomey is not signing on to this ridiculous effort. >> yes. >> because he says, you are trying to overthrow the franchise of pennsylvania voters. >> that's right. >> the pennsylvania voters, says he supported trump, he's sorry he didn't win, but that's the way pennsylvania voted! >> yes. you have republican election officials in all of these states that have certified their elections, and now you've get a bunch of senators saying, no, no, no. senators who had absolutely no responsibility for the elections being held in these states now yelling fraud. i think it's shameless and it's despicable. >> senator mazie hirono, good to see you. i didn't really think you and i would be having this conversation on january 3rd, 2021 -- >> well, me neither. >> you and i have had a lot of conversations in the last few years that we didn't expect we'd be having. always a pleasure to talk to you. democratic senator mazie hirono of hawaii. >> thank you. everybody stay safe. >> aloha to you. while the gop is trying to dismantle our democracy, there

are more pressing matters facing america at the moment. americans are grieving. they're going hungry. they're losing their homes and their businesses, and they are dying, something that stephanie collier, an icu nurse from oklahoma city, will live with for the rest of her life. >> having to hold zoom and have someone read their last -- tell their family what their last words are going to be, and then to be the last person that speaks to that person before they subsequently die is not something that i think you ever bounce back from. something that i think you ever bounce back from see every delivery...

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and because in america, most people's health care coverage is stupidly tied to their job, 29 million americans now don't have health insurance. up to 40 million renters are far enough behind on their rent to be living in fear of eviction. donald trump will keep telling you about the stock market. i like the stock market. you all know i'm a business reporter. for years, i hosted a show from the floor of the new york stock exchange. but the stock market is not the economy. most of the gains go to the wealthiest 20% of americans, people like the 659 american billionaires who control $4 trillion in wealth. for perspective, that's equal to was the 165 million poorest americans have combined. this isn't complicated. we argued for exactly nine months to give americans $600 of their own money back. $66 for every month republicans stood in the way, $2.22 a day. that's the relief that the $600 check provides. it's substantially less than a month's rent for most americans. this relief bill is pathetic.

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as we enter this new year, the coronavirus' worst months could be ahead of us as a variant found in the united kingdom has been found in states in united states. this variant is more contagious than the first strain of covid-19, and more contagious is actually much, much worse than a variant that is more deadly but not more contagious. on friday, dr. mercedes carnathon, a professor of medicine at northwestern hospital told nbc that the variant was everywhere and that it's more likely to affect young people at higher rates than earlier strains of covid.

>> we can be fairly confident that this variant is now everywhere, and this variant appears to affect more adults under age 20. and i think the reason why that's particularly critical is that this younger adult population is circulating more, they are performing some of the essential roles, such as delivery work, factory work, and they're just generally out there in the population, and that population isn't in line to be vaccinated soon. >> meanwhile, the number of americans vaccinated is still far fewer than anticipated, as the trump administration fell short of its goal for 20 million vaccinations by the end of 2020, but it's not impossible to get this done correctly. other countries have figured out the secret sauce for quick delivery of vaccines into arms, including israel, which has ramped up inoculations and already vaccinated more than 10% of its population. by comparison, the u.s. and many european nations have vaccinated less than 1% of theirs. this comes as the battle against

covid seems at its most dire. more than 20 million americans have now been infected with the coronavirus, and over 350,000 are dead. new year's parties around the united states and in countries with more lax restrictions on covid look like they are leading to a further surge in hospitalizations, as icus around the country fill up and are already at capacity. this is especially true in places like l.a. county, where icus are already completely full. dr. nahid bhadelia is with us, from boston medical center and associate professor of nationally infectious diseases and is also an msnbc contributor. good to see you again. we just saw 275,000 new cases, by far exceeding any numbers we have seen before. the timing links to christmas. these would be too early, generally speaking, to be new year's related, but it looks like the christmas surge, the surge in travel, the surge that

every infectious disease expert expected is happening. >> good morning, ali, and happy new year. what a year to start out with, with this data. >> yeah. >> i will caution you that despite how scary these numbers are, generally reporting tends to lag behind because of the holidays. i would actually expect for us to price in bigger numbers next week when everybody comes back to work and there is more reporting from the states. but it's frightening partly because we're seeing that variant is now in at least four or five states and it is at least 50% to 70% more transmissible, and for the reasons that you mentioned -- the fact that it's more transmissible, it will lead to more infections, particularly if it's affecting the younger population a bit more, then you might see bigger transmissions in the upcoming months, making the vaccination even more important -- i mean, not that it wasn't last month, but it is even more critical now to keep that spread lower than what

we're expecting. >> last week when i was sitting in for rachel maddow, we were talking about the 1947 smallpox vaccination effort in new york city. it took ten weeks. two people died. and they had clinics -- they had tents, really. they popped up tents everywhere -- parks. they went to the circus. they went to nightclubs. everybody was getting inoculated all over the place. it took ten weeks to have 6 million inoculations done, and that was just one city. now, understanding that the rest of the country's not like new york city in terms of the way it's concentrated, or like boston, where you are. the bottom line is, we can actually do better. i think you tweeted that there need to be 24-hour vaccination clinics, that you'd personally volunteer to help administer vaccines wherever you are needed. we've got medical students, nursing students, we've got graduated doctors, we've got enough people do this. why is this not happening at the level it needs to be happening? >> ali, i think it's a matter of will. i mean, i'm going to throw out some numbers, right? we have distributed -- there have been issues at every level of this vaccination campaign.

you had pharmacies saying they're missing some of the raw materials needed for production. you have these early glitches with distribution. but really, by numbers, when you look at where the logjam is, we've handed out about 13 million doses. and sure, that's short of the 20 million that we expected to do by the end of december, but of those, we've only administered one-third. 4.3 million people have gotten their first dose so far. so, it's really that last mile of getting the vaccinations in arms. and what it seems to be -- right now, you know, you're getting these vaccinations at health care facilities and pharmacies for long-term care facilities. too few places are set up for people to get vaccinated. too few resources are available at that last mile to get those vaccinations in arms. if we're imagining a million vaccinations a day, a million doses a day, we've only given out less than 5 million in the last three weeks that we started, then we need to create a lot more places where people can get vaccinated and think

outside the box, whether it's large stadiums or more targeted things like using visiting nurses to find people who are in homes where elderly bed in homes. as we open it up to more people, it's going to be reaching people en masse to a lot more people, as well as to people who are in hard-to-reach places. and so, president-elect biden, for example, talked about mobile vaccinations. great strategy to reach hard-to-reach places. but then we have to staff all those places, and that's why the use of national guardsman suggestion i think is good, but we're going to have to do a lot more, train a lot more people in allied health forces, try to get, as you said, medical students, retired physicians, pharmacists, everybody that we can get trained to administer this. the other thing is we need better systems to identify people who need to be vaccinated. it's easier to identify health care workers, easier to identify long-term care facility residents, but what about everybody else who's over 65 or an essential worker? you know, potentially people who may not have a job right now or who may not have health insurance right now. and so, states will need to do a

lot better job of creating registries to identify those people so we can get people moving through those vaccinations. >> these all sound like amazing ideas. in an hour, i'll be talking to celine gounder, who is part of the task force from the biden administration, so we're going to talk more about this, because all of that stuff that you just said needs to happen. it can happen. we can do better on this. nahim, thank you. director of the special pathogens unit at boston medical cent center. just yesterday i was telling you how important the georgia senate runoffs are. 24 hours later, the stakes are even higher, if you can believe it, because of a group of republican senators threatening to object to the electoral college results. i'll have more on that next. but first, a moment of pure love in the midst of all this madness! the man closest to the camera in the black shirt is robbie vargas cortez, an emt from canton, south dakota. the other man is his boyfriend, registered nurse eric vanderley. eric was about to give his

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four years ago, republicans told voters they needed to accept donald trump's victory and, quote, move on. listen to this. >> democrats are doing everything in their power to take away the voters' choice. it's just ridiculous, and it disenfranchises the will of the voters. >> and they have to decide whether they're going to interfere or if they're going to be a bunch of cry babies and

sore losers about an election that they can't turn around. >> when you expected trump to contest the outcome -- she didn't go out last night and address her supporters. sad, because clearly, she couldn't face it. >> right. >> but it's also bad because you need, symbolically, it's a ritual and you need to go through closure. i lost. look at me, i lost. the country needs that. >> ironic, right? since yesterday, 11 more republican senators announced their plans to join republican senator josh hawley of missouri to vote against certifying joe biden's victory. their party was different four years ago. in 2016, republicans slammed trump after he said he'd only accept the election results if he won. but now the party's prioritized their personal politics over upholding the constitution. yesterday i told you that what is left of democracy is on georgia's ballot. well, that runoff election, which is happening on tuesday, just got a lot more important, because we may be losing democracy to fascism, if republicans keep their seats and

their majority in the senate. what happens on tuesday in georgia is going to shape america for the next two to four years, and there's a lot on the line, including a new civil rights act. while this pathetic and dangerous attack on democracy won't change the fact that biden will be sworn in on january 20th, the long-term damage to our democracy and faith in our institutions cannot be overstated. this stunt signals that you can call voters and the system into question, if you don't like the results. president trump is set to hold a rally in georgia tomorrow, but he expects he's going to be nursing his own failures, placing blame on everyone else but himself. he had his day in court, and he lost, a lot. allegations are not proof. and now it's up to georgia to decide whether democracy can survive the post-trump era. let's bring in the editor at large for "the 19th" and msnbc contributor errin haines. and errin, i know you're a georgian, you're connected to georgia, and that's normally what we talk about, but this has

exploded into something much more significant. this is now 11 senators who have joined josh hawley and are making stuff up to satisfy a conspiracy theory-laden, qanon-believing, otherwise motivated base of voters. and in the midst of all this, the only voice that democrats have in this right now is the election in georgia. and i don't mean democrats with a capital "d." i mean people who believe in democracy. >> well, first of all, happy new year to you, ali, and thank you so much for having me. >> thank you. >> on the first sunday of the new year. listen, the stakes are absolutely higher, and all eyes are focused on georgia for, you know, the future of control of the senate. and you're right about democracy really hanging in the balance here. and what's interesting to really think about is, you know, president donald trump came into politics, at least into our recent focus, challenging the

legitimacy of a black president. and so, you fast-forward to 2020, and you have the president and his supporters that are challenging this election. and what a lot of black voters see is him challenging the legitimacy of black votes. and that is something that has really been mobilizing and galvanizing them in the home stretch of these runoffs. i've said -- the primary election and the general election last year, that racism was absolutely on the ballot, offer these voters and the issue of voter suppression even before the pandemic was front and center for black organizers and a lot of these black voters. and i think that you're seeing that being raised now. and what's really interesting to think about is that the legacy of congressman john lewis, who, frankly, would have been the most prominent surrogate championing black voters to get out and vote, championing the importance of their vote -- he would have been in churches like ebenezer, where the reverend raphael warnock is the pastor. >> yep. >> urging black voters to turn

out on tuesday. and he is not here, but his legacy is absolutely looming over this election, not only in atlanta, but really across the state, but especially in atlanta where you've seen murals go up in the weeks leading up to the runoff, you're seeing people quoting his posthumous op ed, urging people to honor his legacy by casting their ballot. and so, i think that that is on the minds of a lot of those voters as early voting ended, and i think that you could see that having an impact, which would be very ironic on tuesday, if democrats were able to earn a victory propelled by, you know, the legacy of the champion of voting rights in a state where voter suppression has been such an issue. >> runoffs are often an afterthought. they're a thing that people don't show up to in the numbers that they showed up in a general election. they're a thing that don't capture the attention of the nation the way this one has. but two things have happened here. one is these two senatorial seats will determine control of the united states senate.

the other one is they've already become a proxy vote for not the election, which just happened, but about donald trump and how republicans are behaving in the post election. david perdue and kelly loeffler have a lot to answer for, including the size of those checks that are going out to people, including this intransigent president who's calling the entire election illegitimate, and he just went out and called the runoff election illegitimate, even though he's going there to came pan for these two candidates. >> yeah, ali. and you know, i'm from atlanta, the cradle of the civil rights movement, but i live in philadelphia now, which, you know, is what a lot of people think of as the cradle of democracy. and it does make you think a lot about what it means to be a citizen -- to participate in this country. and elections really do ask that question, the idea of one movement and one vote is something that's supposed to be sacred in this country. and so, to have that challenge,

to say to people, it is, you know -- i talk to people who work with voting rights and who worked against voter suppression, and what they tell me is that this is a form of 21st-century voter suppression. if they can't stop you from voting, right, what they try to do is say that your votes don't count. and that -- >> yep, yep. >> now, the question is, is it going to have a chilling effect on republicans? because president trump has been saying that the election is rigged, that the results were not legitimate. what does that do in the minds of republicans? you know, i've definitely talked to republicans down in georgia who are concerned that that may have an effect on republican voters who say, oh, if my vote wasn't legitimate, if this doesn't matter, why should i turn out? we know that most of the republican voters that are going to cast ballots in this race plan to vote on tuesday. that is what we saw on election day in georgia, and i think that that's what we're going to see again on tuesday. but you know, voter suppression can have a galvanizing effect as

well as a depressing effect. and i'll talk a second about the depressing effect that it had in georgia. there were 943,000 african-americans who did not vote on election day this year, and these are black folks who do have a history of voting. they voted in other elections, but they didn't vote this year. and i've been speaking to folks that are working one group, battleground -- that is trying to recapture at least 100,000, specifically black voters who did not vote in november. so far, they've gotten about -- [ inaudible ] makes a difference, you know, in these crucial, crucial runoffs. >> errin, thank you, as always. 943,000 people who voted in a previous election who didn't vote this time, so, they are ripe for the picking. errin, good to see you, as always. thank you so much and thank you for your support of our show. errin haines, msnbc contributor

and editor at large for "the 19th." i want to apologize to our viewers. i don't know why we're having so many technical, audio problems as we are this morning, but we are trying to get to the bottom of it. don't miss msnbc's special coverage of the two georgia runoffs, starting this tuesday at 7:00 p.m. eastern on msnbc. and by the way, my swearing about congress is not the only swearing happening today. congress will swear in its new members in just a few hours. it is an impressive class. several members making history with their election. i'm going to speak to one of them next. mundair jones is one of the first two openly gay men to be elected to congress. he joins me next. gay men to be elected to congress. he joins me next . ♪ rock music >> man: so i'm not taking any chances when something happens to it. so when my windshield cracked... my friend recommended safelite autoglass. they came right to me, with expert service where i needed it. ♪ rock music >> man: that's service i can trust... no matter what i'm hauling. right, girl? >> singers: ♪ safelite repair, safelite replace. ♪

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in just a few hours the new members of congress will be officially sworn in and the class of 2021 is a history-making group. the diverse set of lawmakers allows the government to look more like the american population. cori bush, a single mother and nurse, will be the first black woman to represent the state of missouri in congress. congress will welcome its first three korean-american women, marilyn strickland, michelle steele, and young kim. new mexico's three house seats were won by deb haaland.

sarah mcbride will be the first and only transgender official in the united states. the first openly gay black men in congress will represent the state of new york, districts in the state of more. one said, growing up poor, black, and get, i never imagined someone like me could run for congress, let alone win. he represents new york's rockland and westchester counties north of new york city. thank you, sir, for being with us. do you want to give back your victory at the moment, given how crazy congress is? >> i have no reservations about getting sworn in in just a few hours and doing battle on behalf of the american people. there's a lot of nonsense, ali.

we have to have better people in congress who are willing to do things like certify the election of joe biden and kamala harris. >> one of the things about better people, and this is not a judgment, i take no argument with wealth or the fact that one can get wealthy and rewarded for what they do in the united states, i think that's fantastic incentive. but members of congress have a lot of money, senators have a lot of, lot of money. it becomes difficult when you're spending months debating $900 for checks that folks who don't have a lot of money don't have this luxury of time, they have groceries to buy, they have bills to pay. it's kind of outrageous that it took nine months after the last bill to get $600 to people. >> it is beyond the pale. ali, you know that this is not academic for me. i grew up in section 8 housing and on food stamps. i was raised by a young single mom who still had to work multiple jobs just to put food

on the table for us. when i hear people like kelly loeffler in the united states senate talking about how she's concerned about how $2,000 may be misspent, as one of the wealthiest members of the united states government, it's beyond the pale. everything, as you mentioned earlier today, is at stake in this election in georgia. that's why folks are already coming out in droves in the early voting segment of that election to elect jon ossoff and raphael warnock. >> kelly loeffler, by the way, depending on what estimates you look at, may be worth 500 to $800 million. universal health care, minimum wage, these things have been painted by a lot of people has

radical, extremist, but these are not radical proposals, if you're a mainstream capitalist you should want people to have more money and better health care that pays for itself. >> i agree completely. obviously the american people understand this, even if their representatives don't always. we are in the midst of a once in a century global pandemic had a has exposed the numerous inadequacies of our social safety net. it's unacceptable and uncivilized in the richest nation in the world. and it has very real consequences, right now as we have this interview, especially in black and brown communities which are always most impacted by any of the social illustrate we experience as a society. a $15 minimum wage, many people would argue, is still insufficient to live in places like where i represent,

westchester and rockland counties, where it is extremely expensive to live. it is not asking too much to ensure that everyone in the united states of america can live in dignity. and no one is trying to take away all of the money of the super rich. they can still live with great comfort. but we are asking, folks like myself in the united states congress, are asking for people who have means to pay their fair share. >> representative mondaire jones, good to see you and have a chat with you before you are officially sworn in. congratulations and we look forward to many more conversations with you. represent mondaire jones will be sworn into congress in a few hours. coming up next, another update from capitol hill, and i'll get the reaction of democratic senator debbie stabenow from michigan.

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good morning, it is sunday, january 3. i'm ali velshi. we're hitting frightening new coronavirus milestones. numbers continue to rise at an alarming rate. last night the nation passed a tragic marker. overall infections in