good day. i'm andrea mitchell in washington where at this moment tomorrow just a few blocks from here, joseph biden will be taking the oath of office to become the 46th president of the united states, completing a dream he first had as a youthful senator 50 years ago. he inherits a broken country ravaged by the coronavirus and fractured by political divisions that ignited an insurrection on the very balcony where he will be delivering his inaugural address. the inaugural events officially kick off next hour when the president-elect delivers farewell remarks in delaware before heading to washington, not on his beloved amtrak, his first choice, because of security concerns. here in washington tonight, alongside vice president-elect kamala harris he will be at the lincoln memorial for the country's first national commemoration honoring the 400,000 americans who have lost their lives during the coronavirus pandemic.

the action this hour is on capitol hill. right now 3 out of 5 biden cabinet nominees with confirmation hearings today are being questioned by senators. january net yellin for treasury secretary and alejandro mayorkas to run the department of homeland security. this afternoon, proposed secretary of state tony blinken and retired four-star general lloyd osten will have their confirmation hearings. president trump is spending his final hours in commander in chief as it began, refusing to adhere to political norms and traditions. he'll be the first living president in 150 years not attending his successor's inaugural. the trumps will not host the bidens for coffee on inauguration day. nor did melania trump invite jill biden for a tour of the

living quarters as michelle obama did with melania four years ago. instead, mr. trump is focusing on himself, trying to draw a crowd to an elaborate sane senldoff at fort andrews to include a red carpet and a 21-gun salute before leaving for mar-a-lago. mike memoli is in, wellington. peter alexander on the north lawn. "new york times" chief white house correspondent peter baker, and pbs news hour white house correspondent yaalcindor. this dream of 50 years, including messages he wants to send today and at tomorrow's inauguration. >> andrea, you mentioned it was 21 months ago, if you can believe that, joe biden began a third bid for the white house. we first saw him at that train station, the joseph r. biden jr. rail station where we first got a glimpse of candidate joe

biden. of course he wanted to head to washington for this inauguration the same way he headed to washington eight years ago -- 12 years ago, excuse me, as vice president-elect joining president obama on that trip. of course security concerns shelved that plan. but rather poignantly, andrea, we will see the president-elect bidding farewell to delaware today with remarks at the headquarters of the delaware national guard headquarters named after his son, beau biden, who passed away from brain cancer in 2015. then it's on to washington, and we'll begin to see really that break with the trump administration as we mark 400,000 deaths from the coronavirus in this country. biden will join the vice president-elect for a national commemoration, a national ceremony of mourning for those lost on the national mall. then tomorrow, of course, andrea, inauguration day, a day of history, a day of healing and

a day in which the shift in power in washington will be on vivid display. biden starts the day with a bipartisan display as he attends morning mass with congressional leaders. then it's on to the capitol for the swearing-in and inaugural address, which we expect him to strike themes of unity. that's been his message throughout the campaign, he believes there is nothing this country can't overcome. there are high hurdle s to overcome, real challenges, but can't be overcome if this country is united. shortly after, the first woman vice president-elect v vice president will swear in california's first latino senator, georgia's first jewish senator, and georgia's first black senator, cementing that shift in the power balance in the senate to democratic hands. interesting that kamala harris' first act will be sbaring in those three senators, capping really what is a day of certainly high suspense given the security concerns as well, andrea. >> she is breaking so many

barriers these celebrations won't last long, though. they have such an ambitious agenda, tackling not only the obvious vaccines and coronavirus but immigration, climate, stimulus, all sorts of other big issues. and one in three americans according to the latest nbc poll do not believe that he was properly elected. how disease he build a political consensus? >> joe biden is going to inherit a country that is still in some ways mourning and in grief and more divided than ever. he'll be in some ways using the history-making aspects of his inauguration to heal parts of this country and heal the divisions and also tackle the pandemic that is killing so many americans, part of why he continues to talk about the diversity of his cabinet, of course, with vice president-elect harris but also a wide range of cabinet

officials is going to be because he says they're going to bring those life experiences of being immigrants, black women, of being woman, jews and transgender people to come before america with a plan that will be robust and with a plan that will be able to be embraced by people. they say that even those who didn't back president-elect biden, i think the biggest challenge is going to be how does he work with republicans who are overlooking a base that as you said don't see him as a legitimate president. that will be chief among them. when i talked to biden officials they say the pandemic and covid-19 will be the top thing he want. he wants to pass a number of executive actions, the first being a mask mandate on federal property and interstate travel. we'll soo him talk about equity but be laser focused on the pandemic. >> peter alexander, president

trump has a different path waiting on pardons and commutations. what are you expecting from the president today, if anything? he seems to be focusing more on himself than on anything that involves the public crises around us. >> absolutely right. sorry to interrupt. this is his final fult day in office, now down to his final 24 hours, of course, before he not just departs washington but is no longer president. the president, though, has been effectively out of sight now for a week, his last public event this time one week ago. and this president has been huddling privately in the last several days focusing on pardons and commutations. i'm told by white house officials it's likely they will be announced at some point, perhaps late today, before he departs office. three sources familiar with the president's thinking say at that point he has no intention of protectively pardoning himself or any of his adult children, but there will be a lot of scrutiny focused on these pardons and commutations especially given some of the names we've seen the president

pardon. jared kushner's own father. paul manafort. roger stone. i'm told that jared kush mer and ivanka trump have been reviewing the names of nonviolent drug offenders who they believe deserve to be released or they should be -- as a function of the criminal justice reforms they've been pursuings, should receive pardons and commutations. and some high-profile names with access to the president with tens of thousands of dollars being paid to lobbyists and lawyers we're learning that's creating much of the concern. andrea, as for the president's departure, tomorrow he will leave early in the morning with no interaction with incoming president biden, flying on marine one to joint base andrews. he wants a big sendoff ceremony there to include a 21-gun salute. no indication that that in fact will happen or the red carpet he's been pushing for as well before ultimately departing to florida where he'll be at mar-a-lago when his successor is sworn in.

>> peter baker, some trump allies hoped to see a pardon in the next 24 hours. the latest reporting is he's meeting against that. but is there a chance that he would still consider pardoning himself or his family? >> well, as peter alexander said, that seems unlikely at the moment, but with this president you can't rule anything out, right? he has 24 hours to go. he likes to surprise people. he likes to be impulsive. i think there's a concern on the part of the president and some of his advisers that a self-pardon, an attempt to self-pardon would in some ways be seen as an admission to culpability in some sense, maybe in fact increase civil liability in terms of the events of january 6th. there are a lot of reasons why it might not be a good idea. among other things, it's never been done before, hasn't been tested in the courts whether a president could do that kind of thing. that seems to argue against it, but, again, you know, this is the last 24 hours of the trump

presidency. anything can happen because it always has. >> mitch mcconnell has just opened the senate floor. they have still -- nancy pelosi has still not sent over the article of impeachment which would trigger the clock on 24 hours and after that they would have to go into the senate trial. mcconnell just said on the senate floor that the rioter who is invaded the capitol on january 6th, that the mob was fed lies, they were provoked by the president and other people. peter baker, first to you, your response to that. does that signal anything about what might happen with the coming trial? >> well, it's striking because he didn't have to open the session by talking about it in that terms. that seems to signal to people he remains very open to the idea of conviction, perhaps, of the president for incitement of that mob attack. i think that, you know, mitch mcconnell is off the train from the trump point of view. he was a loyal ally for four years.

the two of them had a lot of shared interests in getting conservative judges on the courts and other legislation through the congress. but i think he was so angered by what happened on january 6th that he -- and angered by what happened on january 5th, too, the georgia runoffs, where many republicans say the president undercut the candidates and helped contribute to their loss there. so i think that the fact he opened with those words is, in fact, interesting. i don't know if, you know, we can't say for sure which way he's going to go. but if mitch mcconnell were to go for conviction, that does seem to suggest this is an open, you know, jump ball at this point. anything could happen. >> and that could also signalia, meesh, you've covered the hill as well, that could signal that mcconnell and schumer might be working out this shared power agreement, which has been the case, dolan mitchell, trent lott, tom daschle in the past when there were more evenly divided senates. so could this mean possibly that

there might be a path forward for a good deal of joe biden's agenda, particularly on covid? >> it could mean that. biden officials i talk to have really made the case he is someone who was a deal maker, is a deal maker, will be able to summon the will of the senate and the house to really be focused on the issue and the crisis at hand in america with so many americans dying from the virus and terrified of what is around the corner, joe biden saying often we are entering a dark winter, we still have terrible days ahead of us. i will say also when i talk to republicans especially about mitch mcconnell, the big question they ask me is what is the party going to do? what's the way forward? this could be mitch mcconnell's way of saying let's distance ourselves from president trump and try to go forward. >> mike memoli, peter alexander, peter baker, yamiche alcindor, thank for starting us off. the focus ahead of course for tomorrow's inauguration is

security. this is an armed camp, washington. tens of thousands of national guard troops are on alert to stop any potential new threats as federal agents continue to round up suspects linked to the january 6th attack on capitol hill. nbc justice correspondent pete williams joins me now. pete, how confident are the security officials that everything will run smoothly tomorrow? >> well, that's their view so far, andrea. they say no plots, nothing uncovered that would in any way change the plans. we have heard that two members of the national guard who were assigned here have been relieved of their duty. that much we know. it's a little unclear about why they were relieved of duty. the a.p. says it's because they had some sort of links to radical groups, but we don't know for sure whether that was the reason. but in terms of the investigation, andrea, you're right, it's really going very fast. they've identified more than 330 people they say who entered the capitol on january 6th. and they're moving ahead with criminal charges gwen more than

100 people. there's beginning to take a shape here of where the focus is in the investigation. they're looking at obviously people who did the high-profile things like sitting in nancy pelosi's office or taking the podium or sitting in pence's chair. we've seen a lot of that. but looking now at who might have organized this. were there people who had planned this in advance or who, once it began, in essence, exercised command and control. and looking at these charges so far, we see 11 people that have been charged have some connection to militia or far-right groups. this would be the oath keepers, the proud boys, qanon, the three-percenters. there's three people, for example, who are accused of coming here from ohio, part of a group called the ohio oath keepers or the ohio state regular militia, organized a group of eight to ten people to come to the capitol, many of them military veterans wearing military fatigues and appearing to communicate once the thing

started. four of these folks that have been charged of the total 100 are military or military veterans and three are current or former law enforcement or first responders including a couple of firefighters. so that's where the focus on the investigation is. obviously, they want to get the universe of everybody who came in, but then begin to drill down and see was this planned in advance or was it directed after it began, andrea. >> pete williams on top of all of that. thank you so much, pete. and three separate hearings are happening right now on capitol hill for key members of president-elect biden's incoming cabinet. first up, the first woman to serve as the director of national intelligence who will lead to navigate the political land mines left behind by the trump administration in its waning days. ♪ write your next adventure. handwriting recognition and the audi q3. lease or purchase a new audi suv and have your first month's payment covered.

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president-elect biden takes office, the senate is holding the first confirmation hearings for several of his top cabinet names. haines testing today in front of the senate intelligence committee making a pointed promise to keep politics out of intelligence analysis. after widespread criticism in the past year of the trump administration. >> to be effective, the dni must never shy away from speaking truth to power, even especially when doing so may be inconvenient or difficult. to safe guard the intelligence of our intelligence community, the dni must insist when it comes to intelligence, there is simply no place for politics ever. >> underscoring that point, haines was introduced by former senator and onetime trump head of national intelligence dan coats, who trump forced out for telling him truths the president did not want to hear. if confirmed, haines would

become the first woman on the job overseeing 18 intelligence agencies including the cia and the national security agency. she previously served as deputy cia director and deputy national security adviser in the obama administration. let's talk about avril haines and what she brings to the table. >> well, andrea, she is highly accomplished, a lawyer by training, someone who served on the national security council staff and then served as deputy director of the cia, the organization i used to work, and she helped manage that organization, which is of course responsible for collection, analysis, and covert action. then she was brought back by the obama/biden team for national security adviser. she's seen all of national security decision making from a variety of different vantage points. she's very close to the incoming leadership of cia, the national security adviser jake sullivan, and the president-elect and the

vice president-elect. they have a lot of faith and confidence in her and the job she'll do. >> her undergraduate major apparently physics and then law school, also apparently knows judo. she is an incredible -- as marco rubio, the chairman of the intelligence committee, says incredibly accomplished in a lot of different fields. what a challenge she's facing. jeremy, one of the things i am obsessed with today is that michael ellis is being sworn in apparently as general counsel of the national security agency over the objections of the general who's led that agency, one of the most, you know, important spy agencies that we've got. and that this man was brought in, he's a trump loyalist, the president specifically demanded that this happen. he called in the acting secretary of defense on friday and said make this happen, and then the secretary of defense told general knack sony had to

do it by 6:00 p.m. saturday and the swearing-in was today. why bring this man into a civil service protected job where he placed third in the candidates interviewing for the job? former lawyer for devin nunez, a trump loyalist and apparently on the recommendation of the my pillow guy who came in on friday. this was seen as one of the things he wanted to talk to the president about and had a meeting with the president on-in the oval office friday afternoon with the white house general counsel cipollone and the national security adviser. how disease this happen? >> well, as a general rule, andrea, when the my pillow guy gives advice on national security, we should stop listening to the rest of the sentence. i don't think there's anything he offers that's useful. in general, if the president of the united states -- today it's donald trump, tomorrow it's joe biden -- if the president of the united states directs that somebody be put into a job which

is what happened with respect to michael ellis getting this job of general counsel at the national security agency, that person is de facto a presidential political appointee, so when the new administration comes in they should leave. they've tried to burrow him in, a term used in government circles for illegally trying to put a political appointee into a civil service projected job. they tried to burrow him in. that's not allowed. i think what lawyers are going to scrutinize is are there ways if the incoming administration doesn't want him serving in that role -- and i presume they won't want a devin nunez loyalist looking to declassify information about the russian investigation in that highly sensitive role. and i predict michael ellis will be reviewing environmental regulations based in alaska in the next couple weeks. if he doesn't want to, he can find a job somewhere out in the big world. >> what kind of damage can he cause just by being there for 24 hours? >> well, i mean, probably not a

lot, but, i mean, i think the issue is they want him there over weekes and months because they believe that there's some maybe classified information that nsa has that would somehow exonerate donald trump or say if the russians were involved in 2016 to the extent that the ic said they were. i think it's fool's errand and professionally dubious has to why he would want to play that role. but, look, the trump team has kind of known no bottom when it comes to trying to politicize intelligence. and that was the big theme of avril haines' opening statement in her testimony today is that, look, people have political points of view, but when it comes to carrying out the sacred duties of protecting the united states against all enemies foreign and domestic, which is the oath you swear, when it comes to providing nonpolitical intelligence to the commander in chief so we can get our policies right, there's no room to be a democrat or a republican. you just have to call it like it is. if you're coming in there with a political agenda, you shouldn't

be there. >> jeremy bash, thanks so very much. president-elect biden's pick to head the treasury department is getting some serious support from her predecessors today who say the senate needs to confirm janet yellin given the immediate economic challenges the country is facing. highlights from her hearing ahead. (sneeze) skip to cold relief fast. alka-seltzer plus power max gels. with 25% more concentrated power. oh, what a relief it is! so fast! among my patients, i often see them have teeth sensitivity as well as gum issues. does it worry me? absolutely. sensodyne sensitivity & gum gives us the dual action effect that really takes care

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former federal reserve chair janet yellin is testifying for the next treasury secretary calling for the government to act big on covid relief and not to worry now as much as about piling on too much debt. >> neither the president-elect nor i propose this relief package without an appreciation for the country's debt burden. but right now, with interest rates at historic lows, the smartest thing we can do is act big. in the long run, i believe the benefits will far outweigh the costs. >> joining me now, gene sperling, former national economic adviser in the clinton and obama administrations and

the author of "economic dignity." good to see you. janet yellin, a big divide on how much to spend, how much to spend on stimulus, on jobless benefits. you've got 11 million people unemployed, jobless claims soaring last week. i think you agree with yellin's projections, but what are the chances she's going to get it through? >> well, look, i think, you know, janet yellin came there with a lot of gravitas today. eight former secretaries of treasury writing democrats and republicans, writing to say she was uniquely qualified. but she did come as you say with a powerful message. one, that the risks to this economy are still significant. we're still down near lay million jobs. many people a realistic unemployment rate is closer to 9%, 10%, or 11%, and we don't know about the new variants of covid that could be out there. but, too, i think a powerful

message a lot of people are still hurting, that this is a k-recovery. the fed suggests for the bottom lowest income workers the unemployment rate is 20%. that's nearly depression levels. the rise in long-term unemployment has been the highest in a four-month period since 1948. and so, yes, she came with a message not everybody may be prone to hear, but it's the right one. you have to go big right now. this is -- you know, she said it well. she's not taking her eye off the country's long-term debt burden, but that right now the risk is small, not big. this is not the time to worry about, you know, this temporary expansion of the debt when the money is going to go into the economy, it's going to help the hardest hit workers, renters, homeowners, unemployed, and at the same time is going to be

absolutely critical for us getting the economy going, getting back to full unemployment. i think that that message is strong, and i think the support she got from the former secretaries of treasury, democrat and republican, were not just on her but on that message. and i think they're going to do everything they can to work well with republicans. i do think at the end of the day they can do what's called reconciliation. they can pass a big package with only 50 votes, all democrat. that is not what the biden administration wants to do. but at the end of the day, they have that power and they know you don't get chances to go big when so many people are hurting often and you can't miss that chance. >> their point is with covid getting jobs back, people back out of their holmes and into schools is dependent on getting that money to state and local governments for the vaccination program. they're all related. i want to play an exchange she had with menendez from new

jersey, the very point about getting money to the state and local governments. >> the same thing as you just described is happening now. >> and that was a drag on the economy, is it not? >> it was a tremendous drag on the economy, and the same would be true now. as you mentioned, we are seeing layoffs, especially of teachers, but prospectively of policemen and firefighters and other -- >> time to withhold fiscal support from state and local governments. >> not in my view. >> so, gene, she was talking -- the context was the 2008 recession and they could face another recession. clearly, the economy is slowing if they don't get this money out now. >> that's absolutely right t. again, there's still unknown risks, but there really were three key points on your question, andrea. one is that we know from the

past recession that you have to have strong support, state and local governments, that our recovery was less strong in '08-09 because there was not enough support in the recovery for state and local governments. two, what she said about teachers and firefighters, this isn't hypothetical. we are now down over 1 million education jobs at the state and local level. over 1 million already. so this isn't an abstract fiscal view. this is about teachers and firefighters and third responders. and third, there's even a more compelling case for doing this, because we're going to be relying on the state and local governments to do the vaccine distribution. so you don't want a situation where the funds to support saving our lives, getting vaccine distribution, is coming at the expense of first responders, health care workers, or the people we're allowing to

teach our children in this historically difficult educational moment. >> she is uniquely qualified for years at the fed and to be the first woman at the treasury if she's confirmed and great academic credentials as well. thank you, gene sperling. >> thank you, andrea. this time tomorrow we will be listening to a new president give his first inaugural address. what will joe biden's message be in order to unite a divided country facing so many crises at the same time?

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grips of a pandemic visualized by flags filling the national mall representing americans who cannot attend the inauguration in person. and joe biden is hoping to unite a nation that is deeply divided with the specter of political violence forcing the ceremony to be behind barbed wire and under the watch of thousands of national guard troops. joining me now is a former speechwriter for president george w. bush and a "washington post" opinion columnist, and "washington post" opinion columnist gene robinson. welcome, both. michael, first to you. you have the distinction of having written george w. bush's inaugural address. i wanted to play a little bit of his and barack obama's inaugural speeches, hitting on themes of unity and healing the country. >> my solemn pledge, i will work to build a single nation of justice and opportunity. >> starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking america.

>> so contrast that with donald trump's american carnage speech and you get the importance, michael, of setting a different tone in this time. >> absolutely. it's going to be a moment of high drama not just because of the place it's given but because that place was occupied just days ago by enemies of democracy. i think he needs to speak words of healing at a moment of profound division in our country. the best inaugural addresses when you look at the history had that theme of national unity, of outreach, of common and shared future. and i think that's the theme that he'll have to mine. >> and we just heard remarkable comments from mitch mcconnell, eugene. i wanted to ask you about this. let's play mitch mcconnell on the senate floor, opening the senate floor today. >> the mob was fed lies.

they were provoked by the president and other powerful people. and they tried to use fear and violence to stop a specific proceeding of the first branch of the federal government, which they did not like. but we pressed on. we stood together and said an angry mob would not get veto power over the rule of law in our nation, not even for one night. >> do you pick up any signals there as to what direction he might be going in? >> well, doesn't sound very good for the president there. maybe a vote for conviction because he said the president, along with other powerful people, who include republican members of the senate, mitch mcconnell's colleagues, ted cruz and josh holly, provoked this crowd by feeding them lies. that's absolutely true.

mitch mcconnell doesn't say much unless he means to say it and knows exactly what signals and messages he's sending when he does speak. and i think he is still angry, angry at what happened on january 6th, angry at the president and angry at his fellow gop senators who went along with the big lie. >> and michael, another tradition being tossed out is any meeting between the incoming and outgoing first families. no coffee at the white house, which is traditional. no tour of the residence by melania for jill biden. we've seen photos of course of the bushes and the bush daughters showing the obama daughters some of their secret favorite places in the white house and how to slide down the banister. you know, all of those welcoming

moments which have been part of sort of the culture of america, to see that, you know, even dwight eisenhower and jfk rode together to the capitol to the white house, barely speaking but at least they were together in the same car. none of that is going to take place. does it matter? >> i think it does matter. i think this president has taken a lot of the grace notes of american life, the nonlegal element of our constitutional order, and thrown it out the window in a way that is graceless and damaging to the future of the country. but the good thing is that i think that president joe biden really specializes in those kind of grace notes, in reaching out the people in a personal and human way. and i think that if anybody can restore that kind of spirit in the aftermath of this president, i think that joe biden might be the person for job.

>> and eugene, i wanted to play -- speaking of grace notes, jenna bush hager interviewed ashley biden, her first tv interview, network interview. after all this time when of course the trumps and allies have been going after the bidens and the family, this is what ashley biden had to say today. >> what were the darkest moments like for you all? >> it hurts, right, but you also know the truth. it's like at the end of the day, they may get it wrong, but at least i got it right. you know, at least i know the real deal. i know, you know, the type of man my father is and the woman my mother is and the man my brother is. >> eugene, that was very touching, first daughter to first daughter. >> it was. >> on the "today" show. >> i think that's really why joe biden won. i think we all know who joe biden is. we've known him for a long, long

time. he wears it on his sleeve. he is who he is. i think in, what, 23 hours and 15 minutes or whatever, but who's counting, i think that will be a very great moment. it is not written that the next president or the president after that or the one after that will be like donald trump, anything like donald trump. it is not written that we cannot recapture some of these -- some of the traditions and the comity we had in past years. it's up to us. it won't be easy, but it's in our hands. and i think it will be very important. >> well, i can't think of two better people to spend some time with today. thank you so much. michael gerson, eugene robinson, thanks for being with me. with the capitol still

reeling from the january 6th attacks and a rising concern about domestic terrorism, senators have a lot of questions for the incoming secretary of homeland security. that and a lot more. ♪ got my hair ♪ ♪ got my head ♪ ♪ got my brains ♪ ♪ got my ears ♪ ♪ got my heart ♪ ♪ got my soul ♪ ♪ got my mouth ♪ ♪ i got life ♪

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sweeping overhaul of the nation's immigration laws, on inauguration day including an eight year path to citizenship for the nearly 11 million undocumented immigrants in this country. this is alejandro -- the nominee to lead the homeland security department to appear for his senate confirmation hearing today. his parents fled the nazis first and fled communism in cuba before settling in california. in his opening statement he addressed the attack on capitol hill. >> the love for this country that i learned from my parents only made the january 6 attack on our capitol all the more horrifying. i will do everything i can to ensure that the tragic loss of life, the assault on law enforcement, the desecration of the building that stands as one of the three pillars of our democracy, the terror that you felt, your colleagues, staff and everyone present, will not

happen again. >> and joining me now nbc news correspondents jacob soboroff and julia ainsley. there were a total of six dhs leaders under president trump, the focus was on border security, missing terror threats. which the biden administration is now making a bigger priority. how do they accomplish that? >> that's right, i've spoken to dhs officials including very recently former dhs officials from the trump administration that said there's so many people with so little experience left in the trump administration at dhs, and they're all picked because of their loyalty to immigration policies, not because of their expertise on the rising threat of domestic terror. so now there will be a lot of work for the incoming biden administration to try to put people in these positions. but we did hear from mayorkas today talking about his commitment to try to beef up that. he said that this agency was set up to be the response to 9/11 to

make sure that there would not be another 9/11. now he is committing to not allow for another january 6, 2021. and the work for that, andrea, will come from more research, more tools from this department and others as they communicate with their partners like the fbi and cia to try to monitor these threats as they rise. >> and all the warnings were there in plain sight. jacob, biden is also signing an executive order telling all agencies to work on reuniting parents and separated children, more than 600 children still without their families. you've written the book on this tragedy titled "separated." how hard is this going to be? >> well, it shouldn't be hard, andrea, if the biden administration wants to actually set its attention to this and they've given every indication that's the plan. the question is will they give separated families and it's a finite group of people, over 3,000 people were ripped apart, parents and children, by the trump administration.

for no other reason than to deter people from coming to this country. that's what the evidence shows. what do they want to do? do they want to give them u visas, victims of crime of the u.s. government. humanitarian parole, do they want to allow them to come back to the united states of america? all of those families who have been deported. that's the decision that they have to make. we remember that kristen welker colleague that he believed it was criminal. does the justice department prosecute people because of this policy. those are all open questions as is what do they do about things like this caravan that's coming to the united states. and mayorkas was asked about that today. what i thought was so different from the trump years is that he basically said we're going to deal with them in the legal way, everybody's going to get a fair shake. it wasn't demonizing. he didn't say they're exploiting loopholes. we have laws here, senator romney, in this country and we are going to deal with people accordingly. if they have a shot to stay here in the united states we're going

to give them that shot. >> and that caravan, we've got thousands of honduran immigrants, clashing with guatemalan officials, there's such a backup. julie, you know this very well. the backup at the border is profound. >> that's right. i spoke to an incoming biden administration official over the weekend who said the message is don't come now and a big reason for that, andrea, is because we have tens of thousands of immigrants already at our border, who were told by the trump administration that they could not cross until the date of their asylum hearing. in the meantime while they wait on those decisions and hearing they're living in squalor, terrible conditions, over 60,000 of them were enrolled in that program. it's not clear how many are still waiting at the border but that number is so much larger than these -- the caravan that's estimated to be around 9,000. first they will have to deal with those people and then begin

the process of processing everyone for asylum and giving them that fair shake that jacob referred to. >> jacob soboroff, julia ainsley. thank you. by this time tomorrow we will have a new president. follow the show online, on facebook and on twitter at "mitchell reports," chuck todd is up next with "mtp daily" only on msnbc. on msnbc so keep pushing forward... because this is twenty twenty won make a different future start different at godaddy.com with hepatitis c... ...i felt i couldn't be at my... ...best for my family. in only 8 weeks with mavyret... ...i was cured. i faced reminders of my hep c every day. i worried about my hep c. but in only 8 weeks with mavyret... ...i was cured. mavyret is the only 8-week cure for all types of hep c. before starting mavyret your doctor will test... ...if you've had hepatitis b which may flare up and cause serious liver problems during and after treatment. tell your doctor if you've had hepatitis b,

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