robert gibbs, thank you for adding context.>>> when we come back, why britain beat the u.s. in the race to approve a coronavirus vaccine. that's next. race to approve a c vaccine. that's next. country. vaccine. country. vaccine. >>> the reality is, december and january and february are going to be rough times. i actually believe they're going to be the most difficult time in the public health history of this nation. largely because of the stress that it's going to put on our healthcare system. >> some straight talk today from the head of the cdc of just how much worse the situation will get for hospitals as a record number of patients already fill beds and icus across the u.s. right now, there are more than 98,000 americans in the hospital with covid-19. about one fifth of them in icus and more than 6,000 of them right now on a ventilator. so far, more than 13.8 million have contracted the coronavirus, and more than 273,000 souls have been lost. but there's promising news again today on the vaccine front. the uk has cleared pfi

steve schmidt and robert gibbs have kindly stuck with us. hey, robert, jennifer epstein on twitter from bloomberg tweeted this tonight, biden says seven senate republicans, profiles in courage encourage all. mostly senior have called him tonight. he spoke to one of the most senior members who expressed a willingness to work on china and infrastructure. it's going to take six to eight months but gop will work with him. quote, you're going to be surprised. so, robert, since the horse is already dead, let's beat it some more. they've already looked at the possibility of destroy the gop being chanted at their district offices. what could be worse than that? oh, i know, cooperating with the guy 77% of trump voters believe is illegitimately elected. so can you tell me even in a man of the senate like joe biden where the bipartisanship is going to come in? >> well, i do think there is a possibility on certain issues as was mentioned here, something like an infrastructure might be a good place to start. and people like pat toomey from pennsylvania wh

msnbc political analyst robert gibbs is here, former white house press secretary under president obama. also joining us dr. michael anderson, critical care physician, health care executive and disaster care consultant. and msnbc contributor laurie garret. laurie garret, what do you know? what's going on? how can there be vaccines sitting in warehouses without being preallocated? >> well, this is complicated because we've only been a week of unloading pfizer vaccine to begin with and then a nor'easter hits. and right from the very beginning fedex, ups were warning they were going to have disruptions in their abilities to keep pace with just routine christmas deliveries much less the pfizer vaccine because of airport closures and the nor'easter. now you add to that apparently general pernum who's the ceo of operation warp speed made a decision to set a fair amount of the vaccine off in reserve in case any of these planes that did try to get through the storm crashed or had disruption in their ability to deliver on time. so much of the dosage was actually set aside and preserved, and that

so robert gibbs, i take your point. we'd rather have them gomping and getting money into the pockets of families who are choosing between the medicines they need and food for their family. but the lack of awareness that even when they all breathe on each other and give themselves coronavirus, the treatments available to rudy giuliani and donald trump and his friends are not available to really anybody else. you've got states running a lottery to use those therapies on anyone else. >> well, i think if you go back in time, i think the most the most horrific stories and scenes we've talked about are exactly that. hospitals that have had to go through the triage of determi determining who would get treated, who would get a hospital bed, who would get medicine. and for rudy to say the silent part out loud is -- it's hard to -- it's hard to put into words. i can only imagine that there's now more than 100,000 people in the hospital right now. some of these places are overwhelmed and nurses, doctors are overwhelmed. they're no

. >> one day president obama's woken up by his press secretary robert gibbs who said, sir, you just wonoble peace prize. [ speaking foreign language ]. e. >> conservatives are condemning the noble committee and the president. the most common reaction seems to have been, didn't he just get the job. >> i was horrified. i think he was horrified. all of us who worked with him were just like, oh, god. which i grant is a strange and, perhaps seemingly, ungrateful reaction, but we had a set of difficult policy issues that we needed to move forward and it just seemed a distraction. >> after i received the new malia walked in and said, daddy, you won the noble peace prize. and is bo's birthday. it's good to have kids to keep things in perspective. i am both surprised and deeply humbled by the decision of the noble committee. >> a few hours before the plane was going to take off for oslow he gives us must have been ten pages of this peace prize address, wrestling with these momentous questions of war and peace, he's winning the noble peace prize and is sending american troops into war in afghanis

it is something former obama white house press secretary robert gibbs applauded on the show and urgedvo to maes and that messenger. and i think wee need far more of it. quite frankly anyone with a following, anybody that is an influencers of some sort, needs to preach the message that governor chris christie is preaching about being vigilant. >> joining our conversation, long-term trump ally and former new jersey governor chris christie. and claire is still here as well. governor, i think it is important to show viewers of this program who i think disagree with you up and down and all over the place on the policy on the trump question and the debate prep role you had in the election cycle but are relieved of seeing republicans being so reckless and maybe spreading covid to people that work at those events. but how do you -- how do you enter roo noaa rooms when people are skeptical of your political affiliation and you now want to be part of the solution on covid? >> well, i've always want to be part of the solution for covid. for seven months i wore a mask. washed my hands, frequently

let's bring in civil rights attorney robert patillo and general council david gibbs.elcome. >> thanks, mike. >> an honor to be with you. >> exhibit a from tiger kicks complaint in accordance with the constitution, the office of the attorney does not have the authority to make the final decisions on any pardon application, on september 10, 2020, the office of the pardon attorney notified the counsel that they were denying the request for the waiver and their decision was final. defendant had a clear indisputable nondiscretionary obligation to provide the president oh it was united states with notice of joe exotic's petition for a pardon and recommendation there on. robert, with your outfit, you go first. >> clear argument. article ii, section ii, describes what the pardon power is. it says the president of the united states of america has the sole power to pardon people of federal crimes. the process currently goes to the department of justice who can make a recommendation and go through the process of making its way to the president. this proportionally favors people