elise jordan and eddie glaude jr. are still with us.the dot inc., authors of winners take all, anand giridharadas. kasie, explain to us that moment we just saw from the senator -- from senator schumer and the bizarre dynamics we have unfolding right now on capitol hill. >> well, we've got a beautiful sunrise, but red sky at morning, it's going to be a rough day for mitch mcconnell. we're looking to him this morning for any clues about what he is going to do because it is now up to the senate after the house passed that bill yesterday that would increase coronavirus relief checks to $2,000 for certain americans and 44 republicans approved the legislation. 275-134, narrowly reaching the two-thirds majority that the bill needed to pass. it would increase the direct payments to $2,000 to americans who earned less than $75,000 last year and senator minority leader schumer said he'll try to pass the bill by unanimous consent today but it's unclear if senate republicans will get on board with the measure and mcconnell has declined to publicly

course, chris lue, who is a former deputy secretary of labor in the obama administration, and elise jordan, who is a republican strategist. let me go to you first, elise. what do you make of a variety of reports published just in the past couple days which describe not only trump's selfish state of mind but his concrete plans to hold on to power and destroy our democracy? i just have to put it that way. >> you know, rev, i can't say i was the least bit surprised. i think the problem the entire time with so many of us looking and assessing donald trump's rise to the presidency and presidency is a failure of imagination. and the fact that donald trump is being completely delusional and speculating about appointing sydney powell, who already was fired once from his legal effort to be some kind of special prosecutor and pursue this fake mission of figuring out, you know, some way to salvage the vote for donald trump. it's just absolutely crazy. and we have to call it what it is. it's crazy. donald trump is more delusional with every passing day. the fact that he even thinks that there is an io

jim vandehigh, elise jordan is with us, and nbc news and correspondent of way too early, kasie hunt. vladimir putin may have beaten him to it but we'll dive in with the most powerful republican in congress finally acknowledging who won the election. >> the electoral college has spoken. i want to congratulate president-elect joe biden. i also want to congratulate the vice president elect our colleague from california, senator harris. all americans can take pride that the nation has a female vice president-elect for the first time. >> the president reacted to the comments tweeting that it's too soon to give up. wow. and that the republican party must finally learn to fight. but any sort of fight isn't likely to come from the senate. mcconnell issued a warning to ren republicans on a conference call, warning the caucus not to object to the election results when they are certified by congress on january 6th. according to multiple sources, mcconnell told his colleagues that it would be a terrible vote for republicans who would have to go on the record voting against the objection and thus

of dollars he's raised off legitimate grievances he keeps fundraising with michelle goldberg, elise jordan. happy holidays to both of you. >> thank you. >> ahead, pfizer will sell the u.s. government 100 million more vaccine doses and we have hopeful videos to show you. >>> and later, california taps the first latino senator and it was emotional. stay with us. it was emotional. stay with us you've got, oculus... you're late! let's do this! bring it! woo! haha. whoa! rated t. ♪let's go!♪ open. remember having that feeling for the first time? the first day you opened. the first day you had a customer, the first day you taught a class, had a client, a patient, a session. open... remember the night before you opened? who could ever sleep? open... but there's a different question we are being asked now. are you going to remain open? even when your doors are closed? open. that's how we show who we are. and there's another way to be open, to pull together - or push, depending on the door. and we are making it work and we will continue to make it work together. because open we stand. dcoughing's n

also with us we have former aide to the state department elise jordan. politics editor for t

bush white house and state department elise jordan.ine, the first half of that, the government institutions. it's a debate i've been having with everybody over the past four years, especially my wife saying the institutions are going to hold up. one person is not going to be able to undo what james madison and alexander hamilton did, you know, 240, 250 years ago. and so that's the only way i was looking at it, but then when i read this line what failed in germany and other countries, it's that they lose the institutions but also the civilizing forces, and i immediately thought, well, my god, let's not celebrate about the institutions holding up because i remembered your book, and you talking about the civilizing forces collapsing, especially in middle america. can you talk about that this morning? >> yes, and i think you're exactly right to focus on that, and alienated america was not about the judiciary and the bureaucracy and these other forces you might think about that would tame in a misbehaving president. it's about the real conn

joining the conversation, david plouffe and elise jordan and state departments contributor to "time"den seems to have this through line. and general austin is another example of it. people with relationships, close personal relationships to joe biden. what do you think of this latest appointment? general mccaffrey couldn't stop say nice things about the skills and accomplishments of general austin. >> well, nicolle, joe biden is someone i have complete trust in having served in the senate and so from that side of the house it was very involved in appointments and cabinet confirmations and then serving as vice president. he knows what he needs in all of these positions. and given what we're seeing from the trump campaign, to the bitter end, they're going to be serving trump and his ego and his political needs first, the country second. you know, the clock is ticking. and so what makes me excited when you see the health team that was announced, general austin, is we'll have professional people with integrity, who put the job and the work first on the job in just a matter of weeks. but,

and elise jordan, former aide to the george w. bush white house and state department. got to -- let me just run the table here. the likelihood, one, of congress tomorrow following through and passing the $2,000 increase in stimulus funding for every american that the president wants, and the idea that the president -- it will pass and the president will actually sign it, starting with shawna. >> i think that it is unlikely that congress can get it done by tomorrow. inside of congress there was a lot of back and forth about this number before. there are a lot of republicans who don't want to put out that large of a check, you know. there are still a few people who care in the republican party about fiscal conservatism and so that was part of the conversation. i don't see how they get that together that fast. and what that means is if the president follows through -- and he hasn't actually promised to veto it, but if he follows through on just waiting, as you pointed out, the government shuts down very early in the morning on tuesday. doesn't mean that people will necess

miller, former rnc spokesperson and political director for republican voters against trump and elise jordannd state department. elise, i cheered through susan glasser's piece because there is this, i won't call it an impulse, there is a reflex among senate republicans that they think they could move straight ahead with trashing without acknowledging that joe biden is the president. >> i think there is this idea that trump could just be excused. co be easily forgotten. he could be -- we're going to move along and it will be in some sense business as usual. but that is just not the case when you have such extreme degradation like trump has participated in over the last four years. and it is not just going to be easily brushed away when he tried to destroy the underpinning of the democracy and americans' rule of law. and it is outrageous that we're at this point where so many republicans seem to think that they can go back to business at usual. >> well, tim miller, it begs this question, what about trump, are they ready to move on from if they cannot yet acknowledge the result of the 2020 elec

let's bring into our conversation elise jordan and a former aid to the george w.white house and state department and donna edwards, columnist to "the washington post" and an msnbc contributor. donna, what do you think? >> well, you know i'm of mixed mind. if i were just deciding tor myself, i probably wouldn't give them the vaccine. but for continuity of congress, it is important for every member to be vaccinated. we're going into a year at beginning of the year, where important decisions need to be made, choosing a speaker of the house and then the elections in georgia and down to legislation in advance of joe biden taking the oath of office. i also think it is important for them to demonstrate even if they're late comers the importance of taking the vaccine and the importance of continuing to wear mask wearing and not joke about it. this is no joke. people are dying. and we need to make sure that we get all of our front line workers vaccinated. i'm worried about whether we'll have enough vaccine in enough time to make sure we're fully vaccinated across the count