♪ happy new year. welcome to monday. it's "meet the press daily." i'm in for chuck todd. we are in the middle of a chaotic situation here in washington. after president trump pushed georgia's secretary of state, brad raffensperger, to overturn the state's election results in a recorded phone call this weekend that was leaked. we have just learned that raffensperger has scheduled a press conference for 3:00 p.m. eastern at the georgia capital. this comes as a growing number

of republicans, trump loyalists mostly, on capitol hill want congress to try and overturn the election results by objecting to the certification of the electoral college vote when they meet in a special session on wednesday. it is an effort that has been backed by the white house and it has dramatically fractured the republican party in ways we frankly have never seen before. president trump is expected to escalate all this turmoil when he speaks in georgia tonight at a rally ahead of tomorrow's senate runoverrunoffs. he has been lashing out at more republicans, some by name, for not backing his efforts. there are also a number of legal questions about the president's actions and whether he may have violated local or federal law when he urged george geor ed ge to, quote, find the votes necessary to overturn the election. as he dangled vague criminal consequences over their heads.

>> but the ballots are corrupt. and you are going to find that -- which is totally illegal. it's more illegal for you than it is for them, because you know what they did and you are not reporting it. that's a criminal -- that's a criminal offense. and you can't let that happen. that's a big risk to you and to ryan, your lawyer, that's a big risk. all i want to do is this. i just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have. because we won the state. >> he knows exactly how many votes he wants mr. raffensperger to quote, unquote, find. now some democrats want a criminal investigation into that call. georgia's secretary of state says that local prosecutors might want to look into what happened. we have got a lot of developments to get to this hour.

of course, there are incredibly large implications for congress, for the republican party, for those runoffs tomorrow in georgia, for wednesday's certification of the results, for the incoming administration and, of course, for the very future of our democracy. our nbc news team is covering every angle on this story. kristin welker is outside the white house. garrett haake is on capitol hill. let me start with you, kristin. what do we know about the president's state of mind in the wake of the call being released? what are his advisors telling you about what this means? >> we know -- happy new year to you -- that president trump tried to call georgia's secretary of state 18 times before they connected in that phone call that has been made public. that gives you a sense of

exactly how defiant and determined he was to have that conversation. i can tell you that, look, aides are growing concerned, because the assumption was behind the scenes that as we got closer to the inauguration, as we got closer to the proceedings on the 6th, on wednesday, that president trump would come to accept the election results. clearly, that is not the case. clearly, he has no plans to abandon his baseless claims of widespread voter fraud. we saw that on display in this phone call. when the secretary of state fact checked him a number of times, reiterated the fact the votes have been counted and recounted -- i suspect we will hear this when he holds his press conference, raffensperger saying batting down the false claims is like whack-a-mole. i have been talking to a number of republicans inside and outside of the white house. the president's allies who say

that they were feeling quite confident about their chances heading into georgia tomorrow. prior to this phone call. now they are concerned that this call could hurt voter turnout in georgia. this will be a turnout election. they are concerned what it might mean for the chances in those two key runoff races. i think those are some of the ripple affects and fallout you are seeing behind the scenes in the republican party. it does come as there are concerns about what's going to happen over the next few weeks before the inauguration, those ten former defense secretaries, writing that op-ed in "the washington post" urging the president not to reach out to the military to order the military to intervene, making it clear they believe this election is over. >> briefly, what do you make of the fact that mark meadows and other officials were on the call? this was not -- we know president trump likes to take

his cell phone and dial officials, his friends, his allies in congress. that's not what happened here. is there a divide among the president's staff? is there any effort to try to reign this in considering what we have outlined here as significant questions about the legality of the behavior? >> there may be a divide among the president's staff. but what we are seeing he still has a number of aides who are loyal to him. mark meadows, chief among them. he has been by the president's side through a number of these somewhat controversial meetings that have occurred behind the scenes. so he was again during this phone call. having said that, i do think there's also this push and pull that happens here behind the scenes where the president wants to take an action like the one reaching out, pressuring georgia's secretary of state, and then some of his other top aides urge him against that. i think that you talk about the divide within the republican party. i think that's happening here behind the scenes at the white

house among current and former officials. >> so, garrett, let me go to you on the hill. this tape obviously broke out into the open yesterday after republicans had already been grappling with an enormous divide in their own conference in the senate as a dozen or so senators came out and said, yes, we're going to go ahead and object to the electoral college certification. i'm curious what you heard over the course of today. i think we may be able to play a little bit of david perdue talking about this earlier today on fox this morning about how -- what the implications are of this tape coming out in the context of this electoral college challenge. if we can play that, i'd like to show it to everyone. then we can talk about it. watch. >> to have a statewietd de elec

official to tape without disclosing a private conversation with the president of the united states and then leaking it to the press is disgusting. i didn't hear anything in that tape that the president hasn't already said for weeks now. what he is saying a lot of people in georgia and 75 million americans i think align with him that something untoward happened here in georgia and we have not gotten to the bottom of it. >> garrett, a couple things here. first of all, i don't think any of us heard the president say that. it's noteworthy he heard the president say this before. he won his race in georgia. to call the results into question is a conflict of interest. >> it speaks to what a bad faith this argument is on so many levels. on the call, the reaction on capitol hill has been muted. liz cheney on the house side, the most prominent republican critic of the president, not named mitt romney, called it disturbing.

what i heard from other republicans is mirrored what you heard from senator perdue. this is the way the president talks. this is the way he communicates. they compare his comments in private to his comments in public, including on his tweeter feed which are not all that dissimilar. he has been raging about conspiracy theories about stolen votes and voting machines and so forth for months. the broader implications up here on capitol hill are interesting. republicans are going through a s miserable breakup. some are republican to move on. others cannot let go. they are stuck in a social media trap. they are curious about what their ex is doing on social media. they are stuck in this trump world they cannot break out of. that's led to even segments like this which are the kind of things that mitch mcconnell works so hard to prevent, any

division within the republican conference. protects them from bad votes, from each other's statements. now you have factions of the senate republican conference at each other's throats over this electoral college situation. it's a complete debacle. >> let me bring mike into this, since the man you cover has been invoked as the new boyfriend, if i'm following the metaphor correctly. what are you hearing from the biden team as they watch what's unfolding here? i think it's important to underscore there's a segment of the republican party led by mitch mcconnell that have cast this decision to challenge the election results in stark moral terms. mcconnell called it privately a vote of conscience, one of the most important in his career. others have called it dangerous for the country. at the same time, there's a segment of republicans that careening toward this on wednesday as the president himself is using this kind of

language. is joe biden still trying to urge the kind of calm, let it pass, we will move on together, if we just kind of -- not ignore what's going on but not inflame it? do they think that is going to work here? >> we will spend a lot of time over the next four years trying to dissect joe biden's relationship with them. the republican party is in a very interesting position right now where they are beginning to really reckon with, especially in light of the call, what a post-donald trump future looks like. we have been talking about this a lot. everything we have seen from joe biden over the course of the transition is him being very careful with how he engaged with republicans broadly and with the president specifically. he has been very eager at times to call out the president in very stark terms. think about what we saw on

december 14th after the electoral college met within their respective state capitals across the country. he in strong terms rebuked the president's efforts to cast doubt on the legitimacy of the election. as it relates to this, we have heard some strong language from bob bower calling this disgraceful, calling donald trump out for an assault on democracy. we got a taste of this last night from kamala harris as well, talking about the desperation in donald trump's voice you hear on the call and calling it an abuse of power. abuse of power is something joe biden has talked about consistently throughout the campaign about the president's actions. i wouldn't be surprised if that's where he engaged. as it relates to his trip here to georgia today, i think you also have to consider the political calculation of what the objectives are at this point. democrats are very pleased with the early voting that they have seen so far, strong turnout, beyond even i think what they might have been expecting. they know what happened on

election day across the country. very strong turnout from donald trump's base to the degree that a lot of folks were surprised turned out in the up ins they d did. biden's role is to walk a fine line. when republicans are on their own doing soul searching about the role of donald trump and trumpism and the future of the party, of giving republicans something to rally around. somebody to call for impeachment like some democrats are on capitol hill. speaks to democrats to turn out. to speak to the new vision of the country. but not antagonize republicans. very difficult fine line to walk. >> it is pretty remarkable. i will say i think there is evidence that the strategy is paying off with at least a segment of establishment republicans in the senate.

pris si mike turned to georgia and the state of play on the ground there. you have been down it in georgia covering this race for some time. what are you seeing, hearing in the final days about where people believe that things stand? mike mentioned democrats feel good about early voting totals, but to underscore the point as we learned what turned into election week, sometimes those totals could be misleading once people actually started showing up on election day. >> yeah. democrats are feeling strong about the early voting turnout that they have seen. some of the republicans that i spoke to even before all of this controversy and the phone call happened were saying they were banking open election day turnout to put them over the top. it is calling into question now what that is going to look like on the republican side. we know that -- i have spoken to republicans who voted early. more than 3 million people have

done that. those republicans tell me even though they do believe these unfounded claims of voter fraud, they are turning out to vote. the question is, will enough of them turn out, particularly as all this controversy is swirling? what i will say is that the democratic candidates are certainly taking this as an opportunity to attack their opponents saying they are siding with president trump and not defending the georgia voters. democrats are out here door knocking today. we are hear with canvassers that will go out. these are hospitality workers that have been laid off. they are not talking about relitigating the november election. they are talking about issues around covid relief, unemployment, all of these things. it's going to be interesting to see here what messaging wins out here on election night. >> of course, control of the senate on the line there, the future of joe biden's agenda,

his cabinet and many other major questions all unfolding here as we are grappling with a pretty astonishing historical moment from the president to the congress on down. thank you all very much for your reporting and for kicking us off this hour. happy new year to all of you. we have posted the entire hour plus long phone call between the president and the george geor georgia secretary of state online. listen to it and get the latest reporting on the fallout at nbcnews.com. just ahead, how should congress respond to the president's message to the georgia secretary of state? i will talk to virginia democratic senator and former vice presidential candidate tim kane up next. a slow vaccine rollout. concerns that a surge in holiday travel will mean another surge in hospitalizations. [ fizz ] joining meeting.

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welcome back. we are not even a week into 2021 and we are facing down two days that could fundamentally alter the dynamics of the senate and of the republican party itself. first, we will have tomorrow's senate runoff in georgia. that, of course, is the moment of truth in the fight for senate control. the day after that, comes the certification of the electoral vote as republican lawmakers are getting ready to defy mitch mcconnell and challenge those results. joining me now is democratic senator from virginia, tim kaine. he was the vice presidential nominee. thank you so much for being here. happy new year to you. i have to start simply by asking your reaction to this phone call and especially the president asking the georgia secretary of state to find a specific -- find

quo quote, unquote, a specific number of votes for him. >> it shows the president knows he has lost and that he thinks this is like a real estate negotiation, he can talk the guy into giving him more votes. it's not a redeal. it's our democracy. so this sort of spoiled rich kid who thinks he can shake the guy down for the extra votes, it's shocking, except it's donald trump. it's what we have come to expect from him. the thing that's really surprising though is the number of my republican colleagues in the senate and house who are poised to go along with this essential effort to overthrow the people's elected government of the united states. that i do find surprising and saddening. >> so there are some democrats -- i want to get to the electoral college thing in a send. there are democrats that have listnd ened to the call and sai we should impeach donald trump for this.

there should be impeachment articles on the floor. do you think that would be an appropriate step at this point? >> i don't think that's what the focus should be. the focus should be winning the two georgia senate seats and prepping to advance the biden agenda, because he will be president come january 20th. i do think the call raises a series of legal issues. the president is not insulated from criminal investigation or prosecution as soon as he is not president anymore. georgia officials need to take a look or federal officials to see whether this call violated laws. that should be done. i think congress right now should be focusing upon, let's do what we can to win the two senate seats, then let's do what we can to help joe biden finally deliver a compassionate and competent response to covid that will get both our health and our economy going again after the disastrous trump mismanagement of the crisis.

>> let's go back to the electoral college question, which you mentioned you will be considered this in a joint session on wednesday. we know that senator hawley is planning to sign an objection that will lead to an on the record vote on the senate floor. have you been surprised that they have gone forward with that? does it seem as though it is in keeping with how they have defended the president in the past? >> they have been willing, the overwhelming majority of republicans -- there are some exceptions, but there are few. they have been willing to do whatever they thought donald trump would like, not because they care about trump but because they are so afraid of making donald trump's voters mad. one of the things interesting about senator hawley is he will raise objections to all the states other than missouri. it's ultimately a chicken move as well, because if you challenge another state's

results, no one can hold you accountable for it. it's not like the missouri voters will hold him accountable for challenging georgia results. the challenge is baseless. it's a craven attempt to suck up to president trump and his supporters. it lacks courage, because these folks are challenging other states' results when they know the voters in those other states have no way of holding them accountable. >> what does it tell you about mitch mcconnell's power or lack thereof that this is happening? he has been straightforward in saying this is a bad idea. this most important vote. he is saying, don't do this. yet, he is being ignored by his conference. why? >> you know because you are there every day. mitch is very powerful. he normally has quite a hold on his caucus. in this case, they are more worried about president trump and his tweet factory and the response of trump voters than

about mitch mcconnell. there's a great line of poetry. it goes like this. we defend the heart on fantasy, the heart grown brutal with the fare, more substance in enmity than love. they have fed the conspiracy followers in many cases with the fantasies about voter fraud or all kinds of other fantasies along the way and now suddenly they find that they can't control it. they are learning the painful reality of when you deal with a bully, the only way to deal with a bully is get in the bully's face. it's not go aloto go along or s or be nice. that's what they have done to donald trump. now many are regretting it. >> i'm officially very impressed. kudos for that. very quickly, are you concerned or alarmed that these defense

secretaries felt the need to write an op-ed saying there's no role for the military in deciding an election? >> you are right. what inspired them to think they needed to do that? that is a serious thing. i was very glad to see them take this step. but you followed it the last six months or weeks or two months, the trump administration hollowed out the pentagon and filled with trump ak k acolytes. i'm on the armed services committee from a pro-military state. there's a great deal of concern about the vacuum of leadership at the pentagon right now. trump has put political loyalists there that he can push around to do whatever he wants. i was very happy to see them take this step, certainly those of us on the armed services committee, democrats and republicans, we led the effort to overturn the trump veto of the defense bill last week.

we will watch out for the nation's defense even if the president has his eyes elsewhere. >> senator tim kaine, thank you very much for your time today. really appreciate you being here. let's bring in former republican congressman from florida, carlos carbello. it's great to have you here. thanks for being here. i want to talk a little bit about some of your former colleagues in the house, both those that are objecting and one significant one, the former speaker paul ryan who decided to speak out and issue a pretty rare statement over the weekend opposing this electoral college move from both your former group of former colleagues in the house and also from senator josh hawley. you know these people. what are the implications in the long-term not just for the republican party here but for the country? >> what i can tell you is that

this absurd call the president had with georgia election officials has changed the math for a lot of republicans. the republicans that are going along with this are doing it for a number of reasons. they are all driven by fear or ambition. republicans don't want trump inspired primary challenges and some republicans want to run for higher office, be it president of the united states or united states senate. that's why they have joined this effort. they want president trump's support when they decide to run or they fear his opposition. however, the excuse that many were going to use that they were concerned about election integrity and they want to make sure everything went okay in this election, that has now been belied by the president's call. because he leaves it clear that this is not about election integrity. this is about mining the exact number of votes that he needs in order to overturn the election result. that's quite different.

the implications here are enormous. the choice is obvious. a lot of republicans are in a tough position. i think many will make the right choice, aided by the president this weekend because he left it clear what in is all about. others will choose their own political interest. that's the nature of politics. the future of the american people decide who to reward and who to punish. >> you, of course, were serving in congress and had to answer tough questions from all of us about president trump and his -- whatever he tweeted or said that day. you were among many -- kudos for stopping more frequently than most to talk to us about it. this has been a situation where over many years now republicans have ducked questions about this president's conduct. they have decided not to step

out and say, what you are doing is wrong. what impact has that -- did that decision, from the beginning, that this is how we were going to handle the president and we will -- it has escalated gradually over the last four years. what impact does that approach have on this moment now where now they are dealing with this group of voters, as you explain, who they only believe president trump? they don't believe mainstream media outlets because the president has been out there den gradie ide deneg dene denegrading them. what was the impact of the decision to say, we're just going to say our peace to donald trum trump in private? >> the issue is that when you abandon the truth in a free society, it's very difficult to recover.

you become a victim of the hijacked proof. you see some of the president's strongest supporters -- [ no audio ] senator mcconnell, senator cotton, now they are being ostracized and threatened with getting primaried, with being punished by republican primary voters. because for years, they refused to express simple truths. they refused to condemn the president when he he wered arn. i remind people, sometimes i agreed with the president. i voted for some of the policies that he championed. i voted for tax cuts. i happen to think they were good. when the president was clearly wrong -- here is the most obvious example when he is trying to overturn an election result -- there can be no equivocation there. there can be no hesitation. republicans for years, either ducked or excused some of the president's behavior.

now that's all -- we are living the consequences. people have been loyal to him, even people like former attorney general barr, who obviously helped the president with a lot of his issues, now is an enemy. there's no reward for abandoning the truth. >> i think the phrase from the bible is, you reap what you sow. thanks very much for being here. we appreciate your insights today. coming up next here, the trump administration has missed its vaccination goal by a long shot. what's it going to take to catch up? how long will it be? alright, i n ensure max protein 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. with nutrients to support immune health. ing gain flings,x protein. their laundry smells more amazing than ever.

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welcome back. public health officials are bracing for another surge of patients in emergency rooms and icus after a surge in travel over the holidays despite officials begging people to stay home. yesterday, the tsa screened more than 1.3 million passengers. at the same time, more americans are hospitalized than ever. overwhelmed hospitals and exhausted health care workers are counting on vaccines to play a key role in ending the pandemic. right now, the vaccination rollout isn't going as many had hoped. in many places, it's disorganized and chaotic with people waiting in long lines or unable to find out how to get vaccinated. so far, only 4.2 million

americans have been vaccinated, despite an administration goal to have inoculated 20 million people by the end of december. kerry sanders is in florida where some health care workers are receiving their second dose today. florida has struggled with getting the vaccines out to those who need it. they are not following the cdc guidelines, instead opening everything up to people who are 65 and older. what are folks trying to get the vaccine down there in florida telling you about their experiences? >> reporter: there's two tales. you have the health kascare workers, are getting their shots. they are getting their second pfizer shots here at memorial health systems. then you have the other story. the people who are 65 and older going through county websites, trying to figure out how to get appointments. it's very frustrating. listen to one family's anxiety. explain to me what happened.

you tried to go and? >> we tried first online to get an appointment. it wasn't accepting it on the computer. we took down the address and figured we would drive down here. they say you have to have an appointment. we can't make one. we haven't been able to make the appointment. >> reporter: the old catch 22? >> yes. >> reporter: now you are anxious to get the vaccine. >> exactly. >> reporter: you are waiting. you don't know where to turn? >> correct. >> reporter: did they give you any solution? none. >> reporter: none? >> none. absolutely none. >> reporter: your thoughts about the way the system is rolled out. >> for a senior, it's not very accommodating. there's no one there to help you. that's why i'm here now. you are the only one that would talk to us. >> reporter: what was your expectation that the government would have with this rollout? >> i would have expected, especially for seniors who are not 100% on the computer, to

have some sort of accommodation to help them make the appointment. >> reporter: when folks are available to get through to the website, they are met, if they can get through -- it's crashing all the time. they are met with a message that says all appointments have been filled at this time. florida has 67 counties. that's 67 different health departments doing various methods for people to get their vaccinations. there's no geographic restrictions. there's people going from here all the way about two hours plus up to get inoculated. it's chaotic. it's driving people crazy. >> that's incredibly frustrating. i'm struck by that gentleman who says you are the only person i can get to talk to me. you and i have spoken before i have 90-something-year-old grandparents. we are trying to protect them. i can't give them answers to their questions. as you are documenting, so many

others in tough positions as well. kerry sanders, thank you for this important reporting. i'm sure you will keep us posted. coming up, we will talk to a former head of the cdc about the vaccine rollout problems and the expected host-holiday surge. after the president pushed george geor georgia's secretary of state to overturn the election results, i will talk to the head of elections in another state whose election results republicans plan to try to dispute. anted her smile to shine. now, she uses a capful of therabreath healthy smile oral rinse to give her the healthy, sparkly smile she always wanted. (crowd cheering) therabreath, it's a better mouthwash. at walmart, target and other fine stores. less oral steroids. taking my treatment at home. nucala is a once-monthly add-on injection for severe eosinophilic asthma. not for sudden breathing problems. allergic reactions can occur. get help right away for swelling of face, mouth, tongue, or trouble breathing. infections that can cause shingles have occurred.

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we have well over 300,000 deng deaths. all you need to do is go into the trenches, go into the hospitals, into the intensive care unit s and see what's happening. those are real numbers, real people and real deaths. >> welcome back. that was dr. anthony fauci with chuck on "meet the press"

yesterday debufrnking that the c overcou counts the death tolls. while vaccine distribution is off to a sluggish start, dr. richard besser, the former acting director of the cdc joins me now. thank you for being with us. i would like to start with what chuck asked dr. fauci. he was responding to the suggestion that the death -- from the president of the united states, that the death tolls have been inflated. your response? >> this is the problem we have had throughout this pandemic where we get misinformation, different information coming from elected officials from what we hear from public health. we are in a dire situation with the pandemic right now. the only thing that will make a difference this winter is people following the advice of public health leaders and social distancing, washing hands, wearing masks, not traveling,

staying home, reducing contact with others. thankfully, congress gave some resources to people so that people have some money to be able to stay home if they need to. a lot of those resources will go away at the e7nd of the month. this will make a difference, not the vaccination, which is not going very well. >> let's talk about that. we were just in florida with kerry sanders. they are not following the cdc guidance in terms of the phases suggested for age ranges and who should get priority in the general population. what's your take on how florida is doing this? are you seeing any best case examples? are there states that are doing it right? what's the difference? >> yeah. for one, we need stronger federal leadership to provide guidance to states in terms of how to roll this out. it's tricky. we have two different vaccines that have different requirements. it's very challenging. states did not get the resources

that they needed to prepare for this until this last bill was passed by congress and signed into law. it's going to take a while for those resources to filter down and allow clipp iclinics to worr hours. there were places where instead of increasing the number of hours that clinics were open to provide vaccines for health care workers and others who were recommended, they reduced hours. we are hearing there are states that have been going 24/7. we hear about states that have been able to get vaccine out to nursing home patients. that's a really good thing. i worry that there's so much conversation around vaccine that there's a sense that vaccines are going to make the difference this winter. and they're not. it's the other measures people do. >> when do you think we will see, based on the start of the rollout, when will we see the vaccine have a real impact? >> it's hard to say. it's not because i'm hedging.

what we are seeing is lower rates of health care workers getting vaccine. people saying they want to see how this goes. we don't know yet whether vaccinations will reduce the likelihood that someone will spread the virus to other people. these are unanswered questions. the rollout questions themselves, how quickly can we ramp up production and get it to people? there's a lot of discussion about trying to give everyone their first dose first and then waiting for production to catch up to give the second dose. that's different from giving a reduced dose. there's all kinds of discussions around that. it's really important -- >> is that a good idea? >> i don't think it's a good idea to give less than -- to do something that hasn't been studied. there's enough concern by the public about influence -- political influence on the scientific process. what was studied was two doses. for these vaccines. it shows after the first dose, there's a significant level of protection. for a lot of vaccines in

children, although it's recommended that the second dose be given six weeks or eight weeks later, delaying that beyond that doesn't reduce the likelihood that that child will be protected. looking at alternative strategies is important. reinforcing what people need right now, ensuring people have aren't protection, increased unemployment, those will help ensure that this pandemic doesn't continue to have impact on people of color and lower income americans. >> dr. richard besser, thank you very much for coming on today and sharing your expertise with us. we appreciate it. coming up next here, we will have more on the president's efforts to overturn the election results. how many more officials received calls from the president? arizona's secretary of state joins us after a quick break. we have only one standard

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♪ welcome back to mtp daily. let's bring in another secretary of state whose results may be don tested on kentucky. i'm joined now by katy hobs. it will be the first of six results. you're first in the alpha bed. thank you for being with us today. and let me just start by asking you a very straightforward

question. have you received a phone call from the president of the united states about the election results or has he tried to reach you? >> no, not me or my office that i'm aware of. >> so what is your take on what has unfolded here. that the georgia secretary of state felt the need to tape and release this conversation once it was clear that the president was misrepresenting it. >> this was unprecedented. i don't know how many times i have said that this yeah. regardless of party. with the current circumstances, they responded the way any secretary of state or any chief

election official of the state would have responded to this situation. >> so you said that you received threats related to the election. obviously the secretary has received at leasts to himself and his family. what do you say to voter who is are convinced by what president trump said in public and is making those threats? >> i don't know that those folks are listening. some folks will always take the position that this election was stolen, which we know is not true. but i do look fard to having conversations that help restore the public's confidence. i know those folks are out there, and you know if you don't like the election results you have four more years and that's how the system works.

we know that senator holly has spoken out, do you know if anyone is willing to sign on and reject arizona's results? not that i know of, but no matter what happens the election results are going to stand. this is a side show that will take more hours than it should. we know that election officials will continue to get threats

based on these. >> kind of a broad question for you based on those threats. do you think that the climate is going to discourage people, good people, from seeking public office like the one that you have served in, and what kind of impact do you think that has in the long term on our country? >> certainly, i think that what is happening is dangerous to our democracy. i said that for awhile. i think that certainly we're seeing people that might otherwise have been interested in election administration and we have seen unprecedented interest interest. not just election administration, but running for officer in general. i heard from young women that are doing that. >> thank you for coming on today and weighing in on this.

of course you can listen to the entire call between president trump and the georgia secretary of state online right now at nbcnews.com. thanks to all of you for joining us this hour. chuck will be with you back tomorrow join me tomorrow on "way too early" at 5:00 a.m. our coverage will continue after a quick break. r coverage will cr a quick break. my seminars are a great tool to help young homeowners who are turning into their parents. now, remember, they're not programs. they're tv shows. you woke up early. no one cares. yes. so, i was using something called homequote explorer from progressive to easily compare home insurance rates. was i hashtagging? progressive can't help you from becoming your parents, but we can help you compare rates on home insurance with homequote explorer. guess what. the waiter doesn't need to know your name.

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good around, i'm katy tur, it is 11:00 a.m. out west and 2:00 p.m. in the east. in less than 24rseorgia will vote to see which party will control the united states senate and thereby the course of joe biden's presidency. a presidency that the current occupant of the office is trying to steal away. both donald trump and his