60 votes as of right now to pass major legislation. >> i don't think we're going to expect any radical leftward shifts from democrats in the senate. that doesn't mean house democrats, especially progressives, won't feel more m emboldened. but we could see bucket reconciliation, which would take a simple majority. we could see things like that. i don't think we should expect a huge leftward shift. >> alexi mccammond, thank you very much for being with us this morning. >> thanks. >> as we head into perhaps what's going to be a new day in washington, my questions are are progressives going to end up with more power than they would have otherwise had if democrats take the senate, and how will republicans act if they have less to lose. thank you so much for getting up way too early with us on this wednesday morning. don't go anywhere. "morning joe" starts right now. >> has received for president of the united states, 271 points.

al gore of the state of tennessee has received 266 votes. may god bless our new president and our new vice president, and may god bless the united states of america. >>. ♪ the devil bowed his head because he knew he'd been beat and he laid that golden fiddle on the ground ♪ devil said come on bam if you want to try again he played fire on the mountain run boys run ♪ ♪ devil's in the house of the rising sun ♪ >> that's the big story this morning. georgia, but also on this day, exactly 20 years ago, vice president al gore certified the victory of his opponent george w. bush in the bitterly contested 2000 presidential election. will vice president mike pence also follow the constitution today? he'll be presiding over a joint session of congress where a handful of republicans plan to

object to president-elect joe biden's victory. exhale m capitol hill may look different. georgia put democrats in striking distance of taking control of the u.s. senate. democrat raphael warnock has defeated republican kelly leffler leffler -- loeffler in one of the state's pivotal election. >> must be an inspiration to some young person who's trying to grasp and grab hold of the american dream. georgia, i am honored by the faith that you have shown in me and i promise you this tonight, i am going to the senate to work for all of georgia. >> the other race between jon ossoff and david perdue is too close to call with both campaigns saying they will be victorious in the end. it's all put the president on edge. he is ginning up supporters who

will gather in washington today, and that's amid new threats of violence, but as joe likes to say, focus on the signal, not the noise. donald trump's presidency ends in 14 days, and his desperation grows by the hour. good morning and welcome to "morning joe." it is wednesday, january 6th, along with joe, willie, and me, we have white house reporter for the associated press, jonathan lemire. host of msnbc's politics nation, and president of the national action network, reverend al sharpton. wow. >> so willie, let's focus right now on the signal. ignore the ground noise, there may be a lot of clattering, banging of pots and pans, screaming, yelling, weeping and gnashing of teeth, but the signal right now, what matters the most is that the democratic

party pulled off a shocking upset, deep in the deepest heart of dixie in the state of georgia, and elected the first black democratic senator to serve in the united states senate. there's so much to go over this morning. we will go over it. right now there's another race still up in the air. many people are looking, many experts are looking at the votes where they're coming in from and believe the democrats have a very good chance, a better than even chance of winning that seat as well and taking over the united states senate. much to talk about, and also much blame to be spread this morning among republicans for losing two seats that they should have won. >> the stakes could not have been higher. today is a day loaded with history. the reverend raphael warnock,

grew up the 11th of 12 children in a housing project, rose to be the head pastor of the church of martin luther king. jon ossoff is on the doorstep. we'll get more votes. steve c kornacki will be joining us in a moment. we may know by this afternoon that georgia has turned blue for two senators and also of course by joe biden by a handful of votes a couple of months ago, and today, of course that, pushes us into this historic joint session of congress where mike pence has been asked by the president of the united states to somehow overturn the will of the people according to our reporting. mike pence has told president trump he doesn't have the power to do that. so again, that's the noise. the signal is that joe biden's election will be certified by

congress today. >> well, it's going to be interesting to see how republicans respond today to the events of last night. you had mitch mcconnell warning temperature time and again to not do what 11, 12 of them are doing today, what kelly loeffler said she was going to do. probably contributed to her defeat with those suburban atlanta voters that were offended by the outrageous behavior of donald trump over the past month and the fact that too many republicans were going along with it. there's a reason why mitch mcconnell was telling republicans don't make fools of yourselves. don't try to undermine this election. he knew that his status as majority leader of the united states senate was at risk. but josh hawley, he thinks he might run for president in 2024. ted cruz thinks he might want to

lose running for president of the united states again in 2024. and so they didn't listen to him and if the votes go the way we expect them to go, mitch mcconnell will be minority leader. i think in large part because josh hawley, ted cruz, and other republicans in the senate played right into the hands of the conspiracy theorists of the qanon types and by their fearless leader, donald j. trump. but reverend, we have to talk act exactly what's going on in america. we have been through a brutal four years. we've had a president who the majority of americans have said they believed was racist. and yet here we have, in my

native state, in the state of georgia, the home of lester maddox, i think maddox was probably governor around the time i was born. here we have in the state of georgia a state deep in the heart of the old confederacy, a state that voted to elect america's first black vice president in november, and a state that just voted to elect the democratic party's first black senator. what does that mean about where this country is after four years of donald trump? >> it means that this country has really come back unto showing that we're not going backwards to the days of legal apartheid or segregation and

divisiveness that despite his best efforts and demagoguery, donald trump is playing to a dwindling crowd of people that want to play us against them, and to lose in georgia, raphael warnock, a capable candidate, but was aided by stacey abrams and others that really generated that kind of ground swell, and i think we're trending toward ossoff winning. to think, joe, that a black and a jew would win in a georgia shows that this country is moving a lot further than donald trump thought. and i know rafael well, i preached for him, know him when he went to school in new york. the one that's ecstatic is chuck schumer, one that encouraged him to run and may end up majority leader. i want to thank donald trump for being donald trump because if he

had not been acting in the asinine way he had, i do not believe we would have had the victory in georgia. the fact that he is so bull headed and stubborn, ting that he has aided and abetted the takeover of the democrats of the senate, at least to match them 50/50 with a tie vote to the first black woman and the first woman vice president. no one could have messed it up like you did, mr. president. and we're going to be ever grateful for you going out and ushering in a new day in america that brings us back to where we ought to be. >> we're going to have jon meacham on a little bit later on, but john has an incredible podcast series called they said it, and goes through the great speeches in modern american history, and one is the speech of martin luther king, the night of april 3rd, 1968, in memphis, the night before he died, and he

talked about the fact that he might not reach the promised land, but god has allowed him to look over the hamountaintop, ani hope one of the things he saw when he looked over the mountaintop was as pastor preaching from his pulpit becoming the first black united states senator in the democratic party. what an accomplishment. >> a little later on in the show, rafael warnock will be our guest on "morning joe." we look forward to that interview. and national correspondent for msnbc, steve kornacki has been on it all night, and he can tell us where things stand right now, especially with jon ossoff, how much of the vote is in and where are we looking at coming from next. >> the vast majority of the vote is in. the lead for ossoff sits at 16,370 points. that is 4/10 of 1 point. ossoff over perdue.

a couple things to keep in mind. the recount threshold in georgia, a candidate needs to be within 1/2 of 1% in order to request a recount. if perdue falls short and within 1/2%, he could have a recount at that point. i point out that .4 because we're getting close to the threshold of .5. what we saw happen overnight happened in slow motion, around 11:00 last night, dekalb county here, a little bit of atlanta, right around atlanta, we knew there was going to be a major drop of vote overnight. all of the early vote that was cast in dekalb county was going to come overnight. it came in three or four increments overnight, the last one a little after 4 had a.m. you can see how heavily democratic this is, the installments that were coming overnight, 80, 85, 90% democratic. what that did is put ossoff in the early morning hours, he was trailing in the count over perdue, the dekalb vote lifted

ossoff to the lead over perdue, and allowed warnock to move it to a 50,000 vote advantage. ossoff at 16,370 this morning, where did oes it go from here. the biggest outstanding piece of real estate, next to dekalb county, fulton county, biggest county in the state. what is left to come in fulton county, about 7,500 mail-ballots, we know fulton is a democratic county, and mail-in ballots tend to be the most democratic kind of vote. you can expect that 7,500 votes in fulton county when tallied are going to be heavily democratic, and you can expect that ossoff margin over perdue will tick up further when we get the votes. when will we get the votes, as of about 2:00 this morning when i talked to election officials,

they believed at that point the mail-in ballots would not be reported until sometime this afternoon. they plan to do them all in one batch, all 7,500 at once, not incrementally. that would be sometime this afternoon. that's the biggest piece about real estate, and also our decision desk believes that in chatham county, which is where savannah is, this is a blue county. we can show you how the vote has been going in chatham county, 60/40 for the democrats. our decision desk believes there are 3,000 mail-in ballots left to be counted here. the election officials left overnight. they were not working overnight. we know that would probably be sometime today, don't know when. mail-in ballots in a blue county, that is an opportunity between folsom and chatham county. there's a scattering of mail-in votes, nothing that looks as big as what we're talking about here in terms of these counties. beyond that, you're going to

have in a couple of days, provisional ballots. maybe about 8,000 of those. provisional, typically they are going to be breaking, they did back in november, about 2-1 for the democrats, and also the overseas ballots. 17,000 of those. you could see a scenario where if you put the provisional, and overseas ballots together, you know, the worst case for democrats there might be a wash in those ballots, so in other words, there are opportunities between fulton, chatham, especially, a few other trickles of vote that can come in here. ossoff can get this thing certainly over 20,000, maybe well over 20 ho,000, and i thin you start talking about is he going to get that margin over perdue, over that 1/2 point threshold. joe biden won the state, less than 12,000. ossoff is over 16,000 and counting. >> too close to call and things trending in ossoff's direction.

massive turnout operations on both sides, almost a billion dollars spent over the course of the race in the state of georgia. how did turnout look as compared to november. obviously tough to get people back out, generally speaking. tough for republicans to get people out with donald trump not on the ballot. how did it look last night? >> over 4.3 million votes cast in the runoff election. i mean, again, about 5 million with turnout for the november presidential election. that was an astonishing number here in a runoff in january. about 4.3 million. that is an astounding level of turnout. i think when we talked about the turnout question, we were saying, are we going to see gaps in the motivation. there were a lot of talks. i give you two examples. one of the stories that emerges as the vote comes in. there was a lot of talk from democrats. they believe they had motivated african-american voters, not in the atlanta metro area, but more

in rural areas of the state, sort of a band of counties here if you go the columbus, albany area, macon and augusta. a stretch of counties here, a lot of them have large african-american populations, not all are blue but the red counties have significant, 40, 50 black populations. democrats believed they had brought new black voters out in the early voting period who hadn't been there in the november election. they were going to build on november that way. we were looking for signs in a lot of these counties. were there signs, there was something to that. randolph county, a small county here, but the turnout in randolph county was 97% of what it was on election day. only off 3%. and jon ossoff, there's a large black population. a small county but the share is large. ossoff built on biden's number. in the november election, when it was ossoff versus perdue,

ossoff finished several points under biden. he didn't catch the biden number, he moved two points ahead of it, and the turnout level was close to what it was back in the november general election. we saw stories like this throughout this part of the state that i mean 'm talking ab. consistent story with ossoff doing better than biden, and turnout not off much from november. that's the democratic side. the republican side of the story, we talked about this a lot as the votes started to come in. they were worried about north georgia, north of this line that i just drew right here. when donald trump came into georgia the night before the election, went to dalton georgia, he went right there. the idea was republicans didn't like the early vote numbers they were seeing from north georgia, and they were afraid if they didn't get a huge election day turno turnout, there was going to be a gap in the enthusiasm and turnout. i saw more than a few examples of this last night. here's an example, again, in a small county in north georgia,

overwhelmingly republican, that is in line, you know, trump got 80%. perdue didn't get 80%. this was a big of a disappointment in a county like this, but the turnout here was nearly 20% off what it was back in november. when you were seeing these gaps to have 15 to 20% off of november's turnout, you were seeing them in counties like this. you were seeing them in republican counties. it was only off single digits, like i showed you in randolph county, tended to be in whether you counties, counties with large african-american populations. i think there was something to what democrats were talking about before election day about the black vote in rural parts of the state, and i think there was something to those republican fears about their own base. >> it certainly explains why donald trump went to dalton, georgia, in the closing days of the campaign, and why kelly loeffler desperately announced at the very end that she was

going to join ted cruz and josh hawley, and those people who probably helped flip the senate to the democratic party along with donald trump. steve kornacki, i know it's been a long night. thank you so much for being with us. we appreciate it so much. so we, jonathan lemire, have been talking about it for quite some time, republicans have been muttering, mitch mcconnell has been concerned that the craziness we have been reporting oncoming from josh hawley who has on his resume, guy that helped make chuck schumer majority leader of the united states senate most likely, ted cruz also contributed mightily to chuck schumer being in a position to be majority leader of the united states senate. we'd been talking for some time about how some republicans, like mitch mcconnell, were very concerned that this is exactly what could happen if donald

trump had his way. looks like donald trump is going to flip that senate to chuck schumer, and it will be donald trump and josh hawley, and ted cruz responsible for making bernie sandersed cha the chairm the budget committee. i'm wondering about the recriminations you're starting to hear about the white house around this president for playing right into the democrats' hands. >> on such a historic day, there are two momentous take aways, first of all, what this means for the biden presidency. with one seat, warnock claimed and another ossoff looking good, to suddenly have that 50/50 split in the senate with vice president harris breaking the tie, yes, to be sure, this is a debride path for every part of the biden agenda, no, joe manchin, and other moderate senators on the democratic side have a lot of sway but it's going to make things easier at the beginning in terms of getting cabinet picks through.

that will get much easier now including the upcoming selection for attorney general. this changes things for biden and can't be overstated the wreckage that president trump is now leaving for the republican party. on november 3rd, ossoff was trailing perdue in the polls by 2 or 3 points most places. now he seems poised to lose. what changed. donald trump's defeat in georgia and his urnnder mining of the democratic process in georgia. he sowed doubt among voters. he attacked the secretary of state, a republican, the governor, a republican, far more than ossoff or warnock, the democratic candidates in that state. yes, but trump remains extremely popular among the rank and file republicans, particularly in rural areas. that is why he was in dalton this week.

there have been republicans who have been nervous for weeks about the impact that he would have on this race, that he was doing far more harm than good and it seems clear that is what is happening, and today on capitol hill for the certification process of the electoral college, we're going to see the split that trump has created, the schism of the republican party, rejecting the certification of biden declaring he's an illegitimate president, while other republicans try to hang on to norms, leaving trump in his wake. certainly he's not going to go quietly, even though he won't be in office two weeks from today, leaving wreckage in the republican party as he looks forward to 2024 and appears to not be in control of the senate either. >> georgia election officials blame this loss squarely on president trump for so many

reasons that we can't get into now. but worth bringing up the coronavirus, and president trump holding superspreader events, how many people got sick over the course of the past few months leading up to this election. the numbers still climb in coronavirus deaths. meanwhile, democrats campaigned in masks and touching people with elbows and not holding superspreader events is just another sort of narrative through this election that showed the difference where science perhaps had a slight win in this election as well. >> again, a lot of things came together to create this historic moment. you've got to put, though, donald trump's recklessness at the top of that and i will say, rev, again, it takes a lot of things to make ralph warnock, the first black senator elected ever in the deep south.

and i know i keep repeating that but as a son of the south, and i know your family's from the south, too, this is, again, this is an extraordinary first, especially for the democratic party because, rev, a lot of our younger viewers don't remember that the democratic party certainly after the civil war through the 1960s, you know, early 1960s, they were the party, especially in the deep south, even through the late 60s of segregation. they were the parties that were working hard to oppress black voters, and here we have, again, we talked about the new south in the 1970s, but the south really is looking especially new in 2020 with the state of georgia going dark blue in the presidential race, and now it

looks like in the same in these two senate races. >> i think you're absolutely right to raise it that way because we're talking about only in a short period of time, maybe two or three decades to see a black minister who passed martin luther king's church, who is buried across the street from the church. john lewis buried him. reverend warnock was john lewis's pastor. there's a reason that dr. king became leaders in the movement, georgia was the center of this. it was the symbol of where blacks were treated less than human, had to sit in back of buses and the whole 9 yards. to see that election last night and as i said, it looks like trending that a jewish american will also win the other side, that black/jewish coalition that

dr. king and rabbi abraham going to the u.s. senate, for voting rights and things donald trump tried to stand in the way of. weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning. this morning, joy is coming. >> there's going to be a lot of preaching this morning. >> i think so. >> one last note, as you guys were talking, joe, about the impact of donald trump and his coming into the state, and the phone call he made on saturday to the secretary of state, gabriel sterling, who's the elections official we have come to know, a republican who said he would have preferred republicans win these races, he said yesterday in an interview looking at the prospect of losing these two seats and turning over control to the democrats, he says it falls squarely on the shoulders of president trump and his actions since november 3rd. when you tell people your vote

doesn't count and it's been stolen and people believe that, you go to two senators and ask the secretary of state to resign, and trigger a civil war in the republican party when we need to unite, he said, all of this stems from the president's decision since november 3rd. that's from the republican election official in georgia. >> and willie, all the republican election officials that donald trump is bashing, the governor included, they're all trumpers. >> yeah. >> they were all, brian kemp, i thought embarrassed himself by how cravenly he followed every twist and turn of donald trump. so for donald trump to turn on him and bill barr because they wouldn't overthrow election results, stunning. i just want to underline something that reverend sharpton said, and that is this happened,

yes, it happened for the first time in the deep south. this happened in the peach state. this happened straight out of the church that none other than john lewis, where john lewis attended. you know, he's looking todown smiling, you know, and not even about democrats or republicans winning but the fact that after four years of racial antagonism that this is how the trump administration comes to an end, being responsible for creating a backlash that elected america's first black vice president, america's first female president, and now the first black democratic senator from the south. >> we're going to be watching georgia all morning long as the votes get counted. rafael warnock will join us this morning at the top of our 8:00

hour. 8:00 eastern time. plus, congress is set to certify joe biden's election win today, and supporters of president trump are already flooding into washington, d.c. to protest. the city's mayor, muriel bowser will be our guest. we'll speak with senate majority kwhip di whip tick durbin and represent mikie sherrill. we'll be right back. mikie sherrill we'll be right back. then break it. every emergen-c gives you a potent blend of nutrients so you can emerge your best with emergen-c. >i spend a lot of time sin my truck.y? it's my livelihood. ♪ 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

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all i want to do is this, i just want to find. ♪ 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have ♪ ♪ 11,780 votes that we need no 11780 votes to win the election

no ♪ ♪ fellows, i need stacey abrams, the internet they'll ♪ >> okay. that's good. >> that was the internet doing its thing. auto tuning president trump and his call with georgia secretary of state to the melody "seasons of love" from the musical rent. president trump and vice president pence met for lunch yesterday, and according to both "the new york times" and the "washington post" pence told the president he lacks the power to block congressional certification of joe biden's election win. the times was the first to report the news according to the paper. pence's message came just hours after the president turned up the pressure on the vice president to do his bidding. yesterday morning, trump inaccurately tweeted the vice president has the power to reject fraudulently chosen

electors. pence does not have the unilateral power to alter the resul results by the states to congress. his role today is a ceremonial one. people briefed on the conversation tell "the new york times" that pence indicated to the president he would keep studying the issue ahead of today's joint session of congress. good lord. according to a person close to trump, one option being considered was having pence acknowledge the president's claims about election fraud in some form during one or more of the senate debates about the results from particular states before the certification. trump refuted "the new york times" report. in a statement last night, calling it fake news, he said quote, the vice president and i are in total agreement and that the vice president has the power to accout. >> of course, willie, the vice president doesn't have the power

to act, and as tom cotton is telling josh hawley, and ted cruz and the other confederacy of dunces to do this, they don't have the power to challenge the electors that the states brought up unless there's an actual dispute. if there are two sets of electors, and they have to decide between the two sets of electors, then that's when they have to step in and handle the dispute. but there is no constitutional claim that the president has that the vice president has that any of these people who are just humiliating themselves, and by the way, we can say this morning. and who made mitch mcconnell minority leader of the united states senate. all of these people have absolutely no standing to do this, and are only causing great violence to the united states constitution. >> and they know that, joe. they know that they have no standing to do this. their constitutional lawyers, many of them. the vice president knows he has no standing. that's why he said to the president of the united states

i'm going to study the issue up until 1:00, perhaps buying himself more times. whatever that means. >> can't say no. >> you talk act the president turning on the people most loyal, attorney general barr, many others, get ready for him to turn on mike pence. he expects that mike pence will do the job he's asked him to do which is to overturn the vote of the american people which he can not do. after about 5:00 this afternoon when this is all over, expect president trump to turn on his own vice president, and jonathan lemire, i know you have been studying this a little bit, you have been reporting on it. what exactly, specifically, has the president of the united states asked vice president pence to do, and how is pence going to handle this today? >> vice president pence has been nothing but loyal to his boss for four years, five, if you count the 2016 campaign. and this is the reward he's getting, willie. yes, president trump has turned his attention to the vice president over the last few

weeks, as it became clear that january 6th, today, would be his quote last line of defense. again, it's not going to happen. joe biden is going to be president. but that is how the people around the president have viewed it is that today is the day, and he has been pressuring him both privately and publicly. we heard him do so from the stage of the rally the other night in georgia. we certainly know our reporting indeed confirms that in their lunch yesterday, the president pushed the vice president to do this again. the vice president is trying to thread a needle here where he is indeed trying to allow the president to air his complaints, he'll give him, it appears, his plan is to give them some sort of oxygen from the capitol today, but he has indeed, he and his team have insisted that he does not have the ability to overturn things. he has studied the late 1880s and the laws that were put into place on the matter. the second set of electors, there's talk of the suggestion of submitting them to the national archives. we know the republicans in the senate who are going to protest

today are going to focus, it looks like, on three states in particular, arizona, pennsylvania, and georgia. but that's influx. that has been changing as well because there is no real coherent plan here. this is about a statement. this is about a public relations move. this is about sending a signal, these republican senators, to the president that they still have his back, and attempts to court his supporters. attempts to become the heirs to the trumpest, you know, lane of the republican party heading into 2024. hawley and cruz, of course, are rumored to be presidential candidates. but the president himself is going to make today, and this is the last point, we shouldn't overlook this. the president himself is supposed to address supporters from the ellipse today. there are thousands of trump fans coming to washington and public officials are deeply concerned about the possibility for violence. some are encouraging lawmakers at the capitol to sleep in their

offices tonight because they're afraid of what could come in the proceedings that move on past midnight, and trump is leaving. he's wreaking more damage to not just the party but potentially to american citizens in the nation's capitol. >> yeah, and we'll be talking to mayor muriel bowser. joining us now historian, roger chair in the american president at vanderbilt university. he unofficially advises president-elect biden. and kasie hunt is with us. we can talk about what this means for the biden presidency, trump, the ag pick, but obviously also what it neemeansr the balance of power on capitol hill. >> it's a seismic shift, mika. you know, i think we obviously were watching this closely, and i know joe had been talking about republicans who were more and more nervous in the final days of this race, but i think

fundamentally, neither side expected that this would unfold or certainly wasn't willing to bet a lot of money on it, and it is very difficult to overstate the degree to which this is going to change just how it feels to cover washington. it's going to change even how things feel today, i think, on capitol hill as all of this drama plays out. the rebuke is so clear to president trump. it's clearer today than it was yesterday, and i think that that is going to make a difference. we shouldn't overstate it. it's still going to be very narrow, a 50/50 senate. we haven't had that since 2001, and they're going to have to adjust kind of how they do business in the committees frekfor example, but kamala harris is going to cast the tie breaking vote. i have a couple of questions. i think this is going to empower progressives in a significant way. joe biden is going to have to focus more on what they want, frankly. the filibuster, they're going to have to decide if they want to keep the filibuster in place. there's going to be a lot of

pressure to remove that and a lot of questions about biden's relationship with mitch mcconnell. it has been historically, a productive one. they have been able to work together. but frankly, when you're in the minority, you've got a lot less to lose, and i'm interested to see how mcconnell considering this just dramatic split in the republican party, he's going to have to manage, you know, a stable basically of presidential candidates who are going to be trying to embrace the trump base. that's going to be a tricky spot for him to be as well. bottom line, a lot more of joe biden's priorities are going to receive votes on the floor of the senate if the race plays out the way, at this point, it seems to be playing out. >> and i think that's the key, the votes that will actually see the light of day, that would not have seen the light of day had mitch mcconnell remained senate majority leader, and of course there still could be an upset in that second georgia race, perhaps jon ossoff won't carry the day in the end, though

certainly if you look at where the outstanding votes are, it does seem that mr. ossoff is on his way to victory, and that mitch mcconnell is on his way to being minority leader, at least over the next two years, which is exactly what he was warning josh hawley, and ted cruz about, and they decided that they would rather pose for the crowd, play for the cheap seats and risk having bernie sanders as chairman of the budget committee. they got their wish. i hope the publicity was worth it for them. jon meacham, you and i are both sons of the south. i grew up -- i was born in the suburbs of atlanta, georgia. and i know you were up in chattanooga. i spent my summers with any grand mom in dalton, georgia, and throughout the 60s as a

little kid in the 60s and early 70s. and perhaps, it's why reverend al and i are so taken by it, by what actually happened that it's still hard to believe that the deep south has elected its first black democratic senator in the middle of the age of trump. a democrat, in what used to be a deep red state and less dramatic state. as a guy who wrote his truth is marching on earlier this year, best seller about john lewis's extraordinary life, tell us what's the historical import of this, especially after four years of the united states having a president that in many polls, the majority of americans said, well, they knew their president was a racist. >> you know, last time the

pastor of ebenezer baptist church affected the presidential election, affected the national conversation as decisively was in october of 1960, so exactly 60 years ago, martin luther king jr. had come over from dexter avenue to join his father as copastor of ebenezer. he was trying to desegregate richest department store in downtown atlanta, was arrested, sent to the state penitentiary. coretta king was terrified, she was pregnant at the time, that her husband wouldn't come back out. word went up to the democratic campaign for president. two brothers who were not known for their passion for civil rights, john kennedy and robert kennedy, simply asking would jfk call mrs. king and express his concern. kennedy in a humane way said absolutely. bobby found out about it, and blew up and almost fired harris

swarford, and sergeant who had set this up, and then had a moment of conscience himself and realized that king had been put away without bail, and so he calls the judge, which was probably totally improper, but he was doing the right thing. and dr. king's father, daddy king, said he had endorsed nixon because he didn't like roman catholics, as jfk said, who knew martin luther king had a bigot for a father, said that he had a suitcase full of votes and he was going to go down them in jack kennedy's lap, and that moment in 1960 added to what happens in '64 and '65 and the 55 year journey since then changed the south and changed america. here's what's different and remarkable. this time, the pastor of ebenezer is going to the united

states senate, and i think there's -- it's hard to imagine, actually, a more vivid american 24 or 36 hours than what we're living through right now when you think about it, so the black pastor of ebenezer goes to the united states senate, may well have a jewish american united states senator going from georgia. you have the electoral college being counted in a process that came out of a controversy in 1801 when we passed the 12th amendment because it was so messed up. so we have two centuries and a quarter of trying to acknowledge the peaceful transfer of power, and we have a demagogue president of the united states, exactly the kind of person the founders set up the system we have, which however frustrating and difficult, is still the most enduring democratic experiment in the world, we have a

president that they did everything they could to prevent having, trying to incite violence in the streets of washington. the best of us is on display and the worst of us is on display. and that's the world that joe biden is going to be governing. it's the world that every president has to govern, and you know, we say a lot of the time, we're a 51% country, now we're a 50/50 country with a vice president. so we remain narrowly divided but it was a good day yesterday for democracy, and i hope today as well. >> let's talk about what's going to happen today in the joint session of congress. you talk about this historic, 24 to 36 hours, another piece of that is this afternoon where a group of kriunited states senat, constitutional lawyers are going to raise objections about the electoral college. you have the president of the united states who has asked publicly and privately his vice president to do something about it despite the fact that the

vice president has no power to change the vote of the american people. have we seen anything like this before? we've talked about 2005. we've talked about 1969 when there were narrow objectionins raised but can you recall anything in your study of history that resembles what we'll see today? >> there's really not. there are little signals really. there are little signals that's as as mar tor yothat vand be in the national championship game. it's disassociated from reality. there's not always next year with the function of a

democratic republic. function oa democratic republic. yes, there's statutory law. ultimately the republic is a manifestation of all of our characters for good and for evil l some days you win and some days you lose, some mornings you win and some afternoons you lose but you respect the process because you hold out the possibilities and even if you lose in this hour, you might win in the next hour what trump has helped exacerbate is politics not as remediation

of differences, which is what it was designed to be, but politics as war. going back to joe's question, the other thing atlanta gave us is william t. sherman and basically donald trump's vision of american politics is shermanesque, it's total war, unrelenting war all the time. and what we're seeing today, hopefully, if all goes well is the founders for all of their imperfections, their wisdom in action, and the character of the senators who have said that they don't believe the evidence of theirev eyes and of their minds believe were being fundamentally un-america because they are rejecting self-evident truth for personal gain and that's what an autocracy is. that's not a democracy. >> yes, and it is donald trump's viewit of america is an america

politics is shermanesque, total war unfortunately for the republicans. he did scorch the earth all the way to the sea. but there was a republican party that he scorched. it was the republican party and that majority that it appears he destroyed over the past month with the help of ted cruz and with the help of josh hawley. here we have a party that was supposed to be about economics. they went from economics. they went from capitalism. they went from free markets, talking about qanon conspiracy theories and as one person on twitter wrote last night, suburbs were listening, people in the suburbs were listening and ends up what you say, josh hawley, doessh have an impact. what you say ted cruz does have an impact and the impact has

been devastating for the republican party. good luck, with chairman bernie and sanders running the brexit km iti, he's there by the grace of you and josh hawley and donald trump. enjoy it. >> jon meacham, thank you very much and kasie hunt, thank you as well. we will be t looking for your reporting today on the protests in d.c., amid today's certification vote of biden's victory. reverend al, we want your reaction of yesterday's development out of kenosha, wisconsin. the police officer, who was white and who was caught on a cell phone recording shooting jacob blake, a black man in the back several times, will not face several charges. kenosha district attorney michael gravely announced officer rusten shefsky, who's been on administrative leave since augustad 23rd, that shootg that day, will not be changed because blake was b armed with open sniknife and he was holdin that in his right hand when he

went back to the vehicle. the report saidhe blake, who survived the shooting and is now paralyzed from the waist down, was holding a knife. according to gridley's report tuesday, blake told investigators he t talked the knife near the vehicle and picked it up tending to put it in the car because it was a gift he wanted to keep. he said the jury believed he concluded theie shooting had be self-defense. according to local npr, blake's uncle called the decision a slap in the face by the wisconsin government but called on pell to rise up b in a nonviolent way.vi blake's shooting was among those who sparked protests last year and again last night over police violence against black suspects. reverend al? >> well,re when the news came o, i happened to be in columbus, ohio, doing a eulogy of an

unarmed victim of pleolice shooting andre hill with the attorney general of black america and ben crump, who represents the family. i waspr not surprised a local prosecutor would do this but as i talked to jacob blake sr. last night and attorney crump, how do you have a young man away from you claiming self-defense? he was going the other way, he was getting in the car? so what made it necessary for this officer to shoot him seven times in the back when he's fleeing from him? even if you want to say the young man had a knife, he was not using a knife pursuing you but running away from you. i think this is a judicial disgrace and i will be standing with jacob blame sr. and others trying to pursue ways they can get redress in terms of the examination of the facts but clearly self-defense does to the

appear to be really within the realm of reality if you look at the tape of the young man running in the other direction and policemen chasing him and shooting himhi in the back seve times. >> reverend al, thank you, and we'll have you back, of course, with us at 8:00 a.m. eastern time when senator-elect reverend raphael warnock joins us. and coming up -- mitch mcconnell in the minority? john hammyman previews what it would look like if the democrats pull out a win in the second race as well. race as llwe n ♪ (quiet piano music) ♪ comfort in the extreme.

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and so to everyone out there struggling today, whether you voted for me or not, know this, i hear you. i see you, and every day i'm in

the united states senate, i will fight for you. >> we have work to do here. this is a game of inches. we're going to win this election. >> nbc news projects that democrat raphael warnock is the winner of the special election against incumbent republican senator kelly loeffler. warnock leads by more than 53,000 votes or roughly run percentage point. his win gives democrats at least one net gain in the senate. warnock is the state's first elected african-american senator. meanwhile, in georgia's other race, democrat jon ossoff leads republican david purdue by more than 16,000 votes. thousands of absentee ballots are still being counted in dekalb and fulton's county and will continue throughout the day. the outstanding results are expected to lean majority

democratic. welcome back to "morning joe," it is wednesday, january 6. along with joe, willie and me, we have msnbc contributing mike barnicle, msnbc affairs national affairs analyst and executive editor of "the recount" and host of the high water podcast john heilemann, yamiche alcindor, and david wasserman. great to have you on board this morning. >> john heilemann, good morning. once again, you have to give mitch mcconnell credit for knowing that at least what the political bottom line is. he's been warning republicans the past month not to follow donald trump down this rabbit trail. he had to know all of this nonsense, this civil war, political civil war in georgia, and idiocy of josh hawley and ted cruz was going to make the

fight even more difficult for the republican party. i mean, they should have easily won these two seats last night. it's hard not to place the game squarely on the laps of donald trump, josh hawley and ted cruz. >> good morning, joe. i don't know about easily but i think these races will be close one way or another. when you look at the two factor tr that drove them and john wasserman will talk more about this than i will know, but stacey abrams, the participation voter turnout superhero in georgia and driving the key turnout they needed, these two democratic candidates needed ga even more than she did for joe biden it looks like in november. that's one part of the puzzle. got to give credit to democrats who stayed rallied and led by that machinery that got built over the course of a couple

years by stacey abrams and her allies in georgia. the other side of the coin, obviously, that republicans -- i put most of it on donald trump, even before i'm not even sure how many voters know josh hawley and ted cruz. i know specifically what happened in georgia in a state where donald trump has been a giant, looming factor in this whole period of the post election, his name not on the ballot so not there to drive his adherence to the polls and all of the mischief he's making and all of the doubt he's casting on georgia's election apparatus and his integrity over the course of the past two months, sending a clear message through his key surrogates down in that race, people like lin wood, who were actively campaigning the last two months telling republicans in georgia, don't vote in this election. we had a couple of our "circus"

hosts, back on the air sunday, looking at billboards, joe, all over the state and particularly in atlanta put up by conservative groups telling republicans not to vote in an illegitimate election yesterday. not just driving down republican turnout in an accidental way, but as a direct argument, do not take part in this election. donald trump did everything he could to hurt those two republican candidates by driving that message all the way up to the night before the election. i think it's pretty clear in the results what you saw is the 1-2 punch. and stacey abrams and donald trump put us in a situation where we have one of the races called and the other one -- not wanting to get ahead of the msnbc decision desk -- looking increasingly like jon ossoff will win and we'll have a 50/50 senate. and donald trump gets a lot of

that blame. >> a lot of that blame and add to that invited donald trump to the white house three, four days in a row after she accused kelly loeffler of being part of the conspiracy to rig the runoff election to keep doug collins out and put kelly loeffler in there. again, donald trump's allies saying one of the people the republican party wants you to vote for actually rigged the election in november to get into the runoff. dave wasserman, i'll tell you what, last night i was just keeping my head down and trying to figure out what was going on. at one point you said, i've seen enough, warnock wins. i thought oh, my gosh, he's calling the no-hitter in the bottom of the fourth inning. what is he doing? but you saw something earlier than most that showed the way this race was breaking. what did you see last night? what made the difference? and how does the ossoff race end up? >> joe, a lot of the focus

throughout the runoff has been on those northern atlanta suburbs where we talk about all of the country club suburbanites, initially some of them split their tickets between biden and purdue, that didn't happen so much last night. but really what gave away what was going on last night was the southern atlanta suburbs, which we spend less time talking about but it was places like clayton county and henry and rock las and douglas counties, where we saw strong performances for warnock relative to biden. and that's where the republicans just couldn't keep up last time. here's where i will disagree with john though, donald trump has proven to be one of the best things going on for doubt ballot republicans, if you consider what happened in 2016 when republicans maintained control of the house and senate in 2020 when he was on the ballot, republicans picked up almost enough seats to take back

control of the house. it's when he's not on the ballot that republicans suffer. clearly, he drives out a group of kind of politically alienated, right leaning voters who would not ordinarily show up for a regular joe or jane republican in a midterm or off-year election. and that's what we saw last night, there was about 10% to 15% of the trump electorate that seemingly did not feel compelled to vote without trump on the ballot or without the faith their vote would lead to a trumpesque change. meanwhile, on the democratic side, african-american turnout was simply phenomenal. >> that's the argument you heard from trump supporters, which is the reason it looks like both republicans will lose. trump wasn't at the top of the ballot. the flip side is he was in there subverting the vote all the

time, while putting in jeopardy the chances of these two senators. let's talk about the coalition. you did call both races last night, the nbc decision desk has not called that second race for jon ossoff. what did you see early on. what were those trends? what kind of coalition can we call it in georgia that we may see going forward? we heard for now a generation the possibility of turning georgia blue. well, it happened in both the presidential election and it looks like in both senate elections as well. >> first off, it was extraordinary performances for the democrats in both the black belt of georgia, the rural black turnout was really very impressive compared to the white turnout in those counties and that was apparent pretty early on. then it was atlanta suburbs i was talking about. the danger long term here for republicans is these elections in georgia are starting to look more like censuses than races

against two sets of candidates. it looks like democrats are beginning to become -- republicans are becoming outnumbered in georgia like they are elsewhere and it's not there yet but could be well on its way. the biden coalition is extremely dependent on african-americans and suburban whites and georgia has both of those demographics in spades where trump made inroads with hispanic voters in the 2020 elections but there are not many hispanic voters to speak of. >> so yamiche alcindor, a lot happening today in washington with the certification. this amid donald trump's last-minute pleadings to mike pence for some sort of big reveal as if the united states constitution and everything this country is based on somehow can be whittled down to an idiotic

reality show that the president himself can control as a producer. it appears mike pence is pushing him off but kind of in a spineless way saying he doesn't have the power. the day will be filled with symbolism. these republicans who are pushing to undermine the election will end up in the long run perhaps maybe regretting their actions, especially in light of what happened in georgia. your thoughts? >> president trump wakes today to a complete repudiation of himself personally and a disinformation campaign both in georgia and nationally and joe biden wakes to an america that is handing him in georgia in the win there a blueprint for how democrats could win in other states like texas, like north carolina. president trump tried and failed to convince georgians that he needed these two senators to back him up, that he needed these two senators in the senate

to continue this, what will be a failed attempt to stay in power here. the president han been pushing people, according, of course, vice president pence to somehow upend the entire system and decertify the election but it's just not going to happen. instead what's going to happen is joe biden and about a dozen days give or take, he's going to be president of the use. he's confident of that. what we are seeing now in georgia and other places is really voters going to the polls, one to really send president trump a message that they did not want anything to do with his lies, with his conspiracy theories, with his effort to try to undermine american democracy. but if you back it up a little bit more, you also see i think 55 years ago after the voting rights act, you see an america that is looking at people like now senator-elect reverend warnock and saying this is what the face of america should look like. it should look like a real self-made man who is the 11th

child of 12, who is the pastor of the spiritual home of martin luther king and civil rights icon john lewis, and he should be someone that's who we want to have in power, someone who has our ideals and telling the truth and in some ways with the american south in mind, has progressive ideals, of course, extraordinary when we think about where georgia has come from. but we're going to see some antics today in the senate. we are going to see senators stand up and say things that are likely and largely not true but we're also going to see american democracy at work and based on all of the conversations that i have had with biden sources, they're excited about the results in georgia and focused on their first 100 days and not trying to argue with president trump who is at this point whistling in the wind. >> mike barnicle, you covered politics for a long time, to yamichia's point, now raphael

warnock serves in the united states senate. extraordinary too the trump era, his presidency and two senate seats will come to an end thanks to the state of georgia. >> yes, willie, it's hard to not overestimate the cataclysmic change that occurred potentially last night in georgia if jon ossoff is declared the winner of the other senate seat and bernie sanders is chairman of the senate budget committee and lindsey graham is not chairman of the committee and things like that. the democrats for the first time -- a long time control -- since 20 since 2009, control the house, senate and presidency. the question is what do they do with this power? do they immediately go to the $2,000 checks, what everyone needs for these checks for covid for the country, infrastructure

immediately? a fight with the progressives? how do they handle that power? what are the issues that drove the elections in georgia? dave wasserman, i have been wondering about that $2,000 check and absence of any vocal support one way or another from the two sitting republican senators in georgia who seemed not to be present for any questions at all during of the course of the campaign. what were the issues that drove these voters out? >> it's hard to sort out what was truly a persuasion effect, in other words, people who voted republican down ballot in november moving over foo the democratic column. there were clearly a few who might have, versus simply turnout effects. it's also clear that african-americans and suburban democrats turned out at a higher rate than the trump collision. but look, the squabbling, failure to deliver $2,000 checks

could have only hurt the incumbents here. but in addition, the embrace of trump's rhetoric and positioning on the legitimacy of the vote might have caused a few people who split their tickets between biden and purdue in particular to rethink that, and to vote democratic in the senate runoffs. and that's apparent in the results, for example, in northern fulton county. if you just lop off the very top of fulton county, it used to be something called milton county, and that actually split its ticket between voting very narrowly for biden and then voting for purdue in the first round, while it very narrowly voted for purdue and also voted for warnock. it was places like that that democrats made some important gains. >> you know, john heilemann, i

have been reading overnight some people playing down the $2,000 check issue. saying it's not that simple. sometimes actually it is that simple in the middle of a pandemic, in the middle of an economic downturn. we saw many reports after the november election where hispanic voters said they voted for donald trump because he sent them checks with his name on it, which, of course, we all mocked. but, of course, maybe donald trump knew what he was doing there and maybe the democrats knew what they were doing here when they tried to call the president's bluff and get republicans to support a $2,000 check to all americans. >> right. joe, the $2,000 check is also samible of somethia symbol of something, symbol of gridlock and inability of the government for months from the initial c.a.r.e.s. act being

passed to debate over americans suffering in this covid economy starting in may, straight into the summer, into the fall, all the way through the end of the year and congress couldn't come together to get it done. it's one of the most kind of glaring and cataclysmic failures of washington, to be able to address an urgent imperative need in the country, where there was vast consensus in the country on this. and our government couldn't get it together. and what did it symbolize? it symbolized partisan bickering. it symbolized the division on capitol hill. but the gridlock issue, for most voters it's like washington is broken, parties can't get this done. so you now have republicans in georgia saying, hey, here's the argument why you want to re-elect two republicans in congress. we want a check on joe biden. we want partisans in government and slow the democrats down.

a fair number of voters were like, wait a minute, we don't need more gridlock. we don't need more brakes on the ability to get basic pieces of public policy done on the part of the public. for a lot of people it was the money, joe, but also what the money symbolized and lack of the money symbolized and fair number of voters were like, you know what, let's go back to one-party rule in fact, because at least we will know where to place the blame or credit. democrats control everything. that will be -- the accountability there will be clear. i think there's a lot of voters who find that appealing after a period of intense partisan division over the course of the last four years. >> all right. before we go to break, just looking into a couple of the front pages -- not just the front pages of newspapers but here obviously in "the wall street journal," hong kong police are rounding up dozens of opposition figures. the crackdown in hong kong and

across china continues to expand by the day. and this from "the new york times," europe, the eu is having some of the same problems the united states is having, and the united states, we are desperately, scientists and hospitals desperately trying to stretch vaccine supplies. there are similar vaccine shortages in the eu, "the new york times" reporting this morning, mika. >> dave wasserman, thank you very much for being on this morning. also this, former president george w. bush and first lady laura bush will attend president-elect joe biden's inauguration according to bush's chief of staff, freddy ford. >> that's good. he really does give some of the best quotes, best reviews of inaugural addresses. >> just keep the camera on him. >> the whole time. >> ford said in a statement, i believe this will be the eighth inauguration they had the privilege of attending, president trump's being the most

recent and witnessing the peaceful transfer of power is a hallmark of our democracy that never gets old. >> it will be great to see him there. due to the pandemic, former president jimmy carter and first lady rosalynn carter will not be in attendance, missing an inauguration for the first time since carter's own in 1977. and still ahead on "morning joe," we will speak to senator-elect raphael warnock following his projected victory in yesterday's runoff in georgia. plus, congresswoman mikie sherrill on today's joint session of congress to certify the victory. ctory. and always will be. never letting anything get in my way. not the doubts, distractions, or voice in my head. and certainly not arthritis. voltaren provides powerful arthritis pain relief to help me keep moving. and it can help you too.

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before i was elected to congress, sieved in the use army corps. >> sieved in the united states navy.

>> i served in the united states air force. >> i served in the united states army. >> the few, the proud, the marines. >> trying to overturn a lawful election, attacking our very democracy. >> just to appease a defeated president. >> the thing is our country's founders envisioned a donald trump but our democracy is stronger than his enablers. so long as we put service to country first, the voice and the vote of the people will prevail. >> that is the fist look at the new ad from the political action committee, vote vets. and one of the women featured in that ad, mikie sherrill, she is there, a navy veteran and member

of the armed services committee. congresswoman, it's great to see you this morning. i want to ask you about that odd but the order of business and the joint session of congress, i think a lot of people will be tuning in and watching closely because of what some americans pledged to do to object to the electoral college certification, which is why we don't know a lot, some of us, as viewers, what do you expect to see today as how this will play out? >> good morning, willie, that's exactly right. this is normally just a pro forma session, read a roll call of the electoral count. it takes about half an hour. but we've been concerned for months now the president was going to try to disrupt this. i have been part of a group of lawyers, constitutional scholars who have been looking at how to ensure a peaceful transition to our government. today marks one of those mile posts. we will meet at 1:00 at a joint session. the vice president will preside

because he will be presiding in his role as president of the senate but it's a largely ceremonial role. he will read the role call of states alphabetically and vote from the states. and then if at least one member of the house and one member of the senate provides a written objection to certifying any of the states electoral vote counts, we will break up, the house will meet to debate, senate will spraetly meeparatel debate for no more than two hours and both will come back together to vote on that objection. >> of course, the president of the united states asked his vice president to do something. he hasn't specified what exactly he expects him to do. vice president pence trying to buy himself some time but said he's going to study the issue until 1:00 today. for people who are a little nervous hearing all of this talk from republicans, do you believe

when where you're sitting there's any chance this process is derailed today? >> no, willie. you know, i have been studying this issue and the vice president does not have the role of being able to contest these electoral votes. make no mistake, this might take longer than it normally does but congress will fulfill its constitutional duty today and joe biden will be certified as the president of the use and inaugurated on january 20th. >> congresswoman yamiche alcindor is here with a question for you. >> good morning, congresswoman. i have a question about what you see in georgia and how you think this might be a sort of blueprint for democrats and republicans going forward when we think about the future of the american democracy. and i also want to ask you when you look at the fact yes, joe biden is going to be president in about two weeks, what does it say though you will have

senators stand up and object to this? what does it do to american democracy and will it at all hurt the presidency of joe biden? >> make no mistake, we are facing stress tests from this president again and again and again, but what we have seen time and again is that our democracy is holing strong. the sort of magnificence of this the founding fathers wrote, anticipating, for example, elected officials might be too close to the president to decide this fairly, which is why it was left to the electoral college and the states, and imagining that we would have this kind of malfeasance. unanimo i'm incredibly disappointed, which is why i was part of that ad you saw, my colleagues would not take this as seriously as they should be and try to undermine democracy for their

own personal power. however, i think what we see from georgia is a reaction to that, a reaction from the president of the united states calling out a secretary of state to telling him to find votes and if not, he might be prosecuted. the people want their advicvoic heard. then what happened in georgia and what's likely to happen as we see these races called is we will now have a majority in the senate and it's been so difficult for the past two years in the house to have a senate minority -- i'm hoping to say soon senate minority leader but to have senate majority leader mcconnell again and again and again blocking legislation on c.a.r.e.s. act legislation, loans to small businesses, contract tracing, testing, schools, nutrition funding, having him block reform in this country that is so needed with respect to our mess department, making sure he's blocking legislation on critically needed infrastructure, blocking

legislation when it comes to fixing our health care stystem and getting people more access to health care and we've seen how that's impacting people during the pandemic. not having mitch mcconnell as the majority leader, someone who calls himself the grim reaper of legislation, he calls himself that, having him not be running the senate i think will be incredibly helpful to joe biden and to the running of this country, quite frankly. >> mike barnicle has a question for you. mike? >> so congresswoman, off of that last answer that you just gave, the house is going to have a very narrow democratic majority. the senate, as you just pointed out, is probably more likely than not going to be 50/50 with vice president harris making control given to the democrats. given that, the path forward for democrats in terms of legislation passed, do you see any potential for conflict

between all of the issues you just talked about quite sensibly repaving the new jersey turnpike a tunnel between new york city railroad tunnel and new jersey, rebuilding public schools, any conflict between the progressives' agenda, tremendous causes too, but free college education, things like that, do you see any element of contention that would hold up real progress? >> you know, these are things we have passed through the house already, so we have passed a large infrastructure package through the house in the last congress. we have passed legislation to support the affordable care act, to expand access to health care, to bring down the cost of prescription drugs. so we have already gotten much of this legislation through the house. and i think this is an agenda that we have come together on in the house. i also think we have to

reimagine government in this country. and understand that our legislature is not a blood sport where there are winners and losers. if we don't come to agreement in our legislature, if we don't negotiate on behalf of the american people and don't pass legislation, we all lose. we're all american. so i think going forward, that is what we will do. and that agenda will be something that i think is very powerful. >> congress m woo, you were one of only five democrats who did not support the re-election of nancy pelosi to be house speaker. you voted president, president you didn't vote for somebody else, you just had a present vote. what's your objection to nancy pelosi's leadership? >> so, willie, i promised and committed to my district to constantly be supporting new leadership. i think it's critical we grow new leaders in the democratic party. but the democratic nominee was nancy pelosi. she's now the speaker of our

house. i'm looking forward to working with her on the agenda of the house of representatives. >> but you could have voted for her. why didn't you vote for her? >> because i do feel like we need to be looking at new leaders. we need to be thinking about the future of our congress and the democratic party. >> congresswoman mikie sherrill, i know mike barnicle would like to talk a lot more about paving the new jersey turnpike. >> and the tunnel, willie! i would love to talk about that. >> and let's get more roy rogers at the rest stops along the turnpike as well. that's a conversation for another day. congresswoman mikie sherrill, thank you very much. good to see you. mika? coming up -- amid the lagging rollout of the coronavirus vaccine, the u.s. has added another one -- another 1 million new cases in just the past four days. is that possible? 1 million new cases. while nationwide hospitalizations reach a record high. we'll have the latest on the pandemic next on "morning

joe" ♪ joe" ♪ [♪]

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so if things go the way we plan and hope they do, and we start getting to vaccinate the general public, namely people who are not in a priority group, if we can start that in april and then very aggressively vaccine people from april, may, june, july and august, i would hope that by the time we get to the fall of 2021, late september, october, november, we would be automobile to approach a strong degree of normality. maybe not 100% normal but enough to get people to eat in restaurants, to be able to go to the theater, to be able to watch a sports event, to feel very comfortable with the schools. >> that was dr. anthony fauci, giving an estimated timeline

about when the united states could potentially get back to normal if enough people are vaccinated. meanwhile, in the face of looming shortages of the coronavirus vaccine, federal officials are racing to find ways to expand the supply. just weeks foo the program, the vaccine program, scientists at the national institutes of health and the drugmaker moderna are analyzing data to see if they can double the supply of the company's coronavirus vaccine by cutting doses in half. according to reports, officials say the study, though long planned, could take about two months. the prospect of doubling the supply of the moderna doses was first raised by the head of operationp wa operation warp speed. it all comes as the use again added another million coronavirus cases to its total, now surpassing 21 million cases, 1 million of this total number

added in just the past four days. this puts the u.s. at almost the same amount of cases as the next three leading nations, india, brazil and russia combined. also yesterday, the nation reached a record number of hospital patients as the count topped 131,000. that strain on hospitals is perhaps the most severe in los angeles, where one hospital is now forced to prepare for the possibility of rationing care. nbc'sp erin mcglockton has more from los angeles >> reporter: this morning in los angeles the covid surge creating a stunning new reality, one hospital becoming the first to activate its crisis care standard, not rationing care but making choices that could pose a significant risk to patients. other hospitals say they're likely days away from that nightmare.

>> we are truly in a crisis mode right now. i don't use the word crisis lightly. this is unprecedented for anybody who's been in this business much ems teams in l.a. county are now being ordered to conserve oxygen and being told not to transport patients unlikely to survive. >> giving a paramedic that authority is very concerning because they don't have the background and experience. however, right now it is what we must do in order to save the majority. >> reporter: nationwide one person is dyeing every 34 seconds from covid. arizona now has the highest number of new cases per capita in the world. hospitals force to cancel surgeries for many non-covid patients. >> it's very tough i think for somebody to tell you that you cannot get a hospital room for something that you desperately need. >> and georgia an 18-year-old male has tested positive for the more contagious uk strain, making it the film state with a confirmed case. a new report finds that strain

can lead to tens of thousands of additional u.s. deaths. >>s much worse to have a more contagious virus, you're going to have a lot more people dyeing because the number of infections will go up so dramatically. >> reporter: experts warn more reasons to wear masks and stay apart. joe bruno's family did just that for months but recently they got together for a quick visit. days later all of them came down with covid. both of his parents died. >> i thought that visit couldn't hurt. because of that, my parents are gone. >> my god. nbc's erin mcglockton with that report. joining us "morning joe" chief medical correspondent david campbell. i want to ask you about the extra contagious strain of coronavirus in a moment. but rationing care, how does that work? >> well, we can look at l.a. county and see where it may happen first.

they are not exactly rationing care yet as we just heard, they're in crisis care in the hospitals but the los angeles county ambulance services as reported by the director of the county health services there, has clearly come out and campaigned to their ambulance drivers, paramedics, that they need to ration oxygen and they also need to consider not transporting those patients that they feel are not likely to survive. that's a tough call, mika. that's the beginning of answering that question. when we see increased hospitalizations, when we see increased icu beds filling up, i'm in palm beach county, i can tell you that is starting to happen here in our hospitals as well. rationing care, crisis care, all of this reflects this overlapping set of circumstances with increasing number of patients who are infected. this variant, mutant variant that's more transmissible so we will see increasing numbers

across the country. the variant has been found in three states that i have seen so far, california, colorado and florida. and without travel in those patients. so all of this is combining all after the holidays and this sluggish vaccine rollout, where the vaccine production seems to be better than the ability for the states and local providers to get the vaccination, vaccines into the arms. local health care is really what's taking it on the nose right now, taking it on the chin, excuse me. >> so dr. dave, now to this new mutated version of the coronavirus, 50% to 70% more contagious, i am sensing more disaster before the sun comes out again with the vaccine because dr. fauci was talking about, what, october, november 2021. this is 50% to 70% more contagious. this sounds like a nightmare.

>> well, it is. and it is a nightmare because even though this particular variant, which has been described by at least one expert in the uk, dr. gandy, as the most serious change yet in this virus. so this new variant, this new mutated virus, increases the probability that an individual who's infected with it will transmit it to other people. that's increased transmissibility, increased contagiousness. and it's already over a reproduction rate of one. so for every one person that gets infected, some percentage of more than one will get infected. so it's making us realize we're currently in an out-of-control situation. we need to get it back under control by bringing all of those factors more quickly to bear. that dr. fauci talks about, that

dr. jah talks about, increasing production, increasing production of vaccines. what we can control now is following the cdc guidelines for each individual across the country and recognizing wearing a face mask has never been more important, washing your hands, physically distancing, not traveling has never been more important, mika. >> there you go. dr. dave campbell, thank you very much. speaking of the pandemic, on knowyourvolume.com, we're covering everything about it but also highlighting one educator's selfless response to a big challenge facing her school system. janet are throg morton, elementary school principal in western kentucky, took things into her own hands when two of her bus drives were infected with coronavirus. she went to the dmv, they got her commercial license and she started driving the bus herself. without her taking over, the

kids could have been stuck at home. many of the internet classes were not working for the kids. this was really, really great. some of them didn't have internet access. and we appreciate that effort. speaking of strong women, a reminder about know your value, exciting partnership with forbes. we are creating a 50 over 50 list. you can nominate a woman over 50 who's achieved great success in her life and also paid it forward to other women. go to knowyourvolume.com for more on that and how to nominate someone. still ahead -- president trump tweeted yesterday he will be speaking at a save america rally in washington, d.c. later this morning. we will talk to mayor muriel bowser about that straight ahead on "morning joe." straight ahead on "morning joe.

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washington. five hours from now there will be a joint session of congress to formally certify the electoral college that will make joe biden two weeks from now president of the united states. john, let's talk about what's going to play today. it's a day of choosing. we know some of the senators, some of the congressmen and women will object to this torl process. donald trump is going to ask vice president pence and has asked vice president pence to do something. what that is we don't know because there is nothing he can do. liz cheney just tweeted, republican congresswoman from wyoming, quote, we have sworn an oath under god to defend the constitution. we uphold that oath at all times not only when it is politically convenient. congress has no authority to overturn elections by obing to electors. it steals powers from the states and violates the constitution. a message from liz chaeney to hr

fellow republicans for what they are planning to do today. >> yeah, willie. we have seen both liz cheney and her father trying to put a stake in the ground here, dick cheney getting the other nine defense secretaries to write that op-ed talking about how the military can't get involved in getting, in the transition -- should not be involved in either trying to help or aid donald trump in trying to stay in office. and i think it's important, what's going to happen is that the joint session happens when the objections get registered, whenever that first objection gue gets registered, someone objects to a state's votes -- you get one -- you get a cosigned -- you have to have someone from the house and someone from the senate. as soon as that happens the parties adjourn to their representative chambers. the senators go back to the snt senate and have a debate for two

hours over the objection. what we have learned is that mitch mcconnell plans it be the first speaker and stand up what he has been saying in private for the last week, which is this the most important vote of his career and he understands what this vote means not just the narrow political problem that is poses for republican senators who have to now be forced into this position, they have to either vote against donald trump and risk displeasing his voters or stand up -- or they have to vote with trump and dishonor the constitution and the will of the american people. mcconnell has been trying to avoid this vote and he is going to try to make a last-ditch effort to persuade his caucus that this is a horrible mistake if they go down this path. i think why it all matters, at least i think in the large historical view here, is it's really, i think, a good thing. we all think this is crazy what's happening here and we know how it's going to end. i think it's a clarifying moment for everyone to be able to look at this republican party who is

going to -- everyone's going to go on record today as to whether they are on team democracy, team coup, whether they are on team sedition, whether they are on team trumpism. i think it's a healthy thing for the country and for the republican party as it seeks to figure out what it's going to be in the future. the civil war looming in the party. it's great to have clarity on the question and these votes will force that much as mcconnell wishes it weren't so. >> we will see it play out on live television. you can watch to right here. yamiche, as you cover the white house, talk us through the dynamic between president trump and vice president pence right now. the president of the united states has put vice president pence in this position where he has to do something. mike pence says he is studying the subject until 1:00, whatever that may mean. what is he expected to do, because he can't do anything actually under the rules, and what happens from that? we heard donald trump say at that rally in dalton, georgia,

the other night that he hopes mike pence will, quote, come through for us. he says, i like mike pence, but if he doesn't do anything, i won't like him quite as much. mike pence learning the hard way that loyalty is a one-way street for donald trump. >> well, what we are expecting to see is vice president pence do what the constitution tells him to do, which is to play a ceremonial role to certify the oaths. he is something of like a person who is reading the winner of the best picture at the oscars. he has no impact on who that winner is. he is simply supposed to be the one reading this. what i will say is i think what we will see, on full display, the civil war that is going to break out between the respect party with of course two different camps with president trump being in one and possibly vice president pence being in the other. we expect vice president pence not to try to do anything to decertify the results. he has been trying to tow the

line in the last few years, really trying to dance around the fact that he is serving the president who be oftoften lies. mike pence has been very, very loyal to the president. but today might be the day where vice president pence reaches his lipts much like we saw william barr reach his limits, much like we saw jim comey, jeff sessions. president trump at the moment, when vice president pence decides not to decertify the elections will turn on him much like he turned on the other republicans that defy him. >> everybody stand by. coming up after the break, reverend raphael warnock will join us live right here on "morning joe." "morning joe." without frequent heartburn waking her up. now, that dream... . ...is her reality. nexium 24hr stops acid before it starts, for all-day, all-night protection. can you imagine 24 hours without heartburn?

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where things -- >> by the way, this morning why not start the show looking at capitol hill with gladys knight and the pips in the background? midnight train in georgia, my friends. >> this morning georgia is halfway to flipping completely blue in two crucial senate runoff races. nbc news projects that democrat raphael warnock is the winner of the special election against incumbent republican senator kelly loeffler. warnock leads by more than 53,000 votes, or roughly one percentage point. his win gives democrats at least one net gain in the senate. war kna warnock mayes history as the state's first african american senator. meanwhile, in georgia's other nail-biter race, jon ossoff leads republican david perdue by

16,000 votes. thousands of absentee ballots are being counted in atlanta's dekalb and fulton counties, which continue throughout the day. that county will continue throughout the day. the outstanding results are expected to lean majority democratic. >> and, willie, david perdue can say he expects to win this race, but if he does, and if he seriously believes that, he is in an increasingly shrinking minority. you look at the numbers. look where those votes are coming from. chances are good that ossoff is going to win this race fairly comfortably, maybe even close to a one percentage point spread himself. >> sorry. was that to me? yeah, we have steve kornacki coming over in a second. if they get outside that 0.5% spread, that would trigger a recount in the state of georgia. we are waiting for some votes

from fulton county later today which could push ossoff over the top. we are waiting in a moment to talk to raphael warnock who we have called as a winner. a historic move, a historic moment for the state of georgia and for the country to have the man who preaches from the same pulpit where dr. martin luther king preached at ebenezer baptist church elevated as the 11th of 12 children who grew up in a housing project in savannah, georgia. raphael warnock will be headed to the united states senate. let's swing over to national political correspondent steve kornacki. so, steve, give us a snapshot of where we are with ossoff and david perdue and also of how raphael warnock did it. >> yeah, we start on warnock because that's the most straightforward. he has been declared the winner here. his margin over kelly loeffler sits over 50,000 votes. the margin here, you mentioned this, critically it's well

outside of that 0.5% threshold where a recount could be triggered. this is a solid win for raphael warnock. that's what you are looking at here. and again there are still some votes to come in. we think today throughout the day today. so this number should grow with what's to come in. could it get up to 60,000 or so? i think that's plausible. warnock, a solid victory for warnock. this is a little bit closer. jon ossoff leads but not to the same agree that warnock is up. it's a 16,370-vote lead statewide for jon ossoff. you mentioned it, willie, 0.4% is the margin. expect this number to grow today. fulton county, 7,500 votes right where atlanta is here. 7,500 mail-in votes are going to be released this afternoon. that will be a heavily democratic group of votes. expect that 16370 to grow. could it get to under 20,000 from that? certainly plausible.

we think there are 3,000 mail-in votes in shat up county where savannah county is. democratic county. democrats are getting 60% of the vote there overall. the mail vote is more democratic than that. expect the margin to be padded with that. there will be within the next several days provisional ballots, a little bit under 10,000 of those. we expect those to break democratic as well. we think there is a scattering, probably some mail votes, small numbers, not these big batches like i am describing in a few counties here, throughout the state. the mail vote, even in republican counties, tends to be a lot more friendly to democrats. so you could just see those small pockets throughout the state, fulton, chatham county where savannah is, opportunities for ossoff to grow this margin over david perdue to get it over that .5% you are talking about, again to put this in some perspective, the margin in the patie

presidential race, joe biden's victory over donald trump in november was under 12,000 votes. when the dust settles on this and all these are counted up, could ossoff double that up? could he be up 24,000? seems in the range of possibility here. >> steve kornacki, thank you so much. as always, we really, really appreciate your great work. and john heilemann, if ossoff does win as expected, and there doesn't seem to be votes from perdue to pick up, to put him over the top, but if ossoff does end up winning and chuck schumer is the next majority leader of the united states senate, let's be clear here to everybody that's watching. the big import of that is going to be that you will actually get legislation on the floor that mitch mcconnell has killed over the past several years. what will not change will be a moderate makeup of the united states senate and you are still

going to have people like mark kelly from arizona, susan collins from maine, lisa murkowski and mitt romney on the republican side. on the democratic side, obviously, a more moderate senator coming in, democratic senator former governor from colorado as well as, you know, you could also talk about west virginia senator joe manchin. you are going to have six, seven senators, democratic and republican senators from swing states, and you can add raphael warnock to that list. so the centrist coalition grows. if anybody thinks this is going to be the glory days of progressive legislation the next two years, they need to check their expectations at the door because that's not happening. >> yeah. joe, look, what's the reality of a 50/50 senate? we have not seen a 50/50 senate that many times in american history. not that long ago the last time

we saw one in 2001 after a closely contested election in 2000 and you had tom dash old was the minority leader, trent lott the majority leader. a procedural coalition, they made the determination. none of this is prescribed by the way. they made the decision that all of the committees would have equal numbers of democrats and republicans, but the republicans in that case, because they had the presidency in a 50/50, the republicans with would have the chairman ships. they worked out how they would run the chamber. that was a much more, even back in 2001, 20 years ago now, a less polarized environment, a less bitterly divided senate. so we will see, schumer and mcconnell will have to work together because a lot of stuff is going to have to be worked out. it matters a lot. obviously, as you said, it puts democrats in a position of being

able to get stuff on the floor that mcconnell thwarted previously. in a 50/50 senate, every senator has an incredible amount of leverage. democrats can't afford to lose a single vote. wh it's a very, very fragile situation. and to your point, where is the action at that point? the action becomes the moderate democrats and the moderate republicans. that's where the coalition work happens if things are going to get done. >> yeah, and it starts with actually joe manchin on the republican side, probably susan collins on the democratic side. i switched that. joe manchin on the democratic side, susan collins on the republican side. why? because susan collins represents a state that went for joe biden by nine months and joe manchin represents west virginia which i think went for donald trump by about 124 points. all right. so now it's a great honor to

bring in senator elect raphael warnock. reverend, thank you so much for being with us. congratulations, and i would love to know what are your thoughts this morning? >> thank you so much. it's wonderful to be here with you. listen, i am very proud of the people of georgia. what they did last night was stunning. when you think about the arc of our history, they are sending an african american preacher/pastor of ebenezer baptist church where dr. king served, a young man who is the son of a jewish immigrant in jon ossoff to the united states senate. and this at a time in which there were falt lines thfault lt certain people are trying to stir up as a final we can least afford for that kind of division. we have big problems. the problems can only be solved if we come together. i think the people of georgia stood up last night and said

that's the kind of work we want to see get done in the united states senate. >> reverend, i remember after getting elected to congress, i grew up in a baptist church, and i knew the politics of baptist churches. but after i got elected to congress, i'd go up to every pastor afterwards. as we were shaking hands i'd hug him and say, i am sorry. i know this has to be tough. nobody expects me to be perfect, but you've got to be perfect. but, as a reverend, seem to be perfectly fit for this moment in time when we have a senate that may be split 50/50. we have a house that's almost split 50/50 down the center. i mean, now is the time to have somebody who knows how to bring republicans and democrats together. talk about that. >> listen, if you have ever had to get the folks who like anthems and the folks who like contemporary gospel music together, you are ready for

anything. i know there is a lot of work to be done in the senate. i have experience in bringing people together to work on criminal justice reform, voting rights, a whole range of issues, and i hope to bring that spirit to the united states senate. dr. king reminded us that we are tied in a single garment of destiny, and i think that many of these truths that should have been evident to us in tragic fashion have been brought into sharp focus in the midst of this pandemic. we should have known before a pandemic that i need my neighbor to have health care. but now we are dealing with an airborne deadly disease. my neighbor coughs, they are sick but i am potentially in pairle. we are as close to one another in our humanity regardless of race or political party. we are as close to one another as a cough. as a sneeze. and it is that kind of

sensibility that we need to bring to the work of legislation in the united states senate. >> reverend al sharpton is with us. he has a question. reverend al sharpton. >> first of all, congratulations, reverend. i can attest to the fact that you have always been a healing person. i talk to you all the time about the picture you and i were at your church with dr. king's sister the night obama won and we had that picture where you allowed that rally that night. but i wanted to ask you about legislation. one of the things that has been an issue in georgia and that you and ossoff has in the spirit of dr. king is voting suppression. there is the john lewis voting bill that is pending in the senate. tell us about you wanting to push that bill. you being john lewis' pastor and

in many ways saw your race as a tribute to john lewis and this legislative initiative to protect people's right to vote, something john lewis gave his life for. >> well, i had the honor, as you point out, of serving as john lewis's pastor. i met him when i was a college student at morehouse. there is no question that voting rights is his life's work. you know, when he was lying in state in the u.s. capitol, we saw senator after senator, congressperson after congressperson stand and talk about what a great man he was. if john lewis was great man a, d certainly he was, we ought to put together the john lewis voter advancement act for a vote. it's the right thing to do. we have seen on the ground in georgia what has happened after the supreme court gutted in 2013 the voting rights act. they asked congress to fikts it. finally we got something passed

in 2019. but it is sitting right now and needs to be put up for a vote. so i certainly will be advocating for that. i have been working on voting rights for years here in georgia. i worked alongside my sister stacey abrams and others to register hundreds of thousands of voters in this state. i was chair of the new georgia project. i have seen the ways in which voter suppression reinvents itself. your vote is your voice, and your voice is your human dignity. you know, the great thing about america is we have rambunctious arguments about guns and butter, about policy, but at the end of the day all of the people should be able to speak. and we ought to heed what the people are saying. >> senator elect warnock, willie geist. good to see you this morning. congratulations on your win. we have been talking about the history behind your win and what

it means for georgia, what it means for the country, but i am also interested in your personal story and something touched a lot of people that you said last night, and i am reading, talking about your mom. you said, because this is america, the 82-year-old hands that used to pick somebody else's cotton went to the polls and picked her youngest son to be a united states senator. have you had time to pause and think about your own journey from savannah now to the united states senate? >> oh, i thought about it many times, and my story is a part of the american story. i spoke to my mom last night, and of course she is elated by my election. she also reminded me that she is still the mother. and as my mom does. and she and others keep us grounded in this process. but, listen, i love this country. and i love america because there is always the path that makes

the country greater. but the way that happens is we have to hear the diverse voices that need to be at the table and have the conversation around health care, around criminal justice reform, around voting rights, and there is a kind of tone deafness in washington, d.c. people have been suffering for months. they haven't received relief. and we witnessed politicians in the midst of this human tragedy, over 350,000 americans dead, the loss of lives and livelihoods, we still saw politicians making games, making the politics about the poll tilgss. the people of georgia stood up last night and refuted that. and i am honored that they would send this kid who grew up in public housing to the united states senate, the most consequential deliberative body on the planet to hopefully help open that door that swings for

opportunity for all of our children. >> mike barnicle is with us and has a question, reverend. >> reverend, i have been thinking for the past 12 hours or so about your mother because of that tape you cut yesterday talking about her. ver lean warnock is 82 years of age. you are the 11th of 12 children. and i am wondering, as you go to the united states senate, there is one word that i think encompasses your life to a certain extent that would like to be transferred to as many people as we could transfer it to in this country, and that word is opportunity. tell me about your thoughts about that word, your life, and opportunity. >> well, i think that's important because, you know, we hear a lot of silly arguments, quite frankly, in washington

between personal responsibility and public policy. people on the ground, ordinary people know that you need both of those things. here i sit, a newly elected united states senator. i am the first college graduate in my family. i have earned four degrees. i am the pastor of dr. king's church. i got there through hard work, grit, determination, for sure. but somebody gave me some pell grants, some low-interest student loans. in other words, i had a path to pursue the american dream. i decided i would run for the u.s. senate because i see that promise slipping away from too many of our children, not just black and brown kids growing up and hard urban environments across the state and across this country, but poor white children growing up in rural disaffected communities across north georgia. i want them to know i intend to

be their senator and represent their interests in the united states senate. >> reverend, al sharpton reminded me earlier today the song, weeping manger, brought me back to thinking about dr. king's speech the night before he died on april 3rd, 1968, in memphis. he talked about the difficult journey. he said i may not be able to be there with you, but i have been to the mountaintop. god's allowed me to go to the mountaintop and i have looked over to the other side, and i just -- i just wonder if this may be a hint, one of his successors, a successor pastor during these dark, difficult times being honored by the people of georgia and by god, by god's will to go to the united states senate. how does that rest on your heart

and on your shoulders, the heavy burden that's now on your shoulders? >> well, you know, long before i came to ebenezer church i was inspired as a kid growing up in savannah, georgia, by dr. king and his voice. i was born a year after his death. but i was just enamored by the ways in which he used his faith to bring people together to solve big problems in the public square. i went to morehouse because i wanted to attend his church, his school, and i ended up becoming the pastor of the church where he served. and so i would say to the people of georgia, you know, reverend sharp ten is right about that scripture, joy comes in the morning. joy comes in the morning, at dawn. the thing about dawn is that it's morning, but it's still dark. and i know it's dark out there for a lot of folks right now,

but morning comes, and what we got to do is put our shoes on, get our work boots on and get to work. people need covid relief. we out to pass a $2,000 stimulus. we auout to make sure people ar never denied health care because they have a pre-existing condition. and these folks that all of ya sudden we are calling essential workers, the people we have diminished and ignored. the folks who stock the shelves of stores in the light hours when we are asleep, we are calling them essential workers, we ought to pthem an essential wage. i hope to be their voice in the u.s. senate. >> reverend al sharpton. >> reverend warnock, before you leave us, you and i may need to ordain joe scarbrough because he does these sermons every once in a while. >> he is a pretty good preacher. >> he is already a jack lick preacher, but we may need to

make it official. >> what was it? our good friend elijah coupummi, a counterfeit preacher? reverend, congratulations on a historic victory. >> big day. >> a great victory for my native state, georgia. not for political reasons, but for so many others. congratulations, and we will be thinking about you and praying for you as you move forward on this extraordinary journey. >> thank you so much. great to be with you. >> senator elect raphael warnock, thank you. >> so, in just a few hours, a number of republican lawmakers will etch their names in history. when they vote to oppose the certification of president-elect joe biden's victory. nbc's peter alexander will join us live from the white house with miss latest reporting. keep it right here on "morning joe."

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♪ live look at the white house at 8:26 eastern time. the political advocacy organization backed by billionaire charles coca-cola s billionaire coke is pushing congress to certify president joe biden's victory. they released a statement reading in part, quote, joe biden is the president-elect, and we support the process and certification of his election. our top priority is building broad support around policies to end the pandemic and put americans on a path to recover stronger while working against and providing better alternatives to destructive policies sold on empty promises that we know won't work. this comes on the heels of the

letter nearly 200 leaders of the country's top companies sent on monday to congress urging it to certify the electoral results for biden arguing that attempts to thwart or delay this process run counter to the essential tenants of our democracy. at least a dozen republican senators and over 100 republican congressmen and women will ignore those business leaders and challenge biden's victory. joining us now, nbc news white house correspondent and co-host of "weekend today" peter alexander. peter, set the scene for us. >> yes, this has the potential to be a dramatic day in washington, but to be clear here, this last gasp effort from the president and some of his fiercest loyalists on capitol hill to try to swing the election in his favor will not make any difference. president trump's doomed effort to overturn this election's results is expected to come to

be an end today. the president again this morning is ramping up pressure on vice president pence to flip the outcome, even as pence himself reportedly told the president he does not have that power. a conversation the president denies. on capitol hill today, congress is set to deal a fatal blow to president trump's undemocratic efforts to overturn the election's results. two weeks until joe biden is sworn in as the 46th president, lawmakers are expected to make his victory official, ratifying the electoral vote count despite objections from at least 13 republican senators and more than 100 house members. vice president pence will preside over today's joint session of congress. overnight, the president insisting in a statement the vice president and i are in total agreement that the vice president has the power to act, but the vice president's office did not release a similar statement. in fact, the constitution says that the president is wrong, pence cannot change the outcome, and facing the ultimate trump loyalty test a person close to

pence tells nbc news, the vice president thinks it's his job to follow the constitution and the law. the president, who met with pence for lunch tuesday, singled him out monday night. >> i hope that our great vice president, our great vice president comes through for us. he is a great guy. of course, if he doesn't come through, i won't like him quite as much. >> for now, pence is publicly indulging the president's baseless claims of voter fraud. >> come this wednesday, we will have our day in congress. we will hear the objections. we will hear the evidence. >> reporter: those objections come from republican members who say they will reject the certification of biden's win, a move that could extend the drama, but does not have the expected votes to pass. ted cruz overnight defending the effort. >> we have an obligation, i believe, to protect the integrity of the election and to protect the integrity. democratic system. >> reporter: republican tim

scott, one of more than two dozen gop senators who will not object, writing there is no constitutionally viable means for the congress to overturn an election already certified by the states. and new overnight, this video appearing to show mitt romney being confronted by a trump supporter at salt lake city's airport. >> are you going to support him in the fraudulent vote? >> no, i am not. >> why not? >> because. [ inaudible ] >> eights long story, but we have a constitution. the constitutional process is clear. i will follow the constitution and i will explain that when we meet in congress. >> you're a joke. absolute joke. a disgusting shame. >> reporter: mitt romney polite throughout that confrontation there. and this morning crowds are already beginning to gather near here at the white house for a pro-trump rally that the president says he will speak at

today. as many as 30,000 people expected. you see the live pictures. d.c.'s mayor activating the national guard. even after today's session in congress, trump allies tell nbc news they believe the president will keep disputing the resultsk one saying president trump is embarrassed, increasingly desperate. >> the president of the united states tweeting to mike pence encouraging him to send the electoral results back to the states, whatever that means. he says all mike pence has to do is send it back to the states and we win. do it, mike. this is a final for extreme courage, writes president trump. peter alexander at the white house. peter, thanks so much. joining us now the mayor of washington, d.c., muriel bowser. good to see you this morning. let me ask you about those rallies that peter was talking about, a group assembled in support of president trump in your city. we saw some scuffles last night between some groups and police there. are you prepared for what may be coming today?

>> we are absolutely prepared. we are especially prepared for the congress doing its job, affirming the electoral college, and joe biden and kamala harris becoming the next president and vice president of the united states and turning page the page on this trump era. we, of course, prepare for first amendment demonstrations all the time in washington, d.c. our metropolitan police department is on it. we have the support of our d.c. national guard. we have the support of our neighbors and we are very prepared to have a peaceful protest. >> the president in a tweet recently said it will be wild, talking about today's events in washington, encouraging his supporters to come to town. what is unique about this gathering and do you expect violence? >> well, i think it's unfortunate that the president himself has incited violence. other elected officials have incited violence. i will tell you another thing

that our residents, i asked them a couple of days ago to stay out of the demonstration areas, that we don't have counter protests, let people looking for a confrontation and a fight, and unfortunately we saw some skirmishes between them and the police last night. we had several arrests related to that activity, but not a single one of them was a d.c. resident because our residents are staying away, letting them have their protests, but our police are going to make sure that our law is followed. willie, what i also want to add is how excited we are about what georgia voters did and what it means to our democracy and what it especially means for d.c. residents. we have been talking throughout this process about how important it is that we become the 51st state and we know now that it's looking like we will have the white house, the house, and fingers crossed that the

democrats win in the senate and this can be a 100-day priority. a d.c. state for our next president. >> mayor bowser, just in light of the arrests and the skirmishes that you were just reporting there, are you concerned, are there any in your contact with yothe national gua and d.c. police credible threats? and what is your best advice for d.c. residents today, especially given the fact that we are in pandemic? >> well, i said throughout, mika, when i stood up at our emergency operations center, our coordination between our chief of police, our neighboring chiefs, and i called up the d.c. national guard with the support of the secretary of the army. our advice to our residents was not to fight with these folks who came here looking for a fight. our police department also made a very significant arrest in the

-- the leader of the so-called proud boys who, when the last time he was in town, he defaced or led or encouraged the defacement of two african american churches in our city by destroying their black lives matter signs. he was arrested when he entered the district and he also had illegal firearm materials on his person. and he has had his first appearance in court and has been barred from the district. so we are doing everything possible that we can to keep our residents safe, our businesses safe, but, of course, allow for people to exercise their first amendment rights no matter what their viewpoints are. >> mike barnicle. >> mayor bowser, what does these

trump-fueled rallies not just today, about you in the past few months, what has it done to your municipal budget and today 'detours and obstructions, is anything happening to prevent people, make it more difficult for people to go to work? >> absolutely. we have what we've had to do in the trump era, is to establish, like, a traffic box, is what we wa call it, a perimeter where we restrict vehicle travel, which makes it easier for us to manage people who are -- who aren't on an approved protest route. that's what we have done today. so it prevents, you know, people who are doing regular business or want to visit one of our businesses, albeit we are, you know, a modified operations because of covid. so all of that is very expensive. but that traffic box is manned, or womaned by one of our

personnel, and so today, for example, we have our entire police force activated, though we incur overtime costs when we do that. and prior to the last two years, the federal government has been good about paying its bill. its public safety bill, because we are providing support for the movements of the president and for the extraordinary demonstrations that we have because we're the nation's capital. the federal government owes us about $100 million in -- when i get that back, that will fuel our local needs. so we will continue to work with the congress to make sure we are made whole for our emergency fund. the c.a.r.e.s. money that we're owed from the first corona relief bill totaling about $755 million. and all of that will be made better in the coming years when d.c. has two senators like every other tax paying american.

>> all right. the mayor of washington, d.c., muriel bowser. good luck today. thank you so much for being on the show this morning. >> up next, one of the senators who will be certifying joe biden's win. illinois' dick durbin joins us straight ahead. keep it right here on "morning joe." joe. make fitness routine with pure protein. high protein. low sugar. tastes great! high protein. low sugar. so good. high protein. low sugar. mmm, birthday cake. try pure protein shakes. with vitamins and minerals for immune support. with vitamins and minerals research shows people remember so to help you remember that liberty mutual customizes your home insurance, here's one that'll really take you back.

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young kids out there that's not the biggest, not the strongest, just keep pushing because i'm not the biggest. i have been doubted a lot just because of my size and really it comes down to you put your mind to it, you can do it. no job is too big. >> boy, did he do it. alabama wide receiver davonte smith in his acceptance speech last night after he won the heisman trophy as the best player in college football. he becomes the fourth wide receiver, the first in 29 seasons to win the heisman. this season he led the fbs in receptions, receiving yards and receiving touchdowns with the national championship game still yet to be played, and he has dropped only two passes all season. meanwhile, the college football playoff national championship still set for kickoff next

monday for now. according to al.com, college football officials have discussed the possibility of postponing the title game by a week because of coronavirus concerns related to ohio state's player availability. the report says the buckeyes could be without an entire position group because of testing and contact tracing protocols. the cfp executive director tells sponsorship that the championship game between alabama and ohio state so far remains unscheduled. joe, let's go back to devontae smith. one of the most fun players i have ever watched play football. he will be a great pro next year. if you look at the voting, alabama had the winner. they had the third-place finisher in mack joan, your quarterback, and the fifth-place finisher in najee harris. three on the top five on the alabama offense. >> i tell you, as you get older you realize that these are kids that are throwing a ball around, and, yes, it's very exciting, but you start to understand what

your high school coaches tried to teach you, that it's more than about a game, about winning or losing. it's about building character. and all four of those candidates last night, the character was really extraordinary. it was wonderful to hear them all speak. they were humble. they understood that their teammates had put them there. they understood that their family had put them there. they understood that their coaching and their support staff put them there, and it was a joy to watch. mike barnicle, a joy to watch, and a difficult season. in a season where these young kids were, for the most part, kept in a bubble, working hard around the clock, not able to be with many of their friends at all, not able to be with their family, even on this extraordinarily special night. i was just so impressed by the character of all five of the candidates. naji harris not there, but he

has shown extraordinary character throughout the year. >> yeah, joe, first of all, it's amazing that we were given a college football season. i didn't think we were going to get one, looking back at it, in september and october. but we got one, and we got a pretty good one. the heisman trophy award is unique, and it's the first time since charles woodson, i think he was the last defensive player from michigan to win the heisman in the late '60s. '67, '68, around there. this young man, devontae smith, who won it, his catholic i can skill is off the charts. if you look at some of the receptions he has made, it's incredible. he is going to be an unbelievable nfl player. to your point, the level of intelligence that they brought to this game and the level of intelligence that they bring to what they do each and every day rg sharing their gifts with

other players and articulating the fact that it was a team sport and they are grateful to their coaches, their parents, it was great to hear, great to see, and it's a -- they hoo nshould have the national football league the -- i am not the national football league, but the college bowl championship series until ohio state is up, ready, and healthy though. >> for sure. >> i don't know about that. but, no, of course you're right. you know, willie, clemson has become one of alabama's biggest rivalries over the past several years. fighting for dominance in college football and in this playoff system. but it was really nice to see they had a quarterback and a team leader who also, when everybody talked about him, they didn't talk about his arm, his his athletic practice, that he was a humble leader, that he made his teammates around him better, that he supported all of

his teammates, and it wasn't about him. it was about the team. >> yeah, you are talking about trevor lawrence, who actually missed a couple of games this year, might have won the heisman, missed a couple of games because the covid protocols. he will be the first pick in the nfl draft, going to the jacksonville jaguars most likely next year. you're right, listening to those guys. it's true when you see the heisman ceremonies through the years, they are bigger than football players. when you are a leader of a team and a program at that level, you are expected to be something more in terms of a leader, in terms of a role model, and they carry a lot of weight. those are big dollar programs, big pressure programs. they are always playing in big games and those young men carry it really well. congratulations again to davonta smith of alabama. democrats are one step closer to flipping the senate with raphael warnock's projected victory in georgia. that's the big story we are following this morning. and jon ossoff leading in a race

that's still too close to call. joining us now, the second-ranking democrat in the senate minority whip dick durbin of illinois. so, senator durbin, talk about what this means, not just for the senate, for the white house, the balance of power, maybe even the attorney general. >> it was a long night and early morning for a lot of us. we were watching closely as the votes came in, realizing that this was a moment in american political history that would be remembered for a long time. if it turns out as we wish with raphael warnock joining us and jon ossoff just 16,000 votes ahead, but perhaps more as the votes are counted, we are going to have a 50/50 senate with a tie broken by kamala harris. an opportunity to work with the new president, joe biden, to give him a chance to lead this country through this coronavirus and to make some critical decisions, which we need for our future. >> senator, the outgoing

president donald trump is pressuring the outgoing vice president to overturnabout 150 million votes, send them back to the states. what do you expect to see today in the united states united stad what words of assurance do you have for the american people as we go into this tea maumultuous >> i hope vice president pence will join those republicans who will stand with the democrats today to defend the folks of the american people across this nation in choosing joe biden as president. if vice president pence will join them, we can move on, respecting the will of the american people, and respecting this constitution. >> senator durbin. >>s willie geist. you've been in that body a long time and know some senators pretty well planning to object today. have you spoken to any of them?

do they carry any of this burden of history that their names will be permanently etched into the record trying to overturn an election based on nothing? >> i really don't -- i haven't spoke ton them, and i don't know what they're thinking, but i hope they'll be a moment of reflection before we, if we should deliberate today about the, counting of electoral votes. this is a momentous moment in history, and i hope that those fellow senators will realize that they don't want to be on the wrong side of history. they want to respect the american people. listen, i've seen elections, four years ago, for example, i didn't like the outcome at all with donald trump's victory but respected the fact the american people made that decision, giving them the same number of electoral votes that joe biden has today. i hope my colleagues will reflect on that as they make their final decisions. >> we'll see what vice president pence does as well. help us look ahead two weeks from today.

joe biden and kamala harris will be sworn in. the 46th president of the united states will take office, and then what? so much fight over donald trump. his four years, and so much fight since the election about the outcome. joe biden sits in the office. he may have a 50/50 split in the senate with his vice president casting tie-breaking votes. what does washington look like now post-donald trump? >> certainly it is a dramatic change from where we've been over the last four years and i think voters made it clear they wanted that change by a margin of 7 million votes in the presidential race. contests in more than 57 court cases that were turned away, it is time for us to turn this page of history, and to serve the american people. we are in the midst of a deadly pandemic that is our highest priority. it has to really make our decisions that much more serious as we reflect on what it means to so many families across america. they are expecting us to rise to

the challenge. that is exactly why we're here. we have a chance now with joe biden and kamala harris to do that. >> senator, mike barnicle has a question for you, mike? >> senator, in a 50/50 senate how do the chairmanships work? >> the chairmanships will go to the majority, which will be, we hope, jon ossoffs, with his victory, a democratic majority. the tie broken by kamala harris as the presiding officer over the unite senate. i've been through this before when jim jeffords skitched parties, a tie in the senate. chairmanship went to majority party. in this case it will be the democrats with jon ossoff's victory. >> senator dick durbin, thank you very much. we appreciate your coming on this morning. we have a few moments left for final thoughts this morning, and in light, joe, of this massive -- pretty big political shift in the political

landscape, i think it -- we couldn't end the show without mentioning stacey abrams. she turned it out. >> really. i mean, few people that -- that bend political history. stacey abrams has done, did it in it georgia in november and done it again here with an extraordinary -- >> done it again. >> -- effort in organizing democrats to get out and to vote. and what a huge difference it's made. i just want to say really quickly, that, willie, over the past four years a lot of people have quoted the -- the poem slo slothing towards bethlehem, how the senate can't hold. the senate will hold today and the constitution upheld and we'll have the united states senate and a united states house that's going to be run by the center, in these divided times.

there are going to be centrists who are going to determine where this -- this -- this city and where this country goes over the next two years. >> no question about it. and there's a large group of republicans, focusing on the group that's going to object today and rightly so, but a large group of republican senators who came out and said, no. we're not going to object. a large group of republican congressmen and women saying no, this is not how we run our government. not how we run a democracy. not how we run our country. we will move past this day, past this ugly chapter, what's happening today is not democratic. it is not american. it is not inconsistent with the way we've always run our elections and country, but there will be that small group but they will be in the minority today, mike barnicle. their names on a lift fst for histo history. out in the open and shown by americans who tried to take away

their votes across the country. >> we should remember their names. remember their names, people who voted against democracy. but last night in georgia democracy spoke louder than any of these senators, any of these senators' voices will be heard, because last night in georgia i really believe that this is the beginning of a long, slow climb back towards santy for this country. >> mika, final thoughts? >> well, we can't forget there's a pandemic raging in this country and that this country, the america states of america is on the verge of rationening care in hospitals. so everybody will be looking forward to not just the center holding, but sanity coming back into presidential leadership and president trump's last-ditch, desperate, pathetic effort to shake down mike pence and have him do some sort of -- you know, the "apprentice" reveal at the

certification is a pathetic dwindling end to his rise and it's over and that's what we'll see today in washington, d.c. that does it for us this morning. stephanie ruhle picks up the coverage after a final quick break. dry, distressed skin that struggles? new aveeno® restorative skin therapy. with our highest concentration of prebiotic oat intensely moisturizes over time to improve skin's resilience. aveeno® healthy. it's our nature™. want to sell the best burger to iadd an employee.ode?ence. or ten... then easily and automatically pay your team and file payroll taxes. that means... world domination! or just the west side. run payroll in less than five minutes with intuit quickbooks. just order on the subway app and it's ready to go with contactless curbside. turkey sub in a hot tub! now get 15% off any footlong

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hi there. i'm stephanie ruhle. it is wednesday january 6th. a day that promises to go down in american history and one of the wildest we have ever seen. a ton of drama set to unfold in the halls of congress and on the streets of washington, d.c. first we start with the breaking news coming in all night long. the votes still being counted down in georgia. democrats victorious in one senate election. the other, still too close to