the head of elections in the state of arizona, katie hobbs and the governor doug ducey are seated atle side by side 6 feet apart. they are in front of the canvassing board in the process of certification in the state of arizona. so as they certify the votes and that will show as we know unless something happens in the next few minutes that we don't know about president-elect joe biden has won that state. that stinks is going on right now adjacent to the fight that's happening, the legal fight arizona house and senate now in a hearing with the legal team from the trump campaign rudy giuliani, jenna ellis via virtual. wow, it is all happening this hour. we will bring it to you in a live report coming up with our matt finn. keep watching. another major development in the fight against covid-19 now. moderna says it is asking the fda today for emergency approval of its vaccine candidate. the company's cio gave credit to scientists and to the president operation warp speed. watch. >> will warp speed at the end has been helpful to us to across all government agencies and so for shipping, de

doug ducey is concerned about the votes. he tweeted ain hou ago saying that we have to let the process run its course and count all of the boats. 86 percent of those votes have been counted. still waiting on hundred of thousands of votes in arizona. >> i understand there is an issue about the count being prolonged. >> that is right. the issue right now is the mail-in ballots. it is not just an issue but it is just a matter of it taking a little longer to count those mail-in ballots. they have to open every single one, verify the signatures. they are opening them and verifying the signatures, that is the thing that takes the longest. there at 200 -- there are 250,000 outstanding mail-in ballots they came in. we just got word that there is an additional 150,000 ballots that came in on election day. whether or not all of the votes are counted, will see where that lands. it looks like joe biden will still take this state. >> those mail-in ballots singled out. donald trump seems to be the only voice saying this. you are very clos

doug ducey said this is coming down to a couple thousand votes one way or another. i trust arizona.on't trust philadelphia. i don't trust nevada. so, everything should be on the table. let stand with president trump. he stood with us. this reminds me of the application where they are just trying to get a -- the law. -- the process. >> sean: $500,000 you just donated to the president's defense fund. walmart. >> donald j. trump.com here five bucks goes a long way. >> sean: we need to get to the truth. ted cruz of texas. senator, you are one of the smartest lawyers and best students of alan dershowitz. you know election law. you are allowed to have partisan observers. they are not being denied -- they are being denied access. what does that tell you and what is the remedy, sir? >> well, sean, what we are seeing tonight, what we have been seen in the last few days is outrageous. it is partisan. it is political. and it is lawless. and we are seeing this pattern and democratic city after democratic city with the worst in the country right now, philadelphia and pennsylvania. they are not a

so far it seems to be much more mixed on both sides of the aisle about doug ducey come with far more republicans having views or being in opposition. it turns out there is actually -- it is always nice to see in surveys broad scale consensus, and we see that evaluations of mayors, both republicans and democrats have really been quite supportive of local politicians and mayors' response to the crisis. the state has gone up and down in numbers. we had a rough summer. the novice had gone down recently. they are back up again. schools are opening and a lot of folks are feeling the fatigue. it is certainly an issue that is affecting our community, as it is affecting many communities. host: let's take a look at some things that president trump said while making a pitch for latino voters at a rally in goodyear, arizona earlier this week. here is president trump. [video clip] pres. trump: the latino community in arizona and around the country, today i am announcing the american dream plan. over the next four years, the american dream plan will bring within 2 million jobs to hispanic communit

they think they are tracking with the republican governor doug ducey to deliver that and predicting victory end of the week and maybe even tomorrow. it's your state, what are you hearing? >> the governor's office is saying there are still 500,000 outstanding votes. the secretary of state who is democrat was on a radio interview today urging caution for any side to be celebrating any kind of victory in arizona. the trump campaign's banking and has repeatedly never backed down from this idea that they can win arizona. when i pressed some of the sources on that and said how can mick sally be down 18 percentage point in a state with trump winning, they are so convinced he can win with late breaking in maricopa county given the early voting that they saw on behalf of the republican president. so we are still waiting for those results to come in and i asked when they think they will be done with counting those votes and tallying them up. we have not gotten an answer yet but we are still counting on arizona. >> any chance you could get a reversal? >> it's very far-fetched to think that the preside

meanwhile in arizona, governor doug ducey says he acknowledges that biden carried his state.ecounts are still under way in georgia. county workers across the state began a machine recount of 5 million votes yesterday. just a few days ago, they completed a hand tally that confirmed biden's lead of roughly 12,000 votes. joining us now reporter for "the washington post," eugene scott, his latest piece in the "post" tackles the question, what's the big mistake a transition can make? eugene, great to see you. your story that we just outlined there features somebody who has been through two transitions. what did you learn from this conversation? i think it's important to underscore here, it's been a couple of weeks since joe biden -- since nbc declared that joe biden had won the election and was president-elect. and that's actually a pretty significant chunk of time in this, about two months, that any transition has to work with, to get ready. potentially could be pretty impactful. what did you learn in this conversation? g >> yes, i spoke with tevi troy who has worked on two trans

doug ducey of arizona assured us that everything would go smoothly on election day. >> in arizona, where going to do it right. it will be free and fair, it will be difficult, if not impossible to cheat, and it will be easy to vote. a 78% of the citizens already vote by mail and arizona. over the course of decades, we have established a system that works and can be trusted. >> laura: hoops. it didn't work out that way. he's not alone, republicans also control georgia. that confidence and foul play have compromised the integrity of the election results there as well. the democrats stronghold in detroit and philadelphia will be difficult to change, but try we must. for many months the angle warrants that mail-in ballots were going to present serious challenges that the g.o.p. needed to be prepared for. >> you're going to have lawyers all across this country ready to challenge the stuff? >> president trump: they do, they have more lawyers than any human being has ever hired, i don't know who is hiring them, but they have lawyers. where in pennsylvania right now, where in nevada right now, we

another is republican governor doug ducey here late this evening put out a tweet essentially backingprocess counting taking place in the state in part saying we're following established arizona election law to the letter. i also asked the arizona gop chairman kelly ward if she had any evidence of any wrongdoing here in the state. he did provide me a single example here as this ballot process continues here. >> native arizonan vaughn milliard, thank you very much. and for the latest on where all these races stand, where the vote count stands, we turn to ali velshi at the big board because under a provision of the geneva convention steve kornacki has a mandatory rest and food period before heading back. luckily if you were watching late into the night last night you know how deft ali velshi is at the big board. ali, i see you're starting with georgia which is such a thin margin. >> very thin margin. statewide 99% of the votes are in, and the lead for donald trump is 1,805 votes. what we heard is we weren't getting anything until tomorrow, and we got brand new news from the commissioner

here in arizona, the republican governor doug ducey has acknowledged that president-elect joe biden hashis state's 11 electoral votes. dana? >> dana: matt finn, thank you so much for the update. we appreciate it. >> fox news alert moderna announcing it will apply for approval of the vaccine after final results from clinical trials revealed it was more than 94% effective at preventing covid-19. let's bring in our special guest former fda commissioner mark mckelly land. it's great to have you here. i know the vaccine news so exciting, it's a scientific marvel that it was able to get done this quickly. i do have a couple of questions that i have been surveying friends and family and neighbors. once the fda grants approval, does that mean this vaccine is safe to take? >> well, dana, it is about best news can you imagine with now two vaccines showing very high levels of effectiveness and apparently not any substantial safety i. these are tougher vaccines to take. it's more like a shingles vaccine you could feel bad for a day or two but not more serious adverse events than that are turning up

meantime arizona, the governor there, doug ducey, a republican certified the election rules today.s back in july to cover him that he changed his phone troing hail to the chief if the president or vice president pence called him. during that signing hail to the chief played on his phone. just moments ago the president tweeting out that true, that the governor of arizona has abandoned the people of arizona bring in our panel charles hurt editor of the "washington times." laura and ben domenech publisher of the federalist. charlie, obviously, trump supporters believe there is a route here, there is a way. the president says that the legal options are narrowing. however, they are following up and still filing these suits in the hopes that it gets to the supreme court. in the meantime, these republican governors are certifying elections. >> yeah. that at the end of the day, what happens is when states certify elections, that becomes something that becomes binding. and that will, i suspect, be the way this -- the way this finally ends. but, between now and then, you know, the president

there's a lot of pushback from the governor of arizona, doug ducey, from the trump campaign saying they still have a path. >> dana: and kevin mccarthy said it just a few minutes ago here. >> bret: we were very transparent about this, i grilled the decision to ask guys about it numerous times last night and they were still confident on their call and arizona. but there may be some tightening there. we will see tonight when the rest of maricopa county comes in and wear that race is, again the decision desk thinks it's not going to split like the trump campaign thinks. but we will watch it. >> dana: keeping an eye on it. marc thiessen, what about some thoughts from you on the senate majority leader and their strategy trying to get that in republican hands? >> if the republicans hold the senate, that's a huge development. it's great for our democracy and let's assume for a second that biden holds onto current lead and wins the presidency. if you want to bring unity to the country the best thing that could happen is for the republicans to hold the senate. if they lost the senate, the pressur

arizona republican governor doug ducey also condemned the threats. >> completely unacceptable and i denounce any threats of violence against anyone in elective office or any arizonian or american. so that's different than a court challenge. okay. a court challenge will play it o itself out, but it's completely unacceptable, any threats of violence. >> strong tone, but governor ducey has declined to criticize the conspiracy theories or the politicians promoting them. >>> still ahead, new coronavirus restrictions at the grocery store, what it could mean when you go to stock up. that's next. "early start" brought to you by pfizer. mornings were made for better things than rheumatoid arthritis. when considering another treatment, ask about xeljanz... a pill for adults with moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis when methotrexate has not helped enough. xeljanz can help relieve joint pain and swelling, stiffness, and helps stop further joint damage, even without methotrexate. xeljanz can lower your ability to fight infections. before and during treatment, your doctor should check for infections,

i've been talking to doug ducey in arizona frequently.ook at margins in arizona, just the right percentages the president needs. there is no doubt in my mind he will win georgia. certainly winning north carolina. i think he has a shot in nevada. it comes down to the big 10 particularly in pennsylvania. that is exactly why many of the democrat officials don't want the public and certainly not the media looking in at this election process. we need transparency to make sure that they're legitimately counting every ballot that was legally cast. >> you know, the state officials are saying that these are frivolous kinds of attacks from the trump campaign. that the votes are being properly counted, but, the republicans are saying no, they're not. what are you hearing right now about that? >> well, open it up. to me, exactly what you need to have is a transparent process not only for pennsylvania, not only for the world to see how we legitimate ily conduct an election. when you put plywood over windows. open it up. have a legitimate process. let

the governor of arizona, republican governor doug ducey said in a tweet we're following arizona election to the letter defending the election process. but also the chairman of the maricopa county board of supervisors, clint hickman, who is republican and who is a trump supporter who was at a rally last week defending this election's process, so what you see outside is very separate from the reality of how the process inf arizona is working. apologies for the length of that firstie part. on the answer to the second question, i think steve set up what we're looking at. tomorrow is a big morning in arizona. as we're watching philadelphia. as we're watching georgia, tomorrow morning at 11:00 a.m. eastern, 9:00 a.m. local is when we're going tom. get the first batch of votes that's the key indicator that's going to tell us whatin the next 300,000 balls are going to look like. that's because these remaining ballots are almost all ballots that were handll delivered on tuesday, election day. and the democrats, the biden campaign, tell me that they hope those numbers are not as favorable to donal

she was joined by governor doug ducey. this is 20 minutes. >> good morning, everyone. today, we are canvassing the official results for arizona's 2020 general election held november 3. also at the secretary of state's office is the election instructor-

and in arizona, republican governor doug ducey said he acknowledged that biden carried his state. in georgia, a machine recount of the roughly 5 million votes yesterday. just a few days ago they completed a hand tally that confirmed biden's lead of roughly 12,000 votes. nonetheless the presidential transition is officially under way. a biden official tells nbc news that by mid afternoon yesterday answer that signals te that transition teams made contact with all federal agencies including the white house. the president-elect said he has not received the daily briefing from u.s. officials but that it could happen today. here's the incoming president in his sit-down interview with lester holt. biden's first since winning the election. >> immediately we have gotten outreach from the national security. we are working out meeting with the covid team in the white house. i think we're going to not be so far behind the curve as we thought we might be in the past. and there's a lot of immediate discussion and i must say the outreach has been sincere. >> have you had any conversations with

doug ducey says quote, it is far too early to call the election in arizona.lection day votes are not fully reported and haven't started to count early ballots dropped at polls. in arizona we protected election day, let's count all the votes before making declarations. passive voice doing a lot of work, not directly having to confront the president of his own party. >> what donald trump said tonight doesn't actually disagree with that. we all think we heard him say he wants counting stopped but he didn't actually say that. he wants voting stopped, which has already stopped. and so there's no lawyer in the building who is going to try to bring a lawsuit to any state that says stop counting your ballots, except in pennsylvania where they're going to say stop accepting ballots that arrive after the deadline that the legislature had in place which was replaced by three-day extension that is going to be the subject of a lawsuit. that's it. probably no other lawsuit on the electoral map that donald trump can bring. >> to that point, hearing bob bower, legal director

. >> doug ducey, the governor of arizona tweeted earlier this evening it's far too early to call theeported and we haven't started to count early ballots that were dropped off at the polls. let's koumtd all the votes until we make a declaration. looks like there's going to be a pause in arizona. the governor indicating not only are they counting election day votes but when people brought their early vote straight to the poll. >> we're going to take a break and be back with more 2020 election night coverage after this short break. ♪ ♪ through the walk of life, walgreens has always been there to help make life easier. and now we're doing the same with medicare. so you can easily find the best, most affordable plan for you. visit walgreens.com/medicare to get started. walgreens. we make medicare easy. visit walgreens.com/medicare to get started. irresistibly smooth chocolate. ♪ made to melt you. lindor. by the lindt master chocolatier. >>> welcome back to nbc news election night coverage 2020 election. a lot of things in play right now. we're waiting on some big battle ground states but

>> well, i talked to doug ducey, mid good friend the governor there, and it's always good to talk to she's on top of things. in doug's case, he pointed out that the a 550-600,000 ballots still remaining are election day ballots. early voting overwhelmingly has gone for joe biden, election day votes cast overwhelmingly go for donald trump. the two big issues are the economy and covid. you're worried about covid, you probably voted in advance. you're not so worried, you voted yesterday. if that holds true, biden's got just over about a 100,000-vote lead in the state right now, if there's 500-600,000 ballots, if they break 60/40 for trump or better, that's more than enough to make up that margin. you win there, and then it goes back to -- i've said all along the i thought the most likely state to go for donald trump is pennsylvania, and i still think it's going to head in that direction. that's the path to 270 for donald trump. neil: some of your republican colleagues, chris christie, marco rubio among those criticizing the president for this tack that, you know, where he's challenging

the governor, doug ducey, of arizona believes that there's enough votes out there to make a difference given where they're coming from. second he has to keep his eye on the ball in pennsylvania because that's a must-win state for him now and again, he still has 180,000-vote margin so still a large margin. a lot of votes to count, but they're making progress in that. we may know by this evening whether that lead stands up or doesn't. so, for the president his focus is not on transition, but is on trying to get to a place where he can get to 270. this one is not over yet and no one should act as if it is because that's respecting the american people's will as well and that's what the president and his team should be focused on and i believe they are. >> chris christie, thanks very much. talked about arizona. it is tight. we'll talk to the secretary of state of arizona coming up in our next half hour. >>> all right, george, and those razor-thin margins are raising big questions about all those pre-election polls. how did so many get it wrong? we don't know but nate silver, the founder and

i'm calling on governor doug ducey to call a special session of the arizona legislature under articletution to investigate the accuracy and reliability of dominion ballot software and its impact on our general election. he said no election results should be certified until a complete audit of the dominion machines are made that drew a very sharp retort from the secretary of state this shut turley ridiculous and you don't know what you are talking about. that from katie hobbs. it's irresponsible for public officials to be undermining the public's faith in our elections the way you are. the former v.p.'s lead over the president shrinking to less than 2%. it is a stop the steal rally set to take place 2 p.m. eastern. we will be here radio for it for outback to you. flnch hid over to will cain. while the president election drags out days or perhaps weeks. our next guest's race was called 18 minutes. sweeping florida 19 congressional districts 61 to 38 becomes the third ever black republican from the sunshine state to be elected to the house of representatives. he joins us now fresh off hi

she was joined by governor doug ducey. this is 20 minutes. >> good morning, everyone. today, we are canvassing the official results for arizona's 2020 general election held november 3. also at the secretary of state's office is the election instructor -- we want to thank governor ducey and lieutenant governor bernadette. historic election for several reasons. , thering for an election events undertaking even in normal circumstances, the complexity this year has been compounded by the pandemic. in spite of this, we had an extremely well-run election and saw historically high voter participation. there were more than 3.4 2 million ballots cast in this election and turn was nearly 80%. increase from the, 2018 midterm elections and 8% increase from the 2016 presidential election. of those 3.4 2 million ballots cast, over 88% of them were cast early, which provides more proof arizona's solid by mail system works. thetionally, despite ,nprecedented challenges arizonans showed up for our democracy. every arizona voter has my thanks and should know that they can stand proud th