hallie? >> we'll check to see if the opt minimum holds. >>> ali vital e, based on the report covering joe biden they feel more confident they could hit that 270 threshold. why? >> reporter: more and more confident they can hit the threshold. the question is timing. they're watching and waiting as the votes come in. they're qualify department but the reality is, they're at the mercy of all of the people counting the ballots, just like the rest of us are. so i was texting with a senior staffer this morning asking if today was the day that they thought they were going to find out who the next president-elect was and if they think it's them. that person acknowledged it's hard to tell the timing of all of this especially given the way that we continue to see ballots continuing to trickle in. now in conversations with our sources, they do see different paths to victory. it's always been true that the biden team has seen more ways to 270 than the trump campaign does but that doesn't mean they don't

here's the important thing, hallie.hen the supreme court last ruled on this, "a," justice ginsburg was a member of the court. she's been replaced by amy coney barrett, who's even more conservative. and he, justice kennedy, who wrote the key opinions on affirmative action retires as well, succeeded by neil gorsuch, i think that the difference here is that -- succeeded by -- i can't remember now if it's kavanaugh or gorsuch. but the point is, the supreme court is more conservative now. and i think it's generally correct that affirmative action is now on life support in this more conservative court. i think it's only a matter of time now it seems before the supreme court puts a stop to this. >> and that's despite the justice who's been vocal about affirmative action from the other side of the things. reading the tea leaves, it does seem to you based on your observation of the court that this is something more broader moving forward, that could be problematic for them. >> no question about it. the supreme court over the yea

i'm hallie jackson in washington. joined by gabe gutierrez in des moin moines, iowa, garrett haake on capitol hill and antonia hilton from portland, oregon. gabe, this pan demme sick getting worse nationwide, where you are, iowa hit a record high for the number of deaths in a single day with a 41% test positivity rate. we hear a lo of numbers. the statistics are staggering and some doctors sound close to their breaking point. how are they coping? >> reporter: hey there, hallie. you're right. 41% positivity rate here in iowa. the white house coronavirus task force report puts iowa and its neighboring states in the red zone throughout the country, warning of an unyielding and exponential spread of the virus. at this hospital the icu is full here, so are the icus at several other hospitals in des moines and we spoke with a doctor here who is frustrated that more people haven't adhered to public safety guidelines, public health guidelines in the last few months. take a listen to her message. >> i think it's incredibly fru

i'm hallie jackson on this transition tuesday in washington. along with our nbc news team peter alexander at the white house. we're joined by robert costa, national political reporter for the washington post and msnbc political analyst. peter, let me start with you. the president was reluctant, if you will, in his relenting when it came to the transition. this morning we have seen him over the past couple hours go all in baseless and debunked conspiracy theories. talk to us about what you're hearing behind the scenes and where this goes. >> reporter: you're right. the president got in a little bit deeper even after acknowledging at least in the view of his allies and aides, the closest we'll get to a concession, acknowledging that joe biden likely won this thing. as the president said in a series of tweets last night, again, he complained it was a rigged election. he said 79% of his supporters believe that this thing was stolen from him. the reason they believe that is because the president has peppered them with those thoughts over the course

early the next day, tuesday, captain hallie formed a region missing person task force.hat's on the white woboard, th agenda? >> william slim. >> the ex boyfriend. >> other ex-boyfriends, ex husbands. there are a neighbor that had suspicious behaviors. he had asked rachel out on a date and she turned him down. he left town quickly. >> that's suspicious. >> checking hospitals, travel information. we checked every bus ticket that was sold that weekend. >> reporter: an early lead came when she talked to captain hallie. he had a different suspect in mind when she told him she was divorcing charles. so an early stop was charles' shop. who's the guy you met? >> easy going, cordial. he's being cooperative. >> i didn't have anything to hide. here they come. driving up. i was like, conin. >> charles assured them he didn't have anything to do with the vehicle. >> did you slash her tires? >> no, absolutely not? >> did you break out back windshield? >> absolutely not. >> reporter: he told police he was helping her get to the bottom of it. >> she tells me about him and we go driving

hallie? >> thank you for that.e've been talking a lot about the presidential race this morning, but the balance of power hangs in play for the senate, too. one of the key races is in south carolina. that's where senator lindsey graham could be hours away from finding out whether he loses his job or hangs on to it. he wrapped up a campaign stop on a bus tour targeting voters in this final stretch. here he is in the last couple minutes with our own leanigh an caldwe caldwell. listen to what he said. >> i think we're going to do fine. we're going to win together. this narrative that, somehow, being with president trump hurts me in south carolina is just people have no idea what south carolina is about. all the stories about this race are just, might as well be written about mars. >> leigh ann caldwell joins us from lexington, south carolina. interesting conversation with senator graham. he sounds confident this morning. give us a sense of his state of the race there. >> reporter: hey, hallie. but this is 2020. nice ev

>> hallie, it means a couple things. the timeline, we're getting closer. both pfizer and moderna said they're going to seek emergency use authorization within a few weeks. the important news here is the efficacy, that effective rate, 94.5%. almost 95% for the moderna vaccine. pfizer said 90% for their vaccine. this is important news. until now we thought 50% to 70% effective rate is what we were hoping for. getting this higher erktive rate is showing the vaccines are probably going to work better than we thought at getting the pandemic under control, protecting us from coronavirus. a little bit of a caveat. these are still early results. for pfizer, it was 94 patient. moderna, 95 patients they looked at that had gotten infected. they found out the vast of those infected did not get the vaccine. again, in the next few weeks they say they'll seek emergency use authorization. the fda analyzes the data and then they get the data pushed out and say okay, we're going to give it this eua authorization and then we have to worry about distribution. this is the othe

but she is at the white house and, hallie, you enough reporting. what are you hearing from the trump team? >> reporter: so a lot of things, mostly the defiant posture. from our team covering president trump at the white house. essentially, this idea that this concession -- if it were to get to that point is not going to come. we heard from kayleigh mcenany this morning that says any talk of the president conceding is purely hypothetical at this point and i can tell you that sources are hitting that defiant tone. there's no discussion right now of a potential concession. now, that said, our team is reporting, my colleague here said that the campaign staffers are feeling deflated in virginia. they are sort of seeing -- at least the veteran staffers according to another member of our team, shannon pettypiece, there's not a path to 270 if joe biden takes pennsylvania. they understand that. there's a clicking refresh to see what the latest vote count total is and i assume watching steve kornacki and others who are working on the maps. i will tell you th

>> that's right, hallie, you nailed it.d biggest story of the night is who comes in control of the senate. there's really as many as a dozen races that could flip seats. senate majority leader mitch mcconnell has consistently said for the past several months that the races are so close that it's a knife fight. any party could win after tonight. there's five races that we are particularly watching because these are republican incumbent senators whose races are statistically tied or they are a little bit behind in their races. they're all having to deal with varying levels of popularity of the president, polarizing president that is having a major impact on these races including arizona, colorado, iowa, maine and north carolina. out of those, colorado is probably the least likely for the republican senator cory gardner to win. i also want to mention that alabama, democrat-controlled seat is probably likely to be lost as well. so democrats could lose one. but i'm here in south carolina. why? because there is a senate race that

hallie? >> for sure.ppreciate it. >>> there is a promise to black voters, using the biggest platform before inauguration day to make it. here's the moment during his victory speech, acknowledging not just their role in his presidential victory, but his win in the primary battle, too. >> especially to those moments when the campaign was at its lowest, the african-american community stood up again for me. you always had my back, and i'll have yours. [ horns honking ] >> with me now is co-fo hfco-fo the black voters matter fund, latasha brown. thank you for being on the show. good morning. i'm not sure i can hear your audio. don't know if that's just me or if the control room can let me know. >> yes, thank you for having me. >> no problem. listen, how should president-elect biden, in your view, put those words from saturday night into action? what are you looking for specifically from, for example, his cabinet picks, his policies in the first, you know, couple months in office from him? >> i think we're goin

i'm hallie jackson in washington along to our team. we start with the biden transition in wilmington, and then capitol hill. let's start with what we're learning in the last little bit about key roles in the biden cabinet. what can you tell us? >> reporter: that's right. we are expecting biden to roll out his first slate of cabinet officials tomorrow here in wilmington. those roles include secretary of state national security adviser and ambassador to the u.n. in terms of who is filling out the positions, multiple sources are saying tony blinken is going to be filling the role of secretary of state. jake sullivan, a state department official filling in as national security adviser, and linda thomas-greenfield, ambassador of the u.n. the u.n. ambassador, we are expecting that role to be a cabinet level position. that's something that changes within each white house at the discretion of each president. under braum it was a cabinet level position. it seems it's expected under a biden administration to return to that level. and hallie, wha

hallie, what are you hearing there? >> reporter: the white house says the president is getting regular updates and making sure local officials have what they need. the covid task force did meet monday but it was only for the second time in the last three and a half weeks. the president has not addressed the public in person in a week. he's been active on twitter but rarely referenced the pandemic and today after yet another record day of cases in this country yesterday he did not tweet about it at all. instead focusing on his frustration with fox news >> on the trump administration's resistance to a transition of power over to president-elect biden, is it getting backup or not from key republicans at this point? >> reporter: his red wall of republican support is showing cracks more gop lawmakers now say president-elect biden should get access to classified information, briefings being blocked right now by the trump administration still most republicans are stopping short of acknowledging joe biden as the projected winne

hallie? >> and you're on the road with boardwalk because president-elect is there for the next few days. >> lee yan, capitol hill. former barack obama is patalkin about the issue mentioned. taking republicans to task. in his first post election interview he conducted with cbs. >> i'm more trouble bid the fact that other republican officials who clearly know better are going along with this, are humoring him in this fashion. it is one more step in delegitimizing not just the incoming administration but democracy generally. that's a dangerous path. >> what's the latest this morning from the hill? >> republicans still are not congratulating joe biden, and they're not acknowledging publicly that he is the president-elect. but the sure sign they think he is going to be the next president of the united states is the fact that nearly unanimously they have all come out and said that joe biden should receive these intelligence briefings. i spoke to senator marco rubio of florida, the top republican on

let's get straight to the news about the president's son with hallie jackson hallie, what do you know >> reporter: lester, this is just happening as we're coming on the air. a spokesperson for the president's son donald trump jr. said he tested positive for the coronavirus at the start of the week. he's been quarantining ever since then as a result we are told he's asymptomatic, he has no symptoms and is following all medically recommended covid guidelines again, according to his spokesperson the president's son, of course, made frequent appearances for him on the campaign trail and was at that election night party in the east room of the white house earlier this month with his positive test, this now brings the total number of people connected to the white house or trump campaign who have tested positive for the coronavirus to 49, lester all of it as the pandemic continues to worsen across the country. lester >> hallie jackson with that late word from the white house, thanks. >>> now to the breaking news near milwaukee. the shooting at a shopping mall, witnesses describe hearing as m

this is the objective that hallie quinn brown and the women of the nac w set out for themselves. and now they have to chart a way forward. hallie quinn brown is, i think it's fair to say, and appreciate or of the capacities of leaders within organizations like the american national women's suffrage association, the national women's party who had led the campaign for ratification of the 19th amendment. and quinn brown goes so far as to call on alice paul. she wants to be a part of the celebration that alice paul is planning, that will mark the ratification of the 19th amendment. she wants black women to be there. and most importantly, she wants to make a proposal to alice paul, one that would lead to a linkage between black and white women's organizations, that would work toward the federal legislation that hallie quinn brown and the women of the nacw are after. hallie quinn brown and the delegation of black women will call on alice paul in the winter of 1921 during what turns out to be the last meeting of the national women's party. and she will ask paul for just that in a politi

hallie? >> shaquille live for us. thank you.ot more ahead as it relates to the white house including more on that report giving a very stark warning that the coronavirus is aggressively spreading all across the country with no end in sight. next up, we're taking you live to el paso, texas. the new epicenter of the crisis. a city that now has more co-vid cases than houston and dallas combined. when i was in high school, this was the theater i came to quite often. the support we've had over the last few months has been amazing. it's not just a work environment. everyone here is family. if you are ready to open your heart and your home, check us out. we thought for sure that we were done. and this town said: not today. ♪ how did you find great-grandma's recipe? we're related to them? we're portuguese? i thought we were hungarian? grandpa, can you tell me the story again? behind every question is a story waiting to be discovered. try optum perks. it's a new way to save up to 80%. and everyone can do it. it's from optum, a health car

hallie jackson, another pennsylvania person, person woman. mike memoli. kristen welker, thank you so much. >>> joining us now, david plouffe, former adviser to president obama, 2008 campaign and james carville, co-host of "the politics war room" podcast. thanks to both of you for being with us. the excitement of this election and fear on both sides is palable. david plouffe, let's talk about the number. i want to start with this from chuck todd this morning on "today." >> the good news is joe biden he just needs one and would give him 270. arizona would give him 270. let's say president holds onto that. florida auto would do it, say the president holds onto that. georgia would do it. maybe he holds onto that. look what this does. this puts us right here. this is the nightmare. joe biden does not want us -- if this is what we're waiting for, it's going to be a long month. not a long night, not a long week but a long month. >> pennsylvania does not count the mail-in ballots and absentee ballots until the polls close on election day. so that's what we're tal

final question, hallie.s the white house aware that mitch mcconnell may hold his perceived fate in their hands, if he just utters the words "president-elect biden"? >> well, he hasn't done it yet, chuck, and i think there is certainly an acknowledgment of that and a knowledge of that, that if senator mcconnell does that, watch the dam breaking, right? i think there's a question of when that could happen. our reporting here, the sources i've talked to, this legal fight and the president's insistence on acknowledging reality will likely stretch into december. there is, of course, that december 14th deadline, that day. who knows what will happen at that point, but keep in mind, he is hinting at a run in 2024. >> he'll never stop running. that's my feeling. that's all we have for today. thank you all for watching. have a safe and socially distant thanksgiving. we'll be back next week, because if it's sunday, it's "meet the press." >>> they allege fraud outside the courtroom, but when they go inside the courtroom

>> you know, people think, as hallie said, trump had a strategy. stupid? i'll give you an example. in 2018 when the midterm elections were coming, if trump instead of pushing a strong economy, went with the message of evil caravans coming from central america and how this would turn the tides and win the democratic house. this slaughtered him. what if he's dumb and he doesn't know how to win and he only really knows how to lose? >> right, he's yet to win the popular vote, lost the popular vote more this time than four years ago. >>> when we come back, turns out >>> when we come back, turns out the >>> when we come back, turns out the these days, we want sophisticated but simple. cutting edge made user friendly. in other words, we want a hybrid. and so do retailers. which is why they're going hybrid, with ibm. a hybrid cloud approach with watson ai helps manage supply chains while predicting demands with ease. from retail to healthcare, businesses are going with a smarter hybrid cloud, using the tools, platform and expertise of ibm. comfort this hol

>> you know, people think, as hallie said, trump had a strategy.d? i'll give you an example. in 2018 when the midterm elections were coming, if trump instead of pushing a strong economy, went with the message of evil caravans coming from central america and how this would turn the tides and win the democratic house. this slaughtered him. what if he's dumb and he doesn't know how to win and he only really knows how to lose? >> right, he's yet to win the popular vote, lost the popular vote more this time than four years ago. >>> when we come back, turns out the counties who play a no one likes to choose between safe or sporty. modern or reliable. we want both - we want a hybrid. so do banks. that's why they're going hybrid with ibm. a hybrid cloud approach helps them personalize experiences with watson ai while helping keep data secure. ♪ ♪ from banking to manufacturing, businesses are going with a smarter hybrid cloud, using the tools, platform and expertise of ibm. ♪ ♪ did you know that 70% of the on your clothes are invisible? try new tide pods hy

jackson is at the white house for us tonight hallie, what came of mr. pence's covid meeting? >> reporter: frankly, shep, the biggest news out of that covid task force meeting is that it happened at all here with vice president pence and the rest of the members. that is because as you note the last one, the most recent one, was october 20th, right? the focus shifted very much to the final days of the presidential campaign for president trump and for vice president pence who was on the road quite a bit in the run-up to election day. keep in mind that president trump has not himself attended any task force meetings for many months it comes of course as there is appearing now to be another covid outbreak here at the white house. we have now learned, nbc news confirming today based on a couple of sources familiar with the diagnosis that david bossi, the person tapped to lead the legal push has now tested positive for coronavirus ben carson, the housing secretary in the middle of your screen, he has tested positive we knew chief of staff mark meadows on the l

hallie jackson at the white house. the president drn have public appearances yet again today, but, man, on the twitter. >> reporter: boy ask he, shep. is he ever today feels a lot like yesterday, feels a lot like the day before the president is repeating baseless and inaccurate claims he won the election. obviously he did not we are in an interesting moment here in this transition of power when the fact that the national security adviser is acknowledging there will be a transition and a hand over of power to the next president is new. right? normally that's not news normally in november after an election heading into transition, those processes have already gun. what you see currently, shep, a real concern and our team reporting on this within various agencies and departments here inside the trump administration and with those working on and with the biden transition about how this delayed transfer of power, this delayed transition is affecting different places. for example, hhs, the real concern is about the cdc that

let's go right to hallie jackson for the latest good evening. >> reporter: good evening, lester. this is breaking late tonight. the agency in charge of formally starting that process doing just that, a move that the incoming biden administration is waiting for for weeks and president trump sought to delay. in a letter obtained by nbc news, the administrator of the general services administration said she is now making available access to the services and resources millions of dollars the incoming administration needs and she said she came to the decision independently based on the law an available facts and she said she was never directly or indirectly pressured by anybody in the executive branch including in the white house. in a tweet just moments ago, though, the president said he's the one recommending the gsa to move forward an in his words do what needs to be done but at the same time he says he is keeping up the fight against the election results and thinks he will prevail. more mixed messaging from him over the last 72 hours, more and more republicans put pressure on pres

he did not answer directly but did predict a smooth transition lester >> hallie jackson at the white house tonight. thank you. >>> and an explosive new report is out from the vatican concerning the sexual abuse allegations against a disgraced former top cardinal in the u.s. anne thompson with what it reveals. >> reporter: theodore mccarrick, publicly powerful but privately a predator a new vatican report detailing the benefit of the doubt given to the charismatic man once the face of the u.s. church. >> is this a story about a manipulator? >> absolutely. a story about a person who presented as such an appealing character. all the while he was creating a culture of fear and intimidation. >> reporter: the voluminous report says the first warnings reached rome in the '90s with claims of mccarrick sharing beds with seminarians, sex with another priest, and abusing his so-called nephews. pope john paul ii ordered an investigation. it found mccarrick had shared his bed but not engaged in sex the vatican now says that was based on bad information from american bishops regarding mccarrick's

on a vaccine today in his first remarks since losing the election but still offering no concession hallie jackson has late details from the white house. >> reporter: president trump in the rose garden tonight addressing americans for the fist time since the race was called for president-elect joe biden, stoppin himself just before any acknowledgement of the next administration. >> i will not go this administration will not be going to a lockdown hopefully the -- whatever happens in the future, who knows which administration will be? i guess time will tell but i can tell you this administration will not go to a lockdown. >> reporter: without specifically referencing the record number of covid cases nationwide the president's predicting as soon as april a covid vaccine will be available to everyone except new yorkers led by democratic governor andrew cuomo >> he doesn't trust the fact this white house, this administration so we won't be delivering it to new york until we have authorization to do so and that pains me to say that >> reporter: that's after cuomo said new york will do its own i

but the point is they're looking for it, hallie.kes it the five alarm fire. this is now a blueprint. this is conditioning a chunk of the president's base to no longer believe in this democracy and how it functions. that is the five alarm fire. >> how do you uncondition it? >> this is a question i think is facing all of us that do this for a living, hallie. you know, i'm watching in horror as you see people actively -- you know, we spent four years deciding that the reason why there were two alternatives that we in the mainstream media weren't doing enough to prove what was true or false and we have to fact check. we have a chunk that says i don't like your facts. and even when they hear the facts from an on again off again news organization that published a fact, they run away from it. and they're seeking out misinformation. we're in a whole new world. and you ask me how to undo it? i buy into the theory the death of the local newspaper is basically was the beginning of this that shoved everybody to facebook. and there's just way to

as he fired his defense secretary and fired off a string of new grievances about the election our hallieckson is at the white house. >> reporter: the transition turbulent already with president trump announcing via tweet defense secretary mark esper has been terminated. the president this summer mocking him a yes-per. >> some people call him yes-per. no i get along with him i get along with him fine he's fine. no problem. >> are you considering firing him, mr. president? >> i consider firing everybody. >> reporter: counter terrorism head christopher miller will take over as esper in a newly released interview defends himself as more than a yes man telling "the military times," who's pushed back more than anybody? it comes as president trump again out of the public eye rejects the reality of the election outcome online repeating baseless claims about the vote count despite no evidence of widespread fraud. senator mitch mcconnell today defending the president's decision not to concede >> president trump is 100% within his rights to look into allegations of irregularities and weigh his lega

hallie, we heard from the president a bit later.h has reverberated from his assertion that he is winning this thing? >> reporter: well, his false assertion, lester, as he's trying to declare victory even though that is not the case. votes are still being counted and we just can't be clear enough about that as the night goes on and as the morning goes on. i will tell you that already some people who are close to the president are very publicly expressing their concern about this. i'm thinking specifically of former new jersey governor chris christie. governor christie is somebody who is an ally to the president. he is somebody who has been involved in the campaign, helped the president with debate prep, for example. even, you know, potentially caught coronavirus. we know that governor christie had covid, and he was part of some of those sessions where covid was spreading at this hot spot at the white house. tonight, this morning, i should say, governor christie is talking about how the president's remarks tonight, his, again, false a

that's right, hallie. they're expressing as you would expect optimism about how the president is positioned the morning after election day. some of what they're saying in terms of wisconsin, they're saying it's a tight race, and, quote, recount territory. and in michigan, they are expressing confidence and georgia and pennsylvania as you noted, they're projecting optimism about those states as well. but this is the narrative portion of the program. this is where the president as we saw when he spoke publicly earlier this morning, and his aides, this is where the set the narrative to say this race and campaign is basically over, that the election has been won by the president. that's not the case. votes are still being counted. the reality is not only are votes being counted, but as the campaign noted we could enter are recount territory. the president talking about legal action, potentially taking it to the supreme court. we don't know what that means and what sort of legal action, what strategy he has and

lester >> hallie jackson, thanks very much. >>> let's talk now about this legal issue, the legal front, if you will pennsylvania republicans are asking the u.s. supreme court to stop the counting of some votes there. we want to bring in nbc's pete williams. what's this challenge all about? >> lester, it involves the mail ballots that came in between tuesday night and tonight under that extended deadline ordered by a pennsylvania state court, the secretary of state earlier ordered the counties to keep the ballots separate because of pending lawsuits over the deadline now the republicans are asking the u.s. supreme court to order her to tell them that again and this time to order that they can't be counted for now either in case the courts decide later they're invalid and in two state lawsuits in pennsylvania republicans are suing to stop the state from counting any provisional ballot that were cast to let voters fix mistakes in filling out the mail ballots but even if all the republican efforts succeed it would likely not affect enough votes to take away biden's lead in pennsylvania. le

hallie quinn brown it's been appreciate or of the capacities of the leaders within the organizations like the national association, the american national suffrage association, the national women's party who had led the campaign for the ratification of the 19th amendment. quinn brown goes so far to call on alice paul, she wants to be a part of the celebration that alice is planning, it will mark the ratification of the 19th amendment. she wants black women to be there. importantly, she wants to make a proposal to alice paul, one that would lead to a linkage to black and white women organizations that we're working towards the federal legislation that hallie quinn brown and the women of the nacw are after. hallie quinn brown and the delegation of black women will call alice paul in the winter of 1921 during what turned out to be the last meeting of the national women's party, and she will ask paul for just that. a political alliance that will continue the struggle for women's votes, that will work towards women's universal votes through the winning federal and what we undulation know.

i want to thank ali and go right to the white house where hallie jackson is doing the same.acking this story. go ahead. >> reporter: hey, ari, forgive me if i'm stepping on things that your prior guests have talked about. this is obviously coming in the last couple of minutes. i'm going to ask my cameraman to pull up return to see if you're pulling up any graphics. the president's tweet by now indicating that he is the one who see says recommended that emily murphy, the head of the general services administration, move forward with this. in his words, do what needs to be done. ari, in the same breath, the president saying he's going to keep up the good fight and he thinks he's going to prevail. here's what's behind all of that. there are different forces around the president. some of whom dubbed what one source described to me as the sanity caucus trying to move him towards encouragement of accepting his defeat. others who are in the words of another official are essentially counterproductive, if you will, pushing him to keep up that legal fight, that, frankly, has gone nowh

hallie jackson is at the white house with that. >> reporter: president trump was not at the white house when he learned he had lost it. he was golfing in virginia, driven home passed his critics cheering. tonight it is over for him. although, he doesn't want it to be. defiant in defeat, insisting he will start the results in court starting monday. but since there is no evidence of widespread fraud in this election. >> reporter: those challenges seem likely to fail. advisers appearing to push a pr case more than a legal one. now the president's campaign manager wants allies to stay at the ready in case they're needed for protests, but the blame game is beginning with multiple sources telling nbc news of finger pointing. many aids already looking for their next job. the president insisting earlier i won the election by a lot. he did not win at all, as he rejects the reality he's feared. >> if i lose to him, i don't know what i will do. i will never speak to you again. >> winning is easy. losing is never easy, not for me it's not. >> reporter: the president still in charge for the next 75

hallie jackson has the latest >> reporter: the election is over but the counting is not tonight with every ballot in battleground georgia set to be recounted by hand. >> this will help build confidence. >> reporter: typically recounts only change a race's margin by a few hundred votes or so and very unlikely president trump could overtake president-elect biden's 14,000-vote lead in georgia but the trump campaign today call it is recount a first step to winning the legal fights despite no ed of widespread voter fraud. a different state has been called in the president's favor. >> nbc news has projected president trump as winner of the state of alaska. >> reporter: alaska going red, not unexpected what may be more surprising, ivanka trump on twitter, touting the results based on media projections relying on state data exactly the same projections that showed joe biden winning the presidency a result her father so far refuses to accept. now nbc news has learned president trump's advisers believe he will never concede according to multiple people familiar with his thinking with one predi

it is that moment that is the culmination of the work that you women like hallie quinn brown and those associated with the national association of colored women had long done. and still american women do not have the unqualified write to vote, even in 2020. the voter suppression tactic that kept women from the polls in 1920 have changed, and yet we recognize the way in which voter i.d. laws shuttered polling places, exact match requirements, the purging of voter rolls continued to dedrive american women of the vote, including women of color. the policies of voting officials which do not caretake the right to vote, are still with us as we watch officials fumble and miss the mark in ensuring that we, all of us, will get to the polls in november 1920. and still i think it's important to say much has changed. the great deal about the political landscape for african-american women in 2020 was for some americans unimaginable and for many americans unspeakable 100 years ago. we can point to the ways in which african-american women today organize, deliberate and vote as a bloc still changing t

>> hallie jackson at the white house tonight. thank you. >>> for his part joe biden will be watching the returns in delaware after spending part of the day in all-important pennsylvania. kristen welker is covering the biden campaign. >> reporter: joe biden with a final rallying cry tonight in critical pennsylvania. striking a note of confidence. >> i'm confident that people that didn't vote last time are showing up to vote, and i feel good about pennsylvania. >> reporter: and as biden battles for the white house, he returned today to the place where it all began, his childhood home in scranton. >> how are you? >> reporter: writing on the wall, "from this house to the white house, with the grace of god." early this morning visiting the grave of his son, beau, who he called his good luck charm. >> let's win this! pennsylvania! >> reporter: pennsylvania is a key focus. overnight biden getting some high wattage help from lady gaga in pittsburgh. >> and folks, i have a feeling we're coming together for a big win tomorrow. >> reporter:

and at the same time, hallie, in that interview with mox news, he was saying despite everything, in the end he will continue to believe what he believes now. his mind is not going to change. >> carol lee live for us there at the white house. it's raining as hard it is in delaware where ali was. thank you to you ladies. appreciate it. >>> more ahead on the fight to confirm joe biden's cabinet picks with a live report from the hill. what that could mean and why it might get messy. >> and live at the supreme court next. right now justices are hearing arguments on the president's plan to keep undocumented immigrants out of the census. why it means some states could give up a seat or two in congress if the administration gets what it wants. >>> and workers at nearly 700 nursing homes in the chicago area on strike this morning. just as the state is reporting some of the biggest co-vid increases in the country. we're live on the ground in illinois where more than half the state's co-vid deaths have come from those nursing homes. we'll be back. ack. it's been a tough year. and now with q4 wrapp