good day, i'm andrea mitchell in washington, on an election day in georgia where two contests will determine who controls the senate and president-elect biden's ability to confirm his cabinet and future judicial choices as well as passing his top priorities. democratic candidates jon ossoff and raphael warnock need to improve their margins from the november election in order to defeat republicans david perdue and senator kelly loeffler. the races are so important, both president trump and president-elect biden campaigned in georgia yesterday and last night. >> the power, the power is literally in your hands, unlike any time in my career. one state, one state can chart the course not just for the next four years but for the next generation. >> each of you is going to vote in one of the most important runoff elections in the history

of our country. kelly fights for me. david fights for me. that i can tell you. >> most of the president's speech, though, was devoted to false claims that he won georgia, spouting discredited conspiracy theories, instead of focusing on the senate raises a races and the candidates he was there to rally for. joining me now, blayne alexander, and steve kornacki at the big board. blayne, you've been tracking these races, what are you seeing on the day of voting compared to the early voting? >> reporter: andrea, first, if you'll forgive me, i'm talking to you over the loud sounds of a get out the vote party that's happening 50 feet from where i'm standing right now, that's what you hear in the background. first, a little bit of a development we just learned, around security and questions of security when it comes to the election. i just confirmed the gbi is investigating, quote, specific threats around today's election. the bureau is not providing a

lot of detailed information but we do know that it's something that's been discussed going all the way back to november. in fact here in fulton county, every polling location has an assigned security person, a law enforcement officer. that's not something we've seen in previous elections. so it just kind of underscores how closely this is being watched but just kind of the political climate around all of them. the good news, andrea, it certainly doesn't seem to be having any impact on the voters here, at least the ones that i've spoken to for the better part of this morning. i'm at a polling location in southwest atlanta. if you look behind me, you don't see long lines. that has to do almost entirely with early voting. in fact i spoke with the precinct manager here and she tells me the turnout is lower because the early voting numbers were so high. more than 8,000 people who typically come to this precinct decided to cast their ballot early. so if you tally that up across fulton county, across the state of georgia, that's what accounts for the more than 3 million early voters that we've seen so far.

now, let me put a caveat on that, andrea. that is in mainly democratic areas or at least a high number. we do know that a disproportionately large number are voters of color or voters who are younger. and of course those are the voters that tend to skew democratic. for republicans, it comes down to day of turnout. let's listen to one of the candidates. jon ossoff cast his ballot earlier today and here is what he had to say, take a look. >> georgia voters have never have more power than you have today. that's the reason the whole world is watching us in georgia. i want georgia voters to feel that power and to exercise that power to make history. >> reporter: so there you heard jon ossoff today. we know the candidates are criss-crossing the state today. david perdue is doing so virtually, of course, because he's in quarantine, trying to get people out to the polls before they close at 7:00 tonight, andrea.

>> blayne, is there any indication from the georgia bureau of investigation as to from where these so-called threats are coming? are these efforts to suppress the black vote which is what the naacp of georgia was complaining about a week ago, or is it coming from the other side? do we know what's going on there at all? >> reporter: the gbi gave very little details, only with the promise that they would give some more information when it's available. we do know this is something that gabe sterling was asked about yesterday, he's the election official we've heard from a lot. he said that because there's going to be such a high amount of turnout that we anticipate there could be a number of potential threats either attempting to encourage or discourage turnout. not a lot of specifics but, again, looking like it's geared to dissuade people from coming out to vote, at least from gabe sterling yesterday. >> thanks for those details. blayne alexander has been all over this race. steve kornacki, no donald trump

on the ballot this time around, how do you think the absence of donald trump or his behavior in the last weeks since the election which has been so extraordinary with the conspiracy theories and the like, how is that going to impact the potential for split ticket voting which we saw so much of where biden carried the state by 11,799 votes and instead you saw an 88,000 margin for, you know, senator perdue. >> yeah, no, exactly, andrea. in the grand scheme of things, there were not a ton of split ticket voters in georgia in november. but in terms of affecting the outcome of the race, just compare, biden winning the skate by a whisker and then perdue actually finishing two points better than ossoff, 88,000-vote margin, a split ticket vote, enough to give biden the state and not quite enough to get perdue over the top. the biggest county of the state,

atlanta suburbs, fulton county. jon ossoff gets 70% in fulton county versus david perdue. joe biden got nearly 73%. that may seem like a small difference but it's a difference of more than 25,000 votes. joe biden got a margin out of fulton county more than 25,000 votes bigger than jon ossoff did. biden won the state, ossoff fell short. a 25,000-vote difference in major, core democratic county. that's a very big deal. if you look precinct by precinct, it's in the more suburban parts of fulton county, not so much in atlanta itself but in sandy springs, in roswell, places like that. you saw the biggest break between biden and between ossoff. it is the question or one of the key questions, andrea, for today. those voters who in november said i don't like donald trump, i don't want to vote for donald trump, i will check off joe biden's name, but i also don't

want to vote for democrats for the senate. those voters, no trump on the ballot today, do they still say, not going to vote for democrats, i'm going to vote for these republicans for the senate? or will they say, i still want to vote against trump, he's not on the ballot so all i can do is vote against his party? that's what democrats are hoping for, because that small but critical chunk of swing voters could make the difference between biden carrying the state narrowly and democrats falling short, which is what happened in the preliminary. >> and we've heard so much about the early vote, the large number, more than 3 million voting early, and a large percentage being black, young voters, tend to be more democratic. but day-of voters tend to be more republican. is that conventional wisdom going to hold today or will you get a lot of black voters, young voters, people inspired by stacey abrams and angry at donald trump that will come out day-of?

>> think about where donald trump was last night, when he came to georgia, he was right up here in whitfield county, core republican county. trump got 70% of the vote here. why send trump there the night before the election? because this region, north georgia in particular, hugely, hugely republican area. the question there isn't are these counties going to be red or blue. the question is how many republicans are going to turn out to vote in places like this, in counties like whitfield. so that's why you send trump into an area like that last night. you need to try to drive that turnout way up today to offset what democrats did the last couple of weeks. >> thank you so much, steve kornacki, i know you'll be here all night with the election results, football scores, playoff rankings, if you happen to have those. >> i'll be happy to do both, you got it. >> brandon buck, former senior adviser to house speaker john

boehner, former maryland congresswom congresswoman donna edwards. stacey abrams was on last night saying she thinks they have done this, that they're highly motivated. we're seeing from what blayne is reporting from part of atlanta, a drop-off, not as many day-off voters. what do you think in terms of getting enough voters out today to overcome the traditional day-of republican vote? >> happy new year to you, andrea. i must say that i -- >> happy new year. >> absolutely. this election music or steve kornacki here at the beginning of january but here we are and all eyes are focused on my home state. what's interesting in that report from blayne other than the soundtrack that accompanied it, which i appreciate being a

georgia native, she's in atlanta where we know a lot of black voters voted early in this runoff election and voted mail-in in this election because of concerns around coronavirus and because of concerns around election integrity, wanting to make sure they weighed in in these very conventional runoffs and that they weren't going to have any issues with their ballot being cast with president trump continuing to raise the specter of a rigged election in georgia and whose votes were going to be counted. and it's going to be really, really interesting to see whether republican voters will be affected by that same rhetoric that the president has been having, we know that's something that republican state officials are very concerned about. you saw kind of that lack of a press conference yesterday, just hours before the president returned to georgia for that election eve rally, raising concerns about the

disinformation that the president has been spreading and the effect that that was having on the turnout models that they were looking at. their argument, state officials, kind of 11th hour argument to georgia republicans was, even if you feel, you know, if you agree with the president, that the election was rigged, if you feel like the election was stolen from you, this is your chance to be a firewall and to vote and make sure that your vote is counted, maybe in a way that you don't feel that it counted in november. >> and brendan, when we talk about what was happening in november, those republicans who can't stand trump and voted for joe biden but voted for the republicans on the senate side, what do they do now? are they so convinced by the president that this past election was rigged, that the rock solid trump supporters will come out, or are there suburban

republicans that are turned off by what he's doing? >> steve made some great points, trump has made this election a mess for republicans. in normal circumstances this should not be a difficult race for both republicans to win. but the president cast all kinds of doubt on the integrity of the election and told voters your vote will not count. at some point that is going to have a negative effect on turnout. how much, that's an open question. as steve was getting at, there were a lot of republicans or a lot of voters who have for a long time been republicans, particularly in the northern intufs suburbs of atlanta where i'm from, where they've voted republican but they can't stand donald trump. that put joe biden over the top. the question is are those people actually going to support a democratic senate? are they going to vote democratic and hand the senate to chuck schumer? i don't know if that's the case. i talked to a lot of republicans in georgia this morning, a lot of them are pessimistic, but i

think the republicans will hold on. i don't think those suburbs that gave joe biden the state are going to vote for democrats because they don't actually want that kind of agenda and i think that that message has been sent strong enough that a vote for raphael warnock and jon ossoff is a vote for chuck schumer. i think that will be enough to hold on to it for republicans. >> donna, what we've seen is that these republican candidates have just attached themselves to donald trump, but joe biden came and didn't really go after trump except for one reference. he was talking about the $2,000 checks and what's at stake in terms of the agenda in the senate. let's take a look what he had to say. >> if you send jon and the reverend to washington, those $2,000 checks will go out the door, restoring hope and decency and honor for so many people who are struggling right now.

>> how much of a setback is it for the president-elect if he does not win both of these seats? >> well, i mean, i think clearly president-elect biden said in his speech that he believed that this was a really important election because everything is on the line. it's the difference in having, you know, warnock and ossoff in the senate to make sure to carry forward an agenda and not to be obstructed by mitch mcconnell and republicans in the senate. look, i think that democrats actually have an advantage. i think the number to take a look at are the 112,000 new voters, voters who did not vote in the general election, who registered and voted during early vote. those were overwhelmingly african-american and young voters who trend democratic. so i think that, you know, for voters in georgia, i think they

understand that this is the difference between having an obstructionist congress and particularly obstructionist senate, and carry forward an agenda that joe biden promised when they voted for him in georgia, even by a slim margin, in the general election. and so i think democrats understand that there's a lot on the line here and, you know, you're seeing that in the early vote turnout. and i think today, election day, we're looking for all of those black and brown voters in rural areas, in suburban areas, who are going to come out and vote who maybe didn't vote in the general election in 2020. >> and very briefly, we're just about out of time, but errin, what are you hearing about the possibility that reverend warnock might win, that he might get through and ossoff not? >> i certainly have heard a lot of talk about the potential of,

you know, a split decision here coming out of today's election, despite the fact that both loeffler and perdue and warnock and ossoff both kind of ran as a ticket in the final weeks of this runoff election. for raphael warnock, he's got a lot of name i.d., being the pastor of martin luther king's home, ebenezer baptist church, and a long time record of organizing voters out of that church in atlanta. also the potential to make history is something that is motivating a lot of black voters around the warnock race. georgia has never had a black senator. so the opportunity to make history in that way is something that is appealing to a lot of voters. but, you know, jon ossoff certainly has not underestimated the importance of black voters in his race as well, and is tying both himself and warnock to the legacy of the late

congressman john lewis, a champion of voting rights whose legacy is looming very large over both these runoffs and could end up propelling both of them to victory if democrats are motivated. >> there's a lot of history that could be made indeed. brendan buck, donna edwards, errin haines, thanks to all of you. ahead, could the british variant of the coronavirus be a sign of things to come here? and president trump ramping up the pressure on vice president mike pence to come through for him tomorrow in the electoral college certification. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. rea mitcl reports" only on msnbc

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their online reputation. get your free reputation report card at reputationdefender.com or call 1-877-866-8555. president trump pushed his own agenda to overturn joe biden's victory instead of focusing on the republican senate candidates whom he was rallying for in georgia last night, stepping up the pressure on vice president mike pence to defy the constitution and try to manipulate the electoral vote, something he cannot legally do when he presides tomorrow. >> i hope mike pence comes through for us, i have to tell you. i hope that our great vice president, our great vice president comes through for us. he's a great guy. of course if he didn't come through, i won't like him quite as much. >> joining me now is nbc's white house correspondent peter alexander and co-anchor of "weekend today," jonathan

lemire, white house reporter for the associated press, and ashley park parker. there are reports mike pence may try to seat electors. >> it's possible that happens. it's likely that would be rejected even if mike pence were to do that in some way to try to allay the fears, the concerns of the president who has demanded something like this happening here. moments ago i spoke to an administration official who says the vice president is taking this very seriously, studiously, in their words, that he's met with a parliamentarian, that he's met with experts on the matter, he's studied the electoral counteract of the late 1800s that dictates this count

must take place on january 6 which would mean you couldn't have this sort of delay that some republicans have been pushing for right now. but if you listen to the vice president's words, they themselves i think are particularly telling. he said among other things yesterday, "i promise you we will have our day in congress." he said, "we will hear the objections, we will hear the evidence." but he didn't go further than that, which is to say that it appears at least from what we're hearing that he wants the process to play out but given the opportunity to decide between his boss and the constitution, in the words of one close to him, he is going to follow the constitution while still sort of affording the house and senate this opportunity to air these grievances and address these matters. >> and jonathan, you tweeted a quote from the president's rally last night, the quote was, "i don't do rallies for other people. i do them for me." never truer words spoken by

donald trump, right? >> andrea, no need to fact-check that statement at all. there were of course a lot of republicans who were rather wary of the president's appearance last night in georgia, thinking that he would make it solely about himself. and to be clear, he largely made it about himself. but he did tout the two candidates there, the senate candidates loeffler and perdue who of course the republicans hope will win, at least one of them will hang on to their seat today and therefore the republicans would remain control of the senate. the president, you know, though he read those lines and stuck to the script for those portions, that's not where the fire and energy was last night for what may have been, likely was the president's final rally while in office. indeed he unleashed a series of attacks against the republican governor of georgia, against the republican secretary of state of george with whom he had that infamous phone call over the weekend in which he pushed him to find votes to award him the state and he again repeated the

flat-out falsehood that he won the state of georgia and won the election as a whole in a landslide, he said. this was an attempt, an opportunity for him to unleash his grievances about the election, repeat false claims that it was rigged, and as you said, put more pressure on vice president pence tomorrow to defy the constitution and to overturn the results. we saw the president just tweeted a few minutes ago that same sentiment yet again. the vice president can't do that. but the president is making it as uncomfortable as possible for vice president pence here in his final weeks in office. vice president pence who of course has been nothing but a loyal soldier for the president and who gets this treatment from the president as have so many who worked for the president in the past. >> and ashley, you wrote in "the washington post," the president is effectively sabotaging the republican party on his way out of office. what purpose does that serve

him, other than trying to escape being seen as a loser, though he did lose? >> it serves no purpose whatsoever for the republican party. but for president trump it allows him to nurse grievances, air grudges, boost his ego, and convince himself and a large portion of his base of supporters that he did not actually lose this election, that it was stolen from him, although it's important to pause and say none that have is in any way true, and raise money and set himself up for a post-white-house political future. it's maddening for the members of his party, for the senators who will have to take a tough public stand on whether they support the president or support the constitution. he doesn't particularly care. he's more than happy to burn that party down if it serves himself or his ego or his whims. >> it's in striking contrast to

al gore when he was presiding in 2001 and refused to let a congressman from florida object and try to have different electors, different delegates from the electoral college even though his race was decided by 537 -- was it 567 votes? anyway, less than a thousand votes in florida. peter alexander, jonathan lemire, ashley parker, thanks to all of you. the georgia runoffs will determine the future of the incoming biden administration's agenda in congress. what's at stake? that's coming up next. many people with type 2 diabetes like emily lower their blood sugar. a majority of adults who took ozempic® reached an a1c under 7 and maintained it. here's your a1c. oh! my a1c is under 7! (announcer) and you may lose weight. adults who took ozempic® lost on average up to 12 pounds. i lost almost 12 pounds! oh!

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here's a fact. joe biden won the election. but tomorrow trump allies in congress will object to the votes of the electoral college, objections that will not change the outcome but it may take a while. as many as 13 senators and more than 100 house members, all republican, could object in an effort that's ultimately doomed to fail, at least they say they will. the rebellion in the senate started by josh hawley, former attorney general of missouri, now thought to have presidential ambitions in 2024 although he denies it. here he's being challenged by bret baier on fox news last night. >> are you trying to say that as of january 20, that president trump will be president? >> well, brett, that depends on what happens on wednesday. i mean, this is why we are the

debate. >> no, it doesn't. the states, by the constitution, say they certify the election. they did certify it. by the constitution, congress doesn't have the right to overturn the certification, at least as most experts read it. >> joining me now, nbc news capitol hill correspondent and host of "way too early," kasie hunt, and jen palmieri, white house communications director for president obama. kasie, that was a moment on fox, bret baier was fact checking josh hawley. hawley really started this rebellion and it's true that they can't change the outcome, but there's all kinds of talk about what mike pence might do with other electoral, you know, college delegates, trying to foster rebellion. how could this routine procedure get out of control? >> andrea, at this point my sources are telling me it's unlikely to get completely out of control, although there are

some potential unknowns simply because this is all unprecedented. we've hardly seen anything like this before there have only been a couple of incidents in history where even a small piece of this has been challenged. in this case it's likely to drag out for hours. we're just learning at this hour that senator ted cruz joined by senator braun plan to sign onto an objection to arizona, that will be one of the first states up, as everything goes in alphabetical order. so if they object to that right out of the gate, we know senator hawley plans to object to pennsylvania. every state objection that has a house member and a senator that signs on, requires a separate two hours of debate. and in the age of coronavirus, it takes an hour or more for the house of representatives to hold a vote on the floor because only so many of them can be in the chamber at any given time. so that means each objection potentially lasting three, even four hours. and that means that this process

could drag into the following day. you're right that there are questions about second slates of electors and whether there are procedural ways for vice president mike pence to throw wrenches into this process. there is nothing concrete at this point to suggest that any of that would ultimately change the outcome. but obviously it's going to be a spectacle that could potentially really affect the way people think about our electoral process. that's what we've been seeing with this president for the last several months. he is saying to his supporters, hey, he's raising questions about the election, and then you're seeing other republicans turn around and say, well, all of my constituents have questions about the election so we need to make sure we reassure them it was free and fair. again, it goes back to this question, why do they have those doubts, and that's because of president trump, andrea. >> and of course, you know, we've seen mike pence over the years, jen palmieri, he has gone out of his way to do everything, everything, to praise and

aggrandize the president of the united states. this is tricky for him, he's got to appease trump while affirming a biden win, actually, i guess appease the president by letting it go on and on and on. >> yeah, and appease trump's supporters, more to the point. i was in dalton, georgia last night at the trump rally and talked to a lot of trump supporters who really believe that donald trump is going to be president after january 20. they could not explain to me how that was going to happen but they just had faith that trump would figure it out. you have the sense that trump is playing this hour by hour. he got a 13th senator yesterday, he paraded kelly loeffler out and showed her as the 13th senator, that may pressure other senators to do it. it's remarkable to me how many people here in georgia who support him continue to believe he will be president.

>> it's just incredible, kasie, how these conspiracy theories just propagate and feed on themselves through social media, through the rally that the president held and through his twitter feed, and, you know, so many people still believe that joe biden is not a legitimate president. and this does have an impact on his ability to get things done and to provide the leadership that is so necessary during a pandemic, to say nothing of the recession. >> well, and andrea, it's a real consequence of what we have seen from president trump over the last four years in questioning sources of information, in talking about fake news, and insisting that you can't believe anything you read. and the president, you know, has been relatively, at least privately, transparent about why he has done that, it is so when there are stories that run flattering to him or when he wants his supporters to believe

something, they don't believe the media writ large, and instead are looking to him for information. and i think you're really seeing that play out. it's a big question on the ground in georgia too in these senate races as to whether republicans will decide they should show up if this election is in fact rigged and if in fact, as they believe, this all happened, their votes wouldn't in theory count. why would they then go and vote in a runoff election for these two republican senators? so this has also put republican senators in a bind as well, andrea. >> it's going to be a fafascina day or day and a half or two days. we'll be seeing more of you, kasie, in just 20 minutes. meanwhile, london in lockdown. england puts stricter measures in place as the virus surges. stay with us. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. reports" on msnbc. dad! no shoes in the house.

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new york has reported its first case of the uk variant of the coronavirus that is dramatically more contagious. the variant has been now been identified in four states here in the u.s. and more than 30 countries. this comes as british prime minister boris johnson ordered a third national lockdown has cases surged there, driven by the variant. joining me is nbc news chief foreign correspondent richard engel in london. this is quite a retreat and quite an emergency situation in the uk, richard. >> reporter: it is an emergency situation. and i think americans should be watching what is happening here very closely. the officials here thought they would be in a very different situation. the people of this country hoped that 2020 would be a fresh start. but now they are facing this new variant which is, according to boris johnson, 70% more contagious. so they're in a race.

this new variant was first discovered here, first noticed in september. but just in the last few months it has replaced, largely, the original coronavirus and is now the dominant strain. so if you have a dominant strain in a city like london and in other major parts of the uk, it pushed out the other variant and is continuing to spread rapidly. so there is a race between the variant, which is spreading, and the vaccine efforts which are trying to knock down the variant before it spreads too fast. and it's not the only variant. there is also a fast-spreading south african variant present in this country. so officials decided they needed to slow things down, to go back into lockdown, ass eunpopular a that is, to close down schools and shops, so they can try and buy a little time to give their side of the race, the vaccination effort, a leg up, a

boost, so that they can push down these two strains before things get out of control and their health system is overwhelmed. it only took a few months for the strain to become dominant here. and now that it's popping up in the united states, americans should be cautious. >> indeed, and there's a lot of alarm here as well. richard, thank you so much. joining us now is dr. joshua sharpstein, the public health practice for the johns hopkins/bloomberg school of public health. the vaccine rollout here has been a lot slower than anticipated. how much of a concern is the variant, if it's spreading more rapidly while people are getting vaccinated? >> this variant is spreading quickly in the united kingdom, it's likely going to spread quickly here. for that reason we really have to be hitting all our marks on the vaccine rollout. >> and the fda said today that

they plan to stick with the two-dose coronavirus vaccine regimen and not cut the moderna dosage down as well. both options have been tried in the uk to try to get more people at least some immunity. they say here that the science just doesn't bear that out. what is your opinion? >> i agree with dr. fauci and the fda that we should stick to the regimen that is proven to be 95% effective. but even with that regimen, we should be trying to get as many people vaccinated as we can, particularly in the high risk groups. i think that there should be a quantity strategy, where we are opening pharmacies, vaccine centers, and we're not falling behind as a supply comes in, getting people vaccinated, and a focused strategy with outreach teams to senior housing, to congregate living centers, to high risk workplaces, so that people who are really in harms way can be vaccinated. and that is going to require a

lot of resources, some of which were just appropriated by this latest bill, but haven't reached the state and local health departments that really have to mobilize a major effort to be successful. >> dr. fauci told "newsday" today that he hopes people can have access to vaccines by april. >> by the time we get to april, we will be at that point where a norman l man or woman who has n underlying condition and no reason to be at risk can be vaccinated if they want to. >> right now that's not happening, we're not on track for that at all. >> i think that's an important goal, but that's not the only goal, because if we just have a passive strategy of waiting for people to come in, you know, we may not get enough people. enough people might not warned

wander in. there's a lot of hesitancy out there. we have to answer questions, go into communities who may have some doubts, offer them vaccine right there in a comfortable setting to be successful. to work, we have to vaccine people who are at very high risk both of getting sick or of being in a position where they could pass on the virus. that's going to require both this strategy of getting enough vaccine and just making it available and an active focused strategy of outreach. >> i don't see a great -- any federal, major effort in that direction. >> it may be coming. it may be coming. >> we should hope. dr. josh sharpstein, thank you very much. thanks for being with us. pro-trump protests coming to washington, d.c., which is calling in the national guard ahead of the demonstrations, as congress meets to count the

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protests the president has tweeted in support of. it all comes as the leader of the far right group the proud boys was arrested last night by d.c. police for burning black lives matter banners during the last pro-trump demonstration in december. joining me now is nbc news correspondent ellison barber. are you seeing people already beginning to gather? >> yeah, andrea, there's a rally that's going to happen this e n evening at freedom plaza. we expect roger stone to speak here later this evening. the national park service have approved three different permits for events to take place today and tomorrow. most of them will be happening tomorrow. in all those permits are approved for about 10,000 participants but d.c. police expect a whole lot more than that. one thing we're seeing is a whole lot of white signs surrounding the perimeter of

where this first amendment activity is supposed to take place. a lot of those are signs telling people they cannot park there for now but some of them are signs reminding people that it is illegal in d.c. to have a firearm within 1,000 feet of a first amendment activity. d.c. police expect people to try and carry weapons to this event and they're trying to remind them that's not allowed here. three permits have been requested by the national park service and approved for first amendment activities. the majority of those events will be taking place tomorrow. but you can see the crowds have started to gather here. they are here. the people we've spoken to, they are here to show their support for president trump and to protest what they believe are illegitimate results. and also to show their support for the republicans on capitol hill who are expected to most likely, unsuccessfully, object to the electoral college vote certification. andrea? >> thanks to you ellison barber

and terrence gainer is also here, former sergeant at arms in the u.s. senate. great to see you again, chief gainer. no stranger to protests here in washington, but this one is real really, though, where they went after two historic churches. one from 1836 and another from the 1850s and took the black lives banners down and fired them. so what precautions can d.c. take? we've got a new police chief in the last couple of weeks. >> he's a great police chief. he's very well experienced. and between the d.c. police department, the secret service, the -- really the capitol police, metro police, they're well rehearsed. the national guard is there to support the police department. and they worked together. we've worked together for years. so if the politicians can stay out of how this is done and let the professionals operate,

they'll give everybody a chance to protest but not get too violent. violent at all. >> and we saw just yesterday the ten former defense secretaries warning the military should stay out of it unlike last june 1st when the president was trying to use the insurrection act. we have the leader of the proud boys who was involved. he had admitted to burning those black lives matter signs, and he's been arrested in d.c., i think awaiting arraignment now. >> well, i think that was a great arrest. now if the president would try to calm down the rhetoric, it would make it much easier for the police and for those who want to legitimately come out and be heard. so the d.c. police and the city of washington, d.c., as well on the capitol grounds are well rehearsed on how people exercise their rights. but they're also well trained. there's a unified command center

where everybody will be working together to make sure it's safe and secure so that the work that needs to be done on the capitol will be done. it will be done. >> but you know of what you speak. terrence gainer, great to see you. and our thanks to ellison barber. thanks to all of you for watching "andrea mitchell reports." please watch us here on msnbc for special coverage of the georgia runoffs. nicolle wallace kicks us off this afternoon at 4:00 pm eastern followed by ari melber at 6:00. then at 6:30, as the polls are closing, brian williams and rachel maddow cover all the results along with joy reid, nicolle wallace, steve kornacki at the big board. tomorrow i'll be co-anchoring special coverage along with chuck todd and katy tur as congress counts the electoral college votes with expected rejections from republicans in both houses. we'll be following this historic debate. join us here. and chuck todd is up next with

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unlike any time in my career, one state, one state can chart the course, not just for the next four years, but for the next generation. >> this could be the most important vote you will ever cast for the rest of your life. it really could be. >> well, if it's tuesday, yes, tuesday, it means it's election day. again. the polls are open in georgia amid an escalating war between the president and the state's top republican election officials. we'll learn a lot more from these races than just who will control the senate. plus, as the president rallies his allies on capitol hill to try to stop congress from certifying the electoral college vote tomorrow, vowing he's going to fight like hell to overthrow the election. a pro-trump protest is